by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 18, 2009 | accumulation |
I buy books. I used to feel guilty that I didn’t use the library, but no longer. I look at it this way. By buying a book I’m supporting a writer. If I buy from an independent bookstore, I’m supporting them as well. It’s an investment in what I...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 15, 2009 | accumulation |
Some people shelve their books by color. I wish I were that creative. Instead my books sit on the shelves in boring alphabetical order–by author’s last name. When I first organized them years ago, I tried not to squish them so I would have room to add...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 12, 2009 | first novels, reviews |
At the beginning of The Vagrants, the first novel by Yiyun Li, one at a time, each of the main characters comes into contact with one of the notices being posted all over the Chinese town of Muddy Waters announcing the execution and denunciation of a...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 10, 2009 | Columbus GA, place, reading, the day |
Yesterday, June 9th, I sat and read under this little piece of sky–one of those skies that appeared still, the clouds unmoving. It looks like a sky that might be over you at the beach or in a meadow where you might be ripping a piece of baguette to go with a...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 8, 2009 | catching moments, craft of writing, journeys, shapes |
Which leads to another…. For the last post, I was looking for a quote by Henri Matisse that I never found by the way about not needing to show the whole shape of something in order for the viewer to grasp what you’re creating. In fact, for the Barnes...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 5, 2009 | shapes |
“Obituaries, I believe, are really less about death than the odd shapes life takes, the patterns that death allows us to see.” The Bridge of Sighs, Richard Russo But it’s not death that allows us to see the patterns. Death just gives us the last few...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 2, 2009 | stories |
With the intention of reading a story a night, a reader asked yesterday about story collections. I love that idea. No brand new collections to suggest, I’m afraid, but here are three great oldies: Women & Fiction, edited by Susan Cahill, published in 1975....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 1, 2009 | reading |
June 1st, although not officially summer, is in my mind, which makes it time for summer reading! My recommendations: The Earth Hums in B Flat (novel) by Mari Strachan. This is out now. I just read it….See my review forthcoming in July in the summer issue of...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 30, 2009 | catching moments |
Sometimes I sit down at my desk to make a post, and I think I know what I want to write about. So I’m typing away on the computer and what I started with is getting farther and farther down the page as I continue to write and hit enter. Finally I realize I must...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 26, 2009 | essays, life |
When I did the first post on the russian-doll aspect of life, I knew I’d read it somewhere else too, but I couldn’t find it. This morning I came across the words in some underlining of mine (in a black pen, surprisingly) from january of 2001 in Anna...
