Novels That Feature a Character’s Diary or Journal

In Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, Amy creates a fake diary to cast suspicion about her disappearance on her husband. Although Amy’s diary is only one piece in this novel’s central puzzle, some other works of fiction feature a diary format as their primary structure. Here are some fictional works that incorporate a character’s diary […]

Novels That Feature a Character’s Diary or Journal Read More »

Phil Klay wins National Book Award for fiction

Phil Klay’s “Redeployment,” a debut collection of searching, satiric and often agonized stories by an Iraq war veteran, has won the National Book Award for fiction. Klay was chosen Wednesday night over such high-profile finalists as Marilynne Robinson’s “Lila” and Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven.” His book was the first debut release to win

Phil Klay wins National Book Award for fiction Read More »

Amazon.com: Best Books of 2014

2014 Best Books of the Year: The Top 100 in Print Format via Amazon.com: Best Books of 2014. Yes, the Best Books of 2014 lists are beginning already. The link here features Everything I Never Told You: A Novel by Celeste Ng as top book of the year. If you click around this page a

Amazon.com: Best Books of 2014 Read More »

The Classics Club

“Parnassus on Wheels”

Morley, Christopher.  Parnassus on Wheels (1917) Christopher Morley (May 5, 1890 – March 28, 1957) was an American essayist, poet, novelist, playwright, and journalist. His first published work, Parnassus on Wheels, features Helen McGill, a 39-year-old woman who buys a horse-drawn wagon equipped as a traveling bookstore, and the people to whom she peddles her

“Parnassus on Wheels” Read More »

The Classics Club

Classics Club Spin #8

This will be my first time participating in the Classics Club Spin. Here are the directions for spin #8: At your blog, by next Monday, November 10, list your choice of any twenty books you’ve left to read from your Classics Club list – in a separate post. This is your Spin List. You have

Classics Club Spin #8 Read More »

On Novels and Novelists

Jodi Picoult, Luanne Rice, and Russell Banks

This post introduces a new category of entries here, On Novels and Novelists. This category features articles and interviews that focus on how writers create their fiction and on how critics interpret fictional works. Jodi Picoult discusses the facts of fiction In a recent lecture at Carnegie Mellon University, best-selling author Jodi Picoult described the

Jodi Picoult, Luanne Rice, and Russell Banks Read More »

bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

Ghosts and Other Literary Horrors

  For weeks we’ve been building up to Halloween with lists and tales about the spookiest and scariest stories ever written. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is one of the best known ghost stories in the English language. Part of the reason this novella is so famous is that it leaves unspecified

Ghosts and Other Literary Horrors Read More »

The Joan Didion Documentary by Griffin Dunne and Susanne Rostock — Kickstarter

We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live is the first and only documentary being made about Joan Didion. While her writing is fierce and exposed, Joan herself is an incredibly private person. We have the privilege to know Joan as a subject and also as a member of our family. Our director, Griffin Dunne,

The Joan Didion Documentary by Griffin Dunne and Susanne Rostock — Kickstarter Read More »

bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

Life Stories: A Select Bibliography

  Aftel, Mandy. The Story of Your Life: Becoming the Author of Your Experience (Fireside, 1996) Atkinson, Robert. The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking (Bergin and Garvey, 1995) Estrade, Patrick. You Are What You Remember: A Pathbreaking Guide to Understanding and Interpreting Your Childhood Memories (Da

Life Stories: A Select Bibliography Read More »

Scroll to Top