Mar 21
2006
Bharati Mukherjee is the author of 1992's The Holder of the World. Mukherjee’s novel tells the stories of two women: Beigh Masters, a 20th century “asset hunter” who tracks down historical artifa...
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Mar 12
2006
Awarding-winning sci-fi/fantasy writer Tim Powers is the author of The Anubis Gates, one of the few time travel stories that I can honestly say didn’t make my head hurt. The Anubis Gates is a “se...
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Dec 26
2005
The daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus when she was nineteen. (Yes, nineteen. Take THAT, Christopher Pa...
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Dec 26
2005
H. G. Wells was the author of numerous science fiction masterpieces, including The War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Time Machine. Although a pacifist, Wells enjoyed war games ...
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Dec 26
2005
Poet, novelist, and screenwriter, Aldous Huxley is best known as the author of Brave New World, one of the few dystopian novels to earn the Wordcandy Stamp of Approval. Huxley was born to a famil...
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Nov 25
2005
Jules Verne (born 1828, died 1905) was arguably the world’s greatest science fiction writer. Critics have justifiably attacked his work on grounds ranging from political incorrectness to faulty s...
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Nov 25
2005
Born in 1926, Anne McCaffrey attended Radcliffe, got a degree in Slavic languages and literature, trained as a singer, and appeared in an Orff opretta. Clearly, this woman's brain is nothing to s...
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Nov 25
2005
According to Anne McCaffrey’s website, her first novel, 1967’s sci-fi/romance Restoree, was intended as “a protest against the absurd and unrealistic portrayals of women in sci-fi novels in the 50s and early 60s”...
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Aug 25
2005
Andrew Clements has written a series of pleasantly earnest, thoughtful children’s books, including the excellent YA sci-fi/fantasy Things Not Seen. Clements spent several years as a teacher, and ...
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Mar 20
2005
Although he had worked as a writer for comic books and radio and his novel The Demolished Man won the first Hugo Award in 1953, Alfred Bester was never really what you'd call a household name. Be...
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Mar 2
2005
I enjoy books about home restoration. I once wrote a term paper passionately defending Martha Stewart's status as an American icon. I have a serious crush on Alton Brown and an even more serious one on Red Green. And while I am rarely tempted to actually attempt any of the projects that I read about or see on television, I always find the sight of other people creating stuff to be tremendously satisfying...
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Feb 28
2005
Born in 1912, writer and critic Eleanor Cameron is best remembered as the author of the charmingly bizarre Mushroom Planet books. The first book in this imaginative, entertaining series, 1954’s T...
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Feb 12
2005
Neal Stephenson, like fellow Wordcandy authors Neil Gaiman and A.S. Byatt, occasionally seems like he's written entire novels for the sole purpose of flaunting his intelligence and bone-deep hipne...
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Jan 13
2005
Please note: the plot of Diana Wynne Jones's novel Deep Secret is convoluted, the characters are slow to develop, and Jones's conception of magic is not the usual whiz-bang Harry Potter-style acti...
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Dec 7
2004
Kurt Vonnegut is one of the very few "important" mid-to-late 20th century writers whose books are not, actually, complete downers. That's not to say that his books don't have their emotionally se...
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Nov 29
2004
Philip K. Dick was a pretty messed up guy- he was married multiple times, struggled with poorly diagnosed mental illness for much of his life, and never approached the success of fellow writers Fr...
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Oct 17
2004
Monica Hughes, arguably the first Canadian writer of YA science fiction, published close to 35 books, many of which focus on the delicate balance between humans, scientific progress, and nature. ...
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Aug 19
2004
Ms. Krentz has the distinction of having seven different pen names. Some of them write better than others. Note: Most of her books under the Krentz name are reasonably entertaining contemporary ...
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Aug 19
2004
See Nora Roberts. Same person, different name. Note: The J and D in this pen name are the initials of Ms. Roberts’s sons.
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Aug 14
2004
Eoin Colfer is one of the many, many fine authors to have been relegated to the "If you loved the Harry Potter books, try ___" list, which always irritates me because it seems like so many o...
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Aug 11
2004
The majority of Meg Cabot's books are pure Wordcandy. When she is at her best (the Princess Diaries series, contemporary romances like She Went All the Way and The Boy Next Door, the 1-800-WHERE-...
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Aug 10
2004
Dune is the only book Frank Herbert ever wrote that's worth reading. Take my advice: avoid the sequels, and only watch the movie for its high camp value. If you can forgive him for turning one g...
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Aug 1
2004
Obituary writers across the globe must have had a field day when Douglas Adams died. It was a short life, but he packed a hell of a lot of action into his forty-nine years.The Hitchhiker's Guide ...
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Jan 28
2001
I like my horror stories short and digestible--that way, the creepiness has an opportunity to fade away before I decide that I’m no longer in the mood for a scary story. Longer books give the aut...
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