Japanese Soul Cooking, by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, published in 2013 by Ten Speed Press. This book is the first that I am reviewing from the Best Books: Food and Cookbooks list. I will try to review these books as cookbooks, but also as books. Capice? I just purchased this book with birthday money,…
Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee. I read a Kindle copy given to me on the day the book was released, in July 2015. For further comments and articles on this book, Harper Lee, and the hype surrounding all of it, see these blog entries: Haven Kimmel Month Postponed; What? Harper Lee Is Back…
“Miss Maudie Atkinson baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight.” Scout Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird. I am a foodie. I am also, as you know, a writer, publisher, avid reader, and reviewer. Therefore, it is only too appropriate that I dot this literary blog every once in a…
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee and published in 1960. I read the paperback Grand Central Publishing version. I read this book, right now, for all the obvious reasons. It is a classic and won the Pulitzer Prize, but I could barely remember anything about my high school reading of it. (It’s also very…
The Life of Charlotte Bronte, by Elizabeth Gaskell. First published in 1857 in two volumes. The version I read, bought gently used, is the 2005 Barnes & Noble Classics edition. I read this book for two reasons: one, I am in the middle of a Bronte project for Owl and Zebra Press, and two, it…
I have a secret I would like to share with you. Turns out self publishing isn’t so new. In fact, it’s older than “traditional” publishing. Say what?! Maybe you’re not totally surprised. Personally, I had been coming to this conclusion slowly, over time. And in no way do I have great knowledge of the history…
Literature news!: Literature is news! (Did that make sense? What I’m saying is that it’s news that literature is news. Everywhere I go, I keep hearing about Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. It’s like the literature world has busted right open and for a brief amount of time…
It’s been two and a half years since I posted “Sound Advice,” an entry on The Starving Artist about reading. At the time, I was wanting to read more and also seeing it as part of my job as a writer, but I was struggling with a long string of books which were sub-par. I…
***BLOG UPDATE: As of July 28, 2015, I am no longer on this directory because I do not take review suggestions. It is still a great place to go looking for reviewers, however.*** I have no recollection how I came across The Book Review Directory a couple months ago. It might have been while looking…
Man do I love food. And I love cooking. I am what you would call a foodie. Therefore, it makes sense for me to include a food version of the Best Books list. If you enjoy food nearly as much as I do, you might appreciate this list. Surprisingly, I have not read very many…
For the best books list of poetry, I broke the list into poets, books of poetry, and anthologies. It’s hard to separate one from another, but I didn’t want to just grab best books of poetry when a beloved poet might not get included. I also didn’t want to skip over all the great poetry…
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, first published in 1848, and then again in 1994 by Wordsworth Classics in the edition I read it. So glad this book is still in print. Really, really enjoyed it. Even while on vacation–flying from flat-bottomed boat rides to water parks–I could not put this book down.…
This review is for two books by Charlotte Bronte: The Professor and Villette. I read them in the Wordsworth Classic version (with a blue cover, not black) and the Bantam Classic version, respectively. The books were originally published in 1857 and 1853. Although The Professor was written before Charlotte Bronte’s other novels, it was repeatedly rejected and…
How many times have you heard someone say, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all”? For the most part, I actually believe in the truth of this advice. You see, I used to have anger management issues, which manifested largely when dealing with other drivers, customer service, and my kids.…
Oh, I can read like a champ. I mean, I can get all snuggled up in a corner of the couch with my favorite Navajo blanket and a glass of ice water, a black ball-point pen and a Burt’s Bees chapstick and read for hours. And I cover some ground, man! I can read fiction…
Sometimes things are just what you expect, but they are not at all what you expected. Thus went the first inaugural Read Local NC Book Festival. I participated in a number events on Sunday only, and every one of them went just about how I thought it would and yet was not at all what…
Yes, I absolutely had to combine the three into one post. It was just too hard to find lists that accurately distinguished between children’s, middle grades, and young adult reads. In fact, there may be no accurately distinguishing between them. See post HERE to get an idea of what I mean. And on top of…
I have recently joined a science fiction/fantasy writers group in the area. I thought that since my first novel was magic realism, the second was fantasy, and the third will also be fantasy, it would behoove me to get a little more into the culture, to learn from it and to basically not be totally…
The middle grades Secret Series by Psuedonymous Bosch: The Name of This Book is Secret (2008); If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (2009); This Book is Not Good for You (2010); This Isn’t What It Looks Like (2011); and You Have to Stop This (2012), in order. Illustrated by Gilbert Ford. Published by Little,…
The Total Money Makeover (2003, Thomas Nelson) and Complete Guide to Money (2011, Lampo Press), both by Dave Ramsey, the Financial Peace money guru. Let’s just do this up front: you either love the Dave Ramsey system or you hate it. You either jump in with both feet and hang on for dear life, or…
the starving artist 