by Susan Olasky
Post Date:
November 21, 2013

Web Reads: Spruce up your apple carving, writing style, and reading list

Name: WORLD
Price range: $

Even better apples. Already thinking of Thanksgiving dinner? Here’s a how-to video for transforming an apple into a swan. You can watch a video with swan-carver King of Random, showing other ingenious how-tos.

Even better writing. Readers and budding writers will appreciate longform.org’s archives of writers on writing. The site has essays by and interviews with writers like David McCullough on writing biographies, E.B. White on the art of the essay, and Kurt Vonnegut on writing fiction.

Even better books. This 1898 best-novel list by critic Clement K. Shorter via kottke.org includes many now-unfamiliar books. Are some of them forgotten gems? Kottke sends readers to the website The Greatest Books for more lists.

Even better animals? The BBC reports on the use of elephants and camels in Britain during WWI. The military drafted horses to the war front, so some parts of the country relied on animals from menageries and circuses to pull plow fields and pull heavy loads.

Susan Olasky

Susan is a former WORLD book reviewer, story coach, feature writer, and editor. She has authored eight historical novels for children and resides with her husband, Marvin, in Austin, Texas.

@susanolasky