This isn’t an official “Year in Review” post, because I feel like it’s still a little early for me to go there, but it is a bit of a rehearsal for it. I haven’t done much in the way of taking stock this year, so I feel a need to get my bearings. Part of that need comes from a sense that, particularly for the last few months, I haven’t done much bloggish, period. This was […]
My participation in Creative Alliance ’12 prompted much consideration of my approach to my online life. As a book blogger, that life clearly includes books and authors…but it hasn’t included many from the swelling ranks of the “non-traditionally published.” This is the last of this month’s posts on “indie authors.” All opinions expressed here are my own, although some may be supported with links to related posts elsewhere. Yesterday’s thoughts pondered why more authors are publishing independently. […]
My participation in Creative Alliance ’12 prompted much consideration of my approach to my online life. As a book blogger, that life clearly includes books and authors…but it hasn’t included many from the swelling ranks of the “non-traditionally published.” This is the third of this month’s posts on “indie authors.” All opinions expressed here are my own, although some may be supported with links to related posts elsewhere. I don’t usually think of it in […]
Last week, I completed my duties as a first-round nonfiction judge for the Shirley You Jest! Humor Book Awards and forwarded one contender on to the final round. The winners and runners-up (one of each, for fiction and nonfiction) will be announced on November 1, National Authors’ Day. After mulling it over with some degree of anxiety, I have decided that I won’t be posting reviews of any of the titles I considered. I know […]
I suspect that the idea that books can help us through challenging times in our lives is not exactly a revelation to most avid readers. We’re conditioned to turn to books in times of crisis–for the solace of familiar “comfort reads,” for information, for ideas that may shift (or strengthen) our perspectives. We’ve probably been practicing self-administered “bibliotherapy” for much of our lives, and we know it works: “As generations of book lovers will tell […]
“Facts don’t do what I want them to” – “Crosseyed and Painless,” Talking Heads And so we shape them into something that does what we want. Some other lines from the same section of that song acknowledge that: “Facts all come with points of view” “Facts continue to change their shape” “Facts are nothing on the face of things” I’ve been thinking a lot about how we shape narratives lately – ever since my stint […]
We’re just about halfway through the designated time frame for the group read of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Today, participants have been asked to weigh in with some sort of “progress post” – non-spoilery discussion, response to a particular theme, thoughts on Atwood’s writing, etc. – on their reading. I’m hosting this read, but I was probably one of the last to actually start the book. We kicked off on August 21, which was […]
The things that scare me most aren’t monsters and fantasy creatures – they’re things that really could happen. In that framework, Margaret Atwood’s 1986 novel The Handmaid’s Tale is undoubtedly one of the scariest books I’ve ever read. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in its year of publication, The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic of speculative fiction, a prime example of dystopian literature, a feminist touchstone, and a recurring visitor to various banned-books […]
Melissa Walker’s YA novel Small Town Sinners (review to be posted on Monday) is the subject of the Faith & Fiction Roundtable’s current book discussion. The novel is focused on a group of teen members of the House of Enlightenment Evangelical church in the small town of West River as they prepare for their annual Hell House presentation/spiritual outreach project, and centered on Lacey Anne Byer, daughter of the assistant pastor. If you’ve never encountered […]
Every time I read a post about someone’s plans to “diversify” their reading I feel a little awkward. I haven’t always felt this way, but I’ve noticed it over the last decade or so, and I was reminded of it while reading Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow last week. My reading choices tend to have a cultural sameness…and I’m mostly OK with it, except when I branch out and then start questioning it. In my post-college […]
The Faith and Fiction Roundtable’s third book of 2011 was the science-fiction classic A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (reviewed here last week). Wait – a “science-fiction classic” for the Faith and Fiction Roundtable? Science and religion do not have to be opposing forces, although history has shown that they often are. They both offer ways to confront the world’s most complex questions, and the conflicts between them usually arise from a […]
“What good is God?” is a pretty big question, and as is the case with most such questions, my feeling is that it has multiple, complex answers…well beyond the scope of this collection of Philip Yancey’s essays and speeches (which I reviewed earlier this week). Yancey seems to realize the magnitude of the question himself, and acknowledges that the focus of most of the pieces here is a little more specific: “What good is God […]
