Book Recommendations

A friend of mine was asking me for some book recommendations.  She's in that lull that often comes when you've finished a good book and don't have something else waiting for you right away.  And she wanted a couple because she's due to have her baby any day now and you always need a good stack that you can readily go to when you know you're going to be to busy to get out and find things at the library.

Besides, I don't look for books for myself at the library anymore.  I get "looks" from the librarians about having 2 young children on the adult floor.  Library hold is the only way to go anymore, but that means you have to know what you want.

Back to the subject at hand -- after getting a feel for what she likes, I ransacked my boxes that have been tucked away and pulled out a few.  Of course it took me more time than it should have -- I kept reminiscing over wonderful books and put aside a pile (promptly knocked over by the crawler and then delightfully spread around by the 3-year old) to re-read.

And in doing all this: I realized I need a better system for recommendations.  It will still be highly personal and subjective (because there's no way for it NOT to be) but it will be more clear.  And it's coming soon -- after the 4th of July holiday probably.

In the meantime, one of the books I gave her was David Baldacci's Wish You Well.

Baldacci apparently mostly writes law thrillers (or is it science thrillers -- I've never read any others of his) and has A LOT of books published under that genre.  This one has a law element (so I'm pretty sure it's law thrillers), but is a touching, wonderful, growing-up story of sorts.

The main characters (see above) lose their father and partially lose their mother in a car crash.  Their only living relative left is a great-Aunt but they must move from populated city to rural mountain Virginia to live with her.  The story is about adjusting to a new life, growing up, coming to terms with yourself, and finding healing.  It's not action and adventure but it keeps you reading.  There is suspense, love, anger, forgiveness . . . am I sounded so vague I'm on the verge of cliche?

It also made me want to see the places where this novel is set -- his description is clear and beautiful.

And it's worth a re-read because it's wonderful.

On Writing and English Classes

Remember my rant about wanting to pick writer's brains?  Well I found a book that has done that.  I haven't read it all yet but I wanted to share a few things.

The authors "interviewed" in Daniel Alarcon's The Secret Miracle are mostly foreign, but a writer is a writer!  The book is a compilation of some panel interviews conducted by the author and simply consists of questions and each author's answer.  The chapters are organized to reflect basically different parts of the writing process: influences, starting, plot, character, scene etc., revision, and finishing.

I'm mostly skimming right now but loved this answer from Santiago Roncagliolo in response to the question: "How many books do you read in a given month?  How many books do you read at a time?"

"If I don't like one, I abandon it and I begin another.  There are lots of good books to be read.  There's no need to obsess yourself with the bad ones.  There are also good books that you read at the wrong time.  In those cases, it's better to wait and try again later."

I could not have said this better myself!  He is so right and that of course leads directly into my biggest soapbox:  English classes in high school.

(I'll try to be brief and concise here, otherwise we could be a while.)

With 5 years of English teaching experience across a broad spectrum of "abilities" and desires, I've come to the conclusion that 4 years of English classes reading "classic" literature is a waste for most students.  I, personally, love classic literature and yet there are certain authors that I DO NOT READ FOR FUN:  Nathaniel Hawthorne and John Steinbeck are just two.  So yes people, the smart thing here is to require it of teenage boys and girls who are planning to spend their lives in construction, as math teachers, as scientists or doctors, working at Walmart, or painting, or whatever!  (Please read heavy sarcasm here).  

Education should be focused on teaching students to read and write well and should use a variety of tools to do that.  If that means you dig out Captain Underpants then so be it.  The tools will lead them to greater success than the actual book.

That being said, I do have books that I have put aside only to love them later.  A good example of that is Charles Dickens' Hard Times.  Love that book.  Love love love that book.  But I didn't love it until college.

And my grandmother often sends me books with a note that she didn't like it and stopped reading but here you go anyway.  Although we have similar taste, there's a few that I have loved that she hasn't been able to get through.

That's what makes a blog like this problematic.  I can recommend books, but that doesn't guarantee that YOU will like them.  And that's ok!

I'll still love you.

Blackout Poetry Attempted

That was harder than it looks.

I sat down last night watching reruns of The Closer and Bones and picked up our newspaper to try blackout poetry.  I picked the "Arts and Life" section thinking there would be better words.  And there were great ones!  But it was actually really hard!

Once I got started, then I wanted the poem to go somewhere that I just didn't have a the words for.  I had to look at the article and think about how the words would work outside of what my vision was.  It was definitely an exercise in thinking outside the box!

So this is my poem:  It's hard to see but what it says is -- art this fascinating cultural masterpiece ties the world over the years, to the present

Sounds more like a wise saying than a poem to me (I gravitate towards more traditional poems myself) but it works!

A New Kind of Poetry

I completely forgot that I was going to blog about this.  But better late than never!

There was an article in our Dallas Sunday newspaper a few weeks back about a gentleman by the name of Austin Kleon.  He has just published a book of poetry using a method he more or less invented called "newspaper blackout".  

The premise?  Take a newspaper articles, column, advertisement, whatever -- and black out all the words except for those that make a poem.

He blogs about it and posts his poems here.  It's actually really neat!

Ok I'm downplaying it -- I think it's really cool!  Yet another idea to make me jealous.  After all, what a great way to get students to create poetry.  So often it's hard to come up with the words, but when they're already there for you . . . but you're looking for poetry really.

I can't use this until the girls are older unfortunately but IF YOU TEACH ENGLISH SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, you really should check this out.  I might just have to try it myself as well.

Where did today's newspaper go . . . 

On Writing

I am a reader.

I have been since I was very young.  I've always preferred reading to pretty much every other activity out there.  So when I say that I've been sucked in to a book that means nothing else gets done.  Which is a little more complicated now that I'm a mom of course, but it still happens.

But am I a writer?

I can't decide.  I'm not one of those who has made up stories my whole life.  I've been content to read others.  But that doesn't mean I couldn't be a writer I think.  And I've had some ideas here or there that might be interesting to read if I could get it down on paper fluidly.  I just don't know.

When you hear writers talk about their work, they always talk about how difficult it is to write.  But the thing is, they don't really go into detail.  I would love to KNOW how Rick Riordan gets his ideas for his books.  What happens when he's stumped?  How does he connect events to make a whole cohesive story?  I would love to pick Shannon Hale's brain about character.  How do you make each character endearing and have a real voice?  How do you write them so that they come alive?  I want to ask Richard Peck how to write humor and create situations that make me laugh out loud (because they do).  And I want to ask them all about process.  How does a book go from an idea to a finished product?  All I get to see is the finished product -- what does it look like in the meantime?

But I can't.  So I guess I have to experiment myself.

I wrote a first draft of a children's book about 2 or 3 weeks ago.  And this is how it went -- had the idea, sat down at the computer, wrote the entire book in one sitting visualizing what it would actually look like as I went.

Then I sent it to some friends and family for feedback.  First draft.  I didn't hear back from most of them and there may be several reasons for that but I can't help but wonder if it falls under the old adage: "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."  Because I'm self-conscious.

So now I'm going to do my second draft.  I haven't decided how yet: print off the original and retype the whole thing or just fix bits and pieces on the computer.  I don't really know what my process is, it's been so long since I've written fiction (since college actually).  But I'm going to try and see what happens.

Oh and just to document it as I go, I've also begun a young adult novel.  That has been a bear.  I have lots of ideas floating in my brain but no clue on how to make them connect or be exciting to read.  So I just type as I think of things and maybe I'll try connecting the dots later!

It Sucked Me In Again!

Did you like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan?  I did.  I've honestly read better writing but the adventure and excitement was top notch and I love LOVE LOVE the idea.  Actually, I'm quite jealous that I didn't think of it first.  Sigh.  That's a lot of research though and I don't know that I have that much time on my hands.

The past few days I've managed to carve out a little bit more though (thanks for Sesame Street and Care Bears) and have read the first book in his next installment of demigod disasters:  The Lost Hero.

I had heard that he was going to continue on this theme but I was surprised that he's continuing with Percy Jackson and all of the heroes of Camp Half-Blood.  With a twist.

There are Greek gods and demigods of course, but now there are also Roman.  I don't want to say too much because this book is one big mystery and I like that.  Same fast-pased, high adventure style as the others but the focus is on three entirely new heroes who are very endearing in their own ways.  And of course an earth-shattering enemy.  Literally.

Book 2 comes out in October and I'm already excited.

Well, with Harry Potter ending, I'm glad I have something else to look forward to.  Which speaking of Harry Potter, there's something about a major announcement I think . . . hold on.  Rowling's announcement is here.  Sounds interesting don't you think?

H is For House

Today for preschool we did the letter H and I was so bummed about what I COULDN'T do!

I remember a book that my parents had called A House is a House for Me.

It goes through all of the "houses" that different creatures live in really great rhyme.  The reason that I'm so bummed is that I didn't think about it until Monday (not enough time to get the book sent from my parents) and even though it's technically "check in" at the library, it was definitely not on the shelf and has been lost to the ages.

I can't blame the library though.  I know that my own darlings frequently pull books and we don't get them back where we belong . . . sorry!

So I didn't get to read the kids this book that I LOVE but we did a matching game based on the idea.

It is super simple to do a Google image search for various creatures and their houses: bees and beehives, squirrels and trees, princesses and castles, etc.  In word, I set the paper size to 4" by 6" and then dropped the margins way down so that one picture was on each page.  Then I stuffed my printer with 4x6 index cards and printed!  Voila!  Instant matching game!  

The kids enjoyed it (they all wanted to keep the pictures) and they learned a little bit about different types of houses.  

But I still want to get a hold of that book.  It might just "accidentally" find it's way into my car the next time we visit the grandparents . . .