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.

Discussion

Moral Depth in Current Fiction

Introduction I came upon Adam O’Fallon Price’s article The Subjective Mood, in which he laments the lack of moral depth in current fiction, back in February. I included it in a literary-links round-up, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it because I find a lot of moral depth in most of the fiction I read.  […]

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

I hope that you are all staying healthy and finding solace in activities that comfort you. Book sales surge as self-isolating readers stock up on ‘bucket list’ novels From the U.K. comes news that “Book sales have leapt across the country as readers find they have extra time on their hands, with bookshops reporting a

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Super moon over Tacoma, WA, USA, April7, 2020

Last Night’s Super Moon

Here’s my husband’s photo of last night’s super moon over Tacoma, WA, USA. We often can’t see the full moon here because of cloud cover, but the last couple of nights have been super clear for the super moon. Here’s a photo I took with my phone to give you an idea of how big

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book review

“An Anonymous Girl” by Green Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

Hendricks, Greer & Sarah Pekkanen. An Anonymous GirlSt. Martin’s Press, 2018ISBN 978-1-250-13373-1 Recommended Jessica Farris, age 28, works as a freelance make-up specialist, lugging her product cases all over Manhattan and barely earning enough to get by. On a typical Friday night Jessica overhears Taylor, one of her college-student clients, tell her roommate that she

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Penguin Classics and Others Work to Diversify Offerings From the Canon “Across the industry, publishers are releasing titles by authors who were previously marginalized or entirely lost to history.” The critical and commercial success of these titles is a result of a combination of factors: initiative on the part of writers’ families or estates; changing

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recommended reading

5 Books to Keep You Company During Isolation

I recently came across the article “Kristin Hannah Recommends 5 Books to Keep You Company During Isolation.” Since I’ve been having trouble writing much of anything at all, I decided to use the format of this post as a template for my own recommendations.  Here are the categories, Kristin Hannah’s recommendations, and my own suggestions.

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

The Curious Creation of Anna Kavan Although I’ve heard of Anna Kavan—mostly through occasional references to her works—I know nothing about her. But I’ll have to change that, after reading this profile in the New Yorker. She examined the nature of identity, both in her writing and in her personal life. Not long after being

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Discussion

Reading & Blogging in the Time of COVID-19

Related Posts: Life in an Independent Bookstore Near Seattle Some of the Less Obvious Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic Book-Related News for Self-Isolation and Social Distancing More Arts-Related Pandemic News All of my recent posts have been lists of COVID-19—related links. I just kept collecting these links, almost obsessively. Now that we’re approaching the end

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woman sitting & reading in front of book shelves

More Arts-Related Pandemic News

More Book-Related Pandemic News Luckily, books still exist, and can be their own vehicle for connection. And what better reading material for right now than books where the characters are, in some way, alone? None of these are dystopian (at least not in the traditional sense), but are instead characterized by protagonists with complex interior

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

I’m Not Feeling Good at All “The perplexingly alienated women of recent American fiction” Jess Bergman writes, “the new heroines of contemporary fiction possess a kind of anhedonic equanimity, more numb than overwhelmed.” Doing No Harm: A Look at Writing Suicide and Self-Harm in Fiction Alice Nuttall makes the case that “Suicide and self-harm are

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