Home The Making of a Bestseller Golden Days Fortune's Children  Headlines & Stock Quotes      "Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life'." --Helen Exley       "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." --Erasmus     "A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good." Samuel Johnson       "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.--Italo Calvino       "Books differ from all other propaganda primarily because one single book can significantly change the reader's attitude and action to an extent unmatched by the impact of any other single medium."--A member of the CIA:s Covert Action Staff       "To read too many books is harmful."--Mao Tse-Tung   Click on images to order:

Recommended Reading: (For your convenience, a link has been installed directly to Amazon.com. Click on the book image to connect.) How to Get Happily Published by Judith Appelbaum (Harper Collins, fifth edition) For any writer who, in writing or in working with editors and publishers, is beginning to wonder if he or she may be insane or if they are, quickly buy and read this book before you do anything rash! Better yet, buy it and read it before you begin to wonder. This is one of the few essential volumes for every writer's reference shelf. 500,000 readers so far can't be wrong.         Yellowpup Anyone who has loved a Golden Retriever has to have this book, Debra Marlin's Yellowpup (Little, Brown and Company, 1999). Its as simple as that: you have to have it! The photographs are wonderful, and the subjects of the photographs--golden retriever puppies--are endearing and enchanting. This is the perfect gift for any of your Golden Retriever friends, and definitely for yourself. Take one look at the front and back of the book jacket and you'll know you have to have it! I just bought five for Christmas gifts. And, of course, one for myself to add to my Golden Retriever library!         The Elements of Style I have a confession to make: there's a lot of contemporary fiction I simply don't understand and can't read. I'm not talking about fiction in obscure little literary journals; I'm talking about bestsellers. I'm talking about the winners of the big awards. For a long time I thought it was me: maybe I really am dense. But I've outgrown that. And as I wallow through chapter three before casting the book aside in frustration, I hear every time the words of Professor Strunk and E.B. White: "Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand!" Every writer's Bible should be William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White's small masterpiece The Elements of Style. Buy it, read it once, read it twice, read it at least once a year. And if you do, your readers will be able to read (and understand) what you write: Guaranteed!   101 Uses for a Golden Golden Retrievers have a great sense of humor, and my guess is that they'll like this book as much as their human friends: 101 Uses for a Golden with photography by Denver Bryan (Willow Creek Press, 1999). A perfect stocking stuffer and gift for any Golden fan.       The Best American Short Stories of the Century Here's a book I would recommend for every writer, whether you're working on fiction or nonfiction, short stories or essays, poems, plays or journalism: The Best American Short Stories of the Century, John Updike, editor, (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999). Here in one volume is the cream of the crop, selected by one of the masters, and whether or not you agree with all of the choices, it is a goldmine for writers. Dip into the book at random; read a short story, read a page, read a paragraph. Here you'll find all the secrets of how writers spin their magic, how they paint descriptions and breathe life into characters and create dialogue and use language. Well worth the price of admission, this is a treasury you can return to again and again for nspriation and instruction, and each time you'll find more nuggets that will enlighten and enliven your own work. Back to top