General News from the World of Literature
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,
Some people like to read ‘beach books’ in the summer. Others would rather use extra leisure time to tackle longer and more serious books. If you fall into the latter category, you might be interested in the following two books. They are both fiction, but they are far from ‘flights of fancy’, so to say. Take a look– The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese Remember
We see it on a daily basis. We worry about it. We realize the damage it does to families and society at large. We try to help. What is IT? POVERTY. Headlines of the Washington Post , reviews in the NYT and features on NPR showcase a new book by Matthew Desmond entitled Poverty, by America. While this blog is never meant to be political,
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
