Meredith Sue Willis's 

Books for Readers # 237

December 10, 2024

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Reviews of books by Dreama Frisk, Valerie Nieman, Stephen L. Carter, Gabrielle Korn, Rachel Kushner, Neal Stephenson, Thomas Hardy, Margery Sharp, Elizabeth Catte, Ana Reyes, Chris Colfer, Lisa Scottoline, John Grisham.  Reviews by Christine Willis, Danny Williams, & Rose Culbreth--and more.

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January 2025

Half-Day Zoom Workshop 

With Meredith Sue Willis

Housekeeping for Prose Narrative:

Polishing and Organizing

Saturday, January 18, 2025 

10:00 AM till 1:00 PM

By Zoom

For Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, 

Personal Narrative, and more 

$100 

Includes a critique of up to 

1,000 words by MSW

Class size is strictly limited and filling fast. 

Registration closes when the class fills.

Learn More

How to enroll

To Read Books for Readers# 237

Click Here!

 

Housekeeping for Prose Narrative:

Polishing and Organizing

Half-Day Zoom Workshop 

With Meredith Sue Willis

Saturday, January 18, 2025 

10:00 AM till 1:00 PM

By Zoom

For Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, 

Personal Narrative, and more 

$100  Includes a critique of up to  1,000 words by MSW

Class size is strictly limited. 

Registration closes when the class fills.

To learn more, go to   https://meredithsuewillis.com/mswclasses.html

For How to enroll   go to https://meredithsuewillis.com/mswclasses.html#howtoenroll

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS # 236

 New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS # 236

New Issue of Books for Readers with reviews of books by Sabaa Tahir, Rebecca Roanhorse, Julian Barnes, Jane Austen, Brandon Taylor, Joshua Leifer, Pauletta Hansel, Carter Sickel, Stephen King, and reviews by Joe Chuman, Elaine Durbach, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Joel Weinberger, Danny Williams--and more!

New Issue of Books for Readers Now Up!

Reviews of Books by James Lee Burke, Kate DiCamillo, Donna Meredith, Elana Ferrante, Tana French, Joe Conason, Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, Ian McEwan, Cat Pleska, Illyon Woo, and more.

 

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #234!

There's a new issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers--Issue #234 with reviews of books by Robert Graves, Kathy Manley, Soman Chainani, Marie Tyler McGraw, James Welch, Jennifer Browne, Dennis Lehane, Primo Levi, Elmore Leonard, James McBride and more! Reviews written by Martha Casey, Dreama Frisk, and Diane Simmon--and a poem by Dreama Frisk! 

Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #233!

 Another issue of  Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #233!   This one has reviews of books by Susan Abulhawa, Ursula LeGuin, Deborah Clearman, Oscar Silver, Ford Madox Ford, Jeff Lindsay, Philip Roth, Lisa Scottoline, and more and reviews by Felicia Mitchell & Johe Chuman.  

Find it at https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive230-234.html#issue233.

New BOOKS FOR READERS # 232!!!

A new issue of Books for Readers # 232  with reviews of books by Jim Minick, Clarice Lispector, The Porch Poems, George du Maurier, Louise Fitzhugh, Natalia Ginzburg, Marilynne Robinson; Kathleen Watt; Hambly, Connelly, Alison HRubbard, Imogen Keeper, James McBride, Jenny Offill.  Reviews by Hilton Obenzinger, Eddy Pendarvis, Diane Simmons, Suzanne McConnell,and Christine Willis.

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS #231 January 15, 2024

 

New Issue Of Books For Readers #231!

Reviews of books by Anthony Burgess, S.A. Cosby, Eva Dolan, Janet Campbell Hale, Barbara Hambly, Marc Harshman, P.D. James, Michael Lewis, Mrs. Oliphant, Paul Rabinowitz, Nora Roberts, Elizabeth Strout, Olga Tokarczuk, and more. Review by Dreama Frisk.

 Well, I asked ChatGPT to write a passage in my style, and it came back with this (Actually, more than this, but I can't stand even this much):

In the hazy embrace of a West Virginia morning, where mist clung to the rolling hills like whispered secrets, Clara ....a woman of quiet resilience, traced the worn spine of a paperback novel with calloused fingertips. The words within held a sacred resonance, echoing the stories of those who had tread the same path before her. Outside, a lone crow cawed from the branches of an ancient oak, its melancholic song carrying across the valley...In the distance, the river carved its course through the rugged terrain, a silver ribbon woven into the landscape's tapestry. Clara's thoughts, like the river's meandering flow, navigated the twists and turns of memory....Clara, with a reverence reserved for the familiar, stepped onto the worn porch. The rocking chair, an heirloom handed down through generations, creaked in rhythm with the sway of her contemplative thoughts.

"Mist like whispered secrets?" Yuck-a-poo. "A reverence reserved for the familiar"? Puh-lease.

What does that even mean?

It did a little better with a request for a short science fiction story.

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New Short Story Published

 

New Short Story by Meredith Sue Willis just up at Cold Mountain Review: "The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived."  (Scroll down).

The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived

by Meredith Sue Willis

Latest Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #230

The latest issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #230 (https://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive230-234.html#issue230) is now available.  

Books by Henry Adams, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jonathan Lethem, Magda Teter, Mary Jennings Hegar, Chandra Prasad, Timothy Russell, Carter Taylor Seaton, Edna O'Brien, Martha Wells, Thomas Mann, Arnold Bennett, and more. Reviews by Mary Lucille DeBerry, Joe Chuman, John Loonam, Suzanne McConnell, and Edwina Pendarvis.

 

New Issue of Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers Newsletter #229 Now Available!

 

A New Issue of
Books for Readers # 229
Now online!

Reviews of books by Douglas Stuart, J. Nozipo Maraire, Camille Perri, William Makepeace Thackery, Larry Schardt, Rex Stout, Martha Wells and more! Diane Simmons reviews Erik Larson's book on Churchill; there's a poem by Dreama Frisk; and a special list of books to introduce us to Africa from Tinashe Chiura!

BILLIE OF FISH HOUSE LANE by MSW published in Iran!

 The Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) has just announced that "Juvenile fiction book Billie of Fish House Lane by American author Meredith Sue Willis has been published in Persian and is available to Iranian Children."

See announcement here: https://www.ibna.ir/.../billie-of-fish-house-lane...

What the???

News to me and my publisher! I once had a short story translated and published in Arabic, also without anyone telling me in advance. In this case, I heard about it from a friend in alumnae relations at Barnard College.

Just think how we might share our work and ideas if all the nations spoke to each other directly....Or maybe even (fantasy time) concentrated on sharing books for young people rather than threatening each other militarily and financially. Forgive the childish dreaming!

More information about Billie of Fish House Lane: (https://meredithsuewillis.com/commentary.html#billie)

 

Meredith Sue Willis
Fall 2023 Teaches
Novel Writing at NYU

 

ONLINE

WRIT1-CE9357
New York University
School of Professional Studies

10 Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. - 8:50 p.m.

September 13, 2023 - November 15, 2023.

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