Beth Kephart's Blog, page 291

The Abundance of John Green (in Looking for Alaska)

A few years ago, during fellowship hour at my church, a friend and her daughter began describing their most recent literary adventure.  They'd driven to New York, they said, to see John Green read.  The line to get in was at least a block long.  When the crowd finally fully compacted, when it contained its excitement and hushed, John Green wasn't just the funny, smart, wonderful, warm writer my friend and her daughter thought he would be.  He was infinitely better than that.

I believe it.  Lik...

Dangerous Neighbors, reflections on the Kirkus Review

I always shake when I realize that reviews for a long-loved book have begun to come in, and so, when Egmont USA's Greg Ferguson sent along this Kirkus review of Dangerous Neighbors, I did breathe a sigh of relief—grateful, so grateful for the reviewer's compassionate reading of the story (thank you).  I was saddened by the final lines of the review, only because so much work had been done to check the in-vogueness of the language in the book.  The term narcissist, for example, which is questi...

My Name is Mary Sutter/Robin Oliveria: Reflections

I have spent much of the last two days impressed into the world of Robin Oliveira's making—the immaculately researched and thoughtfully conveyed story of a Civil War midwife-cum-surgeon named Mary Sutter.  I hadn't thought I'd like this book as much as I most assuredly did.  I had wondered about its title, a first-person declaration that does not capture the close-over-the-shoulder third-person chorus that carries the story forward.  Within the first two dozen pages none of that mattered.  Wh...

On books past (and on saying thanks)

Yesterday, in preparation for the re-launch of this very blog (which will be happening soon), I did something I almost never do—return to books once written.  I was in search of a few words about each, and in going back, all the way back, over 12 books and five genres, I stumbled across the generosity of authors like Buzz Bissinger, Jayne Anne Phillips, Rosellen Brown, Ken Kalfus, Susan Straight, Kate Moses, Katrina Kenison, Sy Montgomery, and Jennie Nash; I was reminded of the kindness and i...

Literary Inversions

So what would it take, you wonder (do you wonder?) to turn a YA novel into an A novel and an A novel into a YA novel, and to do both things at once to books you've worked on for years, so much so that, even though they have absolutely nothing to do with on another, they begin to float toward one another, and I ask myself (I do ask myself), What if Vin belonged not to Sophie, but to Kenzie, and what if Kenzie were not 18 by 30 and Sophie not 39 but 13?

(That was a question, or multiple question...

Libba Bray and her rocking 2010 Printz Awards speech

I have had, as I mentioned yesterday, the gift of time.  I've been watching and listening to other authors in part of that time, and yesterday I sat and listened to this utterly remarkable talk by Libba Bray on the occasion of her Printz Award win (for Going Bovine).  I had met her, but only briefly, at ALA, and been utterly charmed.  But one must listen to this entire talk to get a full sense of who Libba Bray is—gracious and wickedly funny, spontaneous and utterly prepared, entirely human a...

How are you?

A funny thing happened when I returned from the Cayman Islands.  There was time, and it was mine.  I had work-work to do, but I got it done.  Writing projects were on hold, for the time being.  All of a sudden some windows opened, and I've looked out, and there are my friends.

Friends.

I have, I think, some of the best friends in the world—thoughtful, reflective, alive with ideas and purpose, fundamentally interesting, and never overbearing.  How are you?  It's the easiest question in the world...

The book trailer dilemma (and Dangerous Neighbors)

In this weekend's New York Times, Pamela Paul tackles the topic of the "de rigueur" book trailer ("The Author Takes a Star Turn"), citing the recent YouTube moments of, among others, Mary Karr, Jeannette Walls, and Kelly Corrigan.  To quote from the story:

But in the streaming video era, with the publishing industry under relentless threat, the trailer is fast becoming an essential component of online marketing. Asked to draw on often nonexistent acting skills, authors are holding forth for...

The Last Station: Reflections

Last night (at long last) we watched The Last Station, a movie about Tolstoy's final days.  I have long been fascinated by this chapter in history—the battle over the rights to Tolstoy's work, the conflict between his ideals and his living, his flight from the world he created (and his complex wife), his dying—a media spectacle—at the Astapova train station.  Jay Parini, an author of many books, an elaborator on many moods, published the book in 1990.  The movie, starring Christopher Plummer,...

Between Shades of Gray/Ruta Sepetys: Reflections

If I brought just one ARC home from the BEA—the glorious The Report (Jessica Francis Kane)—I was to have traveled home with two ARCs from the ALA convention.  The first, Caroline Leavitt's Pictures of You , did in fact make it into my bag.  The second, Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, was delivered to me at the Egmont USA booth by a fashion-runway-worthy Jill Santopolo, only to be snatched by an eager reader when I oh-so-briefly turned my head.  I had to wait until yesterday, when anoth...