Category: General

Ehrenreich on the Economy and Lost Middle Class

Reuters conducted a question-and-answer session with Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed about the difficult economy and the prospects for the middle class. They even got her update on some of the people featured in Nickel and Dimed. It’s an interesting take on a challenging time.

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New York Times Year-End Roundup

Late last week, the New York Times presented a batch of year-end roundups. Critics Janet Maslin, Dwight Garner, and Michiko Kakutani all pick their top books of 2009. And while I certainly have my disagreements with the critics, I do find lists like this helpful for reminding me of books I might have forgotten over…

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Reading Round Up

It’s been a hectic summer and fall for me, full of travel for book research and other adventures here and there. But I recently got a bit of a break where I could catch up on my reading. And I’m pleased to say that I’ve been on a run of really good books lately. First…

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Intensely Focused Practice

When we observe someone who has truly mastered their craft, whether it’s a writer, athlete, musician, or business person, we tend to assume they achieved that level of mastery through a combination of two ways: 1. They worked really, really hard. 2. They were born with some level of natural talent. However, in Talent is…

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Writers on the Scale of Fame

To us, the bookish sorts, writers of a certain stature can definitely seem famous. But every once in a while, there’s a comment or an article that shows you just how far down the rung of celebrity writers are. Here’s an interesting article about Jon Ronson, author of the novel, The Men Who Stare at…

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