Browsed by
Category: Reading

Goodreads Project
Goodreads Project, Part 4: Romance

Goodreads Project, Part 4: Romance

Comments 0 Comment

I’ve reached the Romance category–Part Four of my project to read a new book from each of the fifteen categories in Goodreads’ Best Book of the Year Award. I reviewed books from the previous three categories here (Fiction), here (Historical Fiction), and here (Mystery and Thriller). From the Romance category, I chose to read Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. My Romance Confession Before I review the book, I should confess that, even though Romance is the best seller of any…

Read More Read More

Goodreads Project
Goodreads Project: Part 3, Mystery and Thriller

Goodreads Project: Part 3, Mystery and Thriller

Comments 0 Comment

I’m working on a project in which I read a book from each of the fifteen categories Goodreads uses in its best books of the year contest. The first category was fiction. You can see my comments on that category here. The second category was Historical Fiction. My comments are here. The third category was Mystery and Thriller. I’d already read The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman. But by the rules of my project, I had to choose a new…

Read More Read More

Goodreads Project
Goodreads Project: Part 2, Historical Fiction

Goodreads Project: Part 2, Historical Fiction

Comments 0 Comment

I’m working on a project in which I read a book from each of the fifteen categories Goodreads uses in its best books of the year contest. The first category was fiction. You can see my comments on that category here. The second category was Historical Fiction. I had already read Weyward by Emilia Hart. But by the rules I set for my project, I needed to choose a new book too, and I selected Go as a River by…

Read More Read More

Goodreads Project
Goodreads Reads: A New Project

Goodreads Reads: A New Project

Comments 0 Comment

In my experience, people are happier if they’re working on a project. I’ve blogged about this before. By project, I mean some set of actions that people undertake freely. It’s what collectors do, for instance, or quilters, or runners training for a marathon. When Goodreads published their list of finalists for best book of the year in fifteen categories, I saw a potential project. I decided to read one book from each category. If I’d already read a book from…

Read More Read More

book club books
Choosing a Read for Your Book Club

Choosing a Read for Your Book Club

Comments 0 Comment

If you belong to a book club, inevitably, there comes a month when it’s your turn to pick the book. Over time, you learn that this can be a trickier task than you anticipated. Obviously, you want your fellow members to enjoy reading the book. I, personally, can’t always guess what people will like. Last year, I chose Madeline Miller’s Circe, which was an Amazon Editor’s Pick. Several people in my club had never read Homer or studied Greek myth…

Read More Read More

On Book Clubs

On Book Clubs

Comments 0 Comment

Until recently, I’d never belonged to a regular book club. When I lived in Iowa, I did belong to one sponsored by the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, but the members were all writers who were interested in discussing technique, so I thought they probably weren’t typical. When I moved to Illinois, though, the building complex I live in turned out to have two book clubs, and I was invited to join both. I read all the time,…

Read More Read More

Being Influenced by Other Novels

Being Influenced by Other Novels

Comments 0 Comment

I recently blogged about books that have influenced me as a writer. One question that comes up is the difference between being influenced by other novels in your genre and copying them. In some ways, if you’re writing in the same genre, you’re bound to use some of the same elements. Readers choose those genre books partly because they like those elements. But readers also like to be surprised, so a writer can’t just reproduce what’s already been done. Instead,…

Read More Read More

Goodreads Project
Books that influenced me as a writer

Books that influenced me as a writer

Comments 0 Comment

I was recently on a panel for which we were asked to talk about books that had influenced us as writers. It sounded like an easy topic, but the more I thought about it, the less clear my answer got. We’re influenced by our reading in both conscious and unconscious ways. In some sense every novel I ever read has influenced me. Reading is the way most of us learn the shape of story in our culture. However, I eventually…

Read More Read More

Goodreads Project
Quality in Young Adult and Middle-Grade Fiction

Quality in Young Adult and Middle-Grade Fiction

Comments 0 Comment

I recently had some trouble enjoying a middle-grade book, so I went over to Goodreads to see if anyone else reacted the same way. One negative review started off: “This was a book for kids, so it didn’t have to be great literature or anything.” At that point, my blood pressure shot up, and I stomped away to do laundry. Dismissing whole genres Let’s try that sentence out on other kinds of books. It was a mystery, so it didn’t…

Read More Read More

What Keeps Me Reading

What Keeps Me Reading

Comments 0 Comment

I toss aside unfinished maybe a quarter of the books I start. Today I was analyzing what keeps me reading. I’ve blogged about what one critic calls the four doors into a book (language, character, plot, and setting). My variation on the ways that draw me in would be theme, character, plot, and setting. Theme I like a book that’s about something, and for me that seems to mean a thematic element. Not a moral, i.e. not advice about how to live,…

Read More Read More

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial