Ahhhh, summer! Finally, some time for a bit of pleasure reading. Got a gift certificate you've been hanging on to? (Ha. Mine are gone minutes after they hit my hands.) Or maybe you are just overwhelmed with choices and don't want to waste precious free time on something that isn't so great. Well, we at…
Category: Books & Movies
Ten Cocktails for You, From Literature
If you've ever hosted or been to a book club meeting, you know that you will discuss the book in question for approximately ten to fifteen minutes before the conversation turns to sex. Why not at least attempt to keep things on a literary bent (and bender) and try something besides chardonnay. Here are ten…
To Kill a(n)… Agent?: Harper Lee Sues to Regain Copyright of Her Famous Novel
One has to wonder just what sort of a creep you're dealing with when the "alleged" creep decides to try to bilk money out of one of America's most beloved, aging novelists. Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate popular and critical success, remains a best-seller, and is on many a high…
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The Daily Rituals of Ten of the World’s Most Creative People
Do you have a daily ritual when you write? I don't know of a single writer who does not. Maybe it's summoning the Muse...everything must be just so if there is any hope of words appearing on paper. Most of us are NOT like the writer, Muriel Spark who, Ann Lamott notes, "is said to have felt that she was taking…
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Happy 87th Birthday, Harper Lee!
Last night, I found my sixteen-year-old daughter in bed a full hour early. In her hands was Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. "I want to see what is happening with Scout. I'm worried about her," she explained. My daughter, like millions of other readers, has become enthralled by the coming-of-age story of Scout…
RIP Chinua Achebe: 1931-2013
Breaking News: Just announced that Nigerian author Chinua Achebe has passed away at a hospital in Boston. Achebe was eighty-two. Achebe rose to fame in 1958 with the publication of his first novel Things Fall Apart, a work that met with both critical and popular success. Other international best-sellers include No Longer At Ease, A Man of…
Well, Good Luck With That: “As I Lay Dying” Film Coming, Someday, Briefly, to a Theater Near You
So the other day I was looking up something on IMDB and saw a listing for As I Lay Dying. Now, that is shocking enough, if you have ever read the novel. To me, at least, its stream-of-consciousness format is going to make things mighty difficult to put on screen. Then add to that the fact that the…
Happy Birthday, Toni Morrison
Today, February 18, marks the 82nd birthday of Toni Morrison. Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her novel Beloved. She is the United States' only living literary Nobel Prize winner (awarded to her in 1993). Morrison was born 'Chloe Wofford' to working class parents in 1931. She grew up in Lorain, Ohio…