by Jamie Chavez | Dec 30, 2013 | Books You Might Like
“I hope you don’t already have this one,” the Boy said, handing me a wrapped present that looked suspiciously like a book. (He knows how to make me happy, and often calls and asks me what titles I’d like.) When I unwrapped it, it was Kate Atkinson’s marvelous Life...
by Jamie Chavez | Oct 14, 2013 | The Writing Craft
Our lives are full of lists—from the grocery list to the Ten Commandments to that list of pros and cons you made back when you were twenty-three and trying to decide whether to break up with your boyfriend or marry him. Consider Rob Fleming’s Top-Five lists in Nick...
by Jamie Chavez | Aug 15, 2013 | Books You Might Like
The beauty of being in a book group (and in my case, a book group focused on food books) is you are exposed to books you’d probably never have noticed. Such is the case with Eddie Huang’s memoir (memoir? he’s thirty-one years old!) as a first-generation American of...
by Jamie Chavez | Jul 18, 2013 | Authors & Other Writers, The Writing Craft
You’ve seen these “letters to myself” (to my sixteen-year-old self, to my future self, to my younger self …) all over the Internet, I’m sure. It’s an interesting idea for a writing prompt, no? And for those who spend more time on such things, whole blogs are devoted...
by Jamie Chavez | Jun 3, 2013 | Books You Might Like
A few weeks ago I bought and read a book all in less than a week. It doesn’t usually happen that fast with me (you should see my TBR pile*), but the reviews for Michael Hainey’s After Visiting Friends were that intriguing. I couldn’t wait. After visiting friends was...
