Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert in the same room? It’s a grudge match of hilarity. I’m having issues with the embed codes, so check out part 1 and part 2 of the interview here.
Sneak preview: you get to hear Sendak sing. And swear (or at least the censor bleeps). It makes me love him that much more.
I’m back with the second edition of Friday Fifteen, in which I review fifteen books in fifteen words or less.
1. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Good, but mostly I remember the puppy.
2. A Sick Day For Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead
One of the cutest, coziest books ever, with lovely art.
3. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Read it obsessively for a while, then found it lacking.
4. The Giver by Lois Lowry
The first book I can remember really making me think. A forever favorite.
5. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Felt more like a collection of ideas than actual characters or plot.
6. Kate’s Camp-Out (Sleepover Friends #6) by Susan Saunders
90s tween series about sleepovers. I think this one was a kind of ghost story?
7. The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole
This book taught me about mass vs. weight. Miss Frizzle’s class meets the universe.
8. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
The novelization of the history of philosophy. Awesome, but the end got really weird.
9. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The second book to make me cry. More sadness about puppies.
10. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
The first in a series. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle helps parents manage their obnoxious kids, hilarity ensues.
11. The Ghost in the Attic (Haunting with Louisa #1) by Emily Cates
Non-scary ghost tale with a historical fiction twist. The only one I read in the series.
12. The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes by Ted Allen
Impressed my family with Allen’s recipes. Not too hard, but not too basic either.
13. Jacob I Have Loved by Katherine Paterson
Read this a lot, but I wanted to shake Louise and punch Caroline. Patterns understands isolation.
14. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Chilling and captivating. I liked this way better than Capote’s short fiction.
15. The Best American Travel Writing 2006 by Tim Cahill and Jason Wilson
First foray into travel writing. Now terrified to sail alone (not that I planned to).
I didn’t get to finish The Fault in Our Stars for the Friday Fifteen, but I might end up giving that a full review instead. Or I’ll save it for next week. Either way, feel free to share your own fifteen-word reviews in the comments.
Daniel Radcliffe gets quizzed on American history and Twilight. His face after the Matthew McConaughey question is my favorite.
Oh, and he’s going to be in a new movie based on a book. That’s a literary enough reason to post this, right?
Outside of literary circles, I don’t talk a lot about my own writing. I never mention to my parents what I’m working on. I don’t bring up key points of my novel to my friends. Even here, most of my posts are about the general writing life as opposed to specifics about my work. Even with that reticence, questions about my writing comes up. So I thought this post about how to deal with questions about your novel over at Writerly Life was helpful and hilarious. My favorite:
Is it about your life? Am I in it?
Inevitably, this question is going to come up in varying forms — and I find it the most irritating. I don’t really want to go into how the novel relates to my most personal inner life, and I especially don’t want to flatter you by telling you you’re in it, uncle Fred, or offend you, Aunt Alice, by telling you that that cold, cruel character is you!How to deal
Most non-writers simply don’t know that novels don’t have a one-to-one relationship with reality. It’s difficult to characterize the complex, blurry way fictional worlds tend to overlap with our real lives. Again, the invasiveness of the question is unintentional, but I’ve found questions to be surprisingly pushy. For example, because I’m writing about Buddhism, I get asked point-blank whether I’m a Buddhist, and then I have to succinctly explain my feelings about religion. In cases like these, I think it’s fine to note (politely) that the question is a little more than you’d like to answer. Or else settle for “it’s complicated.” Sometimes it just none of the questioner’s business, and you’ve got to use your writerly verbal skills to find a tactful way of saying so.
That one is the worst! Even if I take bits and pieces from my real life, it’s called fiction for a real–it’s not real. It’s a novel, not a fun quiz about which character you’re most like. I’m sure lots of other writers base their characters/plot in real people and experiences, but I tend to stray far away from anyone I know in reality.
For the most part, people are very nice and just curious about the writing process. But I did get a good laugh out of this list.
Other questions I’ve been asked: Is it part of a series? Have you ever thought about writing about ___? Is it available on Amazon? Are you going to be like JK Rowling? (Um, I WISH.)
What novel questions are you asked and how do you deal?
Although I appreciate them, I don’t tend to write a lot of book reviews. I have some on Amazon, maybe one on Goodreads, and probably none on my various blogs. So I figured I’d try something a little different here. Instead of trying to craft thoughtful, well-worded reviews of recently read books, I’m going to write about every book I’ve ever read. In 15 words or less.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Friday Fifteen.
I figure this will be a fun way to share thought about books without too much pressure. There’s no particular order to this; it’s mostly just whatever books I remember in the moment. Plus I get to share all the embarrassing tween novels I read back in the day.
Onto the reviews!
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Lovely writing, compelling plot. And it’s about rabbits. Love!
2. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
History humor at its best. My jury duty book.
3. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
My long-distance relationship novel. The new Gone with the Wind?
4. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Probably read this ninety times in eighth grade. Still breaks my heart.
5. Watchmen by Alan Moore
Engaging twist on the classic superhero, plus the apocalypse. The movie was terrible.
6. Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists by McSweeney’s Publishing
Not all winners. but I cry with laughter at some of these.
7. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please by Raymond Carver
Read this for class. I’m sure we had a nice discussion about craft.
8. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
This is probably what it feels like when you’re the cute girl in ninth grade.
9. Letters from Amelia, 1901-1937 by Jean L. Backus
Research for a certain YA novel. Lots of thoughtful correspondence.
10. Angels in America by Tony Kushner
You can do a lot on stage, apparently. And a hopeful ending.
11. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Probably my favorite of the series, with a fantastic twist.
12. Mary Anne Misses Logan (The Baby-sitters Club #46) by Ann M. Martin
My first BSC book. I didn’t realize it was a series at first.
13. Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room Cookbook: How to Have People Over Without Stressing Out by Kevin Mills, Nancy Mills
How to prepare a meal, with a side of humor and common sense.
14. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Not as depressing as everyone said. Stunning writing.
15. Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina
We read this a lot when I was little. Still love hats, don’t trust monkeys.
And there you have it! Feel free to share your own fifteen-word reviews as well.
If you are online and like YA, you probably know* John Green, author and internet icon. His new book The Fault in Our Stars is coming out next week (hurray!). To promote the release**, EW has an
exclusive book trailer. Unfortunately, exclusive means that I can’t post it here–maybe after the release?–but for now just click through to see the really lovely video, plus an interview with Green. I was already excited for the book and now I’m way psyched.
Also I need to download the song in the trailer.
From the interview:
I’m sure one of the things people are going to comment on most about this book is the humor. Was it difficult infusing humor into a story about teens with cancer, or did it come naturally?
It came pretty naturally. I don’t see them as separate in my life or the lives of my friends. Humor and sadness co-exist everywhere and always. It was really important to me that the book be funny, and that it be kind of celebratory of life and these people and their lives. The last thing I wanted to write was a dreary novel about illness. The world has those. I wanted it to be, you know, fun to read. That’s your first job as a writer: Write something that people want to read.
I love the combination of humor and sadness, which I think is something John captures well in his books. This is another reason I love contemporary YA–there’s a lot of that balance, and it’s all very grounded in everyday love, loss, and hope.
*If you don’t know John Green, just google “nerdfighter” and you’ll get a sense of the community of readers surrounding him.
**John is also going on a book tour for the release of The Fault in Our Stars. I’ll be at the Boston reading, and last night I had a dream that I was there. I had a great seat and there was a lot of excitement–cupcakes! balloons! songs!–but at the last minute I realized I’d left my bag on the train and had to frantically run to the train station. Now I’m paranoid about the real event.
I stumbled across this post by Mandy Hubbard about what authors have learned from their editors. My favorite is from Jennifer Brown, author of Hate List:
“On my last manuscript it was “just.” I spent an entire two-hour flight just deleting “justs.” Also, I learned from my copyeditor that Dumpster needs to be capitalized, and I’m pretty sure my copyeditor would jump up and down with glee if I learned the difference between “each other” and “one another.””
“Just” is my word too!! I’m so glad to hear someone else suffers from the “justs.” (At least two other authors on the list admit to being in the “just” club as well.) When I had my thesis defense for Queen of the Air, my thesis reader told me to go through and count how many justs were in the novel. Turns out there was at least one every page. I didn’t even notice it! Now I try to told back.
Make sure to click through for the whole list of editorial suggestions. It’s fun to see that even fantastic authors have their writerly ticks. What are yours?
It’s easy to think that classic novels have always been considered classics. But even the most famous novels got some bad reviews. Book Riot has compiled some quotes from bad reviews for great books. My favorite:
“On J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye:
This Salinger, he’s a short story guy. And he knows how to write about kids. This book though, it’s too long. Gets kind of monotonous. And he should’ve cut out a lot about these jerks and all that crumby school. They depress me.”
Granted, I’m pretty sure you could round up a hundred tenth-graders and get the same opinion. But a review like this is a good reminder that not everyone has to love your book. Not everyone will love your book. Sometimes even important reviewers will hate your book. But that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad book or mean that it won’t connect with someone. Being a writer means having to deal with a lot of criticism and rejection, even when you’re talented and beloved. It’s not an easy life, but seeing quotes like this helps.
Click through for even more bad review inspiration!
Over at 100 Scope Notes, Travis Jonker has created the ultimate Caldecott winner. (Who knew Davids were so good at children’s illustrations?) A funny and intriguing look at the award. (via The Horn Book)
Some fun points from Robert McCrum’s Fifty things I’ve learned about the literary life:
6. Christopher Marlowe did not write Shakespeare. Nor did Francis Bacon or the Earl of Oxford. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. It’s a no-brainer. Just read the First Folio.
11. This is a golden age of reading.
15. You don’t have to read every book you buy, and you certainly don’t have to finish the book you’ve started.
20. Literary fiction is like sci-fi. It’s a genre.
46. Everything is fiction.
A few more I would add:
What have you learned about the literary life?