Harper Lee’s Early Short Stories to Be Published for the First Time

For years before she published “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee wrote short stories with themes that she would later explore in that now-classic novel: small town gossip and politics, tender and tense relationships between fathers and daughters, race relations. Source: Harper Lee’s Early Short Stories to Be Published for the First Time – The […]

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Culture wars: Trump’s takeover of arts is straight from the dictator playbook “US president’s attempt to control or dismantle cultural institutions plays into a long history of authoritarians using arts to push their agenda” Sorry not sorry: Prepare to be harangued for the next 4 years. We’ve moved way past politics now here in the

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Collage of book covers. On left, large cover; text: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. On right, top row of smaller book covers: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather; Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke; The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. Lower row: Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson; Raven Black by Ann Cleeves; The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier.

6 Degrees of Separation: This One’s for the Birds

This month’s starting book is the 2023 Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Here’s the description from Goodreads: On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate

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Background: 3 stacked, closed books; open notebook with pen on top. Text: Reading Notes: February

Reading Notes: February

I didn’t get much reading done in February. I only read two novels, The Three Lives of Cate Kay, which I’ve already reviewed, and The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight, which I review below.  Last month I promised a later review of The Last Russian Doll by Kristen Loesch, which I read

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book review

Review: “The Three Lives of Cate Kay”

For years, the identity of bestselling author Cate Kay was a closely guarded secret; only two people knew the author’s real name. But we, the readers of this novel by Kate Fagan masquerading as a memoir by Cate Kay, know the truth from the opening pages: Anne Marie Callahan —> Annie —> Cass Ford —>

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Book ban boomerang: VP Vance’s book is caught up in military school “ideology” checks. ‹ Literary Hub

In maybe the most high profile example of the “leopards ate my face” phenomenon, Vice-President-In-Name-Only J. David Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy is being pulled from the shelves at at least one D… Source: Book ban boomerang: VP Vance’s book is caught up in military school “ideology” checks. ‹ Literary Hub

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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

A Classic Chronicle of Korean America: On Kim Ronyoung’s Clay Walls “David S. Cho Explores Ideas of Homeland, Belonging and Identity in a Pioneering Contribution to Asian American Literature” Novels that introduce us to people from cultures other than our own contribute to human understanding in a global context. Clay Walls is a truly pioneering

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

2 Recent Novels of Life Review

Related Post: Eleanor Bennett has died and left behind with her lawyer, Charles Mitch, a series of recordings for her son, Byron, and his younger sister, Benny (short for Benedetta) to listen to. Eleanor insisted that they listen to the recordings together, and the accompanying note is directed to B and B, a term she

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Hanif Kureishi’s Relentlessly Revealing Memoir “How a tragic accident helped the author find his rebellious voice again” In December 2022, at age 68, writer Hanif Kureishi fell onto a hard floor in Rome and woke up a tetraplegic. Hillary Kelly visited Kureishi in London in December 2024 and here describes that visit and comments on

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feature: Life Stories in Literature

3 Novels of Life Review

Introduction: Life Review American psychiatrist Dr. Robert N. Butler made the study of the lives of older adults and of the aging process his life’s work at a time when the last years of life were largely neglected in both medicine and public policy. Butler coined the term ageism, by analogy with sexism and racism,

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