In February, 2020, I revealed the cover of my debut novel in verse, REENI’S TURN, here at Nerdy Book Club, writing about the struggle to hold on to the heart of the story through years of contradictory input and my own discovery of story and character through the writing, rewriting, re-visioning. The book’s virtual launch […]
Author Archives: CBethM
September
16
On reading by Poppy Nwosu
posted by CBethM
Growing up in an isolated cane-farming community in central North Queensland, reading was a very important part of my childhood. We lived an hour drive away from our nearest town, so had to travel that far to buy groceries or visit a shopping centre. I spent a lot of time sitting in the car and […]
September
09
Unchildrening the Children by Beth Kephart
posted by CBethM
July 2020 Something terrifying happens when people in power don’t steal away to the shade beneath a tree (or a corner in a house, or a private place inside a plane), open the pages of a good novel, and read. When they don’t train their brains on the lives of others. Don’t put themselves […]
A Poem from Sophia Thakur
posted by CBethM
SELF LOVE For yourself you must Never run out of it Never start doubting it Never lose reason or hope in how powerful it is when you devour it when you empower it When you write it down and decide to stop cowering away from the promise that has always lived inside that asks […]
September
01
Origin Stories by Amy Alznauer
posted by CBethM
I want to talk about origin stories, not just my origins as a reader and writer, but how every story is in some sense an origin story. And I’m not just thinking of those tortured, transformative backstories of comic book heroes, involving murdered parents, genetic mutation, and acts of God. I’m thinking of the […]
August
31
Top Ten Reasons to Shop at Independent Bookstores by Josh Funk
posted by CBethM
I’m very lucky. Tomorrow the fourth book in the Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast series, Short & Sweet comes out. But that’s not why I’m lucky. I’m lucky because I live in a town with an independent bookstore. I wish everyone could live in a town with one. But whether there’s one […]
August
25
Some thoughts and books to share about refugees by Daniel Nayeri
posted by CBethM
If you’re an educator in America in the Fall of 2020, then you’re doing your job on a new, as-yet undiscovered, difficulty level—and I salute you. It has never been harder to be good at the job (and it was never easy to begin with). But here we are, and so when I heard I […]
August
24
THE ASSIGNMENT by Liza Wiemer: MAKE HISTORY – SPEAK UP! – Book Review by Aliza Werner
posted by CBethM
The lie about history is that it remains in the past. History is persistent and if left unattended, or in untrustworthy hands, it has the potential to breathe new life into its darkest, deadliest disasters. History is a shapeshifter. It hopes you do not recognize a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or war disguised as […]
August
18
Rescuing Our Heroines by Mara Rockliff
posted by CBethM
On April 6, 1916, a little yellow car set out from New York City. It carried tools, spare parts, a teeny-tiny typewriter, an itsy-bitsy sewing machine, one stout leather trunk bursting with useful things, two smiling women, and a wee black kitten with a yellow ribbon tied around its neck. —Around America to Win […]
August
14
Thanks to Frances Perkins by Deborah Hopkinson
posted by CBethM
Why write about Frances Perkins, America’s longest serving Secretary of Labor and the force behind the Social Security Act? The short answer is that when Peachtree’s publisher Margaret Quinlin and my editor, Kathy Landwehr, suggested Frances as the subject of a picture book, I jumped at the opportunity to write about a woman I’ve […]
