A stack of 3 closed books (left); an open notebook with a pen on top (right). Title: 12 Novels Thata Changed How I Read Fiction

#9 “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn

Related Posts: #9 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn © 2012 Date read: 7/10/2012 I read this book the year after I got my psychology degree focusing on life stories. Life story writing is nonfiction, but in Gone Girl I immediately realized that Flynn uses life story elements to build the characterization of her two main […]

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Between the Book Club and BookTok: Community Reading in Montreal Adam Christopher Hill tells the story of Page Break, a weekly gathering at De Stiil bookstore in Montreal. Page Break is a time when readers come together, give up their phones, and read silently for an hour. This approach to reading differs from most book

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Book covers: The Anniversary by Stephenie Bishop; Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller; Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman; The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese; Hit Me by Lawrence Block; The Husbands by Holly Gramazio; The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.

6 Degrees of Separation

This month we begin with a novel longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize – The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop. Description from Amazon: Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless,

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A stack of 3 closed books, next to an open notebook on which rests a ballpoint pen. Text: Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature

The Real Science Behind Dark Matter Will Melt Your Gray Matter The multiverse is a compelling image for Life Stories in Literature because it offers the possibilities of multiple lives. The first novel I remember that used this concept is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.  The novel is now being made into a series for

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A stack of 3 closed books (left); an open notebook with a pen on top (right). Title: 12 Novels Thata Changed How I Read Fiction

#8 “The Drowning People” by Richard Mason

Related Posts: #8 The Drowning People by Richard Mason © 2000 Date read: 2/1/2001 Richard Mason showed me how imagery and atmosphere can carry a novel and contribute to its meaning while also building tension and suspense. The concept of drowning that appears in the title recurs frequently with imagery about the sea, crashing waves,

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KUOW – How a Northwest tribe is escaping a rising ocean

In a mossy stretch of forest on Washington state’s outer coast, streets and sidewalks have appeared in recent weeks. Source: KUOW – How a Northwest tribe is escaping a rising ocean For Earth Day, here’s a story from my neck of the woods.

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

What Fiction Writing Shares With Psychotherapy “Emily Howes Considers the Similarities Between Two Therapeutic Practices” I have a curious double professional identity. I am both a novelist and a therapist; both a teller of tales, and a listener to them. I spend my days in my own imagination or settling into the deepest corners of

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

‘I will defeat Richard Osman!’: Holly Jackson on being Britain’s top selling female crime author Lucy Knight interviews YA novelist Holly Jackson, whose book series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is currently being adapted into a BBC TV series. According to Knight, “Jackson’s books are some of the most recommended among the #BookTok community.”

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A stack of 3 closed books (left); an open notebook with a pen on top (right). Title: 12 Novels Thata Changed How I Read Fiction

#7 “Drowning Ruth” by Cristina Schwarz

Related Posts: #7 Drowning Ruth by Cristina Schwarz © 2000 Date read: 2/1/2001 Many of the themes that I’d been reading about since Portrait of the Artist come together in this novel: how childhood informs the adults we become, how people who share the same experience react to and remember it differently, how time and context

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stack of books and open notebook. Label: Quotation

Quotation: “Whitman’s Multitudes”

If humans contain Whitman’s multitudes, novels also have the possibility to contain multitudes, and they should. —Gabrielle Zevin, “Cloud Atlas at 20: What makes a novel tattoo-worthy

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