Writing Blog
Writing advice from Virginia Woolf
“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.” -Virginia Woolf Who can argue with this brilliant writing advice from author Virginia Woolf? Woolf’s writing has certainly stood the test of time, but I like the…
Read MoreBook Review: Eligible
I’m a huge Jane Austen fan, and so I was very interested when I heard about The Austen Project: a plan to retell Austen’s six novels set in modern times, and reinterpreted by six different contemporary authors. I enjoyed the modern version of Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trolloppe. But then I pretty much gave up…
Read MoreAuthor Marguerite Yourcenar on why we read
“Books are a way of learning to feel more acutely.” – Marguerite Yourcenar Sage words from the French author (1903-1987) most famous for her novel Memoirs of Hadrian. Perhaps this author knows best, having so effectively written from the perspective of 1st Century AD Roman Emperor. Books have a way of opening us up to…
Read MoreA story encapsulated in a poem
My middle schooler has been learning a poem by heart for his French class. He was having a difficult time with the following poem, the excellent Déjeuner du matin by Jacques Prévert . Much of his difficulty in memorizing came from a lack of understanding. He was reading the poem as a type of ‘Ode to café…
Read MoreAnother New Year, another Goodreads Reading Challenge
It’s that time of year again for those of us who love reading – time to set our reading goals for 2018. Every year I sign up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge, and 2018 is no exception. I’ve pledged to read 45 novels in the new year. I generally meet my challenge, but if I…
Read More2018 – A happy new writing year to all!
A wonderful 2018 to everyone! But special wishes for a productive new writing year to all you writers out there! Usually, this is my time to make writing resolutions for the new year. Until now, I’ve also been pretty good about keeping my resolutions. But 2017 flummoxed me. I did very little (creative) writing, and…
Read MoreMy 2017 in books
Okay, I admit it. I’m a book nerd. This is one of the reasons I so love taking the Goodreads Challenge each year, because I can enjoy my end-of-year 2017 in books overview. I love reviewing the books I’ve read over the year, and the pages (over 18,000!) I’ve read that aren’t technical reports or…
Read More‘Tis the season … to read!
Of course it is the season to celebrate our religion, to spend time with friends and family, to be thankful for what we have, to sit down to good meals, but I can’t help associating the holidays with also squirreling away quiet time to curl up with a good book (or two, or three, or…
Read MoreMy summer holiday in books
Maybe it’s something about being smack dab in December, with some of the most depressing and shortest days of the year, but I find myself often thinking back to summer holidays. As I already wrote in a post, sometimes my reading experience conflates the books I read on holidays. Even when those novels aren’t that…
Read MoreMore books “in the cloud” – Rome
I’ve been seeing ads for this interesting book fair of small and mid-sized publishers, billed as Più libri nella nuvola (More books in the cloud). This is a play on words for the new modern Convention center designed by architect Alexandre Fuksas in the EUR section of Rome. The structure is called La nuvola (The Cloud). The…
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