Ann Hood's Makes the ABA "Great Reads" List

Ann Hood visits today to present her new novel (just published yesterday!). The book was also just listed on the March 2013 American Book Association's "Indie Next Great Reads" list, reviewed and recommended by independent booksellers across the nation.

Here's the review:

The Obituary Writer: A Novel, by Ann Hood (W.W. Norton & Company, $26.95, 9780393081428)
“Vivien, who suffered an incredible loss in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, helps others cope with their grief by making their lost loved ones come alive on the page. Claire, a young wife and mother in suburban Washington, D.C., who is caught up in the excitement of the 1960 Kennedy inauguration, wants ‘more’ but she’s not quite sure ‘more’ of what. Theirs are compelling lives of love and loss, romance and friendship, marriage and motherhood, promises made and unreasonable hopes kept alive, and the mystery that is their connection. Literary mystery, love story, and historical fiction — all beautifully told with expertly drawn characters make this one great novel!”

More about the visit:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/mirabelli_hood13.html

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Martha Rozett: On Teaching Historical Fiction

SUNY English professor Martha Rozett talked to NPR's Weekend Edition,May 30, 2004 about teaching historical fiction:

"When I teach historical novels to my students, I think one thing we're doing is we're debunking some of the old characterizations about the past. So I think our knowledge of history might get better, actually, and more complicated and less stereotypical when we read these terrific historical novels that are out there."

"They're the novels that look at the history of technology, of architecture, of science, things that are a little off the beaten track for conventional historical novelists. But then there are contemporary historical novels, and interesting ones, that take an oblique perspective on a well-known event. A good example of that would be "Cold Mountain," which was a best-seller. It takes a different take on the Civil War."

Rozett visits Wednesday, April 25 to present her new family memoir, When People Wrote Letters (2011).

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