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BURNETT TELLS SAD BUT SATISFYING STORY

5/16/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
We are the most powerful nation in the world, but we're not the only nation in the world. We are not the only people in the world. We are an important people, the wealthiest, the most powerful and, to a great extent, generous. But we are part of the world.
​​Studs Terkel
Author of ​Working
​Born May 16, 1912
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S. Terkel

MY BOOK WORLD

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Burnett, Carol. Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story. New York: Simon, 2013.

In the actress’s storied life, Carol Burnett studied journalism while a young woman at UCLA. She’s intelligent, and such intelligence is evident through her writing. Her books are not (I assume) as-told-to books. She pens each one herself, and has only the light touch (I assume again) of a competent but kind editor. Why this introduction?
 
One might think that because Ms. Burnett is such a gifted comedian (comedienne in the old days, the Frenchiness of which I kind of liked) that her books are filled with mirth. They are. But this book, in particular, covers the beat of pathos in all its glory.
 
In her marriage to TV producer Joe Hamilton, Carol gives birth to three daugh . . . three beautiful daughters, like their mother! The first one is Carrie, and as an adolescent she sheds her wholesome, curious persona and becomes withdrawn and sullen. She begins to do poorly in school. She is on drugs. Carol and her husband do all they can to try to help her until they see their efforts are doing no good. Then they put her in rehab. When released from treatment, everything seems all right; only it isn’t. She finds drugs again (or they find her). Back into rehab she goes. Tough love is very difficult for Ms. Burnett, but she herself is a tough cookie. It was never beneath her to invite one of her co-stars to leave her show if he was unhappy; she did it kindly but she did it tough. It was not beneath her to sue the National Enquirer for publishing the false statement that she got drunk and started an argument with statesman, Henry Kissinger. She won.
 
The second rehab does take, and Carrie begins to pursue the artist’s life (in the broadest sense, including songwriting, fiction writing, and performing). She sustains a short marriage, and when it’s over she retains the cabin they’d shared in Gunnison, Colorado. It is her haven, her place to work and BE.
 
When symptoms indicate there is something wrong with Carrie’s health, doctors discover she has lung cancer (she names the tumor Yuckie Chuckie). Ms. Burnett weaves together the poignant story between her and Carrie by way of their emails, calls, and diaries. As a bonus to her readers, Carol includes Carrie’s short story, “Sunrise in Memphis.” The book is not to be missed, if you’re a fan of either woman.

Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Mary Pope Osborne

WEDS: A Writer's Wit |Alexander Pope
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Arthur Conan Doyle
FRI: My Book World | Graham Norton, The Life and Loves of a He Devil

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A WRITER'S WIT: LAUREN MYRACLE

5/15/2025

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I don't shy from controversy. I'm telling stories, and I'll tell whatever story seems like it wants to be told.
​Lauren Myracle
Author of ​Sticks and Stones
Born May 15, 1969
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L. Myracle
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Carol Burnett
, Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story 
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Mary Pope Osborne
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Alexander Pope
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Arthur Conan Doyle
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A WRITER'S WIT: EOIN COLFER

5/14/2025

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I often meet frustrated young writers who say they've only got so far and just can't finish a book. Even if you don't happen to use what you've worked on that day, it has taught you something and you'll be amazed when you might come back to it and use it again.
Eoin Colfer
Author of ​Artemis Fowl
Born May 14, 1965
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E. Colfer
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Myracle

FRI: My Book World | Carol Burnett
, ​Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story
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A WRITER'S WIT: MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

5/13/2025

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I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.
Madeleine Albright
Author of Fascism: A Warning
Born May 13, 1937
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M. Albright
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Eoin Colfer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Myracle

FRI: My Book World | Carol Burnett, Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story
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ALVAREZ EXPANDS MEANING OF AFTERLIFE

5/9/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it.
​Richard Adams
Author of ​Watership Down
​Born May 9, 1920
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R. Adams

MY BOOK WORLD

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Alvarez, Julia. Afterlife: A Novel. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2020.

A woman in her sixties loses her husband, and she turns to her three sisters, on whom she has depended since her childhood. Afterlife is more than a novel title here; it is a motif formed over and over again. The woman must now figure out how to live her afterlife: life without her husband, life with weird, bothersome neighbors, life with insistent and sometimes needy sisters. Yet because of these numerous eruptions of life going on around her, she must adjust. She must help others in the midst of her own grief. In the end, after aiding one sister as well as a stranger in need (an undocumented pregnant teenager), she is able to settle down to her singular life, and she has earned it. But one gets the feeling that if the story were to continue, the woman would still be interrupted by others in need and she would indeed help them. That’s who she is. That is her life, her afterlife.

​Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Madeleine Albright

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Eoin Colfer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Myracle
FRI: My Book World | Carol Burnett, Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story

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A WRITER'S WIT: EDWARD GIBBON

5/8/2025

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There’s only one thing worse than the man who will argue over anything,  and that’s the man who will argue over nothing.
Edward Gibbon
Author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Born May 8, 1737
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E. Gibbon
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez
, Afterlife: A Novel
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Madeleine Albright
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Eoin Colfer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Studs Terkel
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A WRITER'S WIT: RUTH PRAWER JHABVALA

5/7/2025

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The older books were quite light-hearted. But I think most of my novels do end on a deep note of pessimism. Shadows seem to be closing in. The final conclusion isn’t that life is wonderful and everything is bright and cheery and in the garden.
​Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Author of ​A Lovesong for India
​Born May 7, 1927
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R. Prawer Jhabvala
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon

FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez
, ​Afterlife: A Novel
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A WRITER'S WIT: MARGARET C. NUSSBAUM

5/6/2025

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Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
​Martha C. Nussbaum
Author of Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility 

Born May 6, 1947
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M. C. Nussbaum
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon

FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez, Afterlife: A Novel
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LONG-AGO MURDER HISTORY UNCOVERED

5/2/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
We have to unclutter our brains from worries that maybe people don’t like us. Women tend to worry about popularity; it doesn't matter if they like you. They need to respect you. They need to show that respect for you in your pay check. And that needs to be okay.
​Mika Brzezinski, NBC News
Author of ​All Things at Once
Born May 2, 1967
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M. Brzezinski

MY BOOK WORLD

Thompson, Wright. The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. New York: Penguin, 2024.

This excellent narrative reveals the horrifying story of the murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, in 1955. The author himself is from this region of the Mississippi delta, and part of the book is confessional, if not much of the tone. His only atonement, if that is the right word, for he doesn’t even learn of the murder until he is about to leave the state for college, is to research this story and present it to us, hopefully readers from around the world. 
    
Young Emmett begs his mother to leave Chicago and travel with a friend and his parents to Mississippi, where his mother grew up. Something tells her not to let him. It may be that his frank and prankish nature could get him into trouble, but in the end, he convinces her. There is so much that is not known, mostly because so many people lie about the situation. Some say the murder takes place in a particular barn. Others say not. Some stories indicate Emmett “whistles” at a young married white woman running the little store he and his cousin enter to buy snacks. Others say he may whistle but not “at” the woman.

We do know, however, for sure, the two men responsible for murdering the person who is but still a child. The duo are put on trial locally, and the jury sets them free. The only justice available may be that the local whites then quite hypocritically treat the two men like pariahs for the rest of their lives. Except for little jobs here and there, they can’t get regular work. Their wives leave them, and both of them eventually die of cancer, almost literally as if the stress of committing their bad deed has eaten them alive.
    
​The book is something for all Americans to consider, however, not just southerners or Mississippians. Nearly every state in the union has in some way treated blacks (and other minorities) just as cruelly in one way or another. We must not rely any longer on the thinking that because we weren’t present during times of slavery that we’re not responsible. What was termed Reconstruction must be completed for there ever to be any peace in this country. 

​Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Margaret C. Nussbaum

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon
FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez, Afterlife: A Novel
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A WRITER'S WIT: LORENE SCAFARIA

5/1/2025

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It's really hard as a screenwriter, you feel like you have a vision and then you turn it over to a director and you have to let it go.
​Lorene Scafaria,  Screenwriter
Author of Under the Boardwalk
Born May 1, 1978
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L. Scafaria
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Wright Thompson
, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi [Emmett Till]
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Margaret C. Nussbaum
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon
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A WRITER'S WIT: JOHN BOYNE

4/30/2025

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I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay. 
John Boyne
Author of 
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Born May 30, 1971
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J. Boyne
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lorene Scafaria

FRI: My Book World | Wright Thompson
, ​The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi ​[Emmett Till]
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A WRITER'S WIT: ROD MCKUEN

4/29/2025

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Cats have it all—admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.
Rod McKuen, Songwriter and Poet
Author of ​In Someone's Shadow
Born April 29, 1938
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R. McKuen
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | John Boyne
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lorene Scafaria

FRI: My Book World | Wright Thompson, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi ​[Emmett Till]
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MYTH OF NORMAL EXPLICATED

4/25/2025

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A  WRITER'S WIT
Our nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination . . . rationalized by an attitude of “romantic paternalism” which,  in practical effect, put women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.
​William Joseph Brennan  
Author of Conscience of the Court
Born April 25, 1906
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W. J. Brennan

MY BOOK WORLD

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Maté, Gabor, with Daniel Maté. The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. New York: Avery, 2022.

Maté’s thesis is that Western medicine has assumed for a long time what is “normal,” and what is not. He contends that our physical and physiological lives are severely affected by what happens and what does not happen to us in our childhoods:
 
“Children, especially highly sensitive children, can be wounded in multiple ways: by bad things happening, yes, but also by good things not happening, such as their emotional needs for attunement not being met, or the experience of not being, seen and accepted, even by loving parents. Trauma of this kind does not require overt distress or misfortune . . . and can also lead to the pain of disconnection from the self, occurring as a result of core needs not being satisfied” (23).
 
This struck a chord (ha) with me concerning my childhood. My parents met my physical needs but didn’t have much sensitivity to my wishes to learn piano. I harped (ha ha) for four years on the topic until, at age ten, I was finally rewarded with lessons (and a $150 piano which I treasured). But their lack of interest in my “attunement” meant that they didn’t care much for my sensitivity as a musician, an artist, or human being. They kept trying to interest me in more “masculine” activities, meaning they did not accept me for who I was. It was a conditional “love,” if you want to call it that. My saving grace, through the years, thankfully, has been the help I received from three talented psychologists: one when I was twenty-four, one when I was in my fifties, and one I see currently in my seventies. Making myself more “loveable” to myself, I believe, made me less available to suffering major diseases or even middling chronic ones.
 
Maté’s contention is that most all disease is caused by mental or psychological stress that alters the body, making its autoimmune failure more likely one will suffer illness.
 
There is so much more that Dr. Maté offers to the reader in these 562 pages, but I do want to cite one statement he makes near the end of the book:
 
“At present there remains powerful resistance to trauma awareness on the part of the medical profession—albeit a resistance more subliminal than deliberate, more passive than active. In the dozens of interview I conducted with medical colleagues for this book,  including recent graduates, virtually one of them recalled being taught about the mind-body unity or the profusely documented relationship between, for example, trauma and mental illness or addictions—let alone the links between adversity and physical disease” (487).
 
I wish all adults in the world could read this book and be pushed to take care of their total health, not just the physical being (if that)—seek out doctors who do see a connection between the mental and physical body and treat their patients accordingly.

​Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Rod McKuen

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | John Boyne
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lorene Scafaria
FRI: My Book World | Wright Thompson, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi ​[Emmett Till]

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A WRITER'S WIT: SHIRLEY MACLAINE

4/24/2025

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I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I’ve written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.
​Shirley MacLaine
Author of ​Out on a Limb
​Born April 24, 1934
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S. MacLaine
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Gabor Mat
é, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ellen Glasgow
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine
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A WRITER'S WIT: BARRY HANNAH

4/23/2025

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I found out about reviews early on. They’re mostly written by sad men on bad afternoons. That’s probably why I’m less angry than some writers, who are so narcissistic they consider every line of every review, even a thoughtful one, as major treason.
​Barry Hannah
Author of 
High Lonesome
Born April 23, 1942 
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B. Hannah
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine

FRI: My Book World | Gabor Mat
é, ​The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
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A WRITER'S WIT: ELLEN GLASGOW

4/22/2025

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The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions.
​Ellen Glasgow
Author of In This Our Life
Born April 22, 1873
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E. Glasgow
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine

FRI: My Book World | Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
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FINDING THE FOUNDING FISH

4/18/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means.
​Clarence Seward Darrow  
Author of Attorney for the Damned
Born April 18, 1857
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C. Darrow

MY BOOK WORLD

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McPhee, John. The Founding Fish. New York: Farrar, 2002.

This is the first I have read of the more than fifty books McPhee has published in his ninety-four years on earth, and I have to say it has been a revelation. I’m not one who fishes (maybe . . . for compliments, never the icky, slimy things that come out of the water), but I found this a fascinating history of the American shad. Its life cycle as both a saltwater and freshwater fish. Its boundless energy to overcome humanmade obstacles (dams for one). Its ability to rebound after a period of overfishing. Its delight as food (in spite of its many bones):
 
“When Alexander Wilson named this fish sapidissima in 1811, he was referring almost certainly to the nutty-buttery succulence of the main muscle, but the roe is the tongue of the buffalo, the tip of the asparagus, the cheek of the halibut, the marrow of the osso bucco” (295).
 
McPhee’s Appendix consists of nothing but recipes, one of which lists these ingredients:
 
      2 pounds shad
      1 pair roe
      1 tbs. chopped parsley
      Pepper, salt (if desired)
      1 tbs. butter
      Soft bread crumbs
      Clarified butter
      ½ cup sauterne
      1½ cup chopped mushrooms
      1 tsp. paprika (348)
 
Yet there are historic objectors to the art/craft/sport of fishing: “The poet Byron said it best: “[T]he art of angling [is] the cruelest, the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports” (313).
 
There you have it! McPhee covers both sides of the story, the equation, the diet!

​Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ellen Glasgow

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine
FRI: My Book World | Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

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A WRITER'S WIT: ISAK DINESEN

4/17/2025

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Love, with very young people, is a heartless business. We drink at that age from thirst, or to get drunk; it is only later in life that we occupy ourselves with the individuality of our wine.
​Isak Dinesen
Author of ​Out of Africa 
Born April 17, 1885
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Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | John McPhee, The Founding Fish

​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ellen Glasgow
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine
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A WRITER'S WIT: PETER USTINOV

4/16/2025

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The young need old men. They need men who are not ashamed of age, not pathetic imitations of themselves . . . . Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth.
Peter Ustinov, Screenwriter
Author of Romanoff and Juliet
Born April 16, 1921

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P. Ustinov
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Isak Dinesen

FRI: My Book World | John McPhee, ​The Founding Fish
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A WRITER'S WIT: EVA FIGES

4/15/2025

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There is a hidden fear that somehow, if they are only given a chance, women will suddenly do as they have been done by.
​Eva Figes
Author of Tales of Innocence  and Experience 
Born April 15, 1932
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E. Figes
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Peter Ustinov
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Isak Dinesen

FRI: My Book World | John McPhee, The Founding Fish
0 Comments

KILLING YOUR MOTHER: A NOVEL

4/11/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
There must always be some pretentiousness about literature, or else no one would take its pains or endure its disappointments.
​Glenway Wescott
Author of Apartment in Athens
​Born April 11, 1901
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G. Wescott

MY BOOK WORLD

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Sebold, Alice. The Almost Moon: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.

This may be one of those novels that you don’t want to continue after reading the first sentence: When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily”(3). But then then comes the next sentence: “Dementia, as it descends, has a way of revealing the core of the person affected by it”(3).  Interesting! you may think. Onward you go . . . and then you are hooked, as I was—queasy feelings subsiding. The middle-aged narrator, Helen, continues her story of caring for her mother for nearly three hundred pages, and honestly, you’re not sure what is going to happen.

Will Helen leave the country, or at least the area of Pennsylvania where she lives? Will she off herself like her father did some years earlier? Will she tell her two young adult daughters she’s murdered their grandmother? Will her ex-husband (whom she tells first of the murder) help her cover it up or escape the police? Will she continue the affair she’s begun with the thirty-year-old son of her best friend? Whoa!

You just can’t believe the behavior of this woman until the author skillfully wends readers through her family’s backstory. Then her life only becomes more complicated, and you may develop sympathy for her. It could happen to you! What will she do? you continue to think, until the very last pages. A true murder mystery—not one of those cozy contrived things. Only the “mystery” here may be why she really done it, and the author presents readers with a plausible and satisfying answer.

​Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Eva Figes

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Peter Ustinov
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Isak Dinesen
FRI: My Book World | John McPhee, The Founding Fish

0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: ANNE LAMOTT

4/10/2025

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Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.
​Anne Lamott
Author of Somehow: Thoughts on Love
Born April 10, 1954
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A. Lamott
Up Next:
FRI: My Book World | Alice Sebold
, The Almost Moon: A Novel

​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Eva Figes
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Peter Ustinov
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Isak Dinesen
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: CHARLES BAUDELAIRE

4/9/2025

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Genius is the capacity to retrieve childhood at will.
​Charles Baudelaire, Poet
Author of Invitation to a Voyage
Born April 9, 1821
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C. Baudelaire
Up Next: 
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anne Lamott

FRI: My Book World |Alice Sebold, ​The Almost Moon: A Novel
0 Comments

A WRITER'S WIT: MARGARET AYER BARNES

4/8/2025

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All wars are crusades, or we're made to feel they are. That's just what's so wicked about them. We're made to feel—not think—and people can't think when they feel.
Margaret Ayer Barnes
Author of Years of Grace
Born April 8, 1886
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M. A. Barnes
Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Charles Baudelaire
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anne Lamott

FRI: My Book World | Alice Sebold, The Almost Moon: A Novel
0 Comments

IS GRADUATE SCHOOL REAL LIFE?

4/4/2025

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A WRITER'S WIT
It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.
​Maya Angelou,  Poet
Author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Born April 4, 1928
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M. Angelou

MY BOOK WORLD

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Taylor, Brandon. Real Life: A Novel. New York: Riverhead, 2020.

In this fairly recent title (a so-called campus novel), young Wallace leaves his home state of Alabama to pursue graduate school in biochemistry at a major university in the Midwest. In most respects the years-long experience does not go well. 
 
As a young black man, Wallace encounters subtle but resistant racism among his colleagues, even though, on the surface, things are cool. Compounding this problem is the fact that he’s out-and-proud gay. In one salty situation, he believes a woman has purposely ruined his experiment, putting him back months in his research. He just can’t prove it, and because of a lifetime of being put down, he doesn’t have the energy to pursue the justice of the matter.
 
The major relationship he develops is with Miller, an ostensibly straight white man, a handsome man to whom Wallace is quite attracted. Author Taylor subtly but competently creates all the complications that such a relationship can have. Wallace, a bit insecure about his looks and build, feels weird about Miller’s attentions—causing him to send Miller mixed signals. In turn, Miller, rife with his own insecurities, doesn’t believe Wallace is sincere. Repeatedly, they send and receive communications that don’t make clear who they are or what their intentions are. These conflicts lead to a couple of dramatic scenes. One, after sharing the sordid stories of their past, Wallace leaves Miller’s bed in the middle of the night, angering Miller. Second, the two men engage in a fist fight that Wallace loses against the more muscular Miller. They seem to semi-settle their differences, but they certainly do not live together happily ever after. In fact, the denouement of the novel seems to occur when the author returns the cast of characters to the first day they arrive on campus—when everyone’s, including Wallace’s, expectations are high. It seems to be a subtle way the author establishes what real life is all about. The term is tossed about throughout the novel, but in this particular conclusion, readers understand that university life is real life, not just that period that is to follow commencement exercises.

Up Next:
​TUES: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Ayer Barnes

WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Charles Baudelaire
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Anne Lamott
FRI: My Book World | Alice Sebold, The Almost Moon: A Novel

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    AUTHOR
    Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

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