Who doesn’t read Cold River? Call for Capital Punishment is Justified

Weird Habits of Famous Writers: If you have writer's block, maybe try wearing a hat like Dr. Seuss, or sharpening two dozen pencils like John Steinbeck.

6 Books to Read If You Loved "Lady Bird" March 28, 2018 By ELIZABETH BREEDEN

My mother sent me a one-line text the other night: “I saw Lady Bird.” A little nervous and not sure what was being implied by her brevity, I immediately called for her take on the film that has been sweeping theaters around the country. Along with the varied themes on class, family, and teenage relationships, this story of a young woman’s coming-of-age seems to have struck a chord for its poignant, funny, and bittersweet depiction of a mother-daughter relationship. While fumbling with my phone I wondered if my own mother had the same reaction I did, that it somehow perfected the odd juxtaposition between parents and children, where you both know everything and nothing about one another, and it sometimes feels as though your whole life is spent evolving in relation to them. It’s clear why this relationship is mined so often in storytelling, but rarely does a novel or film capture this intersection of individuality, utter dependency, and the indelibly sweet, complex love within families so well. Luckily, there are a few authors who have mastered just that. READ MORE

"The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story."

~ Ursula K. Le Guin

“About a quarter of American adults (24%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form. Who are these non-book readers? Several demographic traits correlate with non-book reading, Pew Research Center surveys have found. For instance, adults with a high school degree or less are about five times as likely as college graduates (37% vs. 7%) to report not reading books in any format in the past year. Adults with lower levels of educational attainment are also among the least likely to own smartphones, even as e-book reading on these devices has increased substantially since 2011. (College-educated adults are more likely to own these devices and use them to read e-books.) Adults with annual household incomes of $30,000 or less are about three times as likely as the most affluent adults to be non-book readers (36% vs. 13%). Hispanic adults are about twice as likely as whites (38% vs. 20%) to report not having read a book in the past 12 months. But there are differences between Hispanics born inside and outside the U.S.: Roughly half (51%) of foreign-born Hispanics report not having read a book, compared with 22% of Hispanics born in the U.S. Older Americans are a bit more likely than their younger counterparts not to have read a book. Some 28% of adults ages 50 and older have not read a book in the past year, compared with 20% of adults under 50. There are modest differences when looking at gender and whether people live in urban, suburban or rural areas. The share of Americans who report not reading any books in the past 12 months has bounced around a bit since 2011, when Pew Research Center first began conducting surveys about book-reading habits. That year, 19% of adults reported not reading any books. The share of non-book readers hit a high point of 27% in 2015..”

Anita Shreve Dies at 71: The author of 'The Pilot's Wife' and 'The Weight of Water' died of cancer Thursday in her home in southern New Hampshire

I Was Hooked From the Very First Sentence March 27, 2018 By KRISTIN HARMEL

A good book should draw you in right from the start. I’ve always felt that way, both as a reader and as a writer. There are simply too many good books in the world—and too little time—to spin our wheels delving into something that doesn’t hook us. That’s why THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE by Heather Gudenkauf is still so fresh in my mind. The book starts with the seeds of a mystery, piquing the reader’s interest immediately. Who is the little girl the narrator is talking about? What’s she doing running through the woods in her nightgown? And why has she neglected to say a single word in the last three years? READ MORE  A QUICK, HYPNOTIC NOVEL FROM A LITERARY LEGEND MARCH 09, 2018 BY NIKKI BARNHART “WHAT MAKES IAGO EVIL? SOME PEOPLE ASK. I NEVER ASK.” SO OPENS JOAN DIDION’S SPELLBINDING NOVEL PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, WHICH HAS MY VOTE FOR BEST FIRST LINES OF A BOOK. IT IMMEDIATELY ENCAPSULATES THE NOVEL’S MOOD OF WEARY NIHILISM AND THE LAWLESS CALIFORNIA SETTING WHERE MORALITY AND THE DEBATE OF GOOD VERSUS EVIL ARE BESIDE THE POINT. READ MORE