2016: Year In Review

From where I'm sitting, this year has flown. I can't believe it's New Year's Eve. A fast year. And for me, not such a bad one. In fact, it's been my best author year yet, and I can't thank my readers enough for making it such a fast-paced, rewarding time to be a writer. THANK YOU, readers!! I've got lots planned for 2017, so I hope you'll stick around.

On the writing front:

I released five books this year. Walking backward:

Walking Wounded

Loverboy

Tastes Like Candy

Secondhand Smoke

Snow In Texas

On the reading front:

I read some really wonderful books this year, though most weren't published in 2016. In no particular order, my favorites were:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

by Michael Chabon

The Shell Seekers

by Rosamunde Pilcher

Coming Home

by Rosamunde Pilcher

A Prayer for Owen Meany

by John Irving

The Nightingale

by Kristin Hannah

All The Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

The Ocean At The End of the Lane

by Neil Gaiman

The Martian

by Andy Weir

Happy New Year, everyone!!! I can't wait to see you all again in 2017.

October Reading

Happy Monday, I come bearing book recs.

Last week, I read The Nightingale for book club, and this weekend I devoured The Trespasser by my favorite currently-writing author. Great reads for early October nights.

The Nightingale

This one's been at the top of the NYT list since last year, so I'm a latecomer to the party. I'm a natural-born skeptic, and hesitant to read anything that's all the rage; I generally circle a book like that for a while, sniffing and testing the wind. In this case, the hype was well-deserved.

The novel tells the story of two very different sisters and their journeys of survival in occupied France. In them, we see contrasting, and complimentary kinds of strength; we suffer and grieve alongside them. Hannah's prose is precise and hard-hitting; she pulls back the curtains and shows us the horror of the War in a way that feels visceral and current.

I've always had such a soft spot for great WWII stories, and this one is no exception. I think that War, and the men and women who endured it, show us the highest and lowest points of humanity. It's the full spectrum, packed in a few years. There's something heart-wrenching and hopeful about war stories.

Make sure you have tissues on hand for the last few chapters; it's a tear-jerker.

The Trespasser

Tana French's first book, In The Woods, released in 2008, and I've been a fan since. Her Dublin Murder Squad series has all the ingredients of my favorite kind of book: smart, artistic, literary prose; powerful imagery; a subtle attention to human detail; a grounding sort of griminess that keeps it all rooted very much in reality. And I love her characters. I think that's what I love most about her mysteries: the narrator is not merely a set of eyes through which we see the action, but a person we grow to love over the course of the novel, no matter how flawed or prickly.

In The Trespasser, we catch up with Detectives Conway and Moran again, and in a lot of ways I was sad we've already had Steve's book, because I could read another one from his POV. Antoinette is not the heroine for any readers looking for a female lead who is romantic and malleable; I actually quite liked her. Perhaps because I feel like I understand her. But probably because Tana French is just that good. In contrast to Cassie - the other female D we've followed in the past - Antoinette had a very blunt, factual way of looking at the world, not prone to exaggeration...but she wasn't immune to Steve's what-ifs. Not as much as she would hope, anyway.

Dark, and smart, the kind of writing I dream of producing someday in the future, Tana French always delivers, and never fails to remind me why I love to write.

American Gods, a Non-Review

First, let me preface this by saying that I don't write book reviews. That's not my place. When I blog about a book, it's meant as a way to recommend it and express my thoughts/feelings. I only blog about books that I really enjoy and would encourage others to read. So think of this as a non-review.

"I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were."

~Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

American Gods is a book about a lot of things, and in my mind, it reads as a myth about myths, which is a really clever way of telling the kind of story largely lost amid modern day writing.

Mythology is fascinating. No matter the culture of origin, it always boils down to a crazy, violent, sex-filled soap opera, starring a pantheon of extreme personalities, not stingy with their lust, wrath, or greediness. I'm mostly familiar with Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, and the Norse and Egyptian feature heavily in the novel. It was a lot of fun figuring out who was who as the story went along. By the end, I'm convinced - SPOILER ALERT - that our hero, Shadow, was actually Baldr, though it's never strictly stated and I haven't bothered to research whether or not this is the case. It's my head-canon, shall we say.

Shadow is not a brash character - his name is very fitting. He's quiet, thoughtful, and takes things, crazy things, in stride with an unnatural calm. That's what I mean when I say it reads like a myth: the narrative text itself unfolds in the plain poetry of old mythic tales. The supernatural is not something marveled over, merely stated. The sky is blue, the wind is cold, and Odin has magical ravens. Right. Okay. The prose is highly evocative and descriptive, without being cluttered. Clever turns of phrases mixed with melancholy observations. Gaiman is a subtle, clever, undeniably English writer (I mean this in the best way possible), while managing to capture the American road-trip aesthetic wonderfully. Mythology reads as a statement of fact, and so does this novel.

For a frame of reference, I would liken it to the American Odyssey-inspired film O Brother Where Art Thou, that episode of Supernatural where the boys ended up at a roadside rec center that Loki and co. were using as a feast hall, and one of my personal favorite guilty pleasure TV gems, the New Zealand show The Almighty Johnsons.

Neil Gaiman's going on my list of Damn Fine Writers, a favorite for sure. I'd recommend even if you aren't sure mythology's your cuppa.

The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir

Read March 2016

Okay, I loved this book. I made time for it before bed every night. So know that this isn't a true book review, per se.

I have eclectic taste when it comes to books. For me, it's all about the author's voice and competence, and the characters of the story. Subject matter has no real bearing, and I love to feel like I'm learning new things as I read for fun. So The Martian was perfect on all those levels. I was a bit wary going in, because I knew it was going to be a very technical novel, and I have only a rudimentary grasp of space travel and exploration. All those worries were expelled the moment the story starts, and we meet Mark, our intrepid Martian explorer, thought dead and left stranded on the Red Planet when his crew aborted the mission and went back to the ship. Mark lives a year and a half on Mars, constantly encountering problems and having to engineer solutions. The narrative is comprised of his log entries, and the occasional flash back to Earth, as they try to devise a way to bring him home.

First off, Mark is an adorable dork, and he injects a quirky humor into everything. Though the story is dangerous, and suspenseful, Mark's voice takes the it from a place of nail-biting melodrama to one that is entertaining, appropriately nerve-rattling, and always interesting to read.

I'll paraphrase it for you:

Me: "This is obviously a clog. How about I take it apart and check the internal tubing?"

NASA(after five hours of deliberation): "No. You'll fuck it up and die."

So I took it apart.

Me: "I took it apart, found the problem, and fixed it."

NASA: "Dick."

....

You know what!? Fuck this! Fuck this airlock, fuck that Hab, and fuck this whole planet!

...

Things aren't as bad as they seem. I'm still fucked, mind you. Just not as deeply.

...

Fun fact: This is exactly how the Apollo 1 crew died. Wish me luck!

...

Stop laughing.

...

It seemed to work well. The seal looked strong and the resin was rock-hard. I did, however, glue my hand to the helmet.

...

Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped.

...

As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.

...

I tested the brackets by hitting them with rocks. This kind of sophistication is what we interplanetary scientists are known for.

I highlighted the heck out of this book on my Kindle. Can't recommend it enough if you like scifi and space. And I also recommend it to people who are curious and just plain like to read. Five stars from me. Loved it.

Weekend Reading

 

One of my favorite things about book club - aside from sitting around Lyn's adorable shop with the sweetest group of people and discussing literary fiction novels classic and contemporary - is getting great new book recommendations. When you become not just friends, but book friends, you get a feel for what the others in your group gravitate toward, and you receive the most pointed, taste-specific book recs. One of my book club friends suggested Rosamunde Pilcher to me. "Read The Shell Seekers," she said, with a knowing smile. "It's wonderful."

 

Wonderful was right. I started it about a week ago and it's been one of those books I struggle to set aside every night. I'm 80% finished, completely enchanted and heartbroken by it, and almost jumped out of my computer chair earlier today when I realized there was a sequel, September.

 

When I'm writing, no matter how busy I am, I just HAVE to carve out a little time to read on the side. It helps me stay in writing mode. And I love to read the sorts of books that make me feel stupid and inadequate as an author, the kind that make me want to be better, more clever, and more focused than ever before.

 

The Shell Seekers is one of those special books that brings you in slowly, seductively, with plenty of ordinary people dashed with wonderfully rich prose. An enthralling, whale-of-a-tale kind of book that spans decades and jumps backward and forward in time without any regard for linear plot. My favorite kind! I love for a book to be bold in establishing a world and a pace for itself. For the author to say, "Come sit down, have a drink, really get comfy, and let me tell you this story." No formula, no regard for an agenda of any kind, just a complete devotion to tale-telling and word-crafting. I'm in book love.

 

I hope to finish this weekend, and then have September ready to go on my Kindle the moment I'm finished. In between long bouts of writing about my favorite bikers, I'm going to be sneaking chapters of Pilcher's unforgettable characters.

 

All The Light We Cannot See

 

One of my (many) goals this year is to read more. Last year I got sucked so deep into writing that I read less than I should have. I have a long list of books at the ready, and I'm hoping they'll keep me literary-minded as I embark on a crazy year of writing. So far so good.

 

Last Thursday, my book club discussed our January pick, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. What a beautiful, moving, lyrical book it was.

 

The novel follows two central parallel stories, that of a blind French girl living with her father, and a young German orphan with a knack for radios, as the second World War kicks into full violence and eventually sweeps both of them up in its tide. It is as compelling, raw, and devastating as all WWII fiction - a time period that has always held a particular fascination for me. Doerr paints the most gorgeous and specific pictures; the settings of the book unfurl before you in full-color and surround-sound. With often direct and concise language, he pulls us into the characters and allows us as readers to experience their emotions to great effect.

 

It's the sort of book that reminds why I love being an author...and simultaneously makes me wonder why I even bother trying. I couldn't put it down. A fantastic start to the year's reading.