Here are a few of the books I’ve been sent for review recently, covering AI, maps, time travel and language.
Read MoreBooks received
in Quick looks
Quick looks
My Jane Austen collection
Quick looks: Jane Austen; Write, Cut, Rewrite; Handwritten; The Book At War; From Edtech to Pedtech
in Bookshelf, Quick looks
Since I read Northanger Abbey when I was in my twenties, I have to say that in the interim it has much improved. Clearly, Jane must have taken a creative writing course or two because it is now much funnier, more cutting and more modern, what with her stepping outside the story to comment on her characters and the novel form itself.
Read More
Click the pic to see this on Amazon (affiliate link)
Quick looks: Triggered Literature PLUS an extract from my new version of Macbeth
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
A very timely publication. The first section is replete with anecdotes about trigger warnings and similar. Some of these are, in my opinion, ill-informed (such as the charges levelled against Jane Austen) while others are ridiculous (like the rewriting of parts of the Noddy books).
Read More
Christmas reading
in Bookshelf, Quick looks
Here are a couple of suggestions for your reading pleasure. They are not Christmas books, but big hefty tomes that need a bit of time to wade into.
Read More
Click the image to see this on Amazon (affiliate link)
Quick look: The Artist's Journey
in Bookshelf, Quick looks
Back in April 2023 I reviewed The Writer’s Journey, and this is a companion volume by the same author.
Read MoreQuick looks: Once Upon A Prime
in Quick looks, Reviews
I recently received this book, and I’m enjoying it very much. It looks at the (usually hidden) existence of maths in literary works.
Read MoreQuick looks: Solutions for Writers
in Quick looks, Reviews
This is packed with useful information. I’m especially looking forward to reading the the sections called How to Show Instead of Tell, and Using the Techniques of Fiction to Enhance Nonfiction.
Read MoreQuick looks: The Notebook
in Quick looks, Reviews
This comes out on 2nd November. It has a very readable style, and interestingly the footnotes are in a different font from, and bigger than, the main text.
Read MoreQuick look: Retroland, by Peter Kemp
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This book arrived recently, and I’m very much enjoying reading it. It’s a kind of guided tour or survey of the types of fiction that have appeared in the last fifty years (mainly).
Read MoreQuick looks: Oulipo and the Mathematics of Literature
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Oulipo, Reviews
Berkman has written an interesting and very academic examination of the links between maths and literature.
Read More
Click to see this on Amazon
Quick look: The 12 Week Year for Writers
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This is a book about strategy and meeting objectives rather than a how-to-write guide.
Read More
Click on the cover to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)
Quick look: Guerrilla Publicity
This book is aimed at the small business person who has more energy than money to spend on publicity. That sounds like a description of most writers!
Read More
Click the cover to see the book on Amazon (affiliate link)
Quick look: You talkin' to me? The Unruly History of New York English (The Dialects of North America)
in Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
One of my ambitions, once this pandemic is over, is to visit New York if I can. In the meantime, this look at the various cultures and dialects in New York is a reasonable substitute for actually being there.
Read More
Screenshot by Terry Freedman
Writing prompts for kids
Do you have a child you’d like to encourage to write? This writing prompt website may be of interest.
Read MoreQuick look: Audio for Authors
in Audio, Bookshelf, Quick looks, Reviews
This book provides compelling reasons for including audio as an integral part of the writer’s portfolio and tools of the trade, not merely an add-on or afterthought.
Read More
Click the pic to be taken to this book’s Amazon page. (This is an Amazon affiliate link.)
Should writers aim for unmindfulness?
in Bookshelf, Moments, Reviews, Quick looks
Perhaps a useful aim of writers is to lead the reader to put the book or article down, and disappear in a flight of imagination. After all, surely one measure of success is that what you’ve written led someone to think of something, or to make connections, that had not occurred to them before?
Read More
Click on the cover to be take to the book’s Amazon page (please note, this is an Amazon affiliate link).
Quick look: Short-form creative writing: a writer's guide and anthology
You may be very good at condensing a complex argument and proposals down to no more than six bullet points (as one of my line managers always demanded). This book makes it clear that there are more creative opportunities too.
Read More
Click the pic to be taken to the book on Amazon (affiliate link)
Books unseen: My Name is Why
A few notes about a forthcoming memoir with a difference.
Read More
5 Minute Tip: A free bulk renaming utility
Here's a great utility for Windows users. It enables you to rename loads of files at once, in various ways.
Read MoreQuick look: Publishing 101 by Jane Friedman
My thoughts on this book for would-be published authors, having read around a third of it up till now. Executive summary: so far so good.
Read More