Picture Book Picks for Kids
Research shows that children who are read to from birth develop key skills (page-turning, reading left to right, narrative understanding, faster
Reads on Writing
I thought that in the spirit of back to school I'd offer you a few of what I think to be fine books on the art of writing
The Bullet Trick
The Bullet Trick is a crime thriller that begins in a seedy club in a Soho. The narrative cuts back and forth from a cabaret in Berlin, Glasgow and London
In the Pursuit of Love
First, make no mistake that The Pursuit of Love is an English novel. So the bias -- and the root of the satire -- is all British
The Good Wife
Rarely do I find a book that keeps me turning pages into the small hours. But The Good Wife, by Stewart O'Nan, is one I couldn't put down
Frankenstein – The Modern Prometheus
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a gothic tale of classic romanticism, the creature is inherently good. It is society that turns Frankenstein's creature to evil.
Vanity Fair Review,
I learned this past week that I share a birthday with an eminent Vanity Fair novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray
Agatha Christie Mysteries
One of my favourite writers is the dame of whodunits, Agatha Christie. Born in Torquay, England, in 1890, Christie got her start with a friendly dare.
Beatrix Potter, Complete Tales Review
The Beatrix Potter Complete Tales with all 23 of the famous tales, beginning with Peter Rabbit and arranged in the order they were originally published
Break, Blow, Burn Review
I've spent some time with Camille Paglia's Break, Blow, Burn in which she "reads" forty-three of the "world's best poems."
The Fairy Tales
The Fairy Tales are also appropriate, despite their darker elements, for children who have perhaps overindulged on the sugar-coated Disney versions
The Adventures of Frog and Toad
Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Are Friends, published in 1970, is the first in a series of four books about these two famous friends
The Moonstone
The Moonstone is a very long tale about a precious gem stolen from the brow of a Hindu deity that wreaks havoc on an English family
Blaming
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor is the story of an unlikely friendship that forms between Amy, an Englishwoman, and Martha, an American