The literary world lost many in 2019, including those listed here (with date of death and link to obituary, where available. Francine du Plessix Gray, 1/13 Mary Oliver, 1/17 Russell Baker, 1/21 Diana Athill, 1/23 Jan Wahl, 1/29 Edith Iglauer, 2/13 Andrea Levy, 2/14 Gillian Freeman, 2/23 Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, 3/12 W.S. Merwin, 3/15 Jonathan […]
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I swore that I was through with “Best Books of 2019” lists. But then the folks at Off the Shelf hit me with this post: The Best of 2019: The Top 10 Book Lists of the Year Ah, the thematic book list. Nothing makes up leap for a new read like discovering a gem hidden
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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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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
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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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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However you celebrate, I wish you peace, health, and happiness now and throughout the upcoming year.
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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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
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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