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.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Is Dead at 89 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Is Dead at 89 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Prize-winning author whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, has died of heart failure, his son said Monday. He was 89.

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Famous Writers and Their Work Spaces Come Together in a Mural – NYTimes.com

Famous Writers and Their Work Spaces Come Together in a Mural – NYTimes.com: This short piece discusses a mural painted by New York City artist Elena Climent for New York University’s Language and Literature Building. “Completing the mural took 18 months, much of it devoted to researching the rooms, conditions and rituals of each writer’s

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From the hand of J.K. Rowling. . .

From the always-eager-to-sell-you-a-book folks at Amazon comes this notification: As someone who has purchased Harry Potter products from Amazon.com, you might be happy to hear that The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling’s book of fairy tales written to supplement the Harry Potter series, will be published in two new editions on December 4,

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“How Fiction Works” | csmonitor.com

“How Fiction Works” | csmonitor.com: Matt Shaer reviews the recently published book How Fiction Works by James Wood: “Wood, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former chief literary critic at the Guardian and The New Republic, is often called America’s preeminent literary critic.” And, Shaer reports, that for the most part, Wood succeeds.

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book review

“Old Friend from Far Away” by Natalie Goldberg

Introductory Notes Natalie Goldberg grew up on Long Island, New York. She studied Buddhism with a teacher in Minnesota for 17 years. At about the same time that she began her Zen studies she also began writing and painting, and those three activities have coalesced into an active philosophy of living creatively. Natalie Goldberg has

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Book Recommendations: The Books That Changed Your Lives

Book Recommendations: The Books That Changed Your Lives Here’s an interesting post for readers. Late last week the folks at Lifehacker asked readers to post about the books that have changed their lives. In this post they compile the top vote-getters. (Warning: One commenter said that the summaries give away too many plot points about

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Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author

Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) This is a site you’ll definitely want to bookmark. What if you wanted to locate Robert Burton’s masterful 17th century opus, The Anatomy of Melancholy? But wait: You can’t

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Electronic Device Stirs Unease at BookExpo – NYTimes.com

Electronic Device Stirs Unease at BookExpo – NYTimes.com This article discusses the current status of electronic books, with focus on the two most popular ebook readers, Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader. The article points out that one advantage of ebooks is that the supplier never runs out of copies.  Scott McClellan’s “What Happened,” the

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