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.

National Book Critics Circle: National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for 2016 Awards – Critical Mass Blog

The National Book Critics Circle, founded at the Algonquin Round Table in 1974, honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature. Source: National Book Critics Circle: National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists for 2016 Awards – Critical Mass Blog

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6 Books About Martin Luther King, Jr. for Readers of All Ages | TIME

In honor of the civil rights leader‘s birthday, here are five books on his life and legacy for readers of all ages. Source: 6 Books About Martin Luther King, Jr. for Readers of All Ages | TIME

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Last Week's Links

Last Week’s Links

He Fixes Cracked Spines, Without an Understudy A wonderful story about Donald Vass, who cares for damanged books for the King County Public Library system near Seattle, WA. At age 57, Voss is approaching retirement age, but there’s no one to take his place. NOT MY SHERLOCK There was a lot of discussion on my

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Last Week's Links

Last Week’s Links

Video Games Are Changing the Hero Videogame heroes take up a larger amount of people’s imaginations today than they ever have before. In the cultural economy they are as big a force as the heroes in books and movies. But as relatively new as videogame heroes are, some still question their ability to impact us

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Books, Movies & TV to Look for in 2017

Now that we’ve finished up with lists of the best books of 2016, it’s time to start thinking about the best books to read in 2017. Spring 2017 Announcements: All Our Coverage Publishers Weekly has us covered with a look at the following categories of books: Art, Architecture, & Photography Business & Economics Comics &

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Reading Challenges for 2017

I’ve set out my own reading plan for 2017, but if you’d prefer a challenge with specific category descriptions to guide you, here are several. Many of these challenges offer discussion groups either on their own web sites or through Facebook pages, so you’ll be getting a book group as well as book recommendations. Here

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When picking up my next book, it’s always hard for me to resist reaching for another juicy novel. Even though I often buy nonfiction books that I want to read, I usually give in to the urge to read more fiction. And even though I concentrate on fiction, I read mostly traditional novels. I’d like

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Of the 42 books I read in 2016, these are the top 15 (listed alphabetically by author): Cook, Thomas H. The Chatham School Affair du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca French, Tana. Broken Harbor Haruf, Kent. Our Souls at Night Hawley, Noah. Before the Fall Knowles, John. A Separate Peace Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar Stedman, M.L.

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My Year in Reading: 2016

I challenged myself on Goodreads to read 40 books in 2016, and I exceeded that goal by two. Of those 42 books, some were ebooks and some were unabridged audiobooks. For those books I included in my records the number of pages in the most current print edition, and arrived at the grand total of

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Literary Deaths: 2016

Last Tuesday (12/27/2016), the day Carrie Fisher died, my Facebook feed was filled with lamentations about all the well-known people who had died in 2016. Later that day came the report of the death of Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, on Christmas Eve. And then the following day Carrie’s mother, Debbie Reynolds, died. Have

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