August is for Reading
by,
August 9, 2022

Judith Rossner’s 70s novel, August, is about a psychoanalyst and the young adult client she sees during the month when all therapists take vacation. Someone needs to write the novel about an agent and the young adult novelist who pitches in August and hears crickets. Is everyone on vacation in August? Yup. August is about beach books and cabin reads. Swinging in a hammock with a… [Read More]

August is for Reading
by,
July 10, 2018

From now through August, Swenson Book Development LLC offers a special package for editorial feedback on the first ten pages of your manuscript. I want to read what you’ve been writing. One of the most frequent requests I get from writers is a simple answer to the general question: is this any good? In order to answer any questions about a manuscript, you need to… [Read More]

Summer Reading List
by,
June 8, 2013

Good writers read good writing. While you are writing your work-in-progress, keep reading great books. Here’s our recommendations for a super summer reading list. Non-Fiction Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan Death in the Baltic: WWII Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff by Cathryn Prince Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill Good Prose: The Art of Non-Fiction… [Read More]

The Summer Without Men
by,
July 12, 2011

Don’t let the jacket copy and title fool you. No chick lit fodder beckons in Siri Hustvedt’s newest fiction: The Summer Without Men (Picador, April 26, 2011). The antics of Mia Fredrickson’s young and turbulent neighbors, the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop, and her mother’s senior circle composed of the wise and nurturing “Five Swans” provides the context for deep intellectual passages and keeps… [Read More]