Gail Gauthier's Blog: Gail Gauthier Reads, page 12
January 23, 2015
A Snowshoeing/Book Writing Analogy
Many people who have not written a book may wonder what it would be like to just knock one off. I think if you took a journey up a mountain on snowshoes, you'd get a pretty good idea of what it feels like to write a book.
Okay, say you're going to head up a trail, and just to make this piece of writing specific, let's say it's the trail to the Slayton Pasture Cabin in Stowe, Vermont. You've been up to the cabin a few times before, and you know it's one of the tougher outdoor activities you take part in. You feel some anxiety about this whole thing. But then you figure, What the Hell? I've done this before.
So you start out and things are pretty easy at first, and you're thinking, What was I worried about? Yes. I have done this before. I've done it successfully. People have liked what I've done in the past. Of course, I can do this.
Then you hit that Hellacious, straight up climb, the part of the job you'd really feared. It is horrendous. You think it will never end. You'll never get through it. You think, I cannot do this again. This has got to be the last time. Is that my heart I feel thumping away in my chest? Have I ever felt that before? Is it going to explode? Is there any cellphone service here?
Then you take that turn and things get better. Since you've done this before, you know some landmarks. You know that nothing will be as bad as that part of the job you just did. You know that the snowshoe trail crosses a ski trail at the X minute point, so you can think of this job as a series of short tasks instead of Oh my God I'm, going to be on this trail for two hours. And that's just one way!
You actually experience one of those break through the wall things that you've heard about with marathoners. You might actually be okay.
And, then...And then, you see the cabin. A chorus of angels begins to sing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. They all sound just like K.D. Lang. You're going to make it!
Except...you still have to get through the pasture. Sure, this part is easy. But you're exhausted. You still have a ways to go. There's a fire in the cabin. There's food. Can you do it? "Maybe there is a God," as Lenny Cohen says, because you can!!! You stagger up onto the cabin porch.
And that is what it's like to write a book.
But what about when you're in the cabin? Well, once you're in the cabin, you find that all the other writers, I mean, showshoers aren't wearing old thermal undershirts that are kind of too big for the shirt they're wearing over them. Nor do they wear hats their sons refused to wear. And they're talking about all the great places they've snowshoed and how long it took them to get to the cabin and how awesome it was, and it's always less time than it took you, and it's always far, far more awesome.
And that is what it's like to have published a book.
You come down off the mountain and feel pretty damn fine because it's always way better to have snowshoed than it is to snowshoe.
Just as it is always better to have written a book than it is to write it.
Originally published at Original Content.
Okay, say you're going to head up a trail, and just to make this piece of writing specific, let's say it's the trail to the Slayton Pasture Cabin in Stowe, Vermont. You've been up to the cabin a few times before, and you know it's one of the tougher outdoor activities you take part in. You feel some anxiety about this whole thing. But then you figure, What the Hell? I've done this before.
So you start out and things are pretty easy at first, and you're thinking, What was I worried about? Yes. I have done this before. I've done it successfully. People have liked what I've done in the past. Of course, I can do this.
Then you hit that Hellacious, straight up climb, the part of the job you'd really feared. It is horrendous. You think it will never end. You'll never get through it. You think, I cannot do this again. This has got to be the last time. Is that my heart I feel thumping away in my chest? Have I ever felt that before? Is it going to explode? Is there any cellphone service here?
Then you take that turn and things get better. Since you've done this before, you know some landmarks. You know that nothing will be as bad as that part of the job you just did. You know that the snowshoe trail crosses a ski trail at the X minute point, so you can think of this job as a series of short tasks instead of Oh my God I'm, going to be on this trail for two hours. And that's just one way!
You actually experience one of those break through the wall things that you've heard about with marathoners. You might actually be okay.
And, then...And then, you see the cabin. A chorus of angels begins to sing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. They all sound just like K.D. Lang. You're going to make it!
Except...you still have to get through the pasture. Sure, this part is easy. But you're exhausted. You still have a ways to go. There's a fire in the cabin. There's food. Can you do it? "Maybe there is a God," as Lenny Cohen says, because you can!!! You stagger up onto the cabin porch.
And that is what it's like to write a book.
But what about when you're in the cabin? Well, once you're in the cabin, you find that all the other writers, I mean, showshoers aren't wearing old thermal undershirts that are kind of too big for the shirt they're wearing over them. Nor do they wear hats their sons refused to wear. And they're talking about all the great places they've snowshoed and how long it took them to get to the cabin and how awesome it was, and it's always less time than it took you, and it's always far, far more awesome.
And that is what it's like to have published a book.
You come down off the mountain and feel pretty damn fine because it's always way better to have snowshoed than it is to snowshoe.
Just as it is always better to have written a book than it is to write it.
Originally published at Original Content.
January 16, 2015
A Book Disappears
I brought Ethan Allen: His Life and Times by Willard Sterne Randall with me on a Vermont retreat, planning to go through the index and read the interesting bits. I read the first 90 pages and then did the index thing. Why did I plan that kind of reading? Because I'd already read Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier by Michael Belliseles back when I was researching The Hero of Ticonderoga
I found Ethan Allen to be very similar to Revolutionary Outlaws in its treatment of the intelligent, unschooled, rough and tumble, bull-in-a-chinashop Allen. Both books, for instance, place him in the context of the late Puritan world he was born into and the impact that had upon him. Randall's book goes into more detail in places, regarding Allen's family history, for instance, and how he came to lose leadership of the Green Mountain Boys after leading them to victory at Fort Ticonderoga. But in what I read, I didn't feel there was much new ground broken.
What was particularly interesting to me was that in reading reviews of Ethan Allen I didn't see much in the way of references to Revolutionary Outlaws, even though it was also about Ethan Allen and his world and written by an academic and was published less than twenty years earlier. There were a couple of vague comments about only one major biography of Allen having been written in the last fifty years (Randall does this, too), which I assume is referring to Revolutionary Outlaws, but no name is given.
What happened to Revolutionary Outlaws, a book that got attention at the time of its publication and that I remember as being well reviewed?
Well, its author, the aforementioned Michael Belliseles, got into some big trouble for a book he wrote after Revolutionary Outlaws. Depending on which account you read, his research was called into question or he intentionally manipulated facts to support his points. The consequences for him were disastrous. His teaching and writing careers were destroyed.
What happened post Revolutionary Outlaws might make one question the scholarship of everything Belliseles did before that point. Still, given the connections between Revolutionary Outlaws and Ethan Allen, you'd think at least some reviewers of the newer book, who I assume were qualified to review this particular historical nonfiction, would have brought up the older one.
Instead, Revolutionary Outlaws seems to have disappeared.
I found Ethan Allen to be very similar to Revolutionary Outlaws in its treatment of the intelligent, unschooled, rough and tumble, bull-in-a-chinashop Allen. Both books, for instance, place him in the context of the late Puritan world he was born into and the impact that had upon him. Randall's book goes into more detail in places, regarding Allen's family history, for instance, and how he came to lose leadership of the Green Mountain Boys after leading them to victory at Fort Ticonderoga. But in what I read, I didn't feel there was much new ground broken.
What was particularly interesting to me was that in reading reviews of Ethan Allen I didn't see much in the way of references to Revolutionary Outlaws, even though it was also about Ethan Allen and his world and written by an academic and was published less than twenty years earlier. There were a couple of vague comments about only one major biography of Allen having been written in the last fifty years (Randall does this, too), which I assume is referring to Revolutionary Outlaws, but no name is given.
What happened to Revolutionary Outlaws, a book that got attention at the time of its publication and that I remember as being well reviewed?
Well, its author, the aforementioned Michael Belliseles, got into some big trouble for a book he wrote after Revolutionary Outlaws. Depending on which account you read, his research was called into question or he intentionally manipulated facts to support his points. The consequences for him were disastrous. His teaching and writing careers were destroyed.
What happened post Revolutionary Outlaws might make one question the scholarship of everything Belliseles did before that point. Still, given the connections between Revolutionary Outlaws and Ethan Allen, you'd think at least some reviewers of the newer book, who I assume were qualified to review this particular historical nonfiction, would have brought up the older one.
Instead, Revolutionary Outlaws seems to have disappeared.
January 15, 2015
Reading About Billy Collins
I cannot pretend to be a fan of or knowledgeable about poetry. I did, however, pick up Billy Collins' Horoscopes for the Dead on Tuesday. I'm enjoying it, but, knowing little about poetry, as I already mentioned, I decided to look for some writing about Collins.
What I found fascinating about Wages of Fame: The Case of Billy Collins at Contemporary Poetry Review is that it suffers from the same thing the author, Ernest Hilbert, says Collins' poetry suffers from--sameness. It's a lengthy piece that I eventually started skimming because I was reading the same thing over and over again. Collins' writing, technically, is no great shakes. He isn't innovative. He doesn't like obscurity. He wants to make readers comfortable.
I will keep all that in mind. But I didn't have to read anywhere near all that essay to learn that.
What I found fascinating about Wages of Fame: The Case of Billy Collins at Contemporary Poetry Review is that it suffers from the same thing the author, Ernest Hilbert, says Collins' poetry suffers from--sameness. It's a lengthy piece that I eventually started skimming because I was reading the same thing over and over again. Collins' writing, technically, is no great shakes. He isn't innovative. He doesn't like obscurity. He wants to make readers comfortable.
I will keep all that in mind. But I didn't have to read anywhere near all that essay to learn that.
January 11, 2015
There's Always Time For The Library
The Saturday before Christmas I was doing the run-around thing. I got less done in the morning than I'd hoped, which is always the case, and then I had a particularly draining weekly elder visit. I had to stop at the library on the way home because I'd received one of those e-mail "It's over lady! You didn't even start that book, and it's too late now" messages. I had plans for when I got home. (I can't even remember what they were now.) So I was going to just run into the library with my books, shove them in the slot, and get the hell out of there.
Really, I was.
Then I'm in the parking lot, and I think, Bring your wallet, Gail. Bring your library card. Because you know what you need? You need some new library books. You'll feel so much better, so good, after just five minutes wandering around in this building. Maybe ten.
And I was right. A library is so incredibly calming. Oh, my gosh. It's like soaking in a hot bath. Maybe because I soak in hot baths with a book.
I only picked up a few things, because I'm not greedy, one being The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara. This is a sharp looking picture book with a distinctive style. Plus it's a quick, charming story about a little girl librarian working at night to make everything right for her patrons.
Is that not the perfect library book for someone who has just had a calming experience at the library?
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared at Original Content.
Really, I was.
Then I'm in the parking lot, and I think, Bring your wallet, Gail. Bring your library card. Because you know what you need? You need some new library books. You'll feel so much better, so good, after just five minutes wandering around in this building. Maybe ten.
And I was right. A library is so incredibly calming. Oh, my gosh. It's like soaking in a hot bath. Maybe because I soak in hot baths with a book.
I only picked up a few things, because I'm not greedy, one being The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara. This is a sharp looking picture book with a distinctive style. Plus it's a quick, charming story about a little girl librarian working at night to make everything right for her patrons.
Is that not the perfect library book for someone who has just had a calming experience at the library?
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared at Original Content.
October 17, 2014
Gail Gauthier Visits James Thurber or Pictures From My Vacation!
Yes, I'm still talking about my vacation. Have I mentioned that I had a great time?
While planning this thing, I decided that I wanted to visit an author's home. Pretty much any author. Seriously. I googled Ohio and authors.
And guess who was born in Ohio and whose early home is open to the public. Yes! Jimmy T! Well, we have more of a Mr. Thurber and Who? kind of relationship.
James Thurber was still a very big deal in my school days. I was quite excited about hitting Columbus and visiting his house. I own three Thurber books and reread what some call his autobiography (I think it's more a collection of memoirish essays, myself), My Life and Hard Times,
in the car last month. No, My World and Welcome To It was a television show.
This is me standing in front of the home Thurber and his family lived in during the My Life and Hard Times period. Sigh. I am wearing the sweater I lost on the road. Hard times, hard times.
Thurber House is a terrific spot. The Thurber House organization both preserves the past and maintains an active present with all kinds of literary and educational programs.
Each room has only one modest sign giving information. But it was terrific information about living in the house. For instance, this is a Victorian era building, but the Thurbers were living in it post 1900. Victorian front parlors were changing by that time, I read. People were using them for more than company. Kitchens and dining rooms were the spots in a home that were most impacted by style changes. And in James' room there was a sign describing how the women's magazines of the era advised mothers to decorate their sons' rooms.
Do you know any of those families that likes to go through museums pointing at things and saying, "We've got one of those at home...And one of those...And look! I've got that thing. But better?" Yeah, I come from one of those. And I married into another.
This sewing cabinet to the left that I saw at Thurber House? I've got one just like it in my office. It came from my mother-in-law who had two of them. Came from some other family member, I'm sure. At the Thurber House, they have a sewing machine on top of it. I use mine for holding stationery. I call it the stationery cabinet. The younger members of my family don't even know what the thing really is.
Then this table to the right, which the Thurber House people have a typewriter on? Interesting story. These things are known as library tables, by the way. I don't know why. Anyway, ours was in my mother's house when I was growing up, but one of my sisters doesn't remember it. Then my understanding was that the table came from my grandmother Gauthier's house. But no one else in the family has any memory of that. Which is why it is appropriate that I should be the one to have the table. No one else. .
We're using it for a changing table now.
So, anyway, the Thurber House is great. And those educational programs I mentioned? I learned that James Thurber and I had relatives with similar taste in furniture.
Originally published at Original Content
While planning this thing, I decided that I wanted to visit an author's home. Pretty much any author. Seriously. I googled Ohio and authors.
And guess who was born in Ohio and whose early home is open to the public. Yes! Jimmy T! Well, we have more of a Mr. Thurber and Who? kind of relationship.
James Thurber was still a very big deal in my school days. I was quite excited about hitting Columbus and visiting his house. I own three Thurber books and reread what some call his autobiography (I think it's more a collection of memoirish essays, myself), My Life and Hard Times,
in the car last month. No, My World and Welcome To It was a television show.
This is me standing in front of the home Thurber and his family lived in during the My Life and Hard Times period. Sigh. I am wearing the sweater I lost on the road. Hard times, hard times.Thurber House is a terrific spot. The Thurber House organization both preserves the past and maintains an active present with all kinds of literary and educational programs.
Each room has only one modest sign giving information. But it was terrific information about living in the house. For instance, this is a Victorian era building, but the Thurbers were living in it post 1900. Victorian front parlors were changing by that time, I read. People were using them for more than company. Kitchens and dining rooms were the spots in a home that were most impacted by style changes. And in James' room there was a sign describing how the women's magazines of the era advised mothers to decorate their sons' rooms.
Do you know any of those families that likes to go through museums pointing at things and saying, "We've got one of those at home...And one of those...And look! I've got that thing. But better?" Yeah, I come from one of those. And I married into another.
This sewing cabinet to the left that I saw at Thurber House? I've got one just like it in my office. It came from my mother-in-law who had two of them. Came from some other family member, I'm sure. At the Thurber House, they have a sewing machine on top of it. I use mine for holding stationery. I call it the stationery cabinet. The younger members of my family don't even know what the thing really is.
Then this table to the right, which the Thurber House people have a typewriter on? Interesting story. These things are known as library tables, by the way. I don't know why. Anyway, ours was in my mother's house when I was growing up, but one of my sisters doesn't remember it. Then my understanding was that the table came from my grandmother Gauthier's house. But no one else in the family has any memory of that. Which is why it is appropriate that I should be the one to have the table. No one else. .We're using it for a changing table now.
So, anyway, the Thurber House is great. And those educational programs I mentioned? I learned that James Thurber and I had relatives with similar taste in furniture.
Originally published at Original Content
June 29, 2014
The Antihero of Ticonderoga on TV
A couple of weeks ago, I did a talk about Ethan Allen at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington, Vermont. I was taped for closed circuit television, and you can watch the result at the station's website.
June 7, 2014
My 48-Hour Book Challenge Is About To Begin
I will be reviewing regularly until tomorrow night. I hope.
May 20, 2014
The 48-Hour Book Challenge Is Coming Your Way
The 9th 48-Hour Book Challenge is coming up June 6 through 8. Goodreads must be crawling with bloggers who would love this event. You can check out some of the good times I've had taking part in years past.
For the first time in several years, I'll be be doing the 48 Hour binge reading and blogging thing from Saturday afternoon through Sunday night. If I'm not here frequently that weekend reviewing my reading, you'll be hearing from me the next week.
Hope to hear from other Goodreads bloggers who are taking part.
For the first time in several years, I'll be be doing the 48 Hour binge reading and blogging thing from Saturday afternoon through Sunday night. If I'm not here frequently that weekend reviewing my reading, you'll be hearing from me the next week.
Hope to hear from other Goodreads bloggers who are taking part.
April 25, 2014
My Most Recent World Book Night Disaster
Last year I was heaving my guts out the day of World Book Night. My sister, a serious reader and book group member, pinched hit for me, distributing my books that night.
This year was even worse.
First off, I was set to distribute books at the same place, a skilled nursing facility, meaning a nursing home. I chose the book Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple as my title. I hadn't read it, but it was supposed to be funny and, get this, it was one of just a few books that World Book Night was offering in LARGE PRINT. Last year a patient at the snf my family frequents voiced an interest in that.
Just a week before WBN I got a copy of the book. I enjoyed. It's clever and witty and still has depth. I'll be giving it stars galore elsewhere on Goodreads. However, it was a really, really poor choice on my part for the community I was offering it to.
Why? Those constant point of view switches. Point of view switches can be demanding for readers. I've read that a significant percentage of the people in snfs have some degree of cognitive loss. In my experience, that's probably the case. This is going to be a rough read for most of my audience.
On top of that, many of the residents of this particular snf come from a part of the state known for mills and farming. Choosing a satire about upper class Seattle and private school parents wasn't respectful of their world experience. That lengthy article in the book about architecture? The guy who is live blogging TED Talks? Poorly done, Gail. Poorly, done.
So that was weighing heavily on my mind as we approached April 23rd. Then you'll never guess what happened.
Remember how I led with heaving my guts out last year? No, I'm not doing that. However, the snf has been on a shutdown type of situation since Tuesday because of an influenza outbreak. I could go in there if I wanted to expose myself, the rest of the family, and everyone I run into to flu. The situation is bad enough that the recreation director called me the morning of WBN to warn me off. I'm not sure, but they may not have wanted me wandering from an infected area to an uninfected area with my official World Book Night book bag.
So it's two days after World Book Night, and I still have 20 large print copies of Where'd You Go, Bernadette in my cellar. I'll get them in there when it's safe. And when I do, I'll be hitting the staff and visitors hard.
This year was even worse.
First off, I was set to distribute books at the same place, a skilled nursing facility, meaning a nursing home. I chose the book Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple as my title. I hadn't read it, but it was supposed to be funny and, get this, it was one of just a few books that World Book Night was offering in LARGE PRINT. Last year a patient at the snf my family frequents voiced an interest in that.
Just a week before WBN I got a copy of the book. I enjoyed. It's clever and witty and still has depth. I'll be giving it stars galore elsewhere on Goodreads. However, it was a really, really poor choice on my part for the community I was offering it to.
Why? Those constant point of view switches. Point of view switches can be demanding for readers. I've read that a significant percentage of the people in snfs have some degree of cognitive loss. In my experience, that's probably the case. This is going to be a rough read for most of my audience.
On top of that, many of the residents of this particular snf come from a part of the state known for mills and farming. Choosing a satire about upper class Seattle and private school parents wasn't respectful of their world experience. That lengthy article in the book about architecture? The guy who is live blogging TED Talks? Poorly done, Gail. Poorly, done.
So that was weighing heavily on my mind as we approached April 23rd. Then you'll never guess what happened.
Remember how I led with heaving my guts out last year? No, I'm not doing that. However, the snf has been on a shutdown type of situation since Tuesday because of an influenza outbreak. I could go in there if I wanted to expose myself, the rest of the family, and everyone I run into to flu. The situation is bad enough that the recreation director called me the morning of WBN to warn me off. I'm not sure, but they may not have wanted me wandering from an infected area to an uninfected area with my official World Book Night book bag.
So it's two days after World Book Night, and I still have 20 large print copies of Where'd You Go, Bernadette in my cellar. I'll get them in there when it's safe. And when I do, I'll be hitting the staff and visitors hard.
March 25, 2014
Maybe I Should Have Reread Middlemarch
When we last got together, I was writing about a book of essays I read while recovering from surgery. I read a number of books while lying around watching HGTV, waiting for all the many holes punched in me to heal. Many of those books were serial mysteries that I bought one after another for my Kindle.
This was a big change from my last surgery (yeah, I've had a few). That time I had one big recovery read, Middlemarch by George Eliot. I was a member of a book club and that was the next month's selection. I believe it was the last time I read a hefty, nineteenth century novel, because it was the last time I had time. I don't remember a lot about the book. There was a woman...and a man. I also remember lying on couches reading it.
The thought that I should read it again while I was recovering this time did pass through my mind. But it passed very quickly.
This past weekend I read about My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead. Mead has reread Middlemarch a number of times, evidently getting different things out of the book at different points in her life.
I could have done that, too! I say, "I could have DONE that" and not "I could DO that," because, as I said, my recollection is that Middlemarch is a book that requires a lot of time. And unless I'm recovering from surgery, I just don't have it.
But My Life in Middlemarch is another thing.
This was a big change from my last surgery (yeah, I've had a few). That time I had one big recovery read, Middlemarch by George Eliot. I was a member of a book club and that was the next month's selection. I believe it was the last time I read a hefty, nineteenth century novel, because it was the last time I had time. I don't remember a lot about the book. There was a woman...and a man. I also remember lying on couches reading it.
The thought that I should read it again while I was recovering this time did pass through my mind. But it passed very quickly.
This past weekend I read about My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead. Mead has reread Middlemarch a number of times, evidently getting different things out of the book at different points in her life.
I could have done that, too! I say, "I could have DONE that" and not "I could DO that," because, as I said, my recollection is that Middlemarch is a book that requires a lot of time. And unless I'm recovering from surgery, I just don't have it.
But My Life in Middlemarch is another thing.
Gail Gauthier Reads
I have been maintaining the blog Original Content for twenty years. That one is about any number of things related to writing. I think here I will just post about new publications from me and reading.
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