Memoirs, autobiographies and biographies are all book genres that focus on someone. A person’s life, put on display. The difference lies in the way this person’s story is told. Although both memoirs and autobiographies are first person accounts, a memoir takes selected memories and musings and weaves them into a cohesive narrative. This can be a … Read More
It’s the time of year that fills me with a sense of possibility and new beginnings like no other. That’s right, Spring Training is right around the corner. I was six years old when I went to my first baseball game, got a giant Mets foam finger and a ball used in batting practice, and … Read More
Contrary to my usual morning routine, I’ve been sneaking in my reading at night. After full days, those night-time sessions have been the only hope of turning off my brain. I picked up Mieko Kawakami’s All the Lovers in the Night at a fabulous bookstore in Manhattan, Albertine. The experience of the bookstore itself is … Read More
How come this topic never occurred to us any earlier? After all, we are writing these blog posts for students interested in biology, the environment, plants and animals, forests and oceans. Moreover, when it comes to reading for fun, my favorite genre is definitely mysteries. I still remember when I picked up my first book … Read More
How did you see the world when you were a kid? Did you paint pictures where the sky was bluer than blue and didn’t meet the ground at the horizon? Did you believe in the Bogeyman, the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus? In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, not only are these things real, but belief … Read More
Like its older sibling, the mystery novel, crime fiction focuses on characters in high stakes situations. Whether they’re planning a heist, impersonating a dead man, or chasing a perp, these stories get our blood pumping as we delight in seeing cops, pretty crooks, cold blooded killers and ordinary people enforce, evade, or operate wholly outside … Read More
We hear you, Chepito! This would be my message to the author of one of the most remarkable books published this fall on a topic that might divide the readers of this blog, just as it does this country and the world. Solito: A Memoir, written by accomplished poet Javier Zamora, is a captivating story … Read More
After recently writing a post on entitlement, I’d thought I’d blog about a topic that is quite the opposite – philanthropy. Also known as charity or giving back, this concept comes in many forms. Many people think of philanthropy in terms of giving money to a cause, but it can also designate donating items (such … Read More
Poodle Springs sounds like an intriguing title alone. The eighth novel in the famous Philip Marlowe series has two authors listed, Raymond Chandler, the original writer of the series, and Robert B. Parker. What’s going on here? With only four chapters written, Poodle Springs was left unfinished in 1959 when Chandler died. For his 100th … Read More
As I’ve written about previously, short stories are quite different in breadth and depth than a novel. Like a snapshot in a photo album or a scene in a play, short stories provide a glimpse into something – a person, locale, event, etc. It’s up to the writer to decide how fully developed they want … Read More