The leaves that fell in November |
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George Eliot once said ... |
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Poetry and art and knowledge are sacred and pure.
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The Girl Who Taught Herself to Fly |
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Kwan Kew Lai has two upcoming events to promote The Girl Who Taught Herself to Fly:
The first, a conversation with E. B. Bartels, will take place on December 8th at 7 pm ET at Wellesley Books.
One week later, a conversation with Yifei “Effie” Kong on December 15th, will take place at the Cambridge Public Library.
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Crowfoot once said ... |
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Hold on to what you believe, even if it's a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, even if it's a long way from here.
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Survivor Stories and Learn History Through Fiction |
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Ann S. Epstein
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As a part of her "Survivor Stories" and “Learn History Through Fiction” series that coincide with One Person's Loss, Ann S. Epstein has been posting about real Holocaust survivors as well as the role the U.S. played both in denying Jewish refugees' entry and a war policy that did not end the horrors sooner.
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Why I Gave My Professional Book Covers a Makeover |
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Jean Gill
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"When I looked at the bestselling books in my genre, I was struck by the change in cover trends over the years."
Jean Gill's "Why I Gave My Professional Book Covers a Makeover," which discusses her and VLP Jessica Bell's partnership as Jean underwent the process of updating her Troubadours series covers
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As It Happens |
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Alan Humm
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"Here's a combative statement: clichés are like germs. They sap the strength of any book that uses them." Check out Alan Humm's latest "As It Happens" posts. You can read them here and here.
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How do you make a career with your writing... |
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Roz Morris
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"Luck doesn’t have to mean dramatic big breaks. Luck can also be small stepping stones that together line up into your own individual and unexpected path." Check out Roz Morris's "How do you make a career with your writing? Lessons from several years of author interviews," featuring several VLP authors' advice and words of wisdom.
Also, Roz's Memories of a Future Life and Lifeform Three are now available as audiobooks. You can purchase a copy here and here or check them out through your local library (if they're not available, you can always request that they add the titles).
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Buffy Sainte-Marie once said ... |
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You have to leave room in life to dream.
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Jessica Bell
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"'It was the kind of loneliness that made clocks seem slow and loud and made voices sound like voices across water.' I love that line. I had it written on a mug....My Vine Leaves Press partner Amie McCracken had it painted on a mug for me and sent it to me for my birthday." In a recent interview with Julie Strauss, Jessica Bell discussed her writing, book cover designing (and a few opinions about covers), Marilynne Robinson, and more.
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Apple Gidley
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"I truly believe that to live a good expatriate life, you need to learn a little of the culture and the history of the country that you happen to be a guest in. I think that's the other really important thing to always remember: that you are a guest in someone else's country." Apple Gidley recently spoke to Anne Louise O'Connell about her travels and overseas experiences, Have you Eaten Rice Today?, and more. She was also recently interviewed by Yvonne Langenberg of Boobooks in Armidale, New South Wales.
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Kwan Kew Lai
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"Wellesley was the stepping stone for me to become a doctor....after Wellesley College, I went to dental school, and then I changed my mind and went to medical school. I was a professor of medicine for about 18 years, and I decided to leave Medical Academia to start a new chapter of my life doing medical humanitarian volunteering." Check out Kwan Kew Lai's recent virtual book talk and conversation with Harvard's Felicia Ho.
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Guinotte Wise
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"I went to bullriding school in Texas, and, before that, I’d hung around jackpot rodeos in little towns, watching then competing. You go to the arena office, show your affiliation card, pay a fee, draw your bull. Then you’re on your own, you and that bull." Learn more about Guinotte Wise's unique life experiences, how creativity runs in his family, his writing and artistic habits, and more in Roz Morris's latest author interview.
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Fennel Hudson once said ... |
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December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.
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Check out our top-rated all-time bestsellers & other recommendations: |
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by Jessica Bell |
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A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon
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Inspired by the special bond between mother and child, Bell's poems search for meaning in a world of misconception. They begin with small everyday moments and end with a shift in understanding that not only enlightens, but leaves you wondering.
From quiet nights reflecting on the sound of her child's smile, to viewing the world from the perspective of a potted tree dreaming of being rooted into true mother earth, A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon is a collection of raw, honest, modern-day fables that remind readers to look deeper, feel more, and let the world speak for itself.
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by Walter B. Gibson and Morris N. Young |
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Houdini's Fabulous Magic
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Incredible escapes, fantastic sleight-of-hand-Houdini's most challenging performances are dramatically portrayed in Houdini's Fabulous Magic. Walter Gibson, co-author, was in close touch with Harry Houdini for a number of years before his death and worked with the master magician in preparing material for the book. It is with the aid of Houdini's own scrapbooks and notes that this book was written.
The spectacular highlights of Houdini's career are described--and explained--here. Included are the famous escapes: escapes from a padlocked milk can filled with water; from locked jail cells; from a water-filled Chinese torture cell while suspended upside down; from packing cases weighted underwater. Again, in this book, Houdini walks through a brick wall, vanishes a 10,000-pound elephant and is buried alive. Once more, Houdini and his wife Bessie mysteriously exchange places in a locked trunk-in three seconds!
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by Jessica Bell |
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How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness (audiobook)
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This is the tale of Icasia Bloom: how she is caught up in a story not initially her own, and how it changes her world.
In a Globe controlled by a trusted yet elusive leader who has granted immortality to those who live by The Book, misfit Icasia Bloom is doomed to die young for the crime of her child's unhappiness.
Like all 'Tatters' she gets food by bartering, and when she brings customers to the new local bakery, she meets another borderline outcast, Selma Beyett, whose plight touches her.
Heart-warming, yet strangely unsettling, How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness questions everything we take for granted, and takes a long, hard look into our souls.
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by Cordelia Frances Biddle |
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They Believed They Were Safe
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Autumn 1962 in a picture-perfect small New England college town. Mabel Gorne arrives with a single suitcase and an unsettling secret. Unlike the pampered daughters of the affluent who compose the student body, the penniless, Midwestern Mabel is an anomaly who must make her own way while outrunning a past she fervently hopes to bury.
Will Mabel reckon with her history in time to find the loving and compassionate future she yearns for, or will the emotions her presence unwittingly sparks engulf her and those she assumed she could trust? They Believed They Were Safe shines a light on the dark places of the human heart where sexual obsession, revenge and murder lurk.
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