Two more book recommendations

What kinds of books do you like?  Do you switch between genres or stick to one?   Me, I usually avoid non-fiction.  Since I read the newspaper daily, I don’t want more of the same in my free time.  Likewise blood and gore; the real world has plenty.  No, fiction is definitely my thing, but, within…

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Naming the characters in my next book

You’ve heard of Dennis Lehane, right?  Since he’s a home town boy, my local press is all over him.  So I wasn’t surprised to hear tv reports that his dog, Tessa (yup, that’s her pictured above), had disappeared on Christmas Eve and that he was offering to name a character in his next book after…

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LOW PRESSURE: a book recommendation

Sandra Brown and I go way back.  We started in the field of romance together, actually met at the first ever Romance Writers of America conference.  We raised our kids, saw them marry and have their own kids at roughly the same time.  Both straying from the romance genre, I entered the field of women’s…

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Dealing with the loss of my characters

Readers feel this.  You’ve been engrossed in a book for however long it takes to read it and then, suddenly, the characters are gone.  You write me asking what they’ll do now and whether they’ll ever be back. But if you miss them, think of what I’m feeling when I finish writing a book. Take Sweet…

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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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A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES: a recommendation

I actually want to talk about two books – A Discovery of Witches and its sequel, Shadow of Night.  Please note, this isn’t a book review, simply a recommendation of two books that I’ve enjoyed reading.  Both were written by Deborah Harkness, and they have totally caught my fancy. If that phrase is old-fashioned, it’s…

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Revising SWEET SALT AIR

Here’s how it works.  The author writes her book and sends it to her editor, who reads it, thinks about it, reacts to it, hopefully loves it – but also comes up with a few recommendations to make it even stronger. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t always.  Authors have egos.  We have pride and fears.  Let me…

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Working through the books in my beach bag

Actually, it’s not a beach bag, simply what would be in a hypothetical beach bag if I was to read at the beach as opposed to the lake, where comfortable, non-sandy, tree-shaded chairs abound.  I had read Home, by Toni Morrison, the weekend before, but last weekend was for Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  And mind…

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SUMMERLAND: a recommendation

When I asked you Facebook fans for book recommendations, Summerland was mentioned several times.  So I read it, loved it, recommend it.  Here’s why. Sense of place.  The setting is Nantucket, where the author, Elin Hilderbrand, has lived since 1984, and she knows the island well.  From the very first page, you’ll see it, smell…

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Do you talk to yourself?

Do you?  I mean, out loud? I didn’t used to.  Only deranged people talk aloud to themselves, right?  But there are certain circumstances now when I find myself doing it. Like when I carry two super-heavy bags of groceries in from the car and heave them onto the kitchen counter.  Okay, I grunt in relief…

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