BD read these books, too!

Last week was for audio, but here are three books I recently read in the flesh, as so many of you choose to do as well. Audio or print, the stories remain the same. If something in one of these books appeals to you and you’re an audiobook person, by all means, listen. First, The…

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Good reading

There’s reading. And then there’s READING. The first is a solitary endeavor from start to finish, done on the subway, or curled up in a chair, or in bed. The second adds a step at the end: discussing a book with someone else who has read it. That person may be a single individual. It…

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I hear you!

The notes you send have a huge impact on me.  The most  obvious instance occurred in June, soon after Sweet Salt Air came out.  One reader said she thought the book started too slowly.  I promptly turned to my work-in-progress, reread the opening with a critical eye, then switched Chapters 1 and 2 so that…

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But do you like my book?

And so comes the Monday after the first weekend you’ve all have with my newest book.  I sit on tenterhooks wondering, worrying, hoping. Sweet Salt Air  has actually been out and around for the sake of getting early reviews.  Part of the promotional campaign leading up to its publication entailed sending Advance Reading Copies to…

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To e-read or not

A totally funny thing happened to me yesterday.  I was reading an actual, physical book, reached the end of a page, and tapped the right margin to turn to the next. Have you ever done this?  It wouldn’t happen, of course, if I read books in only one form.  But I’m constantly switching between hardcover,…

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RULES OF CIVILITY – a book recommendation

Another one, you say?  Wow, do you read fast!  I do, but only when I’m not writing, and since right now I’m hovering in the twilight between Sweet Salt Air and my next book, I have time.  As always, this isn’t as much a book review as a recommendation.  I can only tell you what I like. …

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My summer reading list

I ask you what you’re reading many a Tuesday in the SPEEDY BD SURVEY, and you have every right to ask me back.  The answer?  I can’t read much when I’m working on a book, but now that Sweet Salt Air is done and summer here, my to-read pile is growing. At the top is…

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What makes for a good book discussion

My book group met Monday night, and I nearly didn’t go.  I’m not big on war books, and Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken is that.  Honestly?  I wasn’t planning to read it.  I don’t read much anyway when I’m deep into the writing of a book, and I’m about as deep into Sweet Salt Air as I…

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Survival guide for a writer in a book group

My book group met last night to discuss The Paris Wife, which is a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage.  When I read this book last April, I was intrigued by the marriage, but even more, as a writer, by the ups and downs of Hemingway as he struggled to be published.  I was…

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