Tuesday, March 1, 2016

New beginnings...again.



NOTE:  I started this entry on 2 February with the intention of posting it before anything else; however, I accidentally published a review I finished writing and could not figure out how to take it down.

It has been over a year since my last posting.  That sounds like the beginning of a Catholic confession, but it really is the sound of shock hitting me square in the forehead.  OVER A YEAR!  What the hell? But as I said in my last post of 2014, if I don't write the review immediately after reading the novel, I become too far removed.  So I have been doing some mental planning for changes in my blog.  This planning started over a month ago, but it takes effect now.

Beginning today, 2 February 2016, I will post weekly.  If a book asks me to write a review, I will write one; otherwise, I will write a report on what I have been reading.  I was truly shocked today when I realized my last posting was in 2014, and my new beginnings must start with commentary, however brief, on my reading for 2015.

2015 began with readings that appealed to the senses: Perfume by Patrick Suskind and The Bells by Richard Harvell.  I followed these with a fun middle school novel, Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, which I had read previously, and Vermeer by Sandra Forty, a brief study of his art.  It was pleasant reading for those cold months of last winter.  Then I went through a few months with low and high points; I read a best seller, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, reminding me why I do not usually read best sellers: if it sounds like it is based on something that happened in the news, I'm not interested.  To clear my head of that drivel, I read a new YA novel by a Canadian author, Raziel Reid, When Everything Feels Like the Movies, and loved it.

I read wonderful mysteries like The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith and award-winning novels such as The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.  I bought and read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo before everyone was talking about it.  It has helped me; although I still have a lot to do, but it helped me understand why I am a disorganized person who easily adapts to clutter.  Understanding my mother's method of cleaning, I can see that what makes sense to one person does not always make sense to someone else.  Trying to get organized means beginning by throwing things away.  I am still throwing things away.  This is easier to do when you have reached my age.

After several years of saying I should read something by Louise Penny, I read Still Life and became a Gamache devotee.  I continued to read and enjoy anything by Carl Hiaasen, Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, and Neil Gaiman and based on recommendations from friends became a fan of Eowyn Ivey and Mo Hayder.  I read Toni Morrison's newest book, God Help the Child, and her first novel, The Bluest Eye.  I read Beloved again and decided I need to read all of her novels. This will not happen in one year, but the process has begun and reading them in order of publication suits my preferred author focus.

When classes started up at Alfred State College in August, I checked out the new books offered in the Hinkle Library.  Jacqueline Woodson's memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, is magnificent.  I have enjoyed her books for high school and elementary students for a long time.  Unfortunately, her works are a hard sell with the rural audience I have taught for most of my career.

As summer turned to autumn my thoughts gravitated toward Halloween.  I read two classic horror novels: Carrie by Stephen King and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.  Having never read Carrie, I approached it as if Stephen King was a new author.  It was fun to have that mindset, which enabled me to almost experience his writing as others would have when the novel first appeared.  As someone familiar with his work, I was able to enjoy the stylistic choices he had in that first novel and how he has improved them over the years.  I have had a copy of The Exorcist since its first appearance in paperback.  The young Catholic girl was going to read it and risk damnation.  Well, I never got around to reading that novel until October.  It was a good read and literally fell apart as I turned the pages.  It is one of the few books I have ever thrown out.

Margaret Atwood's latest collection of short stories, Stone Mattress - Nine Wicked Tales, was written for her peers...those of us who have reached a certain age.  Marvelous.  And I finished out the year reading several YA novels and novels aimed at middle school audiences: Blue Balliett is a favorite author of mine along with the  previously mentioned Carl Hiaasen who is able to write for adults and younger readers with equal success.  And I entered the world of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.  Wonderfully inventive use of time travel beginning with his collection of old photos.  I have since read the trilogy.

But I must take time to mention two works of non-fiction that both affected me for completely different reasons: The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.  If you haven't read Malcolm X, you should.  It is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for years and finally decided to read.  I learned so much about Malcolm X; Spike Lee's film enlightened me, but so many situations were explained and expanded on in the book.  Our lack of education regarding people of color in this country is deplorable.  Lack of diversity in literature of the United States has become a topic close to my heart and is an issue I will be exploring.  I have also become more concerned with chemicals in food even before they are processed.  Kingsolver's book describes her family's experiences eating locally for a year.  That year was transformative for all of them and convinced me that I should attempt to find more of my foods locally and eliminate purchasing food that has been transported long distances.  Eating locally means eating fruits and vegetables in season and preserving them for later use.  As spring emerges here in New York, I will be attentive to the local crops available at several local farmers' markets.  Between the racism and intolerance that is growing at a time when it should be a non-issue, and Monsanto's poisoning of our food and the bees which are necessary for plant life, this 60 something woman is disillusioned with her country.  The young woman I was 40 years ago never imagined life in our country would be so discouraging as she approached retirement.

Thus ends my overdue entry: an overview of my reading for the year and commentary on life as I se it..  I hope it encourages some of you to check back as I blog on a more regular basis.  And I hope you enjoyed seeing three of my favorite authors at work: I will never have as neat a desk as Joyce Carol Oates but am closer to Stephen King's style of clutter than Ray Bradbury's.