Some Favorite Books from 2019
Without description and with only a hint of organizing, here’s a list of (some of the) books I read and loved in 2020. Picture Books Pluto Gets the Call, written by Adam Rex & illustrated by Laurie Keller Maximillian Villainous, written by Margaret Chiu Greanias & illustrated by Lesley Breen Withrow Mary Wears What She Wants, written […]
A List of Books I Couldn’t Find
Yesterday, I went book shopping. I went to one of my favorite stores, where they are wonderful and helpful and where I almost always find something I haven’t seen that looks like something I want to read. I was looking for a book to give as a gift. But it’s not a big store, and they […]
Kenneth Oppel’s HALF BROTHER
I picked up HALF BROTHER yesterday and finished it this morning. I am a big fan of Kenneth Oppel’s Airborne series, and I can tell you that this book is about as different from those books and from his Silverwing books as anything could be. And I loved it. Writing any book is hard, but […]
Looking for an Unlikeable Hero You Love? Read CRACKED UP TO BE
I hear about this all the time–either in question or statement: Can you create a non-nice hero that your readers like? You can create a non-nice hero that your readers like. And I always find myself searching through my memory for an example. No more. I just finished Courtney Summers’ Cracked Up to Be, and […]
Jordan Sonnenblick: Perfectly Imperfect Heroes
My son and I have recently discovered Jordan Sonnenblick’s books. It wouldn’t be wrong to say I’ve/we’ve been on a Sonnenblick-binge of reading. Here are the books we’ve fallen in love with so far: Zen and the Art of Faking It Notes from the Midnight Driver Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie The heroes of all three […]
If You Write It: Eoin Colfer, AND ANOTHER THING, & More
Last night, I drove my son up the peninsula to Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park. It’s a fantastic store–it used to be my bookstore when I lived further north, years ago–but I hadn’t been there in years. It’s still as great. But last night just felt extra special, and I’ll tell you why. We were there […]
Reading for Writing
This week I isolated one of my worries about my current WIP–the worry that I don’t (yet!) know how to convey the tension the story needs and deserves. I’m not the most comfortable person with tension. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, books were invented for me (yes, for me) to escape life’s stresses. […]
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