tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10285111614133541202024-03-18T20:32:52.416-04:00Red Room LibrarySarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comBlogger349125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-16164197231746246412021-02-15T16:11:00.000-05:002021-02-15T16:11:57.428-05:00Wendy Webb + Audible<p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEzgF9W4Lrk/YCri1ESPltI/AAAAAAAAGio/qG-mhMapKV4Y2aJ3R6CHIVWbIwLVSuEBACLcBGAsYHQ/s447/Screenshot%2B2021-02-15%2Bat%2B4.04.36%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UEzgF9W4Lrk/YCri1ESPltI/AAAAAAAAGio/qG-mhMapKV4Y2aJ3R6CHIVWbIwLVSuEBACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-02-15%2Bat%2B4.04.36%2BPM.png" /></a></div>When my grandmother was a girl, she spent her summers in Baraga, a village at the shore of Lake Superior. Her grandparents lived in a big white house on a hill, and her grandfather had a horse named Sweetie, who once walked into a bar to heed his master's whistle. Not all of her stories were as charming. The lake could be monstrous, swallowing young ice skaters and large frigates, the weather around it mercurial. And there were secrets in the dark woods that rimmed the tiny frontier town. I loved her stories and until I found Wendy Webb's novels, I thought that their air of mystery and fearwere beyond my grasp. <p></p><p>So far I have listened to (read) three of Wendy Webb's novels on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed each one. They are deliciously spooky ghost stories but not so disturbing that you have to sleep with the lights on. They can be tender and nostalgic, too. Webb, who has been dubbed the Queen of Northern Gothic, an apt title, says that she likes to explore the border between the psychological and the paranormal. Her novels deliver. Xe Sands' performance is excellent in Daughters of the Lake and The Vanishing, as well. </p><p><a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Fate-of-Mercy-Alban-Audiobook/B009ROWWC4?qid=1613422814&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=SY3GHSZASSAR3X25Z9A3" target="_blank">The Fate of Mercy Alban</a></p><p><a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/Daughters-of-the-Lake-Audiobook/B07BQHGF7S?qid=1613422888&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=897JBW09ETWSWJ8KDXC3" target="_blank">Daughters the Lake</a></p><p><a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Vanishing-Audiobook/B00JAPR2PW?qid=1613422938&sr=1-4&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_4&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=C7MDR8RXGM8BZ1CMQX53" target="_blank">The Vanishing</a></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-58539096521906557072020-11-19T11:32:00.000-05:002020-11-19T11:32:56.514-05:00Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jTsCprd8JCA/X7adwGkuOCI/AAAAAAAAGbY/JS_6zjA9XwEv1pExIudVZeld0YzeYmuOwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="221" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jTsCprd8JCA/X7adwGkuOCI/AAAAAAAAGbY/JS_6zjA9XwEv1pExIudVZeld0YzeYmuOwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="287" /></a></div><br /> What a delightful book this was! The prose sparkles with a poet's sensibility, and Lillian herself is the sort of person I would love to have over for dinner. (I understand that characters are generally not available to come over for dinner.) She has a sparkling wit, an open, non-judgmental heart, and an unimpeachable belief in the good nature of human kind. It's a shame then, that her life is, ultimately, so sad. <p></p><p>What informs this paradox (a sad novel creating a delightful read) is the keen insights Rooney offers, some of which are uncanny for such a young writer, and the poignancy of Lillian's situation. She is a bright, driven woman who is born about 60 years too early, and in her heyday (she was the highest paid woman ad writer in the 30's and an accomplished poet), society doesn't quite know what to do with her. </p><p>It is this - the desire to understand how her life got to this place - that propels Lillian to take her walk. It is New Year's Eve 1984. Her grandchildren have left after a nice holiday visit, the woman her husband left her for is dying, and Lillian has been invited to a New Year's party across town. She decides to walk, an activity that has worked for decades to connect her with the best parts of herself and her art, and she proceeds on a stroll through New York City. It is cold but not lonely, and Lillian's walk is populated by the vibrant characters she meets and the memories of people and places that used to strand her path. There is much to be satisfied with as she reviews her life, but much to lament as well. </p><p>The novel stays away from nostalgia and sentimentalism, much to its credit, and the ultimate message is a question of whether it is possible for women to live a full life - and how this is to be defined. Lillian's was fuller than most of her generation, but had she been born later, she may have had more latitude. The question of what is possible for the course of a life in a different time and place is largely irrelevant and a bit boring, but Lillian's pondering of this questions doesn't feel irrelevant or boring - it feels essential. Lillian's vitality, her bright flame in a constricting world, is lost on a generation with too little imagination for the scope of women's work. We are largely past this issue, and women can define what it means to them to have it all. In the case of Lillian Boxfish, it is clear that this is a tremendous gift. </p><p><br /></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-88814887482409151792020-11-13T11:36:00.002-05:002020-11-13T11:40:37.745-05:00What to Read After You Watch Rebecca<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wXxGeeRvOrY/X6rojSraQVI/AAAAAAAAGag/jh2KlKVs5O0qbEvuW37ztqmzFxITjj9eQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="345" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wXxGeeRvOrY/X6rojSraQVI/AAAAAAAAGag/jh2KlKVs5O0qbEvuW37ztqmzFxITjj9eQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="169" /></a></div><br />I have taught high school off and on for a while, and when a student asks me to recommend a book, I almost always include <i>Rebecca</i> in the list. I first read it when I was 16 and was immediately swept away. This tale of mystery and deception gathers elements from Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Bronte, and Wilkie Collins into a delicious read.</div><div><br /></div><div>Additionally and to add import, I would argue that DuMaurier was a huge contributor to (if not originator of) the domestic psychological suspense genre - and she is certainly the dark side of Jane Austen. If Austen explores how women can succeed in society through marriage and virtue, DuMaurier offers a darker argument: how can women manipulate and subvert socially-acceptable behaviors to get anything they want - and do these pursuits make them monsters or emancipated? <div><br /></div><div>Hitchcock was intrigued by <i>Rebecca </i>and it's unexpected conclusions, and it is clear that this novel was perfect for his vision of film: a creepy, suspense-riddled drama that kept watchers on the rim of their seats.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's hard to improve on this film and Netflix doesn't, but it's still very much worth the watch. Netflix's version lacks the supernatural atmospherics - Rebecca's haunting is far more psychological than paranormal - and Mrs. Danvers is not as queer or as creepy - and easier to understand, which is not a benefit. Yet, the intrigue of the story is the same and well-worth the viewing. (Actually, and this may be me after 8 months of sitting in my house, but the scenes in the south of France make the whole thing worth viewing.) </div><div><br /></div><div>After you've watched the movie, you may want to give these books a go: </div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Lake House - Kate Morton</b></div><div><b>The Distant Hours - Kate Morton</b></div><div>Kate Morton can be viewed as the inheritor of Daphne DuMaurier, although her books mostly lack the psychological darkness that fringe DuMaurier's books. (The Clockmaker's Daughter is an exception.) Both of these are wonderful. Big country houses. Lots of secrets. I'm a HUGE Kate Morton fan. When is her new book coming out? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Fiercombe Manor - Kate Riordan</b></div><div>Why this book isn't more well-known is a mystery to me and a huge condemnation of the Amazon bots. Everyone who searches for Kate Morton should know about this book. This one is Gothic and dark and creepy and sad and redemptive. Atmospheric and wonderful. Very well written. A gold standard of modern Gothic tales. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>My Cousin Rachel - Daphne DuMaurier</b></div><div>Many say this is actually better than <i>Rebecca</i>. I might agree if Rebecca hadn't gotten my allegiance very early. And this is a delicious forehead-scratcher for sure. Is Rachel a demon or an angel? You could certainly go either way. (Read this before watching the movie. The movie takes too much of a side, in my view. The beauty of this story is in its ambiguity.)</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Fate of Mercy Alban - Wendy Webb</b></div><div>I listened to this on Audible and it was deliciously creepy. Also, I had no idea that half of the plot twists were coming - well, the big plot twist, so that was a win. I recently discovered Wendy Webb and am excited to read/listen to her other books. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Lady Audley's Secret - Mary Elizabeth Braddon </b></div><div>This one is a throwback, so take the style in stride. It came out in 1862 and is considered a sensation novel, probably because Lady Audley is such a unique case. The estimation of this novel has changed as society's view of women has changed, which works to make the book more interesting. DuMaurier's exploration of women's subversion of social norms to achieve individual aims is anticipated by this book.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The House of Brides - Jane Cormack</div><div>Reading this now and super thrilled with it. This novel echoes Rebecca: creepy house on the western English coast, owner is named Max, something is definitely up with the housekeeper, and family secrets abound. So far, it is a refreshing take on the Gothic genre and the main character has some interesting challenges.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-63443976303431916572020-10-15T11:14:00.002-04:002020-10-15T11:17:18.254-04:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KscWEy9Z6NI/X4hd61-6nEI/AAAAAAAAGYo/9qiwyW9h834NHslbF2QP1NznR3Vfu66ngCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="495" height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KscWEy9Z6NI/X4hd61-6nEI/AAAAAAAAGYo/9qiwyW9h834NHslbF2QP1NznR3Vfu66ngCLcBGAsYHQ/w239-h240/image.png" width="239" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>Franny Stone is as delicate and fierce as the Arctic terns she follows. Climate change has succeeded in killing off most wild species of everything - especially birds - but one last flock of Arctic terns are making their pilgrimage down the Atlantic to Antarctica. If Franny can follow them and understand how and why they are able to make this journey and survive, when so many of their species cannot, she may be able to help them continue. After she convinces a taciturn captain to help her, she begins the southward migration onboard the <i>Saghani, </i>a challenged fishing vessel with a colorful crew. As they track the red dots that represent the terns on their navigation software, their seemingly simple mandate to follow the birds to find fish becomes something complex, and Franny's fraught past begins to invade her present. Her sleepwalking is perilous on a boat and she is unable to communicate with her husband Niall. As the boat floats deeper into the wilderness of the Atlantic and Franny's mental state becomes more fragile, her past unfolds for the reader, and it is clear that her struggle for survival is more similar to the birds she follows than even she knows. </p><p>What a book this is! I read it in nearly one sitting, or as close to one sitting as my children and household duties would allow. It pulsed with the forward momentum of commercial fiction but it had the teeth and depth of a literary novel. It's hard to categorize for other reasons, too. It is both scientific, a rally to arms (or at least awareness) about climate change and the portrait of a woman's journey through her tragic past to find a way to her future. It tackles marriage and relationships, forgiveness and loyalty, motherhood and family commitments. It is whimsical and tactile and gestures occasionally towards the fairy tale. The writing is spare and beautiful, like the various cold climates it describes, and Franny is a multi-dimensional, compelling, and wholly sympathetic character. This is perfect for book clubs. There is so much here to discuss. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. </p><p>Also, I was thrilled to discover that McConaghy is in the editing stages of her second literary novel that will be out next year. Can't wait. It's about a wolf researcher in Scotland. Um, yes. To all of that. </p><p>If you like this, you might also like: </p><p><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-the-bright-edge-of-the-world-eowyn-ivey/1123110059" target="_blank">Eowyn Ivey's <i>To the Bright Edge of the World</i></a></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-53827371961475613322020-10-07T06:15:00.001-04:002020-10-07T06:18:55.792-04:00We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IdPopU8sNuo/X3tORxqZyWI/AAAAAAAAGXo/XDYxP3j4o-srgFgNNICUoHgEsMMOKwvtACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="226" height="238" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IdPopU8sNuo/X3tORxqZyWI/AAAAAAAAGXo/XDYxP3j4o-srgFgNNICUoHgEsMMOKwvtACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Susan Rebecca White's novels brim with fascinating characters and compelling settings, both in and out of the South. Her writing style is detailed, immersive, and you feel like her characters could stand up and walk off the pages. If I ran into one of them at the grocery store, I swear I'd recognize them on sight. </p><p>Her latest novel (she has written four) follows two friends as they struggle to separate (or embrace) their pasts and how those decisions intersect with their obligation (if any) to help society. The challenges accrete when both Daniella and Evie become mothers and wrestle with the best way to raise their daughters. It was particularly fascinating to read this during the events of this summer, when we were all forced to deal with the wounds of our past. </p><p>After reading WAAGPH, I turned to White's other books and found myself drawn more than I would have anticipated to her descriptions of Atlanta in the 90s. Everything changes after 20+ years, and Atlanta is no exception. Many of White's scenes are set where I grew up and it had been years since I'd thought about them. During quarantine, when I was missing so much, it was a joy to imaginatively wonder through the city of my childhood. The scene in the much-beloved, now closed Oxford books in WAAGPH, was a particularly nostalgic moment. White got it absolutely right: the employees were in their signature blue vests and the cafe in the upstairs corner was open. </p><p>This emotional reaction is what White goes for and her pitch is usually perfect. The beautiful realism of her novels is made possible by her tremendous attention to detail, and her writer's eye is as perceptive as a camera lens. I'm excited to see what she does next. </p>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-74356241671286138492020-05-04T06:28:00.001-04:002020-05-04T06:32:43.749-04:00What I miss most: Bookstores <div class="content-image content-image-right content-image-medium " style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4a4a4a; float: right; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 15px 25px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 303.594px;">
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Grandma Belle always showed up to our house with a bag full of books. She would deposit her bag next to the comfy blue chair in the back room with the red walls and tons of windows, and when she wasn't with us, she'd sit in that chair, rock a bit, and turn through her novels.<br />
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When she was finished with all of them, or decided that we needed an outing, she would take me to the bookstore. Ours was a friendly jumble of an independent bookstore - now closed - with white shelves that reached the ceiling and a cozy cafe stuck in the back corner. The bookshop employees wore blue vests that tied at the waist and they always had books in their hands. The front of the bookstore was filled with stationary and journals and the children's section had a climbing house with two levels. They sold Tom Tierney paper dolls and classic novels like the Anne of Green Gables series in tidy editions for only a few dollars. </div>
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It was magical. </div>
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One of my favorite things to do with my own children is to visit bookstores, which we can't do much of these days. On my way to visit my parents last week, I passed by the Barnes and Noble on Peachtree and the lights were low and the shelves were full of books and no one was there. Dust was settling, I could see it, and I thought about what physical spaces filled with books and people mean to us - especially now that we can't access them.<br />
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The longer we stay inside, the more likely it will be that we will emerge into a world that is not as plentiful as it was. Favorite restaurants will be closed, the yarn shop gone, the boutique with the perfect blouse right when you needed it shuttered, and - bookstores.<br />
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Since the beginning of the quarantine, I have bought books by the carton load and they've all been delivered in their pristine boxes, and it has felt like Christmas every time I clawed through the cardboard. Yesterday, though, a very kind person named Magadelene called from my local Barnes and Noble to ask if I wanted to pick up my copy of the Hunger Games prequel or have it sent in the mail. We chatted for a few seconds - about books, curbside pickup, reading in a pandemic - and I got off the phone feeling cheery and connected.<br />
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When all of this is over, I'm going to go with my children and wander through that Barnes and Noble. I'm going to have a coffee in my hand and the kids are going to scamper off to the children's section, and I am going to chat with fellow book lovers about stories, while I sort out which one (or ten) books I will have to take home. It's going to be fabulous. I can't wait.<br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-32231530054438135242020-02-27T11:04:00.002-05:002020-02-27T11:20:09.178-05:00Book Trends: Mermaids <div class="bookCoverPrimary" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: 239.75px; text-align: center; width: 150px;">
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The zeitgeist fascinates me. For example, how did two fictionalized versions of Mary Pinchot Meyer's diaries get published this year at roughly the same time? What was in the air, water, <i>New York Times</i> that got two (presumably disconnected) writers writing about the same thing?<br />
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Another example: a few years ago two novels came out about women who dressed as men to fight in the Civil War:<i> I Shall Be Near You</i> by Erin Lindsay McCabe and <i>Neverhome</i> by Laird Hunt. Around that time, too, Karen Abbot published <i>Liar, Temptress, Soldier Spy</i>: <i>Four Women Undercover in the Civil War </i>that included an account of a woman who cross-dressed in order to fight.<br />
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I discovered yesterday another interesting trend: dead mermaids.<br />
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In 2018, Imogen Hermes Gower published <i>The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock,</i> a novel that revolves around the discovery of a mermaid body and the subsequent exploration of what truly comprises value and who can determine that definition.<br />
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This month, Jess Kidd brings us <i>Things in Jars</i>, a historical novel with a modern-sounding title that collapses the distance between fact and fable. It involves the discovery of a dead mermaid and "what makes us human in inhuman times." This novel circles the same territory as <i>Hancock, </i>but it creates its own space. It is not a companion novel to <i>Hancock </i>or anything like a sequel, but it could be viewed as a continued exploration of similar material.<br />
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It's redundant and silly to say that "there is nothing new under the sun" and that "all stories have already been told." I think what is more interesting is to take a look at the deeper level: particularly in the case of historical fiction, a category in which all of these books fall, how do writers explore or elucidate in the safe space of the fictional past what we are most worried about in our present?<br />
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-21399771557210296012020-02-14T10:18:00.002-05:002021-02-15T08:17:47.485-05:00The Illness Lesson by Claire Beams <a class="a-link-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/Illness-Lesson-Novel-Clare-Beams/dp/0385544669/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=illness+lessons&qid=1581693162&sr=8-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c45500; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: 0px;"></a><br />
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<div class="a-section aok-relative s-image-fixed-height" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 218px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eFtzbjXPVao/YCp0AyQgSHI/AAAAAAAAGiY/3nJxapiWzjAUoJ12EiZp2npg6PcseypHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s450/Screenshot%2B2021-02-15%2Bat%2B8.14.42%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="297" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eFtzbjXPVao/YCp0AyQgSHI/AAAAAAAAGiY/3nJxapiWzjAUoJ12EiZp2npg6PcseypHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-02-15%2Bat%2B8.14.42%2BAM.png" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div>
<a class="a-link-normal" href="https://www.amazon.com/Illness-Lesson-Novel-Clare-Beams/dp/0385544669/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=illness+lessons&qid=1581693162&sr=8-3" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #c45500; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; outline: 0px;">
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<div class="a-section aok-relative s-image-fixed-height" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 218px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative;"><br /></div><div class="a-section aok-relative s-image-fixed-height" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 218px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative;">New this week, Beam's <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Illness-Lesson-Novel-Clare-Beams/dp/0385544669/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+illness+lesson&qid=1613394983&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Illness Lesson</a></i> promises to be an astute and lovely example of the power of literary historical fiction. Set in New England in the 1800's, Beam's debut novel explores the ways men control women. </div>
Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-15761084697781476702020-02-07T09:10:00.003-05:002020-02-07T09:24:09.927-05:00Updates from the bedside table <i>Currently on the docket: </i><br />
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<b>Holsinger's The Gifted School</b>: I'm not too far into this book but I'm already obsessed. I found myself thinking yesterday about how I could organize my afternoon so that I could steal a few moments to read. The rising tension between the friends is palpable and Holsinger's social commentary on the ambitious, competitive parents in this affluent town is spot on. </div>
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<b>Dewitt's News of Our Loved Ones:</b> I don't think books about World War II will ever get old. Just as soon as I think every aspect has been covered, I come across a story that takes it all from a new perspective. Resonant of <i>The Nightingale, </i>this novel explores the hiding and finding of family secrets and the ways in which storytelling gives us a roadmap to discover ourselves. </div>
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<b>Author in Progress:</b> From the editors of Writers Unboxed, this collection of essays about the writer's life is a goldmine. The pieces by Kathryn Craft and Donald Maas are highlights. </div>
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<i>I am excited about: </i></div>
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<b>The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd: </b>Who doesn't love an atmospheric and historical novel set in the South? Bonus points that explores the life of a real person: Eliza Lucas Pinkney.</div>
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<b>The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry</b>: A girl can cook recipes and raise dead family members to ask crucial questions? Yes, please. </div>
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<b>The End of Happy by Kathryn Craft: </b>Ron's husband is supposed to move out but then he shows up with a gun. Tension abounds. (I'm also excited to see how she manages balancing forestory and backstory as she compresses the story into one day.)<br />
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<b>The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton:</b> I'm super excited about this one. Split between modern day New Orleans and the 1920s rural south, this book explores a lot of the themes I've been thinking about lately: race relations; past molding present; how we can come together when our history pulls us apart.<br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-7678684357247120572017-11-09T06:27:00.002-05:002017-11-09T06:27:51.503-05:00Tom Sancton's The Bettencourt Affair: The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal that Rocked ParisThe Notorious B.I.G may be right: more money more problems. In the case of Liliane Bettencourt, this observation is overwhelmingly correct. Heir to the forty-billion-dollar L'Oreal fortune, Liliane Bettencourt is the world's richest woman. Thanks to her questionable friendship to Francois-Marie Banier, photographer and writer, she also sits at the center of a multi-year court case. At issue is whether or not Francoise-Marie manipulated billions of dollars from the heiress or if Liliane willingly gave away her fortune to the younger man. In the opposition sits Liliane's estranged daughter Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, who argues that Francoise-Marie took advantage of her mother's naivete, deafness, and desire for friendship to make off with piles of inheritance in the form of properties, cash, and insurance policies.<br />
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As confusing as all of this is, it is merely the start. Francoise-Marie was not the only person to receive monetary gifts from the heiress or her family. Liliane was in the habit of giving money away - and with forty billion dollars, she probably felt some compulsion to share. Her husband, a mid-level politician, was more than happy to help distribute cash, and the Bettencourts were a known financial source for campaigners with dreams of holding office. When Liliane's accountant testified that Sarkozy, the French president, received donations beyond the French legal limit for his presidential campaign, the trial that at first appeared to be a family problem, took on country-wide significance.<br />
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Tom Sancton's <i>The Bettencourt Affair: The World's Richest Woman and the Scandal that Rocked Paris</i> has it all: wealth, scandal, manipulation, political malfeasance, courtroom drama, love, friendship, and betrayal. And in Tom Sancton's deft hands, it is well managed. Sancton, the French bureau chief for <i>Time, </i>was familiar with the Bettencourt Affair from its early days. (He apprised American readers of the scandal in a 2010 <i>Vanity Fair </i>article.) The knowledge shows - which is necessary. This is a convoluted case, with no certain outcome. As soon as a clear picture of the situation appears, it is immediately thrown into the murk. Francois-Marie Banier himself is a prime example of this elusiveness. He is at once charming, brilliant, manipulative, aggressive, and fearful.<br />
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Sancton embraces this tangled web of complicated characters and intrigue to propel his story. This is not fiction, but it feels that way: unanticipated testimony pops up at critical points, tightening the tension; actions at the start of the trial are re-interpreted near the end to mean the exact opposite of what was originally intended; relationships explode; the butler has secret tapes. It's a fiction goldmine, except that's all true.<br />
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Indeed, truth is often stranger than fiction, and in <i>The Bettencourt </i>Affair, it proves far more intriguing.<br />
<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-67322160032753692402017-03-14T21:00:00.001-04:002017-08-09T22:56:50.704-04:00For the Reading List <br />
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Bernard Schlink's new novel <i>The Woman on the Stairs </i>releases here in the US today. it's getting rave reviews everywhere. I'm still processing the destabilizing brilliance of <i>The Reader. </i>That one has stuck in my mind. (It's interesting how some books do that and some books don't - even if they're meant to.) Beyond the intriguing plots and characters, Schlink's prose captures Hemingway's iceberg: the calm, simple surface belies a mountain of significance underneath. I'm pretty excited to get my teeth into this one.<br />
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Also, because I live in Atlanta and traffic is terrifying, annoying, dangerous, and a huge time-waster, I have embraced audio books. The commute is much better now - we moved, thank the stars - but I think the habit of reading with my ears while battling the auto hordes has stuck. Just started Katherine Arden's<i> The Bear and the Nightingale. </i>I'm a sucker for anything Russian to begin with, but this whimsical fairy tale (think Ivey's <i>Snow Child</i>) is fantastic.Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-9169631647665090982016-01-06T09:31:00.002-05:002017-03-14T21:06:24.862-04:00Kevin Hazzard's memoir a wild ride in an ambulance<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/a-thousand-naked-strangers-hazzard/" target="_blank">Hazzard's recent memoir explores the humor and darkness of being a paramedic.</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-1948188961902596502015-10-06T21:47:00.001-04:002015-10-06T21:47:46.393-04:00Recent Reviews at ArtsATLRick Bragg's <a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2015/09/rick-bragg-my-southern-journey/">My Southern Journey</a> and Karen Abbott's <a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2015/09/preview-karen-abbott-liar-temptress-soldier-spy/">Liar, Soldier, Temptress, Spy</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-52977709627545721672015-02-10T12:49:00.002-05:002015-02-10T12:49:47.016-05:00An interview with Gabrielle Zevin<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2015/02/qa-power-books-impels-gabrielle-zevins-the-storied-life-a-j-fikry/">According to <i>The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry author </i>Gabrielle Zevin, "In life, you can't always choose your own genre."</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-27818997719157895282015-02-02T19:41:00.001-05:002015-02-02T19:41:36.598-05:00Jonathan Odell has a new book and 6 Atlantans share their faves of 2014<div>
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<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2015/02/qa-jonathan-odell-miss-hazel-rosa-parks-league/">Jonathan Odell has a new book out. Read more about it. </a></div>
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<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2015/01/year-review-atlantans-favorite-books-2014/">Favorite books of 2014</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-65273678516457410272013-10-10T13:55:00.001-04:002013-10-10T14:00:34.472-04:00Alice Munro Wins the Nobel and Research Proves Usefulness of Literary Fiction<a href="http://bit.ly/19CoMHF">Then first Canadian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Alice Munro told reporters earlier this year that she was going to retire from writing. </a><br />
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<a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?_r=0">From the New York Times:</a><br />
"The researchers say the reason is that literary fiction often leaves more to the imagination, encouraging readers to make inferences about characters and be sensitive to emotional nuance and complexity.<br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-28618001619929569282013-10-09T20:51:00.003-04:002013-10-09T20:51:42.652-04:00Recent Reviews<a href="http://bit.ly/17gCeAQ">Edgar Allan Poe wasn't just interested in the macabre.</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2013/09/review-tilting-windmills-plumbing-south-charles-mcnairs-picaresque-picketts-charge/">Charles McNair asseses the Civil War's legacy.</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-15034157378180173772013-06-26T21:51:00.004-04:002013-06-26T21:51:56.119-04:00Curtis Sittenfeld's Sisterland<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2013/06/review-46/">Read the review.</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-72951085935866438082013-06-25T13:58:00.002-04:002013-06-25T13:58:14.504-04:00Recent review at ArtsATL<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2013/06/review-41/">Susan Rebecca White's A Place at the Table</a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-39723993579275805882013-03-14T10:23:00.002-04:002013-03-14T10:23:26.549-04:00Recent Reviews<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2013/02/review-tara-conklins-house-girl-antebellum-south/">Tara Conklin's <i>The House Girl</i></a><div>
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<a href="http://www.artsatl.com/2013/01/qa-3/">Interview with Melanie Benjamin, author of <i>The Aviator's Wife</i></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2832/vampires-in-the-lemon-grove">Karen Russell's The Vampires in the Lemon Grove</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2814/the-valley-of-unknowing">Philip Sington's The Valley of Unknowing</a></div>
Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-83427822099982452432013-01-13T22:21:00.000-05:002017-11-09T06:36:37.488-05:00Yes, I'm still alive:)Thank you to all of who have checked back over the past nine months, hoping, no doubt, that I would surface. Well, here I am. My sweet William was born in April. He's been a delight. (There he is below, dressed as a sheep for Halloween. His sister was Bo Peep. I couldn't resist.)<br />
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I'm excited about 2013. I suspect there will be some great reading and posting this year, perhaps an interview or two, and some other exciting things. Stay tuned!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-54847528725070619562012-04-01T21:17:00.008-04:002013-06-26T21:53:33.145-04:00The Downton Abbey Reader<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1wrcLl7N9X0/T3kLcyWPXaI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/VS8b61cu1iY/s1600/downton.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5726620990357593506" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1wrcLl7N9X0/T3kLcyWPXaI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/VS8b61cu1iY/s200/downton.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%;">Who isn't obsessed with this enthralling "upstairs-downstairs" series? The only problem is that we now have to wait until season 3, which is why I offer a palliative to all of you who are experiencing intense DTs from Downton Abbey withdrawal, which I definitely am.</span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9781250005441">Below Stairs by Margaret Powell</a></b>: Powell's saucy expose on life in service provided inspiration for Julian Fellowes' massively successful series Downton Abbey. Powell worked for a number of families, most of which were exceedingly difficult, and the range of her experiences gives a wonderful overview of the type of life one could expect as a servant in Britain before<br />
World War II. </div>
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<b><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9780143120865">Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor by Rosina Harrison</a></b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9780143120865">:</a> Those looking for insights into the notorious Lady Astor's character will be disappointed. Rose is close-lipped about the first female MP, who may or may not have been a Nazi sympathizer. Never fear, though: this lively memoir opens the door on life in the ritzy upper-class world of the British Aristocracy, and though it tows the party line to a certain extent, it provides an adequate picture of one lady's maid's dynamic life. </span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-English-Country-House-Architectural/dp/0300058705/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333333327&sr=8-1-spell">Life in the English Country House by Mark Girouard</a></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">: This historical survey of the English country house is more architectural in scope than social. Those looking for an abundance of details about daily life in one of these beautiful homes will want to look elsewhere. Still, Girouard describes the rise and fall of this classic feature of the English countryside, providing insight into how and why the country house became the object of romance and interest. </span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Up-Down-Stairs-History-Country/dp/0719597307/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333333384&sr=1-1">Up and Downstairs: The History of the Country House Servant by Jeremy Musson:</a></b><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Whereas Girouard's work focuses on the physical development of the country house, Musson's book charts the history of the people who served in these elite establishments. Musson's history abounds with wonderful details. </span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9780802779014">Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles by Robert Sackville-West</a></b><span style="font-size: 100%;"><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9780802779014">: </a>Built during </span>Elizabethan<span style="font-size: 100%;"> times as a Calendar House (a building that boasts 365 rooms, 52 stairwells, and 7 courtyards), Knole is a charming example of the country house. Knole is still occupied by the Sackville family - though the house is run by the National Trust and partially open to the public. Written by the seventh Lord Sackville-West, this history tells the story of the beautiful home (that was also immortalized by Virginia Woolf in her novel <i>Orlando</i>), and the family of characters that lived in it for over 400 years. </span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.boundtobereadbooks.com/book/9780060938253">Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart: </a></b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cora Grantham was not the only American heiress to save an British family's ancestral pile. In the late 19th century, Consuelo Vanderbilt, granddaughter to Commodore Vanderbilt, was sent to England to marry the Duke of Marlborough and secure herself a royal title for the benefit of her ambitious mother. The marriage was unsuccessful, and this biography covers much more than Consuelo's few years as the Duchess of Marlborough, but readers interested in Downton Abbey will find the descriptions of her married life and experiences in of England's most charming (and one of the largest) great houses - Blenheim - to be quite interesting. </span></div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-45060010105266415872012-03-21T17:26:00.003-04:002012-03-21T17:39:03.391-04:00Weekly Catch<div><a href="http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2012/18-everyday-english-words-that-come-from-irish/">It doesn't just stop at Guinness: 18 English words that come from Irish. </a></div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/03/06/top-25-library-apps-for-the-ipad/">I don't have an Ipad, but these apps make me want to get one. </a></div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/03/06/44-body-language-mistakes-youre-probably-making/">Language doesn't just happen on the page. </a></div><div> </div><div><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/the_business_case_for_reading.html?utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29">The business case for readinng novels. </a></div>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-49132615500156816122012-03-19T20:28:00.002-04:002013-06-26T22:04:33.268-04:00Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JGIsl1Rcz5Y/T2fQ0sS0nxI/AAAAAAAAAYE/_vTllMIzD1k/s1600/Salvage-the-Bones.jpg" style="font-style: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721771455259385618" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JGIsl1Rcz5Y/T2fQ0sS0nxI/AAAAAAAAAYE/_vTllMIzD1k/s200/Salvage-the-Bones.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 136px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Jesmyn Ward’s 2011 National Book Award-winning novel </span><i style="font-size: 100%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Salvage the Bones </i><span style="font-size: 100%; text-indent: 0.5in;">is a tragic, beautifully executed narrative about a poor African-American family caught in the maelstrom of Hurricane Katrina.</span></div>
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In the distance, a hurricane is building in the Gulf of Mexico, but for Esch and her four brothers, the birth of China’s puppies and the hard-scrabble life they live with their bitter, drunken father in the depth of the Mississippi bayou are more pressing than any storm. As the story builds over twelve days, we watch a family, fragmented and loving, trying desperately to combat a multitude of challenges. As Katrina battles its way along the coast, destroying everything from lives to homes, it becomes clear that perhaps a hurricane is not the biggest fight these four children may have to wage. Without a mother, and virtually without a father, Esch and her brothers are lost children, desperate souls, wanting only to make sense of the disappointment and neglect around them. Esch views the world through her own yearning and pain, smartly drawing associations between her own experience and those of the characters she reads about in beloved books at school. This melding of literature and poverty permeates the entire book, as Ward’s gorgeous prose describes the grit and hopelessness of this destitute community.</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal;">Artfully constructed and poignant in its detail of abject poverty, <i>Salvage the Bones </i>is an unlikely novel to love, but that’s exactly what happens over the course of its pages. As Ward folds us into the lives of Esch and her brothers, we want to fight for them, help them, find a way to stop the hurricane. This novel provides insight into a community that many will want to ignore, but Ward illustrates the beauty and humanity that can arise from the swamps – that, we hope, can arise from all of us. </span><br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1028511161413354120.post-79168630328419481152012-03-07T22:27:00.002-05:002012-03-09T09:23:31.939-05:00An Interview with Jonathan Odell<i>Red Roo</i><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q12SYrHQr9c/T1ge7k1PKmI/AAAAAAAAAXc/Dbkud3QABTE/s200/Odell.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717353735794928226" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 158px; height: 200px; " /><i>m Library caught up with Jonathan Odell to discuss his stunning second novel The Healing.</i><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div><i>Part 1</i></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b>What is your writing process and how do you create such real characters</b>?</p><p class="MsoNormal">I’ve tried everything that other writers have recommended - getting up in the morning, work till noon – but none of that works for me. My process is to follow the voices. I’m very verbal. I’m not visual. I think most writers are probably visual, but I wait until voices come to me and then I pick up the dialogue. I write what I’m hearing. What helps me, too, is that I read a lot of history. I spend a lot of time in libraries looking at oral histories to find people who talked like the people in my head so that I can get the language right. If I can hear the voice, then I can write the book. It kind of dictates itself that way. I put in the pictures later. In fact, the first draft of the first book that I wrote was all dialogue. I was really disappointed when I found out that the characters were supposed to have bodies, that they were supposed to live in houses. I had to teach myself how to do the description stuff. That does not come second nature to me. To prime the pump, I start with the dialogue. I have people talk to each other, and I write that down and then that leads to a scene.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Whom did you hear first: Polly Shine or Grenada?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Polly’s voice was the first real voice. Granada came years ago, but I could never make her sound real. She felt artificial. I was talking to my partner, and I said: "I need to give Granada a bigger life. She feels so one-dimensional." He asked me to read some of what I’d written. I must have given him about 30 pages or so, and there was one paragraph where Granada was thinking back on an old woman who taught her the trade [midwifery]. And my partner said: “You know, most of that is pretty boring until you talk about that old woman in a memory. Why don’t you make her a character?” And I said, “Well, I’ll try.” And as soon as I wrote the first sentence about her [Polly], the whole book changed. It was like she took over.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Both of your novels investigate the theme of remembering. Why is this important to you?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">I used to think that remembering was something that was unchangeable, that you had certain memories and that you carried those memories with you, but through some of the therapy work that I’ve done, I’ve come to believe that how we remember is more important that what we remember. We have choice over how we remember things and most of our lives are dictated by how we see the past. We have a moral responsibility to see the past as truthfully as we can. Sometimes that means changing our minds. Sometimes that means forgiveness. Sometimes that means learning other people’s stories rather than mine, and letting that story contradict my story. So, as a white man when I went back to Mississippi, and I started talking to all these black people who were outside my little white bubble that I lived in as I grew up, and started listening to their stories, I started remembering my own past differently. It was like “Oh, that’s who you were and that’s who I was. I was a little spoiled white supremacist kid and that’s why you reacted the way you did, and that was why you couldn’t stick up for yourselves." <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Remembering is so powerful. We don’t know who we are, what we’re doing, where we’re going in our lives, until we remember accurately who we were. I think Faulkner said it: “ The past is not dead. It’s not even past” The past isn’t dead, it’s still forming, and we work on it day by day. Memories are very malleable, and we are responsible as adults to take control of our memories, not to just take things down as law from our parents or history books or people we admire. Even though we admire them, they lie to us because they have a different interpretation. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Coming out of the 1960s South, I was raised where Martin Luther King, Jr. was called a communist, where “our black people are happy, it’s the outside ones who are agitators,' where white people were all good-natured, and all those Klan people were just exceptions to the rule. In doing this re-remembering, it’s painful because sometimes you have to go back and emotionally confront the people you love the most because it wasn’t just the evil people telling you this, it was my pastor at church, my parents. The racism that I learned, that was passed to me was toxic, and I had to go back and re-remember these things. And this is the root of Polly’s wisdom: you have to remember who you are. Don’t believe what they tell you about who you are and what your past as been. You have to take hold of your own memory.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://www.redroomlibrary.com/2012/03/interview-with-jonathan-odell-part-ii.html">Read Part II</a></i></p></div></div>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08691684350360442014noreply@blogger.com0