I was thinking as I posted my old high school reading list for English class that I should start a few lists of my own. Here’s my first attempt at a book list for one of my favorite subjects – New England! I’ll add more titles as I think of them. Adult Fiction: The Running … Continue reading
Newtown High School – Summer Reading Lists for 1981 and 1982
I’m always curious about what high school kids are asked to read in their English classes these days. I’ve had a few conversations with friends about we read back in the 1980s. Call me a packrat, but I found my own reading lists from my 9th and 10th grades. I only have the outside reading … Continue reading
Mark Twain and Childhood Homes – Some things DO stay the same!
“Nothing remains the same. When a man goes back to look at the house of his childhood, it has always shrunk: there is no instance of such a house being as big as the picture in memory and imagination for.” — Mark Twain As I passed through Hannibal, Missouri, on my recent cross-country trip, I … Continue reading
Finding the rightful home for lost artifacts…in England, the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, and Virginia!
I was working with my dad in the barn the other day and we came across a bunch of old picture frames. One of them had this picture in it. “It looks European,” said Dad. I wondered why a picture of this church would end up in my dad’s barn, but he explained that he … Continue reading
A nature memoir that I really enjoyed! – There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse
I’ve been reading memoirs ever since I started writing my own in 2011. There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse by Michael J. Tougias turned out to be a fantastic read and I highly recommend it to anyone. Where did I find this book? I actually bought it at a gift shop in Northern New Hampshire. … Continue reading
Enlisting Help for World War II Family Research
Are the facts right? I’m almost done with my family history and have been determined throughout to make sure that I’m writing a story that accurately aligns with history and other sources of data. One of the last items that I needed to confirm was whether my uncle’s name really appeared on the various World … Continue reading
Living B-17 Bomber History – The “Memphis Belle” Flies a World War II Veteran
A few months ago, I wrote about seeing the “Memphis Belle” in California (my post), which is maintained by the Liberty Foundation non-profit. A friend had commented that I needed more details about the B-17 in my book in the parts where I was writing about my father’s stories from World War II. He was … Continue reading
Predicting Popular Movies – Are Books Next?
This is a news story hot off the NPR wire. Original text at (http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/whats-behind-future-hit-movies-algorithm) A company name Epagogix has applied big data analysis to predict which movies will be hits, predicting how much a movie will make at the box office plus or minus about 10%. The algorithm evaluates scripts, plot points, actor/actress involvement, and … Continue reading
The Value of First-Hand Book Research – Norman Rockwell & Mark Twain
I plan to write a post about the places I’ve visited as background research for my memoir. However, I decided to write about my trip to Hannibal, Missouri first. I visited the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum last week. Like every Twain lover, I just had to make the pilgrimage to the home of … Continue reading
A Family Story in a Letter to an Audiologist
I’ve been cleaning out my mother’s papers since she passed away in February 2012. She had four file cabinets plus several bookcases that were dedicated to her interests and correspondence. She wrote letters for political causes at the national, state, and local level, collected news articles of interest, and compiled vast research in a number … Continue reading
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