Your Summer Reading List

Peeps! Guess what?? You wrote this post.

Yup, you really did. Well, maybe not in a sit-down-at-the-computer-and-bang-out-Liz's-posts-for-her kind of way (which, btw, I'd be totally open to letting you do,) but more in a I-compiled-responses-from-you sort of way. But EITHER WAY, the end result is that I now have a really freaking cool, reader-approved, first-hand list of book recommendations.

See, last week I asked you all to recommend books that I should read this summer. And so many of you gave me so many great tips and ideas that I got super excited about it, and decided I should put them all together and share them back to all of you! And of course, to make it more fun, I included the blogger who recommended each book in the list.

So here it is, straight from you to you:

Your Summer Reading List

Natchez Burning and The Bone Tree, by Greg Iles

These came from Susan Gourley/Kelley, who said, "Both books really highlight the terror of the deep south during the civil rights movements in the 60's and how so much hate and inequality still lingers today."




Secret Worlds, Anthology compiled by Rebecca Hamilton

H.R. Sinclair recommended this 21 (21!!!) book set, which looks like a collection of paranormal romance novels from a bunch of bestselling authors. Which really, with 21 (21!!!) to choose from, the odds are pretty damn good you'll like at least a few of them.



Anything by Kate Morton

Ok, yeah, I cheated - that's an author image, not a book image, but to be fair, M Pepper Langlinais did recommend all of her books, specifically for summer reading, and it appears that Ms. Morton is too prolific for me to show her titles here. So, go check her out, and pick one, and report back! I'm thinking of starting with The House at Riverton.




All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

Loni Townsend opted out of making a recommendation because my tastes are too serious for her or something. I have no idea why she would say such a ridiculous thing (nevermind that I said it myself,) but she then had a change of heart and decided to give us one, anyway. This was hers, although she hasn't read it yet. Let's see: blind kid? Holocaust? Yep, right up my alley.



Lisette's List, by Susan Vreeland

Jenni Enzor stepped away from her (fantastic) MG recommendations to give us this one, which is, as she says, "about famous paintings hid in Provence during World War II." It's fiction, though, don't worry!




Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, by Charlotte Gordon

It's not in paperback yet, so this one might make my fall reading list. It's non-fiction, yes, but what a story! Ava Quinn recommended this examination of the famous author and the daughter she never knew, saying, "[It's] history and feminism all rolled into one."



Marlene Dietrich by Her Daughter, by Maria Rivera

Maria Rivera is Marlene Dietrich's daughter, of course, so this biography is straight from the source. Birgit recommended it as one of her favorites: "It is not a scathing book done by a daughter but a revealing look at this enigmatic woman."





The Diviners, by Libba Bray, and Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

Madilyn Quinn has such a long TBR list (I hear you, Madilyn; mine is so damn long I don't even look at it anymore, which totally defeats the purpose of having it) that she had to recommend both of these. I'm not complaining! They're both YA: "The Diviners is historical fiction while Unwind is a sort of dystopian biopunk thing."



Anything by Marian Keyes

I had to cheat again and and give you an author pic, because Diane Carlisle recommended everything by Marian Keyes, saying she loves her style and voice.








A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan

I'm excited about all of the books on this list, but this one really tickles my fancy (that's a very weird expression, isn't it?) I love books that play with genre, and I will always be a sucker for fantasy, so this fictional memoir of a Victorian-era woman studying dragons is right up my alley. Mason Matchak chose this, saying, "...it's oddly charming, especially if you like classic British stuffiness as both plot and character points." Which I do. Score!



The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate

Sarah Brentyn recommended this book, and I almost jumped out of my seat when I read her comment, because I loved this book. In fact, it was on my reading list last summer, and it was a wonderful summer read. It's MG, but adults will love it, too.





The Sophie Katz mystery series, by Kyra Davis

I do love these two-for-one - or really multiple-for-one - recommendations. This one for a series of books about a writer-turned-detective comes from Shannon Lawrence, and it looks like a lot of fun.






And that's it - but that's pretty damn good, if I do say so myself! Too bad the credit is all yours ;)

See anything on here you want to read? What else would you add?

Summer Reading, and Requests

I did a post on summer reading last year, and it was so good at giving me something to blog about much fun that I decided to make it an annual tradition. As I mentioned the last time I did this, the summer version of Seasonal Affective Disorder always strikes me in July - that is, the total lack of motivation to do anything besides be outside, read (preferably outside) and swim (preferably while also reading, and definitely outside.) Which means that blogging about reading is at least in the right ballpark, and I can usually do it outside on my porch. So it's a win-win.

But THIS YEAR, I need your help, too. You'll have to keep reading to find out why (see how I did that? Oh yeah. I'm a pro at hooks...)

Here's what I've been reading so far:

The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is not my typical summer read. It's slow, lyrical, and utterly heartbreaking - not exactly what I'd call good beach material. But I was so drawn in by the characters and the simple yet masterful writing that I couldn't put it down, and that is what I call good beach material. It also offers a fascinating insight into the history of India and Bangladesh, and the Communist insurgencies there in the 1960s. A topic which, I confess, I knew absolutely nothing about until I picked up this book. Once I got over feeling humiliatingly ignorant, I loved the insight into the particular time and place in the country's past. Highly recommended.


The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

I know, I know, I am way overdue on reading this book. It was everyone's favorite book like 15 years ago (or 12, whatever,) and yet I never read it. I kept meaning to, and kept meaning to, but I somehow never actually got to it. I didn't think much of it until I realized just how long I'd been putting it off, at which point I was so embarrassed that I moved it to the top of my list. I'm reading it right now, actually, so I can't write a real review of it yet, but so far, I love it. It's engaging, funny, and heart-wrenching (because apparently I am incapable of reading lighthearted books,) and I'm very glad I decided to finally pick it up.


Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel

Look! I'm not too far off on this one! This has been one of the most talked-about books this year (at least in my very limited circles,) and I'm reading it this year!!! Or at least, I'm intending to. It's next on my list after The Secret Life of Bees. I don't have much to say about it, except that I'm really excited to read it, because everyone I know who read it absolutely loved it.






Now is where you come in, because this is IT for my summer reading list, and I need more suggestions! So please, pile 'em up. What are you reading this summer? What's on your list? What should I read after Station Eleven?

The Lost List: Books We Should Have Read

Every once in a while, I like to veer away from the usual theme of this blog (whatever that is; if you know it, please do tell me) and write a post about reading books.

Those words deserve italics, because I love books. Like many of you, I am a committed and admitted bibliophile. This of course causes many of the problems we all struggle with: overstuffed shelves, precarious stacks of books on the nightstand, 'libraries' so big on e-readers that it would be impossible to read it all in one lifetime, and marital discord ("I don't WANT to throw any of these away! They're my FRIENDS!") But, it also brings great joy, transports us to different lands, and provides fodder for blog posts.

In the past, I've blogged about the books that made me a writer, as well as my favorite childhood books, and I've vaguely promised to blog about Books That Got Me Through Puberty Without Committing Heinous Bodily Harm To Myself or Others, as well as Books That Changed The Way I Write. I will post about those some day, but not today.

Today, I want to post a different sort of list, one that feels appropriate to the discussions about diversity that are (thankfully) all over the place these days: Books I Wish Someone Had Told Me To Read, But No One Ever Did. I have to state first that no one told me to read them mostly because they are by and about marginalized and/or minority populations (at least in the U.S.), but also because I am white and American and grew up in a white and American suburb. I'd be interested to know if people who grew up in the States, but from other backgrounds, did have a more diverse list of Books To Read - but I'd bet, unfortunately, that the answer is no.

Most of these are fairly well-known, critically acclaimed books - although there are a few exceptions - and I know I'm not listing anything shocking or unheard of. There aren't a lot of unknown gems here. But this is my real list, a list of books I loved, that changed me, moved me, widened my world-view - and they are all books I found on my own, only recently.

So without further adieu, here are the Books I Wish Someone Had Told Me To Read, But No One Ever Did:

• Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie: I know Rushdie is on a lot of people's lists, but he never made it onto any of my assigned or even recommended reading lists until a few years ago. I loved this book. It's vibrant and funny and infuriating, rich with details about the best and worst parts of India's history. It's also a brilliant work of magical realism, which is one of my favorite underwritten genres.
• What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage: I'm embarrassed to admit this, but for the sake of this list, I have to say that this was the first book I'd read by a modern black female author not named Toni Morrison. When I first read it, at least 15 years ago, I fell in love with it for its humor and wisdom and craft, but also because I could so easily relate to it. The book is about the black community in Atlanta and in the MC's small town in Michigan, but it's alive with human fears, failures, and hopes. I loved the main character, and identified with her, and if that's not essential in our world of divisions and misunderstandings, I don't know what is. 
• In The City of Shy Hunters, by Tom Spanbauer: I'm not going to lie - this is a very strange book. The plot wanders and meanders, and sometimes falls down shifting rabbit holes of drug-induced insanity. The ending is unconventional, to say the least. But, it's also heart-wrenching and hilarious, gritty, real, and sometimes down and frighteningly dirty. It paints a crystal-clear picture of New York City during the AIDS epidemic, and another, equally clear (and devastating) picture of what it was like to grow up gay in 1960s-70s middle America. 
• Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Ok, I'm cheating, here. No one told me to read this book because it just came out last year, so no one really had a chance to - BUT I loved it so much that I don't care if I'm cheating. It should be required reading on any list of modern American literature. For those who would argue that it's about Nigeria, I would say it's also first and foremost about being an immigrant in America, and there is nothing more American than that. It's also a frank, unflinching look at race and racism in the States. 
• The House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende: Yes, I love magical realism, if you can't tell. And while everyone told me to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, nobody mentioned I might also want to try Isabel Allende. This is a fantastic, sweeping, epic book, at times ridiculous; at others, hideous; at still others, tender; and also violent, romantic, magical, political, and wonderful. It'll take a while to read, but it's worth every minute. 
• Orlando, or Mrs. Dalloway, or To The Lighthouse, or The Waves by Virginia Woolf: During my high school and college years, I felt like most teachers and students talked about Virginia Woolf the way that people talk about tax reform: everyone agrees it's important, and no one wants to touch it. So there was a lot of talk about how great Woolf was, and very little in the way of actual reading. These four titles are my favorites of hers, listed here in what I consider their order of readability, from easiest to hardest. They are each brilliant and experimental and wonderful, but The Waves might be the most challenging - and rewarding - book I've ever read.
• The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, by Louise Erdrich: To be fair and honest, I have to admit two things. First, a teacher did tell me to read Erdrich in college, albeit a different, more well-known book; and second, my aunt recommended this book to me. But then, my aunt is gay and Jewish and not remotely mainstream, so I think this book still deserves to be on this list. Here's the teaser from the Amazon page: "For more than a half century, Father Damien Modeste has served his beloved people, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Now, nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man." 'Nuff said, I think. Oh, and, it's a great book.

What about you? What books would make it on your list? What did I miss - and what should I read?

Refilling the Tank

I'm on a small hiatus this week. I took myself off to the Kripalu center in Western MA to celebrate finishing my edited draft of Cloudland (yes, I really am DONE. It's a miracle), but also to rest, recharge, and refill my tank - and, I hope, to work some more on my new book. Refilling our - well, for lack of a better term, even though this one makes me cringe a little - wells of creativity ok no I really can't say it. Refilling our tanks is essential for everyone, not just writers, and it's something we all tend to forget to do. We work and work and give and then we wonder why we cry at TV commercials and feel like swearing at the poor kid at the movie theatre who asks for our ticket, because why is one more person asking me for something?? Not that this is what happens to me. Ahem.

So, I've gone off to avoid yelling at people, and to refill. And so this post really will be brief. No seriously, Melissa, it will. I swear.

I once posted about the books that changed my life, and turned me into a writer. Like most highly organized, mildly neurotic people, though, I really really like lists, and so I have a lot of other "favorite book" lists. Here's another one for you: my Favorite Childhood Books. Some of these my parents read to me, and some I read on my own. (Yes, there's crossover from my first list. What can I say? These books just rock.)

• The Anne of Green Gables series, by L.M. Montgomery
• A Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis 
• The Lost Prince and A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
• The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle
• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

It's funny; when I was coming up with this list, I thought of a lot of books that I really liked - I may or may not have been one of those be-spectacled kids who got nicknamed 'bookworm' when I was little - but they didn't make the cut, because while I liked them, they weren't my favorites. The ones on the list are the ones that I read so much that the covers fell off, and the pages all curled up at the edges, and the paper took on that warm, woody smell of all well-loved books. They're also all still on my bookshelf, barely held together with scotch tape, with the exception of the last two. I don't know how that happened, but I need to buy new copies. 

And that's it for today, folks. I'm off to read, hike, yoga (yes I made it into a verb), rest, and refill. 

If I don't get to your blog this week, I'll be there next week, I promise. In the meantime, all you commenters, what books do you love when you were a kid?

The Reasons I'm A Writer

Y'know... it occurs to me that I should stop making promises about what I'm going to write about on this blog the next week. Because in the moment that I make that promise, it sounds like a super idea, and I'm all pumped and jazzed about it, and then by the time the next week rolls around all I can think is, "Why the hell did I say I was going to write about that? That's BORING." Which is maybe a sign of some idea-commitment problems (the ideas and I are in couples therapy, don't worry), or my constant tendency to interrupt myself (hence the love affair with parentheses. Is anyone else losing track of the subject of this paragraph?) Either way, all I'm doing is making promises and breaking them, which isn't really a great pattern either in writing or in life, so I'm going to stop doing that.

I promise.

Anyway, clearly I'm not going to talk about fleshing the plot skeleton today, no matter what I said last week (although, that is a great title for a future post.) Nope, instead, I'm going to talk about books. As in, other people's books.

Now, I know this may seem odd, because this blog is about getting a look into the process of writing a novel, but believe it or not, reading other people's books is a huge part of this process. In fact, most writers and teachers of writers and books for writers and writers on writers and all-people-even-remotely-writerly will tell you (over and over again, in fact) that you must read if you want to write. For essential lessons, experience, inspiration, and so on.

Well, luckily for me, I'm a huge nerd. I'm not sure if this is because of some inherent genetic make-up, or because my parents fed me books before they gave me solid food, but whatever the reason, I've been a big bookworm my whole life. Which means that I've read a lot of books, of course, but it also means that I've read a lot of books more than once. And I've been spending a lot of time this week thinking about those books. You know, the ones you can't put down; the ones that changed your life; the ones that you revisit, year after year, like old friends. The ones that somehow shaped who you are. I think it's fair to say that I wouldn't be the writer I am, and maybe wouldn't have written Cloudland at all, if I hadn't read these books.

By the way, this isn't my only list of favorite books. I also have lists of Favorite Childhood Books, Books That Got Me Through Puberty Without Committing Heinous Bodily Harm To Myself or Others, Books That Changed The Way I Write, and so on. There's crossover from list to list, of course. But this particular list is of My All-Time Favorite Books, which you might also call The Reasons I'm A Writer.

At any rate, here's my list, in no particular order:

• The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (I like the whole series, but for this list, specifically The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
• Animal Dreams and Prodigal Summer, both by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Hours, by Michael Cunningham
• Written on the Body and Gut Symmetries, both by Jeanette Winterson 
• The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula Le Guin (I think the whole Earthsea series is wonderful, but this is the book I keep rereading, the one that touches something in me)
• The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
• The Lost Prince and A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett 
• Angels in America, by Tony Kushner (yes, not technically a book, but so wholly life-changing for me that I can't leave it off of this list)

So, yep, there are quite a few Young Adult books in there, and there's a whole lot of sci-fi and fantasy on that list. And I will never apologize for that, although there's a large faction of people in the writing world (let's call them big old snobs) who look down on so-called genre books. Of course, if you just happen to not like these genres, I have no problem with that (my wife, sadly, doesn't like them, and clearly I still think she's OK.) We all have personal preferences. It's the people who sneer at them as being not real literature who I have issues with.

In fact, although I mostly write what I would call literary fiction (with smaller or larger dollops touches of magical realism, depending on the piece), I would say that science fiction and fantasy might be my favorite genres to read (I did say that I'm a huge nerd.) When they're really well done, they illuminate something for us about what it means to be human on this planet - which really is what good art does, in general. But I think that sci-fi and fantasy can often do it more clearly, with more painful accuracy, because they don't take place on this planet. They're removed enough that they allow us to read the painful truth, or look at the awful reality, without denying it or turning away from it, or collapsing under the weight of it. They give us mental and emotional space. Or at least, they do for me.

I don't always specifically invite comments, 'cause, well, what if no one comments?! Then I'll feel like the kid who threw a big birthday party that no one came to. But this time, I'm going for it. I'm taking the plunge: what are your all-time favorite books? Which ones do you either reread many times, or find yourself often thinking about?