Mary Daniels Brown

Mary Daniels Brown learned at an early age how to read people, and she’s been doing that ever since. Combining advanced education in both literature and psychology, she reads and reviews novels that explore identity, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and the varieties of human experience. She’s been blogging about books at Notes in the Margin for more than 25 years. Mary believes that her focus on Life Stories in Literature has made her both a more astute reader and a happier, more human person.

Monday Miscellany

The 10 Most Disturbing Books Of All Time In my younger days if I heard a book or movie was disturbing or hard to handle I generally took that as a challenge. Most books generally turned out to not be too bad, but occasionally I’d come across something that would leave me with a sick […]

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“Left Neglected” by Lisa Genova

Genova, Lisa. Left Neglected: A Novel   Simon & Schuster, 2011   ISBN: 978-1-4391-6463-1 Sarah Nickerson has it all: a Harvard business degree, a high-power position in a global consulting company, a loving husband, three young children, a house in an affluent Boston suburb, and a weekend home in Vermont. She’s also doing it all:

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Monday Miscellany

Why teens should read ‘adult’ fiction – and vice-versa Sheila Heti doesn’t understand why so many adults are reading YA (young adult) literature such as The Hunger Games: What surprises me most about YA books is not that adults are reading them in mass numbers (as with Hunger Games appearing on bestseller lists everywhere); it’s

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Adrienne Rich, Influential Feminist Poet, Dies at 82

Adrienne Rich, Influential Feminist Poet, Dies at 82 – NYTimes.com Triply marginalized — as a woman, a lesbian and a Jew — Ms. Rich was concerned in her poetry, and in her many essays, with identity politics long before the term was coined. She accomplished in verse what Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique,”

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Julie Otsuka’s ‘The Buddha in the Attic’ wins 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

Julie Otsuka’s ‘The Buddha in the Attic’ wins 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction – The Washington Post Julie Otsuka’s “The Buddha in the Attic” has won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. It’s a disappointing choice from a list of finalists that gave strong preference to short fiction. The Washington Post’s Ron Charles discusses the award

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Monday Miscellany: Big- & Small-Screen Edition

The making of a blockbuster Salon exclusive: The behind-the-scenes story of the readers and booksellers who launched the Hunger Games franchise Laura Miller’s commentary: The Hunger Games franchise, with Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence in the starring role, aims for a spot in a select but very sweet pantheon: movie adaptations of bestselling children’s book series

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Monday Miscellany

11 Literary Friendships We Can Learn From Although from a somewhat unorthodox source (accreditedonlinecolleges.com), this article presents fascinating information on the following literary friendships: Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus George Sand and Gustave

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Harlan Coben Floods the Zone – WSJ.com

Harlan Coben Floods the Zone – WSJ.com “The most annoying and full- of- crap thing a writer says is, I write only for myself, I don’t care if anyone reads it,” Mr. Coben says. “A writer without a reader doesn’t exist.” A good introduction to one of my favorite writers, Harlan Coben. Related Blog Posts:

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