Kate’s 2¢: “The Night Listener” by Armistead Maupin

“The Night Listener” by Armistead Maupin

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Ray Hagen did an excellent job of narrating this “circle” story. Maupin draws you into his tale, only to hoodwink and spit you out at the beginning.

   The NLS subject line should include lgbtq.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Armistead Jones Maupin Jr.[1][2][3] (/ˈmɔːpɪn/ MAW-pin; born May 13, 1944)[4][5] is an American writer notable for Tales of the City, a series of novels set in San Francisco.[6]

Early life[edit]

Maupin was born in Washington, D.C., to Diana Jane (Barton) and Armistead Jones Maupin.[1] His great-great-grandfather, Congressman Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, was from North Carolina and was a railroad executive and a Confederate general during the American Civil War.[7] His father, Armistead Jones Maupin, founded Maupin, Taylor & Ellis, one of the largest law firms in North Carolina.[8] Maupin was raised in Raleigh.[9]

Maupin attended Ravenscroft School and graduated from Needham Broughton High School in 1962.[10] He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he wrote for The Daily Tar Heel.[11]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The night listener :: a novel DB52746

Author: Maupin, Armistead

Reading Time: 9 hours, 54 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Ray Hagen

Subject: Psychological Fiction

Gabriel Noone suffers from writer’s block, struggling to create a script for his late-night radio program and trying to cope with the departure of his lover of ten years. The arrival of a book manuscript by a thirteen-year-old boy who has endured horrendous sexual abuse by his parents changes Gabriel’s life. Strong language. 2000.

New York : HarperCollins, c2000.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Stop The Presses” by Robert Goldsborough

“Stop The Presses” by Robert Goldsborough

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Peter Berkrot read this ‘Who dunnit” with his heavy British accent.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

robertgoldsborough.com

Robert Gerald Goldsborough (born October 3, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American journalist and writer of mystery novels. He worked for 45 years for the Chicago Tribune and Advertising Age, but gained prominence as the author of a series of 17 authorized pastiches of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe detective stories, published from 1986 to 1994 and from 2012 to 2023. The first novel, Murder in E Minor (1986), received a Nero Award.

In 2005, Goldsborough published Three Strikes You’re Dead, the first novel of a five book series of period mysteries featuring Chicago Tribune reporter Steve (Snap) Malek.

Biography[edit]

Robert Goldsborough was born October 3, 1937, in Chicago, the son of architect Robert Vincent Goldsborough and Wilma (Janak) Goldsborough. He grew up in Elmhurst, Illinois, and graduated from York Community High School before attending Northwestern University, where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree (1959, 1960) from the Medill School of Journalism.[1]

Journalism[edit]

After a year of reporting for the Associated Press, Goldsborough went to work for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter (1960–1963). From 1963 to 1966, he served as assistant editor of the newspaper’s Sunday magazine and TV Week, which he edited from 1966 to 1967. He was assistant to the features editor (1967–1971) and editor (1971–1972), and was named Sunday editor (1972–1975) and editor of the Sunday magazine (1975–1982). In 1982, he joined Advertising Age as editor and became the magazine’s special projects director in 1988.[1] He retired in December 2004.[2]

Nero Wolfe[edit]

Goldsborough gained national renown in the 1980s with the publication — approved by the estate of Rex Stout — of his Nero Wolfe mystery Murder in E Minor (1986). Written privately for his mother back in 1978, shortly after the death of Stout (creator of the Nero Wolfe mysteries), Goldsborough’s novel received a Nero Award. Fourteen other Nero Wolfe books by Goldsborough followed, including (2020).

“As the one who extended the life of Rex’s Stout’s famed private eye Nero Wolfe with seven novels in the 1980s and ’90s, I got both praise and derision — praise from readers who were glad to have more tales of Wolfe and his loyal right-hand, Archie Goodwin, and derision from those who either lamented that ‘you haven’t got it right’ or who felt fictional characters should be allowed to die with their creators,” Goldsborough wrote in 2011.[3]

Goldsborough resumed his Nero Wolfe series with Archie Meets Nero Wolfe (2012), a prequel to Stout’s novels, followed by Murder in the Ball Park (2014).

Snap Malek[edit]

In 2005, Goldsborough turned his attention to creating books with his own characters, beginning with Three Strikes You’re Dead, a mystery set in pre-war Chicago, featuring Steve (Snap) Malek, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. In February 2006, Three Strikes You’re Dead was named Best Historical Mystery at the eighth annual Love is Murder awards banquet.[citation needed] Terror at the Fair (2011), the fifth book in the Snap Malek series, received the Lovey Award in 2012.[4]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Stop the presses! DB131474

Series: Nero Wolfe (Goldsborough)

Order in Series: 11

Author: Goldsborough, Robert

Reading Time: 6 hours, 32 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Peter Berkrot

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Historical Fiction

“There are few people Nero Wolfe respects, and Lon Cohen of the New York Gazette is one of them. So when Cohen asks for a favor, Wolfe is inclined to listen. According to Cohen, someone wants to kill the Gazette’s gossip columnist, Cameron Clay. Death threats are a regular hazard for Clay, who has hurled insults and accusations at every bold-faced name in the five boroughs. But the latest threats have carried a more sinister tone. The columnist has narrowed his potential killers down to five people. When Clay turns up dead, the cops deem it a suicide. The bigwigs at the Gazette don’t agree, so they retain Wolfe to figure out which of the suspects had the mettle to pull the trigger.” — From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Holland, OH : Dreamscape Media, 2016.

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Kate’s 2¢: “Home to Hickory Hollow: The Guardian (03); The Secret keeper (04)” byBeverly Lewis

“Home to Hickory Hollow: The Guardian (03); The Secret keeper (04)” byBeverly Lewis

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Kristin Allison did a good job of narrating these religious stories…for sure and for certain.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.

Beverly Marie Lewis (née Jones) is an American Christian fiction novelist and adult and children’s author of over 100 books.

Lewis is a former schoolteacher and musician. She started playing the piano at age four, and began writing short stories and poetry when she was nine years old.

Much of her writing focuses on the Old Order Amish. Her maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, was born into an Old Order Mennonite Church, which interested Lewis in her own “plain heritage.” Her father was a pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch community), where she was born and grew up. She was raised and continues to be part of the Assemblies of God community.

She went to Evangel University, and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2003. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.[1]

Lewis is married to David Lewis, and they have three grown children and three grandchildren. They live in Colorado.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Home to Hickory Hollow: The Guardian ; The Secret keeper DB77824

Series: Home to Hickory Hollow

Order in Series: 3, 4

Author: Lewis, Beverly

Reading Time: 16 hours, 58 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Kristin Allison

Subject: Religious Fiction

Two novels set in Hickory Hollow, an Amish community in Pennsylvania. In The Guardian Englischer Jodi Winfield finds a little girl who speaks no English and takes the child to Hickory Hollow. In The Secret Keeper Jenny Burns joins the Amish community and struggles to fit in. 2013.

Minneapolis, Minnesota : Bethany House, 2013.Minneapolis, Minnesota : Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2013]

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Kate’s 2¢: “Truth and Beauty: A Friendship” by Ann Patchett

“Truth and Beauty: A Friendship” by Ann Patchett

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I started reading the down-load from BookShare™, but it was not making sense to me. I switched to the BARD recording.

   Barbara Caruso did a good job of reading this story that was, at times, difficult to listen to.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Truth and beauty: a friendship DB62610

Author: Patchett, Ann

Reading Time: 8 hours, 14 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Barbara Caruso

Subjects: Biography of Persons with Disabilities, Disability

Author reminisces about her long-term friendship with Lucy Grealy, whom she met in college at Sarah Lawrence and who wrote Autobiography of a Face (RC 40052) describing her battle with facial cancer. Patchett describes their relationship until Grealy’s 2002 death from a heroin overdose. 2004.

New York, NY : Harper/Perennial , 2005, c2004.

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From BookShare™

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

Ann Patchett

9780060588922

2004

Contains images

Contains images

Synopsis

A touching story of the friendship of Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy and how their paths intertwined. This is a tender, brutal book about loving a person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.

Kate’s 2¢: “Ocean: Earth’s last wilderness” by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield

“Ocean: Earth’s last wilderness” by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   David Attenborough and Colin Butfield did a good job of alternating narrating sections of this intriguing story.

   I like the way they explained what evolved during the 90 years of a whale’s life. Very interesting sections. wa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir David Frederick Attenborough (/ˈæt(ə)nb(ə)rə/;[2] born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, natural historian and writer. His presenting career began as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, and has spanned eight decades; it includes the nine documentary series forming The Life Collection, Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and Blue Planet II. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black-and-white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narration and one Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily.

Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC, working as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. While his earlier work focused primarily on the natural world, his later work has been more vocal in support of environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, limiting population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption and setting aside more areas for natural preservation. On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated that Attenborough “roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating”.[3] He is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, though he does not embrace the term.[4][5][6]

Early life and family[edit]

David Frederick Attenborough was born on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex,[7][8] and grew up in College House on the campus of University College, Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal.[9] He is the middle of three sons; his older brother, Richard, became an actor and director, and his younger brother, John, was an executive at the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo.[10] During the Second World War, through a British volunteer network known as the Refugee Children’s Movement, his parents also fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Germany.[11]

Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones and natural specimens.[12] He received encouragement when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection.[13] He spent much time in the grounds of the university. Aged around 11, he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts, which he offered through his father to supply for 3d each. The source, which he did not reveal at the time, was a pond adjacent to the department.[14] A year later, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures; some 60 years later, it would be the focus of “The Amber Time Machine”, an episode of his series Natural World.[15]

In 1936, Attenborough and his brother Richard attended a lecture by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) at De Montfort Hall in Leicester, and were influenced by his advocacy of conservation. According to Richard, David was “bowled over by the man’s determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of David’s own credo to this day.”[16] In 1999 Richard directed a biographical film of Belaney entitled Grey Owl.[17]

Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester.[18] He won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, in 1945 to study geology and zoology, was a member of the undergraduate Sedgwick Club and obtained a degree in natural sciences.[19] In 1947 he was called up for national service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth.[13]

# Colin Butfield is a British environmental storyteller, author, and producer whose work focuses on climate, nature and conservation communication … Colin Butfield is known for Ocean with David Attenborough (2025), David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) and Planet India (2023). Contribute to this … Colin is co-founder and Executive Director of Studio Silverback. He is also the co-founder of Open Planet. He is the Executive Producer of the BBC series … Our Planet is a British nature documentary series made for Netflix. The series is narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, …

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Ocean: Earth’s last wilderness DB129319

Authors: Attenborough, David, Butfield, Colin

Reading Time: 8 hours, 57 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: David Attenborough, Colin Butfield

Subjects: Nature and the Environment, Geography

“Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder, and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet–the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate, and creates the air we breathe. This book showcase the oceans’ remarkable resilience: they can, and in some cases have, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance. Drawing a course across David Attenborough’s own lifetime, Ocean takes readers on an adventure-laden voyage through eight unique ocean habitats, countless intriguing species, and the most astounding discoveries of the last 100 years, to a future vision of a fully restored marine world–one even more spectacular than we could possibly hope for. Ocean reveals the past, present and potential future of our blue planet. It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.”– From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Hachette Audio, 2025.

Take Action On Ocean: Earth’s last wilderness

Kate’s 2¢: “Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett

“Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Jill Fox did a good job of narrating this artfully crafted story, using the Stockholm Syndrum, where the hostages and rebels begin to see each other differently and depend on each other.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ann Patchett is an American writer, born December 2, 1963. In 2002 she received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto.[1][2] Patchett’s other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992),[3] Taft (1994),[4] The Magician’s Assistant (1997), Run (2007),[5] State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023).[6] The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[7]

Biography[edit]

Ann Patchett was born on December 2, 1963, in Los Angeles, to Frank Patchett (a Los Angeles police captain who arrested Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan[8]) and Jeanne Ray (a nurse who later became a novelist).[9] She is the younger of two daughters. Her mother and father divorced when she was young. Her mother remarried and when Patchett was six years old the family moved to Nashville.[10] She has described her stepfather as a “very, very weird guy” who had her carry a gun as early as age sixteen, and she partially attributes her disinterest in texting to his forcing her mother to carry a pager and respond to him on demand.[11]

Patchett attended St. Bernard Academy, a private Catholic school for girls in Nashville run by the Sisters of Mercy.[3][4] After graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.[12][4]

After college, Ann Patchett attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she lived with the memoirist and poet Lucy Grealy. Their time as roommates and their life-long friendship was the subject of her 2004 memoir Truth & Beauty. In her early twenties Patchett married; however, the marriage lasted only about a year.[13]

In her late twenties, Patchett won a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts;[3] during her time there, she wrote her first novel The Patron Saint of Liars, which was published in 1992.[3][9] In 2010, she co-founded the bookstore Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes, in Nashville. It opened in November 2011.[14] In 2016, Parnassus Books expanded, adding a bookmobile expanding the reach of the bookstore in Nashville.[15] Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender.[16][17]

Writing[edit]

Patchett’s first published work was in The Paris Review, a story which appeared before she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.[9] For nine years, Patchett worked at Seventeen magazine,[3] where she wrote primarily non-fiction. The magazine only published one of every five articles she wrote. She ended her relationship with the magazine after getting into a dispute with an editor and exclaiming, “I’ll never darken your door again!”[3]

Patchett has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, ELLE, GQ, Gourmet, and Vogue.[12] In 1992, she published The Patron Saint of Liars.[4] The novel was made into a television movie of the same title in 1998.[18] Her second novel Taft won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in fiction in 1994.[4] Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant, was released in 1997.[19] In 2001, she achieved a breakthrough with her fourth novel Bel Canto, becoming a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist[20] and winning the PEN/Faulkner Award.[1]

A friend of writer Lucy Grealy, Patchett wrote a memoir about their relationship, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship. Patchett’s novel, Run,[5] was released in October 2007. What Now?, published in April 2008, is an essay based on a commencement speech she delivered at her alma mater in 2006. She is the editor of the 2006 volume of the anthology series The Best American Short Stories.[21] In 2011, she published State of Wonder, a novel set in the Amazon jungle, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.[2][22] In 2016 she published the novel Commonwealth to widespread critical acclaim. Patchett called the book her “autobiographical first novel,” explaining, “The wonderful thing about publishing this book at 52 is that I know that I am [already] capable of working from a place of deep imagination.”[23]

In 2019, Patchett published her first children’s book, Lambslide,[24] and the novel The Dutch House,[25] a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[26] In November 2021, she published These Precious Days, an essay collection. In 2023, Ann Patchett published a novel called Tom Lake, and it made The New York Times Best Seller list.[27]

When asked how to encourage people to slow down and contemplate more during a 2024 interview for the BBC, she responded:[28]

Wouldn’t it be lovely if people sat quietly for longer periods of time?… I do, because I write novels for a living… I’m very, very careful with myself because I don’t want anything to disrupt my ability to concentrate on one thing for long periods of time. To that end, I do not watch television under any circumstances, I do not have a cell phone, and I participate in no form of social media. I have never looked at Facebook. That’s kind of interesting, because my bookstore has a huge social media presence and I make videos about the books that I’m reading, but I never watch them.

Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.[29]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Bel canto :: a novel DB54190

Author: Patchett, Ann

Reading Time: 12 hours, 20 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Jill Fox

Subject: Human Relations

The private performance of lyric soprano Roxane Coss entices Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa to attend a party in his honor in South America. While the audience applauds, guerrillas occupy the mansion taking everyone hostage. As the outer world recedes, relationships between captors and captives come into play. Some strong language. PEN/Faulkner Award. 2001.

New York : HarperCollins, c2001.

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Kate’s 2¢: “The patron saint of liars” by Ann Patchett

“The patron saint of liars” by Ann Patchett

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   Mitzi Friedlander did a great job of narrating this story. I found Rose to be a less than likeable character, whose beauty was only skin deep and left a lot of damage in her wake. I didn’t like the ending either

A few take aways:

–The world is full of things we’re better off not knowing.

–The night we lost would never be regained.

–When you get to be that old, you have a better sense of what a problem is.

–Ifpeople do have more than one life in a life-time, they should be careful to make sure the different versions of the past never over-lap.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ann Patchett is an American writer, born December 2, 1963. In 2002 she received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto.[1][2] Patchett’s other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992),[3] Taft (1994),[4] The Magician’s Assistant (1997), Run (2007),[5] State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023).[6] The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[7]

Biography[edit]

Ann Patchett was born on December 2, 1963, in Los Angeles, to Frank Patchett (a Los Angeles police captain who arrested Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan[8]) and Jeanne Ray (a nurse who later became a novelist).[9] She is the younger of two daughters. Her mother and father divorced when she was young. Her mother remarried and when Patchett was six years old the family moved to Nashville.[10] She has described her stepfather as a “very, very weird guy” who had her carry a gun as early as age sixteen, and she partially attributes her disinterest in texting to his forcing her mother to carry a pager and respond to him on demand.[11]

Patchett attended St. Bernard Academy, a private Catholic school for girls in Nashville run by the Sisters of Mercy.[3][4] After graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.[12][4]

After college, Ann Patchett attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she lived with the memoirist and poet Lucy Grealy. Their time as roommates and their life-long friendship was the subject of her 2004 memoir Truth & Beauty. In her early twenties Patchett married; however, the marriage lasted only about a year.[13]

In her late twenties, Patchett won a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts;[3] during her time there, she wrote her first novel The Patron Saint of Liars, which was published in 1992.[3][9] In 2010, she co-founded the bookstore Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes, in Nashville. It opened in November 2011.[14] In 2016, Parnassus Books expanded, adding a bookmobile expanding the reach of the bookstore in Nashville.[15] Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender.[16][17]

Writing[edit]

Patchett’s first published work was in The Paris Review, a story which appeared before she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.[9] For nine years, Patchett worked at Seventeen magazine,[3] where she wrote primarily non-fiction. The magazine only published one of every five articles she wrote. She ended her relationship with the magazine after getting into a dispute with an editor and exclaiming, “I’ll never darken your door again!”[3]

Patchett has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, ELLE, GQ, Gourmet, and Vogue.[12] In 1992, she published The Patron Saint of Liars.[4] The novel was made into a television movie of the same title in 1998.[18] Her second novel Taft won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in fiction in 1994.[4] Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant, was released in 1997.[19] In 2001, she achieved a breakthrough with her fourth novel Bel Canto, becoming a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist[20] and winning the PEN/Faulkner Award.[1]

A friend of writer Lucy Grealy, Patchett wrote a memoir about their relationship, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship. Patchett’s novel, Run,[5] was released in October 2007. What Now?, published in April 2008, is an essay based on a commencement speech she delivered at her alma mater in 2006. She is the editor of the 2006 volume of the anthology series The Best American Short Stories.[21] In 2011, she published State of Wonder, a novel set in the Amazon jungle, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.[2][22] In 2016 she published the novel Commonwealth to widespread critical acclaim. Patchett called the book her “autobiographical first novel,” explaining, “The wonderful thing about publishing this book at 52 is that I know that I am [already] capable of working from a place of deep imagination.”[23]

In 2019, Patchett published her first children’s book, Lambslide,[24] and the novel The Dutch House,[25] a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[26] In November 2021, she published These Precious Days, an essay collection. In 2023, Ann Patchett published a novel called Tom Lake, and it made The New York Times Best Seller list.[27]

When asked how to encourage people to slow down and contemplate more during a 2024 interview for the BBC, she responded:[28]

Wouldn’t it be lovely if people sat quietly for longer periods of time?… I do, because I write novels for a living… I’m very, very careful with myself because I don’t want anything to disrupt my ability to concentrate on one thing for long periods of time. To that end, I do not watch television under any circumstances, I do not have a cell phone, and I participate in no form of social media. I have never looked at Facebook. That’s kind of interesting, because my bookstore has a huge social media presence and I make videos about the books that I’m reading, but I never watch them.

Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.[29]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The patron saint of liars DB36244

Author: Patchett, Ann

Reading Time: 12 hours, 30 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Mitzi Friedlander

Subject: General Fiction

Pregnant, Rose Clinton leaves be- hind in California the short-lived marriage she had misinterpreted as a sign from God, and starts the long drive to Kentucky. She plans a temporary stay at Saint Eliza- beth’s, a home for unwed mothers, but instead, her reluctance to give up her baby leads to an addi- tional marriage. The next fifteen years at Saint Elizabeth’s are narrated first by Rose’s newest husband and then by her daughter Cecilia. Strong language.

Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

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#from BookShare™:

Synopsis

Since her first publication in 1992, celebrated novelist Ann Patchett has crafted a number of elegant novels, garnering accolades and awards along the way. Now comes a beautiful reissue of the best-selling debut novel that launched her remarkable career.St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.

Details

Copyright Date

1992

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN-13

9780547548401

Kate’s 2¢: “What Now?” by Ann Patchett

“What Now?” by Ann Patchett

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   I enjoyed this short commencement speech. It is full of wit and good advice.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ann Patchett is an American writer, born December 2, 1963. In 2002 she received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto.[1][2] Patchett’s other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992),[3] Taft (1994),[4] The Magician’s Assistant (1997), Run (2007),[5] State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023).[6] The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[7]

Biography[edit]

Ann Patchett was born on December 2, 1963, in Los Angeles, to Frank Patchett (a Los Angeles police captain who arrested Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan[8]) and Jeanne Ray (a nurse who later became a novelist).[9] She is the younger of two daughters. Her mother and father divorced when she was young. Her mother remarried and when Patchett was six years old the family moved to Nashville.[10] She has described her stepfather as a “very, very weird guy” who had her carry a gun as early as age sixteen, and she partially attributes her disinterest in texting to his forcing her mother to carry a pager and respond to him on demand.[11]

Patchett attended St. Bernard Academy, a private Catholic school for girls in Nashville run by the Sisters of Mercy.[3][4] After graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.[12][4]

After college, Ann Patchett attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where she lived with the memoirist and poet Lucy Grealy. Their time as roommates and their life-long friendship was the subject of her 2004 memoir Truth & Beauty. In her early twenties Patchett married; however, the marriage lasted only about a year.[13]

In her late twenties, Patchett won a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts;[3] during her time there, she wrote her first novel The Patron Saint of Liars, which was published in 1992.[3][9] In 2010, she co-founded the bookstore Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes, in Nashville. It opened in November 2011.[14] In 2016, Parnassus Books expanded, adding a bookmobile expanding the reach of the bookstore in Nashville.[15] Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender.[16][17]

Writing[edit]

Patchett’s first published work was in The Paris Review, a story which appeared before she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.[9] For nine years, Patchett worked at Seventeen magazine,[3] where she wrote primarily non-fiction. The magazine only published one of every five articles she wrote. She ended her relationship with the magazine after getting into a dispute with an editor and exclaiming, “I’ll never darken your door again!”[3]

Patchett has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, O, The Oprah Magazine, ELLE, GQ, Gourmet, and Vogue.[12] In 1992, she published The Patron Saint of Liars.[4] The novel was made into a television movie of the same title in 1998.[18] Her second novel Taft won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in fiction in 1994.[4] Her third novel, The Magician’s Assistant, was released in 1997.[19] In 2001, she achieved a breakthrough with her fourth novel Bel Canto, becoming a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist[20] and winning the PEN/Faulkner Award.[1]

A friend of writer Lucy Grealy, Patchett wrote a memoir about their relationship, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship. Patchett’s novel, Run,[5] was released in October 2007. What Now?, published in April 2008, is an essay based on a commencement speech she delivered at her alma mater in 2006. She is the editor of the 2006 volume of the anthology series The Best American Short Stories.[21] In 2011, she published State of Wonder, a novel set in the Amazon jungle, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.[2][22] In 2016 she published the novel Commonwealth to widespread critical acclaim. Patchett called the book her “autobiographical first novel,” explaining, “The wonderful thing about publishing this book at 52 is that I know that I am [already] capable of working from a place of deep imagination.”[23]

In 2019, Patchett published her first children’s book, Lambslide,[24] and the novel The Dutch House,[25] a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[26] In November 2021, she published These Precious Days, an essay collection. In 2023, Ann Patchett published a novel called Tom Lake, and it made The New York Times Best Seller list.[27]

When asked how to encourage people to slow down and contemplate more during a 2024 interview for the BBC, she responded:[28]

Wouldn’t it be lovely if people sat quietly for longer periods of time?… I do, because I write novels for a living… I’m very, very careful with myself because I don’t want anything to disrupt my ability to concentrate on one thing for long periods of time. To that end, I do not watch television under any circumstances, I do not have a cell phone, and I participate in no form of social media. I have never looked at Facebook. That’s kind of interesting, because my bookstore has a huge social media presence and I make videos about the books that I’m reading, but I never watch them.

Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.[29]

FromBookShare™:

What Now?

Ann Patchett

9780061842467

2008

Contains images

Contains images

Synopsis

Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by bestselling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another. With wit and candor, Patchett tells her own story of attending college, graduating, and struggling with the inevitable question, What now?From student to line cook to teacher to waitress and eventually to award-winning author, Patchett’s own life has taken many twists and turns that make her exploration genuine and resonant. As Patchett writes, “‘What now?’ represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life.” She highlights the possibilities the unknown offers and reminds us that there is as much joy in the journey as there is in reaching the destination.

Details

Copyright Date

2008

Publisher

HarperCollins

ISBN-13

9780061842467

Bookshare® and Benetech® are registered trademarks of Beneficent Technology, Inc. © Copyright 2026, Beneficent Technology, Inc.

Cornucopia: Behind Our Eyes 20th anniversary

Hello, Beautiful People,

I was leery of Sanford’s newly organized group being sponsored by a Writer’s Union, because it was during the time that the professional teachers organization I belonged to was being taken over by the teacher’s union, instead of remaining a professional entity.

While I shadowed the newly organized group in March and April, 2006, I didn’t

officially join until early September 2006.

I was instrumental in submitting the original rough draft of the By-Laws April 10, 2008, which would be needed for us to become incorporated, then to become a non-profit organization

There were numerous iterations of the By-Laws efficiently over seen by John Wesley Smith as our organization grew.

Behind Our Eyes 2: A Second Look was Published in 2013

Bobbi LaChance Bubier was the primary editor. I was one of several committee members who had organized the anthology. We had contracted with a publisher.  When Bobbi passed away, we asked the publisher for an extension to the due date, but there had already been one extension to the due date.

I offered to spearhead the final push to publication.

There were 67 contributors, so my husband and I spent a lot of concentrated time to finalize the lengthy manuscript to submit to Pat Gott, the publisher.

We often tried to get a handle of what royalties were passed on to us by the publisher, but we have been unsuccessful.

It was a steep learning curve that we applied to the third anthology.

Our marketing strategy included a professionally developed trailer, spearheaded by Donna Grahman.

   Copies of “Behind Our Eyes 2: A Second Look” are available through Amazon.com, Kindle, Nook, and Barnes and Noble.

There have been so many memorable people along the way. Do some of you remember Gertie Poole, who went by the name Renegade?

Sanford Rosenthal and Albert Cooper?

What about Ernie Jones and his Old Crow stories and Deon Lyons The other side of the glass wall?

It has been wonderful to observe how the initial group of about 27 writers has expanded into well over 100 writers with different disabilities and the plethora of innovative ideas each brings to our craft of writing.

All I can say is: Thank you for these 20 years of opportunities and w r I t e on, friends.

 #format

Hello, Beautiful People,

I was leery of Sanford’s

newly organized group

being sponsored by

a Writer’s Union,

because it was during

the time that the

professional teachers organization

I belonged to

was being taken over by

the teacher’s union,

instead of remaining a professional entity.

While I shadowed

the newly organized group

in March and April, 2006,

I officially joined in

early September 2006.

I was instrumental

in submitting the

original rough draft of

the By-Laws April 10, 2008,

which would be needed

for us to become incorporated,

then to become

a non-profit organization

There were numerous iterations

of the By-Laws

efficiently over seen

by John Wesley Smith

as our organization grew.

Behind Our Eyes 2: A Second Look

was Published in 2013

Bobbi LaChance Bubier

was the primary editor.

I was one of several

committee members

who had organized the anthology.

We had contracted

with a publisher. 

When Bobbi passed away,

we asked the publisher

for an extension

to the due date,

but there had already been one extension to the due date.

I offered to spearhead

the final push to publication.

There were 67 contributors,

so my husband and I

spent a lot of concentrated time

to finalize

the lengthy manuscript

to submit to Pat Gott, the publisher.

We often tried to

get a handle of what royalties

were passed on to us by the publisher,

but we have been unsuccessful.

It was a steep learning curve

that we applied to the

third anthology.

Our marketing strategy included

a professionally developed trailer,

spearheaded by Donna Grahman.

   Copies of “Behind Our Eyes 2: A Second Look”

are available through Amazon.com, Kindle, Nook, and Barnes and Noble.

There have been so many memorable people

along the way.

Do some of you remember Gertie Poole, who went by the name Renegade?

Sanford Rosenthal and Albert Cooper?

What about Ernie Jones and his Old Crow stories and

Deon Lyons The other side of the glass wall?

It has been wonderful

to observe how the initial group

of about 27 writers

has expanded into

well over 100 writers

with different disabilities and

the plethora of innovative ideas

that each brings to our craft of writing.

All I can say is:

Thank you for these 20 years

of opportunities and

w r I t e on, friends.

The recording of our twentieth anniversary celebration on Sunday , March22, 2026:

Kate’s 2¢: “Win where I fight, Warrior(07)” by Martha Carr and  Michael Anderle

“Win where I fight, Warrior(07)” by Martha Carr and  Michael Anderle

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as, describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ shares her thoughts about what she’s read. In her opinion…

   This was one of seven books sent to me by NLS on one cartridge.

   Amanda Friday did a good job of narrating this “”Delta Force with juice: type of story.

These authors are found on Kurtherian Gambit Wiki, but I wasn’t able to navigate the sight for their bios.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Win where I fight DB131437

Series: Warrior

Order in Series: 07

Authors: Carr, Martha (Urban fantasy author), Anderle, Michael

Reading Time: 6 hours, 42 minutes

Production: National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress

Read by: Amanda Friday

Subjects: Adventure, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction

“Richard MacBlair has all the answers Idina Moorfield needs and is finally willing to share them. Well, most of them. Who knew there was a whole special forces division? Dedicated to people exhibiting magical powers to deal with unique challenges? Things are starting to make a lot more sense to Idina. But a lot more changes may be coming her way. She has to face new challenges. A series of tests to determine if she’s good enough for a new special forces group. Are there other monsters bigger and badder than the Olc out there? Has Richard taught her enough to help her advance? And stay alive.” — From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Old Saybrook : Tantor Media, Inc, 2023.

Take Action On Win where I fight