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The Book Censor’s Library – by Bothayna Al-Essa
One of the best books I read last year was Bothayna Al-Essa’s The Book Censor’s Library. Al-Essa is a novelist from Kuwait, and the book was longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction for translated literature. While the introduction states the story is set in the future in an unnamed place, its focus,…
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Big Bend: A Homesteader’s Story
November is not the best time for camping in most states, but Big Bend National Park in Texas is an exception. The weather was excellent. Last November was my second visit to the park, but I’m always amazed at how diverse the area is. The Rio Grande forms its most distinctive boundary for 118 miles.…
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Lunacy and Acts of God – by Ruth Maus
In the new and local section of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas, I found a book that piqued my interest—Lunacy and Acts of God—written by Ruth Maus, a poet and novelist from Topeka, Kansas. Not only did Maus write the novel, but she is credited for the cover art, a stunning depiction of…
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Audiobooks: The Gift of Listening to Someone Read
Over the past few months, I’ve had two experiences that required me to limit my reading. That’s been a hard thing to do. As I struggled with this, it occurred to me that audiobooks could be a solution. Fortunately, we have a wonderful library in Johnson County, Kansas, so I’d like to give a shout…
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Writing Family
My most recent travels took me to the East Coast: Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, to be more specific. The last time I was in D.C. I was a junior in high school, so it was time to revisit that area and the many monuments and historical sites that commemorate the wars, battles, and lives…
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Nowhere Near by Teddy Jones
After my trip to West Texas last fall, I came across a book of short stories by Teddy Jones set in that area. Jones describes herself as a former “nurse, nurse practitioner, university professor, college dean, and occasional farmhand.” She currently devotes her time to writing, and lives in the Texas Panhandle. Jones’s story collection,…
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Traveling to Big Bend National Park and Beyond
Travel is one of the things I love to do. It gets expensive, though, so in November my husband and I purchased a small trailer (we use as a rolling bed) that weighs around 1,000 pounds. Our Subaru can’t pull a heavy load, and we prefer to keep things on the small size, so the…
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Scott Randall, a Canadian Writer You Should Read
This past year, I decided to check up on some of the people I’ve met in writing workshops and classes. It’s been great to find that several are published and successful writers. One such writer is Scott Randall, a Canadian writer, who I met at the University of North Dakota where we took several creative…
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End of Year Book Recommendations: The Rabbit Hutch and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Of the books I’ve read this year, The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride stand out as the most well written and interesting. There are distinct differences, but what they do have in common is their focus on specific communities and the diverse people that populate…
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Southern Storytellers Documentary – a Must Watch
A few months ago, I read an essay in The New York Times by Margaret Renkl entitled “Telling the Truth in a Story-Haunted South.” She writes about a PBS series Southern Storytellers, directed and produced by Arkansas filmmaker Craig Renaud, which features poets, songwriters, screenwriters, novelists, historians, and memoirists who grew up in or reside…
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Karen T Miller 