It’s been a while since I’ve compiled a “best of” list of the books I’ve read over the course of the year, but seeing as how I’m attempting to reinvigorate the blog, I thought I’d offer a list of my recent favorites. When looking back on my favorite books of the year, a couple patterns emerged. Apparently, this year I was really into politics, mystery and the musings of authors better known as actors. In random order, here are my…
Lately, I’ve found myself immersed in children’s literature. I primarily write Young Adult fiction, so I’m never too far from books with a youthful slant, but I’m talking about even younger than that. As discussed in this post, the cool folks at Read Aloud West Virginia are all about such books right now, and I was excited when their mission spilled over into my day job. Then, I started shopping for a couple of good friends who were expecting their…
‘Tis the season for “Best of 2014” lists! From The Washington Post to Publishers Weekly, it’s easy to find groupings of the year’s best works scattered all across the Internet. Far be it from me not to join in the fun. So, in random order, here are my 10 favorite books I read this year. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: Nominated for the National Book Award in fiction and a fixture on several Best Of lists this year, this spellbinding…
Jill Sobule's "Dottie's Charms" a novel in song form. Kind of. Concept albums seem to be all the rage lately, and singer-songwriter Jill Sobule may have just crafted the most intriguing concept of them all. Several years ago, Sobule was given a vintage charm bracelet by a friend who found it on eBay. The bracelet contained a rather diverse and peculiar collection of pewter charms and one vague link to its original owner, apparently named Dorothy. Failed attempts to track down the mysterious…
It can't be December already, can it? I started looking through my Kindle and bookshelf to create my Top 10 Books of 2013 list (coming soon to the blog) when I realized that several of the books I read this year came out well before the last 365ish days. That’s what I get for letting my book queue get so backlogged I’ll never catch up! So while I continue working on my list of favorite books I read this year, here are…
"[I] read books because I love them, not because I think I should read them." – Simon Van Booy While on a recent bargain table binge at a local bookstore, a certain cover jumped out at me: shades of blue, the Eiffel Tower, the name Christopher Moore. I’m a fan of Moore’s Lamb, so I grabbed one of the multiple copies of his Sacre Bleu that lined the table. The fact that Vincent Van Gogh factored into the plot of…
A book is a gift you can open again and again – Garrison Keillor Today I read the sad news that screenwriter Syd Field died over the weekend. I learned the techniques of writing for the screen from some of Field’s books while in college and have carried the skills into future projects, including novel writing. It got me thinking about the various books throughout my life that have taught me and inspired me. The books that encouraged my love of…
So today I discovered a new book titled My Ideal Bookshelf, a coffee-table book featuring 100 notable folks discussing exactly what the title suggests. Here’s a little blurb about it: The books that we choose to keep and display—let alone read—can say a lot about who we are and how we see ourselves. In My Ideal Bookshelf, one hundred leading cultural figures, including writers Chuck Klosterman, Jennifer Egan, and Michael Chabon, musicians Patti Smith and Thurston Moore, chefs and food…