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.

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

#TopTenTuesday : The Best Books I Read in 2022

Goodreads insists that I read 44 books in 2022, but my records indicate 46. Whichever number is correct, here are the best ones: 10 best + 5 honorable mention. Listed alphabetically by author’s last name. The 10 Best Connelly, Michael. Desert Star This latest installment in Connelly’s overlapping Harry Bosch/Renée Ballard series finds the detectives […]

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Celebrate National Science Fiction Day!

Today is National Science Fiction Day here in the United States. Science fiction touches so many different areas of literature that most people can find one area that they love. Science fiction can include stories based in space with aliens like E.T. or space battles like Star Wars. The genre also can include time travel,

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fireworks: Happy New Year

Literary Links

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first blog post of the year! NaJoWriMo Journal Writing Challenge Starts January 1st I know a lot of book bloggers are also writers. Many participate in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, every November. Since I don’t write fiction, I’ve always been a little jealous. But, if you write in

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stack of 3 books plus open book with pen. Title: In Memoriam

Notable Literary Deaths in 2022

This final post of the year is always the saddest. Notable Literary Deaths in 2022 “An Incomplete List of the Writers, Editors, and Great Literary Minds We Lost This Year” From Lit Hub.

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A stack of three closed books. Next to them lies an open notebook and a pen. Title: 2022: A Literary Review

2022: A Literary Review

‘Expressive times’: Publishing industry an open book in 2022 “In 2022, the story of book publishing was often the industry itself,” writes Hillel Italie for AP News. A Novelist’s Review of the State of 2022 Literary Fiction Mateo Askaripour is a Brooklyn-based writer whose first novel, Black Buck—which Colson Whitehead calls a “mesmerizing novel, executing

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Screenshot: Text: 2022 My Year in Books. 15,609 pages read; 44 books read.

2022: My Year in Reading

Thanks to Goodreads, here are my reading statistics for 2022: I’m gratified to see that, despite treating 2022 as a year of unplanned reading, these statistics are nearly the same as those for the previous 10 years. In that January post I also listed some general goals for 2022: Did I meet those goals? 1. to

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A layout of book covers: 1989 by Val McDermid; Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie; Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh; The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken; Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara; Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr; The Last Chairlift by John Irving; Lessons by Ian McEwan; Ely by David Berenbaum; We Spread by Iain Reid; Trust by Herman Diaz; Babel by R.F. Kuang

Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection 

Here are the newest additions to my book collection, nine that I got as presents this holiday season, followed by three I bought. Links are to Goodreads, as I haven’t read any of these yet. 1989 by Val McDermid Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh The Hero of This Book by

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Nichelle Nichols Foundation

“Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. Space travel benefits us here on Earth. And we ain’t stopped yet. There’s more exploration to come.” Nichelle Nichols Source: Nichelle Nichols Foundation

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

The dawn of AI has come, and its implications for education couldn’t be more significant The anxiety and questions about AI-generated writing continue: “t’s safe to say we can expect some challenging years ahead.” Vitomir Kovanovic, Senior Lecturer in Learning Analytics at the University of South Australia, speculates. Category: Writing Women Talking Embraces the Drama

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A stack of three closed books. Next to them lies an open notebook and a pen. Title: 15 years of blogging with WordPress.

15 Years of Blogging with WordPress!

Look what I found in my WordPress notifications today! I did not remember exactly when I switched Notes in the Margin to WordPress, so I was glad of the reminder. The site has been self-hosted on Dreamhost since 1999, and existed elsewhere for a couple of years before that. Notes in the Margin has been

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