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.

Introducing Wednesday Wildcard

Most of the posts on this blog are at least loosely related to the topics of literature, books, and reading. But every now and then I come across some issue, incident, or anecdote that’s just too good to pass up passing on. To indulge my desire to pontificate, I’m creating a new post category: Wednesday […]

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Monday Miscellany

Publishing Words: The Future of Books Writing in The Harvard Crimson, Sofie C. Brooks discusses how the rise of ebooks may change the publishing industry: What the publishing industry faces right now is a customer base that demands a digital product even as the technology that makes these products possible is still in its early

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Harper Lee letter sells for $9,518 at auction

A letter signed by Alabama author Harper Lee regarding her award-winning book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” has been sold at auction for $9,518. via Books | Harper Lee letter sells for $9,518 at auction | Seattle Times Newspaper.

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Why is it so hard to review mediocre books?

It’s easy to talk about books that are either amazingly good or blatantly bad; we usually have no trouble articulating the points that we either love or loathe. But it’s often hard to find much of anything to say about a book that we think is just so-so, mediocre, ordinary—perhaps the nicest term is unremarkable.

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Amazon.com: 2011 Best Books of the Year

Amazon.com: 2011 Best Books of the Year. Amazon has offers several lists here. The first one is “Best Books of 2011,” of which the top ten are: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes In the Garden of Beasts by

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Goodreads Choice Awards 2011

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The Best Books of 2011: Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror

The Best Books of 2011 « Genreville. Publishers Weekly’s editors’ choices of 2011’s top books in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

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Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2011

But wait, there’s more! In a follow-up to their earlier list of the year’s top 10 books, Publishers Weekly offers a more complete listing, separated by genre or by adult/children’s books. PW Best Books of 2011 Readers’ Poll And over here you can vote on your favorite of PW’s top 10. The choices are: The

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Monday Miscellany

We all need a little variety in our lives, so this week’s Monday Miscellany is a bit different than usual. Instead of linking to specific articles, today I’m linking to web sites that provide information for bibliophiles. Los Angeles Review of Books The LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS is now in preview mode, while our

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PW Best Books 2011: The Top 10

Yep, it’s that time again already: Time for the “best books of the year” lists. Here’s the first one I’ve seen, Publishers Weekly‘s list of the 10 best books of the year, both fiction and nonfiction considered together. And I’m sure that more lists won’t be far behind.

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