People don’t really want to think about the luck or lack of it that fetched them up with their particular set of parents. They emotionally need the story of the fetching up to be or at least seem inevitable. They yearn to see what is as somehow the story of what was meant – by God or fate or karma – to be. It appears to me that adoptive families provide reassurance to the biologically familied, and the illusion that they have a more ‘natural’ and necessary story, even though their presence wherever they’re present is just as whacky, improbable and arbitrary as that of the adopters and adoptees.
– Daniel Menaker
How To be a Perfect Author; Win Editors And Impress Marketing Staff You've sold your first book. Now what? Good news: Da Vinci Code ripoffs are growing scarce and women are allowed to write serious books again Looking For The Post-Da Vinci Cold River
Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Book-shedding
Ra for Ben Macintyre, who simply can't let go of any books, as he admits in 'I have never been able to get rid of a single book, old or new, read or unread' in The Times:
I write as one who has never been able to bring himself to get rid of a single book, old or new, read or unread. Long ago I gave up trying to order my shelves, and I now leave the books to multiply unhindered, double-stacked, or wedged in horizontally
• Books Do Furnish A Room via Saloon [Making up a brand new game for public transportation The overall goal here is to get an entire car at rush hour wearing paper hats ; via the omnipresent Barista Purloined straight from Surfacing is this lovely game ; A new way to borrow audiobooks from the library involves no CDs, no car trips, no fines and no risk of being shushed Libraries Offering Audiobook Downloads]
• · Though some authors seem to know instinctively the best, most expeditious, ways to get rejected, others require a primer Helpful Tips: How To Guarantee Rejection; Some Tried and True Tips for Ensuring Rejection tongue in cheek - Screwtape Takes the Comm ; Book Misjudged by Its Cover Gets (What Else?) New Cover
• · · The tension between fertility and materialism is one of the great unresolved dilemmas of our time, not just for women, but for society In Praise of Female Sexuality ; As I sit at my desk writing this in the comfort of my home, I have done a lot of reading about and a lot of looking at pornography One or two words on the sticky subject of pornography
• · · · The No and the Yes Models Negotiating Sex ; The cultural fascination with corpses, plastic surgery and healthy living suggests we are objectifying ourselves Body politics: why are we obsessed with our flesh?
• · · · · Finding Things to Do In Your Spare Time ; At one Swedish library, you can borrow books—and a lesbian A new perspective on life
• · · · · · Bezos discusses her debut novel and her love for her husband's laugh Amazon Ranking #1 ; Spirit in Exile An Australian poet reviewed. It makes a change