Remember Amanda Gorman? She was the youngest presidential inaugural poet! Her inspiring rendition of “The Hill We Climb” charmed every single person that watched President Biden’s inauguration. Gorman has now written her second children’s book entitled Something, Someday. Caldecott Honor artist Christian Robinson illustrates the book, making it bright and cheery and full of hope. You might have a child on your Christmas list or
Right now, in Nashville, Tennessee, 150 authors are gathering for the 35th Annual Southern Festival of Books. I keep thinking I will go one of these years. As you know, I am a loyal fan of Southern Literature. Someone always asks ‘What is Southern Literature?’ Is it anything written by an author from the South about the South? What’s the big deal? Sarah Beth West,
Nita Prose, author of The Maid, took on a new role when she wrote her debut novel. Her first job was, and still is, at Simon and Schuster in Canada as Editorial Director. Prose admits that being an editor gives her an advantage becasue she knows what publishers need to make a book a success. And quite a success The Maid was, winning many awards
Readers of this blog may think that I am obsessed with St. Jerome. Well, I am not, BUT I keep running into him on my limited travels. As you may recall, he is the patron saint of libraries; and, therefore, he treasures books and the knowledge they hold. So, I saw his statue in Washington, D.C. Now, perusing the National Gallery in London, which has
Actually Lee Smith is not in a league of her own, but she is among a handful of female literary authors that have won the respect of critics all over the country. Many times she is referred to as a premiere Southern Author, and that is true. A reviewer for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner wrote, “Lee Smith seems to have taken the torch flung from
On a recent trip to Washington, D. C., I ran into this statue of someone obviously reading. It made me think about the Sandcastle Book Club and the blog. Upon further investigation, I realized this person is Saint Jerome the Priest. This particular statue was sculpted in 1954 by Ivan Mestrovic and sits in front of the Croatian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Mestrovic was born
When I published the post featuring books about strong women, I added a quiz. One blog reader answered all questions correctly! Congrats, Cathy Hill. Several readers sent in their favorite ‘strong woman’ character. Someone named the main character in Lessons in Chemistry. Fortunately, strong women are characters in many of the novels we read now–quite a change from fifty years ago. I have come across
Many of you enjoy looking at reading lists from other book clubs. I have copied and pasted them ‘as is’ so please excuse formating problems. If you have additional book club lists, don’t forget to send them to me. Thank you. 2023 – 2024 Coasters Book Schedule Mondays at 2:00 p.m.The 1st Monday of the month except September and January Date Book
I have always marvelled at how so many people learn to read and write in Braille. On the surface, the system for visually impaired people looks very complicated. It seems astounding to me that “a blind person can read braille faster than a sighted person can read print.” This fact is taken from an article written by Kelli Finger and published in July 31, 2023,
Although I haven’t had a chance to read any of these books yet, they are featured in every promotional publication I see. While the title of this entry is “Try one of these new books”, the fact is that they aren’t so new anymore. In fact, several of them have shown up on book club reading lists already. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James
