I was in a slump. I returned to Alaska a few weeks ago, everything muddy and brown, the trees bare of leaves, last year’s trash blowing across the streets. I was used to the sun-filled warmth of Tucson, to hot days and balmy nights, to sitting out in the yard and reading and then running… Read More Award-winning essay, and returning to Alaska
I seem to be on a YA kick lately. Maybe I’m trying to recapture my own childhood or maybe I’m looking for a less complex way of looking at the world. Whatever the case, it’s refreshing to read YA novels, refreshing to sink down into a world where adulthood is still foreign, where the days… Read More Book Review: Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel by Kimberly Willis Holt
The Book of Joe, by Jonathan Tropper, Bantam Books, 368 pages I don’t often read books by men. I don’t go out of my way to avoid them. It’s just that I seem drawn to women’s voice, women’s stories. Too many male authors seem to write too much on the surface. What I like, and… Read More Book review: The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper
So I’m in Tucson, with no Internet access (I’ve wisely scheduled these posts so that it looks as if I’m more connected than I really am, hee, hee), and when I finally got my butt to the library and opened up my email, I was met with good news: My hybrid creative nonfiction piece How Mary,… Read More A new publication and an upcoming anthology
Good news on tax day: I just started I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez and I am blown away. I’ve read a lot of good books lately, and while I’ve raved about some of them, this one is in a category all of its own. What I love most is the… Read More I am totally loving “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika L. Sanchez
In No Particular Order, by Kevin Brennan, self-published, 178 pages Even though I’m a huge introvert, I’m also hugely curious about other people’s lives. I glance into people’s windows when we walk the dog at night, wondering about their daily routines. Are they happy? Lonely? Do they ever wake up with their hearts pounding, worried… Read More Book review: In No Particular Order by Kevin Brennan
All the Wind in the World, by Samatha Mabry, Algonquin Young Readers, 273 pages I love YA novels and try to read a least one a month. I find them refreshing and without the cynicism that populates too many adult novels. Plus I enjoy the pacing, the characters, and the action. Mostly, I enjoy the… Read More Book review: All the Wind in the World by Samantha Mabry
The Girls, by Emma Cline, Random House, 346 pages I didn’t think I’d like this book, mostly due to the hype it received when it first came out two years ago. Yet, I surprised myself by staying up late in order to finish. I couldn’t stop reading, though not always for the right reason. I’ll… Read More Book review: The Girls, by Emma Cline
Swimming Lessons, by Clare Fuller, Tin House Books, 354 pages You know how sometimes you find a book that clicks with you so that you have no choice but to suspend your life in order to cozy down with it? Swimming Lessons is like that. It’s not a perfect book but it has some damn… Read More Book review: Swimming lessons by Clare Fuller
The best news: I recently signed a contract with Houghton Mifflin Hardcourt and a segment of my New York Times Magazine essay “Running Into Danger on an Alaskan Trail” will be featured in textbooks and reading materials for school-age students. This is so exciting because when I was in school, reading was the only thing that… Read More New work up at Brilliant Flash Fiction, and other good news
