Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

Looking for a Book Club Pick? Try Sarah Dunster’s Lightning Tree

I was introduced to Sarah Dunster’s fiction when she won Segullah’s fiction contest in early 2011. “Back North,” Sarah’s contest entry (which you can read here) was lively, smart, and compelling. Its main drawback? It was a novel excerpt, not a short story, and I wanted more. Soon after notifying Sarah about her win, she [...]

Discussion Questions for The Year My Son and I Were Born

Tomorrow, Friday, August 26th, we will be discussing The Year My Son and I Were Born, written by our very own Kathryn Lynard Soper. This memoir takes us through the first year of Kathy’s life with her son, Thomas, who is born with Down syndrome. Although the book takes as one of its subjects the [...]

Wolves, Boys, and the Whitneys

Shelah, Maralise, and I have spent the last couple of months reading and evaluating this year’s Whitney finalists. If you haven’t seen the list yet, pop over here and take a look. We’re not quite finished reading them all yet, but we thought we would talk about our early favorites to give more people a [...]

Segullah Book Club Discussion: The Age of Innocence

Today we are discussing Edith Wharton’s classic novel The Age of Innocence. The novel, recipient of the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a woman, takes place in late 19th century New York City. The plot centers on the marriage of Newland Archer, a lawyer hailing from one of New York’s best families, and May Welland, [...]

Thoughts on Jack Harrell’s A Sense of Order

A Sense of Order and Other Stories Jack Harrell Signature Books, 2010 Hardcover, 220 pages This isn’t a formal book review—more like a brief and somewhat elusive personal response. Writing a thorough review right now would be tricky, given my shortage of minutes and brain cells in the face of looming holiday chaos. More importantly, [...]

Nominate Whitney Finalists

This year, instead of just reading the Whitney finalists when they are announced, I’ve decided I want to nominate some books for Whitneys as well. The Whitney Awards (awards for fiction written by LDS authors) begin with reader nominations, as specified by the rules. Any book that receives five or more nominations will be placed [...]

LDS Storymakers, Whitney Awards, Monsters and Mormons

A huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists of the Whitney Awards! I attended the awards dinner this year, and I loved it. I loved the food, I loved the lifetime achievement tributes to Gerald Lund and Dave Wolverton, and I loved finding out who won firsthand. The winners are: Romance: Counting the Cost, [...]

Patrick Madden’s Quotidiana: A Review

A few pages into BYU English professor Patrick Madden’s collection of essays, Quotidiana, he describes what his graduate study of the essay form taught him: “I learned that essays were not stories, did not focus on great adventures or recoveries, were not extraordinary in their subject matter at all. Essayists are keen observers of the [...]

In the Company of Angels

I’m almost done reading the Whitney finalists! Exclamation point because thirty books is a lot, and while I’ve enjoyed it, it will feel good to be done with the last one. Shelah and I are going to talk more about our favorites in a couple of weeks. You can also visit Shelah’s blog for her [...]

Whitney 2010 Nominees and Almost-Nominees

The finalists for the 2010 Whitney Awards were announced ten days ago. Congratulations to everyone! The Whitney Awards celebrate excellent writing by LDS authors, published both locally and nationally. Shelah and I will be reading and deciding on Segullah’s picks together–we will keep you posted. I have tried to read more fiction by LDS authors [...]

Segullah Suggests: Books to Buy This Christmas

I‘m a traditional kind of girl—you know, one who puts off her Christmas shopping until the day after Thanksgiving and then spends December in a frenzy of list-making, bargain-shopping and gift-wrapping. Although I wish I could be one of those women who creates dozens of heartfelt handmade gifts, alas, craftiness is not my thing. One [...]

Rift by Todd Robert Petersen, a review

I’m a city girl. I grew up in the great Northeastern megalopolis where it’s possible to drive for six or eight hours along Interstate 95 without seeing evidence of the existence of rural America. During my BYU years, I looked down my nose with derision at the wrangler-wearing Animal Science majors, and viewed any part [...]

An interview with Heidi Ashworth

Heidi Ashworth is the author of Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind, and writes the popular blog Dunhaven Place. Johnna is the webmaster for Segullah’s websites, and recently sat down with Heidi to have this conversation. Johnna, for Segullah: I’m a reader. Besides loving lots of books that I read in college or met through NPR [...]

The Year My Son and I Were Born

About two years ago, I started trolling around various LDS blogs.  Some were interesting, some were funny, and some were heavily doctrinal.  There was one author I came across a number of times, and I was impressed with a number of things about her:  she used her full name (a rarity in the world of [...]

Whitney Award Predictions

In the spirit of all those Oscar articles right before the big night, I’d like to offer a few Whitney Award predictions. I had a great time being on the Whitney Academy this year. I have read all the finalists, and I was tickled to discover some fabulous writing that I would not have looked [...]

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