Michael Borich, art design by Lynn Borich Women on the Veranda Box elder shadows lie across the twilit rail like tatting no one bothers to gather up and mend, this end of day, years ago, autumnal the air suggests, a lavaliere of fading sun, what's left of wind at vespers, O not so melancholic, as one might think. How softly spoken, that dove just now, those wrens unsettled at the eaves, mother and daughters on the swing, the wicker glider, at rest against

Guest Post by Abby Counsil I was always a curious child. I am a curious adult too, but my questions now are harder to answer, and that bar was pretty high to begin with. But questions are not bad things. Questions are not things to fear, though sometimes the space between the question and the answer is enough to get my heart rate up. The important part is the asking. Here are the questions I have asked today: How often am I scared and of what? How many times will I exist i

The label “literary classic” isn’t official, but there are traditional criteria that scholars, critics, and readers tend to use when a book earns that status. Here’s how a book usually gets there: Traditional Criteria for a Literary Classic 1. What It Means? 2. Why It Matters 3. Artistic Merit For Artistic Merit, the writing shows mastery of language, structure, and style. Think memorable prose, complex characters, innovative technique. A classic book is not just entertainm

Probably not “ever.” Amazon doesn’t publish all-time rankings that cleanly, but The Hunger Games trilogy has sold 100M+ copies worldwide and dominated Amazon’s YA charts for years. It was the first Kindle title to sell 1M copies. So: massive seller, yes, though the seven Harry Potter books have sold upwards of 600 million copies worldwide. “Best ever” depends how you measure it. 1. The Hunger Games is not without its literary criticisms, however. Several critiques show up i

This list, arranged chronologically, runs nearly 3,000 years, from Homer to Morrison with epics, realism, modernism, existentialism, fantasy, and magical realism.