The Reading Writer

I'm back...

I'll be blogging here, as well as on my blog as PW's Book Maven. Come visit!

A Trip to the Library: Yet Another Semi-Regular Feature

On Saturday, Mr. Bethanne and I hauled three more boxes of books to the local library. A different librarian was delighted this time, saying "Gee, practically new hardcover books, many of them bestsellers? Usuually we get moldy textbooks from the 1960s. Which shall I choose?" I love making librarians happy.

Of course, I was unable to resist the siren song of the McNaughton Shelf. This time I limited my haul to four new titles (all right, so I'd read most of the others already; that's still more for everyone else!).

What's your latest favorite snag from the McNaughton picks at your local library? Was it something that surprised you? A book by a beloved author?

The Book Maven Blog on PW

My new Publishers Weekly blog, The Book Maven, is live, up, and running.

I hope you'll visit me there. It's really, really, really, really, really easy to leave comments -- you can make up a new alias every time if you like! -- so please please please leave me some. Even if your comment is "You need to come up with some new ways to engage readers; this is not working!" I'll listen. I promise.

I'll post most of my Recommended Reading entries and book lists and the like over there, keeping this blog for my more personal musings, as well as talking about how reading affects the writing life (NOT just mine!). However, I'll try to let you know what's up over there so that if you're interested, you can click over...

Thanks to everyone who has been following my blog travels and reading. The best email to reach me: thereadingwriter at aol dot com.

LitChat: 'Special Topics in Calamity Physics'

This may not be a public service, but I do think it's amusing... my friend and I are such bookaholics that even our IM conversations revolve around novels:

Belladjour (1:37:12 PM): I am having major focus issues.

Belladjour (1:37:21 PM): but maybe that's where the latte comes in.

Belladjour (1:37:33 PM): oh! and finally finished calamity physics.

Belladjour (1:37:37 PM): sooooo satisfying

Belladjour (1:37:49 PM): just like a really good nutritionally defensible meal

Belladjour (1:38:03 PM): where one hasn't pigged out

Editrixter (1:38:09 PM): LOL

Editrixter (1:38:29 PM): you bought into the plot near end? I had hard time w/it

Belladjour (1:38:42 PM): the nightwatchmen?

Editrixter (1:39:01 PM): yeah

Belladjour (1:39:10 PM): I bought into it but I really was expecting more of a red herring outcome. I thought the dad had criminal written all over him.

Belladjour (1:39:35 PM): but I actually liked how it tied up the loose ends of his vagabondage

Editrixter (1:39:41 PM): interesting

Editrixter (1:39:45 PM): Blue is just Fabulous

Belladjour (1:39:53 PM): but I found her dissing of Zach hard to swallow

Belladjour (1:40:12 PM): and his returning to her rejection well ridiculous

Editrixter (1:40:21 PM): Totally ridiculous

Belladjour (1:40:52 PM): no book babe in training -- no matter her crank of a father -- would've turned aside a guy who could do a dance routine AND had his own JMW Turner

Editrixter (1:41:06 PM): Strue

Belladjour (1:41:07 PM): oh! and I also had issues with the mom as suicide

Belladjour (1:41:24 PM): I saw her more as one of the group murders. why wasn't that the more likely outcome

Editrixter (1:41:28 PM): Was weird. I kept believing father killed her

Belladjour (1:41:37 PM): me too. or Hannah

Belladjour (1:42:18 PM): but Hannah was not nearly as enchanting as made out to be

Waiting for the World to Change

Or at least the Publishers Weekly Web site. So I can give you the link for my new blog! I've been posting there, so at least there will be some new material when it is finally live...

When Books Disappoint: Another Semi-Regular Feature

I ask what's on your nightstand; I tell you what's on mine.

Most of the time, we're all happy. We're all reading. We've all got big stacks of books.

Occasionally, we're not happy. We've read something and given up -- hated it. But every once in a while, we find ourselves stranded (usually while traveling) with a book that's a bust.

This happened to me last weekend, when I took a leisurely train trip. Against my better judgment and because I was attempting to travel light (Mr. Bethanne usually refers to my packing style as "Anna Karenina-esque"), I took just one book with me (it was an anthology, so I thought if I didn't like one essay, I could just go on to the next).

I hated it (this is not a review per se, so I won't name the blighted book or give details) for so many reasons. Yet I was trapped on a regional Amtrak, condemned to either read the book... or... or...

Zzzzzzzzz.

Next time, I'll be better prepared. I'll read in a few chapters first, to be sure that the book I choose is a keeper. I'll also bring more than one book. If I have to, I'll give up space for essentials to it. I can always buy a toothbrush when I get there...

Coming (very) soon: The Book Maven on PW

First, I can't believe I haven't blogged for two days. I've been busy working on my novel (of course I have one! Doesn't everyone?) and being the only parent whose child cross-dressed for the third-grade social studies Wax Museum (yes, it was Eleanor AS Franklin... my daughter Eleanor wore one of my pin-striped jackets and one of her father's ties so that she could pretend to be Mr. New Deal... one of her friends asked, "Does your mother really wear stuff like that?" How dare that young hussy... it was a Dana Buchman suit!). All of the other children were gender-appropriate: girls as Pocahantas and Clara Barton; boys as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander the Great. I guess this is what comes from crossing the gene pools of a West Point-trained Army officer and a Smith College graduate:

                      

(Thanks, Nancy, for taking the picture!)

Anyway, second: I thought I'd give you all an update. My Publishers Weekly blog, The Book Maven, was supposed to start today. For technical reasons beyond my writerly ken, this has been delayed. But Watch This Space! As soon as I have an URL to give you, I will.

What's On Your Nightstand: A Trip to the Library

As regular (or semi-regular) readers of my blog know, I often ask what's on your nightstand -- and tell you what's on mine (even if you didn't ask). While I'm still receiving books (NB: never as many as I would like, but that's a personal failing... ), since I've had a bit more free time this month, I decided to clean out my towering stacks of books. I filled a few boxes, and toted two of them along to my local library for donation (with some help from the valiant Mr. Bethanne, who was relieved to reclaim some shelf space).

The librarian was thrilled to get two boxes of nearly pristine hardcovers and trade paperbacks, but I was distracted from her delighted cries by the New Books.

Yes. I managed to take out TEN NEW BOOKS from the library. I had to be restrained from combing through the For Sale carts.

I plead not insanity, but catch-up time. The new books I checked out were all titles I haven't managed to get to in the past year. Here are the four I'm into right now -- I'm nearly finished with the Child and three-quarters done with the Haddon (links are to reviews):

'Talk Talk' by T.C. Boyle

'My Life in France' by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme

'A Spot of Bother' by Mark Haddon

'Intuition' by Allegra Goodman

Coming Soon: Another blog for me!

In less than a week, I'll be starting a new gig: writing a blog for Publishers Weekly called (see if you can guess... ) "The Book Maven."

As soon as I have the new URL for that blog, I'll post it here, and I hope you'll visit it. However, I'll still have this one, too -- double my pleasure, double the book reviews!

PW Book Life Interview: Jane Smiley

I hope you'll check out my interview with Jane Smiley on PW Book Life. Smiley's new novel, 'Ten Days in the Hills,' takes on sex, war, Hollywood, movies, family, and more, all in a narrative based on Boccaccio's 'The Decameron.'