Tell Me

Essays are a brief, profound chat with someone who has seen some truth in the world and done us the courtesy of writing it down. The human experience is captured when writers do the work to depict their corner of reality.

Here are three essays that have stayed with me long after I finished them.

1.

I first encountered Goodbye To All That at twenty, the perfect age for it to go over my head. I hadn’t yet moved to a glamorous city flush with promise only to experience the inevitable hedonic adaptation that changes everything. Didion captures that transition with her detached brilliance. This is a piece of writing that captures the process of “the heroine… no longer as optimistic as she once was.” It’s an essay that is a perennial for me, like a holiday movie I rewatch every year.

2.

“On the 29th of July, in 1943, my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born. Over a month before this, as all our energies were concentrated in waiting for these events, there had been, in Detroit, one of the bloodiest race riots in history.”

The intersection of racism and personal relationships is captured in this searing depiction of the writer and his embittered father. It’s nothing short of a work of art. It’s impossible to not feel helpless empathy for both men.

3.

“The Puritan Within” by Kate Christensen is an engaging chat with a wise and inconsistent friend, someone you root for but place your bets against. Recounting her first date with a man she was wildly attracted to, she transitions to the moment, leaving for their honeymoon, that the first signs of trouble emerged. It’s an essay about two imperfect people trying to make their love last. You know in your gut that the ending is just a pause in a complicated story.

Thrice Is Not Always Nice

As it happens, I’ve read nine authors three times. I love the symmetry of it. My two previous posts were about authors who compelled me to be a return customer. For my final post on the topic, I will look at a slightly different issue. Sometimes reading an author a few times sours me on them.

Here are three authors who taught me that three is enough.

1.

When I read Infinity for my book club, I felt the kick that comes from discovering new talent. A moody, atmospheric, feminist Victorian novel, I would put it in my top 50 reads. Alas, I have yet to have a successful second date with the author. Tipping the Velvet was just OK and I liked The Little Stranger even less. At some point all the period detail becomes suffocating.

2.

I’m not sure how I have managed to read three books in this series. A cozy about an amateur sleuth who is also a baker, I would rate only one of them any good. Implausible twists, plot holes, and a slightly hokey setting slow down the praise. Occasionally the kook worked for me, but not enough for me to keep going.

3.

The Wife Between Us was a top 25 book for me. I will never forget stealing paragraphs at my nephew’s touch football game because I was enthralled. I liked this one, too: a complicated plot about single women in the city. By the third, though, I was starting to be able to see the authors’ bag of tricks. When plotting becomes repetitive, it is easier to notice flat characterization and unimaginative settings.

The Thrice List, Part Two

Last week I talked about my reading quirks. With so many books in the world, I like to cover as much ground as possible by not reading the same author twice. I’m told this is unusual. For the same reason people go to Starbucks and Club Med, readers like to know what they’re going to get. Books sales indicate that people tend to favor series and the familiar pleasure of authors they’ve read before.

Despite my lone wolf status, I break the rules sometimes. Here is my second list of authors I’ve read at least three times.

1.

Although I give Anne Tyler official credit for turning me into a leisure reader, Sue Townsend deserves some credit as well. While living in Germany at age seventeen, a friend gave me a copy of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and I fell in love. It was no mere fling: I kept with the series about an earnest naif in Thatcherite England until I was in my mid-thirties. Bittersweet, funny, and spot-on, her books are another gem from Britannia.

2.

On the other side of time, I recently discovered Taylor Jenkins Reid and have plowed through three of her books in as many years. Fiction centered in show business, there is a page-turning simple pleasure to living vicariously through her heroines. Daisy Jones and the Six is in my top 25 books. I liked Evelyn Hugo a little less and Malibu Rising just fine.

3.

An Oprah pick, Elizabeth Berg is a little difficult to otherwise categorize. I can’t say I relate to this type of domestic novel as much as I enjoy spending time in the world of its protagonists. Open House was my favorite, but I also enjoyed this one and Never Change.

The Thrice List

When it comes to reading, I favor the one-and-done approach. There are so many voices vying for my attention that I only occasionally read the same author twice. There are exceptions. I’ve read oodles of Harlan Coben, nearly a dozen Armistead Maupin’s titles, and plenty of the Anne’s: Tyler and Lamott. That is not typical, though.

There is a secondary list of authors I can’t part with at one, but who don’t reach the exalted heights of the Annes. I think of them as The Thrice List. To be accurate, there is some creative accounting with that number. Let’s say these are authors I’ve definitely read more than twice without coming close to the double digits.

1. Joan Didion

Didion isn’t just a writer. She is an experience. To read her is to step into a privileged literary life, a rare vantage point. Her memoirs and essays are more famous – I love them – but I’ve also read two of her fiction titles: Play It As It Lays and Run River. I think of her style as ornamental nihilism. Her characters are soulless but look distractingly intriguing.

2. Ann Patchett

Another amazing fiction writer who can also do memoirs is Ann Patchett. I loved this story of her peculiar bond with late author Lucy Grealy. Her fiction is good too. The Magician’s Assistant is on my top 50 list.

3. Ann Hood

Another fabulous Ann is a (former) flight attendant, bibliophile, and fangirl who has written both fiction and memoir. She has been through a lot and her books help me understand a bittersweet life. Whether a short memoir about cooking or a more serious one about miracles, I am always stuck to my armchair until I’m done. I like her fiction, too.

DNF

When it comes to reading, I am hyper fixated. Not finishing a book feels like an unfinished project, dishes in the sink. As a result, my “did not finish” pile is relatively small. Occasionally, though, I advance a certain amount only to stall. It happens.

To be clear, I define “did not finish” as books I got more than a few chapters into before I bailed. I might make a page fifty the official point of no return. So just for clarity let’s say I will only include books I got past that point with.

Here is the hall of shame.

1.

If you read this blog, you know Anne Tyler is one of my favorites. The Accidental Tourist is the reason I became a reader. I have fond high school memories of Earthly Possessions and A Slipping Down Life. I loved Searching for Caleb. She’s it.

Unfortunately she’s also one of those authors who has declined noticably. She just isn’t great anymore. This was the official moment I had to acknowledge it. All of her traits are in this novel, but the zing is gone.

2.

I am definitely guilty of impulse buying. I couldn’t resist the Ms. magazine graphics and promise of feminist girl talk from this outspoken actress and writer.

Unfortunately I got bored pretty easily. I wonder if I just wasn’t in a place to properly appreciate it. By the time she was fangirling her rock star chosen other, I was over it.

3.

Ah, book clubs. Where else can you regularly go on set up dates than in a monthly meeting to discuss someone else’s pick? I have met some lovely, unknown books this way. I was always diligent about finishing the selections.

Towards the end of my second book club, I was getting tired. This book on the surface had such appeal. History, Hollywood, Italy? Seems like a match.

Alas, we didn’t click. I pushed on but bailed about half way through.

Recent TBR

Last week I wrote about three titles that have been in my TBR for a long time. It isn’t always the case that a book escapes my undivided attention for decades. With new books coming out every day (Tuesday used to be the traditional release day; not sure if that is still the case for traditional publishing) there are always recent purchases that are neglected.

Here are three I have been wanting to read for the last few years.

1.

This is the only of the three that I have started. I was gripped for a bit by the set-up in WW2 France. The length is what ultimately thwarted me. I am not a fast reader so doorstop books are a challenge.

2.

I’ve heard universal praise for this novel. Despite this, I don’t even know what it is about. I am a low-information book buyer and often have no idea what I am getting into when I start something. I like it that way. I was daunted more than once by the estimated reading time of fourteen hours.

3.

Are you sensing a theme yet? Light reads are more likely to get my time. This is another nearly universally praised story that I have yet to crack. I skipped the movie, though, which is a hopeful sign I might get to it.

TBR

When people talk about books, I listen. Sometimes it’s a book I’ve never heard of. Sometimes it’s a book I’ve never read. Often there is a curiosity: am I missing out on something? How might my days be enriched by the experience of a new book?

I don’t know if it’s true that enthusiasm sells books, but it certainly commands the attention of readers. My approach to this is not democratic: some opinions carry more weight than others. If my finicky, trusted friends and family endorse something it means a lot.

Alas, you can’t get to everything. I have heard rhapsodic and repeated praise of titles I have never gotten to. Here are a few:

1.

I’ve been told that everyone should read this book. It’s actually not one book but three: a tome, a trilogy. I was first recommended it in 1997.

What’s it about? I don’t know. I think there are mythological creatures in it but that it is not characterized as fantasy.

2.

I’ve heard people say this is one of the best books they’ve read. You would think that might compel me to pick it up. Unlike TDT, I have never even owned a copy though.

The problem: I have never enjoyed a movie set in space. How torturous might a book be?

3.

I know at least two people who have claimed this on their ride-or-die list. Not just anyone either: discerning readers. I’ve been to Franz Joseph near where author Keri Hulme lives. That would have been the ideal time to crack it. Imagine all the atmospheric details! Alas I was engrossed in something else.

Twenty years later, I still haven’t read it.

Pick Me Oprah

Growing up in the Midwest in the ’80s, I watched a lot of Oprah. In her early shows she was a Phil Donahue wannabe, taking phone calls over a loudspeaker and moving around her studio audience, holding a mic out to let them vent their opinions.

Later she did more one-on-one interviews from a leather armchair on stage, coming across as a kindly, relatable therapist. (In 1997 she was slyly cast as Ellen DeGeneres’s shrink in her famous coming out episode.)

Starting around the same time as the Ellen episode, Oprah began a book club that reverberated soundly through the publishing industry. With the exception of the Harry Potter series, I can think of no greater single cause of book sales in the 90s.

Here are five of her selected book club titles and what I thought of them.

1.

Already heavily buzzed upon its release a few years before, Wally Lamb’s funny and relatable classic set the tone for a standard type of Oprah pick: an imperfect female protagonist making it through childhood abuse, weight struggles, and social and family upheaval to hard-won self-acceptance. It was one of her funnier book choices and not the only one from this author.

2.

A gorgeously written story of a troubled mother and her teen daughter, this brought LA to life for me in the same way Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City introduced me to San Francisco. It was also one of her first selections to be immediately made into a theatrically released movie, starring Michelle Pfeiffer as the poisonous Ingrid.

3.

This was a lovely, insightful love story that set a slightly different tone from Oprah’s other choices. (To my memory, it’s the only selection about Black HIV.) It has a small chamber piece feel to it, like an intimate conversation with a type of person you don’t always interact with. I read Pearl Cleage before I read Terry McMillan so I will retroactively compare the two now. Good stories from smart women.

4.

Oprah has unquestionable good taste when it comes to stylists. Alice Hoffman writes gorgeously in this retelling of Wuthering Heights. I loved the bewitching Fox Hill setting and the story of a teenage passion brought back by a midlife encounter.

5.

After humiliating herself to try to keep her husband, Sam faces a change of life when they split up. To support her teenage son, she takes in boarders. Among them is King, a middle aged man who is still a virgin. Their slow burn connection kept the pages turning. A good story by a good writer.

Five books, five good reads. I don’t know how many people would have read these titles without Oprah’s influence. In some cases, I’m sure, a lot fewer. I’m glad I found them.

My Imaginary Bookshop

I’ve only ever briefly worked in a bookstore. I would imagine it’s probably quite boring at times: the lulls, the inventory, the dusting. But that won’t stop me from engaging in a fantasy from time to time of being a shopkeeper.

Allow me to introduce you to my imaginary bookshop.

The best place for a book shop is on the high street of a small town. It needs to be a place where people like books, so a charming college town will do.

It wouldn’t have to be a big space with towers of books. I’d have an adjacent coffee bar, though, with free Guylian chocolates with a java purchase. And a decent lunch menu: salads, grilled panini, quiche. A small stage, too, for musicians and poets on occasional open mic nights.

The store itself would have bookshelves painted vibrant colors. A kids’ area with a weekly story hour. And here’s a sample of my endcaps:

New York Stories: what better way to armchair travel than with a vivid story about the big apple. Here are six good ones:

Worth The Hype: a lot of middling books get high praise. These ones live up to it.

6 Essentials: everyone should read these books. I’ll keep it simple by limiting it to 995 fewer than that famous book tells you to read. I won’t bring death into it either.

A Queer Sampler: there was a time when options were limited in this area. Lucky for you, there are a lot of good ones. Here are some:

Memorable Memoirs: some life stories merit an audience. Here are six.

Hidden Connections

There is plenty of lore when it comes to books. Margaret Mitchell wrote the last chapter of Gone With The Wind first. Kathryn Stockett’s The Help got sixty agent rejections before someone signed her. Mr. American Psycho himself Bret Easton Ellis was a mentor to Donna Tartt.

Some trivia is a little less known. Here are some hidden connections between projects.

1.

A seminal memoir about the sudden loss of her husband, Joan Didion’s book got a lot of attention when it was published in 2005. I was riveted by their marriage of minds and the sad story of their daughter Quintana Roo.

Throughout the book, Joan mentions brother-in-law Nic. Nic is journalist and author Dominic Dunne, whose daughter Dominique played the older daughter in 80s horror hit Poltergeist. (I saw it twice at my hometown theater.) Dominique was tragically murdered by her boyfriend. She was Joan Didion’s niece.

2.

Speaking of aunts, Lisa Brennan-Jobs was raised by a single mother in Silicon Valley, firmly in the shadow of her famous and eccentric father. Her aunt Mona, her father’s sister, shows up occasionally. She seems glamorous and cool despite a pesky habit of observing people around her and putting them in her fiction.

Steve Jobs and Mona Simpson were blood siblings who didn’t grow up together. After putting their son up for adoption, the parents stayed together and had a daughter. Mona eventually reconnected with her sibling enough to have a role in his kids’ lives.

3.

Ghostwriters are nothing new, but they seem to be more high profile these days. There is good money in writing the life stories of well known people.

As a Gen Xer, I grew up with the Brat Pack headlining the popcorn flicks that were playing at the same local theater I saw Poltergeist in. A lot of them — Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald — have faded from public view since the ’80s. The exceptions seem to be writing books or starring on TV shows now. Demi Moore’s memoir was one I probably would have read anyway, but I was surprised at how well-written it was. The pages flew by as I read about her childhood, early marriages, and eventual betrayal by Ashton Kutcher.

No wonder: it turns out it was written by New Yorker journalist Ariel Levy, whose own memoir The Rules Do Not Apply is one of my all-time favorites. (It’s on my top 25 list.) I’m glad I didn’t know that when I read Moore’s book. Finding it out was a nice little surprise.