Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

Photo of the Day: Snappy

Meet Snappy. On a recent bike ride my husband came upon this big snapping turtle on the sidewalk. After photographing him head-on, he tried to get a side view. But every time he moved to get a different perspective, Snappy moved, too, to maintain their face-off.

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‘Things Fall Apart’ named one of the world’s 50 Most Influential Books

‘Things Fall Apart’ named one of the world’s 50 Most Influential Books : Ghana Business News An academic group based in San Antonio, Texas, USA, calling itself SuperScholar, has listed prolific Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe’s, bestseller, ‘Things Fall Apart’, now a movie with veteran Nigerian actor Pete Edoche starring as the lead character Obi Okonkwo,

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Monday Miscellany: Can Reading Fiction Make You a Better Person?

The answer is apparently yes. A study conducted at Ohio State University suggests that “When you ‘lose yourself’ inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behavior and thoughts to match that of the character.” Co-authors of the study are Geoff Kaufman, who led

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Amazon Announces the Most Well-Read Cities in the U.S.

Amazon Media Room: Press Releases. Alexandria, VA, tops Amazon’s list, with Richmond, VA, rounding out the list at #20. In between are, well, a lot of other cities, including my own current hometown, St. Louis, at #18. Berkeley, CA, residents bought the most travel books, while Cambridge, MA, can boast the most entrepreneurs.  

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‘America’s Final Beginning’ a clumsy, preachy novel written by a beginner

‘America’s Final Beginning’ a clumsy, preachy novel written by a beginner. I offer this review as a good definition of what is commonly known as a “program novel” or a “propaganda novel”: a novel that is written to portray a message but that forgets the first requirement of a novel is to tell a good

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Monday Miscellany

Why fiction is good for you Jonathan Gottschall is getting a lot of  mileage from the recent publication of his book The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. In this piece he addresses the issue of whether fiction in all its forms—TV shows and commercials, religious beliefs, and social commentary as well as novels,

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Quotation of the Day

“writing and reading can allow people to live other lives and to try things out symbolically so that we can make better decisions about what we value and do. There is no guarantee, of course, that reading and writing make people act more wisely. But, writing and reading, by expanding our experience and repertoire of

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‘The Corrections’ Pilot At HBO Not Going Forward

If you were holding your breath in anticipation of HBO’s series based on Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections, it’s time to exhale. Despite a stellar cast, the series has been scrapped: the decision came down to adapting the book’s challenging narrative, which moves through time and cuts forwards and back. While that works in the

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Summer Reading

The high temperature today here in St. Louis is supposed to hit 90, with mid to high 80s forecast for the next week. Summer is setting in, and it’s time to begin lining up summer reading choices. Matthew Irwin of the Santa Fe Reporter offers up his choices in SFR’s incomplete and totally biased guide

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