Ouch.
Alirght. So I know authors love to play “most tortured.” Memoirists, especially.
But I’ve read a lot of reviews and commentary later that have prompted me to speak up a lil for our beleaguered Dewey Decimal Class. Things like this comment, posted in the Amazon reviews section for Isabel Gillies’ Happens All The Time, a memoir of the breakdown of [...]
Competitive, Bloodthirsty Reading
People who read as a hobby don’t get the chance to “win” via that hobby very often. For all the junior high days in which teachers, parents, and coaches reiterated that literacy was the most important thing in the world, it was the athletes, the artists, the never-missed-a-days (big woop on that one) who got [...]
Should Books Come With Instructions?
I enrolled in a new book club recently, so there’s been much discussion among my friends as to what constitutes a good selection. You know, the mythical “something everyone will like,” the book that won’t lead to bloodshed.
Of course, finding the holy grail of choice reads is a little like trying to stuff a dozen [...]
Coming to CBF Assembly?
Exciting news! A limited number of Trespassers Will Be Baptized copies will be available for sale in the resource center of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s annual General Assembly. They’re hardcover, and will be offered for the special price of $17. For more about the Assembly, click here.
Trespassers for Father’s Day
I’ve been getting a lot of requests from people who’d like to give Trespassers as a Father’s Day gift (a fantastic idea, I might add). If you’re planning on giving the book as a gift and would like to order a personalized bookplate (no charge, of course) for your pop, shoot me an email [...]
The Novel Life
Dear Readers,
I find myself apologizing again for the lack of posts. The past three weeks have found us on the road, across six states (all via car), with a toddler and a prayer. Speciifc memories are blurred, but somewhere in the mix are mental snapshots of a birth, a wedding, a funeral, a book fair, [...]
Grave Realities
Of all the stories in Trespassers, people approach me most often about “the one in the cemetery.” I don’t mind. I’m a cemetery fan. Call it bizarre, but when you grow up in a small town, the local graveyard is more or less your art museum. You may see obelisks in your history books, marking [...]
Jason Becker. Don’t know of him? You should. You really, really should.
A few days ago, my husband and I were loading groceries into the car when something stopped Sean cold. He leaned into the window of the car next to us and squinted hard, as if his eyes might have deceived him.
“Get me a pen and paper, please,” he said, with some urgency. My eyes shot [...]
The Book Rebel
Though it seems a shame of wasted youth to admit it, I didn’t really rebel much in high school. And it wasn’t because I was a preacher’s kid. My parents didn’t make me wear a chastity belt, or a long denim skirt. I was never forced to recite Psalms as penance for wearing red nail [...]
Outfittin’ Your Book Nook
I think all people who love books harbor secret dreams of living in a book-lined world, of carefully and artfully displaying those volumes they cherish as much as family albums.
Growing up, Meg and I loved to “play” library. The day my mother bought us a little date stamp during an Office Depot trip, we were [...]