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So yesterday we finally got the tree off the wall and upright. Basically, it's so heavy it was bending the plastic tree stand. It's not a huge tree (7 feet) but apparently Colorado Spruce are the Hulk of the Christmas tree world. Who knew?
I'm writing three reviews for Booklist: The Forest House, Still Points North and Gaining Daylight: Life on Two Islands. I'm reading Economix, a killer gn for my January column. Everybody should read this book - it's smart and funny and I can't believe how much I'm learning. Expect to read lots of positive things about it from me.
I've got several reviews to finish this weekend for the graphic novel column: Johnny Hiro, Sumo, Escape to Gold Mountain and Darwin. I don't know how this column ended up being so nonfiction-y but it's made of awesome and I hope all of these books get more widely read.
I recently finished Gail Carriger's Timeless, the final entry in her Parasol Protectorate series. I really loved how this series started but the chemistry seemed off in this final entry - almost like Carriger was tired of Alexia and crew. I especially was disappointed by the diminished heat between Alexia and Conall - it's as if now that they were married and had a child, the relationship lost its romance. It still had some fun moments and I adored the twist for supporting character Biffy, but overall I think things ended with a whimper.
If you like your romance hot* and full of marvelous story, then I highly recommend the Tessa Dare Spindle Cove series - three books (starting with A Night to Surrender) in a somewhat traditional historical setting but full of chemistry and smartness and all sorts of unorthodox characters.
In other news, Jenny D. has received ARCs of her upcoming novel! Yea!!!
And, um, it looks like the second printing of my book is selling out. I'm sure the Air & Space review had something to do with that. Merry Christmas, indeed!
* Not hot in a Fifty-Shades-of-Grey-please-spank-me kind of way** but more than kisses and longing looks.
** Not that I'm judging the spank me crowd but, well. Enough said. Really.
First be sure to check out Molly Danger over at Kickstarter - this sounds like a project totally worth supporting and spreading the word on.
Edith Wharton by Annie Liebovitz! (I love Vogue for doing this.) (via Bookshelves of Doom)
Outstanding interview with teen blogger Tavi Gevinson at BUST. This is a really interesting piece as aside from the pop culture status Gevinson has attained she is just a fascinating person. I'm happy to see it in BUST but I wish it was in Seventeen or Teen Vogue although I imagine Gevinson's fans will find her wherever she is. It's the girls who don't know about her already that I'd like to reach though; it would have been life altering for me to have known of someone like this when I was 15.
This Vanity Fair piece on Microsoft losing its mojo is fascinating and really needs to be read even by folks not interested in business. It's about how a group of people can lose track of what matters not just in a corporate setting but personally. Really amazing.
Over at OUTSIDE this month, there is a column on gear made in America that is both heartening and smart - nice to see the tide turning and for solid economic reasons. Also, the current issue of BRICK has a searing piece by Jaspreet Singh on the November 1984 government sanctioned genocide against Sikhs in India. You can read Part I of it here and Part 2 here.
I am writing about the discovery of a mountain pass in 1927 and thinking a lot about men and mountains. I wish I knew what George Mallory was thinking when he climbed Everest but I suspect it was much more prosaic then most people imagine. Tonight I write a review for Booklist and work on the piece about house building books but through it all I will be thinking about Mallory and everyone else who went into the cold looking to get closer to the sun.
1. So yesterday was pretty darn huge from a writerly perspective. Nancy Pearl selected MAP as a Summer Read for NPR. This was a total bucket list moment and I can't begin to say what it means.
2. I plan to beam about this moment for a while. Like months. In case you were wondering.
3. I am happy to be reading positive reviews on the upcoming HBO movie about Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway. If you are a Gellhorn fan (and you should be), you must check out this essay at The Millions on the letters Gellhorn exchanged with the author's grandmother. Great stuff on writing and motherhood and being a mid-century woman with dreams.
4. Neil Gaiman writes about the very romantic origin of one of Amanda Palmer's songs on her upcoming album. He also writes about a very expensive book that is part of her Kickstarter project. Those two really do things first class all the way. (I'm supporting the project by the way - but on the much lower CD level scale.)
5. I'm still freaking out about being on the NPR website.
6. SPACE X has successfully launched!!!
7. If you like zombie stories I highly recommend When Will You Rise by Mira Grant, upcoming from Sub Press. This novella freaked me out in a cold, calculating, completely believable, Stephen-King's-The-Stand kind of way. I don't really like zombie stories but I can't forget what Davis has done here. Check it out.
8. Outside magazine has an impressive piece of journalism up online about the recent deaths on Everest. This picture pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Look at that line up. Remove the snow it might as well be Disney. Crazy.
[Post pic by Ralf Dujmovits from Outside.]
1. A devastating and important account of a definitely innocent man executed in Texas. This is the reason why I struggle with the death penalty - because our justice system just is not good enough to handle it. (I cheered when Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida and I will never doubt that he deserved it but we make too many mistakes to justify those moments.) From The Atlantic:
Reading through the manuscript last weekend, jarred by what I was seeing, I began to jot down a list of things that went terribly wrong in the DeLuna case -- issues of fact, of evidence, of testimony, of motives, of incompetence, of indifference, of fraud, of morality, of integrity, of constitutionality -- that should have been raised and answered long before DeLuna was convicted, much less executed, back in the 1980s. I stopped when I got to 10.
2. Vogue looks at the HBO series on obesity in America:
No matter how expansive the scope, the documentary tugs hardest when showing interviews with those who suffer from obesity, who list their vitals with a crestfallen countenance that never gets easier to watch. "Food can be my best friend," explains a nearly 300-pound 28-year-old named Vivia, as her eyes well. "It can be my boyfriend, at the moment; a trip to the beach."
3. For the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring's publication, David Brinkley writes in Audubon about JFK and Rachel Carson:
When Silent Spring was at last published in book form on September 27, 1962, the chemical industry went ballistic. Kennedy instantly became Public Enemy No. 1 for propping up Silent Spring as worthy of serious attention. The National Agricultural Chemicals Association rushed its propaganda booklet "Fact and Fancy" into print. The nub of the counterattack was that Mr. Fancy (a.k.a. Kennedy) was an East Coast elite who yachted frivolously around Cape Cod, his treasured national seashore, while allowing DDT manufacturers to be unjustly vilified. The association warned that factory shutdowns would mean thousands of lost jobs. When Kennedy awarded Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey--a Food and Drug Administration scientist--a public service gold medal for discovering that thalidomide (a sedative frequently prescribed to pregnant women) caused deformities in babies, the pharmaceutical industry likewise felt blindsided. "It is all of a piece," Carson told The New York Post, "thalidomide and pesticides--they represent our willingness to rush ahead and use something new without knowing what the results are going to be."
We need another Rachel Carson about climate change, and we need her now.
4. I bought the new issue of Vanity Fair because Marilyn Monroe is on the cover. The story inside portrays her as so smart and yet so frustrated by what she can not control that it made me wince. The pictures are amazing - as they always are of Marilyn. She should have lived; she really deserved so much more than she got. Wasn't she just amazing? Wow.
1. Found this short piece in Nat Geo Traveler about a Newfoundlander turning to her island's history and culture to save the economy and was immediately impressed. Here's a bit:
I'm very concerned for Fogo and many other places suffering a flattening of culture, the loss of a sense of self. It happens when you're ripped away from home, from the natural world, and from your ancestors: people from Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, working out west as economic refugees in Alberta. As this happens, a little bit of us dies. I hope to help us remain shorefast on our rock. A shorefast is a tether that joins a cod trap to the shore and a metaphor for communities realizing the importance of holding on to physical place and tradition.
They are saving their small piece of the world which is, I think, one of the best things you can do for places you love and for yourself as well.
2. Amanda Palmer is exposing the music world to a new creative paradigm. Lots to think about here but it should be stressed that she has put years into building a trusting relationship with her fans - this kind of support doesn't show up overnight. (I am a fan and supporter.) I can't help but wonder about small presses and the "Amanda Palmer" example though. Could crowd sourcing be a way to bring more literature (overlooked by major pubs) to the masses? What a wonderful thought.
3. Are you reading The Contextual Life blog? I adore it and if you're thinking about some interesting new titles in pb then check out the latest entry. This is the first I've heard of Nom de Plum by Carmela Cluraru a book I now must read.
4. Kij Johnson finally (FINALLY) has a story collection coming out. It's from the fabulous Small Beer Press (of course!) and I'm thrilled to pieces to have an advanced copy. If you haven't read her short stories then you are really missing something. At the Mouth of the River of Bees includes all kinds of wonderful and I can't recommend Kij's stories enough. Just check out this cover - does it jump off the shelf or what?! More on this as I review it.....somewhere. I'll keep ya posted on that.
1. In the midst of all that Story Siren plagiarism drama, this article on the impact of diminishing newspapers on writers over at The Millions is all the more timely. The proving grounds for writers are becoming fewer and fewer; we are becoming a nation of hobbyists who call ourselves writers.
2. Amanda Palmer took no prisoners on Kickstarter yesterday. (I happily supported this project to get a CD; love her music.) And don't forget Kate Milford's Kairos Mechanism novella, now 65% funded and still needing some backers. (I contributed to that one last week!)
3. Speaking of Kickstarter I might be putting together a project involving indy publishing, some great Alaska history lots of folks might not know about and, well, something that no one else is doing and a good friend and I think maybe we will. I'll keep you posted on how it develops.
4. I haven't mentioned it in a while but the Summer Blog Blast Tour will be happening in early June. More info to follow as we get closer but expect the usual suspects with a ton of interviews with many cool authors.
5. I am reading about ten books right now which is crazy, even for me. But the summer columns are eluding me and I've been picking things up and putting them down with ceaseless abandon. I think I'm going nonfiction for June - not a summer escapes column but more of a "get the heck outside" column. July will be adventurous reads and August....well August still eludes me. But I'm working on it.
6. I'm also outlining my next book and for those of you who were wondering it will be set in AK again, it will be nonfiction about flying again, and it will be quite different from MAP. The first fifty pages to my agent by early Sept and a ton of research to do this summer.
7. Also writing something totally different that is fiction and about missing family history and missing explorers and missing memoires and a wee bit girl detectivish. Nothing more on that as it is so different it would only startle everyone. Plus it's like a deer in the woods right now; I'm afraid if I talk about it much the story will disappear.
8. It won't be a teen book though.
9. AND MY OFFICE IS STILL A MESS. I'm so annoyed about this.
10. Three reviews going off to Booklist by the end of the week (New Orleans, dog behavior and philosophy), two reviews for future columns to write. This is manageable.
11. And finally, the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou SR High School in Washington DC ends tonight, at midnight PST. All ordering info is here. Please join in and help us make a difference!
1. The celebration of Diane Wynne Jones continues - be sure to check the tumblr for updated links to all posts as they go live. If you missed it, the post at Finding Wonderland on Friday was amazing. Here's a bit:
At a time when books were not only a source of joy but an escape from feeling uncertain and new at school, from feeling angry and frustrated by the ongoing aftereffects of my parents' divorce a few years prior, I was more than happy to believe, to plunge headfirst into the adventures of Christopher Chant and Sophie and Howl and everyone else.
2. Kate Milford, author of the wonderful The Boneshaker, has a Kickstarter project for a novella sequel. (She has a companion novel, The Broken Lands, due out this fall from Clarion and the novella will serve as a bridge of sorts.) I'm a big fan of Kate's and think The Kairos Mechanism sounds pretty darn fantastic. Do go fund it if you interested in more rural fantasy with shades of steapunk, mystery and adventure tossed in. (Kate will be here for an interview in the SBBT in June where we will talk about the novella and The Broken Lands.)
3. And speaking of Kickstarter, have you heard about the Wollstonecraft comic? Mary Shelly and Ada Lovelace as girl detectives. If that doesn't bring a smile to your face then, well, then you are not my friend! ha! It's already crazy funded but go read about it and help Airship Ambassador do even more.
4. And it's Day #2 of the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou High School. Please help spread the word and if you can, buy a book for this school. Their funds are low, demand is high and the book fair is pretty darn vital. Making it a sellout would be a wonderful thing.
5. Now I'll finish writing my review of Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls. WOW - what a book!!! (For the May column!)
1. Jeff Bezos says he has found the Saturn V rocket engines from Apollo 11 - wicked cool doesn't even begin to describe this one.
2. Titanoboa!!!! (I've already preordered the Smithsonian DVD for my son.)
3. The Juneau Empire has a [short] excerpt of MAP up online. I'll be in Juneau on Monday so it's nice to see them spreading the word already. (Two radio interviews while I'm there - kinda nervous about those....)
4. The AK tour is the reason why I've been largely absent this week. I'm still messing around with the my slide show and a zillion other little things. I will be getting in a few posts while I'm traveling and tweeting photos. Be sure to follow me if you want to see some shots of mountains and moose and everything else I see.
5. My pal Gwenda Bond has revealed the cover for her upcoming YA title, Blackwood. I love it so much I had to include it here - can't wait to read this one (or Strange Chemistry's other fall titles).
1. Radium-Age re-releases! The author list includes Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard. These look fantastic.
2. Same Difference is a bit of a meandering "Reality Bites" sort of coming-of-age for college kids with appropriate sexual innuendo and panic over life descending upon you with a sudden and scary speed. I love the cover in a big way - the fish are from the opening pages which are set in a Korean restaurant with an aquarium. If it was faced out on a shelf it would certainly stand out.
3. Speak is reissuing Sara Ryan's stunning and life-changing Empress of the World. The new volume includes an introduction by David Levithan and three short graphic novels about the characters. I have the comics and they are great - fans of Battle and Katrina and crew will be delighted. If you somehow missed this one the first time out, be sure to grab it now. (I'm linking to amazon because it is the only site that shows the new cover with the Levithan intro. I'm kinda worried about other sites - Powells & Indiebound- as they show the old cover. All of them have the old page count. I'm hoping this is just the book as it is now since the ISBN has not changed. But just make sure!!)
4. Author Vanessa Veselka gave an interview to the magazine at Reed College. Her closing thoughts are quite amazing: I really believe it is better to try to do something really big and leap into failure, than to constantly stay on the side of irony," she says. "Failure expresses our desires in such an open, vulnerable way.
The piece has a nice overview of her book, ZAZEN, which I also found very affecting.
5. I dearly hope Barbara Follett ran away, reinvented herself and lived a long and creative and wonderful life. Her story is the stuff of novels and I found the new website about her (created by her nephew) to be outstanding. If you need inspiration, go read about this fascinating author who simply vanished one day in 1939. (Link via Sharyn November who never disappoints.)
6. I am....trying to get my act together. Seems like I type something like that here all the time, don't I? Sigh.
[Post title is the definition of "Radium-Age" - OF COURSE!]
1. The new issue of Bookslut went up this week with my column on bios and historical fiction and historical poetry. All of it is fabulous and I bet you haven't heard of most of these books. You should. Go. LOOK.
2. I also have a standalone review of Osa and Martin by Kelly Enright. As I write in the review, I've been a fan of Osa Johnson's ever since I happened into her autobiography while scanning the shelves of a particularly dusty used bookstore many years ago. Enright fills in many of the blanks and this is a most excellent book about a fascinating couple who happened to film South Pacific cannibals and African safaris in the early 20th century. (If that doesn't get you curious, note that Martin Johnson first traveled around the world with Jack London. How cool is that?!)
3. And see Martyn Pedler's column "Self publish or Perish".
4. Look - a new literary festival and it's in western Washington! It will be interesting to see how things develop. For folks who don't know, this is a location waaaaay out in the Cascade Range. Gorgeous area and very Pacific Northwesterny. (I know that's not a word but you get my point.)
5. Matt Ruff talks about writing The Mirage, a book I'll be including in my April column. (it crosses over just fine to teens.) I don't think there is any author other than Ruff who could have pulled off this title - an alt history book where the twin towers in Baghdad were attacked by American Christian fundamentalists on November 9, 2001. The twist - the amazing twist - is that some people are convinced that things are not as they are supposed to be, that actually America was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists on September 11th and the world they are living in is really a mirage.
So.Good. SOOOO good.
Here's a bit from Matt on the book:
There was the central conceit of the mirage. Apart from being a neat twist that you could build off of [it was a reminder that] your place in history, at the top of the pyramid of power, is not assured. If the world is turned over once, it could turn over again, and you should maybe build your ethics on the idea that you'll be on the bottom some day or you'll be in need of mercy...If you took Americans and you put them in a position where they believe they should be at the top, and instead, had been humiliated and put at the bottom, the rage that would evolve from that is probably not that different than the rage that comes out of the Middle East. They've been on the receiving end for a long time. Certainly guys like [Ayman al-]Zawahiri are oppressed, they're mad. The Mirage was part of the way at getting at some of that mindless violence.
6. Excellent piece at NPR on the discovery of a recording of a lost speech by Malcolm X at Brown University and the grad student who found it. What's interesting here is that the speech is basically absent from all official records at the school, but some luck and additional digging found something amazing. (This is basically every history nerd's dream by the way.)
7. Huzzah - Route 66 is coming back to life!
8. And double huzzah - the Writers' Houses Kickstarter project is funded! Feel free to continue donating however - I'm sure Allison will put your cash to good use (and there are illustrated post
1. I am delighted by the news from Gwenda Bond of the sale of her YA novel, Blackthorn to Angry Robot (as part of a two book deal). Here is the summary:
On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.
Miranda, a misfit girl from the island's most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can't dodge is each other.
Blackwood is a dark, witty coming of age story that combines America's oldest mystery with a thoroughly contemporary romance.
More on the new YA imprint from Angry Robot at io9.
2. I have just started Delia Sherman's Freedom Maze for my April column and have to tell you, as soon as I read the line about how "horses sweat but women glow", Ms Sherman had me heart and soul. That is such a classic southern saying - one that was used with no small amount of snark when I was growing up - (Lord do you sweat sitting on the vinyl seats of a car with no air conditions - LORD DO YOU SWEAT!). I feel like I'm already halfway home with this one. Looking forward to reading and reviewing it.
3. I have now read both of Elizabeth Hand's upcoming titles, the adult mystery Available Dark and the teen urban fantasy Radiant Days. I was already staggered by her previous publishing duet - the YA title Illyria and the mystery Generation Loss but now....well now I am in a place of abject joy. Radiant Days will be in my April column an I'll be writing about both books here soon (still getting my thoughts in order), but if you are a writer interested at all in your craft then you should read the work of Elizabeth Hand. Her use of language is stunning but it's how she manages to switch so easily from the brittle brutality of Available Dark to the lush romance of creativity unbound in Radiant Days that so impressed me. In a perfect world, this would be the author with the seven figure contract and massive amounts of press coverage. For now you'll just have to take my word for it (along with all the early reviews including a star from Booklist for Available Dark) and make a point of seeking out these titles. (Dark is the sequel to Generation Loss - it stands alone okay but is better if you read them in order.)
4. Yesterday I received an email from an 82 year old gentleman who checked my book out of the library in Baltimore and wanted me to know that he enjoyed it very much. How awesome is that?
5. Finally, I'm working on an essay about Nome and the early flights there, the town's position in the Alaska myth pantheon and how we used to fly convicts into the farthest north prison in the US (not a surprise that this is in Alaska, is it?). Also, Balto wasn't supposed to be the final lead dog on the serum run; his musher refused to stop when he was supposed to. Basically, Togo, who led the far more difficult portion of the race, was robbed. (My essay is not about Togo but I can't write about Nome without mentioning him.)
1. Slightly Foxed has released Dodie Smith's memoir Look Back With Love. Written when she was 78 years old, it is a reflection of her early childhood with her mother's family in early 20th century England. I am delighted to know that her upbringing included "...seaside trips, motorcar outings, fairgrounds, circuses, jokes, charades and musical soirees." This is exactly as I would wish the author of I Capture the Castle (and 101 Dalmatians) to have grown up.
2. I was remiss in failing to mention that the January issue of Bookslut went up with my column on realistic fiction which included Sara Zarr and Holly Cupala and Cecil Castellucci and James Proimos and Laurel Snyder and 2 more cracking YA mysteries from Norah McClintock. (Since it is practically the very end of January you likely already know all about the January issue of Bookslut but I wanted to make sure you knew!!)
3. I also missed posting about the new issue of Eclectica Magazine which included a round-up of biographies for kids. Have you seen "The Great Idea" series of picture book bios? Wonderful wonderful stuff - especially the latest on the girl who invented the standing paper bag. (And she had to go to court to prove that even though she was a woman the invention was hers because someone tried to steal it from her!)
I also reviewed ZAZEN in Eclectica which is where I got to write a line that made me very happy: If you are looking for a mash-up between the Portland grunge scene, Red Dawn and the live-for-the-moment attitude of the Weimar Republic (as portrayed in Cabaret), then I have the book for you.
Totally true, promise.
4. As for my book news, Omnivoracious had a review up of MAP last week that was pretty great and made my day.
Also I have an event in Bellingham, WA this Friday night at Village Books. If you are in western Washington and want to see a slide show full of icy cold airplanes, then it's where you need to be. (That picture they have of me is cropped in a way that looks very weird, don't you think?)
5. And what else? Well I'm working on essays about things that didn't make it into the book and that is proving to be more interesting than I thought. Everyone (meaning publisher/editor/agent types) wanted me to write essays and continue to hopefully make the book buzz build in its current steady slowburn kinda way but honestly I didn't want to do it at first. I said I would but mostly I wasn't planning to. I was just so bloody tired of this subject and even more than that I thought I didn't have anything left to say about it so writing more seemed like it would be faking. And then I talked to one of my good friends who is a pilot in the book and hardly ever reads books (he's a magazine kind of guy) and he read mine (for obvious reasons) and he had questions and thoughts and ideas and was....well....excited about it. And we got to talking about the stuff I was toying with for essays and he had some stories for me that fit in with those and, well, there you go. Just finished one very short one and sent it off and now I'm working on number 2 and there are 3 more in the wings.
And I realized I have another Alaskan flying book in me. It fits with the western book idea I was already working on but the perfect Alaska flying angle took me by surprise. Never would have thought it but
First, all you holiday shoppers need to head over to the Magick4Terri auction and make a bid or two because there is a TON of stuff (books, music, food, sweaters, art, jewelry) to win and then gift to the ones you love. I donated a copy of MAP which is up to $50 (which is pretty awesome) and will personalize it as the winner chooses, wrap it up in aviation sectional (nav map) and include some Alaska flying pictures to boot. Go, bid, give to a worthy cause for a wonderful recipient.
In other news I am all about my own personal holiday stuff, things with MAP are moving forward and will ramp up much more in the new year. (I am setting up a mini tour in Alaska this spring and shall be out and about in Washington State as well.) There is some disquieting news still on the bookstore shelving front but I'm realizing I just have to convince the world that stocking my book is the right thing to do. Sounds easy, don't ya think?
Yeah, well, it's a plan.
For those of you book shopping, (either for others or pre-planning for possible gift cards in the stocking), I highly recommend HEMINGWAY'S BOAT which is a biography like no other - really a class in how to write a biography around a subject that manages to still tell you a great deal about your subject. (It's artful what Paul Hendrickson has done here, really artful.) (And you don't have to be a major Hemingway fan to love it.) (I have written/tweeted more than once about my love for this book but just can't seem to stop myself.)
I also want to recommend reading David Abrams's appreciation of THE SCRAPBOOK OF FRANKIE PRATT. This one is on my own holiday list as I have a mad passion for scrapbook-type stories and illustrated books in general. It strikes me as a fictional title reminiscent of the biography MAGICAL LIFE OF LONG TACK SAM (which I love love love) and so I am quite happy to see David's favorable impression of it.
Scrapbooks really need to come back by the way - real scrapbooking not cookie-cutter scrapbooking (which is fine but rather dull and certainly predictable). Oh - if you want to buy a book that is all about living a scrapbook life then you must get Barbara Hodgson's TRADING IN MEMORIES which is beautiful beyond belief. (Actually you should own all books by Barbara Hodgson.)
Barbara Hodgson is awesome.
And have you seen Diane Keaton's new book THEN AGAIN? It's all about her life and her mother and the 85 scrapbooks her mother kept over the years. (See a review and some images here.) This is also on my holiday list. I have my great grandmother's photo albums and they remind me of what Keaton's mother did. I'll post some pics of the pages soon.
More good book recs tomorrow, promise!
[Title from David Abrams..]
I seem oddly incapable of long thoughts lately even though I really need to get back on track in that area as there are books stacked and waiting to be reviewed and reviewing them is weighing heavily upon me. (Some are for the January column and some are for the January issue of Eclectica and with December running quickly past us all, the reviewing needs to take place toot-sweet.)
But alas, long thoughts escape me. So right now, more of the listiness that I am completely enthralled with these days. (Current list in my personal life is filled with things like "wrap gift for Aunt Sue", "print photos for Mom/Aunt Cathy/Aunt Madeleine/Aunt Irene/Aunt Sue...", "pack fudge for all the uncles", "buy dog toys so dogs have their own things to destroy as we open presents" and on and on and on...). A sample list:
1. My new column is up at Bookslut and it is all about books I flat out love and think everyone should be reading over winter break. First and foremost is the wonderfulness that is Dan Eldon: Safari As A Way Of Life. If you don't know about Dan Eldon then I pity you - he was an incredibly talented young man whose life is both to be admired and emulated. The whole world should have wept when he (and his fellow journalists) were killed. If there is a teen (or twenty-something) in your life who is creative and eager to learn more about themselves and the world then you MUST get them this book aimed at teen readers. It is amazing.
2. And oh, there are so many other wonderful titles in my column. Laini's new novel is as great as you have heard - and Twilight fans will likely embrace it so think of it for them. And Chronicles of Harris Burdick - wonderful anthology with some truly outstanding entries (gift book of choice for the 12& up crowd). And FEYNMAN!!!! What graphic novels were made for. And Captain Mac - the explorer practically no one has heard of and you all need to know about and in a great edition with scads of pics. Remember when kids wanted to learn about explorers? My son loved this one and I did too.
3. Robert Wiersema's Walk Like a Man is a mix tape of Springsteen love that is all about growing up and finding your way and the music that accompanies you as you do that. No-brainer for Springsteen fans and yet, and yet, anyone who loves music will want this as well. Stellar.
4. And a book about a guy who takes a toaster apart and then travels all over England to build one from scratch. You have to read it to believe it. (Best college project ever for sure.)
5. AND THEN....I wrote a feature on coffee table books for teens and kids because there were so many full color books that dazzled me in so many ways that I had to write a special piece for all for them. Go.READ. It's about books for 10 year olds and 19 year olds (and some will work even for college kids). I love all of these books and you will too.
6. I love good books.
7. Also at Bookslut Jenny McPhee writes about Muriel Spark & Mary Shelley. I love Bookslut exactly for essays like this one.
8. Oh - and way over at the Paris Review blog we learn about "The Sporting Life" and yet another book I must read. I will never read all the books but isn't longing for them so much fun?
9. Hemingway's Boat is as good as you have heard. I finished reading it last night and it is so lovely. It's not a standard biography at all, even a biography of a man and a boat. It's a book that writes around its subject and still writes about its subject. You learn some about Hemingway but more about people who knew him and were related to him. You learn about those he loved and those who admi
So many things to take note of starting with:
1. My book launch was Saturday night at the local library hosted by the local indy bookstore and it was fabulous! Lots of folks there who I did not know who came just to see a slideshow on Alaska flying and they asked lots of questions and they bought books (more than two dozen that night and another two dozen sold before the event). The bookstore folks were pleased as punch and I managed to talk and work the presentation without messing up. Huzzah!
2. The Holiday Book Fair for Ballou High School has ended and we sold more than 110 books off the Powells wish list. I will be sure to post about how things go on their end as the books arrived but wanted to say how delighted I am to be part of this and that we have, yet again, helped to expand the library of this Washington DC school.
3. For your holiday shopping needs, can I please direct you to the auction Magick for Terri? In support of editor extraordinaire Terri Windling (who supported me early on and is an amazing writer, editor and all around literary wonder woman), lots of folks have donated lots of things (from books to editing services to handmade scarves and cookies and chocolates and an actual piece of the green glass sea and on and on) to help raise some funds. I was thrilled to put up a signed copy of MAP and I'll personalize it, wrap it and priority mail ship it wherever you like (along with some AK flying pics). Great gift and a great cause, so do head over and bid (green glass sea!).
4. John Scalzi is hosting a week of all sorts of holiday shopping recs. I'll be checking in tomorrow to talk about some books I've loved this year and reading all week to see what I might have missed (literary and otherwise).
5. And speaking of recs, Pam is doing the Mother Reader thing again with book/gift combos. She has more than 150 titles listed and it is amazing to see what she's pulled together.
6. As a corollary to Mother Reader's lists, can I suggest thinking about book/magazine combos? Like Beauty Queens by Libba Bray and Teen Vogue or Julie and Julia and some cooking magazines (you could even throw in the movie for that one). You can really go crazy with this idea if you want - a title from a southern author and a copy of Garden & Gun or a title from a New Englander and a copy of Yankee. Or any nature title and Orion. (You can get all these at any B&N pretty much.) You can also just buy someone a stack of magazines as a gift. I always put them in my husband's stocking and a bunch of lit mags would be great for any fiction reader. (You can order many of them, past & current, from Powells.)
Look for something offbeat or if you have a decorating or fashion fan then splurge and get them some British or Aussie titles - I have a cousin completely addicted to those.
7. Just got an email from Melissa Jackson, the librarian at Ballou High School. She is so happy, so so so happy. (Her email had man exclamation points.) I am now very happy too.
8. There is some potential magazine interest in MAP, but no confirmation yet so I won't tell (fear of jinx). But at least some stuff is happening. I am going to spend this week and next (while not knee deep in holiday wonderfulness) sending out emails to folks and seeing what I can do. But I feel hopeful right now and that is always a good thing. (Like an early Christmas gift.)
9. New issue of Bookslut should be going up today. More on that tomorrow. (But man
Back soonest (like tomorrow) with a very newsy post but today is about getting a piece off to a site on MAP, getting a few more posters up locally for my event on Saturday (book launch!!) (with wine!!!) and getting the slide presentation for said event in far more organized condition (Alaska pictures!!!).
See the nice things Jenn Hubbard said about MAP.
See the amazing things folks are doing to help author/editor extraordinaire Terri Windling. (I think I shall put up a copy of MAP & some AK flying pics - hoping the mythic fantasy folk will enjoy a look at flying stories which is a wee bit out of the way compared to most titles over there.)
See the final days of the Ballou High School Holiday Book Fair and please buy a book. We are so happy to be sending them a little something extra this month and anything you can do to make their December brighter would be fabulous.
I do love seeing the Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows - they never disappoint. (One of the best things about the internet is being able to see gorgeous things right away.) Years ago I bought Dreams Through Glass by Linda Fargo, a coffee table book on the store's windows. It's gone out of print and is now worth $150 or more. It's a beautiful book, one of my smarter purchases (I think I have to credit VOGUE for this one), and I love looking through it, this time of year especially.
Yesterday we ate Mexican as we are not big fans of turkey outside of a sandwich and it was very good. We also got up impossibly early to watch the Macy's parade where far too many flag twirling girls were in sleeveless shirts and freezing their butts off, but the balloons and floats were fun. I also did some wrapping so I can mail a couple of packages today and then we assessed what was left for holiday shopping and it's incredibly under control. Almost scary under control. So today I am off to help the boy get his gift making done (at the pottery/fuse glass place) (he makes about a dozen gifts for aunts/grandmothers and then makes fudge for the uncles and grandfathers) (yep, it's a big deal), and then spend some time on the keynote presentation for my book launch next week.
There was some good book news on Wednesday and a great email from my agent (phone call to follow next week) and a rumor of some news coverage in the Anchorage paper next month. More on all of that to follow but look - an EVENTS page! Huzzah! And a review from Liz at SLJ! Much writerly wonderfulness, in other words. So yea for that.
And, if you are shopping from the Ballou holiday book fair wishlist (and really, please do!) use the code THANKS16 at the checkout today and get 16% off. So many great books have been bought but it would be amazing if we could sell out. Lots of books are on sale so please check it out and do what you can to help this school get a decent library.
[Image courtesy of Habitually Chic - many more images there.]
Literary notes from recent reading:
Hemingway's Boat lives up to the hype on all fronts thus far (I've just started it). What's most interesting to me is the discussion of how so many former editors and friends seemed gleeful over Hemingway's downhill slide in his older years. It was almost like they were circling an aging lion, delighted to see the former beast now weak. I'm also interested in the whole notion of how Hemingway set so much of the 20th century stage for what a man is (or manly conduct). It was not his design but more a wave he rode as men (and women) searched for a definition of manhood. I think we are seeing the same thing in that regard these days with all the tough guy personas on reality tv. Not that Hemingway has anything to do with that, of course.
Lost in Wonder by Colette Brooks is proving to be a stream of consciousness flight of scientific fancy that I am finding more and more pleasant the longer I read. There is a long chapter on the space program and thoughts on Lindbergh and the Wright brothers and even the woman who invented Stove Top Stuffing (utterly amazing story) but mostly it is just the idea of science and how it infuses our lives and it is written in the most gorgeous language, basically a writer's guide on how to write beautiful sentences on thought-provoking subjects. This is a subtle and lovely look at history and life and who we are. I adore it - I'm lingering over each and every word:
Forty-two years after his flight, Lindbergh himself will experience the wonder of witnessing a spectacular feat of aviation. Later he'll write a note to Michael Collins, the only crewmember of Apollo 11 who did not descend to the lunar surface: "There is a quality of aloneness that those who have not experienced it cannot know - in some ways I felt closer to you in orbit than to your fellow astronauts I watched walking on the surface of the moon."
He had waited most of a lifetime for someone else to understand.
This would make a lovely holiday gift to a curious reader. (I'll be reviewing it in my February column - perfect for older teens.)
Radiant Days by Liz Hand should not be on my nightstand right now. It's not due out until spring and I have yet to really have any handle on my Feb column so I should be mostly reading for that and yet, well, Liz Hand and Rimbaud. How could I resist? It is about art and poetry, about being young and wanting to create so desperately much that you feel you might explode and yet not having the means or the wherewithal to know just what all that desire for creation really means. It's about the doorstep of possibility - the future looks so bright! It's set in 1978 and 1870, it's about a girl of today and Arthur Rimbaud, literary hero of yesterday. If you were the slightest bit taken by Patti Smith's Just Kids then you will want to read this one. I've just gotten to the point where a bridge is found across time, where the two teens discover each other. I'm not sure what happens next but it's the journey - the words - that have me here. I have found Rimbaud only through the words of others which is so interesting to me. I was never taught a single thing about him in school (too nontraditional for the south - too unsettling?) and so I find him in little pieces through how he affected others. And now I read what Liz Hand thinks. I shall so enjoy reviewing this book; make a note everyone, you will want to read it, I promise.
Finally - don't forget the Holiday Book Fair for Ballou Sr High School. All these books we have to read - all these books we enjoy
A nice surprise last week was to see that the Booklist review of MAP include a YA recommendation: "True tales of adventure, heroics, and tragedy will appeal to teen readers". I thought that older teens (especially boys) would enjoy it but I was concerned that the liberal use of the word fuck in a few chapters would scare reviewers (especially the formal publications) away from that. I am delighted to be wrong on that score and hope that other places will see the teen appeal. (This might be my last stab at attaining teen popularity.) (Yes, I know I'm pathetic for even thinking that.)
I have read a veritable ton of books in recent weeks mostly for the October, November and (eep) December columns. I was most surprised by Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. It is a really well done ghost story - a Buffyesque (with male protag) tale that is a heckuva lot more violent and appropriately gory. The best bit though was how well Blake captures a high school setting; she doesn't take any easy ways out or go for cliches and the characters, on every level, are extremely well thought out. Good stuff.
The Charlotte Perkins Gilman bio Wild Unrest taught me a ton about her. Author Helen Horowitz clearly respects her subject and while I knew a bit about Gilman going in (Yellow Wallpaper is an all time favorite read), there has been so much written about her and written into her works that it's hard to separate the truth from the myth. Horowitz is an academic and the book reads as such but frankly I needed that (and wanted it). Gilman is still as powerful as ever even without some true story of being locked in a room to back her up. More Gilman is always a good thing.
I also finished Zazen by Vanessa Veselka and I'm still thinking of how to review this one. It's sort of equal parts Portland grunge/Red Dawn/modern take on 1930s Berlin and every book about a "disaffected young woman going through the motions while she tries to find herself" that you have ever read. All of this means it's pretty hard to shake when you are done with it but also pretty hard to classify. (I keep thinking of Kathe Koja's Under the Poppy which it is not at all like but it gave me the same sort of "party while the world crashes down around you" sort of feeling. I'll have something up on here in the next couple of weeks for sure.
Finally, Terri Windling had a couple of quotes up last week about gratitude that really impressed me. Here's the one that has made me think long and hard about my Catholic upbringing - why do we only say grace over food, anyway?
"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink." - G. K. Chesterton
1. RE: KidLit Con. The booklet is very nearly done and more importantly in the capable hands of Sarah Stevenson who saved my butt on Friday after I sent her an emailed with the words "Panic Commencing" in the subject line. Let's just say there were a lot of jpegs that needed to become part of a pdf and after weeks of getting everything together I had reached the end of my capabilities and, um, panicked. Sarah saved my butt and the beauty that is the booklet will be largely due to her.
2. There has been a ton of other KidLit Con related happenings but I won't bore you with those. Suffice to say it is all coming together and more importantly, this week should see things coasting along a bit with all the big decisions made and only a bit of monitoring (for continued registration) and printing (of booklet) left to do. Whew.
2. RE:Map of My Dead Pilots. In celebration of last week's fabulous first review of MAP (and the first report from someone who isn't an agent or editor type or, um, married to me), I bought a new watch! Now when something not so fabulous happens with the book, I can look at my watch and remember the first fabulous moment. This is something every writer should do, I think. It helps you weather the tough times.
3. I also turned in the pictures for my postcards and all the book excerpts for the back. (This ended up taking awhile as it wasn't so easy to get my hands on the pics.) (We're talking photos from pre-digital camera days.) There will be six different designs: one of the cover and five of photos from AK. I'm hoping they make folks look twice, especially reviewer type folks at a variety of magazines where I will be sending them to stir up interest.
4. And I'll be sending emails to different people this week about the book and the e-galley and all that sort of promo stuff. We are in the trenches now, kids, and all the grunt work is truly commencing.
5. RE: Ballou High School. Some great news to report from the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Ballou HS earlier this year. I recently heard from school librarian Melissa Jackson and they now have four books for every student! As they started the year with less than one for each student, this is quite the improvement and she is really excited. Go us! (More on all this at GLW, shortly.)
6. And the KidLit Con/RIF partnership continues with the fundraiser still going strong. We crossed the $1,000 mark (which was our goal) and now are looking to do even more for this most excellent organization. Give all you can, please, and help spread the word.
7. As to reviewing, I have read three books for the October "Bradbury Weather" column: WHITE CROW by Marcus Sedgwick (I've already posted on my love for it), RIFTWALKER by Susan and Clay Griffith (Book 2 in The Vampire Empire series - awesome!) and ALL ABOUT EMILY by Connie Willis which will be my "Cool Read" and a mash-up of artificial intelligence and the history of the Rockettes. I adore Willis and this novelette is everything she does well. Totally.
But I still need to find some more titles from the piles downstairs. Working on it.
8. AAAAAAND five books for Booklist due by the 15th which include one on climate change, one on plastics in the ocean, one on the doomed Scott expedition, one on Alaskan politics (ouch!) and one on girl geeks (yea!). That's a lot of Booklist reading; it must be fall.
9. What's left.....well all kinds of stuff good, bad and otherwise. We are hoping to go to Providence & Boston this weekend but that all depends on power being back on and that kind of thing. I'll keep ya posted.
First, I'm struggling big time with comments here lately and getting spammed in a way that is just absurd. So I've shut them down until I get a handle on this. This would not be a huge big deal but as I just read about BIG HAIR ALASKA, the new AK reality tv show, I'm especially bummed not to have comments because people, we have clearly hit a turning point in reality tv world:
TLC, the same cable network that produced and aired "Sarah Palin's Alaska," has announced a two-part series about the Beehive, the salon that counts the former governor and onetime Republican vice presidential nominee as one of its devoted clients.
The identity of the salon was not revealed in a news release sent out last week by TLC. The release simply said the show "goes inside a busy hair salon in Wasilla, Alaska, where the personalities of the owner and her staff are as big as the hairstyles they create."
Wowsers.
I have been watching SPORTS NIGHT on DVD while cleaning out my office which has reminded me all over again of what good television actually is. I have also spent a serious amount of time looking through Peter Beard's scrapbooks and Dan Eldon's journals and everything by Gerald Durrell. (I should just be shelving these books but it's so hard not to open them!!!) Oh - and I finished reading the RING OF BRIGHT WATER trilogy and came to the conclusion that while very cute, otters should never be pets. But Gavin Maxwell was a very good writer - I just wish the poor man had an easier go at life. (This will be in my "Hail Britannia" September column.) And yesterday I received Cherie Priest's GANYMEDE, the latest in her Clockwork Century series of books and this one has a submersible in Lake Ponchartrain and that is so many different kinds of awesome standing that I can't hardly stand it.
Finally, I've been trying to figure out how to write about an author who had a big impact on my thesis and book (she wrote about Alaska aviation in the 1940s) but there isn't much out there about her. Maybe that's the whole story though - looking for Jean Potter but not finding her. (She passed away in 1997.) Sigh. I wish I found more though. She was one really wonderful writer.
[Brigitte Bardo had some big hair back in the day.] [Post title from Lady Gaga who wrote a song all about her big hair.]
1. Miranda July is analyzed by the NYT Magazine. Go see why she is loved and hated. (I can understand not buying her book or going to see her movies but wanting to "beat her with a shoe"? WTF?)
2. Foodie Amanda Hesser talked to Cup of Jo about her how she achieves balance as a working mom and the resultant comments waver from awe to fury (of course). Personally, I just find her life exhausting, with or without the kids.
3. Did you hear about the upcoming Pixar movie BRAVE? The big exciting bit is that not only does it have a female protagonist, but she has curly hair which apparently does not happen in the animated world (or the movies in general, really). This made me think about the new book from Monica Kulling Merci Mister Dash, illustrated by Esperanca Melo. The protagonist, Daphne, is a delightfully red-headed curly-haired little girl. As for the plot, all you need to know is there is a dog, there is a little girl and hijinks ensue. I'm sending my copy along to my niece Emma who is also very curly haired and will love it.
4. Speaking of picture books that I found appealing, I have not seen Birdie's Big-Girl Dress by Sujean Rim but the spread in the Little Brown catalog certainly made me smile. This is a fashionista's dream for sure - the 1950s look is awesome.
5. I am writing my August column right this very minute - and then moving on to September. It's hard to think of September right now though - hard to think of the fall. My book is coming out this fall and after wanting it to happen for so many years, I am now overwhelmed by what I need to be thinking about doing. This post from a debut author is not making me feel any better. I don't have time to do what I apparently have to do to give my book the kind of chance it needs. And yet there is nothing left but all the days between now and then, all those days that will disappear so quickly and I know it. I know they will fly by.
There's never enough time, is there? Maybe that is why my dreams have been filled lately with so many people I've lost; they know better than anyone that there is never enough time.
I have been making short manageable lists of the thing I need to do each day, (tomorrow's includes post office, deposit check, buy ice tea, buy goldfish crackers [on major sale at Safeway], send emails on KidLit Con, write review of After the Golden Age, etc etc.), and then I had an epiphany today and realized I really need to make a cumulative list, a serious list, the mother-of-all lists because honestly if I don't get a handle on what the heck I'm trying to accomplish this summer then it is going to blow past me before I realize all the things I didn't get done.
So I got a big piece of paper. And then I got several more sheets. And now I am writing everything from "clean closet" to "deal with mystery cupboard in laundry room" to "get contact info for book trailer". I have house stuff and kid stuff and book stuff and short story stuff and next book stuff (which I am totally worried about because I've had to keep doing so much stuff for MAP that I have not started anything truly substantial on the next book and I'm starting to worry that I never will and if I never will then I will only be a one book writer and while that is just fabulous for Harper Lee I'm not thinking I'm quite in her league).
Whew.
In the meantime, my sanity has been maintained by completely junking my careful column planning for August and reading only books that interest me at this very moment which has included Young Romantics by Daisy Hay (if only I had this when I was slaving through Shelley and Byron in high school then I might have actually enjoyed myself) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (TOTALLY living up to the hype thus far; I'm loving it) and a book on war essays that I found while cleaning out my office and I realized that if I don't start reading all these books I asked people to buy me over the past few years then I will never read them and that is totally and completely intolerable plus shameful because people gave me these books because I really wanted them and I still want them and really, I should read things I want on top of all the things that work for my column and the books I'm sent by Booklist (I'm reading a history of Arctic exploration for them right now and it's very good and totally what I know which is comforting).
And then, there is my office. Oh good grief. I stood in there last week and thought I have to deal with this and it's going to be brutal and messy but this stuff has got to be sorted and dealt with and some of these things must go go go. I am making stacks of things to go away or move or file with abandon right now. Many stacks. What really prompted all this activity is the hundreds of photos from my great grandmother's photo albums that I brought back from Florida. I have to scan them in for the family and print out copies for me and my mom and as I made room for all of them, (my mom and I already put them in some order so it's not too daunting) (and I'm not scanning all the pics in - many of the originals will just go to various appropriate family members), I also sorted through already existing piles of childhood pictures of my father that my aunts sent a few years ago and some old pics of my brother and I that came to me after my French grandfather died two years ago and then all the pictures of my own child that have not been put in albums and I had another epiphany: I come from photo album people and have totally dropped the ball on my own photo organizing.
(I blame my mother partly for this - her photo organizing went to heck sometime in the seventies.) (And I know you're reading this Mom and you totally know I'm right.) (The drawer, Mom - you must deal with the photo drawer!!!)
I'm not a scrapbooking person but my Irish grandmother
In the past few weeks (or has it been a month?) I've read some good books like TO TIMBUKTU a new graphic novel memoir from First Second written by Casey Scieszka with art by boyfriend Steven Weinberg. It's a big book detailing their adventures from teaching in China to visiting in SE Asia to a Fulbright scholarship in Mali. The pencil drawings are great but it's the narrative that really carries it. Great book for teens who dream of seeing the world (or creative types which is why it's going in my July column). Also for July is the YA bio of Leonard Bernstein: MUSIC WAS IT. Part of what I like about reviewing for teens is the zillion things I learn from the NF. I knew beans about Bernstein before reading this book - easy to jump into, quite informative and nice to read. Good stuff (has book report written all over it) and any kid out there who dreams of becoming a musician would go nuts for this against all odds tale.
And let's see - also creative type books for July are OPEN STUDIOS by Lotta Jansdotter which lets you peek into twenty-four artists' spaces (my idea of a good time) and THE BEST ART YOU'VE NEVER SEEN which is sorta like peeking but more highbrow. Plus it's pretty, really really pretty. (This will likely be my "cool read" next month.)
I've been enjoying the heck out of reading for my July column by the way - all sorts of artsy/crafty books.
CORRESPONDENCE by N. John Hall is a bit similar to 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD in that it's an epistolary novel about books but it's much more informative. A retired bank clerk finds a cache of letters from his great great grandfather from Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, etc and enters into an email correspondence with Christie's about selling them. Over the course of the months that follow he not only learns more about his ancestor but the literary greats themselves. As someone who never spent time with literature before it's all a bit of a brave new world and he enjoys seeing what he missed. I liked all of that - a lot actually - it was only in the end that it sort of dropped off a bit. I thought there was a real friendship between the retiree and Christie's seller he'd been emailing but it's almost like Nash wasn't sure how to end it. (Of course CHARING CROSS ROAD is the model for perfect endings -sad but brilliant.) Still a good read but a bit shy of wonderful.
And there is ZAZEN which I'm not quite sure how to explain but I'll say that I originally was taking notes on what to mention in my review - memorable passages, etc - and then realized I was note taking every bit of it and needed to stop. I'm reserving judgment until I'm done but utterly and completely original (in a good way) thus far.
Oh - and I finally read THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. I know I'm a zillion years behind everyone on this but when everyone starts to review a book I tend to let it slide by and focus on something a wee bit more overooked. Anyway, yes it's as well written as everyone says and I did enjoy reading it. My only thought was that it was bit too much - getting drunk, a rape, then another rape, and culpability in vehicular homicide and just, well, throw in a weapon and you have cliches a plenty. Does that diminish it? Maybe only for an adult reader. I'm sure teens love all the added drama so yes, I get why it is so popular (and very easy to recommend) but by that last scene in the hot tub I knew what was coming a mile away. Would have been nice to be a tiny bit surprised.
My favorite current read is CROSSING TO SAFETY by Wallace Stegner. It is sort of keeping me sane at the moment. My great uncle Ben recommended Stegner to me years ago (and sent me at least one of his books) but I wasn't ready for him yet. (I was in my 20s at the time.) Now though - now he is perfect and I adore this novel, completely and totally.
Just passed on a Booklist book - very disappointing - and realize that I need to grab something else to read. August is the SF column so it shall likely be very outer spacey or futuristic. We shall see....
Several books due out in a few months that have piqued my interest. Here's the rundown:
Osa and Martin by Kelly Enright. A bit of the pub description:
Osa and Martin tells the story of world-renowned adventurers Osa and Martin Johnson, who, from the 1910s through the 1940s, brought the jungles of Africa and the South Pacific to millions of Americans. It takes us from their first expedition to the South Seas, which established their public image as an independent, daring couple, to their first African adventure, where they proved their films were authentic glimpses of untarnished nature. From their jungle camp in northern Kenya, they filmed and lived with wildlife while Osa drew upon her pioneer roots to carve a home in the wilderness.
I have been a fan of Osa Johnson's FOREVER (there is a blog post in my devotion), so I'm quite excited about it. Read more on them here.
My deep curiosity for George Mallory continues unabated and to see Wade Davis writing about him with Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest. From the publisher:
With new access to letters and diaries, Davis recounts the heroic attempts of George Mallory and his fellow climbers to conquer the mountain in the face of treacherous terrain and furious weather. Davis shows how the exploration originated in nineteenth-century imperial ambitions, and he takes us far beyond the Himalayas to the trenches of World War I, where Mallory and his generation found themselves and their world utterly shattered. In the wake of a war that cost millions of lives, the Everest expeditions, led by these scions of Britain’s elite, became a symbol of national redemption.
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I just received this one the other day and the cover for
Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet immediately jumped out at me. Has anyone seen a cover like this? Awesome. Set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, here's a bit of the description:
Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink6 of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside - just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive. Told in cinematic style by acclaimed British author Mal Peet, this brilliant coming-of-age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them.
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