Whether you are a yesteryear scholar or naivety, reading historical fiction can put the STORY in history. It helps us discover what we don’t know and reimagine what we do.
Sherrie’s Blogs
A blog that explores books and their relevance to our everyday lives, the value of literacy, and what it means to be a curious person.
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Tis the good reader that makes the good book…" I hope that the same is true about good blogs. Thank you good readers.
Truth or Fiction?
Wowed
New York City subway riders are often on a hurried, harried singular mission to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. During the ride, we cocoon in motion amidst a pressing throng of humanity who are variously occupied with eye avoidance, sleeping, reading, texting, manspreading, panhandling, decibel-deafening earbud listening, and sighing. […]
A New Year’s Resolve
Novel Therapy
These days we are besieged by alarming events, those unfolding in our own backyard and in the yards of far-flung places. We seek refuge from our angst of what is and what might be.
Mental escape is one popular way to cope with worries and as bibliophiles can attest, books are a magical escape route. But, can they provide more than that? Do books offer a novel therapy during turbulent times—in both the literal and figurative sense?
If that seems like hyperbole, consider how well books can influence our perspective on the world or alter our mood; they can engender ideas, tap into emotions, and motivate behaviors—results we often seek from traditional treatments and remedies.
Dust Déjà Vu and The Dirty Thirties
Dusters are making news again (a rare one wreaked havoc in central Illinois this past week). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, they are increasing in numbers. A dust déjà vu?
Mention the Dust Bowl and people often refer to John Steinbeck’s classic, “The Grapes of Wrath,” and the Joad family’s migrant escape to California. Like the fictional Joad’s, millions of real people fled the Plains States during the Dirty Thirties. What about those who stayed behind?
Spring Fever
I have recently read some very good books on productivity, focus, business ingenuity, perseverance. For all the wisdom bestowed, reality is that my get-up-and-go is off meandering through meadows of dandelions and daffodils. I should be writing, instead I just want to curl up and read about escaping to far-flung places. That’s when it hit […]
None So Blind
We say it about ourselves, about others, and sometimes, about entire groups: “How could I (he, she, we, or they) have been so blind?” This later fallibility is the focus of “Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril.” In it, author Margaret Heffernan combines research and compelling case studies to examine our collective societal ‘ostrichness’.
Hamilton’s Cascade of Creativity
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton’s life has inspired a recent cascade of creativity. First Ron Chernow wrote the Pulitzer-prize winning biography, “Alexander Hamilton,” which begat Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster, “Hamilton: The Musical.” Since its launch in 2015, the musical was the catalyst for a PBS special, a mixtape, and another book, “Hamilton: The Revolution,” a virtual matryoshka doll of stories nesting inside of stories: autobiography, biography and history.