Linus's Blanket | Books. Food. Comfort. Culture.

BOOK CLUB Reads Alex Morrow

Written by Nicole Bonia on May 15, 2013 ·

bookclubreads_Alex Morrow

Here at BOOK CLUB, we love and honor the summer. Each year we have taken a break and turned toward “lighter” reading fare. Something easy to get into, and easy to return to after you take that dip into the pool, or chase a child down the beach, or…well, you know, whatever. This year we are reading some “Tartan Noir”, as Scottish detective series are sometimes called. Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow series will be our reading companions for the summer. “Light”, may not be quite the word, but they are definitely a change from our usual reading fare!

Denise Mina Series

Here is our summer reading schedule:

Still Midnight - June 11th – Linus’s Blanket

The End of the Wasp Season – July 9th – Devourer of Books

Gods and Beasts – August 13th – Linus’s Blanket

Twitter chat: TBD

Hachette Book Group has provided 10 copies of Still Midnight to give away for participation in our summer reading series. The books have all been published, so please pick up a copy at your book store of choice and or local library to join us. Winners of the second book will be drawn first from among those who participate in the first book discussion (whether you’ve won the book from us or picked it up on your own).

From the publisher:

Armed men invade a family home, shouting for a man nobody’s heard of. As DS Morrow tries to uncover one family’s secrets, she must protect her own.

The publisher providing these books with the understanding that we (and you!) will have a readerly discussion. There are no further requirements. If you are a blogger and review the book, great! If you are not a blogger, but review the book on LibraryThing or GoodReads, or talk it up on Twitter, and tell all your friends, wonderful! The main thing is for you to have fun and come discuss these books with us over the summer. If you would like to participate in Still Midnight BOOK CLUB, please fill out this form by Noon EST on Monday, May 20. Your mailing address will be discarded if you aren’t selected to participate, and used to mail you the book if you are. I do not share or retain any personal information. Only those selected will be contacted by email with further book club details.No purchase necessary and void where prohibited. Thanks and good luck!

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Out Of Twenty: Bill Cheng, Author of Southern Cross The Dog, Answers Nine Questions

Written by Nicole Bonia on May 14, 2013 · 3 Comments

In this version of twenty questions, I send a list of questions to a willing ~~victim~~ author and they choose their own interview by choosing which questions, and how many questions, they want to answer! Bill Cheng’s new novel, Southern Cross the Dog is a work of fiction sure to keep reader on their toes by challenging assumptions right from the start. Once upon a time Bill and I were in a book club together, so it so much fun to see him make good on his writerly inspirations to such acclaim. Here is what Bill had to say about reading, writing, and listening obsessively to the blues.

Would you give us a bit of introduction and let my readers know who you are, how you got started writing, and what kind of books you like to write?

I’m Bill Cheng. I wrote Southern Cross the Dog, a novel about a boy who believes he is jinxed after his brother is lynched and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 decimates his home and family. I cut my teeth writing adventure stories when I was twelve with two of my best friends in junior high school. We wrote ourselves into this fantastical Tolkien-esque world where we were the heroes and the kids we didn’t like were dragons and evil sorcerers and such. We took turns slipping chapters into this massive binder that we passed between ourselves.

I was twelve. I don’t do that anymore.

By and large, I write about the things that I find interesting and important. For instance, when I was working on Southern Cross the Dog, I was very much into blues music and blues culture. I would listen almost obsessively to people like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Son House, Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt. There were whole landscapes that came out of the music—a way of feeling and being that I thought needed to be explored in a book.

I am often struck by the different ways writers respond to the process of writing a book. Linus’s Blanket refers to my use of reading and other activities as a means of escape and comfort, can you share with us any routines, food or recipes, or favorite books or rituals that help you through the writing process?

I work a 9 to 5 job, so I’ll try to get my writing in however I can. Sometimes I’ll get up at 6 to write. Sometimes I’ll stay up till 2. With a long form project like a novel—something that can take years—there are valleys and troughs in my productivity so it’s inevitable that I’ll get jammed up. So routine is important. It lets you slip more easily into the story. Staying with the work is important. Being adaptive. Powering through problems. Approaching the work from different angles.

Sometime during writing this book, for example, I had a problem understanding one of the main characters, who they were, what they were about. So I looked at a gallery of faces off Google Images, found one that could most resemble my character, and I started sketching. It put me in a state of intense focus, following the lines of the nose, the eyes, the cheeks—it freed something up in me and somehow made the character more solid in my mind.

People live in stories, we are surrounded by them. What was it about this the story that made it the one you had to tell at this time? What impact did telling this story have on your life? Did you find that it had changed you?

I think that’s a question that can only begin to be approached well after the book is done. When I first started the book, I didn’t have a clue as to what would happen or what the “themes” would be. I was just telling myself a story— a little bit more every day. And with each new piece, I felt like another layer was lifting away—that I was understanding more about myself as the book goes on. I’m not sure that even now I have the full picture.

Are you able to read when you’re writing and if so what books inspire you when you’re working your own book(s)?

Sometimes reading another author is the only way to get through your own book! A lot of writers are worried about the poison of influence, and to some extent that’s something to watch out for—but my experience is that every book is in itself a kind of map. If you pay attention to its construction, the book can give insight on how to address the problems in your own writing.

I can’t remember all the books I turned to when I was writing Southern Cross the Dog, but I know I didn’t stick to a particular kind of writer or kind of writing. I think I read some Raymond Chandler, some Shakespeare, some Haruki Murakami, some Don DeLillo, some Peter Carey, some P.G. Wodehouse.

Do you ever look back at your early work? How do you feel your writing style or approach to writing has evolved since you first began?

Never! It’s mortifying!

SouthernCrossDog hc c-1 This is my first novel and I was writing short stories almost exclusively before that. I feel like the best short stories are designed like mouse traps. They’re small, sensitive to pressure, and elegant in function. Novels, by contrast, are clumsy, mysterious—like searching your way through a strange room in the dark. So the short stories I’m trying to write now, I suppose is like stumbling through a dark room and then stepping on a mouse trap?

How many works in progress do you have going at any one time? How do you know when one has potential and when one just needs to be scrapped?

Too many. I feel like I always need at least two so when the work on one goes bad, there’s another to fall back on. The ones I give up on are those where I can’t get the language right. I’ll read the first few lines and the prose is dead on the page. But with computers and cloud-file sharing nothing really gets tossed forever. They exist half-formed, maybe waiting to spring up as a full story a few years down the line or to have bits of it poached for other projects.

As a published author, what’s been the biggest surprise about life after the publication of your first book?

Being an author is not as much fun as being a writer.

Did you have to do much research when working on your books, and do you tend to write first or research first?

I try not to draw a line between things I research and things I find interesting. For this book, for example, I had about a decade’s worth of blues music bouncing around my brain. Was that research, or was it just something that I loved? It’s important, not just as a literary person, but as a person to cultivate your curiosity. Be surprised and intrigued!

But to answer your question, the answer is yes. I did a lot of research. I did the usual things: read books, watched documentaries, put in hours at the library, listened to old recordings, visited museums, etc. But I like to think that research doesn’t inform the book as much as it informs the writer. It enters into the psyche, conjuring up images and smells and textures so that when it comes time to invoke a particular world, the details are there for the using. It clues the writer into the invisible and primal things the book wants to be about.

Where do you most love to write? Are there places where it comes to you easier than others? I write anywhere I can. I live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment with my wife and we’re always bumping into each other so I try to take my writing out into the world: in coffee shops and restaurants and subways and park benches and libraries and offices and break rooms… really any place where there’s a semi-flat surface and a place to sit.

Raymond Carver wrote about how when he was starting out, he’d write on the back of a napkin while he was waiting to pick his kids up from school. I think that’s the right way to do it.

I understand there’s a comfort and ease to having rituals, having a place where the spirits align just right for you— we need our coffee; we need our mood music; we need to be at just the right level of not hungry but not quite full; our window has to look out at a particular meadow or tree or wall or wino— but writers, we can’t afford to be too precious. Human life is short! The world is tearing itself apart! Get the words on the page!

Reviews: Icons by Margaret Stohl & The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman

Written by Nicole Bonia on May 14, 2013 · 1 Comment

Icons by Margaret Stohl – Though I had high hopes for Margaret Stohl’s YA novel about teens who discover they hold the key to ridding the Earth of a deadly alien invasion, it was disappointing in the long run. The story is an inventive one and while I enjoyed the premise, the plot lagged in places and the nature of the children’s gifts as well as other details about how it all came together were either vague or lacking all together. There was also a weirdness that included a lover’s quad and some random insta-love that was a little WTF, coming out of nowhere as it did. With trilogies you always have the hope that things will become more clear as the series progresses, but this one didn’t leave me wanting more. There is a sense of completion in the end, so while the set-up for the next novel is clear, you aren’t left completely hanging if you only want to invest in the one book.

The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman – Ellen Sussman has written a lovely novel of healing, redemption and forgiveness with The Paradise Guest House. I was intrigued by Jamie’s journey to Bali to confront painful memories haunting her as a result of the nightclub bombing in Bali that killed her boyfriend, and left her with emotional and physical wounds. She also has some issues to resolve with Gabe, a sexy ex-patriot with whom she made a profound connection during her recovery. Sussman achieves the fine balance required to convey the beautiful beaches and unique island culture with a country that struggles to get back to its feet, and to reclaim its carefree nature, peace and tranquility. The different ways we live, process grief, attempt to rebuild in the wake of great personal loss, and take the steps to open ourselves again to love are gently explored in this satisfying novel. Recommended.

Out of Twenty: Caroline Leavitt, Author of Is This Tomorrow, Answers Ten Questions

Written by Nicole Bonia on May 9, 2013 · 4 Comments

In this version of twenty questions, I send a list of questions to a willing ~~victim~~ author and they choose their own interview by choosing which questions, and how many questions, they want to answer! Caroline Leavitt’s new novel, Is This Tomorrow is probably going to be one of my best books of the year. The writing, subject matter, and characterization are stellar and it was near impossible to put this novel down once I’s started. Here is what Caroline had to say about reading, writing, and what happened when Algonquin told her that they would change her life.

Would you give us a bit of introduction and let my readers know who you are, how you got started writing, and what kind of books you like to write?

I’m Caroline Leavitt, the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of Pictures of You, which was also on the Best of 2011 Lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, The Providence Journal, Bookmarks Magazine and Kirkus Reviews–and it was a Costco Pennie’s Pick and a San Francisco Lit Pick. I’m also the author of Is This Tomorrow, an Indie Next Pick out this May from Algonquin Books. I also review books for People, The Boston Globe and The San Francisco Chronicle! I’ve been writing since I was a little girl. Writing was my escape from being so sickly with asthma as a child! I love writing books about questions that obsess me: How do we forgive the unforgivable? How well do we know the ones we love? How can an outsider find a place in an unwelcoming community? I guess that means I like to write books that are dark, literary, and don’t always have happy endings.

I always have to have coffee in the morning. I actually just discovered coffee two years ago and my first cup was a revelation! I knew coffee would add focus, but I never realized it would also put me in such a great mood! My husband and I live in an 1865 row house and the top floor is just our offices, so I have a special room just for writing, which I love. I have to have music when I work, but I’m embarrassed to admit that it can’t really be GOOD music, because then I’d have to stop to listen to it. I have been known to listen to the same Carpenter’s album five times in a row. I hope no one holds that against me.

Write the question you would most like to answer in an interview, and then answer it.

How do you silence self-doubt? The answer: I don’t, though I really try to, often using magic thinking, tarot cards, whatever I think might work. I’ve come to realize that part of being a writer is being terrified of humiliating myself, and I’m trying to live with that.

Is This Tomorrow is set in the 1950s when being alike is really prized and women are second class citizens. I wanted to write about how an outsider finds community–or even if that’s possible. And it had a deeper meaning for me. I grew up an outcast in my own neighborhood, bullied and shunned, because I had three supposed strikes against me: I was smart in a community where only 10 percent of the high school went on to college. I was Jewish in a Christian community (I heard a lot of “Why did you kill Christ?”), and I was very sickly with asthma, which made me a target. But I yearned to belong, even to this group that wouldn’t have me. So I created Ava Lark, divorced, Jewish and the mother of a 12-year-old Lewis. When Lewis’ best friend Jimmy vanishes one day, the neighborhood targets Ava. Lewis grows up with survivor’s guilt. Ava struggles to fit in, refusing to leave her home. And Rose, Jimmy’s sister, is certain her brother is still alive. Eventually, the case seems solved, but is it, really? The book explores how much of the truth we can tell, especially if it hurts others. Telling the story really changed me because I identified so strongly with feeling different. I loved how strong Ava was in the book, how she fought the prejudices of the times.

Did you know what you wanted the title of the book to be? How involved were in choosing the name of the book?

I love this question because so often names are a marketing decision. With Pictures of You, my first book for Algonquin, I wanted to call it Traveling Angels, which is a screenwriter term and refers to a good person who comes into a community, mixes things up, and then vanishes. But they felt no one would know what that meant. Next, I called it Breathe, because the boy in the story, has terrible asthma, but that was nixed, too. Finally, my editor suggested the title, Pictures of You, and when she told me it was a Clash song, I said, fine. Is This Tomorrow was originally called Everything That Happens Happens Today, which everyone liked until another book with a similar name came out! Next, I called it The Missing Ones, but no one liked that, either. I finally, desperate, found the title Is This Tomorrow online, on an old 1950s propaganda pamphlet about the dangers of Communism! So far, my next novel, Cruel Beautiful World is keeping its title (which my 16-year-old son gave me!)

What were your experiences with reading when you were growing up? Was there a pivotal moment in discovering literature when you knew that you wanted to be a writer?

I spent a lot of my childhood in the library, reading and writing. When I was writing, I could live another life. I didn’t have to be that little girl with asthma. I could be a dancer in Spain! Or a surgeon in Atlantis! But I also wanted validation for who I was, and I quickly began writing stories about girls like myself. My teacher urged me to read one of my stories out loud to the class, but I knew they would make fun of me. «You have to take risks,» she told me, so I did. I was too terrified to look up at the class as I read, but I finally did, and saw that they were listening! They were interested! When I was finished, they clapped! I knew then that I wanted to be a writer!

How many works in progress do you have going at any one time? How do you know when one has potential and when one just needs to be scrapped?
I try to be thinking about a new novel when I am 3/4 of the way through the one I am writing. This means I never have writer’s block, and it also means that when one novel comes out, I am not as panicked about it, because I am thinking about the novel that I am currently writing! There was one time when I was writing two novels at the same time because I couldn’t figure out which one I wanted to write first and they both had huge problems. I was going crazy. I hated writing two at once. Finally, a writer friend of mine said, “Okay, tell me about each book,” and I started talking about Is This Tomorrow, and she stopped me and said, “You talked about this book first, so that’s the one you need to do.”

As a published author, what’s been the biggest surprise about life after the publication of your first book?

Oh, what a great question. The biggest surprise for me was that the first success was not guaranteed to continue. My first novel, Meeting Rozzy Halfway, published when I was really young, made me a sensation. Radio. TV. Travel. The whole works. I thought it would always be this way, but then my publisher went out of business, then my next two publishers also went out of business! I finally signed with a big publisher for a two book deal, and they ignored me. They wouldn’t take my calls or answer my emails. Ditto the big publisher after that! I had great reviews but no sales. None. Really. And then the crusher was when my last publisher rejected Pictures of You by saying “it wasn’t special.” I was heartbroken, but I was lucky, too, because if they had published it, it probably would have died. I asked all my writer friends: Do you have an editor you like? Do you think your editor might read my work? One writer sent me to Algonquin. The editor there liked the synopsis, liked the book, and bought it three weeks later! “We’re going to change your life,” Algonquin told me. Remarkably, they did. They called me! They answered emails! They took me to lunch! And they made that “not special” book a NYT bestseller. I call them the gods and goddesses of the publishing world. But I know know that so much can change, that you can’t count on anything, and all you can do is write the book you want to write, the book that will change your life, and hope that others will respond to it.

Did you have to do much research when working on your books, and do you tend to write first or research first?

I did a lot of research for Is This Tomorrow because it’s set in the 50s. I hired two high school students to help, and a professional researcher, but the best research came from Facebook! All I had to do was post: Are there any male nurses from the 1960s around? I found lots! One guy told me how doctors in hospitals in the 50s always smoked, even around patients, and every hospital room had an ashtray, because patients could smoke, too! I usually have a detailed 20-30 page synopsis (that changes as I write, but the basic story stays the same) before I start researching. Then I spend about 4 months doing research. And of course, I often have to research while I am writing, too. But I love research.

What’s next?

I am so thrilled to report that I sold my next novel, Cruel Beautiful World, to Algonquin Books, on the basis of a first chapter and an outline. It should come out in 2015, which seems so far away! It’s set in the early 70s, the time when the peace and love moment of the sixties began to get a little ugly. It’s about a high school girl who runs off to a commune with her much older teacher and the terrible thing that happens to her. Her older sister is left to pick up the pieces and try to find out what really happened to her sister–and why.

I also am talking to movie people about Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow. The script I wrote for Is This Tomorrow actually made the finals of The Sundance Screenwriting Lab! They take only 12 people, and though I didn’t get in, they told me to resubmit. It’s funny because so many people told me not to submit, because they said Sundance only wants very young, very hip screenwriters and I was “no longer that young and no longer that hip!” But I’m reapplying next year when I will be even less young and hip! I tell everyone I am the poster girl for never, ever giving up, no matter what.

The Smart One by Jennifer Close – Book Review

Written by Nicole Bonia on May 3, 2013 · 2 Comments

The Smart One centers around Weezy Coffey, a house wife and mostly stay at home mom who, along with her husband has successfully raised three children – Martha, Claire and Max. As a child Weezy’s mom had always called her “the smart one”, while thinking that her sister Maureen was “the pretty one” who would marry well and raise a bunch of children. This novel has a lot to say about expectations – those that come from family and friends, and those of birth order, appearance and personality. Weezy prides herself on having thwarted her mother’s expectations. In spite of being “the smart one” she has gone on to marry well and raise children.

When the Coffey siblings return the family home, much to Weezy’s chagrin, after imploding careers, failed engagements, and relationships woes Weezy feels that her children’s missteps say something about her own skill as a parent. The novel follows her and her children as she sets about trying to make things better for them, now that they are no longer children.

The Smart One is the follow-up to the wildly popular and well-received Girls In White Dresses. This is my first time reading Close, and I must say that she writes beautifully of deeply of troubled characters who find themselves at crossroads, struggling under the weight of their choices and the resulting circumstances. Her insights into sibling relationships, changing family dynamics when children move home, and tensions within a marriage that has accommodate its grown children, are well observed and spot on. My only quibble is that some of the characters encountered are exactly the ones that you would expect. The slightly racist and crotchety elderly grandmother, the former hot guy/crush who peaked in high school and now lives at home, the rekindled romance with said guy. You get the idea. Yes, they do exist, but also, yes, they were a little ho-hum. Thankfully the strength of Close’s writing saves the novel from wandering to far into cliche. This is a thoughtful novel, and while I wouldn’t say it’s depressing, I can’t characterize it as feel-good either. So if the cover is giving off that vibe, don’t be fooled. It is an absorbing family study that is perfect to be discussed with friends or mused on in private. Recommended.

I have one finished copy to giveaway to a reader with a US address. If you’re interested in receiving the book, please fill out this brief form. I will pick a winner at random on Tuesday, May 7. Your email address will be discarded if you do not win. I do not share or retain any personal information. No purchase necessary and void where prohibited. Only selected winner(s) will be contacted by email. Thanks and good luck!