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The Graduation Speech

Tolland High School Commencement, June 20, 2012. Photo credit: J. MacArthur

Would you give a high school commencement address if you were invited to do so?

I declined.  Two years ago, when I was invited to speak at Tolland High School where I’d been a teacher for seven years, I was happy enough with the honor of being asked without shouldering the responsibility of trying to do a decent job with the speech itself.  I was daunted by the prospect of how much time it would take to… Continue reading

Open Letter to John Read, Department of Justice

John R. Read, Chief
Litigation III Section
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 4000
Washington, DC  20530

Dear Mr. Read:

I urge the Department of Justice to drop the April 11th suit against Apple and five publishers who are accused of colluding to limit price competition for ebooks.  I’m particularly troubled by the suit’s claim that “Together, Apple and the Publisher Defendants reached an agreement whereby retail price competition would cease (which all conspirators desired), retail e-book prices would increase significantly (which… Continue reading

Tour Stops: Oblong Books and Books of Wonder

Jenn Bosworth, Emmy Laybourne, Caragh O'Brien, Jennifer Laughran, Suzanna Hermans, Anna Banks, and Leigh Bardugo at Oblong Books, June 17, 2012

I joined the end of the Fierce Reads Tour with Leigh Bardugo, Anna Banks, Jenn Bosworth and Emmy Laybourne last week.  Many thanks to Jennifer Laughran and Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck, NY for having us by.  Your readers were absolutely wonderful with their questions and it was great to see so many writers in the gathering.

The next… Continue reading

99 Favorite Reads, Picked by Teens

The teens who named their favorite books for this list include athletes, honors students, non-readers, incarcerated girls, a prom queen, loners, computer game players, gay and straight teens, teens from the coasts and in between, teens of many races, artists, and writers.  Their choices made the list (alphabetically) regardless if the books were award-winners, banned, popular, controversial, new, or classic.  The sole criteria: these books are favorites. 1. Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak 2. M.T. Anderson, Feed 3. Anonymous, Go Ask Alice 4. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, The… Continue reading

Art Experiments on Us: High Line Park

High Line Park, NYC

Clever minds are at work in public art spaces.  I was walking High Line Park in NYC with my family this weekend when we came upon a theater-type, open air seating area which descended downward, with windows at the bottom overlooking the traffic of 10th street that ran directly below.  We gladly sat for a while, looking out the “screens” at the flowing taxis, thinking about how life is art if you look at it differently.  Is “streetscape” a word?  Probably.… Continue reading

BookExpo America 2012. Nice.

Stephen Colbert at BEA Breakfast

My first delight of BEA yesterday was being in the same room with Stephen Colbert.  I felt this inner gasp of Wow! There he is!  He was small, silly and far away at the podium, but fortunately, there were two big projection screens on either side of the platform, so I could see him in his normal TV-esque headshot, too.  He took the success of 50 Shades of Grey as an excuse to make random references to his throbbing member throughout his… Continue reading

 

Ari & Milo, my serial novel, is now up on Wattpad! I drew illustrations to go with each chapter, and best of all, it’s free! Because of problematic themes, this novel is for mature readers age 17+.

Caragh's Latest Favorite Reads

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Every Day
The Dog Stars
The Reinvention of Edison Thomas
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Fault in Our Stars
Two of a Kind
Until It Hurts to Stop


Caragh's books »

Audio Books

The audio books of BIRTHMARKED, PRIZED, PROMISED, and THE VAULT OF DREAMERS have been released by Tantor Audio. They're available through Tantor, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Audible.com.
Book Trailer for Promised