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sfsucw · 2 years

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Cherry Tree Now Open for Submissions!

Deadline: October 1, 2022 Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal would like to read your fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction through October 1, 2022. All accepted work is also considered for our distinctive Literary Shade section. Contributors receive $20 and 2 copies of the issue in which their work appears. Our $3 reading fee helps us to pay contributors and 10% of those fees will be donated to Minary's Dream Alliance, a community nonprofit organization with strong mentorship programs for at-risk youth.

For more info - https://www.washcoll.edu/learn-by-doing/lit-house/cherry-tree/?utm_source=newpages&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=2022_reading_period&utm_content=cherry_tree

#submissions #fiction #flash fiction #poetry #nonficton #creative nonfiction

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darklingichor · 2 years

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The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

There are some non-fiction books that, unintentionally tell more about their author than they do about their subject matter.

The book about Butch Cassidy that I read last year, is a pretty good example in my opinion. The author was clearly more pissed that the movie wasn't real than he was interested in Cassidy.

This book is a prime example.

Anyone who watches or reads true crime has probably heard of this debut book by Ann Rule

I've read other books by her but just haven't gotten around to her tale of Ted Bundy until now.

I knew a little, that she met him when they both volunteered for a Seattle crisis line (something always said with irony dripping from it considering what we know of Bundy now) and that they had been friends.

I think we all know about Ted Bundy and his crimes, so I am not going to go into the gruesome details. The girls, both known and unknown, the few who survived, and the many who didn't don't need to have their ordeals detailed by me. What I will say is that I hate it when people go on about Bundy and his twisted brilliance.

Was he smart? Yeah, in his way. But it was more theoretical intelligence than anything useful. He could read and spout a good sounding sentence, but in the end, his intelligence was all on the surface, because for all time time spent in classes, going from one college to the next, he only really learned the ciffnotes version of anything. To truely *learn* anything frpm phsyc classes, you have to be willing to look both inside yourself, and also see how another might be suffering. All the knowledge in the DSM is just lip service if you don't have empathy for others or the capsity for self reflection. He didn't. There was nothing inside himself he wanted to reflect upon, and he didn't care at all for others. His practice of the law was entirely self centered. Sure, his limited knowledge of it was used to fair effect in defense of himself. But like everything else, it was shallow. To me, it was just a step above someone simply standing in the courtroom yelling random legal terms.

No, he wasn't brilliant cunning killer.

Like Jack the Ripper before him, his

"success " if you want to call it that was less about his brain and more about circumstance.

The Ripper went after those who were below the notice if the law.

Bundy also used the culture to his advantage. He was a blandly handsome white guy, clean cut and looked younger than he was. He went after young white women and girls. The oldest being in their late 20's,the youngest confirmed being 12. He was the very definition of non-threatening to these girls. Looking like someone they would likely see every day. And when you add that he would use a ruse to ask for help, or paint himself as an authority figure, he became even less of a cause for fear. Also consider that more than one girl had been attacked on a college campus. It's easy to think that you are safe on campus. Especially if you live there. Think about it, that place is basically your back yard, you are safe in your back yard. Not only that, but everyone is always taught that there is safety in numbers. A good number of the girls lived in houses with other people. His one talent was that he knew where people would not have their guard up. And even that isn't that brilliant, He knew where he could be lost in a crowd. We all can figure that out of we think for a second.

He preyed on the young women who had every right to feel safe, in places where he very well could have simply been what he was pretending to be and no one would bat an eye.

Think about it, had he been in different areas where he would have stuck out, he wouldn't have been viewed and forgotten so often.

Anyway, like I said this book really says more about Ann Rule.

She is loyal, but didn't have blinders on. I respect that she didn't try to wax philosophical about how cunning and smart Bundy was. She documented other people doing it, but didn't really say much beyond that Bundy was intelligent, was likely a sensitive kid, who went though trauma early in childhood.

Throughout the book, she detailed her friendship with Bundy, she was honest, she liked him. He was charming, he was nice to her, he was *good* at the crisis line.

And when Bundy was arrested she honestly thought that even if he was guilty, she would still write to him, as he was clearly sick and clearly needed help, so obviously she wouldn't abandon him. While writing the book and Bundy was alive, she didn't publish anything he asked her not to.

She had incredible integrity, and seemed to be a genuinely nice person, wanting to see the best in people. She wanted to see the best in Bundy tried, until she couldn't any more, to keep a seed of doubt about his guilt. I am impressed by her ethics and by her want to be fair, even to the most unfair people.

#book #books #book blogging 2022 #ann rule #the Stranger Beside Me #nonficton #true crime

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honzovocteni · 2 years

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Čtyři tisíce týdnů

Čtyři tisíce týdnů – Oliver Burkeman (v českém překladu Líby Mohelské – 2022 v nakladatelství Jan Melvil Publishing; v anglickém originále Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – 2021 v nakladatelství Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Jednou zemřete. Věděli jste to? Asi ano. Od narození do smrti to bude asi čtyři tisíce týdnů. To jste tušili? Hádám, že spíš ne. Z těchto dvou informací poměrně jasně vyplývá, že čas, který máte k dispozici je značně omezený a měli byste si sakra dobře rozmyslet, jak s ním naložíte. Tak jsem vám všem právě ušetřil pár stovek za nákup knížky Čtyři tisíce týdnů od Olivera Burkemana. Není zač, na shledanou příště. No dobrá, to bych možná byl příliš nespravedlivý, nicméně toto je skutečně základní myšlenkou celé knížky a je neuvěřitelně (a dost možná zbytečně) roztahovaná. Ne, že by zajímavých pasáží v knize nebylo více, přesto jsou bohužel zastoupeny velmi řídce v moři nastavované kaše. Takže je mi líto, ale pokud organizace času a sebezdokonalování není vyloženě vaším koníčkem, tuhle knihu vám s klidným srdcem doporučit nemohu.

#nonficton #non fiction #time management #sebezdokonalovani

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nolitethoughts · 2 years

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(via AUTHORITY AND FREEDOM A Defense Of The Arts by Jed Perl)

My book review of Jed Perl’s nonfiction book Authority and Freedom A Defense Of The Arts.

“Jed Perl is one of the most widely acclaimed art critics in the world. In his book, we are able to accompany him on his thought-provoking voyage about understanding and defending arts, let they be visual, musical, or literary.

He guides us through the interplay of authority and freedom and shows us how essential it is in the process of making art.

He is also helping us visualize his thought process through many various famous artists such as; Mozart, Picasso, Aretha Franklin, Jane Austen, and the list goes on. The book brings up how politics and culture (like cancel culture) can force or mend the meaning of a piece of art or the artist. Includes the history and the present of arts and also gives a glimpse into the future if the reader is careful enough to spot it.” (NOLITETHOUGHTS)

☀︎ “Art has nothing to do with what you or I think. It exists within its own boundaries.” (NOLITETHOUGHTS) ☀︎

Pop into my website and help me to find out what should I read next. ---->

https://nolitethoughts.co.uk

Any likes and shares are highly appreciated. ☺️🤟

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ravensking · 6 months

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hi fellow tumblr girls. what book should i read next

#pls #especially nonficton #but really anything besides a psychological thriller is good i've read 3 of those in a row

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doodlesink · 2 years

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In Plain View: Amish Women at a Glance by Judy Stavisky--Book Review

Happy Monday! In Plain View: Amish Women at a Glance by Judy Stavisky allows readers to learn more about the day-to-day lives of Amish women. Stop by to learn more about this fascinating book. Happy Reading!

https://bibliophileandavidreader.blogspot.com/2022/08/in-plain-view-daily-lives-of-amish.html

#inplainview #judy stavisky #amish nonfiction #herald press #theavidreader #book review #nonficton press

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jennamacaroni · 2 years

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i started a nonficton book about the womens pro football league in the seventies and now im like @ abbi jacobson do the national womens football league next k thanks 😘

#hail mary: the rise and fall of the national women’s football league #what i’m reading

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rock-a-noodle · 3 months

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Went shopping today at a discount outlet and found books in the nonficton section spreading alt-right horseshit about the election being "stolen" and how "critical race theory is tearing the black community apart".

#shut up kelly #venting a tad #okay more than a tad #politics #I think they belong in the horror or the absolute bullshit section #fucking hell #what the shit #clearly these people did not get enough attention as children and the author of the anti-CRT book was black...uncle ruckus alert....#and they also had a good variety of witch/wiccan books so...irony?

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kappabooks · 1 year

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March 2023 Wrap-up

My March wrap-up is here! Check out the 10 books I read last month!

March was a little weird reading wise as I felt my taste changing constantly and I fell into another mini slup. But as a positive, this is the first month this year that I’ve read at least an adult, YA, middle grade, and nonficton book! I read 10 books so here’s a quick little wrap up, from least to most favorite! Kiss of the Blood Prince by Alessa Thorn – 2 stars City of Illusion by Victoria…

View On WordPress

#book blogger #wrap up

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sfsucw · 7 months

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Write or Die | Open for Subsmissions!

Currently open for submissions in all categories

Writers whose work is accepted will receive $200 for published fiction pieces as well as a special interview feature with our fiction editor, Tamar. Published pieces will be accompanied by original artwork, and writers will receive a media kit to display their work across social media.

For more info on guidelines and categories: https://www.chillsubs.com/writeordie/submission-guidelines

#fiction #nonficton #interview #essays #submissions #creative nonfiction #fiction contests #short story

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darklingichor · 2 years

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Caroline, By Sarah Miller; Prarie Fires by Caroline Fraser

I never got into the Little House books as a kid. My mom gave them to me and I tried to read them, but by time I got them I had been reading Nancy Drew and was much more into solving mysteries than reading simple stories about pioneer life.

I think the only one I finished was actually Little House on the Prairie. I remember liking parts of it. Now though I only really remember three parts clearly. One is the part when everyone was sick with malaria. I remember thinking that Laura was really brave to do what she could to help while everyone was so ill, and that the story was kind if mean to her, as it painted her as the kid that was always the challenge to her parents.

I remember the Christmas where they got the cakes and the cups. I remember that when Mr. Edward's left, I wished the book would follow him because he was an interesting character.

And finally, I remember the part where Laura has a fit because she sees native Americans walking out of the territory and pass the house and her father wouldn't "get" her one of the babies that the women carried on her back.

I remember being baffled and kind of disturbed because this kid wanted her dad to just... get her a human? And what, just take the baby from their mother?

I mean I get it, she a little girl, and little kids want irrational things sometimes. But reading it as a kid, I thought: Whoa, it sort of sounds like she wants one of the babies as a pet... Pioneer times were weird. And maybe the story had a point treating her as a challenging kid.

I hadn't gotten onto history yet, save reading Anne Frank's diary (that might b3 another reason I couldn't get in to LH, by comparison everything was too easy) and the non mystery books I read tended to be about kids in my own Era. My delving into history wouldn't happen until I was a teenager and I tended to focus on ancient Egypt and religious strife in the Old World.

I didn’t watch the show until I was in my 20's. It always seemed to be on one channel or another, it was either that or Law and Order.

So what has me delving into it now?

Random chance.

I listened to an audiobook that had an ad directed at parents saying that kids can get a lot out of audiobooks too. The person doing the ad introduced herself as the narrator of the Little House on the Prairie books. I got curious and looked up the books on audible

When I did I saw a book called Caroline: Little House Revisited. It was authorized by the Little House Trust.

So, I took to the library and read it.

Honestly, when I would catch the show, I always found the adult characters to be the most interesting Caroline and Charles, especially. So this retelling of the one book I finished seemed interesting

It was good, showing Caroline as the steady and calming presence she always is, but also reviewing her inner struggle to keep that presence intact for her family.

She's willing to hope for a better life in Kansas, but knows she has to both be an encouraging influence for her daughters and also worry about all the things that Charles isn't thinking of. The what ifs of weather, food and shelter on the road. Charles would provide, but what if things went wrong? Dealing with the ghosts of food shortages and brushes with the Native Americans in her childhood, that scared her, battling with her need to keep her children as carefree as possible for as long as she could. Add to all of this that she was newly pregnant when they decided to head west (apparently Wilder fudged the timeline a bit having Carrie born before the move In the books). The descriptions of the bounce wagon paired with morning sickness painted a vivid picture.

Her anxieties didn't ease much once they got to Kansas, but they worked to carve out a life there.

There were elements that got tiresome. The reader is entirely in Caroline's head and there are many many long passages of her berating herself for various things, perceived sins, worries, wanting to do more than household chores.

I get the point that the narritive was trying to make with the last, showing that the fire Laura has also came from Caroline, that frustration about women's roles isn't a new thing. But it rang a bit false, because from what we know about frontier life, women *did* help with the building of farms. They would almost have to, people often packed up and left all family and friends. Who else was there to help in an isolated area?

God and sin are another drum beat, and I honestly can't tell if the author is trying to point out the opressiveness of devout faith or the comfort in it. Probably both, but Caroline spends an awful lot of time chastising herself for precived selfishness and pride.

I found this a little annoying, because being devote doesn't mean that you are forever flogging yourself for being imperfect. I mean, I have known people like that, but they tend to turn sour and mean because they are never at peace in their own head, nonstop negative self talk tends to do that.

And by all accounts Caroline really was a patient and nice person.

The focus on sex was something else that I found weird. Not because it sullied some kind of innocent picture I had in my head, but because it seemed gratuitous after a while

Again,I get the point that is trying to be made. Caroline and Charles are very much in love and attracted to each other, they have other facets than being Ma and Pa. However there comes a point where it seems like they can't be alone together without a herculean effort being made not to jump each other's bones.

I'm a big believer that in writing, it is more effective to convey something once with enough conviction that it can be assumed that those feelings are either always present, or are always present in similar circumstances, unless the reader is told or shown otherwise. To do differently just makes for the same emotional note getting played over and over and that just gets monotonous. When they finally do have sex, the scene is heavy with allegory and metaphor, this is fine with me, but it does tend to make them really long.

The thing I liked most about the book was Caroline doing things that she didn't think she could do, changing her feelings on long held beliefs, and finding even more courage than the considerable amount she already had. I also really liked that dispite what Laura in the Little House books, thought Caroline, in this book, loved all her kids individually and cared for them all with the an eye to leading them to be good people in general and the best that they could be as their personalities developed. She tried to instill in Mary an appreciation for hard work on simple accomplishments, because she recognized early on, that Mary was going to be a beauty and was trying to preempt vanity. However, in the book, Caroline, while watching five year old Mary try to weedle praise out of the adults in the room for doing chores, she thinks that she had not effectively taught the lesson, that the work and the help it provided to the family was its own reward. She quickly directs Mary's attention to Baby Carrie and Mary begins to understand that caring for family is the goal, not the praise for finishing a chore.

Laura is only three, but Caroline is teaching her simple lessons in ways that spoke to Laura's more outgoing nature. Carrie is a newborn and later just beginning to crawl, but Caroline recognizes her personality just as much as she does the older two.

Not a bad book over all, of course you have to keep in mind the adittudes and language of the time as there are some wince worthy moments.

I was curious about the real history, at least as much as we know about Laura and her family, so I found Prairie Fires.

First impressions, as I literally just finished it: Fuck, it is *long*. I listened to it and it is 21 hours. It's taken me almost a week to finish. It is very interesting, and doesn't pull any punches... sometimes to a fault.

Charles, in the books is idealized. This make sense on a few levels. Laura loved her father, wanted hom to be remembered for the man he work so hard to be. And, the book I finished tended toward the idealized, and safe, and why not have some kids books that do that?

No one is perfect, and yeah, it seems like Charles was slave to his wanderlust, sometimes impulsive and impractical, and wasn't the best of farmers.

Laura's husband Almonzo too had an impractical streak, and wasn't as careful with money as would be prudent.

Laura herself could be hot tempered and intolerant.

Both the Ingalls and the Wilders were poor much of their lives, farms were started and lost.

And to all of this, I say: So what?

Not all the way throught, but in spots the tone seemed to lean toward, we shouldn't believe that Charles was a good guy because of XYZ, same with Almonzo.

Charles settled onto land in Kansas that he had no claim to, and on native American land to boot. He once skipped town in the middle of the night to get away from debt.

Almanzo lied about his age so he could get land. He and his brother once helped a friend steak a claim by helping him stage a house to look like it was lived in when it wasn't.

How can these people be moral?

I agree that this was wrong, but can we really hold people back then to the standards of modern hindsight?

The fact of the matter is, the American government screwed over the Native Americans over and over and over, and settlers, either through government edicts or through believing false claims, took advantage of the opportunity. The were told that there was land for the taking. They took it. The government didn't really *try* to keep settlers from stealing land.

Should you skip town to avoid a debt? No, but from the account in the book, the one holding the debt was fairly crooked himself. It is easy to say that had I lived in those days I wouldn't have settle land I had no right to, that I wouldn't have done anything underhanded. But I don't know, because I was born and raised with 20th and 21st century perspectives. For all I know, some of my ancestors did exactly what Charles did, or what Almanzo did. I can't say that I think all people settling the west were evil. They were people. Ones with view points that would be unthinkable now, products of their time. People two hundred years from now will look back at us and be horrified by things we do.

On the other hand, Laura and Almanzo's daughter...

She was a piece of work in her own time. I hesitate to speculate on the mental health of someone who died almost 70 years ago but...

Rose Wilder Lane was... let's say, less than stable. Also, she was a jerk.

She was a known writer before Laura started writing.

Rose and journalitic ethics were not evennpassing aquantences,she was in the deep end of yellow jounalism and never really attempted tobget herself out. In a biography she wrote about Jack London, she made up a miscarriage, in another biography, on Charlie Chaplin this time, she potrayed Chaplin's father and a drunk, and turned his life into a second rate Dickens fan fic. She never let the truth get in the waybof a good story.

Self involved, mean, and with a victim complex you could see from space she just sounded like an unpleasant person.

She seemed to think that her childhood being less than perfect meant that she had known pain no one else did, and it all seemed from her mother. I won't say that she didn't have it rough, as it was clear that money was tight. And that Laura lacked Caroline's patience. She did experience hardship. Laura and Almanzo got diphtheria and Rose was sent to her grandparents while they recovered, their house burned down, they moved twice, long distances. That has an effect on a person later in life, but Rose... she seems to have been bound and determined to hate herself and have it be everyone else's fault.

No one could win for losing with her. Laura would say something nice, it would piss her off, she would say something critical, it would piss her off.

Her friends would step outside the narrow mold that she had placed them in, and she would cut off the friendship.

Charles may have skipped town to get he and his family out from under debt, Almanzo may have lied to get land, but these things weren't unheard of back then, it seems like they wouldn't have been seen in a poor light by anyone around them, and may have gotten the idea from someone who had done the same thing.

Rose however, said, did and supported things that even her friends and neighbors found appalling

So much of the book details her vitriolic writings on various subjects that I started getting really annoyed.

Railing against social programs, and people of the Jewish faith, the people she lied about who got mad that they were lied about, and she did all of this publicly.

Basically, what I learned was everyone in the LH books were human with very human faults, and that it was a good thing that Rose didn't get to be a character when she was older because I don't think even Laura could have made her likeable after toddlerhood.

#books #book #book blogging 2022 #sarah miller #caroline fraser #Caroline #Prairie Fires #nonficton #history

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fromsilencetolanguage · 2 years

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Picture me, crying while reading the section on 1s, better understanding my mom’s striving for perfection and need for reassurance.

#books #nonficton #spring reading

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honzovocteni · 2 years

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Překupník na darknetu: Hon na miliardáře ze Silkroad

Překupník na darknetu: Hon na miliardáře ze Silkroad - Nick Bilton (v českém překladu Kateřiny Harrison Lipenské - 2020 v nakladatelství Audiolibrix, v anglickém originálu American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road - 2017)

Když si čtete knížku podle skutečné události, jak to na vás působí? Jaké z toho máte pocity? Že se skutečně všechno to co je v příběhu popisováno přesně tak stalo, nebo že jde pouze o nějakou představu autora, založenou na něčem, co se sice skutečně stalo, ale spoustu detailů bylo nutné dopsat a dovymyslet? Z nějakého důvodu jsem radši, když je jasná linie mezi tím, co je fabulace a co je nějaký doložitelný fakt. Proto se mi první stránky Překupníka nečetly úplně snadno, protože na jednu stranu autor podle svých slov vychází ze stovek hodin rozhovorů a studia rozličných materiálů, ale na druhou stranu je pro mne prostě těžké číst si ve faktografické knížce odstavce o tom, jak se někdo “s povzdechem podíval do zpětného zrcátka, ve kterém viděl svého spícího syna a pomyslel si…” Pro většinu čtenářů je však takováto dramatizace asi lepší, než jen čistě výčet toho, co skutečně víme. A proto se od toho zkusím oprostit a potom hned můžu napsat, že je knížka hodně dobrá. Přestože autor asi moc nerozumí tomu, jak funguje Rubikova kostka a pak ještě ke všemu prozradí konec seriálu Breaking Bad, musím mu složit poklonu za to, jak poměrně složité téma darknetu dokázal hezky popsat tak, aby to bylo hezky srozumitelné pro každého. Příběh Rosse Ulbrichta je nesmírně zajímavý a i když o něm něco málo víte, čeká na vás v knize poměrně detailní popis událostí vedoucí k jeho odhalení a psychologické proměny, kterou sám prošel. Vždyť když se z idealisty a libertariána stane někdo, do si objednává vraždy a zcela vážně filozofuje o tom, jestli prodávat zbraně nebo dětské porno je nebo není OK, musel urazit dlouho cestu. Rozhodně tedy ne správným směrem, ale určitě dlouhou. Doporučuji!

#nonficton #nonfiction #darkweb #ross ulbricht

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lovebooksgroup · 2 years

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Calling all #bookbloggers #bookstagrammers and #booktokers - OPEN TOUR - Blackbird Singing by Graham Morgan #memoir #mentalhealth #nonficton #bookreviews #booktwitter

Calling all #bookbloggers #bookstagrammers and #booktokers - OPEN TOUR - Blackbird Singing by Graham Morgan Would you like a spot on the virtual tour I am organising? #memoir #mentalhealth #nonficton #bookreviews #booktwitter

I am organising a #booktour for Blackbird Singing on behalf of Fledgling Press. Blackbird Singing by Graham Morgan 29th Aug – 6th Sept Genre: Memoir – Mental Health Publisher: Fledgling Press Format: eBook Open to reviewers: worldwide It is a musing, a meandering through real life. It is not about drama, although there is drama. It is not about devastation, although there is…