by MarianBeaman | Aug 1, 2018 | blog, book review, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon one can neither resist nor understand. ~ George Orwell Orwell is right about the...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 7, 2018 | blog, book review, Education, Literature, Tips, Uncategorized
Why Do Writers Write? What About Writers’ Block? What is Hypergraphia? Dr. Alice Flaherty answers these questions and more as she investigates the mysteries of the writer’s mind. Both a medical doctor (MD from Harvard Medical School) and a PhD from MIT,...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 21, 2018 | blog, book review, chalk drawing, Cliff Beaman artist, Uncategorized
Author Cliff narrates the story of his creating The Boy Who Grew Too Small . . . The Dream One night I dreamed about a boy who started shrinking because he began smoking. Why such a dream, you ask? I had just learned that the Florida legislature had won a case...
by MarianBeaman | Oct 25, 2017 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Quotations, Uncategorized
Roz Chast knows about funny She uses a feeble font style Her figures have faint lines Sometimes her humor is subtle Other times blatant as a siren A New Yorker cartoonist since 1978, Chast plays her fears for laughs, taming anxiety with humor. Oy...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 6, 2017 | blog, book review, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
I write about my love affair, my sprawling close family, the unusual and intriguing people God brings into my life, and funny stuff. Once in a while I write about being Mennonite. That’s how Lucinda J. Miller (Luci for short) introduces herself on her blog. Luci is a...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 7, 2017 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Her Story The title for Rhoda Janzen’s latest memoir, Mennonite Meets Mr. Right, could be recast as Egg-Head Mennonite Intellectual Meets Pentecostal Hunk Mitch. I succumbed easily to her comic style, which engaged me while reading her first memoir, Mennonite in a...