At Literary Ramblings, a truly epic review of War and Peace (both the book and the miniseries) has gotten me even more excited to take the plunge into that sea of words myself. And I have to give honorable mention to Majoring in Literature, for summing up Eugene Onegin in “one really terrible sonnet.” (Actually, it was pretty impressive!)
Here are some of the other interesting links and lists that I’ve come across lately:
Great Minds
- New England author John Irving’s top ten list has some of my favorites on it (hooray, Robertson Davies!).
- Leo Tolstoy’s list of books that influenced him most offers some serious food for thought.
- Brain Pickings compiles a lifetime reading list based on the work of Oliver Sacks.
List Love
- A list of traveling-with-family memoirs from Bay State Reader’s Advisory has some very tempting titles.
- And this list of alternate history mysteries from By Singing Light just sounds like too much fun.
- For Valentine’s Day, a wonderfully eclectic list of books with “heart” in the title from Books on the Table.
- For her 400th post, Views from the Tesseract has put together a great list of 100 SF/F books that influenced her, with some wonderfully obscure titles along with the big names. (Is there anyone else out there besides me who has read Under Plum Lake?)
- Beth Fish Reads points out seven recent releases that riff on classic authors and heroines. I haven’t read any of these, but I would like to!
- And for those who long to find underrated masterpieces of the past, here are 10 female coming-of-age stories you’ve never heard of.
Tips for Book Clubs
- For a good discussion, don’t try to please everyone, advises River City Reading.
- If you’re looking especially for coed book club suggestions, here are some from Sarah’s Book Shelves.
- And if you’d like to win over your book club to nonfiction, here are suggestions from the Massachusetts State Book Awards, courtesy of Bay State Readers Advisory.
Good Questions
- Why are children’s books so tough on parents?, at What Me Read, is an interesting look at a well-known literary phenomenon.
- Should there be a genre between fiction and nonfiction? at Educating Alice. I think that would be very helpful!
- What are the things to keep in mind while reviewing? For those of us who still write book reviews, Calmgrove has some very helpful thoughts on this question.
Look Again
- A look into the creation of the new picture book Swap!, from Seven Impossible Things.
- Mirabile Dictu visits the university library and finds some marvelous murals by Grant Wood.
- An exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology examines the intersection of fairy tales and high fashion.
- When is a book not a book? Another NYC exhibition of fabulous fake books opens at the Grolier Club.
Image of the Month
Shared in the Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
Well, as if I hadn’t discovered more bloggers from BBAW… I just discovered even more from this post. lol
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I’m glad to have introduced you to some of my faves!
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Thanks for all the links, off to do some more reading 🙂
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I wouldn’t want you to run out of material…
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Ahh, a genre between fiction and non-fiction? Isn’t that memoir? 😉 There are some great links in here today. Thanks!
p.s. my March Magics kick off post will go up on Tuesday.
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Memoir can definitely fall into that category, but there are other forms of narrative non-fiction where there’s quite a bit of creativity happening with the facts. It makes a good story, but is it non-fiction?
Hooray for March Magics, when we certainly do not need to worry about such questions — all fantasy, all the time!
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True. Hubby is an avid non-fiction reader but gets really twitchy around narrative non-fiction. He shouts out things like “how did they know it was a sunny and warm morning without a cloud in the sky?!” while he’s reading. 🙂
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The concept of a genre between fiction and non-fiction is intriguing to me! I’m off to go read that one now!
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As I’ve been reading more narrative non-fiction (see above), it’s become a big question for me.
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I also have not yet read War and Peace. It is sitting on my bookshelf and I fully intend to one day. Perhaps I will give it a try this year.
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Seems like a book you could really get into – I will be eager to read your thoughts when you do.
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Oh I loooooove the caucus race illustration! Thanks for sharing that!
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Isn’t it great? Thanks Monica!
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I’m not sure if I think an extra genre would be helpful or not. We already have historical fiction and in my opinion, anything that’s not true (at least to the best of the author’s ability to remember in memoirs) should be categorized as fiction. I like the idea of adding some terms like memoir fiction though, to help be clear about when an author has intentionally fictionalized the story they’re telling. Interesting to think about!
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The problem with designating a new genre is that it’s a matter of degrees. Even the most respectable work of biography or history usually includes some speculation, and even the wildest historical fiction contains a thread of fact. What I would like is fuller disclosure of what the author did and didn’t make up, whether the work is avowedly fiction or nonfiction.
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Agreed! I always wish nonfiction had the same standards for providing citations as scientific papers 🙂
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