Archive for the ‘Nonfiction’ Category
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Want to see books similar to the ones you’re reading? Head over to Yasiv, a site that uses Amazon data to create a flowchart of recommendations. Created by Andrei Kashcha, the site serves up a web of book covers that, when clicked, lead to information about those titles. There’s also a box on the left that lists the volumes by title.
Kashcha describes Yasiv as “a visual recommendation service that helps people to choose the right product from Amazon’s catalog.” In addition to books Yasiv can web other products carried by Amazon including video games, music and movies, although a search for broad clothing categories such as skirts and pants yields only a single image. Good for Grand Theft Auto. Not so good for Vera Bradley.
Yasiv recommendation web for 'House of Silk' by Anthony Horowitz
Tags: Amazon, authors, books, readers, recommendations, visualization, Web, Writers, Yasiv
Posted in Authors, Books, Business, Commerce, Culture, Fiction, Internet, Nonfiction, Novel, Photography, poetry, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Some people know how to coin a memorable phrase.
Tom Brokaw referred to the men and women who fought for the United States in World War II as the greatest generation. In 1943 a Nazi propaganda periodical used the term Iron Curtain. Tea Party members often refer to journalists the media elite, a term coined by S. Robert Lichter and two other researchers in a 1980 study and subsequent book by that name. Former Vice President Spiro Agnew launched a salvo from White House speechwriter William Safire when he called the media “nattering nabobs of negativism.”
Then there’s the 1984 TV ad campaign for Wendy’s with Clara Peller yelling “Where’s the beef?” a refrain that might ring true in today’s politicized climate.
Not all pithy expressions involve cheap shots at journalists and competitors. Many encapsulate the issues like a good joke. The phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” is attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece in the early part of the 20th century on the effectiveness of graphics in advertising. The term senior citizen first appeared as a euphemism for older people during a 1938 American political campaign.
Richard Nixon referred to citizens who weren’t protesting against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War the silent majority. Plato said necessity is the mother of invention, a phrase that must have appealed equally to Nixon and Frank Zappa, although for different reasons.
Contemporary authors are doing an equally good job in characterizing trends. People who follow us on social networks are called peeps. People who follow us on Twitter are Tweeps. Microbloggers live in the Twitterverse.
PIMCO Bond fund manager Bill Gross has called the post-2007 mortgage debt environment of high volatility and low returns the New Normal. Writing for hospital administrators at H&HN Daily Bill Santamour called the wave of retiring baby boomers who will need healthcare the Silver Stampede. And there’s the term baby boomer itself, a term coined by Landon Jones in his book Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation.
What’s your favorite line?
Tags: baby boomers, Bill Gross, Bill Santamour, Clara Peller, cliches, elderly, euphemism, Frank Zappa, Greatest Generation, H&HN, idiomatic expressions, Iron Curtain, nabobs, peeps, phrases, PIMCO, Plato, politicians, politics, quotes, Richard Nixon, sayings, senior citizens, silent majority, Silver Stampede, Spiro Agnew, Tea Party, Tom Brokaw, Tweeps, William Safire
Posted in Business, Commerce, Culture, Nonfiction, PR, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
You think writers are the only ones concerned with telling a story? Listen to this.
Earlier this month three of six agency owners and recruiters interviewed by blogger Arik C. Hanson said the ability to tell a story was the leading trait they want to see in PR professionals. They believe storytelling reflects the facility to identify themes and execute a strategy. Yet when many of their peers screen applicants, they ask for experience that exactly matches the job they’re offering. They’re focused on the product, not the process, like the ability to build social networks, negotiate for information or get along with others.
For those in marketing communications, here’s the wake-up call: financial planners have discovered the power of story. In a column for MarketWatch, MIT’s AgeLab Director Joseph Coughlin said the traditional model of financial planning won’t work in these unsettling times. Neither will an appeal to reason through a recitation of statistics. He believes advisers who tell stories that elicit emotion and inspire people to act will achieve greater success–for their clients and themselves.
“We’ve got to be good storytellers to get that emotion, to make us relevant, responsive and realistic for what the consumer needs today to plan for tomorrow.”
Let’s hope the people who hire are willing to make that investment.
Tags: communications, hiring, hiring managers, interviews, jobs, Marketing, PR, public relations, Writing
Posted in Business, Commerce, Culture, Nonfiction, PR, Social media, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Writing that flows is often based on a solid structure.
Take the piece “Why impulse spending can be a good thing” by Katherine Rosman, who writes the Checks & Balances column about finance and marriage for the Wall Street Journal. The article is designed to read like a short story with comments, unfolding through scenes with increasing drama. We want to determine what happens between Rosman and her husband Joe, who in their struggles to mesh their opposites-attract financial styles have become persons of interest.
The article is structured in three parts. The first details a recent event, the second one that took place a while ago, the third the night the two met. All involve charity auctions. All create an orderly march backward in time, from a seemingly frivolous exchange to a defining moment. Each segment seems ordinary yet together they build toward a quiet but profound insight you’d see in the work of Anne Tyler or Anna Quindlen.
The parts consist of anecdotes, all of which bring to life the article’s theme—that contrary to popular wisdom occasional impulse spending can provide rewards to even the most budget-minded couples. Those mini stories also illustrate a greater wisdom: we can argue about spending but what we really value is not the behavior but the relationship. The real prize isn’t the money, it’s the person.
When I worked as a writing coach for a newspaper owned by the publisher of the Wall Street Journal I studied briefly with the great Roy Peter Clark. Now vice president of the Poynter Institute, Clark taught us to use the tools of fiction writers while rigorously adhering to the facts. Structuring a story that way is more than playing dress-up. It’s a process to present and order events with all of the immediacy and emotional resonance of direct experience.
It’s good to see other non-fiction writers have adopted the storyteller’s technique. Using those tools, Rosman ratchets up the conflict between spouses with a deceptive calm that shows rather than tells about their relationship. The story flows without effort. Even the ending feels natural, a surprising valentine to financial and emotional conservatives everywhere.
Talk about impulse control.
Tags: auction, budget, budgeting, charity, Checks & Balances, column, control, couples, form, impulse buying, Katherine Rosman, marriage, opposites, spending, structure, struggle, Wall Street Journal, Writers, Writing
Posted in Commerce, Culture, Nonfiction, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Slowly the fog,
Hunch-shouldered with a grey face,
Arms wide, advances,
Finger-tips touching the way
Past the dark houses
And dark gardens of roses.
Up the short street from the harbour,
Slowly the fog,
Seeking, seeking;
Arms wide, shoulders hunched,
Searching, searching,
Out through the streets to the fields,
Slowly the fog –
A blind man hunting the moon.
– F.R McCreary
Tags: country, F.R. McCreary, fog, hunched, mist, moon, poet, poetry, road
Posted in Art, Culture, Nature, Nonfiction, Photography, poetry | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Laura Larsell has posted a thoughtful article on Mashable called “Why Browsing Is So Important to Content Discovery.” In it the librarian and information organizer at Trapit argues that the practice is a crucial component of information discovery.
Today we find information directly through search engines or indirectly through social media contacts, but those processes narrow the chute from the beginning. Larsell says browsing offers value in that it opens us to chance and opportunity before we dig too deeply. “It allows an information seeker to expand organically upon an initial vague, often unarticulated need.”
In a phrase, browsing gives readers the big picture, not just the details, a critical advantage when starting a project. “Browsing gives information seekers a high-level sense of what exists within a collection, while presenting easy entry points to explore the unknown. It also allows for lesser-known works to stand alongside — and compete with — the more canonical ones they resemble.”
Tags: books, browsing, Google, internet, library, publications, research, search engine, Social media
Posted in Business, Commerce, Culture, Internet, Nonfiction, Novel, Social media, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, July 25th, 2011
The kayak glides across the lake like an images in a dream, and only when I think about it, when the spinning paddles slow does the wind nudge small blue caps against the hull and the bow slaps the water like a fist.
Tags: boating, kayak, lake, park, Promised Land, tranquil, water
Posted in Commerce, Culture, Nonfiction, Uncategorized, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
A bear crosses the ridge this morning 50 feet from the house, a black hole of primal energy surfing the woods for the huckleberries that are beginning to ripen. We watch from the safety of glass as it passes and keep a weather eye on the dog, who sniffs the grass at the end of her lead, unaware of the animal. The bear is alone, no trailing cubs to spark an angry outburst, yet with its massive shoulders and haunch she is a force to avoid, like a tropical storm that could strengthen at any moment.
It’s trash day in our neighborhood and we wonder if she’s hunting for the garbage cans that line the road. We’ll know in a few minutes when we slide into cars for the trek to work. She lumbers down the slope toward the neighbor’s screened porch, unaware of the watchers at the edge of the woods, her legs like two humans moving under a blanket, her pace as easy as sleep.
Posted in Culture, Nature, Nonfiction, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2011
The Associated Libraries of Monroe County will present the second annual Monroe County Book Expo on Saturday, July 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Eastern Monroe Public Library in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The event is free and open to the public.
The expo will highlight books written and/or published by residents of Monroe and other Eastern Pennsylvania counties. The day is intended to encourage aspiring writers and support the exchange of ideas about the creative process and the publishing industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and visit with local authors, and to purchase copies of their works. Books will be sold by the individual authors at their tables.
Two special programs will be featured during the day. At 11 a.m. there will be a panel discussion entitled “Self-Publishing: Pitfalls and Rewards.” This will be followed by a presentation at 2 p.m. by author Alissa Grosso, whose debut novel for young adults, Popular, was recently published by Flux.
Authors may register to participate online.
For more information, call library Director Barbara Keiser (570) 421-0800, extension 13.
The Monroe County Book Expo is a project of the Associated Libraries of Monroe County, which includes Barrett-Paradise Friendly Library, Clymer Library, Eastern Monroe Public Library, Pocono Mountain Public Library and Western Pocono Community Library.
Tags: authors, books, creative process, Eastern Monroe Public Library, expo, Monroe County, Novel, panels, Popular, public libraries, publishing, self-publishing, Writers, YA
Posted in Commerce, Culture, Fiction, Nonfiction, Novel, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
More Americans own e-book readers than tablet computers, according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Last year tablets like the iPad had a slight lead over e-readers such as Kindle and Nook. But by May of this year, 12% of U.S. adults said they own an e-reader while 8% own a tablet computer.
“The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011,” Pew reports. “Hispanic adults, adults younger than age 65, college graduates and those living in households with incomes of at least $75,000 are most likely to own e-book readers. Parents are also more likely than non-parents to own these devices.”
Owning one doesn’t mean you can’t own the other. The survey noted an overlap in ownership, with 3% of U.S. adults owning both devices. Nine percent own an e-book reader but not a tablet while 5% own a tablet computer but not an e-reader.
Tags: Amazon, e-book, e-reader, iPad, Kindle, mobile, Nook, Pew, survey, tablet, tablet computer
Posted in Business, Commerce, Culture, e-books, Fiction, Marketing, Mobile, Nonfiction, Novel, Writers, Writing | No Comments »
