Fantasy Summer

Dear readers, 

I have been remiss in updating you on all my reading adventures the last few months. I have no excuse except the usual distractions. Writing articles, teaching writing, reading, lots of travel, family time (a college graduate!) and house shuffling. I have been steadily reading my way through the summer. The best way to keep up with my book list is through Goodreads. I try to rate and write a very brief review as soon as I finish each book and I post every book I've read under My Books.  So follow me on Goodreads and you'll know every book I read and hear (some books are Audible books). 38 books so far in 2017!

I've read some good ones the last six months, but I've been on sort of a slow burn with Neil Gaiman. I'm soaking up his words and I am in awe of his writing. I've long known of him -- read a few of his essays and had his writing tips posted by my desk, but I'd never read a novel by him.  My brother told me to read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I gave it five stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed this tale so much that I wanted to start it again when I finished. A grown man looks back on his childhood through his memories as a seven year old. The book is fantasy tinged with reality in a glorious tale resonating with truth. Big Truth. Ahhh. My favorite type of book (see earlier review).

Then earlier this summer I read American Gods. Everyone is talking about the television series, but I knew I had to read the book first. Shadow, the ex-con protagonist of the book, is enduring and unforgettable.  He learns about the gods that live in the background of the new world, America, and the battle between the old and the new gods. The book has so many layers and constant action as Shadow faces many obstacles, but finally makes peace with the gods and with himself.

This week I just finished The Graveyard Book, Gaiman's Newberry-award winning book for young and old alike.  The world he creates in a graveyard in England ranks up there with Hogwarts for inventiveness and quirky characters.  I loved this book for all the big reasons I love to read -- traveling to different worlds, accessing magic, meeting great characters, escaping from the ordinary and giving me hope for a broken world.  I know this sounds like a lot from a younger age book but it was really amazing. I came to the end just before midnight and it entered my dreams all night. The magic lingered.  

The book is the story of Nobody Owens, called Bod, a regular boy who is raised by the dead inhabitants of a centuries old graveyard. Bod's family is brutally murdered in the first pages of the book when he is only a toddler. Bod, blissfully unaware of the grisly scene, wanders into the graveyard. The ghosts promise his recently deceased mother that they will raise the child and protect him from the murderer that still seeks for Bod. The book is creepy and fun and just plain enchanting. In his Newberry Medal acceptance speech, printed at the end of the book, Gaiman said he wrote a book he would want to read. He said he had the seed of the idea of The Graveyard Book when he was much younger, but "realized it was a better idea than he was a writer." So he waited and he wrote other books and perfected his craft in then in 2006-2008, he wrote this. He said, "I wrote the best I could. That's the only way I know how to write something."

I was lucky enough to hear Gaiman speak here in Houston earlier this month.  The event was called "An Evening with Neil Gaiman" and it was at the Wortham Theatre, a large venue in Houston. I thought maybe it would be in a smaller venue within the building. But when my friend Evelyn (thank you for the ticket!) and I arrived, we were in the large Brown Theatre and there were literally thousands of fans. The place was sold out. It turns out that the Dark Prince of Fantasy, as Gaiman has been called, has a huge, very loyal fan base. His graphic novels in particular are popular with a large segment. A different group of people than myself, but it turns out we have a lot in common. Now I want to read those graphic novels as well. That evening Gaiman read from Norse Mythology, his newest book, and several essays and some experimental writing and in between reading, he answered audience questions which he read from index cards. He was delightful, funny and sincere, just what you want your idol to be. He was honest about the hard work of writing, saying that he loved having written and he loved being about to write, but the actual act of writing was akin to getting a cavity filled without Novocain.  I was already a fan of his books, now I am a fan of the man himself. Read Neil Gaiman and tell me what you think.

See you sooner. I promise.
H.

Justice and Mercy and Brokenness

Non-fiction books like Just Mercy are tough to read because they are true. And it is really depressing to think about all the persons who are wrongly incarcerated in this country and who are always unjustly executed. It's unspeakable. But in this book, Bryan Stevenson makes the reader really SEE the lives of poor black men, women and children who constantly feel a  "discomfort too longstanding and constant to merit discussion but too burdensome to ever forget."  He makes these people real and help us understand their vulnerability enough to cry alongside Stevenson. We get to know Walter McMillan and Joe Sullivan  and Marsha Colby and Charlie through Stevenson's eloquent writing. We feel - along with Stevenson - as one character seems to say, "I may be old, I may be poor, I may be black, but I'm here. I'm here because I've got this vision of justice that compels me to be a witness. I'm here because I'm supposed to be here. I'm here because you can't keep me away." Once you read this book, you'll be a witness too. 

Stevenson started the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit law center, in Montgomery, Alabama when he was in his early 30s on a shoestring budget with the lofty goals of ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable in American society. As you will see in this book, which puts a human face on these issues, he has succeeded in many ways.  But there is still much to do, especially in these Trump years as hatred is encouraged in the courts. The documentary 13th and the book The New Jim Crow also add more stories and information to this issue. But Stevenson's book really brings the issue home. 

Toward the end of the book, Stevenson tells us that he does this work because he's broken too. And he reminds us that we are all broken by something. "Our shared brokenness connects us," Stevenson says. He is truly doing God's work for the most vulnerable people in our society.  When one person suffers, we all suffer. We are all tied up in our humanity. He says," The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It's when mercy is least expected that it's most potent..." And as he says at the close, "..all of us can do better for one another."

Brave men and women like Bryan Stevenson are leading the charge to change laws and show mercy to the vulnerable and the oppressed.  He did the hard work. Now we have to face these tough truths and do our part. Read this book and then support the Equal Justice Initiative. 

Bookstores Help Us Understand the World

I've been quiet on this blog. Reading a lot of the New York Times lately and listening to NPR and many podcasts (stay tuned for my podcast list). Overwhelmed by bad news. 

But clinging to fiction.  I'm just about to finish the 11th and next to last book of the fabulous Louise Penny series about the thoughtful and wise Chief Inspector Gamache. The series, along with the Trump administration, has made me want to escape to the quiet fictional hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the border in Canada.  I'll share more about these books soon, I promise.

But a recent NYT article made me more joy-filled than ever about the existence of bookstores. The article, Bookstores Stoke Trump Resistance, quoted one independent book store owner saying, “I think bookstores are a place where people go to understand the world...” One of my favorite bookstore owners and writers, Ann Patchett, said, “Now more than ever, books are so important,” Ms. Patchett said. “The only way we’re going to get out of this in the larger sense is through education.” Amen. Stay strong, fellow readers!

My Year in Books

 Dear Readers, It's been a stellar year in books for me.  According to my Goodreads site,  I should hit the 50 mark by the end of the week. We are going on a family trip tomorrow and I hope to read two more books by the end of the week. I'm currently reading S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders for the first time ever. My dear friend Evelyn gave me a 50th Anniversary signed copy for Christmas and I'm ashamed I've never read it. My older daughter adores that book and taught it to her eighth graders last year. So I will finish it before 2016 ends. I'm concurrently reading the sixth of the Canadian author Louise Penny's mystery novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. These books have been a real delight to me and I have at least six more in the series! They are my late-night-don't-turn-on-the-light reads on my Kindle Paperwhite.

But today I want to share my highest rated books of the year. My five star books this year were: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (my review) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (my review), When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, Memory Wall by Anthony Doerr.  

My four star books included all The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (my review), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Miss Jane by Brad Watson, Arcadia by Lauren Groff, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant, Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton, and a few more. 

The longest book I read was A Little Life and the shortest book was Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Both were equally rewarding.  Jon Michaud, reviewing A Little Life in the New Yorker, said: "Yanagihara’s novel can also drive you mad, consume you, and take over your life. Like the axiom of equality, 'A Little Life' feels elemental, irreducible—and, dark and disturbing though it is, there is beauty in it." This book draws you into the story of a post graduate friendship between four men in New York City. The story travels forward as the men grow older and one character's past becomes to reveal itself and you are already hooked on the book and can't stop reading even as the story grows dark. Now that I think about this book, I'm not sure why I didn't give it five stars.

A Little Life is an amazing work of fiction. So add that to my five star list! Who knows, I might even have one more before this year ends. 

Books and More Books

I have a stack of books in my office to share with you, my dear readers, on this blog. It's gotten kind of overwhelming because I haven't been able to write for so long and the books keep coming. Goodreads tells me that I've read 39 books so far this year - actually 13,410 pages in 2016! 
And the last one I read is the best. I finally read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Wow! I loved this book so much that I wanted to start it over again when I finished. I've long admired Neil Gaiman, but never read a single one of his novels. A story here and there, an essay, but none of his novels. The book about memory and dreams and fantasy was so lovely. A grown man is looking back at his childhood through his seven-year-old eyes. I found fantasy tinged with reality in this glorious tale that resonates with truth. Gaiman says, "Childhood memories are sometimes covered and obscured beneath the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good." This tale is a memory that is fantastical yet realistic in so many ways. The story moves quickly as the reader is drawn into another world. But you'll just have to read it to find out more. 

I also must tell you about Commonwealth, Ann Patchett's new book, which I read as soon as it was released earlier this month. I'm a huge fan of Patchett and her books about everyday people thrown together in unusual circumstances, and I'd heard this one was a bit autobiographical. So I was eager to read this book and I was not disappointed. Just after finishing the book, I heard her read a long passage and be interviewed here in Houston along side Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies). Patchett explained that the book starts with a random drunk kiss at a party and covers the impact of that kiss over the next fifty years. The book starts almost at one character's birth and goes almost to another character's death. Patchett said, "When I think about marriage, I think about divorce." The book is about a blended family and the consequences of the parent's actions on the step siblings. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the children and who is who as the narrators switch. But the reward is in the story. Each chapter almost stands on its own, but the larger story connects the smaller ones. Yes, Ann's father was a policeman in LA and she grew up with her mother in a southern state.  There's a lot of memoir but a lot of fiction too in this wonderful novel. 

Stay tuned and I'll be back soon with more books for you!

Hello Old Friend!

Even though it may not have been one of her best books, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl.  The Baltimore setting, the quirky characters all evoked Tyler's fictional world revealed in her previous 20 novels.  I have always enjoyed Tyler's books and it felt like greeting an old friend to settle in with this one. Maybe the book wasn't up to the standards of her 1988 Pulitzer Prize winning Breathing Lessons or my personal favorite, The Accidental Tourist, but it was still clever and entertaining.

A quick read, great for summer relaxation, Tyler subtitles The Vinegar Girl - The Taming of the Shrew retold.  In Tyler's story, Kate Battista is the shrew, a 28-year-old nursery school assistant still living with her father and younger sister. Kate resists the overtures of his father's Russian lab assistant,  Pyotr, who needs to find a wife to prevent deportation.  Just like Shakespeare's comedy, Kate is eventually "tamed" and marries Pyotr. Whether it is a happy union or not will be yours to discover when you read this short novel. Though predictable at times,The Vinegar Girl lots of fun for a summer day. I received this book from Blogging for Books.

Delving into the Past with the Present in Mind

The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy appealed to my love of historical fiction.  I was intrigued to read about the family of abolitionist John Brown and what happened them after he was hanged in the mid-1800s. McCoy created a compelling portrait of his Sarah Brown and I felt great sympathy for her as she navigated life as a feminist and an abolitionist on her own right. There were some great lines especially this one just after Sarah's father had been executed for helping slaves be free. It sounds like it could have applied to current issues: " People are more capable of love and benevolence than they realized. The collective public voice did not always represent the individual heart. Yes, there are terrible men doing terrible deeds to other men. Men in this very town who abused others based on the color of their skin..."

But McCoy decided to create a dual story with a modern day woman living near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and that was irritating. The switching back and forth between the historical drama of Sarah Brown and the story of Eden Anderson and her family travails just didn't work for me. Yes, there were many connections between the two plot lines but they still seemed inadequate and contrived. I enjoyed each story separately for different reasons, but I didn't like them side by side.

This book was similar in many ways to The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein, which I read for my book club earlier this year. In The Orphan Train, the plot lines switched back and forth and the book felt like a middle school audience novel. At least in that book the different stories come together (albeit predictably) in the end. But I didn't like that book either. Switching between historical fiction and modern stories has been overdone and The Mapmaker's Children felt amateurish. I feel guilty giving a book a negative review, because I appreciate the effort and know I couldn't do any better. But I feel readers need to know. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.