Lauren Winner, author of Girl Meets God, is anything but girlish. First of all, she’s a woman, not a girl — she’d like that to be clear. She also has a tough, incisive mind.
On Writing & Reading
Here you'll find author profiles as well as mini – and not-so-mini – book reviews. I’m a writer who loves to talk about writing, so if you like to write I hope you’ll stop by now and then for some writing tips and to chat about the writing life.
Book Openers: Jon Krakauer — A Macho Writer Who Hooks Me in Every Time
I don’t want to read a book about people dying on the slopes of Mt. Everest. I don’t want to read about murderous Mormon polygamists. Unless, that is, it’s Jon Krakauer telling the story. In which case, I’m in. Read more.
Book Openers: I Still Haven’t Figured Out How to Pray — But I’m in Good Company
“I am a failure at prayer,” author Barbara Brown Taylor confesses . . . Now there’s a woman after my own heart.
Book Openers: Gary Laderman — Holy Super Bowl, Holy Bambi, Holy Michael Jackson
Americans are practicing religion in sports stadiums, at Star Trek conventions, at Michael Jackson’s memorial, and on pornographic websites. Holy is all over the place in America, says author Gary Laderman, a professor of American Religious History and Cultures at Emory University and the author of a new book, “Sacred Matters.”
Book Openers: Barack Obama — How He Got So Smart
Barack Obama was a president who could think. His memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” explains how Obama got so smart. Read more.
The Rhetorician in the White House — Or, How I Learned to Love the Passive Voice
The passive sentence gets a bad rap — it’s weak, it’s vague, it’s passive. But sometimes a neatly turned passive sentence is just what our ever-shrinking world needs. Obama’s Cairo speech is an example. Read more.
In the Garden With the Grammar Geek: Is It Ever OK to Use the Passive Voice?
Passive sentences can be wordy and vague — or useful. For me, a passive sentence is one that, like it or not, obscures the doer of the action. Read more.