Kurt Vonnegut narrates his eight tips on how to write a good story: Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. Every character should want something, even if […]
Kurt Vonnegut on How to Write a Good Story Read More »
Meet Snappy. On a recent bike ride my husband came upon this big snapping turtle on the sidewalk. After photographing him head-on, he tried to get a side view. But every time he moved to get a different perspective, Snappy moved, too, to maintain their face-off.
Photo of the Day: Snappy Read More »
‘Things Fall Apart’ named one of the world’s 50 Most Influential Books : Ghana Business News An academic group based in San Antonio, Texas, USA, calling itself SuperScholar, has listed prolific Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe’s, bestseller, ‘Things Fall Apart’, now a movie with veteran Nigerian actor Pete Edoche starring as the lead character Obi Okonkwo,
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The answer is apparently yes. A study conducted at Ohio State University suggests that “When you ‘lose yourself’ inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behavior and thoughts to match that of the character.” Co-authors of the study are Geoff Kaufman, who led
Monday Miscellany: Can Reading Fiction Make You a Better Person? Read More »
Amazon Media Room: Press Releases. Alexandria, VA, tops Amazon’s list, with Richmond, VA, rounding out the list at #20. In between are, well, a lot of other cities, including my own current hometown, St. Louis, at #18. Berkeley, CA, residents bought the most travel books, while Cambridge, MA, can boast the most entrepreneurs.
Amazon Announces the Most Well-Read Cities in the U.S. Read More »
Flavorwire » 10 of the Best Memoirs About Mothers. And a Happy Mother’s Day to all!
10 of the Best Memoirs About Mothers Read More »
‘America’s Final Beginning’ a clumsy, preachy novel written by a beginner. I offer this review as a good definition of what is commonly known as a “program novel” or a “propaganda novel”: a novel that is written to portray a message but that forgets the first requirement of a novel is to tell a good
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Why fiction is good for you Jonathan Gottschall is getting a lot of mileage from the recent publication of his book The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. In this piece he addresses the issue of whether fiction in all its forms—TV shows and commercials, religious beliefs, and social commentary as well as novels,
“writing and reading can allow people to live other lives and to try things out symbolically so that we can make better decisions about what we value and do. There is no guarantee, of course, that reading and writing make people act more wisely. But, writing and reading, by expanding our experience and repertoire of
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If you were holding your breath in anticipation of HBO’s series based on Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections, it’s time to exhale. Despite a stellar cast, the series has been scrapped: the decision came down to adapting the book’s challenging narrative, which moves through time and cuts forwards and back. While that works in the
‘The Corrections’ Pilot At HBO Not Going Forward Read More »
