Looking ahead: Book Blog UNCON

30 May

We are officially 5 days away from the Book Blog UNCON, which I posted about here. I’m getting really excited for this DIY conference, and looking at the list of attendees, some I know and some I’m dying to meet, I know it’s going to be a great day.

The organizers of the UNCON have asked attendees to come up with suggestions for sessions, that either they could lead or that they’d like to explore more in discussion. I’ll be honest, I was feeling a little like I don’t have much to add since this blog has been on an informal hiatus since I started grad school, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I do have things to talk about. So here are a few sessions I feel like I could contribute to and that I would love to explore in more depth.

  • SEO, Social Media Branding and Why It Matters: As my day job is as a Customer Content Specialist for a news distribution agency, much of my 9-5 life directly or tangentially revolves around optimizing content. I can talk a little about what SEO means and how bloggers can employ tips and tricks to improve their search engine visibility. I also want to talk about establishing a presence on multiple social media sites like Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, and how it’s relevant to SEO. If anyone else has any Best Practices ideas, this would be the place to bring them.
  • I also wanted to discuss blog/life balance and how people maintain enthusiasm for blogging when life gets overwhelming. This session could also include strategies for productivity or time management, or how you know when its time to take a break. Also, relevant to this discussion is managing relationships with publishers and authors when you’re stepping back from blogging and reviewing.
  • I don’t know that this is something I could lead, but if there’s someone there that can talk about migrating from WordPress.com or Blogger.com to WordPress.org and best strategies for going self-hosted, along with blog design, CSS and more, I’d be really interested in pulling out my laptop and actually starting the process of switching over.

Even if these topics don’t make the planning board, there are so many great suggestions for sessions that I’m sure there will be no lack of take-away ideas.

Will you be at the Book Blog UNCON? Are you interested in coming? It’s not too late to register (for free!) – you can do that here: http://bookbloguncon.wordpress.com/register-for-the-uncon/

Keep your eyes peeled the rest of the week for more Book Expo America posts!

Remembering the Rumpus & Maurice Sendak

23 May

On May 8th, the literary world lost a wonderful storyteller and illustrator, Maurice Sendak. Alongside Roald Dahl, Sendak was the loudest voice of my childhood imagination. And like Dahl, he was often described as not only telling stories to entertain, but to be honest with children. He didn’t bullshit them. He once said,

I don’t believe in children. I don’t believe in childhood. I don’t believe that there’s a demarcation. ‘Oh you mustn’t tell them that. You mustn’t tell them that.’ You tell them anything you want. Just tell them if it’s true. If it’s true you tell them.

What better endorsement for a children’s book writer than that? Children can smell bullshit from a mile away and he would have none of that. I’ve been trying, since he died, to figure out how best to blog about the impact his work had, but I keep coming up short. Why is this?

I think most of the reason is that his words are so engrained that it’s hard to separate out and measure the loss. As an example, his short book, Pierre: A Cautionary Tale is part of the family lexicon. My mom and dad, my aunts and uncles, my cousins…we all know that if we dared to say, “I don’t care!” it would immediately be met with the response, “Do you know what happened to Pierre when he said ‘I don’t care?’ He got eaten by a lion!” I’m 28 and it STILL happens.

I cannot buy books for friend’s who are pregnant without including a copy of In the Night Kitchen (for boys) and The Sign on Rosie’s Door (for girls). In my mind they are part of the essential children’s library and I always make it my mission to include a copy no matter what else is on the shower gift registry. Inevitably, someone else will give Where the Wild Things Are, but I prefer the stories that are lesser known.

The Sign on Rosie’s Door is by far my favorite of Sendak’s work, and I even bought myself a new copy after I discovered my childhood copy had been given away to a younger relative. If you’re not familiar (or even if you are), I highly recommend watching this video of the incredible Meryl Streep reading the book (and doing ALL the voices) at Maurice Sendak’s 80th birthday tribute.

For me, Sendak’s genius, fully on display in Rosie, is the ability to juxtapose the power and transformative nature of imagination with the reality of being a kid. There is no threshold between the two and as Sendak once said himself, “Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”

What is your favorite Sendak? Have you also been jonesing like I have to go buy up his whole catalog?

Also, how much do you love this Sendak story:

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”

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End of Read-a-thon Wrap-up

22 Apr

Sooo how did you guys do yesterday??

I have to say, I think this was my most productive read-a-thon ever. I really made an effort to read the whole time, and I’m happy with the progress I made, especially over the later half of the day. I was able to stay up until 3am, which I think is close to a new record for me during a read-a-thon. Only during my first one was I up later. I think I probably could’ve stayed up later but I have plans today that involve being outside and craft beer and food trucks and I need to be functional for that.

I also got some books crossed off my TBR list that had been lurking, and according to Goodreads, I’m now two books ahead of schedule for my goal of 52 for the year.

Here’s the final end-of-event meme:

  1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The last one, hour 19. I was definitely feeling sleepy by that point.
  2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Masque of the Red Death was really a fast read and I tore through that right when it counted and I needed a high-interest book to keep me motivated.
  3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in the lack of cheerleader comments I got. I don’t think there were any official cheerleaders until the very end, and I had to ask for it. I didn’t realized how much I rely on that motivation, when I get an email notification that someone’s commented on the blog.
  4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? This is a personal thing, but I think having one blog post and updating it throughout the day worked great for me. Its been tough for me to figure out a system that works best for regular updating, and that doesn’t clog people’s feed readers. I think this might be the way to go from here on out. I also liked that I set out 3-hour intervals to stop and post updates. It wasn’t always right at 3 hours, but it seemed to work well enough. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on something by reading too much, and I also felt okay about putting the book down and taking a break because I’d planning it out.
  5. How many books did you read? I read 3 full books, and almost half of a fourth.
  6. What were the names of the books you read? Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?, The Masque of the Red Death, Home and Gold.
  7. Which book did you enjoy most? Surprisingly, I think I liked Home the best.
  8. Which did you enjoy least? There wasn’t a single book in my stack that I didn’t love, but Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? was probably the slowest of all the books I read. It was still a wonderful read though.
  9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn’t a cheerleader.
  10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? Very likely, and one of these days I’d like host a mini-challenge.

Read-a-thon – Let’s Do This!

21 Apr

Note: I’ll be updating this same post all day so as to not create more posts in people’s readers. New updates will be on top!

Hour 20 – UPDATE #6

Well, it’s 3am and I think I’ve had it. I have to admit though, book #4 – Gold by Chris Cleave – is so good that I’ve been fighting sleep for the last half hour because I just want to read a little bit more. I do actually need to be functional tomorrow, so with that, I’m shutting down my read-a-thon for the night. Hopefully I’ll be back before 8am to do one final update, but considering that’s only 5 hours from now, I’m not holding my breath. I hope everyone had as successful a read-a-thon as I did.

Here’s my last update before I hit the sack:

Books: Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?, The Masque of the Red Death, Home and Gold (and some Angela’s Ashes on audio)
Pages: 764 + 45 minutes of audio
Update: I’m cooked. See everyone in the a.m.

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Hour 16 - UPDATE #5 + Rereading Mini-Challenge

I love this pace I’m keeping up, but the sleepiness is starting to hit me. But I’m back because I’ve finished book #3, Toni Morrison’s Home. Wow, what an incredibly powerful and utterly quiet book. I’m definitely going to need some time to process that one.

My mom has officially called it quits for the night, but even though I’ve finished my third book of the day, I’m feeling great, and I’m tempted to start my fourth, rather than pack it in.

Here’s where I’m at:

Books: Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?, The Masque of the Red Death, and Home (with a little bit of Angela’s Ashes on audio thrown in.
Pages: 622 + 45 minutes of audio
Update: I’ve decided to do a mini-challenge as a way to wake myself up a bit!

The Blue Stocking Society is hosting this hour’s mini-challenge and they’re asking about books we most enjoy rereading. I have to admit, I’m not a huge rereader. I always have so many new books on my TBR list that sometimes it feels like a waste of time to go back to books I’m already familiar with. That being said, rereads do have a cozy blanket-like feel to them, and wrapping yourself in something familiar like that can be so comforting. Which is probably why all my favorite rereads are books I loved as a kid: Matilda or The BFG by Roald Dahl, the Alice books by Phillis Reynolds Naylor, Jason and Marceline or Who Put That Hair In My Toothbrush? by Jerry Spinelli. It’s also probably why, at some point in the near future, I’ve got a reread of all seven Harry Potter novels planned. Sometimes you just need that cozy blanket feeling, right?

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Hour 14 – UPDATE #4

I’ve just finished up my second book of the ‘thon. I’ve got chocolate chip cookies in the oven and I’m just about to start Toni Morrison’s Home.

But first the mid-event survey (even though I’m a touch late):

  1. How are you doing? Sleepy? Are your eyes tired? I’m actually feeling really great. Not sleepy at all, but I do think I’m going to have to move to a different spot soon. My reading chair is getting cramped.
  2. What have you finished reading? Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? and The Masque of the Red Death
  3. What is your favorite read so far? I really couldn’t choose. Both books are fantastic and so incredibly different from each other, there’s no way to compare.
  4. What about your favorite snacks? Earlier this afternoon, I had garlic hummus with pita and orange peppers, but I’ve got cookies fresh from the oven and those just might win.
  5. Have you found any new blogs through the readathon? If so, give them some love! Sadly, not a lot of blog hopping this time around. Maybe as the crowd thins a bit, I’ll poke around some new ones.

Total Pages: 519 + 45 minutes of audio, listened to Angela’s Ashes while running errands.

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Hour 11 - UPDATE #3

Wow, I’m just speeding along. This stopping-every-three-hours thing seems to be working well for me, but as we move into the evening we’ll see how well that keeps up.

Since I last checked in, I’ve read 240 pages in Masque of the Red Death and I’ve got about 70 pages left to go. But first a quick errand before dinner! I hope everyone is having a great read-a-thon and I’ll be checking in soon.

Book: The Masque of the Red Death
Pages: 440
Update: I’m so happy I decided to switch to YA before tackling Toni Morrison. Home is a short book, but I needed an easy read between that and Winterson’s memoir. No mini-challenges, but I’m really feeling like I’m on a roll, and I’m not missing them that much. Let’s up this errand doesn’t mess that momentum up.

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Hour 8 – UPDATE #2

I did it! Finished my first book, and right on schedule. And what a great read!

I’m taking a short break to do some cheering and then I think I’m moving on to Masque of the Red Death. How great is this cover, btw?

I need something quick and dirty before I jump into another heavy read, like Gold by Chris Cleave or Home by Toni Morrison.

Book: About to start The Masque of the Red Death
Pages: 200ish
Updates: My mom has officially joined the Read-a-thon party. She’s curled up on the couch with Divergent and, while I normally listen to quiet music while I read, sometimes the best kind of soundtrack is the whisper of mutually turning pages :) . I’m definitely going to be feeling the sleepys soon though, so perhaps a change of scenery to the porch is in order.

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Hour 6 – UPDATE #1

Well I haven’t updated as frequently as I’d like, but I did take a break at the 3-hour mark to shower, clean my bathroom, and throw my sheets in the wash, though I did the last two with a book in my hand (multitasking FTW!).

I’m also being really selective about the mini-challenges and have so far only entered one, aside from the intro post.

Here’s how I’m doing so far:

Book: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Pages: Since I started, I’ve read about 120 pages. But clearly I’ve done a lot of other stuff too. I’m expecting to finish before I check in next time.
Updates: I’ve moved venues, from my apartment to my parent’s, and even stopped for some lunch (all while reading, of course – I wasn’t driving!) I’m going to try to put in a solid 90 minutes of reading and be back at 3pm EDT.

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I’m actually starting Read-a-thon right on time this morning! I even set an alarm and everything – I’m so dedicated :) .

This is the fourth or fifth read-a-thon I’ve done, I can’t even keep track anymore, but I’m looking forward to getting a lot of reading done.

I’ve got my first book ready, and I’ll be making my way downstairs for some coffee soon (as soon as my allergy meds kick in). I’m starting with Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, since I’m already knee-deep in it.

To kick off read-a-thon, I thought I’d post a quote from that book:

So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn’t be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange and stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language — and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers — a language powerful enough to say how it is.

It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place.

With that as my inspiration for the day, let’s start with the Hour 1 intro:

  1. What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I’m reading from Washington, DC, within spitting distance of the Capitol.
  2. Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I’m most looking forward to Home by Toni Morrison. I’ve got an egalley that is calling my name.
  3. Which snack are you most looking forward to? I love taking a break and making cookies during read-a-thon, but I stick to the premade dough so I can do it one-handed with a book in the other. I’ve got Tollhouse mini’s ready to go!
  4. Tell us a little something about yourself! I’m getting my Master’s in Publishing, and I’m about to start my third semester. It’s a ton of work but for a publishing/book nerd, I couldn’t be happier that I decided to go back to school.
  5. If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to? As I said before, I’ve done several read-a-thons now, and one thing I always struggle with is balancing the mini-challenges, tweeting, updating my blog, cheering and then somehow an hour’s passed and I haven’t read a single page. This year, I’m going to check in online once every three hours, for 15-30 minutes, and that way it’s on the schedule and I don’t feel overwhelmed or like I’m neglecting my fellow read-a-thoners or my blog.

I’ll be updating this one post all day, so CHEERLEADERS, please leave comments here; I appreciate the support!!

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Oh Hey, Read-a-thon!

20 Apr

Somehow, the spring 24 Hour Read-a-thon completely crept up on me this time around. But I’m super excited that it’s falling in the scant two weeks between my Spring semester and Summer semester at school. (Yes, my summer semester starts on April 30th.) I am absolutely participating – in fact I had plans for tomorrow and canceled. That is dedication, people.

Because I’ve had so little time to prepare myself, things are going to be a little less formal around here. I’m not going to be able to read for charity this time around (though I may change my mind), and I’m not really setting out with a list of books set aside for read-a-thoning.

Oh who am I kidding? I’m definitely starting with a list of some kind. This is what I’ve got on the docket as options.

This time around, it’s going to be all about the pleasure of the read. I’ve got a good selection from across genres, with some faster reads throw into the mix of the more hefty books. I really wish I could read all of these in the next day, but I don’t think anyone is that fast!

I’ve got some chores to do in the a.m. but that’s what audiobooks are for right? And then its going to be breezy for the rest of the day. My mom is even going to participate, though she’s not doing the full 24-hours. I’m going to escape my buzzy group house and take full advantage of her air-conditioning and full fridge.

I’ll be updating throughout the day, with a sticky post up top, so come say hi!

A Different Way of Doing Things: Book Blog UnCON

6 Apr

Perhaps you’ve heard of this small thing that’s brewing as an alternative to BEA Blogger Conference? The Book Blog UnCONFERENCE is the brain child of Jeff of The Reading Ape, and some prodding by a few other people, including Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog (and me, which mostly consisted of Twitter messages that just said, “YES!”).

I had the pleasure of attending the first two Book Blogger Conferences before they were bought by Reed Exhibitions, who runs Book Expo America. As a new blogger, the first year, I found the conference to be helpful and educational and I met some fellow bloggers that I never would’ve met or read otherwise. I didn’t know much about book blogging and having the opportunity to make connections with publishers, authors and fellow bloggers was a dream come true. I wasn’t taking review copies at that point, and I’d never thought that I’d have the audience to support such a leap. But here we are two years later, and I’m at a totally different place in my blogging.

I’m trying to actually make a career of this publishing thing – hence the Master’s in Publishing – and my scope of blogging is much broader. I feel privileged to have the connections in the industry that I do, but I also think I’ve got a long way to go.

At last year’s Book Blogger Con, I was less excited about the actual sessions, and more psyched about the connections I was making. One of my favorite moments from BBC: hanging out in the hallway with a bunch of fellow bloggers – some I knew and some I was just meeting for the first time – and discussing something totally unrelated to any formal session that was happening in the rooms around us. And those connections were far more impactful to me individually than some of the sessions BBC ran. Not because of the quality or topics of the sessions, but because I was at a different place with my blogging.

After some hullabaloo with registering for this year’s BBC, which included the powers that Be asking for blog stats, not publishing session topics or speakers and not making the BEA/BBC registration part clear, I was feeling very jaded by the whole shebang. I was not the only one. Jeff decided that we could totally host an alternative, one that is attendee driven, topic-focused, and organic. And the UnConference was born.

While it’s still in the planning phase, there’s a lot of excitement. The Center for Fiction has graciously offered up space for free, which means that registration for bloggers is free. A crucial part of making the UnCon successful is getting people to come, to suggest sessions, to just be their generally awesome selves.

Jeff noted this point on a follow-up post here that I want to reiterate. This is NOT a revolt or a protest, and its not directed at any one person or decision made by BEA/Reed. Its a matter of wanting to attend an event that’s by bloggers for bloggers, that takes our collective knowledge and puts it to work. We’re going to have plenty of time to interact with publishers and authors during BEA, but our needs and wants as bloggers are unique and we want an event just for us.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in attending, register HERE and follow the UnCon on Twitter for updates.

I’ll post next week with some conference session ideas I have, but please sign up and spread the word!

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Reflection: The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin

26 Mar

One of the most difficult things to do as a book blogger is write a review of a book that you didn’t love or hate, that you had “meh” feelings about. What’s worse is when you don’t know why you had those feelings. (I’m totally not making you excited to read this post, aren’t I?) With Nick Arvin’s new novel, The Reconstructionist I am torn about my feelings for sure, but I thankfully can point to the exact reasons. Which is why I’m writing this review only a few weeks after I finish the book, while it’s fresh. Aren’t you proud?

I absolutely loved half of this book – the first quarter and the last quarter. The middle half I was pretty much just pushing myself through it, in the hopes that there would be a pay-off at the end. And there was, a great, well-crafted pay-off. The middle though. It was rough. Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads.com:

At a loose end after college, Ellis Barstow drifts back to his home town and a strange profession: reconstructing fatal traffic accidents. He seems to take to the work immediately, and forms a bond with his boss and mentor, John Boggs, an intriguing character of few but telling words.

Yet Ellis is harbouring a secret. He was drawn to the reconstructionist’s grisly world by the fatal crash that killed his half-brother Christopher and that still haunts him; in fact his life has been shaped by car accidents. Boggs, in his exacting way, would argue that ‘accident’ is not the right word, that if two cars meeting at an intersection can be called an accident then anything can – where we live, what we do, even who we fall in love with.

For Ellis these things are certainly no accident. And he harbours a second, more dangerous secret, one that threatens to blow apart the men’s lives and which, as the story’s quiet momentum builds, leads to a desperate race towards confrontation, reconciliation and survival.

There is a lot of suspense built into this story, and Arvin does a great job at using the suspense of the story and giving the reader just enough to keep them going. I’m pretty sure that those little nuggets and hints are what kept me going through the very quiet middle to the end, where – as promised – all is revealed. Ellis is a complicated and well-rendered character, who is ultimately relatable and very real. His life is defined by a series of events on which he really has very little direct impact. But he is profoundly driven by them, whether he admits that to himself or not.

If you’re at all aware of the pattern of books that are…problematic… for me, you know that high on the list of issues I have is believability. Plot is usually my main motivating element as a reader, and while this had a strong undercurrent of plot complexity, a lot of it was character heavy. And character heavy in a way that, to me, was beyond my ability to take it seriously.

**SPOILER ALERT** (If you haven’t read it, skip this next paragraph.)

Most of the middle half of the book is a spiritual quest for Ellis and Boggs though it’s not clear exactly what each of them are seeking out. The moment at the lake when they meet over a dead body,  I actually said out loud, “Are you serious?” The journey until that point had been a stretch for me – why these men would start visiting old crash sites wasn’t a stretch, but I had a hard time understanding Boggs’ motivation. Ellis’ were clear enough – the man was totally and completely guilt driven – but I don’t think until Boggs went off the map, there was any sign of an impending breakdown. His drive wasn’t clear to me, and therefore Ellis’ reasons for following him started to go off the rails. The dead body that neither of them seem all that surprised to see was the point at which I mentally scoffed and stopped having faith in the narrative. And then the fact that neither of them call the cops until it’s basically an afterthought? The believability factor was a distant memory in that moment for me.

**SPOILERS OVER**

I do like the way that the book ended, and though it had the potential to feel hokey, I don’t at all think it was. It felt like the right and inevitable end to the story. The plot wrapped up neatly enough that the suspense created early in the book felt justified and logical. I think that I would’ve really liked this book had the middle half been significantly shortened and/or felt like less of a hallucination. I’m not sure if that was the intention – I know that unintentional sleep-deprivation is a huge part of Ellis’ journey – but I needed more from the story to justify that tonal and narrative shift from the beginning and the end. I know as I was nearing the end of the book I had a realization that it felt a little like the author had a page count to hit, so he fattened up the middle to meet that goal. I doubt very much this is actually the case, but that’s never a good feeling to have about a novel.

In the end, the means by which each of the characters arrives to their separate fates wasn’t enough for me. I didn’t see how the journey was necessary to reach some greater level of self-actualization or greater level of understanding about each other and the past. To me, Ellis could have reached the same conclusions without the epic quest and there wasn’t much new gained by that trip. Arvin certainly wanted there to be more, I could see that in the writing, but I didn’t see that it was realized successfully.

My poor review is all well and good, but I have seen great reviews of this book from several people I trust. I would encourage you to read it, and see if you agree with me. Was I too impatient was the subtly of the narrative? Did I miss something about the characters that made it all come together for you?

As I said, having mixed feelings about a book is tough. It’s tough as a reader, and it’s tough for someone who might think about picking it up. If it counts for anything, I have no compunction about not finishing books, and there was enough good and interesting in this book to make me finish it, and finish it quickly. The writing was beautiful, and I enjoyed the actual reading of it, if I was lukewarm about the final product as a whole.

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Quick Hit: The Underside of Joy by Seré Prince Halverson

3 Feb

It’s really very difficult to suppress the urge to apologize at the beginning of every post I write now. Yes, my lapse between posts is ridiculous; yes, I’m super busy; and yes, unfortunately, this blog has to take a backseat. I wish it were different, but, alas it’s not. If you’re still reading my blog, I appreciate the loyalty, but we all just have to accept that the posts are going to be sporadic at best.

That being said, sometimes you stumble across a book that you just feel deserves the attention you’ve been neglecting elsewhere. Seré Prince Halverson’s debut novel, The Underside of Joy, is one of those books.

Halverson’s first book is notable not only because it was rescued from the slush pile where unsolicited manuscripts wait for an assistant to fall in love with them, but also because it IS her first. So many first books are clumsy or have odd pacing or feel forced. This book has none of that.

From the author’s website:

To Ella Beene, happiness means living in the Northern California river town of Elbow with her husband, Joe, and his two young children. For three years, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known. But when Joe drowns off the coast, his ex-wife shows up at his funeral, intent on reclaiming the children. Ella must fight to prove they should remain with her while she struggles to save the family’s market. With wit and determination, she delves beneath the surface of her marriage, finally asking the questions she most fears, the answers jeopardizing everything and everyone she most loves.

Rather than the fairy tale version of step-motherhood that pits good against evil, The Underside of Joy explores a complex relationship between two women who both consider themselves to be the children’s mother. Their conflict uncovers a map of scars — physical and emotional — to their families’ deeply buried tragedies, including Italian internment camps during WWII and postpartum depression and psychosis.

First of all, can I just say how much I adore the name “Ella Beene” for this character??

Secondly, the thing that I loved most about The Underside of Joy (and there were many things to pick from) is that, in a book that is set up as step-mother against mother, there really isn’t a good guy and a bad guy. Even though the book is told entirely from Ella’s perspective, Halverson manages to elicit empathy for both women – not an easy feat when the basic narrative structure invites a stark dichotomy between characters. But Halverson recognizes that life is not that simple, and nor are relationships and children. And because there’s no clear-cut winner or loser in this battle, there seems to be no easy answer or neat ending on the horizon. It is absolutely one of the most compelling conflicts I’ve read in a long time, and I absolutely ached for everyone involved.

Third, I have to admire an author that absolutely sells the story. I mean that in the best way possible, I promise. The time frame in The Underside of Joy initially feels too short for all the things that have happened, to happen. A mother gives birth for the second time, leaves her husband and children, the husband falls in love with someone else and gets married, and they are blissfully happy, all in three short years? I’m not sure why that felt like such a short timeline, but it did. Had Halverson not completely convinced me of why and how that was, not only feasible, but necessary for the story to progress as it does, I would’ve been much less impressed and far more dismissive of this as a typical first novel.

Highly recommended.

P.S. I really want to live in a town called Elbow. Just sayin’.

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Fitting in eBooks: An Experiment

16 Jan

I’ve had an ereader – a first-generation nook – for a while now, several years at least. You would think that being a fairly early adopter of ereader technology would allow me to work ebooks into my habits and somewhat replace print books into my collection; but sadly that’s not been the case, and I’ve struggled with even fitting ebooks into my reading. I use NetGalley to read pre-release galleys electronically, and I buy a lot of my YA guilty pleasures on the nook store because I want to read them, but don’t want them to take up space. But largely I’ve stuck to a print books. I still have the mindset that, if I want to “own” a book, I want the print copy, as if the ebook isn’t really “owning” it.

Lately though I’m testing out a way to both own an ebook and a hardcover version, and make both of them work. I’m currently reading Stephen King’s newest novel, 11/22/63. I bought myself the hardcover before Christmas, and then shortly after, I got a Klout perk for an ebook version from Simon & Schuster. I’m reading them both, depending on the day and the situation, and it’s been nothing short of enlightening. Both in respect to how I use paper books and how I use ebooks.

Overall, I’m enjoying having both available depending on how and where I’ll be reading – and my poor purse (and shoulder) isn’t weighted down with a 900-page book. But the page counts are off – the hardcover has 849 pages and the ebook counts just under 700. So syncing my stopping place has been tricky to say the least.

But this method – reading both the paper book and the ebook at the same time – isn’t practical. I am most likely only going to buy one copy of a book, but if I were able to buy a bundle of the hardcover and the ebook together at a lower price than buying them separately (but at a higher price than one or the other costs individually), I would be increasingly likely to do so. There are some books that I still will only want in ebook, and some that I will wait and buy in paperback. But I don’t see many possibilities where I would want the hardcover and NOT also want the ebook version. I’ve been delightfully surprised by how easily I switch back and forth and how much I actually use that option.

I’m curious, have you done this dual reading thing? What are your feelings about bundling ebooks with hardcovers?

One other note about switching back and forth: the engaging nature of the a particular book might be a mitigating factor. Because I cannot put down 11/22/63 and pretty much want to read it all the time at every moment I can spare. So I’m more willing to make the effort involved in dual reading, but I can’t imagine that a book I’m feeling only meh about will encourage the same level of engagement.

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Looking back at 2011… and ahead to 2012

3 Jan

It’s a new year. It’s also a new day, a new week, and a new month.  (Did you get that memo?)

Which also supposedly means a wrap up post for 2011. I posted my Top Five at Book Riot in mid-December, and for the most part they haven’t changed much. The Art of Fielding maintained it’s spot even after I finished it – and I ended up buying it for my dad for Christmas. I set a few goals as part of Reading Deliberately at the beginning of 2011: read more Chunksters, Classics, TBR List, and Non-fiction and Blog more. Ugh. I already feel the shame creeping in of what I didn’t accomplish. Ah well, new year, new goals, right?

Let’s break it down a bit though.

I didn’t reach my goal of 60 books, but I did read 53, finishing the last one (What Alice Forgot), just before I had to jump in the shower to get ready for a New Year’s Eve party. I’m actually pretty happy about that because it’s still an average of more than one book a week. Of course, I’d like to read more this year, but I would be happy with meeting the same number. Grad school for the entire year this year will do a number on my pleasure reading, so this is the best I can reach for.

I also read 19,046 pages, which I’m also very happy about. The longest book I read in 2011 was actually the first book I read: Gone with the Wind. At over a thousand pages, it beat out anything else I read by far. Not as many chunksters as I’d hoped though – only a total of five books over 500 pages.  I also completely failed at reading more Classics this year too. And only six of my books were non-fiction. And that whole “blog more” thing – that didn’t so much happen.

But out with the old, in with the new!

I’m vowing this year – okay, maybe not vowing, because that’s awfully strong language – I’ll be trying this year to keep some of those same goals in mind. I’m still going to be Reading Deliberately, if for no other reason than the fact that my personal reading time is going to be precise and limited. In that vein, I’m also going to try to read more books that have been heavily recommended by friends or fellow book bloggers, like for example Mr. Peanut which Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog has been pushing forever.

Blogging more – I really want to do that. I really do, but I’m going to have to balance my commitments a little more strictly this year. That means at least one blog a week here, and at least one a week over at Book Riot. If I can do more, I will, but that’s what I’m shooting for, for now.

As part of my running 30 for 30 list, I’m going to work on Jane Austen, and Harry Potter, though I don’t know if I can take another crack at Anna Karenina until I get a different translation.

I’m also starting my “Take a photo every day for a year” task, which you can follow on Tumblr and on Flickr.

It’s going to be a great year. What are your reading goals? And resolutions?

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