Author Archives: kara

About kara

We know our letters just fine, and we know our numbers to a certain point, but books were always the realm of four-eyed poindexters with bowler hats and cravats. That’s why it pleases us so that America’s proud illiterates are finally stepping up and pushing back against the crushing tide of education that threatens to swallow us all into its gaping maw of checked facts. Champions of the Ignorantiat will not like it here.

Posted on March 1, 2010 by kara

Obsession cover design by Chip Kidd notes: photography by Geoff Spear.

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Posted on March 1, 2010 by kara

The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime illustration by Jaya Miceli

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Posted on March 1, 2010 by kara

The Divine Romance

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Posted on March 1, 2010 by kara

The Book of Fathers cover design by John Gall, collage by Nicole Natri

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Lucille Clifton, American Poet. 1936 – 2010

Posted on February 28, 2010 by kara

Lucille Clifton, a distinguished and prolific American poet and children’s book author, died on February 17th in Baltimore at 73. Clifton’s work was notable for it’s grace and it’s affirmation through her personal exploration of the experience of being black … Continue reading →

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Mary Titcomb: Librarian. Pioneer. Superstar.

Posted on February 27, 2010 by kara

A gold medal in the Librarian Olympics goes to Mary Titcomb. Born in Framingham NH in 1857, Mary Titcomb was an originator in Library and Information Science and a tireless and inspired advocate of library outreach. As the first librarian … Continue reading →

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Celebrating Black History Month, Old Skool Style

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kara

Originally published in 1974 at the height of the Black Arts Movement, The Black Book is a dizzying anthology of hundreds of archival documents, photographs, eyewitness accounts and observations compiled by folk historians and scholars to preserve and publicize profound … Continue reading →

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The Chick Lit of Horror is Alive and Kicking

Posted on February 25, 2010 by kara

It may have taken a Young Adult genre explosion called Twilight – for which legions of grown women lined up to buy – to draw attention to a staggering surge in a sub genre to the science fiction/fantasy/romance world called … Continue reading →

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Master of the Swedish Moors

Posted on February 21, 2010 by kara

Nicholas Wroe and Henning Mankell discuss the depressed detective, and why Mankell and Ingmar Bergman are called the “Swedish Brothers of Gloom”. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/henning-mankell-interview

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New Guilty Pleasure Book Alert!

Posted on February 21, 2010 by kara

After closing the cover of Melissa Gilbert’s page turning memoir Prairie Tale last summer, my first question was “When the hell is Alison Arngrim going to dish her dirt? Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and … Continue reading →

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