Books I Read in April 2008

I got quite a bit of reading done in April, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Writing was hard. That’s not exactly true either. I got almost no writing done on my WIP, The Foundling Wheel this month, but that’s about to change.

Part of the problem was a lack of time because of work, part of it was the intrusion of some noisy and long home improvement projects, but most of the problem was my lack of upfront planning when I started to write.

I knew that there was an incident that would define the start of the story and serve to influence everything the characters would do, but I was never entirely sure where I was going to go once I got past the incident. It really wasn’t until I’d read back to back posts at Steve Malley’s and at Candy Harris’s blogs that I realized that I hadn’t defined the basic premise of the novel before I started.

To use Candy’s formula, I couldn’t definitively say, “This is a story about a __________________ who wants __________________ because ____________. But can she succeed when ____________________?”

After a lot of sleepless nights, I think I’m almost there.

I would love nothing more than to write up fascinating and insightful observations about all the books I read in April, but that would only serve to feed my penchant for procrastination about Chapter 12, so I’ve got links to Amazon that will give you the gist of what each book is all about and I’ll tell you something about how I came to read the book and my general thoughts on them.

The Price of Salt, by Patricia Highsmith. One of the best sources for book recommendations I’ve found in the past year is Head Butler. I get daily book, music, film and product recommendations via my email subscription and Jesse Kornbluth’s book recommendations have all been right up my alley. I just blogged about this particular selection on Friday, so for more on this gem, read this.

Nina: Adolescence, by Amy Hassinger. The story begins with the tragic accidental drowning of eleven year old Nina’s four year old brother. Nina’s mother, a portrait artist begins painting nude studies of Nina. This happens as Nina approaches and enters adolescence, and during this time Nina’s father retreats into alcohol. The nude series of paintings mark the re-entry of Nina’s mother into the art world after an extended absence. They also mark the introduction of escalating problems in the family. The book is beautifully written and is a fascinating exploration of the emotion of adolescence, of grief, of guilt and of family secrets. I can’t remember how I stumbled on this, but I had it for nearly a year before I picked it up. Amy Hassinger is a graduate of The Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

Desperate Characters, by Paula Fox. Another excellent recommendation from The Head Butler and also blogger Patti Abott’s Friday Overlooked Book choice last week.

John Lennon and the Mercy Street Café, by William Hammett. This was one of the most delightful books I’ve read all year. Blogger William “Billy” Hammett’s story is set in present day New York City and begins with an encounter with John Lennon, playing guitar in a small Greenwich Village Café. It is humor and magical realism at its best. If you like Kurt Vonnegut, Tim Robbins, and if you loved The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you’ll want to read this book. William Hammett did several things that surprised me. His lead character is a woman, and I will give him his propers – I was convinced. He incorporates all kinds of Beatles lore, historical events, current events and time travel and he does it with simple, lovely prose. If you’ve read his blog and his poetry, you know what a talented writer he is. Underneath this seemingly simple tale, there are some pretty heavy ideas and themes that will keep you thinking.

Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik. One of my fellow Dickens Challengers recommended this series of essays. Adam Gopnik, his wife and infant son chose to move to Paris for five years in the late 1990s. They had a number of reasons, not least of which was because they didn’t want their son exposed to Barney the purple dinosaur! Lots of great stuff in these essays and lots of thoughtful commentary on the French, on Americans and how we’re similar, but different. This quote from Gopnik’s wife, Martha sums their experience up nicely. “We had a beautiful existence in Paris, but not a full life. And in New York we have a full life and an unbeautiful existence.”

The Empanada Brotherhood, by John Nichols. Nichols is the author of The Milagro Beanfield Wars and many other novels. This is a story set in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s and it’s told from the first person perspective of the only non-Latino character, who we know only as “Blondie”. Blondie is, of course a writer. I enjoyed this one.

How the Dead Dream, by Lydia Millet. I’d run across discussions on this new release several times and was intrigued. What an excellent book! The story is about a man who has focused on generating wealth and who is strangely disconnected from other people and other living things for most of his life. He’s a wealthy real estate developer by his early twenties and then a series of tragic events get him thinking about the extinction of species. There are lots of reviews out there on this one, so I won’t attempt my own, but I tore through this one. Lots of big philosophical ideas that really made me think.

Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. This is a book I read under semi-duress. The president of my company read this and decided to send a copy to all the employees so that we could take the on line “strength finder” test and we could all maximize the use of our innate talents. I’ve read dozens of leadership, management, sales and marketing books and was not looking forward to spending my precious reading time with this one. As it turns out, it wasn’t bad. The basic idea of the book is that most career development methodologies place an emphasis on identifying and addressing weaknesses, rather than identifying and capitalizing on strengths. This book identifies 34 individual themes or strengths, and an online test (accessible only through the use of a code that comes with the book) provides a report that tells you what your five defining strengths are. Naturally, I’ve been trying to decide if the test results support the idea of me becoming a published novelist and I haven’t given much thought to what they mean within the context of my paying job.

One Sister’s Song, by Karen Degroot Carter. I’m delighted to say that I read and loved friend and blogger Karen Degroot Carter’s wonderful novel. After the death of her sister, Audrey moves from the bustle of DC and a job she loves to her small, depressed upstate New York hometown to raise her thirteen year old nephew. Audrey’s mother is white and her father was black, and the story deals with race from the perspective of the biracial characters and from the perspectives of both black and white characters. Since Audrey is returning to the town where she grew up, she has to face some unresolved family and relationship issues. In addition to the multi-generational family stories that unfold, the book incorporates some fascinating historical information about the Underground Railroad and valuable insights about race in our culture. Karen is more recognizable here in the blogosphere as Sustenance Scout and regularly posts on issues related to diversity and tolerance at Beyond Understanding.

Here's to hoping I don't read nearly as much in May and that I nail down that premise and unstick my writing.

What great books have you read lately?