Top Ten U.S. Book Festivals

As you may know, recently I was fortunate to be able to attend the Tucson Festival of Books. Here is the data on book festivals for 2009 from the Festival Website: The Top 10 Book Festivals of 2009 are ranked as follows: 1) Miami Book Festival International 250,000 attendants, 400 authors, 8 days 2) National [...]

The Women Behind Brownstone Buddies – The Counter-Stereotype Dolls

Note: Two weeks ago I ran a short post featuring pictures of Brownstone Buddies, the new dolls that are wonderfully diverse in both looks and “interests.” Today I feature an interview with the founders of Brownstone Buddies, Janai Nelson and Crystal Granderson-Reid. As they state on their website, “The Brownstone Buddies are a group of [...]

Review of “Tipping the Velvet” by Sarah Waters

The narrator of this book, Nancy Astley, began her life in an oyster-parlour on the Kentish coast in 1870. Her family runs this eating establishment that specializes in Whitstable oysters, or “natives,” which are “the largest and the juiciest, the savouriest yet the sublest, oysters in the whole of England.” This is an apt introduction [...]

Readalong: Review of “The Night of the Iguana” by Tennessee Williams

I decided to participate in the online book club (open to any who would like to participate) cohosted by Claire of Kiss a Cloud, Emily of Evening All Afternoon, Sarah of What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate, Frances of Nonsuch Book, and Richard of Caravana de Recuerdos. Here’s a list of the [...]

Review of “Little Bee” by Chris Cleave

Note: No spoilers are contained in this review. It is an unfortunately common occurrence in history. People are slated for extermination – because of politics or war or prejudice or greed – and they have nowhere to go. There is no escape. Other countries don’t want them, again because of politics or war or prejudice [...]

March 24, 1953 – Langston Hughes Testifies Before Senator Joseph McCarthy

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. He was most notable for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. [...]

Review of “The Dead & The Gone” by Susan Beth Pfeffer

This is the second book in the series that begins with the book Life As We Knew It, but the two books can be read in any order. Either way, battery manufacturers could not have come up with better advertising in their wildest dreams. Both of these books take place in current times, but with [...]

Sunday Salon – Review of “A Reliable Wife” by Robert Goolrick

For someone to know you, to know you completely and utterly, and still love you: isn’t that what we all wish for? To know you have sinned, and yet be saved? To feel despicable, and be redeemed? In this remarkable first novel, there are no characters not crippled by hurt, anger, and memories poisoned by [...]

Review of “Paper Lanterns” by Christine Coleman

She (Brontë) once told her sisters that they were wrong—even morally wrong—in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms. Her answer was, ‘I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as [...]

Review of “Sixty Slices of Life … on Wry: The Private Life of a Public Broadcaster” by Fred Flaxman

This delightful memoir is put out by one of those small do-it-yourself presses, but it really deserves better. And I’m not just saying that because it’s by my Uncle Fred. Because in fact he’s NOT my Uncle Fred! But after reading this, I wanted him to be my Uncle Fred, so I decided unilaterally to [...]