It’s Banned Books week in America so I hope you’re all reading away. While I don’t know that it was ever banned I’d like to credit my mother for telling an overeager school official that she was aware I was reading Go Ask Alice and that she and my father would be discussing it with me. She never once told me I was not allowed to read something (but she did balk at paying for ... Read More...
Powell’s Event: Jenny Lawson
Earlier this week I went to Powell’s to hear Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) read from her memoir Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. I reviewed the book back in April but as I don’t read her blog (gasp!) I had lost track of how it did. Silly me not to know that Lawson has captured the cultural zeitgeist of our times or to put it more succinctly: bring me your OCD, freaked out, ... Read More...
Book Bullies
Apparently, the bullying specter has raised its ugly head in the world of books and reviewing, which is difficult to reconcile. Readers are generally quiet, harmless people, more likely to shush you than verbally attack. Somehow, though, in these days where the volume is getting higher and the content is getting lower, people use the mask of anonymity to say truly dreadful ... Read More...
What We’ve Come To
This is one more reason why comic books are now called graphic novels or "sequential art". And why I despair for the future of mankind. Advice to writers: WRITE BELOW THE 8th-GRADE LEVEL. Some writers worry that this may insult their readers' intelligence. In reality, no one complains that something is too easy to understand. Studies show that writing below the 8th-grade ... Read More...
Author Reading: Claire McMillan
On Thursday I attended a reading at Powell’s by Claire McMillan of her debut novel Gilded Age. The event was a happy confluence of author reading and college reunion, as McMillan went to school at the University of Oregon. It gave the evening a convivial feel not always found at readings. Not that they’re ever drama laced events but, depending on the author, the feel can ... Read More...
Author Reading: Leni Zumas
Recently, I was at Powell’s to hear Leni Zumas give a reading from her debut novel The Listeners. This is the first time I’ve met an author whose work I reviewed. I had been told to get there early as seats fill up quickly. I arrived at and found an empty room. By 7:15 I was panicking for Ms. Zumas as there were only 3 people including myself. I knew at that point I could ... Read More...
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