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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Acting Out” by Benilde Little
Kate’s 2¢: “Acting Out” by Benilde Little
“Acting Out” by Benilde Little
I think the take-away from this story is that, if doesn’t matter your ethnicity, age, or race, Human frailties abound.
Gail Nelson did a good job of reading this story for us.
www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Benilde-Little/9450
Benilde Little is the bestselling author of the novels Good Hair (selected as one of the ten best books of 1996 by the Los Angeles Times), The Itch, Acting Out, and Who Does She Think She Is? A former reporter for People and senior editor at Essence, she lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband.
Benilde Little, a former journalist, achieved success as a novelist with her sharp observations of class distinctions among African Americans. When her first novel, Good Hair , was published in 1996, critics described her as part of a literary wave of black female novelists forsaking tales of slavery and poverty to write about the black middle class and upper class. When that same wave of writers began to be pigeonholed as “black chick lit” in the 2000s, Little, in her mid-40s, expanded her range, combining the usual “chick lit” preoccupation with men and dating with a portrayal of generational differences in African-American families.
Little was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. Her parents were an auto worker and a nurse’s aide, placing the family on the cusp between the working class and the middle class, but her parents tried hard to elevate their children into middle-class life through education and a stable home. In one interview, Little described watching her Newark neighborhood change as white families left and poorer black families moved in. The new kids at her school, less well-off than her, disdained her middle-class wardrobe and home.
That made Little conscious from an early age of how class differences can divide African Americans, an idea that was cemented in her mind when she attended the historically black Howard University, which has long educated much of America’s black elite. Fellow students would ask her what her father and grandfather did for a living or what car her father drove. “I don’t come from a really rich background or anything, ” she told Etelka Lehoczky of the Chicago Tribune. “I went to college and saw people who had a lot of stuff, and was kind of like, ‘Oh, my God.’ I thought we were privileged, and then I got to college and it was like, ‘No, we’re not.'”
Little attended graduate school at Northwestern University and worked as a newspaper reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Newark Star-Ledger.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Acting out: a novel DB64289
Little, Benilde. Reading time: 7 hours, 14 minutes.
Read by Gail Nelson.
Family
Psychological Fiction
When African American Ina Robinson’s wealthy husband leaves her and their three kids for another woman, Ina tries to reconnect with her past self. Ina looks up her college boyfriend, returns to taking photographs, and begins to make her own decisions. Strong language and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2003.
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Kate’s 2¢: “Alter Ego” by Brian Freeman
“Alter Ego” by Brian Freeman
I enjoyed this story. I didn’t figure out the perp until the author wanted me to know who did the dasterly deeds.
–A lot of us have bad childhoods. At some point, you have to decide for yourself who you really are. If you let it make you evil, that’s on you.
–It takes a while to recognize special; especially, in yourself.
–Every journey has its failures and set-backs…all you can do is to try harder and do better at whatever comes next.
Joe Barrett did a good job of narrating this story for us.
Brian Freeman (born March 28, 1963) is an author of psychological suspense novels featuring Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial, and series featuring Cab Bolton and Frost Easton. He has also written novels in the Jason Bourne series after Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader. Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Carleton College where he graduated in 1984 with magna cum laude in English. Before becoming an author, Brian Freeman was a director of marketing and public relations.
New York Times Bestselling Author
Brian Freeman writes psychological thrillers that have been sold in 46 countries and 22 languages. His novel SPILLED BLOOD won the award for Best Hardcover Novel in the annual Thriller Awards, and his novel THE BURYING PLACE was a finalist for the same award. His novel THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.
He has also been named by Putnam and the Robert Ludlum estate as the official author to continue Ludlum’s famous Jason Bourne franchise. Brian’s first Bourne novel THE BOURNE EVOLUTION was named one of the Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2020 by Kirkus.
“My goal is to write books with haunting characters and a lightning-fast pace,” Brian says. “My stories are about the hidden intimate motives that draw people across some dark lines. The twists and turns keep you turning the pages, and each piece in the puzzle gives you new insight into the heroes, victims, and villains.”
“I don’t like books where the characters are all good or all bad,” he adds. “I want them to live in the real world, where morality means tough choices and a lot of shades of gray. I hope that’s why readers relate so intensely to the people in my books.”
He is particularly known for the “you are there” sense of place in his novels, from dead-of-winter Minnesota to the tropical storms of Florida. He scouts real-life locales for all of his books and brings to life dramatic settings such as Duluth, San Francisco, Tampa, Las Vegas, and Door County, Wisconsin. “Nobody writes weather like Brian Freeman,” says one reviewer.
Brian has lived in Minnesota for more than 35 years with his wife, Marcia, who is his partner in life and in the book business. They both stay closely connected to Brian’s readers.
“This guy can tell a story.”
Michael Connelly
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
©2022 Brian Freeman. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Notice.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Alter ego DB92174
Freeman, Brian. Reading time: 10 hours, 27 minutes.
Read by Joe Barrett.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
When a freak accident kills a driver on a remote road outside Duluth, Jonathan Stride discovers the victim has a false identity and no evidence to suggest who he really was. What’s worse, the man has a recently fired gun in the trunk. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Almost Missed You” Jessica Strawser
Kate’s 2¢: “Almost Missed You” Jessica Strawser
“Almost Missed You” Jessica Strawser
Thérèse Plummer read this story with various emotions, so it was interesting to listen to.
It is amazing how keeping secrets can come back to bite you. I like this ending, though.
Jessica Strawser is a Pittsburgh native (as the granddaughter of a steel mill worker, she has fond summertime memories of Kennywood Park and thinks the world would be a better place if all salads were topped with french fries) who spent much of her childhood reading books, rereading books, and writing in a journal—often while perched in a cherry willow tree (fortunately her own limbs are still intact) or when she was supposed to be sleeping.
At Moon Area High School (her name was Jessica Yerega then) she was co-editor of the student newspaper, The Moonbeams, and completed a senior project with The Allegheny Times that landed her first “real” front-page byline.
She went on to Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, where she took on the courts beat for The Post award-winning student newspaper, served as editor of Southeast Ohio magazine, and graduated as the outstanding senior in the magazine sequence for 2001, by which point she’d accepted an offer to relocate to Cincinnati and join Writer’s Digest as an editorial assistant.
Jessica Strawser is the editor-at-large and columnist at Writer’s Digest, where she served as editorial director for nearly a decade and became known for her in-depth cover interviews with such luminaries as David Sedaris and Alice Walker. She’s the author of the book club favorites Almost Missed You, a Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction pick; Not That I Could Tell, a Book of the Month bestseller; Forget You Know Me, awarded a starred review by Publishers Weekly, and A Million Reasons Why, called “a standout” in a starred Booklist review and named to Most Anticipated lists from Goodreads, SheReads, Frolic, E! News & others. Her latest, The Next Thing You Know, is a People Magazine Pick for Best New Novel (new in paperback March 2023). Her sixth novel, The Last Caretaker, is forthcoming December 1, 2023.
Honored as the 2019 Writer-in-Residence at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Strawser has written for The New York Times Modern Love, Publishers Weekly and other fine venues, and lives in Cincinnati with her husband and two children. A contributing editor for Career Authors and an active Tall Poppy Writer, she keynotes frequently for writing conferences, book fairs and festivals, book clubs, libraries, and other events that are kind enough to invite her. She tweets @jessicastrawser and enjoys connecting on Facebook and Instagram.
Almost missed you DB97956
Strawser, Jessica. Reading time: 9 hours, 44 minutes.
Read by Thérèse Plummer.
Friendship Fiction
Suspense Fiction
Family
Psychological Fiction
Three years into their marriage, Violet and Finn have a wonderful little boy. While vacationing, Finn leaves Violet at the beach–packs up the hotel room and disappears with their son. Then Finn shows up on his best friend Caitlin’s doorstep, demanding that she hide them from the authorities. Some violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “All the Wrong Places” by Joy Fielding
Kate’s 2¢: “All the Wrong Places” by Joy Fielding
“All the Wrong Places” by Joy Fielding
I’m not going to spoil the story for you, but the astute reader will heed the foreshadows throughout the whole story. Well done.
I especially like the “soft” ending that packs so much import that you can’t stop thinking about the just desserts.
Wikipedia Icon
joyfielding.com
Joy Fielding (née Tepperman; born March 18, 1945) is a Canadian novelist and actress. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Biography[edit]
Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. As Joy Tepperman, she had a brief acting career, appearing in the film Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) and in an episode of Gunsmoke. She later changed her last name to Fielding (after Henry Fielding) and began writing novels.
Fielding is also the screenwriter of the television film Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story.
In the 1980s, she was also a regular contributor of book reviews to Jack Farr’s CBC Radio program The Radio Show.
Personal[edit]
At the age of 8, Tepperman wrote her first story and sent it into a local magazine, and at age 12 sent in her first TV script, however both were rejected. She had a brief acting career, eventually giving it up to write full-time in 1972.[1] She has published 30 novels and 1 Novella (as of September 2022), two of which were converted into film. Fielding’s process of having an idea to the point the novel is finished generally takes a year, the writing itself taking four to eight months.[2]
Fielding sets most of her novels in American cities such as Boston and Chicago. She has said that she prefers to set her novels in “big American cities, [as the] landscape seems best for [her] themes of urban alienation and loss of identity.”[2]
Fielding is a Canadian citizen. Her husband is noted Toronto attorney, Warren Seyffert.[3][4] They have two daughters, Annie and Shannon,[5] and own property in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Palm Beach, Florida.[2]
From NLSBARDLOC:
All the wrong places: a novel DB94449
Fielding, Joy. Reading time: 10 hours, 54 minutes.
Read by Saskia Maarleveld.
Suspense Fiction
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
The man calling himself Mr. Right Now in his online dating profile knows that his looks and charming banter put women at ease about going back to his apartment. There, he has a special evening planned: steaks, wine, candlelight, and a slow, agonizing death. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.
Downloaded: September 27, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “The Mother” by Perl S. Buck
“The Mother” by Perl S. Buck
My Mother had a collection of books by Pearl Sydenstricker Buck. When she passed on, her library became mine and I read ll the Buck books. They told of a day and age that I’m not sure exists today.
During the infant days of Communism, this peasant mother didn’t realize the danger her younger son was in. She was a strong-willed advocate for him, but to no avail. It is hard to imagine the long days of toil in the fields and how it wore a person down, especially, a mother with children.
I’ve always enjoyed Buck’s stories about the struggles of the Chinese.
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Pearl S. Buck was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. Buck’s life in China as an American citizen fueled her literary and personal commitment to improve relations between Americans and Asians.
Early years
Pearl Sydenstricker was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, on June 26, 1892. Her parents, Absalom and Caroline Sydenstricker, were Presbyterian missionaries, who were on a twelve-year leave from duty from their activities in Chinkiang, China at the time of her birth. The Sydenstrickers had returned to Hillsboro after losing all but two of their children to tropical disease. Despite their experience they returned to China when Pearl was just five months old. Unlike other foreign families, the Sydenstrickers lived in the Chinese village. Pearl spoke Chinese before learning English. Her daily lessons included morning lessons from her mother and afternoon lessons from her Chinese tutor. Pearl recalled never feeling different from the Chinese children. But at age nine the family was forced to flee to Shanghai during the antiforeign Boxer Rebellion of 1900. They returned to China at the end of the rebellion, but Pearl attended boarding school in Shanghai at age fifteen. She moved to the United States two years later and started at the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1914, she took a teaching assistantship at the college but almost immediately returned to China to care for her ailing mother.
In 1917 she married John Lossing Buck, an American agricultural specialist, with whom she settled in northern China. From 1921 until 1934 they lived chiefly in Nanking, where her husband taught agricultural theory. Buck occasionally taught English literature at several universities in the city, although most of her time was spent caring for her mentally disabled daughter and her infirm parents. In 1925 Buck returned to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Cornell University, where she received a master’s degree in English in 1926. Back in Nanking the following year, she barely escaped a revolutionary army attack on the city. Meanwhile, because of her family’s financial difficulties, she resolved to begin writing.
Novels reflect love of China
Buck’s first novel, East Wind: West Wind (1930) was a study of the conflict between the old China and the new. This was followed by The Good Earth (1931), an intense novel of Chinese peasant life, which won her a Pulitzer Prize. In 1933 Buck received a second master’s degree, this time from Yale University, and in 1934 she took up permanent residence in the United States. In 1935 she divorced John Buck and married Richard J. Walsh, her publisher. Her extensive literary output resulted in a 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first ever awarded to a woman.
Humanitarian efforts occupy later life
In the next three decades, while continuing to write many volumes, Buck worked to promote racial tolerance and ease the struggles of disadvantaged Asians, particularly children. In 1941 she founded the East and West Association to promote greater understanding among the world’s peoples. In 1949 she established Welcome House, an adoption agency for Asian American children. Her special interest in children resulted in many books for them. A steadfast supporter of multiracial families, in 1964 she organized the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which supports Asian American children and their mothers living abroad.
Although Buck’s literary career embraced a variety of types, almost all of her stories are set in China: the extremely popular novel Dragon Seed, its less popular sequel The Promise (1943), and many later novels, including Peony (1948), Letter from Peking (1957), and The New Year (1968). Among her other works are the highly successful The Living Reed (1963), which details the history of a Korean family during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the late 1940s Buck also wrote a trilogy under the pen name John Sedges.
Pearl S. Buck.
Pearl S. Buck.
Honored for generous spirit
Buck’s play A Desert Incident was produced in New York City in 1959. Her ability as an essayist is represented by American Argument (written with Eslanda Goode Robeson, 1949). Friend to Friend (1958) was an open, honest conversation with Philippine president Carlos P. Rómulo (1899–1985).
Buck died of lung cancer in 1973, with more than one hundred written works to her credit. But even more significant, perhaps, were the over three hundred awards she received for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of improved race relations worldwide.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The mother DB38117
Buck, Pearl S, (Pearl Sydenstricker). Reading time: 7 hours, 10 minutes.
Read by Kimberly Schraf.
Family
A Chinese peasant, overwhelmed by the responsibility of an aged mother, a wife, and small children and by the routine of his daily life, is stimulated by travelers’ tales and gambler’s luck and suddenly deserts his family. The young mother slaves to support everyone with a devotion that achieves its reward at last in a grandchild.
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Kate’s 2¢: “The Adults” by Caroline Hulse
“The Adults” by Caroline Hulse
Well, I didn’t think the four adults had the right attitude to begin with. When you lie and manipulate other people, especially when a child is involved, yes, things are going to go sour.
This story was well-written by Hulse and read by Sarah Ovens. I enjoyed this story, although the ending wasn’t the greatest. What do you think?
BookBrowse Logo:
Caroline Hulse Biography
Caroline Hulse spends most of her days writing, having fulfilled her dream of having a job she could do in pajamas. She also works in human resources sometimes. She is openly competitive and loves playing board and card games. She can often be found in casino poker rooms. She lives with her husband in Manchester, England.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The adults DB92998
Hulse, Caroline; Kenny, Peter. Reading time: 9 hours, 22 minutes.
Read by Sarah Ovens.
Psychological Fiction
Holidays
A separated couple decide to go on a Christmas vacation with their new partners and their seven-year-old daughter, Scarlett. The five of them (plus Scarlett’s imaginary friend) try to get along over the holiday, but the situation is a powder keg waiting to explode. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2018.
Downloaded: September 9, 2023
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Palace” by Christopher Reich; Paul Michael
Kate’s 2¢: “The Palace” by Christopher Reich; Paul Michael
“The Palace” by Christopher Reich; Paul Michael
NOTEThere 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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…
Well, there seems to be a lot of blood, guts, and other gratuitous violence, but, I suspect, that is the nature of high drama spy stories. I found the details of some of the architecture interesting.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
www.christopherreich.com
Christopher Reich is an American author.
He was born in Tokyo on November 12, 1961, son to Willy Wolfgang Reich and Mildred Reich. His family moved to the United States in 1965. He graduated undergrad from Georgetown University and went on to study business at the University of Texas. He worked in Switzerland as an investment banker before returning to the United States to become an author. He lives in San Diego and has two daughters, Noelle and Katja. He has written twelve novels, many of which have appeared on the NYT Bestseller list
Paul Michael | Narrator | Penguin Random House Audio. Paul Michael is a stage, screen, and television actor of international status. His TV credits include leading roles in a number of British sitcoms. He has acted onstage in plays ranging from Macbeth to The Wizard of Oz.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The palace DB103193
Reich, Christopher; Michael, Paul Reading time: 12 hours, 47 minutes.
Paul Michael
Suspense Fiction
Spy Stories
Private spy and ex-con Simon Riske rushes to Bangkok after a close friend is thrown into a notorious prison. Within hours, Riske stumbles into a web of intrigue and finds himself a wanted man. Sequel to Crown Jewel (DB 103247). Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The last Mona Lisa” by Jonathan Santlofer
Kate’s 2¢: “The last Mona Lisa” by Jonathan Santlofer
“The last Mona Lisa” by Jonathan Santlofer
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¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read. I’m just saying…
It was interesting how the author mixed in fact and fiction to come up with a believable story. I liked reading about the foreign sights.
Santlofer, Jonathan 1946–PERSONAL: Born April 26, 1946, in New York, NY; son of Louis and Edith (Brill) Santlofer; married Joy Katzman; children: Doria. Education: Boston University, B.F.A., 1967; Pratt Institute, M.F.A., 1969.
Jonathan Santlofer is a writer and artist. His debut novel, The Death Artist, was an international bestseller and his novel, Anatomy of Fear, won the Nero Award for best crime novel of 2009. Jonathan created the Crime Fiction Academy as The Center for Fiction. As an artist, Jonathan has made replications of famous paintings for more than 20 years.
Jonathan Santlofer is the author of five novels and a highly respected artist whose work has been written about and reviewed in the New York Times, Art in America, Artforum, and Arts, and appears in many public, private, and corporate collections. He serves on the board of Yaddo, one of the oldest artist communities in the country.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The last Mona Lisa: a novel DB105442
Santlofer, Jonathan. Reading time: 10 hours, 12 minutes.
Read by Stephen Van Doren.
Suspense Fiction
Historical Fiction
In 1911, the Mona Lisa is stolen. More than one hundred years later, art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth of his most famous ancestor, Vincent Peruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa. But Luke uncovers darker secrets. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. 2021.
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” by Madeleine L’Engle
Kate’s 2¢: “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” by Madeleine L’Engle
“A Swiftly Tilting Planet” by Madeleine L’Engle
Madelyn Buzzard did a nice job of reading this third story in this series.
What child wouldn’t be enthralled by a young boy and a splendid unicorn, who transport through risky times and space to research the O’Keefe genealogy.
“…The world has been abnormal for so long that we’ve forgotten how to live in a peaceful and reasonable climate. If there is to be any peace and harmony, we have to create it in our home.”
“Rune: I place all Hevan and Its power; the sun with it’s brightness and snow with its whiteness; the fire with all the strength it has; and lightening with its rapid wrath; and the wind with all its swiftness along their path; and the sea with its deepness; and the rocks with their steepness; and earth with it’s darkness . All these I pace with Almighty God’s help and grace between myself and the powers of darkness.”
Meg and Charles Wallace are so mentally in touch that they are able to help each other, even though Charles Wallace is ‘within’ another’s body, in another time and place.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Madeleine L’Engle (/ˈlɛŋɡəl/; November 29, 1918[1] – September 6, 2007)[2] was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.
Early life
Madeleine L’Engle Camp was born in New York City on November 29, 1918, and named after her great-grandmother, Madeleine Margaret L’Engle, otherwise known as Mado.[3] Her maternal grandfather was Florida banker Bion Barnett, co-founder of Barnett Bank in Jacksonville, Florida. Her mother, a pianist, was also named Madeleine: Madeleine Hall Barnett. Her father, Charles Wadsworth Camp, was a writer, critic, and foreign correspondent who, according to his daughter, suffered lung damage from mustard gas during World War I.[a]
L’Engle wrote her first story aged five and began keeping a journal aged eight.[5] These early literary attempts did not translate into academic success at the New York City private school where she was enrolled. A shy, clumsy child, she was branded as stupid by some of her teachers. Unable to please them, she retreated into her own world of books and writing. Her parents often disagreed about how to raise her, and as a result she attended a number of boarding schools and had many governesses.[6][page needed]
The Camps traveled frequently. At one point, the family moved to a château near Chamonix in the French Alps, in what Madeleine described as the hope that the cleaner air would be easier on her father’s lungs. Madeleine was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. However, in 1933, L’Engle’s grandmother fell ill, and they moved near Jacksonville, Florida to be close to her. L’Engle attended another boarding school, Ashley Hall, in Charleston, South Carolina. When her father died in October 1936, Madeleine arrived home too late to say goodbye.[7]
Education,
L’Engle attended Smith College from 1937 to 1941. After graduating cum laude from Smith,[8] she moved to an apartment in New York City. L’Engle published her novels The Small Rain and Ilsa prior to 1942.[9] She met actor Hugh Franklin that year when she appeared in the play The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov,[10] and she married him on January 26, 1946. Later she wrote of their meeting and marriage, “We met in The Cherry Orchard and were married in The Joyous Season.”[8] The couple’s first daughter, Josephine, was born in 1947.
The family moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse called Crosswicks in the small town of Goshen, Connecticut in 1952. To replace Franklin’s lost acting income, they purchased and operated a small general store, while L’Engle continued with her writing. Their son Bion was born that same year.[11] Four years later, seven-year-old Maria, the daughter of family friends who had died, came to live with the Franklins and they adopted her shortly thereafter. During this period, L’Engle also served as choir director of the local Congregational church.[12]
Writing career
L’Engle determined to give up writing on her 40th birthday (November 1958) when she received yet another rejection notice. “With all the hours I spent writing, I was still not pulling my own weight financially.” Soon she discovered both that she could not give it up and that she had continued to work on fiction subconsciously.[13]
The family returned to New York City in 1959 so that Hugh could resume his acting career. The move was immediately preceded by a ten-week cross-country camping trip, during which L’Engle first had the idea for her most famous novel, A Wrinkle in Time, which she completed by 1960. It was rejected more than thirty times before she handed it to John C. Farrar;[13] it was finally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1962.[12]
In 1960 the Franklins moved to an apartment on the Upper West Side, in the Cleburne Building on West End Avenue.[14] From 1960 to 1966 (and again in 1986, 1989 and 1990), L’Engle taught at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School in New York. In 1965 she became a volunteer librarian at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, also in New York. She later served for many years as writer-in-residence at the cathedral, generally spending her winters in New York and her summers at Crosswicks.[citation needed]
During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, L’Engle wrote dozens of books for children and adults. Four of the books for adults formed the Crosswicks Journals series of autobiographical memoirs. Of these, The Summer of the Great-grandmother (1974) discusses L’Engle’s personal experience caring for her aged mother, and Two-Part Invention (1988) is a memoir of her marriage, completed after her husband’s death from cancer on September 26, 1986.
On writing for children
Soon after winning the Newbery Medal for her 1962 “junior novel” A Wrinkle in Time, L’Engle discussed children’s books in The New York Times Book Review.[15] The writer of a good children’s book, she observed, may need to return to the “intuitive understanding of his own childhood,” being childlike although not childish. She claimed, “It’s often possible to make demands of a child that couldn’t be made of an adult… A child will often understand scientific concepts that would baffle an adult. This is because he can understand with a leap of the imagination that is denied the grown-up who has acquired the little knowledge that is a dangerous thing.” Of philosophy, etc., as well as science, “the child will come to it with an open mind, whereas many adults come closed to an open book. This is one reason so many writers turn to fantasy (which children claim as their own) when they have something important and difficult to say.”[15]
Religious beliefs
L’Engle was a Christian who attended Episcopal churches and believed in universal salvation, writing that “All will be redeemed in God’s fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.”[16] As a result of her promotion of Christian universalism, many fundamentalist Christian bookstores refused to carry her books, which were also frequently banned from evangelical Christian schools and libraries. At the same time, some of her most secular critics attacked her work for being too religious.[17]
Her views on divine punishment were similar to those of George MacDonald, who also had a large influence on her fictional work. She said “I cannot believe that God wants punishment to go on interminably any more than does a loving parent. The entire purpose of loving punishment is to teach, and it lasts only as long as is needed for the lesson. And the lesson is always love.”[18]
In 1982, L’Engle reflected on how suffering had taught her. She told how suffering a “lonely solitude” as a child taught her about the “world of the imagination” that enabled her to write for children. Later she suffered a “decade of failure” after her first books were published. It was a “bitter” experience, yet she wrote that she had “learned a lot of valuable lessons” that enabled her to persevere as a writer.[19]
Later years, death, and legacy
L’Engle was seriously injured in an automobile accident in 1991, but recovered well enough to visit Antarctica in 1992.[12] Her son, Bion Franklin, died on December 17, 1999, from the effects of prolonged alcoholism.[20] He was 47 years old.[21]
In her final years, L’Engle became unable to teach or travel due to reduced mobility from osteoporosis, especially after suffering an intracerebral hemorrhage in 2002. She also abandoned her former schedule of speaking engagements and seminars. A few compilations of older work, some of it previously unpublished, appeared after 2001.
L’Engle died of natural causes at Rose Haven, a nursing facility close to her home in Litchfield, Connecticut, on September 6, 2007, according to a statement made by her publicist the following day.[22] She is interred in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan.[23]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
A swiftly tilting planet DB49606
L’Engle, Madeleine. Reading time: 7 hours, 6 minutes.
Read by Madelyn Buzzard.
Science Fiction
Charles Wallace, the youngest of the Murry children, must travel through time and space in a battle against an evil dictator who would destroy the entire universe. Sequel to A Wind in the Door (DB 41596). For grades 5-8. 1978
Downloaded: August 12, 2023
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Kate’s 2¢: “Acid Row” BY Minette Walters
“Acid Row” BY Minette Walters
I liked this story. Vanessa Maroney did a good job of narrating it for the listener.
I think this story shows how rumor and innuendo can run ramped and really turn deadly. Mix in the drugs, poverty, physical disabilities, and ill-literacy, not to mention the politicians who turn their backs on the down trodden… It is a powder keg ready to explode, which it did.
I’m delighted that big, black Jimmy James turned out to be the gentle giant and hero of the story (in my mind).
M
inette Walters was born in Bishop’s Stortford in1949 to Samuel Jebb and Colleen Jebb. As her father was a serving army officer, the first 10 years of her life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England. Her father died in 1960, following years of ill health from his desert service during World War II. Minette was educated through a generous Foundation Scholarship at the Godolphin School in Salisbury.
During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Minette volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys’ home in Jerusalem. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French.
Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. They have two sons: Roland, who is married to Charlotte, and Philip, who is married to Sarah: and three granddaughters: Madeleine, Martha and Hermione.
Minette Walters wiles away from the “cosy” confines of preconceived notions of what an English murder-mystery author should be, Minette Walters can be found, glass of wine in hand, explaining the finer details of plumbing in a larder sink…
Web bookmarks for Minette’s research can run the gamut from brain trauma to the anti-war campaign, paedophilia and racist propaganda…
And, along with husband Alec, she’s only too happy to engage in ‘full and frank’ conversations about any topic you care to name, punctuated at regular intervals by her infectious laugh…
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
Acid Row DB57205
Walters, Minette. Reading time: 11 hours, 23 minutes.
Read by Vanessa Maroney.
Mystery and Detective Stories
Psychological Fiction
The residents of a bleak housing project in England riot when they discover a pedophile is living among them and a ten-year-old girl is missing. When young Dr. Sophie Morrison is taken hostage by the pedophile, black ex-con Jimmy James attempts a rescue. Violence and strong language. 2002.
Downloaded: September 9, 2023
Download Acid Row