reading

Smarter Characters Than Authors?

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As a reader, I often wonder how much of the characters I love are based on their authors' lives. I imagine Sara Paretsky as an outspoken champion of those who struggle, just as is her character V.I. Warshawski. I wonder whether John Sandford has a lot in common with Lucas Davenport, the main character in his Prey novels. (Maybe better if he doesn't, depending which one you're reading.) I wish I could live in Three Pines and want to visit the town in Canada Louise Penny modeled it after. ...
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Please Join Me At Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago June 9

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If you'll be in the Chicago area on Saturday June 9, please stop and say hello at the Printers Row Lit Fest. I'll be under the Chicago Writers Association Tent Saturday, June 9 from 10 AM to 12:30 PM. The CWA tent will be between Harrison and Polk on Dearborn Street (so around 700 S. Dearborn). The Lit Fest (formerly called the Printers Row Book Fair) is open June 9 and 10. It spans Dearborn Street from Congress Parkway to Polk, and there are usually tents along Polk and events in the Haro...
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Why Do The Books We Love (Or Hate) Matter So Much To Us?

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One of the two book groups I belong to consists of lawyers. (Yes, who knows why we set it up that way, but we did.) In the non-lawyer group, the participants express strong personal views about liking or disliking a book, a character, the writing style, the plot, etc., and usually listen with interest to others' impressions. The lawyer-readers comment on the same aspects of the books but are a lot more apt to pound the table and insist a particular book or author is excellent or horrible. The in...
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From My Mother’s Bookshelves (Favorite Books Post No. 3)

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My mom and dad had in their bedroom three large bookcases, which I thought of as my mom’s because nearly all the books were hardbacks she’d bought from book-of-the-month clubs she’d belonged to in the 1950s and 60s. The books had a slightly musty yet dry old paper and cloth smell I love to this day. Most of them had plain cloth bindings with titles that were barely visible on the sides, as the paper jackets had fallen apart and been discarded.My favorite book on those shelves was The Elegant Wit...
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