Category Archives: books
Welcoming 1930 to the Public Domain
On the first day of each new calendar year, for the rest of my life, thousands of copyrighted works from 95 years earlier will enter the US public domain. Here is a great article on what joined the public domain … Continue reading
2025 Book Report
The approaching end of the calendar year led me to compose my fourth annual book report. I read 30 books this year, the total reduced a bit by my autumn and winter walks having been impeded by lousy weather on … Continue reading
A Quixotic Baptist
In 1930, Thornton Wilder jotted down, “Ideas for Novels or Novellas — Picaresque: Baptist ‘Don Quixote.’ Selling educational textbooks through Texas, Oklahoma.” The result was his 1934 comic novel Heaven’s My Destination. He began serious work on it at the … Continue reading
The Dutch House
After J.L. Carr’s short and moving novella A Month in the Country, I remained in the mood for something of “quality” to read. Don’t get the wrong impression; I have always enjoyed genre books, being an avid consumer of mysteries … Continue reading
Mary Stewart’s First Novel
Mary Stewart was a lecturer in English at Durham University when she wrote her first book in the 1950s. She was prompted to finally take the leap and write a book after an ectopic pregnancy nearly killed her and led … Continue reading
