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.

What Exactly is Literature?

NPR : Best-Selling Book Shows ‘Halo’ Game’s Wide Appeal That’s the question raised by news items such as this: The action-adventure book Contact Harvest is on the USA Today and New York Times best-seller lists. Author Joseph Staten had never written a novel but was uniquely qualified to write this one. Contact Harvest is the […]

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’Diaries’ author helps teens put private thoughts to paper

’Diaries’ author helps Hub teens put private thoughts to paper – BostonHerald.com We’ve already missed the event, but the thought is still commendable. Writer Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries, held, by phone, a journal-writing workshop for teenagers this afternoon at the Boston Public Library. Cabot says that much of the basic material in

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More on the Most Literate Cities in the U.S.

Back in late December I reported on the most literate cities in the U.S. Here’s some more news from the Central Connecticut State University’s report The bad news: One of the most disturbing trends is that while Americans are becoming more and more educated in terms of their time spent in school and their education

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Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books

Amazon.com: Best of 2007: Books Sorry to be so late with this, but here’s one of those year-end lists that I missed.  In fact, there are several lists here, broken down by subject matter. There are readers’ favorites as well as editors’ picks included, so you can get a feel for what books other ordinary

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Booking through Thursday: Anticipation

Recently I did a little search to see what else was out there in the biblioblogosphere. I found more challenges (“read X number of books about such-and-such topic in the next Y number of months”) than I could believe. As a full-time student, I don’t have the time for that. But I did find something

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POD: Print on Demand Publishing

In digital age, nearly anyone can get a book published Associated Press (AP) writer Candice Choi discusses POD publishing. This form of publishing allows writers to get their book into print without having to lay out a lot of money. Under the POD model, each book is printed when someone orders and pays for it.

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“World Without End” by Ken Follett

Follett, Ken. World Without End   New York: Dutton, 2007   ISBN 0525950079 Penguin Audiobooks Ken Follett spent three years writing this sequel to his most popular book, The Pillars of the Earth. In World Without End, 200 years have passed since the completion of the majestic cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. During

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Rowling’s right to sue for Potter

Rowling’s right to sue for Potter – Los Angeles Times This opinon piece in the Los Angeles Times takes author J. K. Rowling to task for suing to prevent publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon, “a print version of the fan website hp-lexicon.org.” The piece admits that, while Rowling may be within her legal rights

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Best Books I Read in 2007

My favorite end-of-the-year activity is compiling my annual list of the best books I read during the year. Making this list is both pleasurable and painful: pleasurable because it allows me to revisit and remember each book; painful because I have to cut some books I really enjoyed to get the list down to the

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Deaths of Mailer, Vonnegut close book on influential Vietnam era :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Books

Deaths of Mailer, Vonnegut close book on influential Vietnam era :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Books “Here, a roll call of some of the notables in the arts and popular culture who died in 2007.” Sadly, it’s quite a long list.

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