Medora

August 13 was NASCAR night at Canal Park, home of the Akron Aeros baseball team.  Yes, it was my boy Tony’s nemesis, Kurt Busch, who was on hand signing autographs and talking to fans, but we had to go.  He is a series driver, after all.  He was very sweet and we were very fortunate (or [...]

As if the title isn’t intriguing enough, I was drawn to this deceptively small well of thought purported as children’s fiction by the back cover endorsement from Joyce Carol Oates: “untimely in the way of a Grimm fairy tale recast by Franz Kafka.”  A Batchelder Honor Book, The Cat comes to us from Germany by [...]

Wendy Lesser’s first novel is actually three novellas, the first of which is amazing and wonderful and I wanted it to go on and on.  The second wasn’t bad, but the third was wretched and I wondered if Lesser had been smoking crack after she completed the second. As a James fan, I was obviously entranced [...]

*from Romantic Times Book Reviews, 9/08 Contemporary: Allison, Liz et. al. A NASCAR Holiday 3 Bacus, Kathleen. Anchors Aweigh Bevarly, Elizabeth. Ready & Willing Carr, Robyn. A Virgin River Christmas Chapman, Janet. The Man Must Marry Dimon, HelenKay. Hot as Hell Holm, Stef Ann. All That Matters McCarthy, Erin. Flat-Out Sexy Michaels, Fern. Silver Bells Michaels, Kasey. Mischief Becomes Her Rich, Lani Diane. Wish You Were Here Ridgway, [...]

“Your number was up the first time I met you.” Yes, I read Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, including the most recent and last in the series, Breaking Dawn.  I read them primarily because as a librarian, I felt it was important to see for myself what the hype was about.  Unlike the Harry Potter titles, I [...]

Part of the Cambridge Forum series, this lecture explores the ways fantasy helps children understand the world of adulthood.   Unriddling the World  is also about Cooper’s personal experience as a writer of fantasy, the how and why she creates fantasy fiction and her perception of its necessity for the exploration of good and evil and [...]

“It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me.” - W. Somerset Maugham, 1938 Most scholars and readers alike consider Of Human Bondage Maugham’s masterpiece, but The Razor’s Edge carries the same emotional punch as his earlier work.  Written in 1944, The Razor’s Edge was translated [...]

As of July 1 of this year, the U.S.C.O. is online, making copyright registrations easier, faster, and cheaper.  Protect your work without the paperwork.

It’s not Edith Wharton or Henry James, but the setting sure is.  Anna Godbersen’s teen soap set in Gilded Age (1899) Manhattan is an easy read, unlike Wharton and James, and the story isn’t original, but there is something about that cliffhanger that had me putting the sequel on hold as soon as I got [...]

*courtesy of Romantic Times Book Reviews, 8/2008: Chick Lit: Klasky, Mindy. Magic and the Modern Girl Contemporary: Allison, Liz. Risking Her Heart Dailey, Janet. Searching for Santa Garbera, Katherine. Bare Witness James, Julie. Just the Sexiest Man Alive Kauffman, Donna, et. al. To All a Good Night Martin, Deirdre. Power Play McLane, LuAnn. Driven by Desire Mortimer, Carole, et. al. Christmas Weddings Phillips, Carly. Lucky Charm Plumley, Lisa. [...]

Who knew that watching grown men in creme stick costumes race each other in the midst of a baseball game could be so much fun?  Rock on, Acme, for some original entertainment. Oh, wow - moral dilemma - I just noticed that August 13 is NASCAR Night at Canal Park, but it’s Kurt Busch who is [...]

Too much grease, just enough sun, a nice breeze, and three trophies for my Barbara-doll and our big mouse Bella!  I won something, too - I was the only adult in the lemon eating contest, and I won, but I was the only one who actually ate the whole lemon, and I think I freaked [...]

Highlights from 7.20.08: * A mini-Cooper beside us in the very muddy parking lot, which is well and truly in the middle of a cornfield.  This is how you know you aren’t at a NASCAR race. * Sitting at the bottom of the keyhole in turn four, where Dominguez lost it and Moraes and Manning got into [...]

In July Book Page, where she talks about the creation of My Sister, My Love.

My aunt, on various extremely effective pain medications, told my mother over the phone that she, my mother, was just there in the hospital with a “tribe of beautician friends.”  My mother did hair back in the sixties when she finished high school, before she married, and was in the car with my dad and [...]

This is so funny that I had to buy it instead of read it at Borders, because I was laughing and snorting so obnoxiously that I thought the other store patrons would run me out.  I was impressed that James had two shout outs during this amusing tirade against lemming-ness (my term, not Lander’s, thank [...]

*Good things about the Newport trip: the actual conference swimming, collecting shells, and watching small children scoop jellyfish into their buckets at Gooseberry Beach the Cliff Walk, and the surfers in the mornings  the Redwood Library, the oldest lending library in America amazing food and service (and entertaining and enlightening dinner companions) at the White Horse Tavern the stunning architecture of the [...]

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Alison Weir’s latest delve into Tudor drama was great company on my recent plane trip.  With a very large Irishman insisting I take his business card in case I became lonely (his words) on one side of me, and an older Chinese lady snoring against my other side, I was happy to have brought something [...]

Every year, my dad’s father’s people have a reunion picnic during the fourth of July weekend.  One of the highlights is an auction of items donated by attendees, to raise money to pay for the next summer’s party.  This way, no one pays admission to the park (swimming and mini golf); it’s covered by auction [...]