I had a lovely February of reading. Lots more time than I expected, which is fun. As regular readers of this feature know, I don’t recommend everything nor should I, considering I’ve also been reading 300-year-old plays for my Theatre History class. But there’s lots of good here, including a nonfiction book that everyone in […]
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Still operating from behind here, because these past two years were insane. At least I found time to read again, even when conducting a workshop or working with student manuscripts. I didn’t find a lot to like, though, in April. I read a number of books that either didn’t end well or had characters that grated on me. […]
Continue ReadingStill playing catch-up from our incredibly weird year. I’m not sure it was a bad year, because we got rid of a huge ugly problem in our lives, one we didn’t even know we had until January, and our business is thriving. Dean is healing, and we’ve made some good changes. So the year will […]
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I read a lot of books in January, but don’t have as many to recommend as I would have thought. I started one bestseller’s novel and quit because I knew exactly where it was going. (I glanced ahead, and yep. On rails.) I read another and was quite irritated because it didn’t do anything new […]
Continue ReadingJuly was strange. I had a lot of dental and other medical appointments which ate up a lot of time. Some of the stuff that happened forced me to rest afterwards or deal with migraines. I’ve had migraines my whole life, so I can judge how “bad” they are. These were bad enough that I […]
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Wow, am I late on this. No, I have not dropped the Recommended Reading list, but it was the one thing that could go by the wayside during one of my busiest springs ever. So I have two months of reading list to get to. I hope to finish this by the end of June…before […]
Continue ReadingEven more Spanish academic article reading this month, some of which were fascinating, particularly one on proposed changes in the methodology of anthropology. But never fear, I’m not going to recommend any of it. I also (for my sins) had to read The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov for the 100th time. God, I loathe that […]
Continue ReadingWhat a month of distractions. The election, weather weirdness, an actual run!, and so much more. It’s been tough to find the time to read at times, just because the days are so full. Still, I managed. I tried very hard to read a book by a writer whose work I adore. The book had […]
Continue ReadingWell, my evil plan against myself worked. I’ve been behind putting my Recommended Reading List together for January (and February). Many of you have asked for it anyway. So I schedule it ahead of time, and usually keep track of that. This month, it went live with what I had, not with what I’ve read. […]
Continue ReadingWhen I was taking classes in the craft of fiction, everyone—from established professional writers to English professors—recommended that a writer never ever say that a character looked like a famous actor. No “he resembled a young Orson Welles” or “she dressed like Claudette Colbert.” Not only was it lazy writing—the Gurus said—but, more importantly, there […]
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