Year's Best Books

The Best Books I Read in 2019

Because I read more books this year than I had in any recent year, paring down my list of the year’s favorites was much harder than usual. I always try to reduce the list of 10 best and 5 honorable mentions, but this year I couldn’t decide which should be the final title to get […]

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

How a Twitter war in 2010 helped change the way we talk about women’s writing A look at how the 2010 dust-up between writers Jennifer Weiner and Jonathan Franzen engendered a decade-long pop culture discussion over two basic questions: “What kinds of stories do we consider to be worthy of respect? And to whom do

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My Reading Plan for 2019

Did I Fulfill My Reading Plan for 2019?

Earlier this month I posted about 10 Reading Regrets of 2019, a list of 10 particular books that I’m sorry I didn’t get to this year. But how did I do in terms of my overall reading plan for 2019, which I composed back in January? Let’s take a look. Here are the sections of

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Lists: Best Books of 2019

More Best Books of 2019 Lists

Best Books of 2019 I put this Goodreads list at the very top of this entry because it’s “the only major book awards decided by readers.” Check out the winners in a whole bunch of categories. The Ultimate Best Books of 2019 List And here’s the list made up from other lists. Literary Hub editor

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2020 Book Blog Discussion Challenge Sign-Up

In an effort to motivate myself to produce more substantive posts next year, I’ve decided to sign up for the 2020 Book Blog Discussion Challenge. This challenge is hosted by two book bloggers: Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction Shannon at It Starts at Midnight Thanks to Nicole and Shannon for running this annual challenge,

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

CANDID PORTRAITS OR GHOSTWRITTEN FLUFF: THE HISTORY OF THE CELEBRITY BOOK Jeffrey Davies looks at the history of the celebrity book, whether it be “a memoir, an essay collection, a cookbook, a book of poetry, or a self-help book.” He discusses the rise of the ghostwriter, what happens when celebrity culture and science clash (for

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woman reading

10 Reading Regrets of 2019

Yesterday I came across the article Readers’ Regrets: The Books We Wish We Read in 2019. It prompted me to take a look at my own shelves for the books I regret not having read in 2019. Here are 10 of them, listed in no particular order. (Links that describe the book are to either

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The Classics Club

Classics Club Spin #22

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin, #22. Here’s how it works: I post a numbered list of 20 titles from my Classics Club list. On December 22 the Classics Club curators will post a number from 1 through 20. I then have to read whatever title has that number on my list by January

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Last Week's Links

Literary Links

Romance Is a Billion-Dollar Literary Industry. So Why Is It Still So Overlooked? Samantha Leach writes in Glamour that romance novels have evolved from the steamy bodice-rippers of the early 1970s to mid 1980s into works that deal meaningfully with “whatever is happening to women or marginalized people.” ON FAILING THE GOODREADS CHALLENGE P.N. Hinton

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