I always appreciate a great story about family. By that, I don’t mean I specifically search for books on this literary theme. Rather, when I read a book about family that resonates deeply or refreshes my perspective on the theme, I’m often thinking about that book for weeks, months, even years later. Maybe it’s because… Read more »
Award season happens every December-February, and with it comes a wave of happy authors and illustrators who get to proudly pin a medal on their covers. But what does each award really signify? Who gives them out and who do they give them to? How does a book earn an award? It’s worth studying up… Read more »
Walk into any coffee shop these days and you’re bound to see java lovers laughing out loud. Upon closer inspection, you’ll notice the source of their laughter is a book. And that book is the uproarious Crazy Rich Asians, or one of its two sequels, by Kevin Kwan. If you haven’t read it or seen… Read more »
In his Pulitzer-Prize winning biography of American aviator Charles Lindbergh, author A. Scott Berg begins page one not with Lindbergh’s birth but with a buzzing crowd in Paris. Lindbergh, hoping to be the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic nonstop, has not been seen since he left New York twenty-four hours earlier. Was… Read more »
Stephen King told us, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” But merely reading isn’t enough. Close reading is necessary to learn the secrets of how stories tick, which will help you sharpen those writing tools Stephen King mentioned. First we need… Read more »
Reading makes us smarter and healthier. It influences the way we think and learn. It has a positive impact on your brain, encouraging mental stimulation and slowing the process of Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Reading polishes our writing skills, no matter if we write academic essays, web content, or fiction. In plain English, books make us… Read more »
I worked as a bookseller and library clerk in multiple places. I enjoy talking to people about books and offering them recommendations. My best selling display was one where I offered cross-media recommendations (for example, if you enjoyed the Netflix series Stranger Things then you should read the graphic novel series Paper Girls). I love… Read more »
Last year, I wrote a two-part series on The Hero’s Journey. In the second of those columns I mentioned discovering Kim Hudson’s The Virgin’s Promise and vowed to return to the topic once I’d had a chance to study the book. Now that I’ve done my homework, I’m going to write another two-part series on… Read more »
Harry S. Truman said, “Leaders are readers.” I don’t consider myself a leader; not really. I’ve always considered myself a follower. But the Lord has been hammering it into my big skull lately that leaders are just ordinary people with a little bit of influence. If you write, and anybody—I mean, anybody, even if it’s… Read more »
What’s the hardest part of the writing process? Writers are divided on whether it’s starting or finishing. It’s a challenge to face a blank page or screen and get those first words down. Once you’ve found momentum on a writing project, you might run into writer’s block while wading through a tricky, unstructured middle. Finally,… Read more »
