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 books and open notebook. Label: Quotation

Quotation: On the Writing Process

“writing a book is still bloody hard work. I usually start by letting an idea percolate and take shape in my brain, which looks a lot like re-watching things on Netflix and shopping for stationery. Then I superfluously color-code an Excel spreadsheet and use it to plot out the major twists, turns and reveals. Then […]

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Banner: Celebrate Banned Books Week, September 18-24, 2022 (from the American Library Association). Several brightly colored birds fly over a muted background of open books.

Info for Banned Books Week

At least 50 groups in the US advocated to ban books in the past year This article from CNN contains links to several related articles.

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

#TopTenTuesday 10 Books On My Fall 2022 To-Read List

I haven’t been participating in Top Ten Tuesday for very long, but already I can tell that soon I’ll have to start skipping these reading-season updates. All I do is carry over unread books from one of those lists to the next. Here are 10 books I hope to read soon. You’ll recognize several of

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Banner: Celebrate Banned Books Week, September 18-24, 2022 (from the American Library Association). Several brightly colored birds fly over a muted background of open books.

Banned Books Week 2022

The theme for Banned Books Week 2022 is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.” For More Information BookRiot has put together an extensive list of information and suggestions on how you can advocate for literacy and the freedom to read during this year’s Banned Books Week: A Banned Books Week Action List: Book Censorship News,

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

American Library Association’s New Book Censorship Data Released in Advance of Banned Books Week As you have probably already guessed, the statistics are pretty grim. Category: Censorship Series on Historical Fiction from The Atlantic On the occasion of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, The Atlantic carries a series of feature articles about historical fiction.

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

#TopTenTuesday Books with Geographical Terms in the Title

The topic for this week is Books with Geographical Terms in the Title (for example: mountain, island, latitude/longitude, ash, bay, beach, border, canyon, cape, city, cliff, coast, country, desert, epicenter, hamlet, highway, jungle, ocean, park, sea, shore, tide, valley, etc.) Here are 11 novels from my reading database. Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark The Island

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

4 Essential Books About Queen Elizabeth II Talk about life stories. Queen Elizabeth II certainly had one. Kirkus Reviews suggests some books for those of us wanting to read about it. Reimagining the Homeland Through Speculative Fiction Speculative fiction as a genre is conducive to diasporic literature, particularly for Palestinian writers, because it combines several

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stack of books and open notebook. Label: Quotation

Peter Straub on Horror

“. . . telling stories and writing fiction is a way of managing and exploring my own impulses and emotions. I’m not at the mercy of my terrors, my shame. I push the dredged-up emotions into shapes that are enjoyable in the end, even if their content seems violent or disturbing.” — novelist and poet

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Stack of books on left; notebook open to blank page with pen lying on top on the right

#TopTenTuesday 20 Pandemic Reviews I Have Yet to Write

(Feature photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash) Today’s assigned topic is Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library. But I don’t work that way. If I’m reading a library book, I take the notes I’ll need from the book before I return it. I don’t think just

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

5 Books that Celebrate Books This is a list of stories that pay homage to the world of books; whether through the comfort and sanctuary of libraries, the careful crafting of a narrative, or the mysticism and power of books themselves, each contain different versions of the same awe and appreciation of words, stories and

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