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.

Interior of a spaceship with a metallic robot looking at a hologram of a human. Text: National Science Fiction Day

It’s National Science Fiction Day!

(Image by Enrique from Pixabay) Just as residents of San Francisco warn “Don’t call it Frisco,” I have it on good authority that true science fiction fans insist “Don’t call it sci-fi.” The first science fiction I remember being enthralled by was the original Star Trek TV show (1966-1969). Later, with the advent of cable television, I discovered […]

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Background: 3 round Christmas ornaments. Text: Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

(Image by Markéta Klimešová from Pixabay) A happy new year wish for all my bookish friends. I look forward to sharing book thoughts and news with all of you throughout 2024.  Keep reading and writing!

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

How Women Writers Speculated Fictional Futures Free From Patriarchal Control “Lisa Yaszek on the Feminist History of Science Fiction” Since I started exploring Life Stories in Literature in the last few years, I’ve read more science fiction than I had read in my entire life before. Indeed, science fiction the ability to explore other possible

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A stack of 3 closed books (left); an open notebook with a pen on top (right). Title: The Best Books I Read in 2023

The Best Books I Read in 2023

I was very picky about the books I chose to read this year. As a result, I read a lot of good books—so many that putting together this list was an agonizing process. In past years, I’ve kept my best books list to a total of 15, usually a top ten list plus five honorable

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A stack of 3 closed books, next to an open notebook on which rests a ballpoint pen. Text: Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Life Stories in Literature: Links

Related Posts: 5 Languages That Could Change the Way You See the World “How habits of speech can shape our thoughts.” Language is the most prominent social construct of all; humans develop language to communicate with each other about how they experience the world and their place in it. Claire Cameron explains “the primary way

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Monthly calendar for December 2023, with title: My Big, Year-End Catch-Up Post

My Big, Year-End Catch-Up Post

Usually Notes in the Margin overflows with stories during December that deal with everything book-related. But we were traveling from mid-September to mid-December.  In an effort to catch up with everything I missed during that time, here’s a compendium of literary topics. The Ultimate Best Books of 2023 List “Reading All the Lists So You

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Books you can read in one day or less

Books You Can Read in One Day

Rose/House by Arkady Martine Clockwork by Philip Pullman  Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls The Last Book I Read in One Sitting: 16 Readers Share 20 Books You Can Read in One Sitting 7 Bite-Size Books That Pack a Powerful Punch 10 Epic Books Under 250 pages 10 One-Sitting Reads for a Well-Deserved Lazy Day Some

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The Basket Boats of Vietnam

During the French colonial period in Vietnam, authorities exacted a tax on boats. So the people of the fishing villages got creative: “These aren’t boats. They’re baskets.” We saw these boats all over the beaches around Da Nang. Sometimes they were upright, as here, but often they were inverted to provide a waterproof covering for

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A stack of 3 closed books, next to an open notebook on which rests a ballpoint pen. Text: Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Related Post: I recently realized that I often feature links to articles that pertain to Life Stories in Literature without explaining exactly how those articles fit  into this topic. To help you grasp how wide-ranging this topic is, here’s a group of links with a bit more explanation than usual. Whose Story Is It? These

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