Isabel Allende & Friday wrap (with rocket)

I haven’t read a lot of Allende but I remember being very taken with Eva Luna. I just saw a link to January Magazine, who have an alphabetical list of authors who have websites. There are a lot of names but not so many that I recognise. The Allende link I have below goes to a page where she writes about her early life which is interesting. I love reading about author life, and biography. Where their influences came from and how they follow writing processes. I’ve put a few other links below. Every time I see George RR Martin’s photo, it makes me happy, especially these days when author pics seem to be so homogenous (young, regular-featured, high televisual/photographic rating).

Isabel Allende

Martin Amis

Margaret Atwood

George RR Martin

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For my Friday wrap, here is a list of links that I ‘favourited’ recently on twitter (can’t bear to write favorite. Oh look, I just did so.)

The 25 Greatest Essay Collections of All Time (Joan Didion appears twice. Natch.)

When a science lover outs herself as female, the world stops spinning. I Fucking Love Science‘s facebook founder and administrator is a girl!

When you get bad reviews – the positives of negative reinforcement

Fantastic review by Stephen King on Joyce Carol Oates’s new horror book The Accursed. (When a review makes you want to read a book in a genre that you never read, then that’s a good review I reckon.)

Zadie Smith on the rise of the essay, the novel form versus essay form, and readers’ desire for the real.

FINALLY via Brain Picker and from The Electric Typewriter, a terrific tumblr page which collates a whole lot of essays (150 of the beauties) on different topics, sorted according to writer or subject. Fabulous stuff.