Description: A distinguished novelist and critic inspires readers and writers with this inside look at how the professionals read--and write. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, "Reading Like a Writer" instructs readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.
Brief description: Francine Prose is the author of twenty-three works of fiction including the highly acclaimed Five Weeks in the Country; The Vixen; Mister Monkey; the New York Times bestseller Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932; A Changed Man, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her works of nonfiction include the highly praised 1974: A Personal History, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer, which has become a classic. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.
Review Quotes:
"Prose's guide to reading and writing belongs on every writer's bookshelf alongside E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Francine Prose has a knack for getting to the heart of human nature." - USA Today on A Changed Main
"Racy, intensely imagined and highly readable . . . Prose brings to Caravaggio a fresh and unflinching eye." - New York Times Book Review on Caravaggio
"Prose's little guide will motivate 'people who love books'...Like the great works of fiction, it's a wise and voluble companion." - New York Times Book Review
"Celebrates the pleasures of close reading and explores the power of well-wrought language...refreshing" - Time Out New York
"a jewel of a companion...engrossing...and...daringly insightful." - Los Angeles Times
"Readable and illuminating...few...advice volumes offer as much insight into writing as you will find in Francine Prose's latest book" - Capital Times
"Prose knows when to be funny, how to wield examples, and when to stop." - More magazine
"Witty...Insightful." - Washington Post Book World
"Reading Like A Writer is different from the rest of the pack...[Prose's] wise book serves as an ispirational reminder." - Washington Times
"The passages are...subtle and brilliant in their capture of human complexity...Prose is...a skilled...analyst of what makes them so." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Sensible, valuable and highly readable, Reading Like a Writer deserves perusal -- both in and out of the classroom." - Kansas City Star
"Makes a case for the rewards of reading." - Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
"An absolutely necessary addition to the personal library of anyone who is a writer or dreams of writing." - National Public Radio