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Cornelia Read

Goodreads Author

Born

New York, New York, The United States

Website

http://www.corneliaread.com

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers

Influences

Jim and Hunter S. Thompson, Nabokov, Jane Austen, Speed Racer, Saki, t ...more

Member Since

November 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/corneliaread

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I have circumnavigated the globe, throwing up in many of the world's airports as I hate to fly. I was born in Manhattan, and spent my childhood racketing around from New York to California to Oahu.

I know old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of my mother's family to live on Oyster Bay's Centre Island. I was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divorced hippie-renegade parents. My childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller's toughest ping-pong rival.

I am now at home molding the characters (evil laugh here) of my twin daughters, the younger of whom has severe autism. I am the world's worst housewif I have circumnavigated the globe, throwing up in many of the world's airports as I hate to fly. I was born in Manhattan, and spent my childhood racketing around from New York to California to Oahu.

I know old-school WASP culture firsthand, having been born into the tenth (and last) generation of my mother's family to live on Oyster Bay's Centre Island. I was subsequently raised near Big Sur by divorced hippie-renegade parents. My childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller's toughest ping-pong rival.

I am now at home molding the characters (evil laugh here) of my twin daughters, the younger of whom has severe autism. I am the world's worst housewife, nicknamed by my intrepid spouse "a lighting rod for entropy in the universe."

I like to read a lot, being especially fond of the backs of cereal boxes and badly garbled assembly instructions written by persons for whom English is not the language of choice (although my all-time favorite bit of writing was contained in the song list on a bootleg Dylan tape in Hong Kong, which claimed "Bowling in the Wind" was the first cut on side A).

For the last several generations, my family's motto has been "Never a Dull Moment." None of us know how you would say this in Latin. I subscribe to my sister's gustatory philosophy, which is that "there are two kinds of food in the world: food that's good, and food that needs more salt."

My two favorite songs are Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" and that little bit of Bach Glenn Gould plays right when the Tralfamadorians are coming out of the stars to kidnap Billy Pilgrim and his old dog Spot in the movie version of Slaughterhouse Five. The Rolling Stones doing "King Bee" gets an honorable mention.

I have now published two novels, A Field of Darkness and The Crazy School. Field was nominated for seven awards, including the Edgar for best first novel. I am also the grateful recipient of a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.

I would like to be Winston Churchill when I grow up. ...more

Combine Editions
Cornelia Read’s books

Average rating: 3.43 · 5,433 ratings · 893 reviews · 12 distinct works • Similar authors

	A Field of Darkness (Madeline Dare, #1) 3.52 avg rating — 1,806 ratings — published 2006 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Crazy School (Madeline Dare, #2) 3.34 avg rating — 1,878 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Invisible Boy (Madeline Dare, #3) 3.32 avg rating — 1,030 ratings — published 2010 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Valley of Ashes (Madeline Dare, #4) 3.47 avg rating — 535 ratings — published 2012 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read (6-Sep-2007) Paperback 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Un campo de oscuridad by Cornelia Read (Goodreads Author), Manuel Manzano Gómez (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Invisible Boy (A Madeline Dare Novel) by Cornelia Read (2010-03-30) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Es wartet der Tod : Kriminalroman. Cornelia Read. Dt. von Sophie Zeitz by Cornelia Read (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	BY Read, Cornelia ( Author ) [{ A Field of Darkness By Read, Cornelia ( Author ) Jul - 11- 2007 ( Paperback ) } ] 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	[The Crazy School (Madeline Dare Novel)] [Author: Read, Cornelia] [March, 2010] by Cornelia Read (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Series by Cornelia Read

Madeline Dare (4 books)
by

Cornelia Read (Goodreads Author)

3.41 avg rating — 5,249 ratings

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Cornelia’s Recent Updates

Cornelia wants to read Making History by Stephen Fry	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 13, 2024 08:26PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Making History by Stephen Fry. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Making History by Stephen Fry <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cornelia wants to read A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read Household Gods by Judith Tarr (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 13, 2024 08:23PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Cornelia wants to read The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1) by Deborah Harkness (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read Spin (Spin, #1) by Robert Charles Wilson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Cornelia wants to read The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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More of Cornelia's books…

Quotes by Cornelia Read (?)

“Most days I woke up brimming with a sudden terror--that I'd forgotten to do essential things, that I'd never make friends in Colorado, that my appearance as an adult in the world was only a thin candy shell hiding a tiny, rattling center of incompetent thirteen-year-old, or worse yet, nothing at all.”
― Cornelia Read, Valley of Ashes

5 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Math Tasks	77	409	Oct 02, 2009 04:19PM
Cover to Cover Ch...: Marilyn's 144 list	13	65	Dec 30, 2010 11:59AM

Cornelia’s Quotes

“There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.”
― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama

tags: alabama, first-sentence, opening-lines

120 likes

“As with most things, my approach to writing has been entirely ass-backwards. I first had to become everything but a writer -- exhaust all possibilities. I had to come to it on my knees. Only when there was truly nothing left, was I able to become a writer.”
― Quentin R. Bufogle

tags: writing

36 likes