Delicious Indecision...

Tomorrow my family and I depart on our annual holiday whirlwind. Today, I combed the shelves of my library (that would be the one I work in and purchase books for), and drove by two more to collect my haul of suitcase candidates. Here's the short list:

Fiction:

The Book of Lost Things John Connolly
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Lark & Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

Non-Fiction:

King of Heists by J. North Conway
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman
Tears of the Cheetah by Stephen J. O'Brien
Beauty in the Beasts by Kristen Von Kreisler
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

By the end of the evening, I have to whittle the pile down by half -- maybe more. I'm always willing to carry around a little literary insurance in case I come close to reading as much as I hope to read. Why is it that vacations seem endless before they begin and painfully brief the minute they start?

One aspect that I love about my job in school library world are students who come by looking for recommendations just before a holiday. Yesterday, a really neat kid -- a dedicated library rat and
voracious reader of fiction -- received acceptance to MIT. There's nothing I admire more than a person who can manage both sides of their brain as expertly as she, with the possible exception of a person under the age of 18 who performs such mental calisthenics.

After a serious celebration this morning we headed straight to the fiction room where I buried her beneath all the great books she'd been resisting during the application process. She walked off with a bag full, holding up Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash in front of her nose. -- Lovely!

More great end-of-year book lists...

I take it all back ... I do love these end of year lists. Of course, as I look forward to a holiday I imagine myself reading everything. Unrealistic, I know, but it's a nice dream.  I currently plan to read my way through the following:

NPR's wonderful and various year-end book lists

NYTimes Best Ten Books of 2009  Be sure to check out the link to NYT's 100 Notable Books of 2009

And here's an ambition list:

The Millions: The Best Fiction of the Millenium (So Far)

Just finished...

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan and I really enjoyed it. I always admire authors who try something completely different, but must admit I don't have much patience for those who try but don't succeed. Lanagan expertly weaves together a story of sharp realism and magic to make a contemporary fairy tale in her story of Liga and her daughters Branza and Urdda. You don't have to be a fantasy aficionado to enjoy Tender Morsels. The realistically drawn characters and their stories share equal prominence on Lanagan's nicely set stage with the magical bits. It's a great book to get completely lost in. Fans of Wicked will enjoy Tender Morsels. In fact, I prefer it to MacGuire's novel. Written for adults, it's clearly an excellent cross-over novel for teens too.

Another end-of-year book list

This one from Publisher's Weekly. Such lists will be coming out thick and fast with the close of 2009 and opening of the shopping season. I know I enjoy reading book lists -- although sometimes I have mixed feelings. Anywhere from glee about a whole pile of good recommendations to discouragement of having read so few to feeling overwhelmed because I still haven't finished last year's list. Alas...

The beauty of a good book is its patience. It will sit quietly on a shelf until I get around to picking it up and won't be any less wonderful for the waiting.

Best books of...

The end of the year and the end of a decade will no doubt precipitate lots of lists like this one: AV's Best Books of the '00s. I'm told AV is from the folks who gave us The Onion, only it's serious. The Onion serious? What's the world coming to?

Short Stories and Students and Research, Oh My!

So I just finished writing a seven-page paper that "juxtaposed an early and late short story to reveal the evolution of the genre" or something like that. What possessed me to do such a thing? It's a long, umm, story.

Reader's Digest version: I'm temporarily pretending I'm a high school senior enrolled in a seminar class entitled The Study of Short Fiction at the school where I am a librarian. Since I'm helping the kids do the research for this project, I thought I'd walk through the experience myself once. I selected what I thought would be the easiest of the several suggested prompts and got started. The stories in question?

Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and Russell Banks' "Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat" (And, no, I'm not forgetting the articles in this title -- there aren't any.)

Both are published in the 7th edition of The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, ed. by Ann Charters, which is the class text. I include the title because it's a really lovely collection and if you're a fan of short fiction you might like to check it out. Just beware: at nearly 2,000 pages it's not something you'll want to toss in the beach bag.

Anyway, back to the research project. My co-librarian would chalk this up as further evidence that I need a life, but I actually enjoyed reading the stories and doing the research on the authors. It was fascinating. I've read a fair amount of Banks and selected him because I enjoy his writing so much. It's probably been -- okay nevermind how many years its been -- since I've read Bierce. Doing some research on him was really interesting. Great writer. Kind of a weirdo, but it made for compelling research.

All this raises the question about whether intensive study of a story (or any genre) ruins the reader's experience. Does Banks expect his readers will indulge him with close readings? Should a reader have to? Does it turn students off and make them ignore good books because they've had them jammed down their throats? What purpose does it serve? Does it need a purpose?

Danged if I know! I was genuinely fascinated by Bierce's story and bio and it made me wonder if sometime in my past I'd sat in a lecture about him and "Owl Creek." If I had, I surely don't remember it. The whole experience seems to reinforce the idea that we really only enjoy things that we discover ourselves on our own terms.

That said, had I not taken on this assignment, I may have waited another 20 years to read Bierce again -- and that would be a shame. So maybe looking for a reading deadline that's not self-imposed is not such a bad thing occassionally?

Author Neil Gaiman on Audio Books

Just in case you missed his piece on NPR this morning, here's a link to Neil Gaiman's endorsement of audio books. Bravo, NG! In it, he mentions Good Omens, a title he wrote with Terry Pratchett, and a book I love! Great blend two very talented writers.

Reading as a social act

I've long thought of reading as an action of the individual.

I am struck, however, by how often people who read seek connection with others based on or because of their reading choices. I've not discovered the study that confirms this, but I'm betting that most folks get their next book via informal, personal recommendations. Aren't we all desperate to talk about the book that kept us up past midnight? And equally anxious to hear about those that kept our friends awake?

Reading book reviews -- something I spend a fair amount of time enjoying in my librarian day job -- is a great way to discover new titles and authors. Getting the same information via a personal recommendation, however, seems much more powerful.

In fact there are folks in my life -- and you know who you are -- that I depend upon for a good title or new author. D will have an excellent non-fiction title my politically responsible brain will enjoy. M will have the wonderful book by a voice I need to hear. W will point me to smart and funny fiction. I'm pleased to admit that the latest addition to these go-to readers is a college sophomore. Evidence that you can teach an old dog new tricks. 

I'm also quite happy to admit that recommendations are almost always not new books, but only new-to-me. While my book-lover vanity might be injured, it quickly recovers when I find out the author of my latest favorite has been busy writing a whole pile of books I'll likely enjoy. How nice of them.

Getting a good book recommendation is a gift. Never hesitate to talk about or invite others to talk about  books, no matter what the genre or reading level. It feels good and it is good.

And don't forget to keep me the loop as well.

The "To Read" list

Books friends and I are telling each other we must both read:

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
anything by Ann Patchett
War Trash by Ha Jin
Brother, I'm Dying Edwidge Dandicat
Extremely Loud and Incredible Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol Hwan
The Last War by Ana Menendez

Talking about books with friends...

Here's a running list of the authors whose names have come up in a conversation with friends and wine  about literature we've loved. In no particular order:

Hunter S. Thompson
Russell Banks
Herman Melville
Junot Diaz
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Kate Chopin
Sherman Alexie
Christopher Moore
Stephen Crane
Raymond Carver
Flannery O'Connor
Tom Robbins
Alan Watts
Nikolai Gogol
Harper Lee
Truman Capote
William Faulkner
Ernest Hemingway
Malcolm Lowry
Ha Jin
Ambrose Bierce
Carson McCullers
Eudora Welty
Natalie Sarraute
Fyodor Dostoyevesky
Stephen King
Stephenie Meyer
Bram Stoker
Anne Rice
Vladimir Nabokov
Alexander Fuller
Mark Haddon
Annie Prouix
Annie Dillard
Wendell Berry
Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman
Annie Lamott
David Sedaris
Elizabeth Gilbert
Jay McInerney
Seth Kanter
Aravind Adiga
Zadie Smith

An Interview with Author Claire Swedberg

Books by Claire E. Swedberg:

Work Commando 311/I: American Paratroopers Become Forced Laborers for the Nazis

In Enemy Hands: Personal Accounts of Those Taken Prisoner in World War II 

Three Years with the 92nd Illinois: The Civil War Diary of John M. King

Upcoming:

In the Valley of Mystic Light

Claire Swedberg, author of three books of non-fiction, and I have been friends since our teenagers were two. Fortunately, she and her family are spending the Thanksgiving holiday with us and I've managed to charm her into a blog - interview. My questions and her answers appear below.

LJV: Your books, although non-fiction, are highly readable. Did writing these books with a narrative structure make it more or less difficult?

CES: I can't imagine telling these non-fictional accounts any way other than in a narrative in which a reader could easily forget that he or she is reading a "history book" and become completely immersed in one cohesive story with all the twists and turns you might expect in fiction. Each of the books is based on the personal accounts of individuals who played a part in historical events. With that in mind, I have focused on letting their personal stories represent a more universal experience that any reader can identify with.

LJV: Can you make an argument for non-fiction as pleasure reading?

CES: Some of the most engrossing books I have read have been non-fiction, but I can't imagine a world without fiction. The world is simply too interesting not to let it tell the story the way it really happened, but also leave room for those who have their own story to tell.

LJV: What's your next book?

CES: I am in the last phases of a book describing the birth and development of the art scene in Skagit Valley, Washington (where I currently live), in partnership with Rita Hupy, widow of Art Hupy who founded the Museum of Northwest Art.  The book follows the lives of members of the "Northwest School" through much of the 20th century to the present, but also tells the story of a community that is sustained by fisherman and farmers and their relationship with the arts.  I've discovered through this process that art, and the practical tasks of living off the earth, are closely entertwined.  Some of the artists and writers included in the story are "Big Four" members Guy Anderson, Morris Graves and Mark Tobey, as well as Tom Robbins and an impressive potpourri of current artists.

LJV: I understand you've undertaken your first novel. How's it going?

CES: Fiction writing has taken a backseat to the non-fiction for much of my career but I love the freedom related to creating my own characters, my own stories, and doing with that what I choose. What power!

LJV: Any advice you can offer to some one who is considering writing a book?

CES: I get this question a lot. Many writers would like to skip the most important phase of writing a book -- making it truly a great piece of work -- and would prefer to move directly into the seemingly more glamourous world of agents and publishers. I recommend spending a lot of alone time with just yourself and your book -- love what you're writing and, when you've finished, love what you wrote. Think it's good enough? Read through it one more time, read it outloud to yourself, add details you know you won't publish, just to know your characters even more intimately.  After that, when it is so much a part of you that you dream about your story at night and find yourself bringing it up at cocktail parties in minute detail -- that is the point when you can begin the process of seeking an agent or publisher who loves it as much as you do.

My blog moved!

Hey it just took off! Probably went to sniff the butts of other blogs. Not to worry, I found it again, gave it a sound reprimand, a little snap on the snout and have it firmly affixed to its new address. If you were an earlier follower, please rejoin. (I promise this won't happen again.) I've reposted all earlier posts and will add back the links to reading lists, etc. over the next day or two. Off to buy a leash...

The Writer's Almanac

If you love getting a small dose of poetry daily, with a bit of history or literary biography on the side, consider subscribing to The Writer's Almanac. A very brief message containing the like arrives in my Inbox nightly and awaits my free moment the following day. I can read the message or listen to Garrison Keillor's melodic voice read it for me.

Ahh...Vacation Reading!

There is something so delicious about the beginning of a holiday and the prospect of several extra hours of reading! Having just finished All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab this morning, I welcomed the serendipituous opportunity to pick my new read on the eve of a five-day vacation. As much as I try, I'm never really as organized about what's next in line as I probably should be. Alas.

Thankfully, while adding the links to various book award websites to this blog the other day, I ran across the Thurber Prize for Humor and noticed Ian Frazier had won this year's award for his collection of essays Lamentations of the Father. A quick check of the online catalog of one of my local public libraries (yes, I live in public library heaven in Silicon Valley and have several to choose from) I discovered this award winner awaited me on my way home from work. The Thurber site indicated that Frazier had previously won this award for Coyote vs Acme, so picked that up as well. I'll report back soon. (Hopefully those extra hours will actually transpire.)

I discovered the Thurber Award last year when I learned that I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle had won it last October. Doyle's novel had been recommended to me by one of my students. And it was a worthy tip. I laughed aloud for the entire Saturday I allowed myself to be consumed by it. Later, my school's reading club universally loved it as well. I didn't bother to go see the movie last summer, but feel pretty confident in guessing that it didn't begin to compare to the book.

Seeing Ian Frazier's name on the Thurber site intrigued me immediately. Several years ago I read and enjoyed his Great Plains. I'm pretty sure I picked up a copy of this in the bookstore in the Badlands National Park visitor center. I'd not read anything by him previously -- nor since -- but the magic of his prose has stayed with me. He's quite a writer and I look forward to revisiting his prose over the break.

Oh, and about All Unquiet Things: Don't waste the time on it. A very big disappointment.

A Review

Acceptance: A Legendary Guidance Counselor Helps Seven Kids Find the Right Colleges – and Find Themselves
By David L. Marcus; Penguin Press, 2009; 244 p. $29.95

I gotta come clean: I know David L. Marcus, the author of Acceptance. Known him for years, in fact, since he went to college with my husband. Back in the day, Marcus (as I’ve always known him) helped Chris score a job at the Miami Herald. He was at my wedding and our son and his appeared within three days of each other, albeit on opposite coasts. He’s a great guy and an accomplished journalist. Still, his shameless self-promotion of his new book bordered on annoying. Didn’t the school I worked for want him to come speak? Wouldn’t I like to look at the YouTube vid of his gig at a Long Island bookstore? Could I give him names of folks at other Bay Area college prep schools? Why didn’t I list his book on my “What I’m Reading…” email signature line?

When I noted that I write book reviews and might be able to place one for Acceptance somewhere – it was partially in hopes of ending the stream of email from (I’m not kidding) bookdave. A few days later, when the FedEx package arrived – I sighed. And sighed again when I picked it up later that evening, looked longingly at my stack of higher-priority reading, and thought, “Okay, I said I would, so I guess I will.” It was already pretty late and I fully expected to fall asleep by page four.

Have I made this predictable enough?

A hundred pages later – and only because a windstorm took out the electricity – I forced myself to put down the riveting tale of seven high school seniors, their guidance counselor, and their paths through the college application process. Part how-to book and part window into the world of real teens and their anxious families, Acceptance stimulates worthwhile reflection upon the concepts of “brand” and “fit” in the life-shaping process of finding the right college.

Gwyeth (rhymes with faith) Smith, aka Smitty, developed such a reputation that ambitious parents migrated to his Long Island public high school district in the hope that their kid would draw him as their college counselor. Acceptance recounts Smitty’s final year before retirement. Outwardly, his highly successful college placement stats indicate Smitty has figured out the magic formula for getting his kids in. In reality, however, Smitty’s philosophy has very little to do with numbers, as Marcus demonstrates through his focus upon the lives of Lee, Chelsea, Allyson, Jeff, Riana, Layla and Nathaniel.

Part of the charm of Acceptance is the frankness with which Marcus approaches these seven kooky, talented, arrogant, brilliant, lazy, creative, athletic, and/or average teens. I found myself rooting for some and sneering at the conceit of others, but desperate to find out where they all landed come May. Where would Jeff, the good-but-not-scholarship-material athlete with the C+ average heading into senior year, end up? How about Lee, the Korean-American with excellent grades, plenty of parental pressure and an attitude? Will highly creative Chelsea ignore the flash of a big university in favor of a perfect fit?

Smitty, too, pulls no punches with the kids or their parents and appreciates college admissions officers who do the same. He’s got a boatload of insight into what goes on behind their office doors – and the book is worth the read if only for that. But you’d be missing the main point. Smitty’s philosophy challenges the kids to subvert the metrics of the college admission game rather than play along. In doing so, they can win and win big. The larger message of Acceptance is this: Approach touring campuses, writing essays, making deadlines and taking standardized exams as a process of self-discovery, and the college acceptance part will take care of itself.

Marcus’s account of the journey to Acceptance is revelatory, and as a good a page turner as Dan Brown’s latest. You’ll find no secret codes here (or maybe you will; reread Acceptance before settling on that application essay topic) but its humanizing of a daunting process offers a path to discovery all its own. Highly recommended for teens and parents alike.

An Argument for Audio

Audio books live off most folk's radar (uh oh, the evangelist in me is kicking in). No doubt part of the reason is expense. Audio books are not cheap and if you get most of your books from a bookstore, you're probably disinclined to pay the extra cash for a book on CD.

Fortunately, public library collections of audio books have absolutely bloomed in the last five years or so. Naturally, some libraries are better at building and maintaining these collections than others. So you'll need to experiment. I've discovered that some of the smaller libraries near my house have the best audio collections. This is probably because of differing collection development philosophies. Also, a library may have a great audio collection in the children's room, but not in their young adult section only to be very strong in the adult section. Investigate your best sources.

Many libraries provide access to audio books remotely. If your library subscribes to NetLibrary or OverDrive Books, you can download a book to your computer or MP3 without leaving home. Many of these collections remain relatively small now, but surely they will trump CD collections in the next decade.

I often hear folks claim they can't follow a story on audio as well as when they read. Audio certainly is easier for auditory people, and print favors the visual among us. That said, listening to an audio book takes a bit of practice. (And wouldn't the world be a better place if we all upped our listening skills?) So, find something you'll like and stick with it. Listen to an old favorite. (Jim Dale's recording of the Harry Potter series is nothing short of amazing!) Try a collection of short stories or essays. Collections of folk tales or myths are a great selection for car rides of mixed age groups.

Schools seem to perpetuate a pervasive belief that listening to an unabridged book is somehow not legitimate. Well, hogwash. If getting information from outside a brain to inside a brain is the goal, students, parents and educators should embrace every way available to make that happen. If form should follow function, then the brain should be able to pick how to best absorb new information. If audio works and it's available, it should be used. In the case of auditory learners (and if you're a parent, do you even know if your kid is auditory or not?) audio books are clearly the better choice.

Another instance where audio can trump print is in humor writing. I have repeatedly found that I've pick up on an author's humor when I hear them read their prose far better than when I read it. Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes leaps to mind as a powerful example. A sad tale, McCourt's reminiscence is not without dozens of humorous anecdotes which just don't get delivered as effectively in print as they do in audio. Add to that the musicality of McCourt's lovely Irish brogue -- Angela's Ashes becomes a different book when you hear it -- I would argue a better book.

Books I think should be required listening:

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (Jim Dale set the standard when he began recording the Rowling's books ten years ago.)

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Actor Peter Coyote makes this tweener book a breath-taking tale sound like non-fiction. Excellent for any age. )

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (McCourt reads his own book, beautifully!)

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

For younger readers:

Anything John McDonough reads. My son and I grew to love his voice so much we sought out books he narrates. Avi's Poppy series is an excellent example.

Brian Jacques reads his own Redwall books, with additional voices for various characters. Jacques has something of a Scottish brogue and if his stories aren't alluring enough in print, his voice will charm the most reluctant reader.

One final argument for audio: Do you commute with your teenager to school everyday? Lots of young adult books -- as well as adult titles -- make for excellent shared listening. They can also provide some safe common ground for all kinds of discussion. I happen to love young adult literature, but it's largely ignored by adults, which is too bad since there's lots of excellent writing to miss. (But that's another blog.)

Some titles you might like listening to with your teen:
Feed by M.T. Anderson

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak (although you'll want to take a look at the print edition to see painted pages -- which will make sense once you hear the book)

Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series

Charles Higson's Young Bond series

Thanks for hanging in there on this rather long sermon! Go get an audio book!

A Recent Favorite...

Talking about what I'm reading is one of my most favorite things to do. My only problem is I have a hard time finding a place to stop. I expect a list of books -- both loved and unloved -- will be a regular feature and seems a natural place to start. So here goes...
King Dork by Frank Portman

About six different folks from very different walks of life told me to read this book and finally I listened. Actually, literally I listened as I found this on audio at my local public library. King Dork is Portman's first novel (he's a musician in real life) and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's largely marketed as a teen novel, but it shouldn't be. Anyone over the age of 13 would enjoy this. It is both hysterically funny and thoughtful. The main character is a loveable, teen uber-nerd in search of many truths, including a name for his band, how to attain first and maybe even second base with a girl and the death of his late father. A contemporary riff off Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, King Dork spends a fair amount of time poking fun at its classic predecessor as well as a long list of titles that make the required reading list in high schools. Few authors (for teens or otherwise) have captured as successfully as Portman does the voice of the contemporary teen. (Stars? Do I do stars? How many? What color? How 'bout if I recommend an audience instead?) King Dork: Excellent for anyone who lives with, works with, loves, or is a teenager. Or someone who likes to laugh. Ages: sophisticated 13 to 92.

Don't get me started...

Too late! My new blog, in which I muse about reading and books, begins now! As a lover of books and a high school librarian, I spend a fair amount of my time thinking about reading, talking about reading, reading about reading -- and, naturally, reading. I've always been more than a little evangelistic about reading, so why not blog? Find here book reviews (for adults and teens, but occassionally for youngsters, too) as well as thoughts on all things bookish. Please feel free to join the conversation!