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.

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Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution I’ve tried to hold back on the censorship news recently because, if I’m not careful, I’ll just burst into tears. But with this news story, we seem to have reached a whole new level. Category: Censorship How Edgar Allan Poe became the […]

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Prince Harry’s Book Is Just Good Literature “I don’t give a fig about the royals, but much of Spare reads like a good novel.” After admitting that she doesn’t care about the British royal family and doesn’t follow what they’re doing, Laura Miller writes, “To my surprise, the first half of Spare turns out to

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book review

Review: “The Last Thing He Told Me”

“How well can you know anyone?” Hannah Hall, age 38, has been married to Owen Michaels for a little over a year. Hannah’s relationship with Owen’s 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, is still strained—after all, it had been just Owen and Bailey since her mother died when Bailey was about four—but Owen keeps assuring Hannah that things

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Discussion

My Most Surprising Read of 2022

When I was going through all the “best books of 2022” prompts and lists, somewhere—and I can’t remember exactly where—I came across the question “What was your most surprising read of 2022?” Any other year that question probably wouldn’t have stuck with me because I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers and am therefore

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Discussion

Reading Goals for 2023

Overall, I was pleased with the way my year of reading 2022 turned out. Therefore, in setting my reading goals for 2023, I’m going to follow the general outline of last year’s post: Like last year, I’m going to continue in 2023 to avoid focusing on mere productivity (such as number of books or pages read).

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You Can Watch ‘Kaleidoscope’ Episodes in Any Order. A Complete Guide I love novels with unusual structures. So when I read that the episodes of Netflix’s new drama Kaleidoscope could be viewed in any order, I had to check it out. This article from CNET discusses how several choices can affect the way viewers experience the

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stack of 3 books plus open book with pen. Title: Top Ten Tuesday

Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023

Today’s topic is My Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023. By far the one I’m most looking forward to is the April release of Alafair Burke’s continuation of Mary Higgins Clark’s 1975 novel Where Are the Children?  Below are my choices, listed in order of release date. Included is a short

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Authors Who Write Outstanding Mystery Series and Stellar Standalones One question that comes up periodically on book blogs is this: Do you prefer to read series or standalone novels? But this article by novelist Alicia Beckman reminded me that there’s also another side to this question: Do authors prefer to write series or standalone books?

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Book covers: Beach Read by Emily Henry; Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan; The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline; Exiles by Jane Harper; The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield; A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki; The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

6 Degrees of Separation: A Very Short Journey

Beach Read by Emily Henry is this month’s starting point:  “ A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews

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