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Word of the Moment: Detente
Happy Sunday friends! I’m starting today with Mark Haddon’s recently published short story collection, The Pier Falls, and I’m greatly enjoying it. Which is a little strange to say, because these stories are tragic and disastrous. Reading sorrowful stories and deciding whether to hate or empathize with characters who are fighting to survive situations they put themselves, or others in; or not allowing a work of fiction to turn common joys like entertainment on an ocean pier into fearful, avoidable activities because of the dangers you are now blatantly aware of, is uncomfortable. I suppose my enjoyment stems from the way the stories are told, and in Mark Haddon’s case, there are no if…
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Summer Reading Challenge 2016: An Introduction
Is summer my favorite season for reading? No. But it is one of four of my favorite seasons for reading; like the fall is for school, summer is for books. It calls for cleaning out To Be Read (TBR) lists, looking for what’s new on the shelves of bookstores (and in publishers’ calendars), and seeking out new and old favorite spots to spend time [reading]. There’s just something about the summer that makes me want to do all of these things, more so than in other seasons. Last year, I tried tackling the Penguin 80 Years of Bestsellers Reading Challenge, and came up quite short, even though I had already read…