RTW: Objects of my (Reading) Obsession

Road Trip Wednesday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway. This week's topic is: What books were you obsessed with as a kid?

If I were to list all the books I loved to the point of obsession as a kid, this post would go on forever. Seriously. I was the kind of kid who couldn't sit down at the kitchen table, get in the car, or go out in the yard without a book.

I loved The Westing Game,* The Babysitter's Club, Sweet Valley High,** Nancy Drew, everything by Judy Blume (including Wifey, Smart Women, and Summer Sisters, which I read along with all her YA masterpieces), and the Alice books.

A lesser-mentioned book (lesser-mentioned by me, at least) I adored was Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons.

School Library Journal's blurb:
An engaging story of love and loss, told with humor and suspense. Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother leaves home suddenly on a spiritual quest, vowing to return, but can't keep her promise. The girl and her father leave their farm in Kentucky and move to Ohio, where Sal meets Phoebe Winterbottom, also 13. While Sal accompanies her eccentric grandparents on a six-day drive to Idaho to retrace her mother's route, she entertains them with the tale of Phoebe, whose mother has also left home. While this story-within-a-story is a potentially difficult device, in the hands of this capable author it works well to create suspense, keep readers' interest, and draw parallels between the situations and reactions of the two girls. Sal's emotional journey through the grieving process-from denial to anger and finally to acceptance-is depicted realistically and with feeling. Indeed, her initial confusion and repression of the truth are mirrored in the book. Overall, a richly layered novel about real and metaphorical journeys.


I think I read and reread it dozens of time. Walk Two Moons is a beautifully told, heartbreaking but funny story with unforgettable characters. My mom took me to see Sharon Creech speak (I think at a CCBC event?) after I'd read it, and the lessons she imparted about writing and literature during her talk are still in my writer's toolbox. If you haven't read Walk Two Moons, put it on the top of your TBR pile.


*Post on Ellen Raskin's MS materials
**Guys, I am SO EXCITED for the SVH ten-years-later book. So excited. Wait, what? It's available now! http://www.sweetvalleytenyearslater.com/


Edited to add: Um, I totally forgot to bring up my obsession with historical fiction, like The Witch of Blackbird Pond and all of Ann Rinaldi's books (particularly The Fifth of March). Total history nerd then and now.

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How was your weekend?

This is one of those Mondays in which my answer to that question makes sense to nobody but another writer.

Non-writer person, usually after telling me about brunch and a museum trip and maybe an improv show: How was your weekend?
Me: Oh, it was great! I revised almost 100 pages. I didn't leave my apartment at all on Saturday and I wore pajamas the whole time.
Non-writer person: Oh. That's . . . cool.
Me: I went to the gym on Sunday, mainly because I already had to leave the house. I was all out of ice cream!
Non-writer person: Awe . . . some?
Me: Yeah, it was! The revisions really clicked around midnight on Saturday!


So, did anyone else have a super Revisions weekend?

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Anna and the French Kiss

I'd been hearing buzz about Anna forever and a day--not just good buzz, but tantalizing, effusive, giddy buzz. And for good reason! Anna and the French Kiss is a delicious, smart, romantic romp through Paris and features one of the most charming and swoonworthy boys I've read in a long time: Etienne St. Clair. Anna Oliphant is a realistic and relatable protag, and the rest of the cast is diverse, fun, and interesting.

I'm not a huge Francophile (Spanish major, here) but while reading Anna, I felt compelled to research fares to Paris. And maybe I sought out some macarons to nibble on. And started saying bonjour. The setting of Anna is a Paris wonderland and could sell anyone on a visit to the city of light. A lovely book.

The Booklist review:

Source

Anna is not happy about spending senior year at a Paris boarding school, away from her Atlanta home, best friend Bridgette, and crush Toph. Adapting isn’t easy, but she soon finds friends and starts enjoying French life, especially its many cinemas; she is an aspiring film critic. Complications arise, though, when she develops feelings for cute—and taken—classmate Etienne, even though she remains interested in Toph. Her return home for the holidays brings both surprises, betrayals, unexpected support, and a new perspective on what matters in life—and love. Featuring vivid descriptions of Parisian culture and places, and a cast of diverse, multifaceted characters, including adults, this lively title incorporates plenty of issues that will resonate with teens, from mean girls to the quest for confidence and the complexities of relationships in all their forms. Despite its length and predictable crossed-signal plot twists, Perkins’ debut, narrated in Anna’s likable, introspective voice, is an absorbing and enjoyable read that highlights how home can refer to someone, not just somewhere. --Shelle Rosenfeld

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RTW: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Road Trip Wednesday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway. This week's topic is: Which book character would you like most as a next-door neighbor?

My answer is tricky, and a little weird, because the characters are/were also real people: Julie, and Julia, from Julie & Julia. (Although the book's Julia is a fictional creation of Julia Child, more a character than the real person.) (Julie Powell, if you see this via Google Alert, I swear I am not creepy.)

Why Julie: I loved Julie Powell's voice, and she's funny as hell. She also clearly has a well-stocked kitchen. This would be a good thing when, in the midst of attempting to cook, I realize that I have no sugar/eggs/oil/flour etc. (That happens to me on a regular basis. I make a lot of trips to Food Emporium in my pajama pants.) If I remember the book correctly, she also has a well-stocked bar.


Why Julia: In hopes that she'd share her culinary masterpieces with me, duh! Maybe she could also teach me how to roast a chicken, finally, or chop vegetables without getting scarily close to lopping off a digit. Not to mention, she was an awesome lady outside of the kitchen.

What about you? Who would you like to have across the lawn or across the hall?

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Happy World Poetry Day!

Today is World Poetry Day!

In honor of it, here are two I love:

Musee des Beaux Arts        

W. H. Auden 

The poem is about this painting, Breughel's "Fall of Icarus"(source)

About suffering they were never wrong, 

The Old Masters; how well, they understood 

Its human position; how it takes place 

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; 

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting 

For the miraculous birth, there always must be 

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating 

On a pond at the edge of the wood: 

They never forgot 

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course 

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot 

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse 

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. 

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away 

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may 

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, 

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone 

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green 

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen 

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, 

had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.     

A wonderful discussion of the painting, poem and its meaning can be found here. I love how interactive this poem is--with the painting, with mythology, with religion, and with the reader's own life and reaction to world events.

News Item        

Dorothy Parker

Men seldom make passes

At girls who wear glasses.

False, Dorothy! (Full disclosure: I am a glasses-wearer.)

Which poems do you love?

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Looking for Alaska

I didn't know much about Looking for Alaska before reading it (I actually thought Alaska referred to the state). I did know that:

1) I love (love, LOVED) Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

2) 8,000 people have told me to read Alaska.

3) It won the Printz award.

4) The Vlog brothers are pretty awesome.

So I expected to like it, and hoped for a Will Grayson, Will Grayson OMG-I-love-this-book response to it. The first sign that I'd get what I hoped for was reading the acknowledgments--if that perfunctory page is witty and entertaining and impressively written, it's usually a sign that the reader is in for a treat. 

I loved Miles's voice, I loved the characterization--all of the characters in Alaska are rich and real and satisfyingly complex. The story balances hilarious mischief and realistic teenage experiences/emotions/relationships with moving meditations on life, love, tragedy, and religion. I have such a soft spot for books that touch on Big Philosophical Issues in organic and entertaining ways. Looking for Alaska did such a fantastic job of that.

And then as I flipped to the last page, I found this post-it someone had snuck into the copy I saved from a closing Borders: (warning: text of the last paragraph is visible!)

Nerdfighter note!

Love, love, love it.

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Vacation Reading Report Card: Shows Improvement

And just like that, I'm back in NYC and back to work. Vacations are always too short!

Last year, I failed at catching up on my reading while away--reading 300 pages of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and 1.5 magazines. 

This year, I did a little better: Looking for Alaska (amazing, and deserving of its own praiseful post, TK), 1 magazine, and 41% of Anna and the French Kiss. Thank you, Kobo, for that exact amount. (PS: How annoying is it that you have to turn off eReaders during takeoff/landing?)

As proof, here is me reading in the beach hammock.

It was a good trip. I also got engaged. :)

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How to Pack a Suitcase

I'm guessing most travel experts would not include this in their tips:
"Pack at least 6 books for your 5-day trip--wait, no, just throw your whole TBR pile in the bag and check it."
Too bad, I'm doing it anyway. (I'm going to the Virgin Islands for a Spring-Break-for-Working-People-Whose-Souls-Have-Been-Sucked-By-An-Extra-Snowy-Winter trip. On Friday, Wheeeeeee!)

Okay, maybe not my whole TBR pile. But I am packing a lot of books:
Looking for Alaska
Anna and the French Kiss (on my Kobo)
American Wife
The Lotus Eaters 
Falling in Love with English Boys
Hector and the Search for Happiness
maybe The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
and Little Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On (because planes make me very scared)
(I'm saving Like Mandarin to cheer me up once I'm back)

Let's review--how many books did I read when I went on vacation last year?
Yeah, that's right, I finished one magazine and 400 pages of one book. I am a slow reader whilst I am a traveler.

We all have our little idiosyncrasies with travel and packing; sometimes we like to bring a bit of the comforts of home with us. Some people over-pack clothes, some always travel with a meaningful necklace, some need a first-aid kit to rival a pharmacy. I guess I need to travel with my library. If that means one less pair of sandals, so be it.

(See you all next Thursday!)

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RTW: Like Elizabeth

Road Trip Wednesday is a weekly blog carnival hosted by YA Highway. This week's topic, celebrating Kirsten Hubbard's LIKE MANDARIN release date, is: Growing up, who did you want to be like? 

I wanted to be like a lot of people (and fictional characters) growing up--my mom, Nancy Drew, our next-door neighbor Meegan, Madonna, Juliet (without the dying part), Jane Goodall, Hillary Clinton. . . . I could go on. Most of all, though, I wanted to be like my big sister, Beth.

Not just because she was my big sister, but because she was (and is) awesome.

She's an incredible artist. Her paintings and artwork are all over my parents' house.
She's intimidatingly smart. Ask her anything about history, and prepare to have your mind blown.
She's passionate and, more importantly, compassionate. She used to bake oatmeal cookies, bag them, and to give them the panhandlers she passed on her commute.
She will always stand up for what she believes in, even if that is the difficult thing to do.
She was always confident and tough when I was shy and unsure.
She has incredible taste in everything: food, clothing, jewelry, art, and especially music. Pretty much every amazing band/album I've ever listened to came from her recommendation.
She is physically tiny but weirdly strong--for her gym elective in high-school, she opted for weightlifting even though it was pretty much her and the enormous jock guys in the class. To this day, she can lift massive boxes and pieces of furniture without help, which makes her look like a tiny ant carrying around a huge leaf.
She's got serious moxie. She once chased a bike thief down the alleyway behind her apartment in long-johns. She got the bike back.
She's a phenomenal teacher and is so dedicated to her students.

(Some of those reasons are current and don't apply to why I looked up to her as a kid, but they just do such a good job of showing who she is.)

Me and Beth, last summer

We may have had our sibling rivalry and then some, but wanting to be like Beth has a lot to do with who I am today, and for that I'm grateful.

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Let the Great World Spin

NPR posted this piece about Let the Great World Spin yesterday, and I could relate to the author's occasional hesitancy to read a book with such critical acclaim and rave reviews (although it's hard to pass up books that win the National Book Award). Sometimes those books stay on my TBR pile for a long, long time, even though I want to read them. The contrarian in me is thinking, Stop telling me to read that! Jeez. I'll get to it on my own time. Although, I'd wanted to read this specific book ever since watching the documentary Man On Wire, about the French guy who walked a tightrope across the Twin Towers in 1974. (Seriously, he did that. I get vertigo just from thinking about the view.)

But like the author of that article, I'm so glad I picked Let the Great World Spin off my shelf. The NYT Book Review called it, "An emotional tour de force . . . one of the most electric, profound novels I have read in years." Yup. Agreed.

It is August, 1974, and a tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter-mile in the sky. In the streets below, ordinary lives become extraordinary as award-winning novelist Colum McCann crafts this stunningly realized portrait of a city and its people. From Colum McCann's website

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel pointed out the "level of human detail almost brutal in its empathy." I couldn't agree more with that statement. This is a book that will not only break your heart on every page but sew it back together. Each time Colum McCann introduces a new narrative voice I think I won't care for it as much as the last, and each time I'm wrong.

It's just fantastic literature. I'll leave you with one of my favorite passages:
It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from. We bring home with us when we leave. Sometimes it becomes more acute for the fact of having left.

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Winning

No, this post does not have to do with Charlie Sheen. (Sorry)

It has to do with Random.org picking the winner of my Where She Went ARC:

Sharli!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Sharli, I'll send you an email shortly so I can pop your ARC in the mail.

Also--Jill Hathaway is giving away an ARC of Divergent. 
Did you hear me? An ARC of Divergent. Seriously, people! It's been called the next Hunger Games.
I NEED THAT BOOK.
Head over to her blog before midnight on Thursday to enter: Jill Scribbles

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Chunk It.

I adopted a nifty, new (to me) process while revising my WIP: chunking.

chunking • \chung' king\ v. 1 the processing of splitting an overwhelming MS into "chunks," or parts, in order to revise the whole by parts.

I didn't set out to chunk my MS on purpose, but it was already split into distinct parts because it has two POVs. I wrote the two POVs separately, mainly because I don't like switching back and forth while writing and also I wanted each narrative to stand on its own. I am about to finally stitch the two together, once I go through POV #1 one more time with my little red pencil. 

Because the story alternates between those two POVs, each narrative already has distinct breaks. This meant that when I started revising I had 2 narratives, one with 4 parts and one with 5. 

(All these numbers are confusing me already. TOO MUCH MATH FOR WRITING! And I even like math.)

Anyway, I've been revising each part on its own, in preparation for revising the story as a whole. And you know what? Chunking was super-helpful! Focusing on sections of the story on a micro-level was so manageable. I had none of those, OMG, what am I going to do with the end of this book?!? moments because I was just focusing on the chunk at hand.

Of course, chunking can only be part of the revision process, otherwise the larger story arc will likely not work. That's what I'm about to start working on, smoothing over the story on the macro level [bites nails]. Knowing that my chunks are pretty solid [that phrase . . . makes me think of barf. Sorry.] makes me feel refreshingly confident going in, though.

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The door's still closed

I'm in the thick of revisions, when day in/day out a transcript of my thoughts would look something like this:
WIP WIP WIP coffee WIP WIP WIP day job WIP WIP WIP food WIP WIP WIP I need a shower WIP WIP WIP etc.

Despite the fact that I have a one-track mind for my MS, whenever someone asks me about it I clam up. I will state the subject matter, vaguely, and perhaps give out my word count, but that's about it. I can't share it right now.
I haven't opened the door yet.
In On Writing, Uncle Stevie advises us [I'm paraphrasing] to write the first draft with the door closed, the second with it open. Meaning, put off seeking external input from family, friends, readers and CPs, etc. until you've finished a draft. Open the door to criticism, advice, and suggestion only when the document--and you--are ready.

Well, I've already done one preliminary round of revisions, but the door's still closed. I hung out my kitschy hotel Do-Not-Disturb sign. I turned the lock. I'm considering pushing my dresser in front of the door, even. No one's allowed in yet!
I actually can't wait to get feedback on the story I've been working so hard to tell, just not right now. I already have a scarily long revision letter to address, one that I wrote myself while reading through the existing document. I just had an epiphany that involves rewriting a character. I don't want to show this MS to people until the things I already know I want, or need, to change have been changed.

Writer friends, when do you open the door? Is it harder for you to open it, or to keep it shut?

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