March 6, 2010
Did you ever wonder how James Patterson is able to churn out so many bestsellers while you sit at your computer struggling to write even a simple sentence, much less produce something that will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams? The answer, America, is in the feature, James Patterson Inc., from The New York Times Magazine. […]
March 3, 2010
March is Women’s History Month “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” We’ve seen that clever quip on mugs, t-shirts, and posters, and it’s been used by news commentators, politicos, and pundits. But who said it first? Mae West wouldn’t be a bad guess. Gloria Steinem is another candidate. But here’s the truth: Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich used it in an […]
March 3, 2010
What do you do when the whole world wants you to stay a child forever? When your juvenile self is more real and lovable to everyone you meet than the adult you? Such was the real life plight of two very different women: Alice Liddell Hargreaves and Maureen McCormick, better known respectively as “Alice in […]
March 2, 2010
It has long been a fantasy of mine to go away for a weekend and do nothing but read. No commitments, no interruptions, just me and a book. So when an open weekend, frequent flyer miles, and an understanding husband presented itself, I jumped at the chance – an entire weekend alone in warm weather […]
February 28, 2010
William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well has been a great resource to writers around the world for over 30 years. Recently, he spoke to incoming international students at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism about “certain principles of writing good English.” While his original audience included writers for whom English is a second or perhaps even third or fourth language, […]
February 26, 2010
It is hard to imagine a better day on which to celebrate the birth of Edward Gorey than this past Monday, February 22nd. Looking out the library windows one couldn’t help but think that the cold, gray, gloomy, windswept day with the black tree branches shrouded skeletally with fresh snow would have pleased Mr. Gorey […]
February 25, 2010
In addition to a deeper shortlist than ever before, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize announces two new awards. One is the first-ever Graphic Novel Prize, making the LA Times Book Prize the first major book award in the United States to bestow this honor in a category that has for years included a rich […]
February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010 marks a very special occasion. Sometime tomorrow, one lucky patron will check out the 1,000,000th item to circulate at the library this year. For the first time ever we’re going to hit the one million (!) mark for items checked out from Evanston’s three libraries (North, South, and Main Branches) in […]
February 20, 2010
A few years back Elmore Leonard wrote a brief piece for the New York Times (later published as a short book) detailing his 10 Rules of Writing. His list included many practical tips: avoid prologues, keep your exclamation points under control, try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip. Inspired by his list, the […]
February 20, 2010
This post was originally published in the February 2010 issue of LibrarySparks. I met Sharon Draper in a utility closet. Maya Angelou, Angela Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson were there, too. I talked to Kadir Nelson, Ashley Bryan, and Walter Dean Myers. Yes, and even Christopher Paul Curtis. Can you guess the common thread that led […]
