Some people have multiple books going at once, and I am one of them. The result is I finished five books this week. I didn't start them all this week.
At the recommendation of a fellow writer, I have read Lisa Cron's book Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) for about six months. It was an instructive book about writing, and I think my fiction will be stronger and better for reading it. She is engaging, encouraging, and she has a master plan for writing a compelling novel. We'll see if it works.😉
Mannequins Dressed for the Window: Haiku Secrets
by Gary Hotham
My husband has a friend that is a published Haiku writer. Here is a link https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/gary-hotham/ about him, his books, and accomplishments. He sent DH his latest publication. While sorting the mail, I opened it intending to read one or two and, instead, read the entire book while standing in the dining room. Hotham's work is lovely. I've had the privilege of hearing him read his work, and I'm a fan. Here is my favorite from Mannequins Dressed for the Window: Haiku Secrets. (I hope it is formatted correctly.)
penetrating an old story
new book odors
Martha Wells's book, All Systems Red, is the first in The Murder Bot Diaries. It is an entertaining quick read (144 pages or 3 hours long). This is excellent sci-fiction and also a who-done-it. There are many in the series, and I already have the second one on hold.
City of Thieves by David Benioff and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer are both weighty and emotional books telling compelling, disturbing stories.
Benioff's novel reads like a memoir. It reportedly tells of his Russian grandfather's time in the siege of Leningrad during World War II. I found an article (https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/47040/) where Benioff explains it's all fiction, even the relationship with the grandfather. He goes a long way to creating this illusion by giving the main character the same surname as his own. It effectively makes the events of the novel--cannibalism, sexual violence, animal cruelty, and war violence--have a significant impact. It landed hard for me, partly because I read it the week Russia invaded Ukraine. I read City of Thieves to evaluate it for my historical fiction book club. It's not a good fit, but it is a powerful well-written novel that is too difficult for me personally to discuss.
Anthony Doerr wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book All the Light We Cannot See. It is among the best books I've read, so I was excited for Cloud Cuckoo Land. Doerr is a master at weaving together the storylines. This book is about five different people in three different eras. Two are involved in the siege of Constantinople, two are present day, and one is on a spaceship in the not too distant future. They are all connected by Diogenes's ancient book called Cloud Cuckoo Land. I like novels with non-linear plots. I think it's tough to make it work and do it well, but Doerr does for me, but it can be a challenge keeping all the plots straight. I looked at some reviews on Goodreads. It mainly was given five stars or one star. It is long--over 600 pages--and painful. The depictions of violence and the effects of climate change are distressing, but in a good way.
There are some things worth reading, even though they are disturbing. I think City of Thieves, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and last week's book The Invention of Wings are troubling books. They put me inside suffering characters and let me see and feel awful things. I hope that reading them will compel me to care about others and, from that caring, to act. Unlike the people in Ukraine, I get to take a break and read something less emotionally taxing.
No comments:
Post a Comment