Writing the good read
I had some great English teachers in high school — women who challenged my thinking and my reading. They exposed me to authors I’d never have come to on my own (Heinrich Böll), and spurred me to dig deeper into the writing of authors who are part of almost every high school syllibus (the entire…
I fulfilled a dream of many years yesterday and saw Garrison Keillor and his cohorts perform A Prairie Home Companion for NPR. I’ve loved Keillor as a writer since I was in college in the 1980s. I didn’t get into the show until later. Some of my friends find it too slow and languorous. Maybe…
As I have mentioned before, I read a lot and keep a list of dozens of books I want to read. Most of those are culled from reviews I read in a variety of publications, including the Sunday New York Times book review section. I saw an article a few months back about a new…
When Tina Fey’s book Bossypants came out last year, there was a lot of buzz, a lot of positive talk about how funny it was. I don’t usually buy celebrity books because I am inevitably disappointed. But I bought it. And I was disappointed. It wasn’t bad, and parts were quite funny. But when I…
I really don’t know how it happens sometimes, how it ends up that I read a book from the pile next to the bed, and the next one I pick up relates to it — matches it in theme, style, subject. I don’t stack them up that way. Sometimes if there is a large number…
I read with interest your plans to publish a sanitized version of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. I know that removing the “N” word is controversial, but you really just want to protect sensibilities of those who are offended by the word. I get it. So here are some other books I think you should consider…