In a previous post, I talked about how all fiction is an exploration of the human experience, regardless of genre or plot. I realize this can feel like a stretch when we begin to look into the plot driven quick reads from writers like Clive Cussler, or maybe the endless Star Wars saga books (sorry, Steve!) - but even these require more than cardboard cutouts of human beings to make them readable. (I am not anti-action books, really I'm not!)
I've been thinking a great deal about my favorite books lately. The ones I re-read, the one's I won't lend out to friends (or buy more than one copy of so that when I lend it out I'll still have a copy around the house), the ones I think about and day dream about. I suppose it's because I'm on the edge of beginning a new book - one that is, frankly, taking more than a few chances in terms of structure. What I've discovered is that my absolute favorites are all strongly character driven books that simply zing with lyrical, beautiful writing. I'm not stunned by this, I mean, these are the sorts of books I strive to achieve, I hope to write. Still, I'm looking more deeply at what makes my heart melt when I think about certain books. Here are just a few examples:
The Time Traveler's Wife: I'm re-reading this before the movie comes out, August 14th. I read it about six years ago, a loaner from the library, but I bought a copy to live on my shelves. There are things about this book that should bother me - cursing bothers me even when it is "realistic". To me it is a red flag: Lazy writer, falling back on obscenity as a substitute for maturity! And while Niffenegger doesn't throw curses out like rose petals at a wedding, they are in there - jarringly so. Such rich characters don't need the crutch of foul language. But I can simply overlook this because Niffenegger's writing - sparse, clean, uncluttered, but some how beautiful - redeem any faults. A simple love story set in an extraordinary circumstance paired with smart, lovely prose and I'm so hooked on this story. The book is crammed with little moments that resonate. And I love how it is a story about loving no matter what. It's earned a place on my shelf.
Cold Sassy Tree: I've read this book several times, and I know I will read it again. It's a standout - a family memoir that cares more about the truth of the story (and therefore the reader) than it does anything else. Olive Ann Burns' exhaustive attention to details of dialect, setting, and era are so well done they blend into the background and allow the story to take center stage. Told from the POV of a young boy, the story is rich with characters who say and do the most amazing things - and the boy's sense of wonder, confusion, and young love is pitch perfect.
Redeeming Love: This is a book I read over a decade ago and I still find myself thinking about it the way one would think about an old friend. I've read it several times and I know I'll read it again. It's painfully good, unflinching, rich, and daring (for Christian fiction). What made this book so wonderful was Francine Rivers' writing style - descriptives that hit the mark, then left it alone and went on with the story, excellent pacing (trouble, more trouble, compounded with trouble - all within a few chapters), and a spiritual thread that wove itself into the story rather than sitting on top as a "sermon of the week" masquerading as a novel.
As a writer, I still enjoy jumping into a great novel and simply getting lost in the story, but I also need to read like a writer - researching what I love about specific books, the craft involved in creating the success, and then finding ways to incorporate those lessons into my own writing. I'd love it if you would share some of your favorite books that you read over and over again - and what aspects about them bring you back for more.
I bid you good writing.
Showing posts with label Great books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great books. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Literary Friendships
My writing life changed for the better when I became one of the six authors who blog at Novel Matters. Oh sure, I still writing in solitude (is there such thing as solitude for a mom of young children?) but I now have five amazing women friends who I can count on and turn to whenever I need a shoulder, an ear, or a heart to heart.
In that vein, I'm sharing with you one of my new favorite places to visit is Garrison Keillor's ode to literary friendships.
And, if you're in the mood for some great reading, today's pick also comes from Garrison Keillor: Good Poems for Hard Times.
I bid you good writing.
In that vein, I'm sharing with you one of my new favorite places to visit is Garrison Keillor's ode to literary friendships.
And, if you're in the mood for some great reading, today's pick also comes from Garrison Keillor: Good Poems for Hard Times.
I bid you good writing.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Manly Reading
Macho reading? Are there books manly men MUST read?
According to The Art of Manliness the answer is YES!
Even if you're not a man, this list off 100 must read books is fantastic.
Enjoy!
AND!
Announcing the winner of the book give-away!
Koala Bear - you have won a copy of Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You!
E-mail me you snail mail address and I'll get your copy into the mail for you! Congratulations!!
I bid you good writing
According to The Art of Manliness the answer is YES!
Even if you're not a man, this list off 100 must read books is fantastic.
Enjoy!
AND!
Announcing the winner of the book give-away!
Koala Bear - you have won a copy of Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You!
E-mail me you snail mail address and I'll get your copy into the mail for you! Congratulations!!
I bid you good writing
Monday, April 14, 2008
The sign just said "Books"
This is a post from another blog you'll find me on: The Word Guild's blog: http://twgauthors.blogspot.com/
Its a site where the professional members of the guild post (usually one post a day on weekdays) about life, writing, God, and other cool things. Check it out! In the meantime, here's a recent post of mine based on an experience I had recently.
The sign outside just said, “BOOKS”.
The shop is on Main Street, which isn’t really main at all anymore.Inside, the place inspired both awe and a vague sort of horror.
The owner, Wayne, stands at the front of the store surrounded by heaps of books that are stacked haphazard around his knees. He stays there, behind his ancient desk, looking like a prisoner of literature. He seems content enough, though, as he hollers out a conversation with another customer. Yelling that French Canadian Hockey Players are the best in the world and how Don Cherry taught him to watch TV with the sound off.
I tune him out and venture deeper into the place. It seems to go on forever. Room after room of yellowing books stacked as high as the ceiling. Boxes of unsorted books trip me and grab at my pant leg. I can’t seem to find the back of the store, the last room. For a surreal moment I feel like the star of a BBC children’s special; Bonnie and the Book Store, and I wonder if I will find a magical portal, or a talking dog, or a secret door that leads to outer space.
Rambling, ramshackle shelves stacked upon even more decaying shelves. Shelves that defy gravity. At one point I move my young daughter away from a wall because I can see with perfect clarity what it will look like when the whole thing just gives way. All the shelves are like this. Lilting to one side or the other; dilapidated, frightening.
It feels as if it has been here forever, as if it had sprung from the ground at the time of creation from some bad seed left to sprout on the wrong side of the gates of Eden. But I hear Wayne holler from the front, as if reading my mind, but I know he’s talking to someone up there, he says, “I’ve been here since 1991. . .” I don’t catch the rest, and I don’t mind. Seventeen years. Not all that long when you consider the depth, the breath of the place. The sheer mass.
I peruse the titles. Everywhere I look I see gems like The 1978 Art & Craft Market. Surely someone, somewhere is in need of the answers found in this book. I picture some desperate woman draped in a brown macramé vest with matching hat throwing herself on the mercy of Wayne, “Please! I need to find a place to sell my knick knacks! My home is over run! My husband is threatening divorce!” And Wayne will give her a calm assuring nod and motion her to follow him.
I found The New Sexuality (published in 1972. Does that make it the old sexuality?) in the sociology section. Judy Blume’s novel Smart Women nuzzled against a hard cover edition of Curing Fatigue.
Around another corner, through yet another doorway, I find a puzzling (and tiny) section with the mysterious distinction of “Women Novelists”. As if Wayne considered all the female writers in the fiction section merely girls. Doris Lessing made the cut, as did Daphne de Maurier. Janet Dailey did not.
I make my way to the front of the store, happy to see it again, happy to know it’s still there, that there’s an exit. But before I go, I plunk down two books and hand Wayne cash money for them. Two gems, real ones that, when I spotted them, made me grab them fast, like at a Boxing Day sale at Bloomingdales. One, a hard bound beauty, a piece of Americana that even a Canadian like me cannot help but cherish; a 1957 pressing of Art Linkletter’s Kids Say the Darndest Things. Illustrated by Charles Shultz, forward by Walt Disney. And the other was a book I’ve been searching for nearly 20 years; Book 3 of The Book of Lists.
I left that place with a smile on my face. And I knew I’d be back. Because, no matter the place, no matter the mess, no matter the bad service, no matter the perilous placement, books, good books, great books, are always worth the effort.
Its a site where the professional members of the guild post (usually one post a day on weekdays) about life, writing, God, and other cool things. Check it out! In the meantime, here's a recent post of mine based on an experience I had recently.
The sign outside just said, “BOOKS”.
The shop is on Main Street, which isn’t really main at all anymore.Inside, the place inspired both awe and a vague sort of horror.
The owner, Wayne, stands at the front of the store surrounded by heaps of books that are stacked haphazard around his knees. He stays there, behind his ancient desk, looking like a prisoner of literature. He seems content enough, though, as he hollers out a conversation with another customer. Yelling that French Canadian Hockey Players are the best in the world and how Don Cherry taught him to watch TV with the sound off.
I tune him out and venture deeper into the place. It seems to go on forever. Room after room of yellowing books stacked as high as the ceiling. Boxes of unsorted books trip me and grab at my pant leg. I can’t seem to find the back of the store, the last room. For a surreal moment I feel like the star of a BBC children’s special; Bonnie and the Book Store, and I wonder if I will find a magical portal, or a talking dog, or a secret door that leads to outer space.
Rambling, ramshackle shelves stacked upon even more decaying shelves. Shelves that defy gravity. At one point I move my young daughter away from a wall because I can see with perfect clarity what it will look like when the whole thing just gives way. All the shelves are like this. Lilting to one side or the other; dilapidated, frightening.
It feels as if it has been here forever, as if it had sprung from the ground at the time of creation from some bad seed left to sprout on the wrong side of the gates of Eden. But I hear Wayne holler from the front, as if reading my mind, but I know he’s talking to someone up there, he says, “I’ve been here since 1991. . .” I don’t catch the rest, and I don’t mind. Seventeen years. Not all that long when you consider the depth, the breath of the place. The sheer mass.
I peruse the titles. Everywhere I look I see gems like The 1978 Art & Craft Market. Surely someone, somewhere is in need of the answers found in this book. I picture some desperate woman draped in a brown macramé vest with matching hat throwing herself on the mercy of Wayne, “Please! I need to find a place to sell my knick knacks! My home is over run! My husband is threatening divorce!” And Wayne will give her a calm assuring nod and motion her to follow him.
I found The New Sexuality (published in 1972. Does that make it the old sexuality?) in the sociology section. Judy Blume’s novel Smart Women nuzzled against a hard cover edition of Curing Fatigue.
Around another corner, through yet another doorway, I find a puzzling (and tiny) section with the mysterious distinction of “Women Novelists”. As if Wayne considered all the female writers in the fiction section merely girls. Doris Lessing made the cut, as did Daphne de Maurier. Janet Dailey did not.
I make my way to the front of the store, happy to see it again, happy to know it’s still there, that there’s an exit. But before I go, I plunk down two books and hand Wayne cash money for them. Two gems, real ones that, when I spotted them, made me grab them fast, like at a Boxing Day sale at Bloomingdales. One, a hard bound beauty, a piece of Americana that even a Canadian like me cannot help but cherish; a 1957 pressing of Art Linkletter’s Kids Say the Darndest Things. Illustrated by Charles Shultz, forward by Walt Disney. And the other was a book I’ve been searching for nearly 20 years; Book 3 of The Book of Lists.
I left that place with a smile on my face. And I knew I’d be back. Because, no matter the place, no matter the mess, no matter the bad service, no matter the perilous placement, books, good books, great books, are always worth the effort.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Books That Matter
I'm ripping off the idea for this list from someone else's blog (Missio Dei - if you're interested. His blog deals with things far more important than this one http://jonathanbrink.com/)
One book that changed your life: It's not fiction, but I can't say there was a fiction book that changed my life. If I think of one I'll let you know. But this book did. When my husband left me for another woman I bought this book. I can't articulate how profound an influence it had on me. I've not seen it's equal. I've read it many times, and it sits beside my bed even now, years later.
One book you read more than once: Pick a Susan Isaacs' novel, and I've read it more than once. She is my writing mentor. When I'm writing a scene for a smart, funny, interesting character, I re-read it and ask "Is this what Susan would write?" This one is, in my opinion one of her very best. Pure fun.
One book you would want on a desert island: Ok, it's two books (It's my blog and I can cheat if I want to.....cheat if I want to......). These two books got me re-interested in fiction written for a Christian audience. I had long grown bored with the tepid topics and unthrilling plots between the pages of so-called "Christian fiction" (pardon me, but isn't Christian a noun?) These two books (the first in a three book series, but the third is forgetable) saved the day and set the bar higher for the industry. Her research is flawless, and her prose is engaging.
One book that made you laugh: Olive Ann Burns did us all a big favor by working so hard to get this book right. She created a world you feel you can step right into. Her dialogue is second to none, and her characters are richly southern without being overwhelming. Its a story of family, secrets, and love, but written with such a bright hand it had me chuckling and smiling through the whole thing. Sadly, this gifted writer died before she was able to finish the sequel Leaving Cold Sassy, but it was published as an unfinished sequel which has all the finished scenes, unfinished scenes, and her notes about the book, as well as some commentary. Read them both.
One book you wish you'd written: Oh gosh. One day I will write a time travel novel. I only hope it will be half as compelling as The Time Traveller's Wife. Gorgeous, human, amazing. The characters grow, change, mature, and evolve as the story unfolds. It's brilliant, sad, and achingly lovely. Something to aspire to.
One book you're currently reading: Oh stop. I'm on vacation.
One book you've been meaning to read: Hard to pick one, but with The Kite Runner film coming out, Hosseini's name is everywhere and I keep thinking I should read this one. I can't help but be inspired by his debut novel, and I suppose expectations are high for this one too.
I'm not recommending the blog necessarily, but I believe in giving credit where credit is due. And I snagged the list from his site.
One book that changed your life: It's not fiction, but I can't say there was a fiction book that changed my life. If I think of one I'll let you know. But this book did. When my husband left me for another woman I bought this book. I can't articulate how profound an influence it had on me. I've not seen it's equal. I've read it many times, and it sits beside my bed even now, years later.
One book you read more than once: Pick a Susan Isaacs' novel, and I've read it more than once. She is my writing mentor. When I'm writing a scene for a smart, funny, interesting character, I re-read it and ask "Is this what Susan would write?" This one is, in my opinion one of her very best. Pure fun.
One book you would want on a desert island: Ok, it's two books (It's my blog and I can cheat if I want to.....cheat if I want to......). These two books got me re-interested in fiction written for a Christian audience. I had long grown bored with the tepid topics and unthrilling plots between the pages of so-called "Christian fiction" (pardon me, but isn't Christian a noun?) These two books (the first in a three book series, but the third is forgetable) saved the day and set the bar higher for the industry. Her research is flawless, and her prose is engaging.
One book that made you laugh: Olive Ann Burns did us all a big favor by working so hard to get this book right. She created a world you feel you can step right into. Her dialogue is second to none, and her characters are richly southern without being overwhelming. Its a story of family, secrets, and love, but written with such a bright hand it had me chuckling and smiling through the whole thing. Sadly, this gifted writer died before she was able to finish the sequel Leaving Cold Sassy, but it was published as an unfinished sequel which has all the finished scenes, unfinished scenes, and her notes about the book, as well as some commentary. Read them both.
One book you wish you'd written: Oh gosh. One day I will write a time travel novel. I only hope it will be half as compelling as The Time Traveller's Wife. Gorgeous, human, amazing. The characters grow, change, mature, and evolve as the story unfolds. It's brilliant, sad, and achingly lovely. Something to aspire to.
One book you're currently reading: Oh stop. I'm on vacation.
One book you've been meaning to read: Hard to pick one, but with The Kite Runner film coming out, Hosseini's name is everywhere and I keep thinking I should read this one. I can't help but be inspired by his debut novel, and I suppose expectations are high for this one too. What about you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
