Category: Reading

A new baby poses certain challenges to one’s writing time…and pretty much everything else I thought I knew about my life.

However, somehow, blissfully, I have managed to read a few books in the last month.  If I can’t be writing, I always look at reading as an extension of writing.  It’s like the research portion.  

I read Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork and Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Both are YA.  I loved Marcelo; thought it was totally original YA with great characters though I didn’t totally dig the ending.  The book went from realistic fiction to a bit of a mystery and I personally didn’t need to mystery part of it.  

Anderson is one of my favorite YA writers for realistic fiction although her historical fiction book Fever has always been my least favorite of her books.  Chains, which is a historical novel of slavery, unfortunately also fell into this category for me.  The voice just isn’t as strong as in her realistic fiction and the plot plods along; and then this happened, and then this happened, and then something else happened.  I also found the book to be very dark, but I suppose this could reflect the events of the time as much as anything else.

So reading is the new writing at least for now.  Uh oh, I think I hear the baby…

A good distraction is good to find, especially in the form of good literature.  When I’m sick; cold, flu, whatever, I always pick up the Grapes of Wrath.  It’s one of my favorite books regardless, but there’s also something about joining characters on a quest or a journey that distracts me from whatever I’m going through.   

Right now I’m reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  It’s the epic tale of twins Shiva and Marion abandoned by their parents and raised by two doctors at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The voice and plot are engaging and transporting.  And, it’s over 500 pages.  I’m hoping it will take me through my due date.  So far it’s been the perfect escape from my uncomfortable and ungainly body, but I recommend it for anyone looking for a terrific read.

Your favorite escape books?

I haven’t been doing a whole lot of writing lately but I have been doing my fair share of reading.  I just finished reading Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson.  I’m not sure exactly why this book was classified as YA, the vocabulary alone requires a companion dictionary.  One thing I really appreciated about this book was that I felt like I learned from it.  I love when I read a book and both enjoy and learn from it.  This seems to happen less with YA so when I stumble upon a YA book that I enjoy and learn from, it stands out.