Some books I've been reading

September and October are flying by: kids, school, doctor appointments, writing circles, holidays on their way.  All good, but all taking away from my chances to read and write about it. I did bring home a box of books from the Red Cross Book Fair, I still get books from my early reader program, and in my ongoing life with writing, buy books to learn about the art and craft of writing and holding space.  So here, in brief, are a few of my favorite reads from the past month.

Wives often make it possible for men to be successful. I hate it when men step up to the podium to win huge awards for volunteerism, or community activism or heck get ticker tape parades for the first earth orbit, and no one mentions the spouse or partner--it was this woman who stayed home taking care of kids and household and everything that make his success possible. This is the story of just those women. There were first 7 original mercury wives, then came the 9 gemini wives, then 14 apollo wives, then the 19 apollo wives.

The bulk of the story focuses on the first 7-the ones who set the standard and traditions, but it delves also into the 9 who joined them and also into the first 14 apollo wives. The families had an exclusive contract with Life magazine so there is a great photographic record of these women and those times. It is very basic reporting but keep in mind it has to cover lots of time and lots of people. The story of how these women kept their spirits up and the home fires burning on the cusp of changing times is intriguing.

Women in jail seems to be my reading focus. This book was edited by a writing colleague in Burlington, Vermont. She has the women from her prison program submit hundreds of poems and prose pieces.  I took it into my own writing program at the Monroe County Corrections Center and asked women to read and write in response to the pieces in the book.

To learn more about that process...here is another blog post I wrote on the experience.





Because I enjoyed the Netflix series and because I volunteer at the local jail, with the women's block, I checked out this very popular memoir written back in 2010: Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison.  I just want to say, WOW!  Much different than the series, very readable, and very interesting. I highly recommend you read this book. If you aren't on the restorative justice bandwagon and the anti-mandatory minimum drug laws lobby group after reading this, you are nuts.  Our country has gone too far crazy with the punitive drug laws. They aren't serving anyone except the prison industrial complex. I would love to send a note to Piper Kerman to tell her about our little writing program. Her address wasn't apparent from her website (I am guessing she is wildly popular about now.) but if you have it, please send it to me, I would love to write her and let her know how much I loved this.

No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!

I was shocked, shocked to discover that the folks that award the Pulizer Prize could not pick a winner in the category of Fiction.  Really?! No prize for fiction?  Ann Patchett (author of my favorite book--Bel Canto) wrote an excellent Op Ed for the NY Times berating them for their lack of a prize in this category.  In the editorial she surmises why it might have happened, reviews her own ideas for best fiction and concludes like this:

Let me underscore the obvious here: Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

Unfortunately, the world of literature lacks the scandal, hype and pretty dresses that draw people to the Academy Awards, which, by the way, is not an institution devoted to choosing the best movie every year as much as it is an institution designed to get people excited about going to the movies. The Pulitzer Prize is our best chance as writers and readers and booksellers to celebrate fiction. This was the year we all lost.

In my last post, I wrote about storytelling as an important survival skill.  Ms Patchett makes the observation that reading stories--long ones--is also an important thinking and skill building  tool.  Fiction, reading, books, all vital to our life on this planet and in these times.  Pulitzer did miss the boat when they failed to award that prize. 

Read on!

Reviewing the Early Reviewer Program

I have been a part of the Librarything Early Review Program for almost five years. I sign up for books I think I would like to read, the publisher sends me one of them, I read it, write a review, and post it on their website and my own (if I choose).  I love this program and have been sent some great books over the years and also some real dogs.

On a few occasions, I never received the promised book, but for the most part every book arrived, pristine and new and I have read and reviewed every single one.  I usually receive memoirs and special interest books: Bonk, The Happiness Equation, Situations Matter.  I've read about gastronomy in France and Middle Eastern CIA agents, travel memoirs, self-improvement and cooking and eating.  I've learned a lot about subjects I never would have picked up a book on, and I have become better at evaluating writing.

I try to refrain from reading other reviewers until I have written my own, and am surprised when someone likes a book I hated or vice versa.  I have discovered that I should never request a mystery because I don't like mysteries, and once I looked past my own personal disdain for e-books and put in a request for an interesting e-book.

In the beginning I would get skipped over for a few months in a row but I have received a book pretty solidly every month for the past two years. I have gathered an impressive array of publishers proofs.  I think they know I am good for the review.

I stopped to write this review of the program, which I love, because I finally met my match.  I actually got a book a couldn't review or read.  Suffice to say it was a book in a genre I am not particularly interested in and have no experience reading.  I did not feel I could fairly evaluate it at all and I honestly did not think I could finish the book.   I have learned a lesson in reading the book descriptions more closely.

I think I will send the book to a friend who will like it and ask her to read and review it if she likes.  Sound good?  What do you do when faced with a book you should read, but can't?

A little leap day treat

This one won an academy award.  Life should be so magical!