Double-Stacked Bookshelves

 It's a rainy day here in Oregon, but we're moving on to the letter T for the A-Z Challenge.  Today is all about:  Mildred D. Taylor. Mildred D. Taylor (1943-) I first came across Mildred D. Taylor's work in middle school.  It was during this time that I became obsessed with the Civil War and Antebellum South (see my M post) and Taylor's work was recommended to me.  Born in Mississippi, Taylor focuses much of her work on exploring the struggles faced by African Americans in the Deep South from slavery through the Depression and contemporary issues.  She utilized stories heard during her youth to help formulate her writing, so there is a strong sense of history woven throughout her books.  Because of her collective contribution to children's literature, she was awarded the Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature in 2003.  Though she is technically considered a children's author, her work should be read regardless. *Recommendation:...

Happy Tuesday, fellow A-Zers.  It's a glorious day here in the Pacific Northwest (we've been experiencing abnormally nice weather for this time of year) and we're exactly halfway through with this years challenge...whoa!  Today I'm bringing you the following M writers:  Thomas Mann, Margaret Mitchell, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) The first time I read something by Thomas Mann I was hooked.  It was a novella, so a quick read, and disturbing in so many ways.  But this one story has stuck with me so much so that when I was in Italy, where the novella is set, I purposely went to the island of Lido because of it.  A German novelist, short story writer, social critic, essayist, and Nobel Laureate in 1929, Mann's work is highly symbolic and noted for its views on the intellectual and the psychology of the artist.  He was also adept at incorporating ideas from philosophers, such as Goethe , Nietzsche , and Schopenhauer .  ...

I swore I wouldn't read this book.  Alas... Today's teaser comes from Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter .  And now for your reading please: "Abe couldn't help but smile.  Here was a strange little man with a strange way of seeing things.  Only the second living man he'd ever met who knew the truth of vampires.  He drank to excess and spoke in an irritating, high-pitched voice.  It was hard not to like him" (126) Ah the overabundance of vampire novels lately...