Stefan Merrill Block

August 2011 in Review

September 11, 2011

August 2011 Stats Books in progress: 6 Books read: 7 Pages read: 2,382 Books reviewed: 6 Posts on book reviewing: 6 (includes features like In My Mailbox, Wordless Wednesday, and Top Ten Tuesday; reading challenges; and news) August was a great month for me–I read several great books that I’m excited about reviewing, and I reviewed several books that I enjoyed a great deal. I loved John McWhorter’s What Language Is and Noelle Hancock’s My Year with Eleanor. And I also enjoyed […]

“The Rules of the Tunnel” by Ned Zeman

September 6, 2011

What is madness? How does one distinguish between a behavioral disorder and a really bad day?

Ned Zeman, a journalist who has written for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Spy, GQ, Outside, and Sports Illustrated, turns his eye to the one subject that has constantly eluded him: himself. His zany memoir of madness and memory loss reads like one long feature piece—a profile of himself.

July 2011 in Review

July 31, 2011

I started the month of strong in terms of books read, but Sapphire’s The Kid dragged on and George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons tops 1,000 pages–I’m about halfway done with it.

“The Storm at the Door” by Stefan Merrill Block

July 11, 2011

Long before Stefan Merrill Block was born, the marriage between his grandparents, Frederick and Katharine Merrill, was pushed to the breaking point. Frederick’s alcohol abuse and infidelity had wounded Katharine for years, but his manic depression took him too far one night. Katharine convinced the police to take him to a renowned mental hospital in Massachusetts instead of placing him under arrest.

My Mailbox: Cathy Alter, Judith Lasater, and R. Scott Bakker

April 25, 2011

This week I received five good books in the mail—two review copies, and three that I bought for myself on a rainy day last week. The Storm at the Door by Stefan Merrill Block This book is being published by Random House in June, and I’ll be reviewing it in July with TLC Book Tours—I love those guys! More about the book: Inspired by elements of the lives of the author’s grandparents, this haunting love story shifts through time and reaches across […]