Jane Smiley’s trilogy experimentation

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley was interviewed for the September 2015 edition of Writer’s Digest. In the interview, she discussed numerous topics, including her new trilogy, The Last Hundred Years. The three novels will follow the Langdon family and their five children for a period of 100 years. The saga begins on a farm in…

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Favorite summer reading so far … Big Little Lies

The summer is still young – or at least that’s how I choose to look at it since my vacation (read: peak reading time) comes later in the summer – but my favorite read so far is Big Little Lies  by Australian author Liane Moriarty. I discovered Moriarty this year with The Husband’s Secret and…

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Congratulations to Ali Smith – Bailey’s Prize 2015 winner

Congratulations to Ali Smith! Her novel How to Be Both was named as this year’s winner of the Bailey’s Prize. I’m always pleased to celebrate the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize). I’ve already posted the 2015 short list on my site, and I don’t envy the judges for what must have been a…

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Bailey’s Prize shortlist for 2015

The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist is out. I love following the Bailey’s Prize (formerly the Orange prize). There has been some criticism that there is no longer any need for a separate prize for female authors, but if the final list of last year’s Booker prize (see my earlier post) is anything to go…

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Happy as a clam reading on the white sand

Okay, this is completely unfair, but I write this post pre-holiday knowing it will be posted as I return home, happy, relaxed and well-read on gorgeous white sands looking like this. I love the beach, but I generally don’t do the lazy, beach resort kind of holiday. But this year, I really felt I needed…

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Are you on Goodreads?

Are you on Goodreads? I discovered the site a couple of years ago, and it helps me with my reading ‘addiction’ – providing me with lots of suggestions and recommendations for books that should be on my to-read list. I’ve discovered lots of fantastic suggestions thanks to Goodreads, and the fellow readers I follow there. I’m always…

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Do you ever prefer the film to the book?

I know for bookworms like many of us, it seems almost sacrilege to say such a thing. But I find that sometimes it happens. It happened earlier this week when I saw the excellent Italian film Vergine giurata (Sworn Virgin). It’s based on a novel written in Italian by an Albanian author, Elvira Dones. I’ve traveled quite…

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Favorite reads of 2015 (at least so far…)

I’ve had a good reading start to 2015, and I’d like to share some of my favorites. I’m a  big supporter of #Readwomen, and so far this year I’ve read five novels by women and two by men. It just so happens that my favorites so far have all been by female writers, giving me…

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Unfinished work for #Readwomen2014. Join #Readwomen2015!

Those of you who may have followed my blog this year know what a big fan I am of #Readwomen2014. Although there are more talented women authors out there than ever, writing from every corner of the globe, it’s clear women writers aren’t getting the amount of attention they deserve. Traditional media tends to favor…

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