Download or read book My Reading Life written by Pat Conroy and published by Nan A. Talese. This book was released on 2010-11-02 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life. Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But for Conroy reading is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity. In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of reading through an array of wonderful and often surprising anecdotes: sharing the pleasures of the local library’s vast cache with his mother when he was a boy, recounting his decades-long relationship with the English teacher who pointed him onto the path of letters, and describing a profoundly influential period he spent in Paris, as well as reflecting on other pivotal people, places, and experiences. His story is a moving and personal one, girded by wisdom and an undeniable honesty. Anyone who not only enjoys the pleasures of reading but also believes in the power of books to shape a life will find here the greatest defense of that credo. BONUS: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Pat Conroy's The Death of Santini.
Download or read book How to Read Like a Writer written by Mike Bunn and published by The Saylor Foundation. This book was released on with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When you Read Like a Writer (RLW) you work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing. The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?
Download or read book Up for Air written by Laurie Morrison and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen-year-old Annabelle struggles in school, no matter how hard she tries. But as soon as she dives into the pool, she’s unstoppable. She’s the fastest girl on the middle school swim team, and when she’s asked to join the high school team over the summer, everything changes. Suddenly, she’s got new friends, and a high school boy starts treating her like she’s somebody special—and Annabelle thinks she’ll finally stand out in a good way. She’ll do anything to fit in and help the team make it to the Labor Day Invitational, even if it means blowing off her old friends. But after a prank goes wrong, Annabelle is abandoned by the older boy and can’t swim. Who is she without the one thing she’s good at? Heartwarming and relatable, Up for Air is a story about where we find our self-worth.
Download or read book Diet for a Changing Climate written by Christy Mihaly and published by Twenty-First Century Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore the vast world of unexpected foods that may help solve the global hunger crisis: weeds, wild plants, invasive and feral species, and bugs! Mihaly and Heavenrich introduce readers to the nutritional value of various plant and animal species. You'll visit a cricket farm, learn recipes for dandelion pancakes and pickled purslane; and discover facts about climate change, sustainability, green agriculture, indigenous foods, farm-to-table restaurants, and how to be an eco-friendly producer, consumer, and chef. -- adapted from amazon.com info.
Download or read book Reading Like a Writer written by Francine Prose and published by Union Books. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’ Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë ’ s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’ s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading.
Download or read book The Dark Side of Innocence written by Terri Cheney and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Manic: A Memoir" comes a gripping and eloquent account of the awakening and unfolding of Cheney's bipolar disorder.
Download or read book Dead Babies and Seaside Towns written by Alice Jolly and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Alice Jolly's second child was stillborn and all subsequent attempts to have another baby failed, she began to consider every possible option, no matter how unorthodox. Shot through with humour and full of hope, Dead Babies and Seaside Towns is an intensely personal account of the search for an alternative way to create a family. As she battles through miscarriage, IVF and failed adoption attempts, Alice finds comfort in the faded charm of Britain's crumbling seaside towns. The journey ultimately leads her and her husband to a small town in Minnesota, and to two remarkable women who offer to make the impossible possible. In this beautifully written book, Alice Jolly describes with a novelist's skill the events that many others have lived through – even if they may feel compelled to keep them hidden. Her decision not to hide but to share them, without a trace of self-pity, turns Dead Babies and Seaside Towns into a universal story: one that begins in tragedy but ends in joy.
Download or read book American Widow written by Alissa R. Torres and published by Villard Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents, in graphic novel format, the story of Alissa Torres, whose husband was killed in the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and her legal and psychological battles over his death.
Download or read book The Kite and the String written by Alice Mattison and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A targeted and insightful guide to the stages of writing fiction and memoir without falling into common traps, while wisely navigating the writing life, from an award-winning author and longtime teacher “A book-length master class.” —The Atlantic Writing well does not result from following rules and instructions, but from a blend of spontaneity, judgment, and a wise attitude toward the work—neither despairing nor defensive, but clear-eyed, courageous, and discerning. Writers must learn to tolerate the early stages, the dreamlike and irrational states of mind, and then to move from jottings and ideas to a messy first draft, and onward into the work of revision. Understanding these stages is key. The Kite and the String urges writers to let playfulness and spontaneity breathe life into the work—letting the kite move with the winds of feeling—while still holding on to the string that will keep it from flying away. Alice Mattison attends also to the difficulties of protecting writing time, preserving solitude, finding trusted readers, and setting the right goals for publication. The only writing guide that takes up both the stages of creative work and developing effective attitudes while progressing through them, plus strategies for learning more about the craft, The Kite and the String responds to a pressing need for writing guidance at all levels.
Download or read book Hey Hey Hay written by Christy Mihaly and published by Holiday House. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every bale of hay has a little bit of summer sun stored in the heart of it— learn from a mother-daughter team how hay is made! Feeding her horses one cold and wintry day, a girl thinks about all the hard work that went into the fresh-smelling bales she's using. The rhyming text and brilliant full-page paintings follow the girl and her mother through the summer as they cut, spread, dry and bale in the fields. Mower blades slice through the grass./A new row falls with every pass./Next we spread the grass to dry./The tedder makes those grasses fly! This celebration of summer, farming, and family, illustrated by Pura Belpré honor artist Joe Cepeda, includes a glossary of haymaking words, and a recipe for making your own switchel— a traditional farm drink, to cool you down in the summer heat. A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
Download or read book Girl in Pieces written by Kathleen Glasgow and published by Ember. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A haunting, beautiful, and necessary book."—Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge. A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow's debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from. And don’t miss Kathleen Glasgow's novels You’d Be Home Now and How to Make Friends with the Dark, both raw and powerful stories of life.
Download or read book This Year You Write Your Novel written by Walter Mosley and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-01-08 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A straightforward, friendly guide for aspiring writers" (Los Angeles Times): No more excuses. With award-winning author Walter Mosley as your guide, you can write a novel now. "Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls," bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. In this invaluable book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish their novel in one year. Intended as both inspiration and instruction, this book provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer. Mosley teaches you how to: Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs -- and how to stick to it. Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style. Hook readers with dynamic characters. Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story. And much more. "No-nonsense advice that is sure to set beginning writers along the righteous path to real authorhood." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Download or read book The Fiction Class written by Susan Breen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a name that conjures up windswept romance novels, one would expect Arabella Hicks' life to be as enchanted as that of a happily-after-heroine. Instead, she is a middle-aged writer, teaching a fiction writing class, and taking care of her ailing mother, in this poignant yet amusing tale.
Download or read book Writing Life Stories written by Bill Roorbach and published by Story Press. This book was released on 1998-07-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to writing stories, memoirs, and personal essays that includes information on remembering distant memories; making real people into characters; using public records, interviews, and diaries to create a believable story; and other related topics.
Download or read book The Last Draft written by Sandra Scofield and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-12-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive handbook for the novelist who is ready to revise This wise and friendly guide shows writers how to turn first-draft manuscripts into the novels of their dreams. A critic, longtime teacher, and award-winning novelist, Sandra Scofield illustrates how to reread a work of fiction with a view of its subject and vision, and how to take it apart and put it back together again, stronger and deeper. Scofield builds her explanations around helpful concepts like narrative structure, character agency, and core scenes, using models from classic and contemporary writers. The detailed, step-by-step plan laid out in The Last Draft offers invaluable advice to both novice and experienced writers alike. In Scofield, they will find a seasoned, encouraging mentor to steer them through this emotional and intellectual journey.
Download or read book The Art of Slow Writing written by Louise DeSalvo and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a series of conversational observations and meditations on the writing process, The Art of Slow Writing examines the benefits of writing slowly. DeSalvo advises her readers to explore their creative process on deeper levels by getting to know themselves and their stories more fully over a longer period of time. She writes in the same supportive manner that encourages her students, using the slow writing process to help them explore the complexities of craft. The Art of Slow Writing is the antidote to self-help books that preach the idea of fast-writing, finishing a novel a year, and quick revisions. DeSalvo makes a case that more mature writing often develops over a longer period of time and offers tips and techniques to train the creative process in this new experience. DeSalvo describes the work habits of successful writers (among them, Nobel Prize laureates) so that readers can use the information provided to develop their identity as writers and transform their writing lives. It includes anecdotes from classic American and international writers such as John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence as well as contemporary authors such as Michael Chabon, Junot Diaz, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ian McEwan, and Salman Rushdie. DeSalvo skillfully and gently guides writers to not only start their work, but immerse themselves fully in the process and create texts they will treasure.
Download or read book Angela s Ashes written by Frank McCourt and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Memoir, about Irish Americans.
