AAPB: American Archive of Public Broadcasting
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DocumentCloud
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Primary source documents and annotation tools.
GovTrack
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Sunday, March 26, 2017
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
After years of traveling Hawley finally settle in Olympus, Massachusetts, where Lilly had grown up. He has forsworn life on the run and becomes a commercial fisherman.
Readers hear about Hawley's criminal past in a series of flashbacks. Twelve chapters for the twelve bullets Hawley took while still involved in crime.
As was bound to happen, Hawley's criminal past intersects with his present when his ex-partner Jove comes to visit.
Hawley's teenaged daughter has already suffered a break-up with her star-crossed love. Like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, Lilly and Marshall are an ironic pairing. His mother is a staunch environmentalist who opposes Marshall's relationship with Loo.
(continued)
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Riches in Henry James's Novels
"I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination." Ralph Touchett, Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.
I've always thought this one of the best quotes in all of literature.
Ralph Touchett is rich and he's justifying giving his fortune away to a distant cousin. He wants to see what she will do with it. It's a social experiment.
Ralph is, of course, dying of tuberculosis. Isabel is a young, vibrant American transplanted to Old World.
Isabel's father is mostly absent from the novel, albeit one line that tells readers is a gambler from New York. James implies that Isabel's impoverished condition is a result of his gambling.
Ralph, detached observer as he is, is also a gambler. He gambles on Isabel. He wants to see what she will do--will she succeed or fail.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
In "Yard Man," Jerry and his wife live in a salvage yard. She had been his high school sweetheart but they have only recently reconnected and married.
They can live in the house rent free; in exchange, Jerry watches over the other seventeen buildings. He also works part-time as a school janitor.
Money is tight and the man knows his wife isn't happy with the living arrangements. The junk bothers her because she looks at life simplistically. She can't see the prism of colors that Jerry can see on the skin of the snake.
The wildlife bothers Jerry's wife. Recently a bat and a swarm of bees entered the house. A red, yellow, and gold snake, that also has a prism of blues and greens, has been sliding around the garden. Something white--possibly an ermine--enters the house and spooks her.
The snake, however, is the central metaphor that carries the story. The snake stands for her--how Jerry is enchanted by her and afraid of her--afraid of losing her the way he had before.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
John Hart on the South
John Hart's complete interview for Criminal Element,
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2016/05/qa-with-john-hart-author-of-redemption-road-comment-sweepstakes
Thursday, March 2, 2017
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
This remarkable book of essays, which critics liken to a set of Russian nested dolls, are interconnected musings on many topics--maternal love, child abandonment, memory loss, illness, fairytales, labyrinths, Buddhism, the Arctic, and of all things, apricots.
Solnit has a poetic turn-of-phrase which makes these essays extremely enjoyable. Scallops and sea urchins dragged from the ocean floor are "bright like internal organs laid bare by surgery or butchery."
In some ways, these essays are show how interconnected everyone's lives--their life stories--are. In the end, though, these essays are also a deeply moving memoir of one particular woman's life--Solnit's.
In her personal essays, Solnit divulges her difficult relationship with her mother. Strained as a child and young adult, the mother daughter bond grows stronger as Solnit cares for her mother's medical needs.
Solnit reveals her own narrow brush with death--breast cancer--and her courageous attempt to start anew.
Friday, February 24, 2017
The Last Summer of Our Youth | Tin House
Early that June, some new neighbors moved in just up the road and built a house around their trailer. We spied on the old couple until their house was done. We watched them start to collect things like tires and rusty chairs in their yard. When the swampy area behind our own house dried out, we took our adventures out back and combed the still-soft ground for arrowheads and any other evidence that the Cherokee had lived on our land. Once, Jamie found a sharp rock that we all agreed was not flat enough to qualify as a real weapon. Michael collected antique rusted bottle caps that had really been tossed aside by folks at one of our parents’ own parties. I kept a tally of the crawdad burrows, which looked like mud chimneys or tiny volcanoes. The muskrat dens were worse because they made the ground collapse, but they were harder to see.
http://tinhouse.com/the-last-summer-of-our-youth/
February 24, 2017
I really like the voice of this flash piece by Erin Harte. So electric! So alive!
http://tinhouse.com/the-last-summer-of-our-youth/
February 24, 2017
I really like the voice of this flash piece by Erin Harte. So electric! So alive!
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel
From the author known as the "Queen of Crime," this is a stunning novel.
In this multi-layered crime story, there are three primary mysteries. Why would Klaus kill himself, at the prime of his life, leaving Louise bereft? Why would an institution for the mentally disabled issue death certificates to the Anderson twins while they were still alive? Thirdly, and most importantly, who is killing and raping women in the woods near Hvalso?
Saturday, February 11, 2017
The Girl With All The Gifts
Melanie lives in a military facility with other children where she is given minimum care. Each day she is taken at gunpoint to a schoolroom and tied to a chair. Unbeknownst to her, Melanie is infected with a zombie-producing virus. She is infected, yet remains half-immune.
She and a few other "hungries" as they are known maintain their ability to think and reason. Consequently, scientists like Dr. Caldwell. want to study and even dissect them. Melanie and the other children are treated as animals, as lab experiments.
The only kindness Melanie receives is from her teacher, Miss Justineau.
Even if you've read a hundred other zombie books, this one is different. All of the characters, Sargeant Parks, Private Gallagher, Dr. Caldwell, Miss Justineau, want to survive. Melanie wants more than that; she wants a chance to be treated like a human being.
Other books with similar themes:
Heller, Peter. The Dog Stars.
Gregory, Daryl. Raising Stony Mayhall.
Friday, February 10, 2017
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
One of the best beginnings....
"Twelve years after Robin's death, no one knew any more about how he had ended up hanged from a tree in his own yard than they had on the day it happened."
The Little Friend by Donna Tart.
"Twelve years after Robin's death, no one knew any more about how he had ended up hanged from a tree in his own yard than they had on the day it happened."
The Little Friend by Donna Tart.
Sunday, February 5, 2017
The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry
In this complex novel, which is part mystery, part thriller, and part love story, she ties seventeenth century Salem with present day Salem.
Mostly, its Callie Cahill's story, a survivor, who witnesses a horrific crime when she is only five years old.
Rose, a historian, took descendants of the original women accused of witchcraft, all young girls, to Proctor's Ledge. She intends to sanctify the ground where their ancestors were hung. One of the young girls, however, is absent.
Tragically, more blood is shed that day. An unknown assailant massacres the women who have gone to honor their ancestors. Rose claimed a banshee killed the girls but many suspect Rose.
Rafferty, the detective, who married Towner from The Lace Reader tries to decipher who the 5th petal is or who the 5th descendant of the accused. The 5th petal is in all likelihood the killer.
In current day Salem many of the families are related to the accused or to the judges. A centuries old rivalry between the Hawthornes and the Whittings could cause a rift between Callie and her growing love for Paul Whitting.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Writing contest
Sadly, this contest is over (deadline Jan 31). There's always next year.
Nelson Algren Literary Awards: $3,500 Short Story Prize (Submission Guidelines)
The Nelson Algren Literary Awards is an annual short story contest open to all residents of the United States. It is hosted by the Chicago Tribune.
Stories should be 8,000 words or less.
The grand prize is $3,500. Four finalists receive $1,000. Five runners-up will win $500. The total prizes are worth $10,000. Not bad!
Writers are allowed to submit a maximum of 2 entries. There is no submission fee.
The deadline for submission is January 31st, 2017.
The grand prize winning story will be considered for publication in the Chicago Tribune.
Nelson Algren was a novelist famous for books such as A walk the Wild Side, and The Man with the Golden Arm. According to Wikipedia, Algren portrayed the world of “drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums.”
To learn more, and to submit, read visit their Submittable page.
Stories should be 8,000 words or less.
The grand prize is $3,500. Four finalists receive $1,000. Five runners-up will win $500. The total prizes are worth $10,000. Not bad!
Writers are allowed to submit a maximum of 2 entries. There is no submission fee.
The deadline for submission is January 31st, 2017.
The grand prize winning story will be considered for publication in the Chicago Tribune.
Nelson Algren was a novelist famous for books such as A walk the Wild Side, and The Man with the Golden Arm. According to Wikipedia, Algren portrayed the world of “drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums.”
To learn more, and to submit, read visit their Submittable page.
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The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry
The Fifth Petal is is a mystery and high-stakes thriller yet the author, Brunonia Barry, ingeniously combines this with the historical details of the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials.Here's a historical detail that Barry drops that ties the past with a current suspect, Rose:
"With the exception of Sarah Good, who was thirty-nine, the women executed on July 19, 1692, were much older, ranging in age from fifty-seven to seventy-one. Some were homeless or nuisances to the community: indebt, outspoken, or otherwise troublesome. It made him think of Rose."
Rose is homeless, deranged, and is now accused of a crime that he does not think she committed. No wonder Rafferty draws the parallel.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Into the Wild by Erin Hunter
This series has inspired a lot of fan content: name generators, youtube videos and fan art.
Maybe its so popular because it involves a heroic journey. Rusty makes a journey into the unknown, the wild forest beyond his house. He is initially met with derision from the feral cats who live there. Then, Bluestar recognizes his talents and chooses him to join them.
Rusty is accepted as an apprentice but must prove his mettle if he is to become a warrior. Along the way, Rusty, renamed Firepaw, has several crises.
Firepaw wonders if its always right to follow the warrior code. Should he have mercy on a pitiful cat like Yellowfang who has gone rogue? Should he tell Bluestar the dreadful secret he learns from Ravenpaw?
The warrior code is in jeopary in other ways. The four cat clans that have co-existed peacefully for years. Recently, however, the Shadow clan has pushed the Wind clan off their territory.
In the end, its up to a brave apprentice, Firepaw, and his companions to set things right.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
Brunonia Barry, a screenwriter, tells this supernatural mystery in a series of powerful vignettes that move back and forth in time. Towner Whitney tells her own story even though she is an unreliable narrator with “gaps” in her memory. Towner comes from an old Salem family known for a predilection toward quirkiness and an uncanny ability to “read” lace. Unfortunately, what Towner sees in the lace on her seventeenth birthday nearly causes her to lose her mind. Exactly what causes Towner’s mental breakdown is just one of the many mysteries in this multi-layered gem. Switching deftly between first and third person, Clark also introduces Detective Rafferty, a burned-out cop from New York City, who simultaneously investigates the strange death of Towner’s eccentric great Aunt and the bizarre disappearance of Angela Rickey. Towner and Rafferty, while tentatively exploring a relationship of their own, must also contend with two warring factions–the witches of Salem and the fervent Calvinists led by Cal Boynton.
Sabotage by Neal Bascomb
In a book that reads like a thriller, Neal Bascomb explains how Norwegian commandos effectively prevented Nazi Germany from getting their hands on an atomic bomb.
A small group of Norwegians, trained in Britian, returned to their homeland to sabotage Vemork, the plant that was supplying Germany with heavy water. Germans needed heavy water, or Deuterium, to construct an atomic bomb.
Intended for young adults, Bascomb makes this part of Norwegian history accessible to all. Though Bascomb conveys a lot of detailed information, notes and an index give readers who want additional information the ability to learn more.
A friends of mine, who is European, swears the Norwegian commandos stories are widely known in Europe. Even if they are known, Bascomb makes their stories come to life.
If you liked Sabotage, you make like Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. Winter Fortress is the same story written more for adults than young adults.
If you liked Sabotage, you make like Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. Winter Fortress is the same story written more for adults than young adults.
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