Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 29

Best Books List: Romance

Image from Amazon.com

Some days (okay, many days) I just enjoy listing. It’s enjoyable, for me, to list. Maybe I should make it into a visual artform. I noticed recently that I didn’t have a book set on my TBR for Valentine’s Day. Not that Valentine’s Day is the biggest deal, but the truth is I like to read about love and romance every now and again, just like I like to watch a great rom-com regularly. I usually avoid the romance genre because I associate it with bodice rippers and low-level-literature. But when I did a quick search of the best romance novels, I was surprised that the titles that rose to the top were classics, many of which are favorites of mine. This made me curious about all the other subgenres, like historical, paranormal, and YA. So I went ahead a made a bests-of list for you (and really, mostly for me. I can use this list for many Valentine’s Day weeks).

Note: I skipped the erotic romance category because I am not likely to read them (not that some of them didn’t sneak through. They probably did). As it is, there are probably a number of books on this list I won’t be interested in for various reasons of taste and time, and will skip reading. But it does give me a place to go to look for a romance when I’m in the mood for an epic love story. There are some really exciting titles on here.

Jane Eyre , Charlotte Bronte *** Anna Karenina , Leo Tolstoy ***Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez *North and South, Elizabeth GaskellPride and Prejudice, Jane AustenEmma, Jane Austen *** Sense and Sensibility , Jane Austen ***Maurice, E. M. Forster The Princess Bride , William Goldman *Tess of the D’Ubervilles, Thomas Hardy Wuthering Heights , Emily Bronte ***Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare ***Rebecca, Daphne de MaurierSonnets, Shakespeare ***Love Poems, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell *The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCulloughThe Notebook, Nicholas SparksA Walk to Remember, Nicholas SparksIndigo, Beverly JenkinsRoss Poldark, Winston Graham Outlander , Diana GabaldonA Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel AllendeTipping the Velvet, Sarah WatersBirdsong, Sebastian FaulksCall Me Your Name, Andre AcimanThe Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey NiffeneggerThe Kiss Quotient, Helen HoangWhen Katie Met Cassidy, Camille PerriMe Before You, Jojo MoyesSomething Borrowed, Emily GiffinRed, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuistonThe Hating Game, Sally ThorneNormal People, Sally RooneyBeach Read, Emily HenryIt Ends With Us, Colleen HooverThe Proposal, Jasmine GuilloryOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean VuongKiss an Angel, Susan Elizabeth PhillipsVision in White, Nora Roberts Twilight , Stephanie Meyer *Forever…, Judy BlumeTo All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny HanThe Selections, Keira CassFangirl, Rainbow RowellEleanor & Park, Rainbow RowellAnna and the French Kiss, Stephanie PerkinsAristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Banjamin Alere SaenzSimon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli The Song of Achilles , Madeleine Miller *More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera The Fault in Our Stars , John GreenThe Grand Sophie, Georgette HeyerSecrets of a Summer Night, Lisa KleypasFlowers from the Storm, Laura KinsaleLord of Scoundrels, Loretta ChaseShanna, Kathleen E. WoodiwissMorning Glory, Lavyrle SpencerThe Viscount Who Loved Me, Julia QuinnDelaney’s Desert Sheikh, Brenda JacksonDark Lover, J. R. WardBet Me, Jennifer CruiseA Hunger Like No Other, Kresley ColeSlave to Sensation, Nalini SinghDevil in Winter, Lisa KleypasNine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, Sarah MacleanThe Dutchess Way, Courtney MilanThe Magpie Lord, KJ CharlesTangled, Emma ChaseGlitterland, Alexis HallAnte Up, Christina C. JonesActing on Impulse, Mia SosaHate to Want You, Alisha RaiLong Shot, Kennedy RyanThe Kiss Quotient, Helen HoangThe Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia WaiteSeven Days in June, Tia WilliamsLove at First, Kate ClaybornA Spot of Trouble, Teri WilsonThe Wedding Date, Jasmine GuilloryMeet Me in Paradise, Lilly HubscherVirgin River, Robyn CarrMaggie Finds her Muse, Dee ErnstThe Lost and Found Necklace, Louisa LeamanThe Right Swipe, Alisha RaiHeartbreaker, Julie GarwoodTwice Shy, Sarah HogleOnce Ghosted, Twice Shy, Alyssa ColeMrs. Miracle, Debbie MacomberWolf Rain, Nalini SinghThe Passing Playbook, Isaac FitzsimmonsA Bollywood Affair, Sonali DevCrazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan

Journaling for a New Year

I have boarded the dot/bullet journaling train. Let me explain.

First, there is some argument about whether or not it is called dot journaling or bullet journaling and about whether or not those are the same thing. From what I can tell, they can be used interchangeably to refer to journaling in a blank book with—instead of lines or grid—little dots delineating the page. But it’s not that simple. When dot- or bullet-journalers refer to dot- or bullet-journaling, they are not just talking about a simple, physical thing (and in fact it can be done in a journal with grids, nothing, or—gasp!—lines). And this is what actually sold me on the idea: dot journaling is the concept of using a wide-open format to bring all your organization, creative, and other needs into one place. Since you are the one creating the format, you can do anything in the space and therefore you can have everything together. Again, this is what sold me. I usually have a notebook in my purse, a planner in my purse, a grocery list in the drawer, a journal by my bedside, a to-do list on a clipboard in the kitchen, etc. Dot journaling promised me that I could bring all that scatter into one place and—considering that my mind has been extra-scattered lately (is it the Pandemic? Age? Untreated ADHD?)—be more successful at organization and, well, functionality.

This is how it happened: last summer I found myself planning an art class for middle school and high school students. I wanted to do two extra-class projects. I was forced back down to one. I limited the class to 2D, paper arts and I had three project ideas: an altered book, a book nook, and a bullet journal. My daughter had some experience with bullet journaling, and it looked very pretty and creative. I am passionate about journaling. Even though I threw out two of the three project ideas, I found myself approaching the end of the year, looking for my next year’s planner (as usual), curious about this project I had almost hoisted upon my students. So I Ebayed it, bought a few books about bullet/dot journaling. Yes, I am that in to books. I thought I would maybe leave these books around on the tables during art class. (Nevermind that we have been remote since Christmas no thanks to Omicron.) In November, I received Dot Journaling: The Set in the mail and—again, so nerdy it’s actually nerdy—I couldn’t put it down. Way more than just a creative or pretty or show-off-y way to plan your year, I was drawn to promises of creative license, simpler organization, and absolutely no need to impress anyone or make it super beautiful. Indeed, it can’t be perfect and—unless I’m going to write yet another book about it—no one need ever see it. (In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised just how uninterested people are in it when I pull it out to write down a date or cross things off my grocery list.)

I encourage you to consider that dot/bullet journaling need not be intimidating or competitive. It could just be the flexible system that you could use to bring it all in. I’m twenty-two days in and, actually, it’s pretty great.

Here are the three books I have read about the subject:

Image from Amazon.com

DOT JOURNALING: THE SET, by Rachel Wilkerson Miller

This is the first thing that arrived in the mail. If it hadn’t been, I might not be as excited about this new world as I am now. At first, I was like “ehn,” because the “set” comes in a box with a book about dot journaling (Dot Journaling) and a bullet journal. The journal is kinda slim with paper that is a little on the thin side (considering the book is going to tell you to use Milldliners, etc.). Nice, minty color, though the binding is a little boring. (Of course you could always use some washi tape to change that in about five minutes.) (Note: I am actually using this journal, now, because I’m not going to buy a new journal when I have a “free” one sitting right there. I will likely have to start a second one mid-year. Who knows? Maybe not.) Then, with a smirk on my face at myself, I started actually reading Dot Journaling. And I was hooked. I was hooked by the idea, I was hooked by the funny, engaging voice of the author, and I was hooked by the casualness and accessibility of this particular presentation. True to what she says, the illustrations in the book are of journal pages that are actually do-able, like for almost anyone. While I am an artist and am incurably creative, I found it really liberating that I wasn’t aiming for museum-worthy spreads.

Seriously, if I was going to sell this whole system to anyone, I would recommend this book. You can buy it without the “set” and it probably won’t even set you back $10. Do you need this book to begin dot journaling? I would say yes. The concept is spelled out in there with many tips on both spreads, practices, and supplies. I used the book to lay out my first calendars, to-do lists, and other lists and plans, like straight from her examples. It was just easier that way—I can come up with my own flair later, as I go. It takes some time to set up your system, so simpler is better to begin. I also used this book to choose some things to purchase and throw in an ArtBin. The ArtBin floats around the house, now, and when I sit down to either organize my day in the morning or assess at night I grab my container of, let’s see, washi tape, drafting tape, glues, eraser, ruler, post-it notes, correction tape, pencils, sharpener, colored pencils (mine are watercolor), Mildliners, Zebra pens, drawing (Micron) pens, colorful gel pens, clear watercolor pen, and fancy paper clips. I’m thinking about adding a flat compass and I am learning calligraphy on the side. This, of course, is overboard and you don’t need it. The most bang for your buck is in some drawing pens, a few Mildliners, and a few rolls of washi tape. As for a journal, there are a few much thicker ones available (though a little rare), and I’ll be aiming for 300 pages next year. It’s always a little nice to actually hold a planner in your hand before choosing one, even if it’s blank.

So if you are considering dot journaling, this is the book to get. The non-set version, perhaps. Wilkerson Miller is a fun, funny companion, eminently down-to-earth, and her book is concise and practical.

Image from Amazon.com

BEYOND BULLETS, by Megan Rutell

By the time I received the first book, I already had two others on order. One of them was Beyond Bullets by Megan Rutell. Hmm… The problem is that I had already read Dot Journaling when I read this one. The full truth is that Rutell’s book is not as well written. Maybe it’s bigger and perhaps even a little prettier, but it’s not as engaging (in fact it’s pretty boring—not at all funny) and I just didn’t need it after reading Dot Journaling. It is okay, though, and if someone gives it to you I suppose you could begin your dot journaling adventures this way. Beyond Bullets does have sample spreads, and it does introduce you to dot journaling by selling the system (almost as compellingly). And it also emphasizes that this should be about you and what works for you, again, just not as compellingly as the other. I am going to use some of the sample spreads from Beyond Bullets as I continue because, let’s face it, no one book is going to have every possible page option.

It’s pretty good. It works. I just happen to like the other better and, I believe, with good reason.

Image from Amazon.com

BULLET IT!, by Nicole Lara

And then there’s this book. I thought that it was more of the same, but it’s not. Bullet It! is actually a journal. A bullet journal. A pretty small bullet journal. With occasional prompts and illustrations. To be honest, I don’t know what to do with it. Not only is it small (maybe some people like the idea of small), but it hasn’t decided if it’s guiding us through the journaling process or if it’s just providing a cutesy space for us to do it ourselves. It kinda tells us how to go about dot journaling in the first two pages and then the rest of it is random. A blank page, a drawing, an inspiring quote, three more blank pages, and a sample font… I actually really like all the font, banner, and doodle ideas, but I’m not sure what to do with all the blank pages in between. The only thing I can think to do would be to make this a practice book—in other words, a dot journaling sketch book—but that would be insane, right? (heh, heh heh). I mean, the point of dot journaling is basically to make all your own spreads so that they fit your world. But I wouldn’t mind learning some lettering and flags. I just wish, then, that that was all it was. Kinda like the calligraphy book I just got: just ideas and practice space. I suppose that it would make an okay dot journal for someone who is afraid of the blank page. But then you have to occasionally break stride to answer some life question or draw a hot air balloon. I’m not convinced.

Another okay book, but not what I was—or will be—looking for. I might use it to rip off the fonts and banners but I hate leaving unused books around.

Book Review: Dear Ijeawele

Image from Amazon.com

We’re weeks into the new year (already!) and I have done some New Years reading (which is mostly planners). I did pick a book from my New Years best books, but I was mostly getting myself all ready for a transition into dot journaling. Please don’t just hear that and run away. I’ll review the dot journal situation in the next blog. I’ll start here with the new year “novel.”

Which isn’t a novel at all. I just went to the New Year best books and ordered a copy of the first book from the list: Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The long version of the title is Dear Ijeawele or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. That probably sounds as deterring to some people as bringing up dot journals does to others. But it was supposed to be good and I don’t have a whole lot of prejudice against unread books (but some). Adichie is a prominent author, one that many Americans would recognize, at least for the novel Americanah (which I have not read yet. It’s actually on two of my TBR, best-books lists: Literary Fiction and Modern: 2000s and 2010s). Having not read her elsewhere, I am relying on others’ perceptions of her, which includes her being known as a feminist and also bringing attention (especially in the US) to the modern literature of Africa. You can tell from the title that this book is feminist, but maybe it’s not quite as clear that it also talks about African life and culture in a familiar way (specifically Nigerian and Igbo).

A very short, epistolary book, Dear Ijeawele started as an emailed response to a question Adichie’s friend (Ijeawele) had asked her (about how to raise her baby daughter a feminist). The email moved to Adichie’s Facebook page as a post and then was published in 2017 as a (again, very short) book. It has been popular, since. Obviously, it’s a bit niche-y. Not everyone is interested in a book about how to raise a daughter to be a feminist. Furthermore, there are parts of this book that are specific to being African and even more specifically Igbo. Even so, we can trust by its popularity that I don’t have to be Igbo, African, or even a parent of a baby daughter to appreciate it.

I did appreciate it, I guess. It doesn’t strike me as particularly remarkable—it is, really, just a casual letter from one woman to another and—as being in the moment—it has some really interesting things to say and some less-interesting things to say. (I found some of her arguments to be overly simplistic. We also seem to disagree about the nature of marriage, and about religion and even science.) It’s not, really, a well-written, engaging piece of literature so much as a random book of advice. Personally, I’m some sort of feminist who is not comfortable with the term “feminist” because—like many labels in culture—of all the extraneous bits that are attached to it. Likewise, I didn’t agree with all of Adichie’s conclusions, but there were some that I really did and some that were new thoughts or just thoughts put new ways that made them Aha! moments. It won’t hurt to think on these things when raising any child, nor will it hurt to think about these things (challenging some of our cultural assumptions and practices) when living in modern society. It’s not just for baby girls.

It’s quick. It’s painless if you’re not the type to get your knickers in a twist about things, but then it shouldn’t be quite painless to challenge your own assumptions. See below for some quotes to give you an idea of what the writing is like as well as what some of the fifteen suggestions might be.

QUOTES:

“What a magnificent thing you have done bring a human being into the world” (p5).

“Feminism is always contextual …. Your feminist premise should be: I matter. I matter equally” (p6).

“…be kind to yourself. Ask for help. Expect to be helped. There is no such thing as a Superwoman” (p9).

“It’s good for her to be cared for by her father. So look away, arrest your perfectionism…” (p12).

“’Gender-neutral’ is silly because it is premised on the idea of male being blue and female being pink and ‘gender-neutral’ being its own category” (p16).

“Gender roles are so deeply conditioned in us that we will often follow them even when they chafe against our true desires, our needs, our happiness. They are very difficult to unlearn…” (p19).

“’Allow’ is a troubling word. ‘Allow’ is about power” (p22).

“The writer had accused me of being ‘angry,’ as though ‘being angry’ were something to be ashamed of. Of course I am angry” (p22).

“…there are women who do not want to conform but for whom the required energy—mental, emotional, even physical—is just too much. How many men do you think would be willing to change their names on getting married?” (p34).

“Teach her to reject likeability” (p36).

“If she likes makeup, let her wear it. If she likes fashion, let her dress up. But if she doesn’t like either, let her be. Don’t think that raising her feminist means forcing her to reject femininity. Feminism and femininity are not mutually exclusive” (p43).

“Let her know that slim white women are beautiful, and that non-slim, non-white women are beautiful” (p46).

“Surround her with a village of aunties, women who have qualities you’d like to her to admire. Talk about how much you admire them …. Surround Chizalum, too, with a village of uncles” (p47).

“Talk to her about sex, and start early. It will probably be a but awkward, but it is necessary …. Romance will happen, so be on board” (p51, 55).

“I don’t mean you should be her ‘friend’; I mean you should be her mother, to whom she can talk about everything” (p56).

Christmas Book Reviews

Let’s just wrap up this year (which ended a few days ago, now) with a triple-review of Christmas-related reading. (For my original list of Christmas recommended reading—from which I pulled these titles for this year—click HERE.) And off we go…

THE GREATEST GIFT

Image from Amazon.com

The Greatest Gift is the story on which the movie It’s a Wonderful Life was based. A novella—or maybe even a short story in book-form, it’s that short—written by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943 was likewise inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It’s a Wonderful Life has become a Christmas classic and is usually on lists of best movies, especially best holiday movies, of all time. Let me tell you, as okay as I am with reading this book, the movie brought a lot of life to a story that was otherwise flat in its brevity. There is, for once, a reason that one would skip the book and watch the movie. The movie is better and adds so much to the story that the book is no longer needed. Sorry Van Doren Stern. It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t my favorite movie of all time, but it is a beloved, really good one (and I do enjoy watching Jimmy Stewart). The original story is more like the skeleton of a book (yes, I’ve said that many times before) and the movie—though less than two hours—goes much deeper with the characters and more intricate with the story. You would recognize in the original the intent to rework A Christmas Carol (which has become a common theme for Christmas stories of all mediums) and for that we can be thankful. Van Doren Stern gives us George Bailey and the angel who otherwise looks like an ordinary man. We’re given the setting and the bridge for a backdrop. But none of it is as compelling, that’s all. Maybe read “The Gift of the Magi,” instead, and then watch 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

Image from Amazon.com

A CHRISTMAS STORY

Another story-to-movie, A Christmas Story is an after-the-fact compilation of Jean Shepherd’s four short memoir pieces that contributed most to inspiring the 1980s movie A Christmas Story. Yes, you read that right. A Christmas Story is based on at least four short stories (nonfiction, I think) by Jean Shepherd, which were strung together and altered into one story for the movie and Jean Shepherd is, therefore, Ralphie. (He co-wrote the movie, too, and is the familiar narrator. You can hear his voice in your head right now, can’t you? (He’s also an actor.)) While I think, once again, the movie is better than reading the four random pieces, it is fun to read A Christmas Story. The fourth story, “The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds,” let me warn you, can get uncomfortably stereotyping of country folk. However, it seems this is only a comedic version of what really happened to him when he was a kid. Anyhow. The writing is decent. It might make you wonder what else Jean Shepherd wrote. Maybe a collection of his works would be a nice gift for someone who could still remember the good ol’ days of the mid-century. (A Fistful of Fig Newtons, In God We Trust…) Seeing as the stories have little to do with one another, it’s more like reading a short story collection where the narrator is always the same. There are fun differences to discover, like the Bumpus hounds ate the Easter ham, not the Christmas turkey. Overall, though, the spirit of the thing is right there in the short stories and I, too, could sometimes hear Shepherd reading me the lines from the stories. Especially interesting for a fan of the movie.

Image from Amazon.com

WAITING HERE FOR YOU

I have been looking for a great Christmas advent book for years. I have never yet found a family advent book that I love, though there is one meant for reading at dinnertime (and for lighting the advent wreath) that we use every year (We Light the Candles by Catharine Brandt). My kids are practically adults, these days, and I have decided to look instead for a meaningful, well-put-together advent book for myself. (It helps that I made a Christmas best books list last year and it has a (short) advent section.) I don’t mind switching up the book year to year, but it would be nice if they were all meaningful and well-put-together, in that case. The first title on the list (for no particular reason) was Waiting Here for You by Louie Giglio. Giglio is a Baptist pastor out of Atlanta and his book was one of a dozen recommended to me by the internet. He’s an evangelical mega-church pastor, so we might have some words for each other if we met, but this is the first thing I have read by him.  The format is contemporary and each day’s reading is brief, encouraging the reader to pause and perhaps stay paused after the reading. Each day has scripture (not necessarily the obvious ones) and a short prayer, as well as a short writing from Giglio and often a quote (perhaps a few stanzas of a song) from another father/mother of the faith. I really don’t think the photos are necessary, and bracketing the whole season with the beginning and end of a random story was too weird for me—it was a little hokey and there was no way I was remembering that story from beginning to end of the month (or not just flipping back and reading the thing straight off). But overall the thoughts lead you toward being more contemplative during what should be a holy time of year while also understanding that your advent reading may only get mere minutes in any given, frantic day. An Advent Journey of Hope worked for me. It didn’t exactly grab hold of me and refuse to let go, but it is a fine advent reading if you are of the protestant Christian persuasion.

The Other Genius of Stephen King

This afternoon I am doing a thing. I have been building up to it lately, though I might have been building up to it for years. There is a part of me, for the last several months, that has thought, “May, 2022. It’ll come soon enough.” Turns out it’s not soon enough.

So this afternoon I am going to movie my writing and art supplies into the schoolroom desk and move the schoolroom stuff to storage bins that will be kept round and about until May 2022.

As an adult writer I have kept this little corner of myself sacred to the image of Stephen King getting home from his work and wading through kids and wife back to his work desk and sitting down to write the evening and night away. This desk does not even fit in the closet (which, in my mind, is at the end of a ranch hallway, leaving him sitting in the hall with his face in the coats). I have written about this one, particular, wheedling image a few times on the blog. I have complained about it, I have honored it, I have said it was something impossible for a mother, I have said you should read the book and do exactly as King says. Recently, I have been doing art work to keep up with the assignments I gave my co-op students. I have also gotten a number of art supplies for Christmas. Once again, I have discovered that having no place to put these things (except packed up and in the closet or under the bed) is not feasible for sustainability or productivity. Then I said to someone, “You know, like Stephen King and his little closet,” and I realized that this image—this gem that King painted and I dutifully embedded in my writerly soul—has more than one facet to it. While I had always heard it as make time to write and maybe isolate as much as possible, I had failed to see the get yourself a space, gosh darnit. And we can see from the image that I carry that King didn’t really have a space, he made one for himself. It was his, and I doubt he cleaned it off every night so that his wife could use it to store the galoshes. That would have defeated its purpose.

But I’m still writing and doing art on the dining room table and my bed and sometimes the family room couch. Which means I can never leave anything out, whether I am done with a work or a thought or not. With writing, you don’t usually have to have many things to accomplish writing (unless there is a lot of research or illustrations involved) and yet many authors have written about the importance of habits of all sorts. A work space—no matter how humble—creates a place for these tools (which can be more than you initially think) and habits and, more importantly, allows them to hang in the wind until the next time you return. And besides practicality and ceremony, a space—again, no matter how humble—would create a sense of legitimacy in the same way that driving to an office creates that for someone working in an office.

I don’t think it can be a bag or your laptop. These are “spaces” in some sense and can help the roving writing to work. That’s what I have been doing for years and years, since I had kid number two and handed over my home office. I have a rolling bag for residencies and whatnot, I have a basket on the floor next to my bed where the laptop and writing notes and magazines and whatsuch live on a daily basis. But being a visual artist as well as a writer (even if it is often just to get the creative juices flowing), I simply can’t contain my projects to a rolly-cart and a basket. Partly because my art bins are legion, but also because this doesn’t give me a sense of stepping away from a thing and then being able to step back to it, just like that. So much works goes into the physical, mental, and emotional work of gathering and then cleaning, that I am going to steal my son’s homeschool desk early. I was published two weeks ago. If I want to step up my pace of writing and submitting so that I can build momentum here, NOT having my own space is going to work against me. Hard.

I will be something like Stephen King. My workspace is going to land in the family room because I don’t have any extra places. (The family room stays very quiet and lonesome for most of the day, so.) Being ADHD, there is no way I could sit down at a desk every time (or even half the time) and work there like a little drone. I will be dragging my projects to the family room floor, up to my bedroom, and—if a large surface is needed—even the dining room table, though I am going to try to avoid the last one because this is an eating-family place. But there will still be a place where all my things are together and accessible, there will still be a place to anchor me in the house, a place to leave one project lying open and half-done, and a place to say, “Yes, this should be two more guest chairs and a magazine-ready bay window, but that’s not more important to us than Devon working and writing.”

I won’t be moving the desk and the rest of the schoolroom (disassembled) into the family room yet, which is what will happen in that fabled May 2022, but I will be changing some things today. Thanks, Stephen King, for being so memorable that I can still learn from what you’ve offered me even when I am years away from your book.

Movie Reviews: More A Christmas Carol

For the holiday season, the entire homeschool co-op read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I have already reviewed this book and also a couple of the movies related to it. I also listed some more movies that are adapted from it. I imagined I would have time this year to watch all of these, but I sure didn’t. My son and I (who was reading the book, remember?) watched The Muppet Christmas Carol because I hadn’t seen it in a long time and thought perhaps he would be interested. He actually did wander in near the beginning and watch it with me. Then in class (which has limited time), my ninth grade-ish boys convinced me to turn on Mickey’s Christmas Carol right after the paper snowball fight while we snacked on our Christmas pudding with virgin hard sauce, our mince pies, our marzipan animals, oyster dip, tea punch, and roasted chestnuts. Then later, one night, I managed to sit down in the family room and turn on The Man Who Invented Christmas. (I almost watched The Invisible Woman—about Charles Dickens’ long affair with Nelly Turnan, but it cost money so I went to bed.)

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL

I already gave a few-sentence review for this elsewhere, but let’s be more thorough as the movie is fresh-ish in our mind. And I’ll start here: you’re either a Muppet person or you are not. You could become one, but you can’t be somewhere in-between at any given time. I grew up with The Muppets, especially The Muppet Show and our annual Sunbeam sleepover where we watched Muppet movies all night on a sea of sleeping bags and dropped popcorn. I, therefore, have very pleasant memories of the Muppets and I grew up seeing on-screen puppetry as a normal and admirable artform. I like all the Muppet movies (from The Muppet Movie (1979) to Muppets Most Wanted (2014)). Still, I don’t remember especially liking The Muppet Christmas Carol. It’s darker than the others, and, well, Gonzo and Rizzo were never my favorite Muppets (nor Miss Piggy, actually). Now that I’m older and have read A Christmas Carol a few times, I found myself really appreciating this version of the story. Rizzo’s antics aside, the story was very true to the original story for a children’s movie done with animal puppets and I found myself marveling at what was accomplished with puppets. Jim Henson wasn’t going to do a shoddy thing, and I think his thoroughness really shines in Christmas Carol. I also enjoy a good musical, and there are some great musical numbers in this one. If you are, or can be, a Muppet person, this is one of the best adaptations to watch.

MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL

It’s less than 25 minutes, so… This is, I think, why the boys bugged me about watching it in class. This is definitely why I gave in and let them watch it. Well, that and I knew there couldn’t be anything for parents to object to. It’s meant for like five-year-olds. I was surprised, though, by how much I enjoyed it, though I believe I can attribute some of that enjoyment to the nostalgia of anything classic Mickey Mouse. Obviously, I grew up with Mickey Mouse, big time, like any other American kid in the eighties and nineties. I’m sure I have owned Disney objects in the hundreds through the course of my life. And the soft, classic feel of Christmas Carol is like a warm hug, for me. It captures much of the story in such a ridiculously short time, so acts as a great introduction to the story for children. A quick, solid watch for—like a said before—sandwiching between Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas (or even Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. I’m not such a fan of Frosty the Snowman).

THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS

I have been looking forward to this since it came out. It is doubly applicable to The Starving Artist blog because it fits into two categories: movies based on books and movies about writing. It’s not really based on a book, but it is about Charles Dickens writing A Christmas Carol and is, according to the title, about how that affected our modern celebration of Christmas. I found the title to be a little misleading. While the YouTube videos that I showed my homeschool class did tell us how A Christmas Carol re-invented Christmas for generations to come, the movie had this as more of a whiff, a backdrop. Of course I am intrigued by movies about authors and I love Victorian England and A Christmas Carol, but that couldn’t save this movie from a slight drag and a complete lack of levity/magical feel. The movie didn’t feel in the least like Christmas. It didn’t even feel all that gothic. To be honest, it looked great and was acted well but it just never took off and made you feel much of anything. And there is so much speculation about these random run-ins that Dickens has with people and situations that will inspire his writing of A Christmas Carol, I felt like I was missing an education in an author and process that was already interesting enough, for the fancy of the movie’s writer. In other words, I couldn’t really tell fact from fiction and I suspected it was way more fiction that fact (which didn’t need to be). I am being much harder on this movie than either the critics or the audiences were. It gets consistently good reviews and honestly I wouldn’t object to watching it again. But for me, it had all the pieces but it never got off the ground. If you’re interested, you should watch it, though. It’s more than a decent movie.

For another year, there are still a number of A Christmas Carol movies to watch (with a list HERE).

Book Review: The Nest

Image from Amazon.com

Before I get to the Christmas reviews (and try to bang them out this week before we get to the new year), I have a book that I read for Thanksgiving. Yes, Thanksgiving does have some books. Well, sorta. Certainly there is not a huge amount of them (like Thanksgiving movies and let’s not even bother with Thanksgiving music) and what there is can sometimes be a stretch, but I did attempt a Thanksgiving reading list in 2020 and so read the second one on that list this year. It is The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney.

Let’s get some things out of the way, first. There is a 2020 movie, The Nest, with Jude Law that has absolutely nothing to do with this book. Neither does the British mini-series (again, The Nest) which also aired in 2020. The Nest—the book I am reviewing—is a New York Times Bestseller and was optioned for film several years ago but, despite being sorta perfect for a movie or TV series, all of that was dropped after awhile and it doesn’t look like it’ll ever be made into a movie. So there’s that. Also, it’s inclusion on lists as a Thanksgiving book is a bit of a stretch. A lot of a stretch. It takes place through the year over a couple years and it has no memorable Thanksgiving scenes. It’s inclusion—and I remember seeing this a year ago—has more to do with its being about the messiness of families which is, admittedly, a common Thanksgiving (or even holidays) theme. It didn’t read Thanksgiving to me, but I guess I get it.

The Nest is about four adult siblings who are set to inherit money (they call it “the nest”) when the youngest of them turns forty—so in the near-distant future when the book opens up. While all of them have structured their lives and finances around this future windfall (despite the warnings of their better halves) the oldest, Leo—the one who has matured the least—is about to spectacularly (and with the help of his mother, a weird non-character) obliterate the nest, his sibling’s plans and lives, and a number of relationships. But he’ll pay them back, right? I mean, he co-built a publication empire once, so he can do it again, surely. At least once he returns from rehab. But do we trust him? More importantly, do his siblings trust him and will it be to their credit or destruction?

This book is very New York-y. Very high society, arts world. Casual drugs. Trips in cabs and on the subway. So in that sense, I was a little bored. These are not my people. It’s been overdone. I’m not really that interested anymore because this world is often unrelatable and this book doesn’t make it much more relatable to me. (I’m not a particularly voyeuristic reader, I guess. And if I was, I don’t think this world would be the one I would be drawn to frequently.) If you really like to be dropped into New York City and wander with characters through the bars and Central Park and the museum and Ground Zero and the burroughs, etc., then you would find that aspect of the book interesting. But part of what makes current books a sign of the times is the moral mundaneness of its characters, and that’s another very New York/literary thing that I can do without: a cast of unlikeable characters. (There were a few likeable ones, but they were in the background and you don’t really figure this out for quite some time.)

By the end of the book, I liked it somewhat. But let me get you there, first. The first several chapters are POV from the siblings. All of a sudden, there is a chapter from some random guy’s POV and you’re like “What the heck? I have no idea where I am or why and I could care less about this storyline” (not to mention that it is a 9/11 story which might have felt fresh at the time of publication but feels a bit shoe-horned now). Then this happens a couple more times with a couple other characters before you figure out that eventually all these stories are going to weave together. (You also realize that one of the background characters is a character from the beginning, but you might not have even made that connection until it was late enough that you felt stupid.) By then I honestly might have put the book down, but I am a committed reader.

The writing is fair; unobtrusive and occasionally great. We do get a real sense of these characters (and I’m a sucker for a large cast of characters) although some of them stayed a bit muddy for me (and there were a couple—especially the mother—who shouldn’t have even been included at all. She should have been dead, honestly, or estranged or something). There is also at least one major plot line (about the two nieces/daughters) that is completely off-topic and seems included just to get in another sellable topic, namely sexual exploration and sexual identity. I can see where many of these things could be said about the novel I am currently looking to sell, but it doesn’t change that much of this book was a confusing, uninteresting mess. Well, that’s too harsh. It was okay, I thought, until I got to the end. If you have read my blog for long, you know that I am in love with complicated plotlines that twist together at the end for a nice, big plotsplosion. Obviously this is one of those cases. It wasn’t as neat or death-defying as some that I have seen, but the ending bits do lend a sense of balance and purpose to the rest of the book and are by far the best parts to read. And there are things to contemplate here, almost exclusively about familial relationships (though there are lessons about finances and counting your chickens before they hatch, as well). I liked what it says about family, no matter how hard it is to face these realities. It was worth the read, I think, but never going to be a favorite of mine. Still, I believe I’ll remember things about it for years to come.

It Takes 500 Posts

After I posted the last blog entry (“Published!), WordPress notified me that it was the 500th blog post on The Starving Artist. Whew! So I did a little digging and found out this, as well: my first post was on October 17, 2012, “A Meandering History of The Starving Artist.” My first book review was on March 25, 2013, on Harmonies of the World by Johannes Kepler. I currently and officially have 793 followers. (I used to have more but I disconnected the blog from my personal pages, so…) This means that each post brings an average of 1.586 new followers to the blog. My views on any given day sits somewhere between 25 and 70. The post from yesterday has two click-overs, so far. I keep separate files for each year of posts (back-ups) and this year—2021—I have written 90,349 words so far. (Now it’s 90,355.) Yes, that’s more than the average novel. My educated estimate lands at 552 book reviews on The Starving Artist, as of today. I have been thinking about expanding to videos for quite some time, but I felt there needed to me a gimmick. I have now come up with one, but it is book-related only obliquely and I hope to get that up and going in the next year. I have also considered taking the reviews to a podcast. And Tiktok seems to be the place everyone is getting content nowadays? What do you think?

It did strike me as interesting that my 500th post was the one announcing my publication. So that’s what it takes, then? 500 blog posts over nine years to get a short story published? In the end, the blog had little to nothing to do with it except I suppose in what I learned along the way. Then again, I still believe that having a following is going to help sell me to an agent and a book publisher, hopefully someday soon. Maybe a vlog or podcast would help bring more people in? Maybe book reviews and writing talk isn’t enough of a schtick? It’s been done, I know.

So here we are, reflecting again on the blog and what it has seen over the nine years and two months that I have had it. I have been loyal, though there have been stages/seasons of the blog. It wasn’t always the same, it didn’t always look the same (though that has been remarkably consistent), and I didn’t always write on at a steady pace. But here we are, 500 posts and one short story, traditional publication later. Here’s to years more of reading, reviewing, reflecting, and, of course, publications galore.

Published!

Well, folks, I have been published. I have been pushing harder and harder over the Pandemic, trying to veeeery slowly re-warm up my writing career so that when I am done homeschooling (May of 2022) I will have a place to jump from. I am still extremely far from writing full-time but I am so close to that point that I can taste it. It appears, now, that my grand plan is working even though I would like to have done more (always more). Homeschooling is, as it were, time-consuming, as is raising children and managing a home, somehow especially in The Pandemic. This past year I did my “usual” writing residency in the fall but I also won a fellowship to the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing (last June) and, lo and behold, had a short story published. Which is what this post is about. The idea is to keep building on these things until publishing is—yes, still hard work—but a thing of normalcy.

I have been published before, but it was always nonfiction (a smattering of articles and editorials) and poetry in college or, as you might know, the two novels I published with the indie press my aunt and I managed for a few years before homeschool came knocking (incessantly, it would not take no for an answer). I only started writing short stories in the seven-year between-time that I have been homeschooling. So, it is with some belated fanfare (this is all so nerve-wracking) that I announce to you that you can find my flash fiction piece at Every Day Fiction, an online, Canadian literary magazine. Scroll ye down to December 16th or click directly to it HERE. (It’s flash fiction–under 1000 words–so it’ll take like a minute.)

As for being published traditionally and for fiction—a moment I have waited my whole life for—the day was spent with mixed emotions. I was prepared for the inevitable: that it would not be a day when trumpets showed up blaring on my front lawn or I was given the keys to the kingdom or a million dollars or an Oprah interview. It wasn’t a novel, anyhow, which is what I hope to be building up to with my short stories (even though I do like writing short stories for what they are, too). So I wasn’t exactly disappointed that it was a day just like any other. My friends, the ones I just so happened to see that day, did toast me and assure me it was a REALLY BIG DEAL. My mixed emotions came from some other things, though: having been scared for weeks that they would decide not to run the piece after all; relief that they had; excitement that I had been published; worry that I had edited the life (and the me) out of the story; concern that it was not my best (or maybe I mean most representative) work; guilt that I swore three times and referenced inappropriate things (I have children and students, after all); fear that my family would read themselves into the story (specifically my dad, because it is about a girl and her mechanic father). I sent an email to my family announcing the publication and also, with great fanfare, warning them that this and all future stories were not about me or about them and so not to keep asking me about that for the next fifty years. All authors, I assured them, are inspired by their real life. Even so.

I also made a mistake. I propped myself up for years with self-assurances that I would not read my reviews. Every Day Fiction has an added author minefield: they let their readers rate (and subscribers comment on) the stories. The first time I clicked over to see for myself the published story there was already a comment. My eyes couldn’t help but to flick down there and see… Ow! The first comment is some poo-poo head who admitted to not thoroughly reading the piece and inevitably then read stuff into it that wasn’t there and then claimed it was too much (even though, I repeat, it wasn’t there). I have been taking deep breaths about this since, though my brother-in-law has been obsessively watching the comments and ratings and has assured me that someone has properly put them and their comments in their place. I may or may not know this person, but either way I have to smile suspiciously at their username. I have also been told by someone about some other negative comments but I tried to politely push that conversation away and attempt not to lose sleep about the insinuations. This is tough stuff.

With all those mixed emotions and with Christmas days away, I didn’t find the time to let you all know what had happened. I should have. I was working myself up and calming myself down. So whether or not you are going to comment here about how bad the voice in the story is or how tool and dies don’t make certain calendars anymore or whatever, I’m going to let you all know that a monumental event has happened and I wish you would go read “Pinned Up” and enjoy it and I hope you’ll be seeing much more of my work over the next year and years and years to come.

Book Review: Gods and Heroes

Image from Amazon.com

I have wrapped up the mythology unit in my Freshman English co-op class with American Born Chinese. Now it’s time to review the book that I used as the cornerstone of the unit. It might surprise you, but I went with Gods and Heroes: Mythology Around the World by Korwin Briggs. Of course, this won’t surprise you if you know nothing about it, or it might just because I didn’t go with Edith Wharton’s Mythology.

Here’s the skinny: this book is meant for children. (It also isn’t the only book that I chose for my ninth-ish graders that was technically “below” their reading level. More to come.) It is chock-full of colorful, playful illustrations and the reading level is maybe late elementary school? But there were a few things that this book offered that I couldn’t find elsewhere. The main thing was world mythology. I really wanted to cover myths from around the world, both Eastern and Western world, and there was very little to be found. (Some books covered Greek and maybe Norse and then had some small sections on other mythology, but never anything balanced. Well, I take that back a little bit. I think I recall some college textbooks (or at least that level of study) covering world myth in a more comprehensive way, but there was no way I was pressing a college-level text on these kids.) Two other things I wanted: levity and ease. Originally, I thought they were going to be reading this alongside their novel-reading—and it did start that way—so I didn’t need to challenge their reading skills, just get them information in a painless way. And since they are homeschoolers, I wanted to teach mythology in both a lighthearted and contemplative way. If that makes sense.

I like this book. It’s not very thorough, sure, but it’s meant to introduce children to mythology and it did it’s job telling us stories about mythological gods and goddesses from all over the place. It didn’t deal so much with beasts/monsters or even heroes and heroines, but that isn’t the title, is it? Oh wait, half of it is. Well, it’s more like a colorful encyclopedia with very limited space. It also didn’t have a lot of information about mythology itself or mythology of place. I incorporated that by personally studying books and articles on those specific subjects and teaching it in class (and on their Weekly Worksheet which is a different story). By the time the unit was over, they had an overarching view of mythology, mythology from the point of their worldview, and of each of the “regions” of mythology as I broke it up. (I had like seven weeks to go through the book, so we didn’t read everything, but the majority.) Why would you have this book on your shelf? If you are teaching mythology to a student. If you want to read mythology to your child. If you want a well-rounded and intelligent bookshelf for your child. If you want an easy-to-digest introduction to the characters and ideas of world mythology with a fun, fanciful format, then this is a nice book and I would say it’s your go-to.