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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Summer Reads - Never Let Me Go 08/31/10

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – I read this book a few years ago. Without giving too much away it’s, well, it’s an unexpected and poignant novel that grabs hold and doesn’t want to let go – appropriate title. Told from Kathy’s viewpoint, readers uncover strange twists in the lives of several special boarding school classmates. It’s not a beach read, but a late summer approaching harvest kind of serious. I recently read of the forthcoming movie and was reminded of how I felt reading the book. Since there are some clues in the movie trailer, you might want to check out the book first and then watch it or see the movie in September.

Here is a description from Random House: From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. 

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Summer Reads: A Novel Is All the Rage Even Before It Is Sold

Jonathan Franzen is creating a frenzy - check out this Books of The Times article about his novel "Freedom" that hits stands tomorrow.

It's everywhere, creating buzz. The president has an advance copy, and I even found this interesting article by Esquire. Here is a blurb, read the rest here.

Whatever else Freedom is, it's a great slab of a book. Check out the specs: 576 pages (small font, tight spacing). Check out the sweep: a large cast of intergenerational characters, a narrative that covers more than 30 years and engages issues ranging from the influence of Big Coal on our politics to the way sex can both create love and destroy it. This is a book that acts as though people still had long conversations, still read long books.


All this hype makes me wonder - what makes a good book great? What do you think?


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Summer Reads - The Client, 08/24/10

The Client was one of the first books I read by John Grisham, and it’s still a great read. He writes like he love it, and his southern roots and legal background give him an edge. This one is a thrill ride set in the South where we find ourselves rooting for two young boys thrust into the chase of their lives after a lawyer’s deathbed confession about a murdered US Senator. Here is a little description – you can read the rest and find an excerpt on the author’s web page.

In a weedy lot on the outskirts of Memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb…Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America…

Monday, August 23, 2010

Kids Storybook/Shopping Experience from Ralph Lauren

I thought this was a fun idea for kids. Real Simple posted this recently. We still have to try it, but virtual stories can be exciting for kids and parents. Plus, it's fall, you know you want to see what they're wearing.


Saturday, August 14, 2010

Too busy to write?

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.

- Gertrude Stein

Believing in Ourselves: The Wisdom on Women

I recently read a blog post ‘Busy or Productive?’ from Something to Believe in (Purple Song Project Blog). It was a response to a recent post by Christina Katz asking writers to consider what ‘busy’ means. I think that this is an important to our lives and careers. If we are busy, but lack productivity, are we just spinning our wheels needlessly? If we lack direction or focus, where are we going and why?

The quote above makes me think of these blogs, and question my version of busy. I think that sometimes, especially in creative pursuits, a person needs time to meander, wander a bit and take everything in before they can produce. If we take time to take things in and contemplate we are sometimes rewarded with great creativity. It’s important to make sure we can get ourselves back on track.

This week I’m going to try something different. I’m going to let myself get off track, and relax about it. What I’ll do differently is make sure I commit the same amount of time to writing that I do to other things like daydreaming (Ha, like I have time for that!). If I take 30 minutes for web surfing and e-mails, then my writing gets the same 30 minutes. I hope that learning how much time I spend doing writing-adjacent or non-writing tasks – when what I want to do is advance my writing projects – will show me just how much time there is to do just that.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Literary Drinking Games - Really?

I should be writing. Ok, I’m writing, but I should be writing something to advance my novel, or my next nonfiction article. Instead, I have noticed that when I’m procrastinating/stalling/tired/blocked/lazy, I find the oddest things to occupy my time. Case in point, I uncovered more than one recent article about Literary Drinking Games. Yes. You read it correctly. There are folks out there who are apparently in more trouble with their manuscripts than even me – I say in jest – writing about the bard and the booze.

Since it’s past noon on a workday, I figured a little imbibing in some literary fun might be just what’s needed to get through the rest of the day. It helped me because, as mentioned earlier, it got me writing. And it’s been a few days, so I’m happy to play along, even if I have no plans to hit the bottle anytime soon – although, my manuscript might look better with the old goggles as they say. Do they still say that? Anyway, please enjoy, try to be responsible, and get your work done first!

Drink 'Til He's Witty: The Reader's Drinking Game

http://jezebel.com/5603364/drink-til-hes-witty-the-readers-drinking-game

Drink What You Know (At least look at the graphic for this one)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Nicholson-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bernard+Devoto&st=cse

Literary Drinking Games

http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/literary-drinking-games/


Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Summer Reads – The Odds

I have a stack of books waiting to be read, but do you think that will stop me from finding more good books? Not. A. Chance.

If you are like me, always looking for great new reading material, then why not check out award winners like The Odds by Kathleen George. The novel sounds interesting and it’s nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award for best novel by the Mystery Writers of America to boot.

Some characters are introduced in previous works, but this sounds like the book that really gets down into it. That being based on the reviews I’ve seen. Just to get you started, “The Pittsburgh Homicide Division is upside down—Richard Christie is in the hospital, Artie Dolan is headed away on vacation, John Potocki's life is falling apart, and Colleen Greer is so worried about her boss's health, she can hardly think. A young boy in the North Side neighborhood dies of a suspicious overdose…” Check out the author’s site for more information and reviews, oh, the reviews.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Ann Arbor Family – Kids, teachers and parents rule at Little Lake Free School

Here is the latest Ann Arbor Family profile. It's an article featuring Little Lake Free School and their democratic approach to education and curriculum development. You can read more online at Ann Arbor Family – Kids, teachers and parents rule at Little Lake Free School or in the August issue, filled with lots of back to school tips, on newsstands now.


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