Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, December 10, 2016,
Trolling www.flipthe37blogspot.com for sample emails and
information about imploring electoral college electors to “vote their
conscience,” I stumbled upon some alarming and sobering comments from people
who have already done so and been rebuked by these haughty public officials.
Case in point: a woman who emailed the electoral college only to receive the
following (highly abridged) response to her very innocuous email:
“Nice try though to get Electors to place their personal
op...
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Orange is the New Black
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, July 26, 2015,
I’ve become hooked on the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. What a coup
for Piper Kerman (author of the book by the same name)! I wish one of
my books would get turned into a TV series. But seriously, unless
someone you know is in prison, who even thinks about inmates or
correctional institutions? The disenfranchised are tidily tucked away
from view; we have no idea what goes on in such places, nor do we care.
For raising our “corrections consciousness,” I give props to Ora... Continue reading ...
The Middle of Somewhere: A Gripping and Powerful Ride
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, June 13, 2015,
The Middle of Somewhere by
Sonja Yoerg
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
The Middle of Somewhere paints a dazzling, realistic picture of backpacking through Yosemite along the John Muir Trail—a three-week, 220-mile undertaking. Sonja Yoerg reminds us that out in the wilderness, there’s no room for lies or secrets. One's soul is bared. Our human need for one another—both physically and emotionally—is raw, unmasked by the distraction of technological gizmos or the false security afforded by our s... Continue reading ...
"Crossing Over" in Literature as in Life
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, September 14, 2013,
Note to Readers: Full post appears as a guest blog on Compulsion Reads!
I have been asked on several occasions why I, a white writer, feature
non-white protagonists in my two most recent novels (Puerto Rican Norma
Reyes in
The Floater and biracial Sonya Schoenberg in
Stage Daughter).
The question itself is rather telling. After all, real life is
multi-dimensional where race is concerned, so why would a novelist
“raise eyebrows” simply by creating fictional characters whose cultural
...
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Self-Promotion for Chumps and Hos
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, July 24, 2013,
Times may be tough, but it’s a great time to be in the self-publishing business. That is, if you happen to sell some variant of snake oil meant to transform an unknown writer into a best-selling author. Book ads. Virtual tours. Paid
Tweeting—the possibilities are endless. The only catch is, these marketing devices
can only deliver on one promise: To keep our fantasies alive while quickly emptying our wallets.
If this sounds a little like prostitution, there are definitely parallels b...
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Trapped on Vacation
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, June 23, 2013,
It’s never fun when vacation plans are derailed, but it’s especially unsettling to take a long-awaited trip, only to wind up in the middle of a disaster area. I’d carefully planned our two-pronged retreat, first to a lovely, well-appointed condo in Canmore (near Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada); then—the highpoint of our trip—a secluded cabin in Jasper National Park, about a five-hour drive to the Northwest.
It rained off and on the first few days, but we were still able to en...
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“Started But Didn’t Finish”: Sacrilegious or Sensible?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, January 20, 2013,
Three days ago, I abandoned Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay in favor of Elizabeth Berg’s Once Upon a Time, There Was You. Not because Amazing Adventures isn’t a great book, mind you. But after completing 146 pages (and with more than 500 remaining), my brain began to ache.
Don’t get me wrong: Chabon is an excellent writer and there were moments when I’d been intrigued. But on the whole, I found myself growing weary from the effort required to muddle throu...
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Will the World End Today?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, December 21, 2012,
Some people really believed the world would come to an end today. Despite the supposed cessation of the Mayan calendar and the numerical quirkiness of today's date (122112), I never believed the world would self-destruct in one quick blast on such a typical Friday. I believe it will happen more gradually than that. Who knows? Maybe it is happening already. This was a year of fear, loss, and devastation for so many. And while I suspect we have many more centuries—if not millenia—to look fo...
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On Giving Bad Reviews
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, September 28, 2012,
And by “bad,” I don’t mean poorly-written (that’s a subject for another day). I mean those scathing one- and two-star reviews some people post when they didn’t enjoy a book for whatever reason. Now, I have no problem stating my case if I don't like a particular book. But when faced with the pesky dilemma of whether to imprint an already negative review with fewer than three stars, I have recently found myself unable to do it. Having been on the receiving end of a few such critiques,...
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Let the Games Begin
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, August 4, 2012,
No, I’m not talking about the Olympics. I’m sure you’ve heard enough about that all week. I’m referring to the game of life. When the whistle blows and it’s time to choose which lineup to join for this marathon event we call adulthood, which team will you choose? Because—make no mistake about it—life’s a game, and there are sides to be drawn.
Your best bet is probably Team Business, where the movers and shakers compete in a brutal race to promote America’s commercial interest...
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How Rotten Have We Become?
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Sunday, May 27, 2012,
I am planning a trip to New York this summer to visit my two brothers. (For those of you who have read Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz, think: Stanley and Jake, only ten times more jaded, negative, and income-challenged). I don’t typically use my blogs to rant, but today, I will make an exception because I am once again dumbfounded by just how low the human race will stoop.
Before I even subject myself and my eleven-year-old daughter to the intrusion, humiliation, a...
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Not-So-Great Expectations
Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, April 14, 2012,
It’s one thing to hope for the best, and quite another to cling to false hope. It’s good to have faith, but not to leave one's fate in the hands of wishful thinking or fantastical fantasy. There’s a fine line between being enthusiastically positive and utterly unrealistic. Sure, Don Quixote taught us a thing or two about living with passion and hope. But he is a fictional character (not to mention, crazy).
So where’s the balance? Never is this question more important than when ven...
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