December 2011
13 posts
“An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the...”
– Writing tips from F. Scott Fitzgerald, who died today in 1940. Hopefully screenwriter and director Baz Luhrmann has studied up for his 2012 Gatsby adaptation.
The Ghost of Books: Part I
lareviewofbooks:
“As for wishes, it used to be that whenever I’d see a Portis novel in a used bookstore (Cliff’s in Pasadena is a trove), I’d pick it up and throw it in the back of my station wagon to hand off to any deserving new friend. I have read Norwood maybe eighteen times, and it only gets funnier: “You think I don’t know that people don’t like me on account of my personality?” ...
Happy Birthday Betty Smith
“Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Prairie was lovely and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn’t fit those words into Brooklyn. Serene was the only word for it; especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer.”
—A Tree Grows in...
Finished The Fry Chronicles today
personaltonks:
The quote on the back is so bloody true - you want to hug the book over and over again. Just genuinely interesting and a pleasure to read. The first autobiography I’ve read - and that is something for I actually can’t stand the mere thought of them.
I liked the last bit the best - so many brilliant anecdotes *-* Douglas Adams (with whom I seem to share the same excruciating...
WatchCarrie Hagen discusses the first kidnapping for ransom in American history, the subject for her new book We Is Got Him. The 1874 disappearance of Charley Ross shocked Pennsylvanians and elicited a national manhunt to discover his captors, whose cryptic note inspired the book’s title. Carrie will be speaking tonight at the Swarthmore Public Library. Register here for free admission, and be...
“That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it...”
– Willa Cather, born today in 1873
