Blog
Spring Break for me is about reading. It’s a chance to do some catching up and some reading ahead. And I did a little of each this trip while also realizing there are some classics that I clearly missed that I need to explore.
Claire Bidwell Smith is the author of the memoir THE RULES OF INHERITANCE. She lives in Los Angeles where she is a therapist specializing in grief.
One of the best things about writing a historical novel like my new book THE POSSIBILITY OF YOU, which is set in 1916 and 1976 along with the present, is that you have to do a lot of reading. Having to do a lot of reading in the name of research is good because it delays the actual writing. Instead, you can lie on the sofa, surrounded by pillows and covered by a nice soft blanket, and tell yourself that you’re working.
Michelle Haimoff, author of THESE DAYS ARE OURS, shares her book-shelving methods, including one tip that will be especially useful for or west coast readers: Earthquake Practicality.
For as long as I can remember, my fantasy has been to live in a home that is one big fire hazard. Bookshelves everywhere, stuffed with thousands of brittle soft covers. I get closer to this fantasy with every move. The most recent one, when my now husband and I moved in together, doubled my book collection. We have three huge bookshelves and piles of books in every room (including the kitchen, which has about 30 cookbooks we never use because of Google).
Everyone has their own method for shelving their books, be it alphabetically, by genre or perhaps something else. So how does Carol Anshaw, author of the newly released CARRY THE ONE, organize her books? Read on to find out!
Here's a list of eight great books I read over the holidays and wanted to share with you. Definitely note when they publish on your new 2012 calendars!
Shelley Shepard Gray is the author of the "Seasons of Sugarcreek Sisters of the Heart" series. She lives with her family in southern Ohio, where she writes full time. Here she talks about her oral --- and aural --- experience with books.
Melissa Clark is a James Beard Foundation Award winner and writes about cuisine, wine, and travel for numerous publications, including the New York Times, where she writes the enormously popular “A Good Appetite” Dining Section column; Bon Appétit; Food & Wine; Martha Stewart; and the website Gilt Taste. Clark was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives with her husband and daughter. Here she talks about a great cookbook she once received as a gift.
Patricia Bosworth was born in Oakland, CA, the daughter of writer Anna Gertrude Bosworth and attorney Bartley Crum, one of the six lawyers who defended the Hollywood Ten during the Red Scare at the start of the Cold War in 1947. Her younger brother, Bartley Crum Jr., and her father both committed suicide. Bosworth wrote a memoir about her family ANYTHING YOUR LITTLE HEART DESIRES, published by Simon&Schuster. After receiving her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1955 she became a member of the Actors Studio, in Manhattan, but in 1964 she quit acting and went into journalism. Since, she has worked at and written for the New York Times, McCalls, Harpers Bazaar, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, Esquire and Vanity Fair where she has been since 1988. In the 1990s she began teaching non-fiction writing at Columbia and Barnard; she lectured at Yale and the New School and is currently co-chair of the Biography Seminar at NYU. She has published biographies of Montgomery Clift and the photographer Diane Arbus; she is also the author of a short biography of Marlon Brando. Bosworth is the winner of the Front Page award and was a senior fellow at the National Arts Journalism program at Columbia. Here she talks about the Christmas she met William Saroyan.
Anne Perry is a bestselling author of historical detective fiction, most notably the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series and the William Monk series, both set in Victorian England. Her first book,THE CATER STREET HANGMAN (1979), launched both the Pitt series and her career as a premier writer of Victorian mysteries. The William Monk series of novels, featuring a Victorian police officer turned private investigator, includes FUNERAL IN BLUE and THE SILENT CRY. In addition to these series, Perry is also author of a number of World War I novels as well as several collections of short stories. Perry's novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world and she has over twenty-five million books in print worldwide. Here she talks about a suprising gift she received from a second-hand bookshop.
