New Amazon Wish List a Reminder to Find More Time for Books

I’ve spent the past two hours listening to the rain and creating my Amazon wish list. I usually e-mail myself titles of books that I want to read, so instead of having them build up in my e-mail box, I created a wish list to keep them organized and to remind myself that I need [...]

How Newspaper Reporting Helped Jennifer Weiner Become a Better Novelist

As a follow-up to my earlier blog post about Jennifer Weiner’s talk at The Poynter Institute, you can read a related piece I put together for Poynter Online.
Weiner’s latest book, “Best Friends Forever,” just made it to the number one spot on The New York Times‘ best-seller list this week. Pretty exciting!
From Poynter Online piece:
Best-selling [...]

St. Petersburg a ‘City of Writers’; Provincetown Should Be Too

St. Petersburg, Fla., was declared “City of Writers” a couple of months ago, shortly after local poet Peter Meinke was named a poet laureate. The city has been home at one point or another to some notable writers — Jack Kerouac and Pulitzer prize winning journalists Tom French, Lane DeGregory to name a few.
I won’t [...]

Jennifer Weiner’s Tips for Writing, Succeeding as an Author

When best-selling author Jennifer Weiner told her mother about her first book, “Good in Bed,” her mom started to cry.
“Darling, what’s it called?” Mom asked.
“Hm, ‘Good in Bed.’”
“What was that? ‘Good and Bad?’”
“No. ‘Good in Bed.’”
“‘Good in Bed’?! How much research did you do?!”
Weiner, who was  at The Poynter Institute last weekend for a conversation [...]

Reading Books about Boston, New England, Home

Senior year of college I took a “Literature of Boston” course in which I came to know Boston through a literary lense that spanned decades of the historic city’s past.
We read the usual suspects, including: Edwin O’Connor’s “The Last Hurrah,”  John P. Marquand’s “The Late George Apply,” and Henry James’ “The Bostonians.”
My favorite book in [...]

Journalists Look to Scribd.com For Profitable Writing, Editing Opportunities

After my editor passed along  a New York Times article last week about a site called Scribd.com, I began to wonder about the site’s journalistic application. The site just began allowing users to charge for the content they upload — a move that could prove beneficial for journalists who are looking to make some extra [...]

Lots of Books in My Bookcase, Eight on My Nightstand

I’ve always read a lot, but lately I haven’t made as much time for books as I’d like.
Growing up, it was easy to find time to read — I read while walking two miles every day on my way to and from middle school. I read while climbing trees, while walking through the grocery aisles [...]

Tackling BBC’s 100 Books List

My friend recently posted the BBC’s 100 books list. I looked at her list and put Xs next to the books I’ve read. I was surprised to learn that I’ve read 48 of the books. (I knew being an English major would pay off someday!) I hope to read them all eventually, though some of [...]

Falling Asleep in the Boston Public Library

The snoring was loud enough to turn heads. On the otherwise quiet second floor of the Boston Public Library, a man sat with his head titled backward, his arms outstretched, his mouth wide open. I peered at him over the cover of Joan Didion’s “Democracy” and wondered what had made him so tired.
Was it that [...]

Helping to Put Together Poynter’s Book of Election Front Pages

Recently, I helped put together The Poynter Institute’s new election front page book, which features 75 newspaper front pages from around the world.
My editor, Julie Moos, thought of the idea for the book and led the institute’s efforts in putting it together in just two weeks. The goal was to have it published in time [...]