General News from the World of Literature
I was reminded just now that Nora Ephron’s book Heartburn turns 40 this year. I don’t think I ever read it! An article by Tobias Mutter in Shelf Awareness reminded me that the ‘novel’ is a thinly veiled version of Ephron’s own life and her husband’s (THE Carl Bernstein of All the President’s Men) affair. A movie version of the book was released in 1986
Ron Charles, Book critic for the Washington Post, asked his Book Club members to describe to him what most annoy them in books. I list a few of them below: –Dreams (Worked for Dickens and Shakespeare, but apparently many readers don’t like dream sequences.) –Typos and grammatical errors –Overused and pretentious words (lugubrious, lubricious and preternatural to name a few) –Excessive length (Of books, paragraphs,
“Truth is stranger than ficiton” is a worn out statement, but it can be remarkably true. Such is the case in the following two books. These books are NOT historical fiction. The first book was written by Ilyon Woo, a writer whose research for the book was funded by National Endowment for the Humanities. Woo received a PhD in English from Columbia University. Master Slave
Wylie and her husbad purchased a home on Kiawah Island in 2020. I recently met Wylie Small, a part time Kiawah resident who also happens to be an author! Her specialty is English history. Wylie sent me the following background information: My love of English history developed when I began to work on my family’s genealogy, about fifteen years ago. Both of my parents had
The House in the Pines, Ana Reyes Ana Reyes has just realized a writer’s dream. After her first novel was published, it was chosen as the Reese Witherspoon book for January! Amazing, right? Now, of course, it’s on the NYT best seller list. Who is Ana Reyes and what is her book about? Ana Reyes received an MFA from LSU in 2015, at which time
This book was written by Jens Andersen, a writer of biographies who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1955. He had rare access to the inner workings of the global Lego company and interviewed members of the Danish family that founded it. The book contains rare photos that date back to the early days of the company when Legos were made in a small carpentry
Author Virginia Beach spoke at the River Course Clubhouse on Kiawah Island on January 11 at the annual joint meeting and luncheon of the Sandcastle Book Club and the Kiawah Island Club Book Club. Beach’s recent book American Landmark tells the story of Charles Duell and the rebirth of Middleton Place. Accompanying Beach and speaking with her is Brandon Stone, the Middleton Place Manager of
Today, November 4, 100 years ago, Howard Carter, British archaeologist, discovered King Tut’s tomb. The remarkable story of that discovery is told by Jo Merchant in a recent Smithsonian magazine. To read this story, click the link below. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-howard-carter-discovered-king-tuts-golden-tomb-180981052/ John and Colleen Darnell, a husband and wife Egyptology team, have authored a book about King Tut’s parents, Akhenaten and Nerfertiti. Sometimes overlooked, these two rulers’
Like most highly intelligent people, Ken Burns reads a lot! In an interview published in the Sunday edition of the New York Times, Burns admitted that he didn’t have enough time to read for pleasure and then went on to recite a very ecletic list of books that he is either currently reading or reading again. Of course he reads non-stop for his work, concentrating
For those of you in the Sandcastle Book Club, I’d like to give you an update on our year so far. In September, we discussed The Maid by Nita Prose. Even though the book wasn’t a literary masterpiece, members enjoyed the read. The protaganist Molly is neurodivergent. The author was somewhat uneven in developing Molly because, in some circumstanes, she acted too savvy to be
