Reviews of favorite books

Writing Craft: The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

8/23/2022

This is not a book about writing craft per se, but it's full of treasures for writers.
Written by editor-turned-literary agent Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees, is full of insights about human nature relating to writers and the writing process.

Examples:

"Writing demands that you keep at bay the demons insisting that you are not worthy or that your ideas are ridiculous or that your command of the language is insufficient."
"The serious writer understands that her craft may take years to develop."
"Rejection is a fact of writing life."
"I see publishing more like a game of odds in which you increase your chances of acceptance simply by doing more than the next guy. It [isn't] about being at the right place at the right time but about being in a lot of places at a lot of times, showing up even when the odds seemed lousy."
"Write the book you want to read. Write the book that takes everything you’ve got."

The second half of The Forest for the Trees is an insider’s look at the publication process. She takes the reader through the editing, book production, and marketing process.
Her tips:

"Most of us [in the publishing industry] are in awe of a brilliant manuscript and will do everything in our power to see that it reaches readers."
"The best editors call attention to those parts of a book that have been bothering the writer, if only on an unconscious level."
"Treat your publicist like gold."
"Word of mouth is still the most powerful way to sell books."

Written in an accessible style, Forest for the Trees is full of realistic encouragement for up-and-coming writers. Highly recommended for writers preparing to submit for publication.

Fiction Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

8/21/2022

Silvia Moreno-Garcia does a lot of things exactly right in her NYT bestseller, Mexican Gothic.

The author plays with the tropes of Gothic Fiction (think Jane Eyre or Rebecca):
a determined heroine and a brooding house full of family secrets.
This isn’t a genre I tend to read, but Mexican Gothic kept coming across my radar, so I checked it from my local library--and I’m glad I did.
The main character, Noemi, is a flighty socialite sent to the hinterlands to rescue her newly married cousin who may be having a psychotic breakdown.
The musty, mist-enclosed house, High Place, is by turns forlorn and malevolent.
Similarly, the handsome elder son Virgil, her cousin’s husband, is equal parts threatening and enticing. Only Francis, the youngest son, seems to be an ally.

One technique Moreno-Garcia employs especially well is having the heroine insist on a logical explanation for the unusual events she experiences--which invites the reader to embrace the paranormal elements of the story. As the plot unfolds, we become concerned for Neomi long before she awakens to the danger.
Although I wasn't surprised by the cause of Neomi’s nightmares revealed at the end, I was still fully engaged in the narrative and the fate of the characters. The house’s fate felt a bit contrived, but the final paragraph anchored Neomi’s growth as a character, and provided a pitch-perfect resolution to the tale.
Mexican Gothic is a thoroughly satisfying reading experience.

Nonfiction: Sounds Wild & Broken by David George Haskell

8/20/2022

I loved David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen so much I bought it. His second book, The Songs of Trees, was an interesting exploration of different biomes through key tree species--but the self-conscious language made it less enjoyable for me than his first work. His third book,
Sounds Wild and Broken, is filled with fascinating factoids about our natural world.
Examples:

Reptiles lack the complex musculature for sucking (which means I’ll have to significantly rewrite a short story based on alien reptiles)
Insects hear through vibratory organs on the surface of their exoskeletons and in the joints of their legs and communicate by stomping on vegetation or the ground, and often drum duets.
Mice and rats communicate in a range we consider “ultrasonic,” above the 20,000 sound waves per second (Hz) humans can hear, but well within the 80,000 Hz range of cats.
Elephants speak in rumbles pitched below the range of human hearing (“infrasonic”) that carry long distances through the ground--and hear them using dense patches of sensory cells in their feet that transmit the sound through their skeleton to their ears.
Fish hear through jelly-filled ciliated cells and watery canals spread all over their bodies just beneath their skin and with inner ears similar to our own.
Experiments with animals such as the European starling reveal their languages are as unique as those of humans.

The conclusion traces the vestiges of sound waves present in our universe in the form of regular spacing between galaxies and symmetrical ripples in cosmic microwave background radiation: An example of science catching up to ancient creation myths of the universe beginning with divine singing!

Unfortunately, Songs Wild and Broken is overly repetitive and I skimmed at least half. At 40% longer than The Forest Unseen, this book would have been more powerful and impactful had it been distilled to a concise narrative about half its current length.

Worth a read, especially for linguists, musicians, or science nerds, but try your local library before purchase

Short Stories: Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders

8/15/2022

The introduction to this collection of short stories, Even Greater Mistakes, has encouraging words for would-be authors. Anders says: “In my first decade of writing short fiction, I racked up over six hundred rejections and published ninety-three stories, mostly in small markets that no longer exist.”
She introduces each story with background details of her narrative intention and creative process, giving extra resonance to the tales themselves.
These were most successful stories for me:

The Time Travel Club (since planets move in their orbits, moving through time might land you in empty space--or within a solid object: fabulous premise)
Six Months, Three Days (the hellish choices faced by two people who can see into the future)
Love Might be Too Strong a Word (fascinating exploration of romance and sexuality on a generation ship where humans have six distinct genders: my favorite overall)
Ghost Champaigne (about a woman haunted by the ghost of her future)
Power Couple (heartbreaking story about a couple using cryogenic suspension to cheat time--sort of)
A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime (my favorite of her zany stories)

There is much to enjoy and treasure in this collection, though it is uneven in tone and style: veering from literary to space opera, painfully poignant to silly--but the stories have so much heart, it's hard not to love them all. I checked this book out from my local library and will definitely explore more of Ms Anders’s work.

Nonfiction: The Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson

8/4/2022

A must read for anyone with ties to St. Louis and everyone who yearns for a brighter future.

I got The Broken Heart of America from my local library as background on St. Louis history for an essay I'm contributing to a St. Louis Writers Guild anthology. Wow. I had no idea how many “whitewashed” myths about my city were untrue.

The 1904 World’s Fair, often considered the highmark of St. Louis history, was a segregated affair that banned ragtime music from the grounds and staged the “largest human zoo in world history.” St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion throughout the 1800s, and this shameful legacy was celebrated at the fair by displaying fifty-one of the First Nations of North America, among other “primitive” peoples.

The iconic Gateway Arch was built on land first taken from the Osage Nation, then from thriving Black businesses in 1939, when city leaders bulldozed 40 blocks of the riverfront. Thirty years later, two protestors scaled the Arch in 1964 while it was under construction, objecting to the complete exclusion of Black workers from construction crews.

Written by a Harvard University professor, this book is filled with hard-hitting facts painting a legacy of racist bigotry--but also ordinary citizens joining together to create a more inclusive and equitable city.

The book's epilogue reminds me of a line from the Desiderata: “With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

Writing Craft: The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

Fiction Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Nonfiction: Sounds Wild & Broken by David George Haskell

Short Stories: Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders

Nonfiction: The Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson

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