Books

Reading Feeds Writing (still)

/ still a dreamer

One of the things I love talking about with friends is what books we are reading and what we are writing. The two topics are often in the same conversation.

One friend is working very hard on her middle grade novel. I am generally working on picture books; however, a middle grade novel is slowly writing itself in my head. I’m asked if I’m not writing this down. I am not. But little by little I am getting to know my characters and I have a fair idea of where they’ve come from, what is shaping their dilemmas and where they are going. When the time is right, and when I know them better, I will begin the writing process.

Meanwhile, I read.  In talking with my friend, we discussed the 3 books I have just finished. She had not read two, but was interested in doing so for the reasons I’ll describe. She was reading, but lost interest in and abandoned, the third.

The first is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I had seen the movie – it was light, probably a “chick flick” – but I liked it.
Advantage to Writer? Observing and understanding realistic  dialogue and relationships between teenage girls.

The second is The Divide by Nicholas Evans, probably best known as the author of The Horse Whisperer. I also read The Loop by him. What a way Evans has of engaging you in a story, building up suspense, then taking a sharp turn away to another character, leaving you wanting more. I only hope, whenever I write my novel, that I can hold a reader’s interest like he does.
Advantage to Writer? Learning how to pace a novel for maximum effect.

The third, (and unfinished by my friend), is The Lovely Bones by Alice Siebold. This was a daring first novel, told from the first person POV of a 12 year old girl who is raped and murdered, and is now in heaven. This could have been really strange, quirky or sappy. It was none of these, and it had my attention through to the end.
Advantage to Writer? Learning to trust in your own unique story ideas, that writing from the deepest and most real place within is where the best stories will always come from.

I trust that all I’m learning is soaking into my unconscious and always making me a better writer. And so the enjoyment of wonderful books continues. What is your reading bringing to you?

A Wedding in December – Anita Shreve

/ still a dreamer

I have read a number of Anita Shreve’s novels – some I have liked quite a bit, and a couple, really not so much. But I found this one, A Wedding in December, to be one of the most enjoyable. I honestly cannot tell if it’s because it’s so very fresh in my mind, or has just grabbed me with its very 3-dimensional characters and a slowly unwinding mystery, but it’s been a fast, entertaining, and absorbing read.

The characters are truly well drawn, but it is the way Shreve has ever-so-subtly introduced a secret, an event, that will weave throughout the book almost revealing itself in a shadow here, a whisper there, until it becomes a riveting focus towards the end of the book that also engaged me. Our characters, Harrison, Nora, Bill, Bridget, Jerry, Rob and Agnes all come with some regrets, their nature revealed gradually at what is both a reunion of friends from a school attended long ago and the wedding of two high-school sweethearts, Bill and Bridget.  She, who is also now fighting cancer,  and Bill met again, having once loved each other and been apart 27 years.

Agnes comes with a long-held secret of her own; Harrison, with regrets and longings. Nora, married to a brilliant poet, created her new life – the conversion of their home in the Berkshires to an inn – after his death, but she, too, has memories of the past and what never was. As the guests arrive and interact, their tales are slowly and quite skillfully told, at the same time dancing around the edge of the subject of their mutual friend – Stephen’s – death so many years ago. When they all become snowbound over the wedding weekend, and with some having too much to drink, many revelations come about.

Within the story of the characters at this event is a second story that Agnes is writing about the Halifax Harbor blast in 1917, killing 2,000 people during WW I. At times, jumping into the life of Innes Finch was disconcerting, and I found myself wanting to get back to the reunion/wedding. At other times, I was more involved with the secondary storyline, with Innes, his feelings for Hazel, and her sister, Louise. Agnes writing this story is also a vehicle for her to help resolve some of her own emotional issues.

A Wedding in December may not be the book that examines the deepest souls of its characters, but it does look quite clearly into how people deal with – or choose not to deal with – regrets and the longings for what might have been. What I liked about this book is that Shreve created characters that I really cared about as well as how things resolved for them. So important in a novel.

Summer Reading – Light

/ still a dreamer

Have you ever found that no matter what book you pick up it still isn’t really the one you want to read right now?

I’ve started 3 books recently, and although each one is excellent, it isn’t the one I really want to read right now. Too dramatic, too wrenching, too informational, too … too … too. So maybe it’s time for summer reading … light. (Or if one wants to be on the current bandwagon of slang – lite.) I see summer reading lists all over the place, and the recommendations tend to be towards lighter, faster reads – lots of mysteries and less demanding stories written to entertain. Who am I to buck a current trend?

So I turned to my Library Book Sale haul to look for “light”, and selected this – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I had rented the movie, and it was entertaining. I see there are a few others up there that won’t drain my very soul, so maybe this is the way to go for the rest of the summer. We shall see. And if in need of a fast moving mystery, the library’s only a 1/2 mile walk away.  What have you found for your summer reading?

When the Title Doesn’t Fit the Story – Taming the Star Runner

/ still a dreamer

When I’m offered coffee, I don’t want tea. When I’m offered a ride, I don’t expect to walk. When I choose a book entitled Taming the Star Runner, with a number of horses on the cover, and a jacket liner which pumps up the story of a horse named Star Runner, I don’t expect a story about a teenage boy named Travis. But that’s what I got.

Taming the Star Runner  by S. E. Hinton is a coming-of-age story about a 15 year old named Travis, who, while he sees himself as very cool, is always on the edge of getting in more trouble than he can handle. After attempting to kill his abusive stepfather and doing some time, he is sent to live with his uncle on a ranch in Oklahoma. Here he meets, among others, a teen barely older than himself, Casey, rider and riding instructor, and then we finally meet who seemed to allegedly be a main character, her horse named Star Runner. Had I not been excited to read a story about this wild horse, who only first appears halfway through the book, I may have liked the story more. Or maybe not picked it up at all.

S.E. Hinton, deliberately using only her initials as an author, (lest it be realized she was a very young woman author), broke ground in the 60’s, writing about gangs. Her first published book was The Outsiders, written when she was 16. This story is similar in the sense that Travis is another angry, angst-filled teen, feeling unappreciated, isolated and ever on the edge of an emotional explosion. The story is fairly good, actually. Travis’ character is well-drawn, as are other characters, and the plot has some interesting twists and turns, even if, in my mind, they are not all tied up that well in the end. Still, this particular tale became more interesting for me when the powerful spirit of Star Runner was introduced and the girl who wanted to tame him.

Having read a number of Newbery-winning and other middle grade novels, and having learned what editors are looking for and what is being published nowadays, I can’t help but wonder if Hinton would have been published today. Or at least if she remained in her own writing style. Being mindful of what we are told at workshops, conferences, online, etc. I am sometimes amazed at how she worded things, switching tenses, using unmarked self-reflective dialogue in the same paragraph as lengthy descriptions, etc. It made me realize how much more refined the craft of writing – in this case, for teens – has become.

I don’t mean to sit and criticize S.E. Hinton for what she did – she brought a whole new way of life and type of character to light in her novels. They were groundbreaking, have become classics, and continue to resonate well with many readers today. I only wish the book had really been about what the title told me.

 

Rich Beyond Words – The Annual Library Book Sale

/ still a dreamer

“Wouldn’t it be great if the world could be run like a book sale?” A fellow book lover and I chatted and laughed over the metaphysical/self-help section in the armory annex, home to all the non-fiction books organized for purchase. Why not? Helpful, knowledgeable people running the event, happy shoppers roaming the aisles in delight, and fellow book lovers sharing their reading experiences and recommendations with their fellow man, (and woman), while we graze over the 149,000 titles available.

Above, my haul minus one.

It can be a mind-boggling experience for the newbie. One friend, a first-timer, went with nothing particular in mind and became immediately overwhelmed. She only brought home 3 books. The friend I went with – it’s now an annual tradition – had the goal of picking up more good novels to read. She went home with a full tote and a second tote filled with books for her daughter. It’s not uncommon to see people leaving with multiple cartons of books. At $1 for a hardbound and $.50 for a paperback on Sunday, (double that for Saturday), it’s hard not to get a little crazy.

This was my plan – I had a short list of 1) authors I would like to read more of, 2) one specific title, 3) some selections from children’s books at whatever level appealed to me, and 4) surprise me! Oh, and with a peek, of course, in the metaphysical section. How did I make out? Like a bandit.

In the 1) section, I found something by Sue Monk Kidd, Firstlight, Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees, and Anna Quindlen,  A Short Guide to A Happy Life. Check! In 2), I found A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, (which will take me a bit to get to, as I am still kind of blown out from The Kite Runner.) Check! In the 3) group – who could go wrong with another Jerry Spinelli book, (Maniac Magee), and one I saw as a movie when I want something light, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Check! In 4), I picked up a a book by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, an author recommended to me by a fellow writer.

But the main armory, which is crowded with novels of every kind – including best sellers, best-selling authors, mysteries, science fiction, romance, and books made into movies – is where I really found the most, my 3) section.  Some of these are by authors I’m totally unfamiliar with, but the book jackets sold the books; others, I knew of the author or the book and wanted to broaden my reading experience.

So I picked up Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson,  which was made into a movie, an unexpected find from Annie Proulx, That Old Ace in the Hole, because I loved The Shipping News, two books that have been on a list in my computer that I’d forgotten about completely – The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, several books whose titles just drew me to them – The Last of the Honky Tonk Angels, (Marsha Moyer), World of Pies, (not a cookbook), by Karen Stolz, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison,  and By the Light of My Father’s Smile by Alice Walker. Then a couple best sellers, The Lovely Bones by Alice Siebold and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, and a recommendation by a fellow shopper – his favorite by Toni Morrison – Beloved. I picked up The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl because The Dante Club was pretty good and I have a friend who also loves Poe, and Henry Beston’s The Outermost House, because it’s been in the back of my mind for some time. Check! Throw in 2 cookbooks that have great recipes and photos to match … and I’m done!

Quite a haul! Have I read everything from last year’s sale? No, not yet, but as every one is a book I want to read, that’s OK, too. All that’s left now is to find a place to put them, toss the totes in the laundry, and figure out where to start. Let the reading begin!