Read 'Til You Drop

Well, months later, I'm finally able to write up my "books read" for the year....  I don't know why I didn't keep up with regular, monthly postings - I suppose that's another topic for resolutions :-)

Without further ado - the books I read in 2007:



All in all, 59 books, making an interesting year (especially a year when I was busy with so much day-job work that my reading often suffered.)

A lot of YA, reflecting actual and potential book-writing projects.  A fair foray into my to-be-read shelf, which is still overwhelmed (and overwhelming), but not by as much as at the beginning of the year.  I like the idea that I started this year of placing tags on the books by quarter, so that I know how long they've been sitting around.  I think I'll continue that into the new year.

Mindy, dusting off hands

I need to update a "bookshelf" post - I haven't done one in months, and my "reshelve" pile is about to topple over (you know, the stack of books that I've read, that I need to add to my "bookshelf" post, but which I haven't taken the time to add yet, so they're waiting to be reshelved with the rest of my books...  What?  You don't have a reshelf pile?!?)

In any case, while I'm dilly-dallying and not getting around to that "bookshelf" post, here's a glimpse of what I'm reading, posted on two great blogs, that trace what authors are reading:

What is Mindy Klasky reading?

and

Writers Read:  Mindy Klasky

I found these blogs fascinating, seeing what other writers are reading - I hope that you do too!

Mindy, shaking her head at the past month's growth in the to-be-read stack!

Catching up on my bookshelf postings...  Where does the time go?  Why can't I manage to read everything that I want to read?  And why is my to-be-read pile threatening to topple over on me even as I type?

So, without further ado...


Mindy, back to reading in her, you know, spare time

Well, it's been far too long since I've updated my "what I've read" bookshelf here - and I've been inspired to do so, based on all those remembered books you spoke about yesterday.  (Me?  I read some of the Marguerite Henrys, and I have a signed copy of BRIGHTY OF THE GRAND CANYON, but I wasn't quite as nuts about horses as many of my friends.  I went on horseback rides, but they scared me when they galloped back to camp :-) )

So, without further ado...

So - that's the list...  For now, anyway :-)

Mindy, desperately seeking more time to read...

So, I have some thoughts on gender and genre, but before I get there, I want to update my bookshelf listing of what I've read so far this year:

• ( 2007 Bookshelf, So Far )
•  

And there we go...  While I've bought about a half-dozen books, I'm mostly making it through the massive backlog on the TBR shelf...

Mindy, still looking for more hours in the day for reading

My college roommate came to visit late last month, and she carted off a bunch of my most-recent reads.  That always happen when we see each other - we exchange dozens of books, raving about the best of our previous week's/month's/year's reading.  I'm intensely jealous of her - she reads very, very quickly.  I feel as if I just plod along.

In any case, here are my reads for the year so far, most recent first.  There was only one book in the past month that failed the 50-page test, and I actually extended the test to 100 pages, to make sure I wasn't being overly-critical.  It was a hard-SF, with minimal character development.  While there were *digressions* that I found reading-worthy (and, in theory, novel-of-their-own-worth), I just couldn't bring myself to finish the damn thing.)  As always, if I don't have a specific comment to make, it's not because I hated the book, but rather because I just don't feel that I have a lot to contribute about it.  So, without further ado...

• ( The 2007 Bookshelf )
•  

I'm not sure what's up next.  Something light and fluffy, I suspect, to counteract the Williams essays...

Mindy, browsing the bowing-under to-be-read shelves...

Lots going on in my non-writing life - all will be made clear in the future (good stuff, just still-private, and very-time-consuming stuff...)

I've been on a reading *tear* - lots and lots of good books, books of the caliber that I'm left wanting to stay up late reading, sit on my subway seat past my stop reading, ignore some of my favorite TV series reading - well, you get the idea.  Here's the year's tally so far (and just because I don't write anything about a particular book, don't take that as a gospel like-or-dislike - I'm just not feeling inspired to comment at the moment :-) ):

• ( Books Read Thus Far )
•  

There you have it.  And in that mix, there was only one book that failed the 50-page test (read the first fifty pages, didn't care if I finished it or not.)  Not a bad start to the year.

Mindy, off to get some actual writing done.

Well, I've wrapped up my reading for the year, although there's one YA that might still make it onto the list, depending on what I end up doing this afternoon...

Here's the list for the year, 54 in all....


Simon Winchester's A CRACK IN THE EDGE OF THE WORLD was a truly terrifying book, discussing the San Francisco 1906 Earthquake and Fire, after a lengthy explanation of plate tectonics and the geology of North America, with fascinating side trips to other regions.  I love his writing - and I love narrow-focus nonfiction books - but this one just enraptured me.  For years, my college roommate lived in San Mateo, with huge plate glass windows looking out over the watershed, which was a polite name for the San Andreas fault.  The entire time I read the book, I kept picturing her home after The Big One.  Sigh....

RESCUING ROSE has been on the Red Dress shelf for some time; I'm almost through working through my backlog of RDI books.  Several years ago, when I first came up with a chicklit idea (which never saw completion, alas), I browsed through one of Wolff's books (MINTY MALONE, for those keeping score), but I didn't buy it.  Minty ends up being a minor character in this one.  Ah, the intertwining of art...

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS was an interesting read for me - I've heard about it nonstop, between the movie and the grand success in the YA field, and all the sequels, and, and, and...  I expected the stories of the four girls to be far more intertwined, and I expected the magic of the pants to be more germane to the plot resolution.  While the girls' stories didn't completely resonate for me (and, let's face it, I'm nearly triple the age of the intended audience...) I was impressed by some of the serious topics tackled:  losing virginity, dying friends, the politics of merged families, etc.

I also started a Red Dress book, which didn't make it past the 50-page test.  There were at least four third-person narratives, and no indication in the text when narrative POV changed.  I found myself honestly confused multiple times (not just snarkily confused, which is often the case), and I decided that I didn't want to work that hard.

So.  That wraps up the year in books.  As for next year?  I'm not sure what it will bring.  Less Red Dress, certainly, because I've worked through almost all of the backlist.  More non-fiction, because I have some wonderful titles just waiting in the wings.  More mystery/thriller/suspense, because I miss the genre.  Some long works, because I'm resolved not to be afraid of them.  (I don't set a goal of how many books to read in a year because I don't want to avoid long works, for fear of upsetting the numeric goal.)

That said, I have more than 50 books that have been on my to-be-read shelf for months; I've marked them each with a Post-It flag, so that I'll be able to tell how long they've been there.  (Purple and pink tags are January 2007; I'll use other colors to match acquisitions during the year...)  Anything not read in a year will be consigned to the Library gift bag in January 2008.

And you?  What are your reading goals, hopes, dreams for the new year?

Well, when the stack of "read" books falls to the floor, it's time to shelve them - but I'll update my "bookshelf" first.

I'm hitting the end of the massive backlog of Red Dress books; I only have a half dozen on my to-be-read shelf.  It's been an instructional 18 months - I've found some wonderful new authors, and I've found some who remind me of my calendar age.  I'm looking forward to reading more fantasy and mystery, filling the "genre" gap on my shelves :-)

Standouts among recent reads included ON AGATE HILL, by Lee Smith.  It's the story of an orphaned girl growing up in Reconstruction North Carolina.  I picked it up for free at Book Expo, and I truly enjoyed reading it - enough to seek out other books by Smith in the future.  Also, I loved the dialog in Jenn Reese's JADE TIGER.  A few days ago, I found myself telling a story to Mark, focusing on the respect that children do (and do not) pay their elders.  Something jangled at the back of my mind as "familiar", and it took me a moment to realize that it was a passage from JADE TIGER.

So, sparing those of you with no interest, the list is behind


Mindy, ready to shelve the "read" books...

Well, it's been ages since I've posted my "bookshelf" - the books that I've been reading. Part of that delay has been based on mechanics - we were storing a neighbor's furniture in front of our bookshelves while she was selling her house, so that I couldn't actually *reach* my bookshelf for several weeks.  With that minor inconvenience out of the say, here's an update:

I have (finally) read THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.  I saw the movie over the summer, and I truly enjoyed it for the popcorn flick that it was - I thought that the characters were well-drawn and amusing, and that the acting was superb.  I was astonished to read the book and find that not one single scene in the book occurs in the movie.  OK.  *One* scene - toward the very end.  But nearly every other minute of film was created out of whole cloth (ha!) by the screen-writer, using the names, basic characters, and situations from Weisberger's book.

I'd never read HIGH FIDELITY, but I felt as if I had, based on watching the movie a couple of times.  A lot of the dialog, and the voiceovers, were word-for-word what I remember.  Of course, HIGH FIDELITY actually underwent *more* change from the book-concept, moving from the UK to the States.  As author Lauren Baratz-Logsted says, Nick Hornby may be my favorite chick-lit writer writing today.  Yeah, I know.  But it's the same sensibility!

I found it interesting to compare and contrast Pelecanos's DRAMA CITY and Burke's PEGASUS DESCENDING - both men write about their regions of the country (Washington, DC for Pelecanos, Louisiana for Burke) with an elegiac air.  Both authors are literary in their aspirations and execution.  And both authors describe brutal, animalistic worlds that I can only hope don't actually exist.

In the book department, I've added a few to the list:


Mindy, off to choose the next book to read...

I haven't posted about the various things that I'm reading for a long time...  When I traveled to Minneapolis and Atlanta, I carried with me a huge stack of magazines -- issues of the New Yorker going back over almost six months, Budget Travel, Weight Watchers, Cooking Light, alumni magazines, Washington Post Sunday magazines...  I shed them as I traveled -- what a wonderful feeling!

In the book department, I've added a few to the list

MR TIMOTHY, by Louis Bayard, started out as a "pity buy" - I went to college with Louis, and I stage managed a production that he acted in.  While I was initially turned off by the coarseness of the first couple of chapters, I ended up really enjoying this Victorian thriller.  The climactic scenes are extremely film-ogenic.  (The novel is the story of Tiny Tim, from a Christmas Carol, after he grows up - it involves prostitutes, murder, and a few other things that will give away too much of the plot, if I tell you.)

ENCHANTED, INC is a chick-lit paranormal that I've been hearing a lot about.  I'm glad that I picked it up - I truly enjoyed the storytelling, *and* I discovered that it doesn't cover the same waterfront as an idea that's been kicking around in the back of my own head!

Here's the complete list:

A number of people on the friends-list have posted their reading lists for the first half of the year.

I am jealous.

I am jealous of people who have time (or energy or discipline or whatever) to read massive amounts.  I have, literally, dozens of books that I want to read.  And yet, my own reading list creeps forward at its petty pace...  Here we are so far:


Questions?  Comments?  Heaps of scorn?  :-)

Mindy, off to her subway commute (and the chance to squeeze in a few more pages of reading...)

At first, I didn't write a "bookshelf" entry because I didn't have anything remarkable to say about what I was reading.  Then, I didn't write one because I was a bit overwhelmed by what I'd been reading.  So, without further delay...

Last week, I finished reading Sarah Dunant's - IN THE COMPANY OF THE COURTESAN.  It's set in 16th century Rome and Venice, and it feels very much - to me - like a fantasy novel.  The details of the world are rich and complete; it feels completely different from my modern, protected, electrified, sanitized life.  While characters have strong motivations that are similar to 21st century motivations, they act upon them in a world with clearlyl defined, very different-from-ours rules.  In short, I think that a lot of historical fiction reads like fantasy - perhaps *especially* those that are well-researched.  (I had the same reaction to MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA when I read it.  The world of the Japanese geisha was more thoroughly created by the author than many a fantasy world I've read about it.

For those of you who read both fantasy and historical novels - do you find the same thing?  Which historical novelists do the best worldbuilding, in your opinions?

Over the weekend, I finished reading Audrey Niffenegger's THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE.  I *loved* it.  It was an all-consuming read; I didn't want to do anything else but finish it.  (I'm not 100% that the author keeps her timelines - and her characters' self-knowledge - straight, but I loved the conceit, the characterization, and the storytelling.)  Now, explain to me why this novel is "mainstream" instead of SF?  (And while you're at it, toss in the explanation for FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON - it'll be the same one :-) )

And here the rest of the Bookshelf:


Mindy, wishing as always that she had more time to read...

I finished FISHBOWL, by Sarah Mlynowski (a Red Dress book.) Sarah is going to be signing books with me at Book Expo America on May 20 - I figured the least I could do was read a couple of her books. (I read her MILKRUN last year.) FISHBOWL has multiple short chapters that are narrated by three different young women (and a wry, omniscient narrator who takes over a few key chapters.)

In a newsgroup that I frequent, someone had posted a question about writing from multiple points of view (POVs.) Her concern was that her *narration* was sounding different for each narrator, not just her dialog. Several of us - myself included - tried to assure her that making the narration sound different was actually a virtue, not a vice. (I offered up the best example of that technique that I know of - Barbara Kingsolver's POISONWOOD BIBLE.)

FISHBOWL does a good job with the multiple POV narration. One girl is sweet-as-pie, one is a bitch on wheels, one is a repressed near-anorexic. You can pretty much tell which one you're reading, even without glancing at the chapter headings. The target audience for this book is a bit younger than, ahem, I am; however, it's well worthwhile taking a look, if you're interested in ways of delivering somewhat unconventional narrative to the chicklit world.  And if you ever need to raise $10,000 in a few months, FISHBOWL can give you some great tips!

And you? Do you have favorite examples of multiple POV books that work?



Mindy, off to finish up AAs.

I finished reading Tracy Chevalier's THE LADY AND THE UNICORN night before last. I truly enjoyed this historical novel (positing the characters behind the creation of the Unicorn tapestries.) Mark and I heard Chevalier speak last year, at a series of historical fiction writers, sponsored by the Smithsonian. Chevalier laughed self-deprecatingly when asked about LADY; she said that she seems to have a passion for writing about women in artwork. (Yes, you know her name because she wrote GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING.)

Her novel THE VIRGIN BLUE was - in some odd ways that have nothing to do with anything direct or linear - the basis of my short story "The Darkbeast", which was published in the anthology FANTASTIC COMPANIONS (edited by Julie Czerneda.)

While all of her novels take place in different time periods, and all have separate and unique story arcs, they all have a similarity of tone and nature of story-telling. Her narrative is deceptively "on the surface" - she uses few images to create her story. Her characters (who narrate in the first person) say precisely what they're thinking as they're thinking it - even when those thoughts do not reflect well on them. Some characters lie to themselves, but they're not aware of the lies.

All in all, a brisk, exhilirating read that stimulated lots of thoughts about writing in my own little mind.

And here's the list for the year:



And no, I don't intend to comment on every book I read. Just the ones that stand out for some reason.

Mindy, off to get some writing done

I continue to alternate Red Dress books with my other reading, and I finished Laurie Gwen Shapiro's THE MATZO BALL HEIRESS last night. Years ago, when I was dating the hypnotist (a relationship that totally, completely didn't work out, despite my greatest hopes that it would - but it gave me some great stories to fold into chicklit books), we went to see a movie at the trendy, hip, urban movie palace here in town - KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT, A MODERN CANNIBAL STORY. The movie is about a 78-year-old gay anthropologist who goes back to visit the people that he studied when he was a young man. The producers were at the movie, and one of them looked like Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Fast forward 6 years - "Jennifer Jason Leigh" is Laurie Gwen Shapiro, and she's written a chicklit novel about a woman who is part of the Greenblotz matzo family - a woman who has no ties to her religion (beyond showing up at the factory every spring to give tours to media), a woman who prefers crab roll to california roll on her sushi, a woman who celebrates passover with a ham and cheese panini... You get the picture.

I was especially intrigued by the book because alg recently read and commented on it in her LJ. Now, unlike alg, I actually enjoy the voice of chicklit (at least, some of the voices - some of them are too young for me.) And unlike alg, I don't live in New York or work in publishing.

I have to say that I *loved* the climax of the book. Not loved it in a "it changed my life way" but loved it in a "made me smile on the Metro and actually laugh out loud once or twice" way. Shapiro set up her characters, defined their personalities, and then kept them true to form in a grand confrontation climactic scene.

So, for me, this was one of the relatively high-ranking Red Dress books. And for those keeping score - here's the bookshelf from this year: