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.

2011 Nebula Award nominees announced – latimes.com

2011 Nebula Award nominees announced – latimes.com The nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards for science fiction and fantasy writing were announced Monday. The winners will be chosen by active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America; voting will run from March 1 to March 30. The Nebula Awards pay particular attention […]

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World Read Aloud Day: March 7, 2012 — Register Now!

World Read Aloud Day: March 7, 2012 — Register Now! Change the world, story by story There are at least 793 MILLION people in the world today who cannot read; of those, about 539 million are women. LitWorld seeks to change that by using stories to support experiences of reading & writing among the world’s

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Monday Miscellany

Because I was sick for much of last week, this week’s entry is short. Stories don’t need morals or messages Salon’s Laura Miller caused a flurry of comments recently with this article about a post on the New York Times education blog. In that post the parents of twins talked about taking their kids’ third-grade

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Monday Miscellany

Book Reviewing in the News There’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the announcement that Adam Mars-Jones won the Hatchet Job prize for the “angriest, funniest, most trenchant” book review published in the last year. Judge Sam Leith said: “The best hatchets, in criticism, are wielded with precision as much as they are with force.

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BBC News – Adam Mars-Jones wins Hatchet Job prize for book review

BBC News – Adam Mars-Jones wins Hatchet Job prize for book review Critic Adam Mars-Jones has won the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year award for his scathing review of Michael Cunningham’s latest work, By Nightfall. The award is given for the “angriest, funniest, most trenchant” book review published in the last year. Mars-Jones accepted

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Hemingway & Gellhorn Trailer: Will HBO Get Hemingway Right?

Hemingway & Gellhorn Trailer: Will HBO Get Hemingway Right? Their upcoming movie Hemingway & Gellhorn is, as the title suggests, not only about the author of The Old Man and the Sea (adapted in 1958) and so on, but also Martha Gellhorn, a writer equally worthy (perhaps more so) of the biopic treatment. And if

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CHARLES DICKENS GOOGLE DOODLE: Classic characters populate today’s logo to celebrate author’s 1812 birth

CHARLES DICKENS GOOGLE DOODLE: Classic characters populate today’s logo to celebrate author’s 1812 birth – Comic Riffs – The Washington Post. The Washington Post collects useful information for celebrating today’s 200th birthday of Charles Dickens.

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Monday Miscellany

Print Books vs. Ebooks Debate (cont., ad nauseam) Never one to shy away from controversy, Jonathan Franzen recently condemned ebooks as the harbingers of the fall of civilization: “I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this

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‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ turns 50

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ turns 50: The Reading Life – latimes.com Ken Kesey’s novel ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ which became an Oscar-winning film starring Jack Nicholson, turns 50. Does it stand up to time? That’s the question Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times asked herself, then read the novel for

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“V” Is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

Grafton, Sue. “V” Is for Vengeance (2011)Putnam, $27.95 hardcover   ISBN10: 0399157867   Audiobook by Random House Audio. Narrated by Judy Kaye  While shopping at a department store, Kinsey witnesses a woman obviously stealing some expensive merchandise. She reports what she has seen to a store clerk, who then notifies security. Kinsey hangs around to

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