Summer Reading List

     On the other side of Labor Day, it feels like summer should be over.  My kids have been in school for three weeks so our collective Summer Vacation ended a while ago.  It flew by far too quickly, of course.  I expected living in a hotel for the summer would slow our summer down.  The situation has made it easier for the kids to reach out and touch each other, breathe on each other, look at each other...but routines and getting up early still came too quickly.

     I have been out of school for quite a while but I still operate under the illusion that I will have more time to read during the summer and feel an obligation like I should be reading over the summer.  My TBR list grows but I don't accomplish half of the reading I planned.  I did manage to fit in a few!

     Tiger Hunting by Tracy Million Simmons had been sitting on my shelf for far too long.  I "met" Tracy years ago, online, as part of a Kansas writers' forum back when I was one of those.  I purchased a copy of her book as soon as it was available.  I don't know why I waited so long to open it up but I brought it along on our flight in July.  It was the perfect time to read her story.  Along with searching for a white tiger in Kansas, her book is about finding your lost voice.  I finished her book as we were landing in New Orleans which was exactly where I'd left mine.  I started a new story while we were there but hers is finished and lovely and has circus folk.  Go take a look!

     Someone Else's Love Story, by Joshilyn Jackson, is her best yet.  Yes.  I know.  If you've read this blog for a while, you know that I say that each time I pick up her latest book.  It's still true.  If you have read her books, you know what I mean. If you haven't read any of her books, are not sure where to start or if you aren't sure you have the time to commit to another whole novel right now, you are in luck!  Two of the main characters in SELS also have parts in a separate short story, my own miraculous.  You can get the e-book version for ninety-nine cents.  Go read it now.  You will then purchase Someone Else's Love Story.  It's like trying to eat one potato chip.  Once you get a taste, you will not be able to stop and you will have to read more about Shandi and her extraordinary son, Natty.    I have a vicarious crush on Walcott.

     The Rent Collector is a book I've read over a period of many months.  This doesn't sound encouraging as you're looking for a book that you can't put down and I'm admitting I did.  Lessons build upon each other however and this story was no less powerful read a few chapters at a time versus all at once.  We've all had countless vicarious journeys as we read to "escape."  This story is an excellent reminder of how learning to read is a true means of escape for someone who can't, otherwise.  Camron Wright has set beautiful stories, some familiar, amidst the stinging smoke of a trash dump in Cambodia.  Well worth the read.

     How to Have a New Kid by Friday.  You've heard of this one.  If you need it, you've probably already read it.  If you haven't, it's stuff you already know, but written in a step format so you can read a little each day and put it all together at the end.  (Of course, this is the one I read in one two-hour sitting).   I'm guilty of giving too many choices and too many chances so my own mom recommended this one to me too many times.  If you have the time, it has plenty of good reminders.  Otherwise, say what you mean, once and mean it.

     It is a "teacher in-service" day which means my kids have today off, giving them a nice four-day weekend to recover from the last three full weeks of school.  Looks like rain.  Maybe I'll get some writing in.  I have to, as that is the only way I feel like I've earned time to read.  I said I wasn't bringing many to the hotel but I still have a decent stack waiting to be opened.  Next on the pile is The Invention of Wings!  What are you reading this month?

Her best, yet

It took me far too long to finally read a grown-up kind of pretty.  Do not make the same mistake.  If you have not yet picked up this book, go do it.  Now.
(You can read the rest of this post later.)

I've raved about Joshilyn Jackson's writing before, saying the only thing I liked better than her latest book was her blog.  I like this book better.  (I will still visit her blog on a near-daily basis, mind you, but you must go get this book).

It sucked me away from my kids on our plane ride home last weekend.  It kept me from my own writing this week and I had to finish it last night.  HAD to, you see because 1. I had to know and 2. I promised to spend this time WRITING and I could NOT until I finished this book.

Go get it.  You're welcome.

All a-twitter

I was hesitant to join Twitter.  I waste spend too much time on facebook and was afraid that I would get sucked into twitter, as well.  I was right.


I thought it was cool that I could follow anyone, including other writers.  I can follow writers I have met, writers I have not met, even writers that I have apologized to while getting a book signed while explaining I'm not really a stalker.  But now?  Writers are following me!  (Even writers who have said that I am so not a stalker and that she kind of enjoys having fans!)

Looking back

It has taken far too long to tell you about Karen Abbott's American Rose.  I was lucky enough to win a hard copy of this book!  (That makes this delay inexcusable but please forgive me and go out and buy this book.  Now.)  The book is the story of New York as much as it is the story of Gypsy Rose Lee.  I am so glad I read this book before my trip to New York in August!  It helped me to see so much of the city in a new way, especially Times Square.  I love history and it never ceases to amaze me how little human nature differs, over time!  It was a great read I won't soon forget.  (I can't!  My daughter is enamored with the show "Toddlers and Tiaras" and there is a stage mom in every episode that reminds me of Rose, Gypsy's mother!  Almost 100 years have passed since Rose was pushing her daughter, June, along the vaudeville circuit claiming that her daughter was destined to be "somebody."  I hear the same words in my living room today, but vaudeville has been replaced by reality television.)

I am sure you read The Help long ago.   I have been meaning to read the book forever but just got around to finishing it last week.  Though wonderful reviews abound, I knew I had to read the book when I read about it in Food & Wine magazine.  (They featured many of the recipes from the movie.)  Kathryn Stockett's writing was wonderful.  I love southern writers and southern writing but so many writers slow the story down by trying to capture dialect.  I have had to stop and re-read so many words so many times to understand what the characters are supposed to sound like.  Ms. Stockett's writing is spot-on.  Perfect.  Her characters in this novel are unforgettable, the writing is compelling and the food sounds delicious--though it will be a while before I enjoy chocolate pie again!

The Conference

I have written three accounts of the South Carolina Writers' Workshop for you. All of them are FAR too long for any of you to want to read. I'm working on that. Here is the (very) condensed version. (Which, I think, is fair. I promised an account once I'd slept--and that has not happened, yet!)

In the meantime, I will just tell you that it was an amazing weekend! I wanted to walk on the beach and hear Joshilyn Jackson's keynote speech. I walked on the beach, took her course, talked to her, had her sign my book, and talked to her a little more!

Getting there, Thursday, was Hell and I was sure I had made a mistake. Friday was great! Saturday was amazing! (Did I mention yet that I had a conversation with Joshilyn Jackson??)Sunday was a blur!

Now I am tired, inspired, have new friends to email, a draft to revise and a better blog post to draft. At least there is still a week until Nano! ;)

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Joshilyn Jackson's latest book takes place in Florida. 

Her first two novels put you in the South.  I grew up in Florida and went to college in New Orleans and her books captured much of the essence of what I like to remember as "home."  I was excited to learn that her latest book took place in Florida but I did not get as nostalgic with this one.  

While she included some references to the sandy soil (which differs, apparently, from the actual dirt next door in Alabama) much of this novel takes place in Anywhere, USA.  Which is actually closer to where I really grew up--and where I live, now.  

Ms. Jackson has a talent for creating memorable characters and locales.  Her details put you right into the story.   I was sure I had the "whodunit" part figured out this time--and was wrong again!  It was worth the read--I just didn't feel like to I got to escape to the South this time.  I felt like it could have taken place here--in my current home.  (Although I do not have a pool, nor a dead girl floating in one.)

Georgia on my mind

Joshilyn Jackson has written another gripping tale featuring memorable southern characters, including one more memorable aunt! While Bernese is different than Aunt Flo from Gods in Alabama, both women will remain in your thoughts long after you close the books!

Bernese and her sisters are all members of the Frett family who have raised Nonny, who is biologically a Crabtree. The Crabtrees and the Fretts have had an ongoing feud that began long before the story begins but intensifies after Nonny's birth and rages throughout the novel.

Set in the town of Between, the novel focuses on Nonny who is caught between the two warring families, the two towns of Between and Athens and between her husband and best friend.

Ms. Jackson's books are great for those of us who need that "southern fix" in our reading! (While I still get the argument that Florida is not really part of "The South," the part I grew up in is dern close to southern Georgia!) Having said that, I cannot wait for Ms. Jackson's next novel which is set in Florida!

Pass it on! B4B is Live!

It's time again for Blogging for Books! I WILL get my entry in this month and I hope you all will join me!

...blog about cheating. Any old kind of cheating will do. Games, Lovers, Tests, it's all fair game until you admit in writing that you've cheated on the ever-faithful IRS....
GO!

How to play: You blog on a chosen topic. You post a link to your blog entry in the comments below this entry on Joshilyn Jackson's blog.

B4B closes next Monday when the comments close on this entry, EXACTLY seven days from the very second this posted. <----note the slight rule change. If you have no blog, you write the essay and cut and paste it (no attachments please) into an email to Ann Fitten (the Bloggess behind Edgy Mama) and ask her sweetly to host it for you.

gods in Alabama, by Joshilyn Jackson

This was a riveting, well-crafted southern drama with a surprising twist. Admittedly, I am a sucker for southern tales and the opening paragraph of this novel resonated immediately.

There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel’s, high school quarterbacks,
trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in
Possett. I kicked it under the kudzu and left it to the roaches.

If you consider the effect of outside influences on your opinion of a book, I could not have been in a better place to read this novel! The main character, Arlene Fleet, spends the first part of the book recalling Alabama. The next part of the book entails a road-trip to Alabama and the ending takes place "back home" in Possett, AL. While my family and I were on our way to Texas and Louisiana (not Alabama) the scenery along the way meshed perfectly with the descriptions in the book!

So I was probably in the ideal place to read it but I enjoyed it immensely. Even if you aren’t headed south, or especially if you are not, I recommend this as a vicarious trip home to a very southern home and southern dysfunctional family. There is the obligatory scene where a southern writer must describe a palmetto bug for Yankee readers and Ms. Jackson does an excellent job!

There are good men in this book and one who is both hero and devil. It is the women who protect each other, albeit in unconventional ways that move this story. There are gods in Alabama but God works through the women of Chicago and Possett, Alabama.