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.

Inside Google Book Search: Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools

Book News, Publishing / By /

Inside Google Book Search: Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools: Google makes it even easier for readers to part with their hard-earned cash: Today, we’re taking a big step towards bringing more books, across more sites, to more people online. We’re launching a set of free tools that allow retailers, publishers, and anyone […]

Inside Google Book Search: Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools Read More »

A list of 40 upcoming fiction and nonfiction books

Book Recommendations, Publishing / By /

Books | A list of 40 upcoming fiction and nonfiction books | Seattle Times Newspaper: Just in time to distract you from all the election mud-slinging comes this list, from the Seattle Times, of books being published this fall.

A list of 40 upcoming fiction and nonfiction books Read More »

Update – Hartford – Writers Unite to Keep Twain House Afloat

Literary History / By /

Update – Hartford – Writers Unite to Keep Twain House Afloat – NYTimes.com: The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT, has for some time now been in financial trouble. The New York Times reports on the latest fund-raising effort aimed at saving it: “On Tuesday, Tom Perrotta, Tasha Alexander, Phillip Lopate and at least seven

Update – Hartford – Writers Unite to Keep Twain House Afloat Read More »

James Crumley, Crime Novelist, Is Dead at 68

Obituaries / By /

James Crumley, Crime Novelist, Is Dead at 68 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com: James Crumley, a critically acclaimed crime novelist whose drug-infused, alcohol-soaked, profanity-laced, breathtakingly violent books swept the hard-boiled detective from the Raymond Chandler era into an amoral, utterly dissolute, apocalyptic post-Vietnam universe, died on Wednesday in Missoula, Mont. He was 68 and lived

James Crumley, Crime Novelist, Is Dead at 68 Read More »

Remembrances of David Foster Wallace

Literary Criticism, Obituaries / By /

The Scout Report, a fine weekly newsletter from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin, offers this roundup of stories about the recent death of author David Foster Wallace: Friends and colleagues remember author David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace, Influential Writer, Dies at 46 [Free registration may be required] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books/15wallace.html Wallace

Remembrances of David Foster Wallace Read More »

What’s the Funniest Novel Ever?

Oddities / By /

What’s the Funniest Novel Ever? – Paper Cuts Blog – NYTimes.com: “In Rolling Stone’s new comedy issue, prominent comedians are asked to name the ‘funniest movie ever’ and the ‘funniest TV ever.’ “ And so, asks David Kelly on the New York Times book blog, what’s the funniest novel ever? Here are some of the

What’s the Funniest Novel Ever? Read More »

Waterston gives insider’s view of L.M. Montgomery

1 Comment / Literary Criticism, Literary History, Review / By /

Nova Scotia News – TheChronicleHerald.ca: In Nova Scotia’s The Chronicle Herald, Judith Meyrick reviews Magic Island: The Fictions of L. M. Montgomery by Elizabeth Waterston. Montgomery was the author of Anne of Green Gables and several subsequent best-selling novels. Montgomery kept journals and scrapbooks passionately and meticulously, preserving for us a picture of her daily

Waterston gives insider’s view of L.M. Montgomery Read More »

Happy birthday, Robert McCloskey

Author News, Literary History / By /

(Photo © 2006 by Freeman F. Brown) From The Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of Robert McCloskey, . . . the author and illustrator of children’s books, born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1914. He grew up loving music, especially the harmonica. He said, “The musician’s life was the life for me — that is, until

Happy birthday, Robert McCloskey Read More »

Newfound Tapes Offer Clues to Agatha Christie’s Life

1 Comment / Author News, Literary History / By /

Newfound Tapes Offer Clues to Agatha Christie’s Life – NYTimes.com: Agatha Christie’s only grandson has discovered a box of audiotapes in one of Christie’s former houses: The tapes — 27 reels running a total of more than 13 hours — are filled with Christie’s painstaking dictation of her life story, rough material recorded in the

Newfound Tapes Offer Clues to Agatha Christie’s Life Read More »

Scroll to Top