Laura Billings Coleman
creative content for the common good
Book Reviews
This Is The Story of a Happy Marriage
Do you want to do this thing? Sit down and do it. Are you not writing? Keep sitting there. Does it not feel right? Keep sitting there. Think of yourself as a monk walking the path of enlightenment. Think of yourself as a high school senior wanting to be a neurosurgeon. Is it possible? Yes. Is there a shortcut? Not one I’ve found. Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.
–from “The Getaway Car” by Ann Patchett
Reading Against Type
What happens when a young chick-lit reader falls in love with the ultimate boy book?
Beach Bag Reading
A round-up of summer paperbacks for today’s Star Tribune.
Recommended Reading
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890-1923 by RF Foster
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
The Tenth of December by George Saunders
Bio: Laura has been writing for national magazines, newspapers and new media since before it was called "content." A former columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Mademoiselle and Mpls/St. Paul, her reporting and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Outside, Fast Company, SELF, Salon and many other publications.
Fun fact: Laura spent her formative years writing relationship advice in women’s magazines. Ask her anything. She’s here to help.