book reviews « CoffeeJitters

Book Review: A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano

by Judy Schwartz Haley

Flannery O’Connor was not kind to the characters she created for her stories; they were deeply flawed, and in need of redemption. Ann Napolitano does not spare Flannery of those characteristics in her own novel, A Good Hard Look.

It takes a certain level of confidence to fictionalize the last months of a famous American novelist’s life. [...]

Book Review: Writer Mama: how to raise a writing career alongside your kids

by Judy Schwartz Haley

Have you ever thought about making a living as a writer? That thought has been a constant companion of mine for the past 25 years. Yes, 25 years, and it was just about exactly one year ago that I actually started doing something about it.

Now with a little one on the way, I [...]

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

by Judy Schwartz Haley

I read Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones the first time in 1990. I was twenty and had just decided that I want to be a writer when I grow up. I had never imagined such a book: a writer writing about writing. It’s a simple concept, I know. But it blew my mind. [...]