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

Kate’s 2¢: “Run” by Ann Patchett

“Run” 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…

   Susan McInerney did a good job of narrating this intriguing story. BookShare™ has an excellent synopsis of the blended family saga.

A few take aways:

–There was no one else who was willing to be crushed by the heavy mantel of his expectations.

-The sick were a ferocious lot. They would walk right through you if they thought that help was on the other side.

–The belief that the next generation would carry your work forward.

–If a person was willing to go through so much to give you what she thought would be a better life, it was the least you could do to look happy.

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:

Run DB65494

Author: Patchett, Ann

Reading Time: 9 hours, 45 minutes

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

Read by: Susan McInerney

Subjects: Bestsellers, Family

Boston. African American Tennessee Moser is injured saving one of widowed former mayor Bernard Doyle’s black adopted sons from a car accident. The Doyle boys–Teddy, twenty, and Tip, twenty-one–discover that Tennessee is their birth mother when they take home her eleven-year-old daughter Kenya. Strong language. Bestseller. 2007.

New York : HarperCollins Publishers, c2007.

Take Action On Run

From Bookshare™:

Run

Ann Patchett

9780061796050

2007

Synopsis

Since their mother’s death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children-all his children-safe. Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you’ve never even met. As in her bestselling novel Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

Kate’s 2¢: “A flock of crows: and other short stories” by Devin Cabrera

“A flock of crows: and other short stories” by Devin Cabrera

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 book was one of seven on the cartridge the NLS sent to me.

   Joe Hempel did a good job narrating this collection of horror stories.  Don’t be tempted to read one or two of these short stories at bedtime. You won’t be able to get to sleep.

From the web:

Devin Cabrera, a former filmmaker turned author, brings a cinematic edge to his gripping novels. Drawing from his experience in the film industry, Cabrera infuses his narratives with immersive scenes and dynamic characters. Through his transition to literature, he continues to showcase his talent…

I started my horror/thriller reading journey in June 2023, Welcome to Nightmare Island was my FIRST book into the genre and I absolutely loved …

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

A flock of crows: and other short stories DB129715

Author: Cabrera, Devin

Reading Time: 3 hours, 58 minutes

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

Read by: Joe Hempel

Subjects: Occult and Horror Fiction, Short Stories

“A couple wins an all-expense-paid trip to an underwater hotel, but their dream vacation turns into a nightmare when an earthquake unleashes an ancient sea creature from its deep sea prison. Trapped beneath the ocean’s surface, they must fight for their lives against a monstrous predator that should have remained buried forever. A boy moves into a house by the swamp, only to discover that the marsh hides a dark secret. As night falls, a mysterious beast emerges, preying on the children that dare enter its territory. When giant, malevolent clowns invade Earth, a teenage girl is thrust into a world of chaos and carnage. With humanity on the brink of extinction, she must outsmart and outrun the bloodthirsty clowns before she becomes their next meal. A prank gone wrong leads a group of friends into a cornfield after they egg the wrong house, but the field is haunted by an evil scarecrow that will do anything to protect its crops. These and more stories await within the pages of this bone-chilling collection. Are you brave enough to listen?”– From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Old Saybrook : Tantor Media, Inc, 2025.

Take Action On A flock of crows: and other short stories

Kate’s 2¢: “Fox” by Joyce Carol Oates

“Fox” by Joyce Carol Oates

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…

   Max Meyers, Rachel L. Jacobs, Gail Shalan, Kirsten Potter, Matt Godfrey, Rebecca Lowman, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Eunice Wong, Ina Barrón, and Fred Berman did a good job of performing the various characters in this very disturbing novel. Pedophiles are so heinous, because of the horrible harm they inflict and they look like the neighbor next door.

A few take aways:

–All the older females, who have aged out of love,  are sick with envy of the young.

–As the lighted match is brought close to the flammable’s material  explodes, how is it the fault of the flammable material, not the match that ignites it?

–Skinner’s tenets  of behaviourism: One is always conditioning others in order to make use of them at some future date; intermittent reinforcement

–How his very maleness assures authority.

–Poetry is a precise language

–dying is an art, like everything else.

–To ghost another is to make of yourself an absence in the life of another.    

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938)[1] is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collection Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award for her novel Them (1969),[2] two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).

Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing.[3] From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters.[4] She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.[5]

Early life and education[edit]

Oates was born in Lockport, New York, the eldest of three children of Carolina (née Bush), a homemaker of Hungarian descent,[6][7] and Frederic James Oates, a tool and die designer.[6] She grew up on her parents’ farm outside the town.

Her brother, Fred Jr., and sister, Lynn Ann, were born in 1943 and 1956, respectively. Lynn Ann has autism[6] and is institutionalized, and (as of 2015) Oates has not seen her since 1971.[8] Oates grew up in the working-class farming community of Millersport, New York.[9] She characterized hers as “a happy, close-knit and unextraordinary family for our time, place and economic status”,[6] but her childhood as “a daily scramble for existence”.[10] Her widowed paternal grandmother, Blanche Woodside (née Morningstar), lived with the family and was “very close” to Joyce.[9] After Blanche’s death, Joyce learned that Blanche’s father had killed himself. Oates eventually drew on aspects of her grandmother’s life in writing the novel The Gravedigger’s Daughter (2007).[9]

Violence marred the lives of Oates and her recent ancestors: Oates’s mother’s biological father was murdered in 1917, which led to Oates’ mother’s informal adoption. At age fourteen, Oates’s paternal grandmother Blanche survived an attempted murder-suicide at the hands of her own father. He did kill himself.[11] When Oates was a child, her next-door neighbor pleaded guilty to charges of arson and attempted murder of his family, and was sentenced to a prison term at Attica Correctional Facility.[12]

Oates attended the same one-room school her mother had attended as a child.[6] She became interested in reading at an early age and remembers Blanche’s gift of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) as “the great treasure of my childhood, and the most profound literary influence of my life. This was love at first sight!”[13] In her early teens, she read the work of Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Henry David Thoreau, writers whose “influences remain very deep”.[14]

Oates began writing at the age of 14, when Blanche gave her a typewriter.[9] Oates later transferred to several bigger, suburban schools[6] and graduated from Williamsville South High School in 1956, where she worked for her high school newspaper.[15] She was the first in her family to complete high school.[6]

As a teen, Oates also received early recognition for her writing by winning a Scholastic Art and Writing Award.[16]

University[edit]

Oates earned a scholarship to attend Syracuse University, where she joined the Phi Mu fraternity for women. She found Syracuse to be “a very exciting place academically and intellectually”, and trained herself by “writing novel after novel and always throwing them out when I completed them”.[17] It was at this point that Oates began reading the work of Franz Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, and Flannery O’Connor, and she noted, “these influences are still quite strong, pervasive”.[14] At the age of 19, she won the “college short story” contest sponsored by Mademoiselle. Oates was elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior[18] and graduated valedictorian from Syracuse University with a B.A. summa cum laude in English in 1960,[19] and received her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1961. She was a Ph.D. student at Rice University but left to become a full-time writer.[20]

Evelyn Shrifte, president of the Vanguard Press, met Oates soon after Oates received her master’s degree. “She was fresh out of school, and I thought she was a genius”, Shrifte said. Vanguard published Oates’ first book, the short-story collection By the North Gate, in 1963.[21]

From NLS/BARD/LOC”

Fox: a novel DB130683

Author: Oates, Joyce Carol

Reading Time: 25 hours, 6 minutes

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

Read by: Max Meyers, Rachel L. Jacobs, Gail Shalan, Kirsten Potter, Matt Godfrey, Rebecca Lowman, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Eunice Wong, Ina Barrón, Fred Berman

Subjects: Mystery and Detective Stories, Suspense Fiction, Psychological Fiction

“Who is Francis Fox? A charming English teacher new to the idyllic Langhorne Academy, Fox beguiles many of his students, their parents, and his colleagues at the elite boarding school, while leaving others wondering where he came from and why his biography is so enigmatic. When two brothers discover Fox’s car half-submerged in a pond in a local nature preserve and parts of an unidentified body strewn about the nearby woods, the entire community, including Detective Horace Zwender and his deputy, begins to ask disturbing questions about Francis Fox and who he might really be. A hypnotic, galloping tale of crime and complicity, revenge and restitution, victim vs. predator, Joyce Carol Oates’s Fox illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche while asking profound moral questions about justice and the response evil demands. A character as magnetically diabolical as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley and Vladimir Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Francis Fox enchants and manipulates nearly everyone around him, until at last he meets someone he can’t outfox. Written in Oates’s trademark intimate, sweeping style, and interweaving multiple points of view, Fox is a triumph of craftsmanship and artistry, a novel as profound as it is propulsive, as moving as it is full of mystery.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

London ; New York : Penguin Random House, 2025.

Take Action On Fox: a novel

Kate’s 2¢: “The Foundling” by Ann Leary

“The Foundling” by Ann Leary

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…

   Laura Benanti did a good job of narrating this story. Hopefully, there are no longer such misguided institutions in existence.

A few take aways:

–Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked.

–They believe in real social  change.

–suffragettes They wanted what men had.

–American ethnic homogeneity

–People want to feel they are worthy and that they belong.

–Better a coward for a minute, then dead for the rest of your life.

–luck always finds a foundling.

From the web:

Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of a memoir and four previous novels, including The Good House, which was recently adapted as a film starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages and she has written for the New York Times, Ploughshares, National Public Radio, Redbook and Real Simple, among other publications.

Her new essay collection,  I’VE TRIED BEING NICE (Simon Element/MarysueRucci) will be published on June 4, 2024

Ann and her husband Denis Leary live in New York.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The Foundling DB111594

Author: Leary, Ann

Reading Time: 12 hours, 43 minutes

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

Read by: Laura Benanti

Subjects: Psychological Fiction, Historical Fiction

“It’s 1927 and eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She’s immediately in awe of her employer–brilliant, genteel Dr. Agnes Vogel. Dr. Vogel had been the only woman in her class in medical school. As a young psychiatrist she was an outspoken crusader for women’s suffrage. Now, at age forty, Dr. Vogel runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient public asylums for women in the country. Mary deeply admires how dedicated the doctor is to the poor and vulnerable women under her care. Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, alleging the asylum is not what it seems, Mary is faced with a terrible choice. Should she trust her troubled friend with whom she shares a dark childhood secret? Mary’s decision triggers a hair-raising sequence of events with life-altering consequences for all.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : Simon & Schuster Audio, 2022.

Take Action On The Foundling

Kate’s 2¢: “The reckoning, Heritage of Lancaster County(3)” by Beverly Lewis

“The reckoning, Heritage of Lancaster County(3)” by Beverly 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…

   Margaret Strom did a good job of narrating this Amish-to-fancy-to Mennonite story. Ya, ‘tis sure and certain.

A take-away:

–God gives his people the desires of their heart…If they’re linked up with Him.

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:

The reckoning DB53520

Series: Heritage of Lancaster County

Order in Series: 3

Author: Lewis, Beverly

Reading Time: 7 hours, 56 minutes

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

Read by: Margaret Strom

Subject: Religious Fiction

Katherine Mayfield is now the mistress of Mayfield Manor in New York, yet she finds herself grieving for her Amish family and friends in Hickory Hollow. She finds solace in working with hospice patients. Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, Daniel, Katherine’s first love, is looking for her. Sequel to The Confession (DB 53519). 1998.

Minneapolis : Bethany House Publishers, c1998.

Take Action On The reckoning

Kate’s 2¢: “Into the gray zone, Pike Logan thriller(19)” by Brad Taylor  

“Into the gray zone, Pike Logan thriller(19)” by Brad Taylor  

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…

   Rich Orlow did a good job of reading this blood and guts tale. Imagine scaling the outside of a 22-story building…in bare feet and hands.

From the WEB:

Brad Taylor was born on Okinawa, Japan, but grew up on 40-acres in rural Texas.  Graduating from the University of Texas, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry.  Brad served for more than 21 years, retiring as a Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel.  During that time he held numerous Infantry and Special Forces positions, including eight years in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta where he commanded multiple troops and a squadron.  He has conducted operations in support of US national interests in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other classified locations.

His final assignment was as the Assistant Professor of Military Science at The Citadel in Charleston, SC.  He holds a Master’s of Science in Defense Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, with a concentration in Irregular Warfare.  In 2011, Brad published his debut novel, One Rough Man, which was an immediate success and launched the Pike Logan series. Now with more than 18 installments and nearly 4 million copies sold, the series has consistently hit the New York Times bestseller list. When not writing, he serves as a security consultant on asymmetric threats for various agencies.  He lives in Charleston, SC with his wife and two daughters.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Into the gray zone DB129730

Series: Pike Logan thriller

Order in Series: 19

Author: Taylor, Brad

Reading Time: 12 hours, 33 minutes

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

Read by: Rich Orlow

Subjects: Spy Stories, Suspense Fiction

“While on a routine security assessment in India, Taskforce operator Pike Logan foils an attempted attack on a meeting between the CIA and India’s intelligence service. Both government agencies believe it’s nothing more than a minor terrorist attack, but Pike suspects that something much more sinister is at play. After another terrorist operation at the Taj Mahal, he begins to believe that outside powers are attacking India in the gray zone between peace and war, leveraging terrorist groups for nothing more than economic gain. But the separatists conducting the operations have their own agenda. After a massive slaughter and kidnapping of hostages during an elaborate Indian pre-wedding party, two global powers are destabilized, and only Pike Logan and his team can de-escalate the tension by rescuing the captives. What follows is a race against the clock that winds through the bustling markets of Old Delhi, the luxurious resorts of Goa, and the epic halls of the Taj Mahal. It will take everything that Logan and the taskforce have to foil an intricate plot that leaves countless lives in the balance.”– From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

New York : HarperAudio, 2025.

Take Action On Into the gray zone

Cornucopia: Yearbook Dilemma

UCF

 Unionville-Chadds Ford

School District

Class of 1963

The Yearbook Dilemma

By Kate Chamberlin

   “Oh, Dave,” I sweetly said. “I have a new project writing my high school class’s newsletter. Do you know where my 1963 yearbook is?”

   “No,” he said, “but I’ll look for it.”

   He looked along the shelves in our spiral staircase library; the cupboard in the family room; in the spare bedroom closet; and on the shelves in my studio. He did not find my high school yearbook.

   “Oh, Connor,” I sweetly said, when our 15-year-old grandson came for a visit. “Would you please help Granddad look for my 1963 high school yearbook down in the basement?”

   “Are you saying Granddad is afraid to go down there by himself?” Connor smirked. “Do I have to hold his hand, too?”

   “No, just wear a headlamp, so you can find each other amid the cobwebs, snakes, and creepy crawlers in the dark,” I chuckled. “And while you’re at it, put all the books you find into one box.”

   I hadn’t heard anything from them for a long time. I started to get concerned, when Connor startled me yelling excitedly, “We found a 1963 yearbook/”

   “Great!” I laughed, wanting to clap and jump for joy. “I knew your keen eyes would find it.”

   “Not so fast,” Granddad said. “it’s the Deerfield yearbook, not the Unionville yearbook.”

   “We didn’t find Granddad’s yearbook either,” Connor said.

   “Oh, dear Gussie!” I said trying to hide my disappointment. “Do you suppose those two high schoolers have run away together?!”

   Later that evening, Dave and I went online and found the 1963 Unionville-Chadds Ford Joint Consolidated School District yearbook with enough text for me to start generating a class newsletter.

I know I would never throw out a yearbook. Obviously, I put it in such a safe place, it remains to be found.

Stayed tune for a renewed UCF Class of ’63 newsletter coming to an in-box near you. Watch for it!