I have been writing for almost all of my adult life. In my previous role as a school administrator, I published more than a dozen articles for professional journals. Then, a few articles began appearing in popular magazines, both followed by speaking engagements across the country. When I retired from public school service, I took the leap to the novel. Fools and Children and Ticket to Oregon are the result.
One of the first novels using a picaresque story-telling technique, this novel set the standard for the style—one I soon adopted. Good stories, some spicy for the day, are told in a logical progression, which gave rise, methinks, to Twain and certainly me. Great vignettes told un-attached but somehow part of a progression.
Daniel Defoe's bawdy tale of a woman's struggle for independence and redemption, Moll Flanders is edited with an introduction and notes by David Blewett in Penguin Classics.
Born in Newgate prison and abandoned six months later, Moll Flanders' drive to find and hold on to a secure place in society propels her through incest, adultery, bigamy, prostitution and a resourceful career as a thief ('the greatest Artist of my time') before her crimes catche up with her, and she is transported to the colony of Virginia in the New World. If Moll Flanders is on one level a Puritan's tale…
A basketful of tales told by various storytellers on their religious pilgrimage. As Twain used the river and I as locations, this classic used the travelers to offer a varied yet united sequence focusing on saints and sinners.
I recommend this book because I am a storyteller and folks who like stories should enjoy these humorous, serious, and spicy tales from way back yon.
Trapped in her enormous, devout Catholic family in 1963, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies when the pope dies and their family friend, Cardinal Stefanucci, is unexpectedly on the shortlist to be elected the first American pope.
Driven to elevate her family to the holiest of holy rollers in…
This is a collection of four novellas featuring King not only as a horror writer but also of well-created stories, usually involving young men. Three of these have been made into films. By the time I tumbled to this book, I was expecting more of the old King horror works.
I related especially to The Body as it listed four boys, just like the kids of my youth. With King, a wonderful description of detail, something to which I aspire is King.
Includes the stories “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine
A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.
This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.
I think this is one of the most beautifully written pieces of writing from across the ages. Its story of a young man and his younger brother fits exactly into my own tastes for a priceless rendering of how youths respond not only to their environment but also to their dreams/goals.
Its odd story twists—kids wanting west but getting east—are a multi-layered set of tales. I loved it for both story and writing.
The Stark Beauty of Last Things
by
Céline Keating,
This book is set in Montauk, under looming threat from a warming climate and overdevelopment. Now outsider Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old claims adjuster scarred by his orphan childhood, has inherited an unexpected legacy: the power to decide the fate of Montauk’s last parcel of undeveloped land. Everyone in town has a…
I read this book before King became a household name. It was his first big hit and set off a career unmatched in the horror genre. Read as a referral from a friend, I was immediately struck by his uncanny ability to detail a scene.
While not particularly a fan of horror stories, I certainly have read at least eight more King books. I believe him to the master of his ilk.
#1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.
But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.
In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that…
The "new" American West—in this specific case Oregon with its wonderful Mt. Hood and the Deschutes River—was a saga-filled time from 1900 to 2000. Owen Ticket, the third generation of barkeeps at Ticket's Bar, enthralls his out-of-town visitor with stories of three central families—their creation of a brand new town, their feud, and all the town's involvements in the historical events of the 1900s.
So, we have tales from two world wars, Vietnam, the depression, prohibition, and the plight of the Oregon wood industry. And we get the characters of the town: The Frenchman, Stonekicker Bob, the local gravedigger, and Anne Oakley herself. Let Own open his tap to the reader.
Pride’s Children is a captivating, contemporary story about love, regret, ambition, and obsession - with a glitzy backdrop. Closer examination reveals a textured and soul-searching novel that serves as a poignant reminder that we are defined by our choices - and their consequences. The treatment of an enigmatic and life-altering…
Magnolia Merryweather, a horse breeder, is eager to celebrate Christmas for the first time after the Civil War ended even as she grows her business. She envisions a calm, prosperous life ahead after the terror of the past four years. Only, all of her plans are thrown into disarray when…
