A frequently updated list of books I’m reading during 2017.
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My Progress on the PopSugar Reading Challenge for 2017
Yes, I’m doing the PopSugar Reading Challenge again this year. It helped me last year to have a list of books to read, and I got a lot of the books finished (but not all). I’m so glad I did that, so I’m trying it again. [This post was originally published December 30, 2016. I’ve been posting updates throughout the year.] [Read more…]
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Book Lady’s Review
I’ve read a lot of novels and memoirs set during World War II. The Book Thief was added to the world’s arsenal of WWII novels in 2005 and quickly became a best-seller. Author Markus Zusak is a young writer whose parents lived in Europe during the war. Their stories inspired this book. [Read more…]
Forgive and Love Again: Healing Wounded Relationships – Book Lady’s Review
Forgive and Love Again: Healing Wounded Relationships is a comprehensive Christian overview of forgiveness, which is essential to Christian life. When asked how many times we should forgive, Jesus Christ advised, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” In other words, forgiveness should not end – it should continue so long as it is needed. Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation – that’s a different matter and does not have to follow forgiveness, except in Christian marriage relationships.
This Boy’s Life, a Memoir by Tobias Wolff – Book Lady’s Review
A childhood is a unique thing. We all have one, and I like to think of them as our life challenge. We almost invariably experience traumatic events, then have the challenge of dealing with the fallout the rest of our lives, or until we gracefully recover. The childhood of Tobias Wolff was no different, yet it was unique in its own way. His memoir is best known for honesty to the extreme.
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Twelve Tips For Writing Better Articles
If your articles seem dull, try these tips for writing better articles. Make them spicy and exciting as well as informative. You can capture your readers’ attention and make them anxious to read more.
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Find Your True Writer’s Voice
Experience is the path toward finding your true writer’s voice You may start your writing career by sub-consciously imitating a writer you greatly admire, but in the end, you’ll find the greatest satisfaction comes from being yourself.
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Let the Words Flow
It is easy to be a writer – that’s what some people think. They say, “Oh, you’re lucky. All you have to do is write. And you make millions.”
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Abusive Men: Why Does He Do That? – Book Lady’s Review
My review of Why Does He Do That? – by Lundy Bancroft. This is a book about his work with and observations of angry, controlling, and abusive men. He explains why they seek to subjugate women.
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Self-Published Authors Develop Realistic Expectations
A lot has happened since I started writing novels fifteen years ago. Back then most writers considered New York publishers the only way to go, and the only way to be real authors. These days, writers are more realistic, myself included. A lot of us have become self-published authors, and are happy with that.
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Writing a Novel
I wrote this article in December 2004 for Happy Camp News. It is about how I got started writing novels.
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Hillbilly Elegy – Book Lady’s Review
I seem to have the same background as author J.D. Vance, but I’m a few generations removed. I’ve done research on Ancestry.com and discovered some great-great grandparents who came from places like Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia, on our Scots-Irish family’s journey to the west coast. I was born in California. My mother and her parents were born in Oklahoma.
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The Unfinished Manuscript, How to Get to “The End”
It’s hard to get back into fiction writing after being away from it for a while. It takes only a brief lull, a sudden shock, or a simple distraction to move our minds away from the flow of words in our chosen fictional worlds; then we’re lost, [Read more…]
