D.E. Haggerty's Blog, page 20

Advanced Twitter Tips for Writers #WriterWednesday #AmWriting #AuthorToolboxBlogHop

[image error]There’s no way around it – if you want to build a writer’s platform and cultivate relationships with your readers, you have to be on Twitter as part of your author toolbox. Although I didn’t really see the purpose in Twitter, I followed this advice and worked hard on building what I thought was a solid Twitter following with over 10,000 followers.

Like many busy authors, I used Twitter to project myself. I tweeted about my books, found articles I thought my followers would find interesting, and – every so often – did a search for funny or interesting tweets to retweet. Every once in a while – usually as part of my work on a re-tweet team – my tweets would gather some sort of following, but more often than not, I felt like my tweets were disappearing into that place where all Internet rubbish disappears to (please note: I’m not really sure where this is, but I hope never to go there).

What was I doing wrong? I was doing all the things I was supposed to do. *Stomps foot* Why wasn’t all that work having any results? The answer is actually quite simple: I wasn’t engaging with my audience. Despite liking and re-tweeting every once in a while, I was phoning it in and the twitterverse knew that. So, how does a writer truly engage with its audience?

Don’t just retweet. When you retweet someone’s blog post or tweet, add a comment. Twitter makes adding a comment quite easy:

Adding a comment, shows you are engaged with the content of the tweet. There are also a lot of book bloggers out there who refuse to follow twitter profiles that are largely made up of retweets. If you add a comment to a retweet, you avoid this problem as well.

Tweeting articles. I usually spend around an hour per day reading various articles to find content my followers will enjoy. If I just tweet those articles, nothing happens. I don’t know if anyone actually sees them, but no one certainly responds to them. Once I started adding my two cents and hashtags to the articles I was tweeting, then I started seeing responses. In the example below, I merely added the words: “LOVE this idea!!” and the hashtags #amreading and #library and ended up getting several re-tweets and likes.

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Hashtags are your friends. For some reason, there are those on twitter who oppose hashtags. While I agree a tweet composed almost entirely of tweets making it nearly impossible to read is annoying, one or two hashtags should be included on every tweet you post. Without hashtags, your tweet is not searchable, and isn’t that a waste.

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Time of day. This is a difficult one. Twitter is hopping twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, but a writer needs to sleep! The vast majority of my followers are in the US while I’m in Europe – a minimum of six hours ahead. If I only tweet when they’re sleeping, my twitter feed looks like the land of the lost. I use tweetdeck to ensure I have tweets being sent out in the hours when I’m sleeping (or just need a break!).

Really engage. This is the most important advice to follow but also the most difficult to do. How do you ‘really’ engage with followers? Isn’t it enough that I followed back and liked some tweets? I wish. The truth is you need to have conversations with other tweeters. I had two problems with this idea. First of all, I didn’t think anyone would want to read my comments. Who am I to them? I actually mentioned this to a fellow introverted blogger, and her answer was essentially: why wouldn’t they want to hear my comments? So, if you see a tweet that makes you laugh, tell the person who tweeted it. Have a comment? Go ahead – get it out there. You can always hide in your writer’s cave afterwards.

The second problem is the one we all have: time. There just isn’t enough time to engage with 10,000 followers every day. I solved this problem but spending time on twitter several times a day BUT for just a few minutes per time. By spreading the time around, I was able to engage with followers spread throughout different time zones. Limiting my time on twitter to a few minutes per time allows me to avoid being sucked into the social media black hole.

And what about you? How do you engage with others on twitter? Any other tips you have?

~~~~

This blog post is part of the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. This is a monthly blog hop hosted by @raimeygallant. Make sure to stop by the other author blog posts in this month’s blog hop to fill up your author toolbox!

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Observations on The Underground Railroad #MondayBlog #AmReading #PultizerPrize #PulitzerPrizeChallenge

[image error]As part of my update on my Pulitzer Prize Challenge, I was hoping to provide a review of The Underground Railroad today but, unfortunately, life got in the way. *Hangs head in shame* I was super excited when the hubby moved home from Istanbul a few months ago, but how in the world am I supposed to keep up with my reading if I’m spending time with him and having a social life? My lovely TBR notebook is now full of scratches and scribblings. And yes, I’m totally blaming the hubby for all of that.

[image error]In all seriousness, I thought today was a good moment to discuss some of my observations on The Underground Railroad. First, let me confess that when Oprah announced the book as her next selection for her book club and mentioned that the novel takes literary license in describing the underground railroad as an actual railroad, I assumed the book would be a huge departure from history. I feel silly for those thoughts now. Colson Whitehead obviously carefully researched slavery, the underground railroad, and all the related issues.

One of the things that makes a book a great novel is the thoughts provoked by such a book. There are a lot of themes to discuss in relation to The Underground Railroad, but one theme which really strikes a cord with me is fear. Fear is used in several ways throughout the story. Fear is used to keep slaves from running for freedom. Fear is used to make whites afraid of African slaves. Fear is used by the fugitive slave catchers to ensure whites didn’t help runaways. Most of these fears are the result of a fear of the African slave in general.

One of the reasons the theme of fear resonates with me is that using fear to motivate citizens is still something that is happening today. Fear of foreigners stealing jobs is used to close immigration doors. Fear of terrorist attacks is used by governments to violate the privacy of its citizens and to suspend human rights. Sometimes this fear goes to such extents that persons of certain religious groups are wrongly persecuted and even tortured.

Fear is, without a doubt, a great motivator. If we take the lessons learned since the times of slavery depicted in The Underground Railroad, then we should know better than to let blind, baseless fear rule our lives. Unfortunately, that lesson does not appear to have been learned.

 

 

 

Review of the #historicalnovel Spy Trap from A.P. Martin #WWII #thriller #bookreview

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Title: Spy Trap

Author: A.P. Martin

Genre: Thriller, Suspense

Published: 6 October 2017

~ Blurb ~

‘There’s a fellow who will soon have some rather important documents that we need to get back to Britain safely. How would you fancy the job of making sure he gets there with them?’ Bill Blake is a spy at the end of his tether. He just wants to go home, wherever that is now. Despite his genuine reservations, he’s forced to accept one final mission to earn his ticket back to Britain. However, what should have been a straightforward ‘babysitting’ job becomes much more difficult and dangerous with the rapid Fall of France and the effective surrounding of Switzerland by hostile Axis forces. Blake finds himself trapped in the neutral, but threatened Alpine Republic with an ex Naval Gunnery Officer who is in possession of plans and blueprints vital to Britain’s ability to defend herself. An instant mutual antipathy between the two men complicates matters as they grapple with the frequent necessity to alter their escape plans, the ever present risk of betrayal and a relentless pursuit by German Military Intelligence. Adapted from little known true events, Spy Trap takes the reader on their epic struggle to deliver to Britain the ability to produce a weapon which would be vital to her survival and ultimate victory.

~ Review ~

Although I’m a history geek who is more than a tiny bit obsessed with WWII, this novel is based upon a true story of which I had no knowledge. *Rubs hands in glee* The historical story itself is quite interesting. I enjoyed following the characters on their adventure from Switzerland to Istanbul and beyond. I did feel the story got bogged down in tiny details a bit too often, but in general I kept reading as I was curious where the story would end up.

The historical information and background could have been weaved into the story in a more seamless manner as the provision of information via dialogue often makes the character dialogue unrealistic. In general, there’s a bit too much telling and not enough showing for my liking. This sometimes makes the story a bit mundane to read. As someone who has lived in Istanbul (and Heidelberg for that matter), the descriptions of the city were often inaccurate. For example, the Park Hotel does not overlook the Grande Rue (it’s a hundred meters or so down the road from Taksim). I found this section of the novel difficult to read as I was often disturbed with these inaccuracies.

The writing could use some editing. The overuse (and sometimes incorrect) use of commas, the improper use of adverbs, and switches in tenses interrupt the flow of the story but could easily be corrected with the use of an editor.

Overall, an interesting historical read.

~ About the Author ~

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I hail from the North of England and, since taking early retirement from my academic post, I’ve really enjoyed immersing myself in reading and writing. Essentially, I read purely for pleasure, and my single goal in writing is to produce books that people will thoroughly enjoy as a ‘cracking story.’

My first two novels are historical fiction, a genre which, in my view, almost always benefits from a close connection to something that actually happened. The inspiration for my first two books, Codename Lazarus and Spy Trap, came from little known, but truly incredible events from the Second World War. It gave me huge pleasure to adapt the courageous actions of two unsung heroes, into what, I hope, readers have experienced as exciting thrillers.

My third novel, the soon to be published Sentence of Death, represents an exciting new direction for me. It’s a crime thriller, set on Tyneside in the summer of 2016. Strangely, the basic framework for this book also comes from a real event in Gateshead at that time. I’ve always been a bit of a fan of crime fiction, and I do hope that readers of this book will agree that I’ve created an original plot for their entertainment.

Currently, I’m beginning work on my fourth book, for which I have returned to the more familiar territory of the Second World War. As yet untitled, it will once again take a virtually unknown, but extremely important story of bravery, and try to adapt it into a thrilling adventure story.

Details of all my work and updates on my progress can be found on my website at www.apmartin.co.uk There is also a facility on the website for you to send me a private message and to sign up for a quarterly newsletter. It would be great to hear from you, either via the website, or via GoodReads!

 

 

Why I don’t hate #Amazon ~ Getting English books in a non-English speaking country #ExpatLife

[image error]There are a lot of Amazon haters out there, and I get it. Really, I do. Amazon has done a lot of shady things from deleting legitimate reviews to making algorithms that seem designed to beat-down the indie writer. As an indie writer, I have experienced both of those problems. Still, I don’t hate Amazon. Before you pull out your hair in frustration of my love for Amazon, let me explain.

I’m not just a writer, I’m also a reader. In fact, most of the times I prefer reading over writing. (Writing can be freaking hard!) I’m also an expat who has lived in a variety of countries. When I first moved overseas, it was the dark ages. Things like the internet and eBooks were the fodder of sci-fi novels. You had to rely on bookstores for books. (I still LOVE bookstores.)

Initially, my love for books didn’t take too much of a hit from living overseas. The military, of course, has their own bookstores full of English books (although choice was always limited to the bestsellers). And when I left the military and eventually moved to The Netherlands, I didn’t fret. Anyone who has visited Holland knows how international the country is. This was true twenty years ago as well. English books are widely available, including at train station kiosks!

[image error]But then I moved to Germany. The only English books available in my town were the Penguin classics the German high schoolers were required to read – most of which I’d already read or, frankly, didn’t want to read. This is when my love affair with Amazon began. I could get almost any English language book I wanted on the site. My mailman and I became friendly. I may have even hugged him when the final Harry Potter book was delivered – on my birthday no less!

[image error]After a year or two in Germany, I threw away my legal career. No longer could I afford to buy a load of paperbacks each month. I’d been fighting the ereader revolution, but after I discovered most classics were available for free on the kindle, I bought the cheapest version I could find. I spent that first year reading Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

And then I moved to Istanbul. Frankly, I would have NEVER survived living in Turkey without my ereader. English books in Istanbul are few and far between. Those that are available are over-priced and often limited to bestsellers or non-fiction titles. No thanks.

[image error]Although I’m no back living in the Netherlands where English language books are plentiful, I still use Amazon regularly. As an indie author who is addicted to reading, I simply can’t afford to buy every book I read in a physical format. Amazon and kindle unlimited allows me to continue my addiction to reading without breaking the bank.

And that’s why I still love Amazon.

Why my Amazon Ad Tanked #WriterWednesday #BookMarketing #AmWriting

[image error]I’ve been thinking about writing this blog for a while, but it isn’t easy admitting you’ve utterly and completely failed at something. Writing a blog post about a failure, however, forces me to analyze what exactly I did wrong instead of purposefully forgetting that I’m a failure (which I fail at anyway. Pun intended.) Hopefully, someone can learn from my mistakes as well. Okay then! Time to pull up my big girl panties and get on with the humiliation. It’s not like anyone can see my bright-red, embarrassed face right now anyway.

Let’s start with the facts. I started a product display ad for Searching for Gertrude in March. (For more information regarding Amazon ads and the types of ads, you can read my blog here.) I think I must have been having a complete brain block as I recently re-read my blog articles and noticed that I conclude that a product display ad for Fat Girl Begone! wasn’t worth it. (You can read about that here.)

Here’s how the ad for Searching for Gertrude looked:

Naturally, I thought it looked pretty spiffy. But how did the ad actually do? Here are the stats (And yes, you may feel sorry for me. I sure do):

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As you can see, I actually ended up terminating the ad, because it was performing abysmally. But, why? Or better yet, WHY???? At first, I thought my cost-per-click bid (CPC) was too low. So, I raised it to ABOVE the average bid price. That’s when I got the whole two impressions.

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After I raised the CPC and only received two impressions, I gave up and cancelled the ad. Then, I promptly shoved the entire experience in a corner of my mind I couldn’t easily access (because that’s what adults do, right?). Over a month later, I found myself at the London Book Fair listening to a variety of lectures on how to sell and/or market books. I realized that I couldn’t sell more books unless I figured out what I had been doing wrong. Darn it! Guess it’s time to figure out where that Amazon ad went wrong.

Amazon ads offers authors the opportunity to target potential readers by product or interest.

When you read the descriptions, it sounds like interest-based targeting is a better bet as it yields more impressions. But the choice of interests in interest-based targeting is limited to these HUGE categories. As you can see from the picture below, ‘interests’ are really just the various genres of books.

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I, however, was charmed by the idea of ‘yielding more impressions’ and, thus, I chose interest and, more specifically, historical romance. Now, I’d love to think that every single person who reads historical romance would love Searching for Gertrude. But I’m wrong. That’s just not true. (*Pouts for five minutes*) In fact, one of the things I kept hearing at the London Book Fair was: Who is your reader? You need to target your reader.

Based upon the results of this ad as well as my previous product display ad for Fat Girl Begone!, choosing a broad category for an Amazon ad is not the way to go. Using these broad categories, is the very definition of NOT targeting your reader. Product display ads are displayed on book pages and having my novel appear next to a book that was merely in the same broad category as mine didn’t yield high results. Instead, I should have concentrated on authors and/or books that are similar to the novel I was advertising.

So, my next project is to find an historical romance novel similar to Searching for Gertrude and use that book to target the audience who will see the ad. Fingers crossed.

What about you? Have you successfully used product display ads?

Week #2 of My Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Challenge ~ This week stars The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead #MondayBlogs #Pulitzer #ReadingChallenge

Last week, I announced my somewhat crazy decision to read every winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Naturally, the first thing to happen in this project was that I hit a snag. The 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction is Less by Andrew Sean Greer. And the book is not available! How can that be? I assume – based on the cover picture – that the book is being re-printed with that cool little emblem to indicate it’s a prize winner.

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I could buy the kindle version, but the paperback is only two euros more. And, although I LOVE my kindle (seriously, it’s the love of my life), I prefer to read literature in paperback as I read those books slower and am more likely to put it down for an extended period of time. (Just ask me how long I’ve been trying to read The Goldfinch. No, wait, don’t!) So, I’ve pre-ordered Less on Amazon, since the local bookstore couldn’t guarantee delivery – at all. They’ve placed three orders, but none have been accepted. Can you say crazy?

So, I’ve moved on to the 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner – The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

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To be perfectly honest, I’ve been reading this book for some time now. It’s well-written and obviously well researched, but it’s also not a happy story. OBVIOUSLY! I tend to only read happy stories in the winter. As a friend recently confessed to me, sometimes you just have to read ‘delightful’ books. In the meantime, spring has arrived. With the sun shining and temps reaching the 70s, I hope to make some decent headway this week.

Stay tuned for my review.

 

 

Honoring the dead in Holland #ExpatLiving #MemorialDay #ThisisHolland

Today, May 4th, is memorial day in The Netherlands. The date was chosen specifically as May 5th is Liberation Day ~ the day the Netherlands celebrates its freedom from the occupying Nazis in World War II (my mother-in-law insists I add that not everyone was liberated yet on May 5th and some were liberated much earlier). Memorial day is commemorated with two minutes of silence at 8 p.m. The national commemoration takes place on the Dam in Amsterdam, although there are hundreds of local commemorations planned as well.

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I explained the Dutch memorial day and the following liberation day ceremony on my blog last year (read about it here). In that blog, I wrote about the national ceremony, but what about the local commemorations? I live in the Hague, which houses the national government of the Dutch. Surely, there are ceremonies here to rival the Dam (although we have allowed the King – whose palace is in The Hague – to travel to Amsterdam for the national ceremony).

I quickly stumbled upon a commencement ceremony at the monument for Forced Labor in the courtyard of the Province House of South Holland (I’m not sure about that translation, but the Province House houses the government for the province of South Holland. The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces.) During the Second World War, the Hague Zoo was located here. This was one of the locations where forced laborers from the Hague were assembled for transportation to Germany.

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The monument was an initiative of P.M. Kool who was a forced laborer in Stuttgart. He felt that after the war there was little understanding for the experiences of the forced laborers. The idea is that the monument will change that. Huh. I live – literally – three blocks from the Province House and walk and/or cycle past it on nearly a daily basis. I didn’t even know the monument was there. And I am a total and complete history geek – especially about the Second World War. So, sorry Mr. Kool, but we need to do some work on raising awareness. So, here goes.

First, the monument. The monument consists of a tree surrounded by elevated bricks on which a stainless steel ring is attached. A row of human figures is depicted on the inside of the ring.

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On the outside of the ring, you can read the following text:

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“Because that’s the point: being a victim, being violated and having to fight for recognition of this …”

A plaque explains the forced labor situation during the war:

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“During the Second World War, the occupying forces forced more than half a million Dutch to perform labor in Germany. Men from The Hague and surroundings were also deported. This happened on a large scale during a raid on November 21, 1944.

Around 15,000 residents of The Hague and the surrounding area were brought together several locations. One of those locations was the former zoo, which now houses the Province House. Most of them did not know what awaited them – deportation from the Laakhaven by barge. Their loved ones who stayed behind also faced difficult times full of uncertainty about the fate of the men.

Countless forced laborers lost their lives. May the memory of war and terror encourage peace among all.”

These victims, among others who have lost their lives due to war, are remembered at a ceremony today at the memorial. At 8 p.m. the Netherlands falls silent to remember those who have died for our freedom.

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A gruesome crime spree turns into an international conspiracy of unbridled greed and violence ~ Shadow Girl a novel of #suspense #thriller from Gerry Schmitt #Giveaway

Shadow Girl (An Afton Tangler Thriller)

by Gerry Schmitt
About the Book

Shadow Girl (An Afton Tangler Thriller)

Suspense/Thriller

2nd in Series

Hardcover: 320 pages

ISBN-13: 978-0425281789

Paperback: 320 pages (May 1, 2018)

ISBN-13: 978-0425281796

Kindle ASIN: B01MXHV6CL

The brutal murder of a business tycoon leaves Afton Tangler and the Twin Cities reeling, but that’s just the beginning of a gruesome crime spree…

Leland Odin made his fortune launching a home shopping network, but his millions can’t save his life. On the list for a transplant, the ailing businessman sees all hope lost when the helicopter carrying his donor heart is shot out of the sky.

Now with two pilots dead and dozens injured, Afton Tangler, family liaison officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, is drawn into the case. As she and her partner investigate family members and business associates, whoever wants Leland dead strikes again—and succeeds—in a brazen hospital room attack.

The supposedly squeaky clean millionaire has crossed the wrong person—and she’s not finished exacting her revenge. The case explodes into an international conspiracy of unbridled greed and violence. And as Afton gets closer to unearthing the mastermind behind it, she gets closer to becoming collateral damage…

~ Grab a copy! ~

Amazon B&N BAM

~ Praise for Shadow Girl ~

I enjoyed the characters a lot. Max and Afton seem to play off of each other well as far as figuring things out.

~Valerie’s Musings

This is one of those books where the bad men are really bad, and everyone in the case is hiding something to have a money profit…

~Varietats

Afton was a likable character for me. She seemed in tune with some of the other characters. She is good at her job.

~A. Holland Reads

Shadow Girl by Gerry Schmitt is one of the most gripping and chilling books I’ve read this year.

~Back Porchervations

The mystery and suspense aspect of this book was great. This was a definite page-turner.

~Bookworm Cafe

Can I just say Wow! It’s been awhile since I sat and read a book that terrified me with precision action that intrigued me so much it was impossible to put the book down.

~Texas Book-aholic

It starts off with a bang (literally) and the suspense never lets up. I love stories that grip you right from the start and this thriller fits the bill.

~Brooke Blogs

This is a serious thriller with a lot going on. There’s surface to air missiles, conspiracies to kill no matter who gets hurt and what has to be done, and characters with some seriously shady backstories.

~I Wish I Lived In a Library

From page 1 I was engaged in a thrilling and suspenseful ride!

~My Reading Journeys

As the chapters unfold we get a good look at things from both the good guys’ and the bad guys’ perspectives. This gives you a first-hand understanding of the killer’s motives, but in no way takes away from the suspense or the desire to see Afton and Max bring her to justice.

~The Book’s the Thing

A page turner like you never read before, Shadow Girl is a deeply rooted thriller in the art of murder, mystery, and revenge.

~Bibliophile Reviews

~ About The Author ~

Gerry Schmitt is the author of the Afton Tangler Thrillers, and, writing under the pseudonym Laura Childs, the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five novels, the Tea Shop, Scrapbooking, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. She is the former CEO of her own marketing firm, has won TV and radio awards, and produced two reality TV shows. She and her professor husband enjoy collecting art, travel, and their two Shar-Pei dogs.

 

 

~ Stalk the author! ~

Website – Facebook

 

~ Giveaway ~

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Day #1 of My Challenge to Read Every Novel that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction #MondayBlogs #Pulitzer #ReadingChallenge

I’m starting a new project today! Although I’m sure the project will not literally kill me, it is going to be a HUGE challenge. What, exactly, am I talking about? Well, I’ve decided to read every single one of the novels that has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction since the inception of the prize in 1918. *Gulp*

[image error]Why am I doing this? Have I lost my freaking mind? Probably. To be totally honest, I feel as if my knowledge of American literature is lacking. I remember a class in law school about Henry Miller. I had absolutely no clue who he was! *Blushes* I can’t entirely blame the US educational system on my lack of knowledge. I only spent half of my high school years in the US, and I was obsessed with all things foreign at the time. (I always knew I would leave the US and live abroad.) I spent one year reading all the works of Shakespeare and another semester obsessed with Russian literature. Then came college, which I finished in three years. In order to accomplish that feat, while working full-time mind you, I didn’t have any time for electives. I plowed through the requirements to get a Bachelor’s degree in history. It’s not too surprising that the course work did not include any classes in American literature.

Now, the time has arrived for me to rectify this embarrassing lack of knowledge. After all, you can’t be a writer without being a reader. But why the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction? Honestly, I wanted to read the top 100 American novels, but the top 100 according to whom? There are tons and tons of lists. How to choose? There just wasn’t a way to choose the best list, so I went with a well-known and well-respected prize instead a.k.a. The Pulitzer.

Here’s the list of the novels I’ll be reading:

Year
Novel
Author


2018
Less
Andrew Sean Greer


2017
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead


2016
The Sympathizer
Viet Thang Nguyen


2015
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doeer


2014
The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt


2013
The Orphan Master’s Son
Adam Johnson


2012
No Award Given
 


2011
A Visit From the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan


2010
Tinkers
Paul Harding


2009
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout


2008
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz


2007
The Road
Cormac McCarthy


2006
March
Geraldine Brooks


2005
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson


2004
The Known World
Edward P. Jones


2003
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides


2002
Empire Falls
Richard Russo


2001
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon


2000
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri


1999
The Hours
Michael Cunningham


1998
American Pastoral
Philip Roth


1997
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
Steven Millhauser


1996
Independence Day
Richard Ford


1995
The Stone Diaries
Carol Shields


1994
The Shipping News
E. Annie Proulx


1993
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Robert Olen Butler


1992
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley


1991
Rabbit at Rest
John Updike


1990
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Oscar Hijuelos


1989
Breathing Lessons
Anne Tyler


1988
Beloved
Toni Morrison


1987
A Summons to Memphis
Peter Taylor


1986
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry


1985
Foreign Affairs
Alison Lurie


1984
Ironweed
William Kennedy


1983
The Color Purple
Alice Walker


1982
Rabbit Is Rich
John Updike


1981
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole


1980
The Executioner’s Song
Norman Mailer


1979
The Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever


1978
Elbow Room
James Alan McPherson


1977
No award given
 


1976
Humboldt’s Gift
Saul Bellow


1975
The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara


1974
No award given
 


1973
The Optimist’s Daughter
Eudora Welty


1972
Angle of Repose
Wallace Stegner


1971
No award given
 


1970
The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
Jean Stafford


1969
House Made of Dawn
N. Scott Momaday


1968
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron


1967
The Fixer
Bernard Malamud


1966
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter


1965
The Keepers of the House
Shirley Ann Grau


1964
No award given
 


1963
The Reivers
William Faulkner


1962
The Edge of Sadness
Edwin O’Connor


1961
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee


1960
Advise and Consent
Allen Drury


1959
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
Robert Lewis Taylor


1958
A Death in the Family
James Agee


1957
No award given
 


1956
Andersonville
MacKinlay Kantor


1955
A Fable
William Faulkner


1954
No award given
 


1953
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway


1952
The Caine Mutiny
Herman Wouk


1951
The Town
Conrad Richter


1950
The Way West
A. B. Guthrie, Jr.


1949
Guard of Honor
James Gould Cozzens


1948
Tales of the South Pacific
James A. Michener


1947
All the King’s Men
Robert Penn Warren


1946
no award given
 


1945
A Bell for Adano
John Hersey


1944
Journey in the Dark
Martin Flavin


1943
Dragon’s Teeth
Upton Sinclair


1942
In This Our Life
Ellen Glasgow


1941
no award given
 


1940
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck


1939
The Yearling
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings


1938
The Late George Apley
John Phillips Marquand


1937
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell


1936
Honey in the Horn
Harold L. Davis


1935
Now in November
Josephine Winslow Johnson


1934
Lamb in His Bosom
Caroline Miller


1933
The Store
Thomas Sigismund Stribling


1932
The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck


1931
Years of Grace
Margaret Ayer Barnes


1930
Laughing Boy
Oliver La Farge


1929
Scarlet Sister Mary
Julia Peterkin


1928
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder


1927
Early Autumn
Louis Bromfield


1926
Arrowsmith
Sinclair Lewis


1925
So Big
Edna Ferber


1924
The Able McLaughlins
Margaret Wilson


1923
One of Ours
Willa Cather


1922
Alice Adams
Booth Tarkington


1921
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton


1920
No award given
 


1919
The Magnificent Ambersons
Booth Tarkington


1918
His Family
Ernest Poole

Full disclosure: Please don’t expect me to finish one book a week. I’m not that crazy! But I will keep you up to date on my progress each Monday, so watch this space.

 

King’s Day ~ The Dutch excuse to have the party of all parties while decked out in orange #ExpatLife #ThisisHolland #KingsDay2018

Today, April 27th, is King Willem-Alexander’s birthday, which means it’s time for a party – obviously. The tradition of celebrating the monarch’s birthday in a country-wide celebration dates back to 1885 when a celebration for Crown Princess Wilhelmina’s fifth birthday was held on August 31st. After she ascended to the throne, the name was changed to Queen’s Day and thus began the tradition of celebrating the monarch’s birthday. Until 2013, the holiday has always been Queen’s Day as the Netherlands only had female monarchs in the 20th Century. (On a side note, Willem-Alexander has three daughters, so we will be going back to celebrating female monarchs after his reign.)

So, what do the Dutch do to celebrate the King’s birthday? The better question is what don’t they do? The first and most important thing is to dress in orange. The surname of the royal family, Van Oranje Nassau, happens to also correspond with the word for the color orange in Dutch – Oranje. (In case you’re wondering, the orange fruit in Dutch is a different word.) Everything is orange on King’s Day. Orange clothes. Orange hair. Orange face paint. Orange Streets. An orange pennant hung above the Dutch flag. Orange. Orange. Orange.

Now that we’ve established that everything is orange, what do people actually do on King’s Day? First and foremost, they sell junk, although I’m pretty sure they don’t actually use the word junk. On King’s Day, anyone and everyone can sell just about anything on the street. Seriously, nearly everything. The only things that are not allowed are alcohol (unless you have a permit) and spoiled food. Otherwise, it’s a free for all, although you do have to drink from plastic cups. I think I can handle that small sacrifice.

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For those of us who don’t believe a party should be about shopping, there are plenty of other activities. The biggest attraction is musical entertainment. Although many partygoers head to Amsterdam where an outdoor concert draws 800,000 visitors, I avoid the city like the plague. The place is packed. Literally, you don’t walk down streets, you are jostled down them. My first year in the Netherlands, I insisted on going to Amsterdam. Big. Mistake. Gigantic. Huge. Mistake. By early afternoon, I was ready to go home, but we literally could not get anywhere. Not even on the side streets. Finally, I spotted a police officer (they’re easy to spot as the Dutch are the tallest people in the world). He was able to cut a path through the crowd and I was his tail. By the time we made it to the train station (luckily, the cop was going in the correct direction!), there was an entire parade of people following him. Never again.

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But there’s more! Fraternities and sororities make up all kinds of drunken games to raise money. There are carnival rides. Here in The Hague, we even have an entire carnival. Of course, there’s lots of food and beverage as well. Because there is no party without the obligatory orange beer, right?

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And what’s a birthday celebration without gifts? It turns out that each year Dutch citizens leave thousands of gifts at the gates to the royal stables for the King. These gifts are catalogued and placed in the Royal Archives – a place that is not open to the public, but I was lucky enough to tour last year.

There’s tons more going on, but it’s time for me to head to the party. Proost!

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