You can always check me out on Goodreads, but here's what I've been reading:
SPRING 2019
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu
I needed to come back to this book. It floats me. It soothes and stills me. Pretty much interspersing it amongst the other reads this spring.
You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
Loved her short stories!
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Kinda proud of myself that I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (for the first time) before reading this fantastic retelling of the classic.
The Bucket List by Georgia Clark
At first glance, this seems like it's going to be a straightforward heart-warming and/or tear-jerking story. It is both of those.
But Georgia Clark's ability to capture contemporary culture in one clever observation after another kinda blew me away.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
I see what all the hype is about. Deep story, just beautiful.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories by Alice Munro
Tried to write short stories. Thought I needed some guidance.
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Sigh...I just love her. Every time.
Fox 8 by George Saunders
Okay, confession: I could NOT get through Lincoln in the Bardo, and thought "oh, this book looks cute and small and short and pink."
Was it an easy read? Yep. Was it fantastic? Overwhelmingly.
FALL/WINTER 2018
Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
Anthony Bourdain had just died and news of him was everywhere. I stumbled upon an episode of Parts Unknown set in Detroit with a Michigan journalist named Charlie LeDuff. The episode was my intro to this colorful Michigander, and I was fascinated. I liked his pointedness and sought out his writing.
I only make occasional forays into narrative nonfiction. But as my forthcoming novel, Twine is set in my home state of Michigan, and has a strong thematic element that includes the socioeconomic problems there (like Detroit: An Autopsy,) I wanted to read his thoughts.
His writing is gritty and the subject matter steadily heart-wrenching. And although we have written about slightly different Michigan subcultures, when I finished his book, I felt like I’d found someone who shared something of my history. My own paternal grandfather hails from Hamtramck, (the small, heavily Polish city surrounded by Detroit), and my maternal grandmother was born in Flint. And I believe LeDuff and I have similar French Canadian roots, so I feel reassured to know someone like him is out there, calling it like it is.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
It was FOMO that led me to this one. Last year at Muse and the Marketplace, Celeste Ng was a presenter, and her name was everywhere. I wanted to read how she connected with so many readers. Now I get it. Her characters, leading with their vulnerability, left me wanting to follow them all the way to the end.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
There is something about Jennifer Egan’s writing that bowls me over with its virtuosity. There is how she weaves the plot so deftly, and also the sleight-of-hand she uses to divert the reader’s gaze, then wham, she drops the name Dexter Styles so that I have no choice but to gasp with pleasure like I’m in the club myself. Dang. How’d she do that?
And then there are her captivating phrases. How she nails the sentiment of being left: “She never cried. When she’d believed he was about to return, there was nothing to cry about, and when at last she’d stopped believing, it was too late. His absence had calcified.”
Or this one I just loved: “The trip to Manhattan Beach faded into the distant past like an apple core flung from a train window.
Sometimes I have to use music metaphors. So forgive me for saying this, but to me her writing sounds like she’s always playing in tune.
Willa Cather’s My Antonia left me with slow images of the plains seared on to my retina. Kindness and the yellow ochre of field grasses going on forever.
Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III
I just loved these stories. I think this is my favorite Dubus book to date. Although I am in the middle of “Gone So Long,” which means the verdict is out.
He lives near me, so I have had the privilege of hearing him speak several times. But I went to a “Gone So Long” reading a couple of weeks ago and was pretty thrilled to actually meet him. This reading was an event in his hometown of Haverhill, Mass. and there were many in the audience who ‘knew him when,’ so he was connecting with folks effortlessly. But it was still wonderful to see how he drew people out by asking them about their story. And he manages to be utterly engaging and charming while dropping quotes from heavies like Lao Tsu and quips from Stephen King.
Connecting with people, listening. I hope to be able to take a page or two out of his playbook when it is my turn to be up on the dais, reading my own words.
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout’s writing has become a bit like comfort food for me. I know I’m gonna like it, I know I’m going to come away sated. And in this instance it also left me asking what it means to have faith.
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu
I needed to come back to this book. It floats me. It soothes and stills me. Pretty much interspersing it amongst the other reads this spring.
You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
Loved her short stories!
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Kinda proud of myself that I read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (for the first time) before reading this fantastic retelling of the classic.
The Bucket List by Georgia Clark
At first glance, this seems like it's going to be a straightforward heart-warming and/or tear-jerking story. It is both of those.
But Georgia Clark's ability to capture contemporary culture in one clever observation after another kinda blew me away.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
I see what all the hype is about. Deep story, just beautiful.
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories by Alice Munro
Tried to write short stories. Thought I needed some guidance.
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Sigh...I just love her. Every time.
Fox 8 by George Saunders
Okay, confession: I could NOT get through Lincoln in the Bardo, and thought "oh, this book looks cute and small and short and pink."
Was it an easy read? Yep. Was it fantastic? Overwhelmingly.
FALL/WINTER 2018
Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
Anthony Bourdain had just died and news of him was everywhere. I stumbled upon an episode of Parts Unknown set in Detroit with a Michigan journalist named Charlie LeDuff. The episode was my intro to this colorful Michigander, and I was fascinated. I liked his pointedness and sought out his writing.
I only make occasional forays into narrative nonfiction. But as my forthcoming novel, Twine is set in my home state of Michigan, and has a strong thematic element that includes the socioeconomic problems there (like Detroit: An Autopsy,) I wanted to read his thoughts.
His writing is gritty and the subject matter steadily heart-wrenching. And although we have written about slightly different Michigan subcultures, when I finished his book, I felt like I’d found someone who shared something of my history. My own paternal grandfather hails from Hamtramck, (the small, heavily Polish city surrounded by Detroit), and my maternal grandmother was born in Flint. And I believe LeDuff and I have similar French Canadian roots, so I feel reassured to know someone like him is out there, calling it like it is.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
It was FOMO that led me to this one. Last year at Muse and the Marketplace, Celeste Ng was a presenter, and her name was everywhere. I wanted to read how she connected with so many readers. Now I get it. Her characters, leading with their vulnerability, left me wanting to follow them all the way to the end.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
There is something about Jennifer Egan’s writing that bowls me over with its virtuosity. There is how she weaves the plot so deftly, and also the sleight-of-hand she uses to divert the reader’s gaze, then wham, she drops the name Dexter Styles so that I have no choice but to gasp with pleasure like I’m in the club myself. Dang. How’d she do that?
And then there are her captivating phrases. How she nails the sentiment of being left: “She never cried. When she’d believed he was about to return, there was nothing to cry about, and when at last she’d stopped believing, it was too late. His absence had calcified.”
Or this one I just loved: “The trip to Manhattan Beach faded into the distant past like an apple core flung from a train window.
Sometimes I have to use music metaphors. So forgive me for saying this, but to me her writing sounds like she’s always playing in tune.
Willa Cather’s My Antonia left me with slow images of the plains seared on to my retina. Kindness and the yellow ochre of field grasses going on forever.
Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III
I just loved these stories. I think this is my favorite Dubus book to date. Although I am in the middle of “Gone So Long,” which means the verdict is out.
He lives near me, so I have had the privilege of hearing him speak several times. But I went to a “Gone So Long” reading a couple of weeks ago and was pretty thrilled to actually meet him. This reading was an event in his hometown of Haverhill, Mass. and there were many in the audience who ‘knew him when,’ so he was connecting with folks effortlessly. But it was still wonderful to see how he drew people out by asking them about their story. And he manages to be utterly engaging and charming while dropping quotes from heavies like Lao Tsu and quips from Stephen King.
Connecting with people, listening. I hope to be able to take a page or two out of his playbook when it is my turn to be up on the dais, reading my own words.
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout’s writing has become a bit like comfort food for me. I know I’m gonna like it, I know I’m going to come away sated. And in this instance it also left me asking what it means to have faith.