Category Archives: reading

July 14, 2010   DG&B   advice, fun, lists, reading, Stacey  
0

Best of the year list, in June!

by Stacey

We’re always eyeing lists around town around the holidays to see various picks for the best books of the year. Now Amazon has come up with a way to trump the competition by coming up with a best-of list just halfway through the year. It’s kind of nice for readers to have a credible resource to go to without having to wait until the holidays. It’s an eclectic list that covers a lot of ground. There’s definitely something here for a varied set of interests. The nonfiction book I’ve been wanting to read for a few months now is the Rebecca Skloot, which has been a big critical and commercial success. Do any of our readers have other ideas for great books from 2010 that aren’t on this list? We’d love to hear about them.

July 14, 2010   DG&B   favorites, fun, Miriam, reading  
4

The real Camelot

by Miriam

I’ve been fascinated by the Arthurian legend since I was a kid. The impossible struggle to be good in the face of temptation and evil, the idea that a belief in magic is as necessary for survival as the quest for something of meaning, the courage and passion and the heartbreaking losses and defeats, the notion that the human spirit can triumph over the darkness that sometimes threatens to engulf us…all that and Excalibur. I’ve read dozens of versions over the years, from Chretien de Troyes’ to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s to John Steinbeck’s to T.H. White’s to Mary Stewart’s to Richard Monaco’s to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s, and always hoped that there was more than myth and folklore to the story of the great King Arthur and his court.

So, it was with great delight that I came upon this piece in the Daily Mail. How cool is the discovery that there was, in fact, a real Round Table (which was not a table at all)? Hopefully, the new information will spark a new wave of Arthurian storytelling.

July 13, 2010   DG&B   children's books, future of publishing, opinion, Rachel, reading  
6

Avoiding the summer slide

by Rachel

A couple of years ago, before moving to New York, I worked as a Kindergarten teacher in San Francisco. I can remember quite well the day before summer vacation began—almost every teacher was complaining that the time spent away from school during the summer would have students forgetting everything they had learned that year. That’s not to say teachers wanted to stay in class and teach all summer, but the “summer slide” was definitely apparent on the first day back at school, and so something to cause a lot of worry. So, come the last day of school, I sent my students home with their backpacks full of books—they thought Christmas had arrived (and how happy I was to see 5- and 6-year-olds excited about reading!).

David Brooks’ article in the NY Times last week was an interesting read, as he touched on the effects of books on a child’s learning, especially in regards to the power of books over the summer period. According to results, students who took home 12 books over their summer vacation had significantly higher reading scores than other students (to be expected, I would imagine), but that having books in the home also produces other significant educational gains.

Another study brought to our attention in the article illustrates the effects of the internet and the declining math and reading scores of students. Though the internet helps one become knowledgeable about current events and trends (and what our friends are up to every second of the day), it is the literary world, says David Brooks, that produces better students right now.

I’m going to agree with Mr. Brooks on his opinion. As I saw with my young students, the class computer was fun (and incredibly popular during free time), but reading books gave my Kindergarteners something more, and there was such pride on my students’ faces when they had finished reading a book that I never saw when they had finished a game on the computer. Seeing my students beaming from taking home a backpack of books on the last day of school—and having a love of books themselves—was definitely worth all the headaches of being a Kindergarten teacher.

While reading the comments following the Times article, it seems there are many people who feel as though the internet has affected our attention span, and so made it more difficult to sit down and enjoy a good book with all the distractions out there—breaking news, twitter updates, constant email notifiers etc.

So, my question is: do you think books and the internet are two different worlds and able to complement each other? Or, do you think the internet really is the downfall of our students and their love of books?

July 09, 2010   DG&B   contest, fun, international literature, Lauren, reading  
16

Kick Back and Read: A Contest

by Lauren

 

Folks, if you’ve spoken to me in the last month, you’ll know that I have a serious case of World Cup fever. As a child, I was a devoted soccer player and a fairly good goalie, if I say so myself. While I’m something of a fair-weather soccer fan now, every four years I get really, really into it again. I’ve spent the last few weeks on a rollercoaster of excitement (Impressive goals! Beautiful men with even more beautiful accents! Delightful tonsorial choices!) and disappointment (my top three choice teams going out in a blaze of something other than glory). While I gear up to see my (fourth) favorite in the final, inexplicably not doomed by my supporting them, I’m also starting to feel withdrawal.

Now I’m the one who sells foreign rights around here, but I’m not particularly widely read on books in translation. In the spirit of improving that and keeping the World Cup buzz part of my life a bit longer, let’s have some fun here:

Below is a list of the “teams” in the tournament. I’m going to start this off at the round of 16, even if that means excluding Italy (sob). Here’s where you come in: in the comments below, give a shout out to your favorite book from a country listed. The first book named from each is getting selected for the national team! Next week, before I head out on vacation, I’ll set you up with the head-to-head battles. Then while I’m away, you guys can vote for your favorite book in each match. We’ll take this on through to it’s logical conclusion: the World Champion, which I’ll promise to read and report back on—and I’ll send the person who nominated said book a copy of something from the list they’d like to check out.

 

Fine print: books must have been translated into English, because I don’t know any other language well enough to read in it. (Way back when, my trusty French-English dictionary and I trudged through a few, but let’s just say that neither of us enjoyed it.) Let’s see if we can’t get books in for the US and England that were published in those countries but not originally in English. And if we can’t come up with something for a country that doesn’t export a whole lot to the US, the best argument for including a book for that country gets called up, much like those athletes who play for the team grandma was from instead of the one they’ve lived in their entire lives.

Don’t have any favorites for countries that haven’t already been taken?  Get in the game by suggesting a new name for this contest, because mine is terrible.

  • Uruguay
  • South Korea
  • USA
  • Ghana
  • Netherlands
  • Slovakia
  • Brazil
  • Chile
  • Argentina
  • Mexico
  • Germany
  • England
  • Paraguay
  • Japan
  • Spain
  • Portugal
July 09, 2010   DG&B   fun, opinion, Rachel, reading, writing  
4

It was a dark and stormy night….

by Rachel

If you’re anything like me, you’re a little neurotic when it comes to words and you have an entire list of the ones you really hate. Of course this list is never written down, for fear of family or friends finding it and actually using those words in emails or casual conversation for laughs. But what’s worse than a hated single word is an entire sentence that makes my skin crawl!

There have been many times while reading books where I’ve come across sentences and have scrunched up my nose because of how dreadful a sentence was written. I’m sure every reader has been in the same position (especially if you’ve read John Updike). So, I’m happy to know that there’s a contest dedicated to the worst opening sentences. The competition may only be for imaginary fiction, but I’m pretty sure disturbing opening sentences like these exist everywhere.

Have you got a doozy of an opening sentence that made your skin crawl?

July 08, 2010   DG&B   blurbs, fun, Jessica, opinion, reading, reviews  
16

Effusive encomia

by Jessica

I’m a great believer in the value of blurbs, and I pay careful attention to who has weighed in on the cover copy of any given book, but, thanks to Galley Cat, I could not help but chuckle at The Guardian’s contest, which was spurred by Nicole Krauss’s glowing-to-the-point-of-incandescent endorsement of David Grossman’s new novel To The End of the Land. Grossman’s book is on my to-read pile, and I am now keen to see the degree to which I agree with Ms. Krauss rapturous praise.

To what degree do endorsements matter to you? Will you read a new writer based on the recommendation of a beloved author? Can you offer any examples?

July 07, 2010   DG&B   bestsellers, middle grade, opinion, reading, Stacey  
3

Rise of the Lightning Thief

by Stacey

Rick Riordan is likely a household name to anyone with young readers at home. His Percy Jackson series of middle grade fantasy novels have sold millions of copies around the world. This article goes into some detail about his publishing history. What’s interesting to me about this piece is that they talk about how just a few years ago he was clearly a mid-list author, with a series of adult detective novels that had sales that were modest at best. He moved into children’s publishing after some inventive storytelling shared with his son, who recommended Riordan turn the tale into a book. Then The Lightning Thief hit in 2005 and became an incredibly successful franchise. It’s a wonderfully inspiring and uplifting story to me because not only is this guy super talented, but he had a sales track to overcome before taking his career to this next level. Granted, it’s easier to move from adult to children’s to make this happen, but it’s still an incredibly positive success story (you know how much I love to share those). I think this article is stretching the boundaries of comparison by suggesting that the books are a publishing phenomenon, but not a cultural one. By any measure, these books are a whopping success, and even though the movie didn’t do as well as one might hope, there are more books to come and many more opportunities for new fans to come to the table. Speaking as a publishing professional, that seems like a pretty good place to be for the author, his publisher, and his agent too.

July 07, 2010   DG&B   fun, lists, Miriam, opinion, reading  
7

Stephen King’s pop culture

by Miriam

I’m a fan of Stephen King’s work…in Entertainment Weekly. His stuff for the magazine has a playfulness and wit, not to mention brevity, that is often missing from at least his most recent (and by recent I mean the last 15 to 20 years) long form writing. I find his recommendations for films, music and, of course, books, always intriguing and occasionally baffling—and those are the best kind. Here are his Top 6 summer reads. I know at least four of them will make their way onto my night table pile.

July 02, 2010   DG&B   advice, commercial, From the Vault, genre, Jim, literary, opinion, reading  
5

From the Vault: Literary v Commercial

Happy summer, everybody!  For the next while, there are going to be some absences from the blog as we take vacations, but we’d hate to leave you guys hanging.  It’s no secret that we blog much more now than when we started this baby, and there are far more of you reading than there were way back when.  So we thought we’d bring back some blog entries of days gone by that you may have missed if you just joined us in the last year.  If you have any favorites you think your fellow readers might enjoy, give us a shout below!

by Jim

It didn’t surprise me when someone asked me recently what the differences are in how I handle the projects I love and the projects I work on for money. It did, however, irritate me. The question came loaded with the insinuation that there are two kinds of books—the ones people should read and the ones they actually do. Often, I find that literary and commercial fiction are pitted against each other, as though they’re totally different beasts that serve entirely separate purposes. But is that really the case?

Too often, category fiction is treated like the bastard stepchild of the written word. But, frankly, I’m a whole lot more likely to pick up Stephen King’s new book than dive into Thomas Pynchon’s latest doorstop. Which isn’t to dismiss literary fiction, either.

Years ago, I was getting a ride to a train station from an MFA student in Massachusetts, and we talked about the challenges of fiction writing and writer’s block, not to mention how competitive the marketplace is. And then he unleashed this on me: “I could knock out the sort of mystery novels that sell hundreds of thousands of copies, but I’m better than that.” If he weren’t behind the wheel of the car, I would have smacked him upside the head. I mean, really. Do you honestly think the only thing holding people back from becoming bestselling authors is…integrity?

As I patiently explained to him (who am I kidding? I sounded like a howler monkey in heat), it takes a lot of talent to write a fantastic mystery, just as it does to write an amazing literary novel. They just happen to be very, very different talents. Anyone who thinks that just because someone is a wonderful writer means they can pull off working in other genres clearly hasn’t read Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days. I recommend they keep it that way.

And let’s not get too far without mentioning that literary and commercial are not exact opposites. There are plenty of authors who mix the two forms freely. One can see this by reading the stunning, bleak mysteries of Dennis Lehane or the thrilling horror of Clive Barker. And is it just me, or is the award winning Cold Mountain as much a retelling of The Odyssey as it is a historical romance novel?

What I’m saying is, let’s let the snobbery go. Reading Madame Bovary can be as entertaining as reading Valley of the Dolls and vice versa, and there’s nothing wrong with that. To those people who consider genre fiction to be “guilty pleasures,” let it go. I grew up on a steady diet of Stephen King, Charles Dickens, Jackie Collins, and Victor Hugo, and I’ll happily debate the merits of Lucky Santangelo and Esmeralda any day. I’m the guy on the subway reading The New Yorker and Romantic Times.

The lines for me just aren’t that sharply drawn. So whether I’m pitching a new cozy mystery or a collection of interconnected stories previously published in literary journals, you can know one thing links them: I love both.

Originally posted in June 2007.

July 01, 2010   DG&B   advice, characterization, Jessica, opinion, reading  
21

The unsympathetic protagonist

by Jessica

I just finished reading Ian McEwan’s Solar, which is smart, spare and unlike most McEwan novels, funny. At its center, however, is a pompous, self-absorbed, appetitive Nobel Prize winning physicist, whose faults are many and endearing qualities few. That he is painted as such a unredeemably selfish guy, a serial philanderer (five wives, countless affairs), flagrant plagiarist, and a monstrous—even criminal—liar, means that readers are not encouraged to develop much of a rapport with this great man of science. Instead, his weaknesses and flaws are anatomized with devastating accuracy. His self-justifications, moral elisions, and robust self-esteem are completely recognizable. That a man who is a poster child for all seven of the deadly sins does not come across as a caricature of Vice in a morality play is impressive. Yet much as I admired McEwan’s mordant wit and obvious flair for satire, Solar points up the problem of the unsympathetic protagonist. Though I don’t require my main characters to be likeable—the prickly, the badly-behaved and the wicked are usually more interesting than their more blameless counterparts—when the point of view rests entirely on the limited perceptions of the Unsympathetic Protagonist, it takes a skilled writer to craft a satisfying, engaging, emotionally resonant novel. The thought of spending so much time in the company of so unpleasant a person (even when said person is imaginary) can be off-putting.

This is a conundrum that agents and editors encounter most every day. An agent or editor’s inability to connect with or “root for” a main character is one of the most frequently cited reasons that he or she will pass on a submission, so be advised that placing a thoroughly awful person at the center of your narrative will likely make your job even tougher (though mostly awful can work). Even a critical darling like McEwan seems to have trouble managing his creation—most reviews were lukewarm at best, and while McEwan’s thieving glutton was not the novel’s only problem, most critics cited his odious personality as a considerable hurdle, so keep an eye on your own Frankenstein’s monster.

This is not to say that fiction should be peopled by the virtuous; there are plenty of wonderful, awful characters that carry a novel. Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair, Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley, Max in Where the Wild Things Are. Fans of Lolita point to Humbert Humbert, or Bret Easton Ellis’ titular American Psycho, though these two fellows leave me cold. What do you think? Is an unsympathetic heroine a turn off? Who are some antiheroes worth getting to know?

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