Book Lovers

Books are so alluring to me. I love my books, and like the author of this book and her main subjects, I can tell you where I was on the planet when I read a certain book on the shelf, what I was feeling, who gave it to me and what I was doing while I read it. My books are small treasures and when I glance at my shelf I can recall fondly the story and the characters and why I loved or hated it. When I move, more than half my load is boxes of books. And don't ever buy me an electronic book reading device. Don't even get me started on that...

So I understand the premise behind the Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. I picked up this book because I can understand caring about books and wanting to acquire them. Ms. Bartlett has written a modern day crime novel where the thief, John Gilkey, steals rare books worth thousands of dollars (largely through credit card fraud) and his victims are unwitting booksellers and libraries. Ironically, law enforcement doesn't understand the value of these books, so the thief often gets away with his crime.

The detective who chases the criminal in this tale is a bookseller himself and he spends his time emailing and faxing and trying to alert people to the thief's m.o. Both men are interesting and the author paints fully drawn portraits of each, but the story behind Gilkey and his continual obsession with owning books and his refusal to see his deceptions as crime--even when he gets sent to prison multiple times--is the compelling and more fully wrought tale.

In fact, the tale of the detective bookseller, who is successful up to a point in catching the thief, kind of loses steam toward the end of the book when the author simply focuses on the thief. I missed book detective (bibliodick!) Ken Sanders at the end of the story.

I liked the way Ms. Bartlett builds graceful anticipation. It is slow tale, but you begin to love books and understand the collectors who she profiles on her journey to record the tale of the book thief. I did become engrossed in this crime tale of high class thievery. Many of the collectors, Gilkey included, are not even big readers. Collecting books is not about the stories contained inside, rather it has something more to do with the thrill of the hunt and the connection to history.

In spite of the compelling nature of the thief and the crime, the story felt a little loose and disjointed at the end. She left many unwoven threads. Where are all the books he has stolen? What became of her own rare book that was borrowed from a library and never returned? Shouldn't she alert libraries to the fact that he is walking off with their books?

Other than wanting a more cleaned up ending and more answers to my million questions--where are the books?!--I think it was an interesting and compelling read. I admire the author for sticking with the story through the years and writing this longitudinal account. Reader's who have a touch of bibliomania themselves should check this book out.

Stylized

The approach to style is by way of plainness,

simplicity, orderliness, sincerity."

--EB White

I picked up this fascinating history of one of the worlds most used and under-appreciated books just before the holidays when I saw it on librarything. Mark Garvey, the author of Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, has long been fascinated by an old volume of grammar and style advice assigned to virtually every high school english student in the country at one time. Was it assigned to you? Where is your copy?

I found mine on a bookshelf near my desk quite easily. I read it a long time ago and had forgotten about it. Garvey's history gave me the engrossing back story and the controversies surrounding Element's publication. I read it aloud to my husband on our drive home from a family visit. EB White is easily one of the best writers of the 20th century and this book about his (and Strunk's) small volume of essays and grammar advice brought back memories for us.

The author of this history includes thoughts and ideas from writers who read and re-read Elements of Style in order to understand craft and language. The other treat was a collection of EB White's witty letters sent in response to his critics and admirers. Through letters, we catch a glimpse of Mr. White's elegant self-effacing style.

I pulled out my copy of Strunk and White and marveled over the book for the first time. Grammar and style no longer seem like dull tools but rather beautiful music to accompany any writer on the path to better prose. My 12th grade English teacher Mrs. Rose would be impressed.

April 2009 was the 50th anniversary of the publication of Elements in its current form. Pick up your old copy and peruse it. It doesn't get much more down to the marrow of writing than this slim volume. Incidentally, my 1979 edition is 92 pages including index. Current editions are up to 105 pages and have gotten rid of gendered language with which Mr. White may not have agreed. Strunk and White's Elements of Style has easily sold over 1,000,000 copies making it perhaps the bestselling textbook of all time.

Perhaps this will kick start your writing this year.

Four Points of View

Reading memoir can often be frustrating because one never hears the other side of the story. A child who is bitter about their upbringing and writes the horrors of their youth is telling one version of truth. A good memoir acknowledges good and bad and paints a dynamic picture of their story.

The Kids are All Right by four siblings is fascinating on many levels, but mostly because it endeavors to tell a sad and painful story through the lenses of each of the 4 children involved. Amanda, Dan, Diana and Liz Welch all now in their 30's and 40's each take turns telling parts of the story of the death of their father in a tragic car accident and then sadly, the death of their mother just three years later, leaving the 4 children ages 8-19 with no parents or caretakers.

One of them goes to college, one of them travels, one of them turns to drugs and gets bounced from home to home, the youngest gets taken in by a local family and is virtually cut off from her siblings. Reading these 4 stories, that navigate the tricky waters of memory between 4 children who have grown up, will give the reader a fine sense of the confusion and isolation and sadness they all experienced. The title gives away the ending, but you do still enjoy the story and tale it took to get there.

After you finish be sure to check out the website the kids have put together: www.kidsareallrightbook.com which shows pictures and video of their young lives, and the special bonus for those who value point of view, they acknowledge all the players in this story and allow them to write their own side of the story on the website. The story of the four kids scattering to the wind and eventual reunion is essentially 4 reconstructed memories of children and teens. The authors welcome their family and friends to weigh in with their own version of the story. A few people who aren't so favorably spoken of take advantage of this opportunity. Any reader of this account should also check out these stories; they are part of the whole picture as well.

One interesting sub plot is that the children's mother was at one time a famous soap opera actress and many people who were part of her fan clubs write in to tell of the mother's acting days and the kindness and friendship she extended to her fans. I loved this detail. It reminds us how many people are really part of our story and how many points of view can paint a vivid picture.

Holiday Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your List

For the reader and literature fan:

People are abuzz over the new Raymond Carver biography written by Carol Sklenicka. Carver is considered the father of the modern short story. His biographer has shed some fascinating light on his writing and on the editor who made him famous. An avid fiction reader would enjoy a collection of Carver stories and this biography. Read all about it in this great interview by writer and IU Journalism professor emeritus Carol Polsgrove and in this NY Times article.

For your favorite feminist:

The New York Times op ed columnist Gail Collin's new book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present looks like a fascinating modern history of people and events that happened just before I came of age. Our aunts and mothers and grandmothers fought battles to end sexual discrimination in the workplace, to be able to have their credit cards in their own names, or to be payed equitably with their male counterparts. This book should be must read for all of us. It is on my Christmas wishlist and I am 15th in line to get it from the library. Thanks for the recommend Marsha!

For those who like their narrative in graphic form:

American Widow looked like a compelling memoir of a pregnant woman who kissed her husband good-bye on September 11, 2001, as he left for his first day on the job with Cantor-Fitzgerald, and never saw him again. I ordered it in hardback from Amazon.com without looking at the fine print. The book is beautiful, but surprised me when it turned out to be a graphic novel. Alissa Torres's story is told frame by frame with speech bubbles and handwritten voice over narration. Not my favorite read of the year, but it may have been that I did not appreciate the format. You may have someone on your gift list that does and it is a unique way to tell the sad and tragic tale.

If you want to send a taste of Bloomington, Indiana to someone:

My favorite local book this year was Susan Brackney's lovely little story of beekeeping which I reviewed a bit earlier this year. She got a mention on an Oprah website as well. How about sending this fine book to friends along with some Southern Indiana honey?

And of course there's this little gem which includes many of my favorite writers in Bloomington. Get it on Amazon.com.

For the tween girl on your list:

Before you let your tween break open the covers of the latest vampire romance, give her this great story of Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. Harriet loves to spy and makes honest observations about her friends in her writer's notebook. She wants to be a writer when she grows up. Harriet inspired me to start a journal at age 11. She will always be a very important character to me.

Add a beautiful pen and a nice handmade journal to the gift. Tell her that in the olden days, when we wrote our secrets and thoughts, they were kept private and not broadcast over the internetz for everyone to read and talk about.

For the transformational leader on your list:

Women Writing for (a) Change is a grassroots movement that uses writing

as a tool to craft a more conscious life. Started by feminist, leader, and former English teacher

Mary Pierce Brosmer, the school has spun off 8 affiliate schools, dozens of teachers, and

programs that give voice to young women and girls, men, incarcerated women, and anyone who

has lost their voice. I'm a believer. When you give this book to anyone include a candle

and an invitation to a writing sampler class like this one.

A delightful choice for your mother or great aunt:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is doing the go around at book groups this year. This clever piece of historical fiction and epistolary novel will be beloved by your grandmother, so if you need to buy her a gift look no further. The history of the Channel Islands during WWII is not very well known so the setting and place and time is fascinating to learn about. It's set in the past where we accomplished everything by writing letters, and I know grandmothers love to read and write letters and talk about the era before we were all facebooking and texting and communicating via the internet. It is also just a clever, albeit a tad predictable, tale of a woman who finds her true community in this odd little place in history.

A Copy of this in Everyone's Stocking:

On January 20th, 2009 Elizabeth Alexander made history by being the 4th person to write and read a poem in honor of a presidential inauguration. I fear that given the way people rushed off after President Obama's oath and inaugural speech many did not hear this woman's very beautiful tribute to a very important day in history. Praise Song for the Day is available as a chapbook from Graywolf press. It would make a nice addition to a stocking this holiday. I have read and re-read and written about this lovely poem. I am putting it on my list as well.



Esmerelda is going to take a few days off to get ready for the holidays and read some more. She will post again about great reads after January 1st. May your holidays be filled with poetry and good good stories.

Driving with Dead People by Monica Holloway

As many of you know I like cemeteries and funeral homes and obituaries. I am not all that morbid, I have simply discovered that the things that represent the end of life often have the most powerful stories contained within them.

When I picked up this book with a cursory glance at the back cover, it seemed to be about a young woman's coming of age as she worked at a small town mortuary and drove a hearse. About three quarters of the way through the book, while very compelling, I realized that this was more about a young woman's survival at the hands of abusive and neglectful parents. Although there was a thin thread running throughout this memoir about her friendship with the family who owned the mortuary and how she spent weekends driving a hearse to pick up bodies, the book really did not focus on that at all. It seemed a little like a bait and switch. What drew me to the book was not what kept me reading.

The beauty of this novel was that as more of Monica's life unfolded and the more you learned about her childhood of horrors, the more you realize on how many levels the family was and is Driving with Dead People. You realize that even though the thread of her job and the antics at a mortuary are only small stories in her memoir, they represent the happiest times of her life.

The writing is very compelling. It took me a few days to get into it, but overall, it reads very quickly and you will really root for the narrator and her sister. They are the true survivors and have managed to make it through the storm.

This book will remind readers of the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Their style and storytelling abilities are quite similar.

A fine first novel

Thanks to the recommendation of a friend and fellow reader (thanks M.) , I decided to check out The Outlander by Gil Adamson. Ms. Adamson is a poet by trade, so I figured that her prose would be magical. I find most poets know how to string words of prose together better than any writer. They have a real sense of rhythm and timing and cadence.

A widow is on the run from some menacing brothers after committing a crime. She manages to elude them and have some great adventures and find peace and contentment in a mining camp. She falls in love, makes great friends, and contemplates her sad childhood and even sadder marriage.

M summed my feelings for the book best when she said, "you just feel as though you want to keep following her on her adventure." You want to know what happens next. How will the widow escape? Will her true love find her? What lies in wait for her and the dwarf (yes, there is even a dwarf) as they head further west into the Yukon?

This is a perfect escapist read. A page turner and adventure about a strong woman and a very different time. Oh, and Ms Adamson's prose is like poetry. Every page feels perfectly narrated and perfectly told.

I don't read much fiction anymore, but I am very glad I took the time out for this one. It will stay with me for a long long time.

Our book has arrived!

I raced to the Poplar Grove school house last Sunday to be one of the first people to see the book that we have put together celebrating 5 years of Women Writing for (a) Change in Bloomington. Women with Wings features many women from the Bloomington School and from the circles we hold at the Monroe County Corrections Center for incarcerated women.

One of the exciting things for me was how much a labor of our community the book became. In addition to all the contributions by all the fabulous writers and getting the opportunity to work with Lauren (my co-editor) and Beth (the owner of the school who gave gracious blessings to our project), our cover designer and cover artist were both writers from the community. Thanks to Kim Evans and Yvonne Wittmann! Rebekah, Wednesday night writer, helped us with the books and accounting. The publishers, Paul and Dee Burt from Pen and Publish, helped us bring this book to reality. The day it was set to arrive from the printers fellow writers Kim and Greta tag teamed staying at the schoolhouse to make sure UPS didn't send it back to the warehouse. David and Joan Foor White from New Leaf; New Life very generously donated money so that each women from the corrections center who had a piece in the book could have one of her own . Deb Morrow, also from New Leaf; New Life, helped me track down all the women from the jail so that I could write them and thank them for their contribution and send them the book. Rachael, of Rachel's cafe, is catering a fabulous party for us in celebration of our 5th anniversary. Beth's husband Dan is going to play piano for us at the party. Friends are stepping forward to buy books. The list of support in this town is endless.

I feel so proud to be part of such an amazing community where writing and arts are part of everyone's life and where people care for each other and hold each other up to celebrate. Thanks Bloomington. Thanks Women Writing for (a) Change. Happy 5th Birthday to the Bloomington School. I look forward to many more years of writing in community with some of the finest women and men I know.

Please drop me a line if you would like to purchase a book. They are $15 plus tax and any money we make over and above the cost of the book will help us pay for scholarships for girls and women.

Write me at: amy@womenwritingbloomington.com