I’ve been following Guillebeau off and on for a few years now. I bought the digital version of $100 Startup (paid link) when it was on sale. I decided to support him further, and get in on the ground floor by getting the ARC (advanced reader copy) of his latest book. I enjoyed the overall […]
Month: December 2021
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Excellent book. I like to think of it as a post-modern film noir set in Tokyo, around two sisters named Eri and Mari. The story follows how their lives connect to each other, an old friend, an abused Chinese prostitute and the keepers of a “love hotel” that found her that way, and the abuser […]
Me & Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter
American bookstore ninja/Darcy fangirl runs into Mr. Darcy in modern times on his turf. Hi-jinks ensue. It’s incredible the impact Jane Austen has had on literature and how many times writers have retold and redone her storylines over the years. I’m not a hopelessly obsessive fangirl, but I recognize her significance to literature and women’s […]
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
I first heard about the story from a Baby-Sitter’s Club book. True story. I think it was from one of Stacey’s books. So when I saw it at my used bookstore, Twice Sold Tales, I snapped it up for cheap. Patricia Ann Bergen is a 12-year-old Jewish girl living in wartime Arkansas. I guess it […]
Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
This book chronicles the working escapades of Girl – unnamed because I am assuming the authors want us to know that she could be anybody, i.e., you and me. We follow her after graduation from college, subsisting in the Big Apple, and falling into the unemployed life predestined for us liberal arts geeks. We briefly […]
Not Quite What I Was Planning by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith
The book’s premise is if you could write a memoir in six words, what would yours be? “Nobody cared, then they did. Why?” Chuck Klosterman They were taking submissions from every writer: professional, non-professional, famous, and the not-so-famous. “We still don’t hear a single.” Adam Schlesinger As I was reading it, I laughed about how […]
Mouse Tales by David Koenig
I finished “Mouse Tales” by David Koenig from my summer reading list last week. If you want to know about the dark side of paradise (i.e., Disneyland, which is paradise as far as I’m concerned), read it. I think there’s an updated version, but I liked what I read from the original. I felt it […]
How to Chop Up a Manuscript
Happy New Year’s! I hope 2022 is better for all of us. Guilliean Adding – or deleting – a paragraph to a manuscript is an important question to ask. Some passages are deemed more important than others and some argue that removing a paragraph could change the entire tone of a novel, while a short […]
Season 2, Episode 023: Pretty Things Distract Me
Guilliean reads her short story of the same name. Stream it and read along with the text! Miriam woke up with a start. The bedsprings squeaked as she yawned. The haze of sleep guided her eyes to Agnes. The bottle-blonde slipped on her black cotton top, blinking at her phone. 5:15 AM. The ripples of […]