Author Archives: Claire Count

2015 Pulitzer Prize winners

Did you even hear the award came out? Did you look to see who won? Have you raced to the bookstore to buy it?  Why not? How much did you pay for your last coffee, you last lunch out? That only temporarily feeds your body but an amazing book can become part of your soul.

My husband and I have cherished books that we have hauled all over the country for decades so that one day our child would be able to enjoy the same stories. Make the tales of flying dragon, talking spaceships, and sleeping androids part of his life mosaic. But alas he is average for his generation and physically attached to his electronic game device of choice.   How do we get adult readers if children don’t read?

The numbers are frightening. A report in “The Atlantic” magazine shares that nearly 25% of American adults did not read ONE novel last year. NOTHING.  The number of adult non-readers has tripled since 1978.    Those that did read,  how much they read fell. In 1978 the poll showed 42% read 11 books or more and 13% claimed 50 or more. Most recent poll only 28% reported reading 11 or more – About 1 book a month. Heck! I am in the 1 book or more a week club.

There is hope as the teens and young adults got hooked on reading with hits like Harry Potter and Twilight. I am delighted that Levarr Burton is reaching out with Reading Rainbow again.  As writers are burdened with holding their interest as they become young professional. Be exciting enough so they choose to invest their sparse free time with a book as opposed to a game, a movie or sleep. The obligation on us is to make the books interesting and accessible.  Are you up to the challenge?

So here are our 2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners – buy their novel, see their play. Support a writer today.

Fiction All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Poetry Digest –  Gregory Pardlo

Drama Between Riverside and Crazy – Stephen Adly Guirgis

History Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People – Elizabeth A. Fenn

Biography or Autobiography The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe  – David I. Kertzer

General Nonfiction The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History – Elizabeth Kolbert

Til next time, Keep reading,

C

Full article can be read at :

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-decline-of-the-american-book-lover/283222/

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling is a delightful book by Maryrose  Wood.  The book playfully breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the readers as it shares pithy morsels of wisdom.   This is the first in the series.

A newly graduated governess finds herself in a most unusual circumstance, but she muddles along with her head held high.  I found the book to have ended rather abruptly either by an editors cruel hand or marketings greed I do not know.    The flavor of the book reminded me of Lemony Snickets tales. There are 5 books out in the series for you to explore.

By the end of the book,  you must wonder who it is that is incorrigible.