It's MLB playoffs. What are you reading?

Recommended reading during the World Series playoffs:

Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin (earned one of my only Goodreads' five stars this year)
This Dark Road to Mercy, Wiley Cash (earned one of my only other Goodreads' five stars this year)
Calico Joe, John Grisham
The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, Howard Bryant
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, Josh Hamilton

What other baseball books have you read?

And, Go Cubs!

Book Review: Flyover Lives: A Memoir by Diane Johnson

Flyover Lives: A Memoir by Diane Johnson

Published by: Viking

Published on: January 16, 2014

Page Count: 263

Genre: Memoir

My Reading Format: Hardcover provided by the publisher

Available Formats: Hardcover, Kindle edition, Audible audio edition, audio CD, MP3 CD

My Review:

Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce (most familiar to me) and more than a dozen other books, pulls together her writing life and a story about those family members who came before her to shape her path. From a family that's been in the Midwest for generations, Johnson writes in Flyover Lives about a solid, no-frills upbringing, the results of family research, her life as a writer, her life as a single mother with young children and her current life with grown children and the freedom to travel with her husband. Johnson's book is divided into three sections: her life growing up in Moline, Illinois, the stories of her Midwestern ancestors and her writing life and more recent years.

I found Johnson's writing style to be in keeping with her upbringing: good stories told adequately but without all the flowery language. She presents her stories factually and honestly, and doesn't delve too deeply into her own inner workings. That's not to say that her stories aren't painting a picture of her life. They are, and in a way I really enjoyed reading. Johnson's early life in Moline is one that is different, simpler and more innocent than what children experience today, and it's nice to read about an upbringing like that. It was interesting to read about the family history she has uncovered and how it has helped her realize the good lot from which she comes, and the characteristics of her ancestors that she's inherited. I like the dichotomy of her life in Moline paired with her lives in other places, the premise for this book I think: Paris, California and London. 

There were times I had trouble finding the string that should hold the memoir together. Beginning and ending the book with a recent house party in France were in the right place as bookends to prop everything up, but there were places I got lost in the middle. But there were things I enjoyed immensely: the anecdotes and the stories of how a writer became a writer.

Three out of five stars

If you liked this book, you’ll like Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard.

Recent Read: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I finally read something I knew I'd been needing to read for a long time: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. As a writer and editor, I've always known I need to read and reread a few of the classics: On Writing Well, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style and a new favorite: Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students by Mignon Fogarty. Now as someone teaching writing to middle and high school students, this seems even more important. Though I'm not sure if I could get away from having my classes read this (too many references to "shitty first drafts?"), the information in this book is helping me think about writing and revising in a different way. Plus, for such a short book with so much instructional value, Lamott's writing is hysterically funny. More than once while I was reading it, my family must have been wondering about the cause of my amusement. Here are the things that struck me the most that I'll try to implement with my students:

• telling the truth in your own voice

• focusing your writing (at least at first) on your childhood

• seeing your book as a long series of short writing assignments

• bad first drafts translate to good second drafts and great third drafts (three is my magic number for writing too)

• don't listen to the voices in your head when you sit down to write; just listen to your voice

• "perfectionism will ruin your writing" (p. 28 of my 1994 paperback version)

• the great equalizer of writing topics: school lunches

• being comfortable with not knowing how the piece you're writing will finish up when you're just starting to write it

• take the time to get to know your characters, and then your plot will fall into place

• read your dialogue out loud to determine if it's realistic

• the importance of being observant

 ...and about a jillion other great pieces of advice. If you're a writer you need to read this book. Period.

And speaking of school lunches, I visited a school recently during lunchtime and got all nostalgic about what I got to eat (yes, that's a corndog back behind the salad).

Perhaps I should write about it.

Book Review: A Different Sun by Elaine Neil Orr

A Different Sun: A Novel of Africa by Elaine Neil Orr

Published by: Berkley Books

Published on: April 2, 2013

Page Count: 388

Genre: Fiction

My Reading Format: Paperback

Available Formats: Paperback and Amazon Kindle e-book

My Review:

Emma Davis knows she is called for something special. It's something different from the life her sister Catherine is sure to lead, and different from what her father expects of her. As a young girl growing up on a Middle Georgia plantation, her closest confidant, a slave named Uncle Eli, encourages her to follow her heart. Emma knows to do her life's work she must leave her comfortable life, and she's able to do that when she meets and marries a handsome missionary on leave from his work in Nigeria. Emma and Henry Bowman's married life begins with a journey across the ocean to a Yoruba village.

During her young married life, Emma is constantly out of her comfort zone but leans on her faith to navigate a new culture, household, language and customs. Emma learns the differences between the antebellum South of her girlhood and her womanhood in Africa. Perhaps her biggest challenge is learning to let her husband operate as the head of their household, even when she believes she knows other, better ways to live their missionary life. Through challenges, heartbreak, love and success, Emma learns much about herself as an individual and a wife, and how she can manage to be both.

With beautiful imagery, Orr paints a vivid, complicated picture of Africa and its people, with Africa being a mysterious character in the novel. Orr skillfully creates mounting tension between Emma and Henry, and Emma and Jacob, an native and Henry's missionary helper. And, the author conveys the deep pain and emotional struggle with Emma that she must bear alone. Emma's journey is both an interior and an exterior one, and both are defined by her life as a missionary in a place where she will always be an outsider. Emma's faith, though it waivers at times, sees her through it all.

This is a novel that will give readers reason to consider what freedom is and what one's religion means, timeless ideas that will always resonate with us. 

**Note: Elaine Neil Orr was one of my professors at NC State University when I was working toward my masters degree. Her workshop course in creative nonfiction and thesis direction were of great importance for writing my thesis and the writing coaching and editing work I've done since. I'm grateful to her and honored to review her first work of fiction.

Four out of five stars

If you like A Different Sun, you'll probably like State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and O Pioneers! and My Antonia, both by Willa Cather.

Book Review: Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson

Heaven is Here: An Incredible Story of Hope, Triumph, and Everyday Joy by Stephanie Nielson

Published by: Hyperion Voice

Published on: April 3, 2012

Page Count: 310

Genre: Memoir

My Reading Format: Hardcover book mailed to me by publisher

Available Formats: Hardcover, Amazon Kindle edition

 

Note: I guess I've been living under a rock because I was completely unfamiliar with Stephanie Neilson and her story before starting this book. I have never read her blog and didn't see her appearance on Oprah. I had never heard about the accident. When I got the opportunity to review the book, I decided to leave myself in the dark until after my review was written. So I will now look up her blog and learn more about her. I just wanted to let the outside influences stay outside, and let my lack of prior knowledge of Stephanie stay that way so I could simply enjoy and review her book.

My Review:

Stephanie Nielson, a wife and mom, had the kind of life she'd always dreamed of. She and husband Christian were raising their four children in the Mormon tradition. Christian enjoyed a successful career, which allowed Stephanie to be with their children, create a beautiful home for them, and cook dinner each night. Even when she and her family moved from Utah to New Jersey to a house grossly misrepresented in the photos she saw from thousands of miles away, and in a neighborhood where people had lived for decades without knowing their neighbors, Stephanie remained happy. While in New Jersey she began blogging to keep her far-away family apprised of the Nielsons' daily goings-on and to give herself a creative outlet. To her surprise, her blog audience grew beyond the friends and family she'd left behind in Utah, and strangers read regularly and posted comments. 

Stephanie continued to blog as her family moved to Arizona for Christian's job. When Christian had earned his pilot's license, Stephanie was thrilled to accompany Christian and a friend on a flight. Something went wrong on this flight and it crashed, burning Christian on 40% of his body and Stephanie on 80% of hers. Though their friend initially survived the crash, he later died as a result of his serious injuries. 

Here the book takes a dramatic turn. The wonderful home life Stephanie enjoyed has been traded for months in a medically-induced coma, followed by excruciating therapy and surgeries at the burn unit of the hospital. Her parents and siblings remained by her side, but Stephanie was reluctant to let Christian see her changed appearance, but even he did before Stephanie summoned up the courage to look in the mirror at her own reflection. Stephanie's four young children didn't see her for months, and when they finally did, Stephanie started the process of rebuilding her relationship with them to regain their trust and love.   

This book outlines the unbelievably difficult journey Stephanie took to regain her health, her appearance (though she is forever changed), and her family life. The emotional roller coaster she traveled was recounted in brutal honesty. Though the first part of the book outlined a happy woman in a happy home with her loving family, she didn't hide the fact that after the accident she was devastated to see the changes in her body, her family situation and relationships, and in herself as a person. Understandably, upon waking from her coma and becoming aware of the treatments and surgeries she's been undergoing and would continue to endure, Stephanie's spirit sunk as low as it possibly could. While she doesn't wallow in her own self-pity, she's suffered so much physical and mental trauma that it takes her a while to decide to live again and to do it fully. She makes a choice to return to her former life, however difficult it might be to get there, and knowing that her life will never truly be as it was before the accident. 

Stephanie describes in detail how a positive turn of events would give her a boost, but then when she hadn't progressed as far medically as she'd hoped, or she felt rejected by her children, she took a few steps back. Though it takes a while for her determination to show up and stick with her, she began to set goals for herself, however large or small, and gain momentum as she started achieving them. 

This book is a powerful statement about the capabilities of the human spirit. Stephanie describes her highs and her lows in brutal honesty, and describes her body, its injuries and its progress in great detail. Much of this book is difficult to read (descriptions of the crash scene and medical procedures will stick with me for a while), but I couldn't put the book down. I had to keep reading to know what happened and how Stephanie got there (though I assumed things worked out since a book came out of her experiences). This is one of the best and most honest memoirs I've read in a while. 

Many thanks to Voice for the complimentary review copy.

Jimmy Carter Teaches Sunday School

Back in the fall I traveled back to Plains, Georgia, for my second visit to this teeny tiny town (population 683). On my first visit I'd heard that I should come back some weekend when Jimmy Carter would be teaching Sunday School at his home church, Maranatha Baptist (check out the website for Carter's teaching schedule). As Plains is tiny, Carter's church is small too, yet the sanctuary was at capacity that day (it seemed that the majority were visitors). While I was in town I toured a few other places in town and at the museum in the old Plains High School building I purchased a copy of Carter's 1992 book on his first political campaign in 1962 for a seat in the state senate. It's called Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age. As this is an election year and things are heating up, I figured it would be a good time to move this book to the top of my reading pile.

That Sunday Carter spent a few minutes of his Sunday School hour talking about the good work that's happening out of The Carter Center in Atlanta. He talked about his travels around the world (his travel schedule would wear out someone half his age) for the purposes of making health care accessible in hard to reach places and encouraging fair elections around the world. Then he turned his Sunday School lesson to one right out of the Bible. He used parts of 1 Corinthians 4 and talked about being a good steward of the mysteries of God.

It would have been a good lesson for anyone in the public eye representing the masses to hear. Now that I've read the book I picked up that weekend I realize how much Carter wanted to properly represent the people in those rural southwestern Georgia counties, and how advocating for his friends and neighbors became a calling that he wanted to do the right way. I also wondered if his experience with his own first election in 1962 influenced his work for fair elections in other parts of the world since he left presidential office. In the book, he and his team uncover unfair and illegal election practices going on at one of the polling places in a county he's hoping to represent. The book outlines the legal battle that ensued, and ends with his swearing in at the state senate.

No matter how you vote or what you believe in politically, it's always good to hear a story about a politician striving to do the right thing. It was an interesting read. As I've only been a Georgia citizen for about five years, it was particularly nice to get this back story on our former president.

Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Book Review: Oh Mexico! Love and Adventure in Mexico City

Oh Mexico!: Love and Adventure in Mexico City by Lucy Neville
 
Published by: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
 
Published on: August 16, 2011
 
Page Count: 328
 
Genre: Travel Memoir, Autobiography
 
My Reading Format: Advanced reading copy in Adobe Digital Editions from Netgalley
 

Available Formats: Kindle and paperback
 
My Review:
 
Lucy Neville’s travel memoir, Oh Mexico!: Love and Adventure in Mexico City, starts out in a predictable way. This recent college graduate isn’t ready for the corporate world, so she decides to embark upon a journey far away from her home in Australia. In Mexico City, she decides, she can better her Spanish language skills, embrace and immerse herself in a different culture, and have a host of new experiences. For one year she decides to live in crime-ridden but culturally rich Mexico City, and she is determined to succeed there. Along the way she encounters quirky characters who are both escaping their lives in other countries and are Mexican natives. She learns how difficult it is to survive and thrive in a place where corruption is rampant and rules and laws are merely suggestions. She finds herself part of a culture where women tend to be hard workers while their men often do as little work as possible. She learns what is important to Mexican life: food, family and celebrations (even if many of them seem to make light of death).
 
For me this book was a nice break from travel memoirs that take place in Europe. Yes, I enjoy those books immensely, but it was nice to read a first-hand experience of a country I’ve never visited, not even in the areas that cater to North American tourists, and a country that only makes American news when there is something to report on border patrol issues or drug cartels. I’m not sure it made me immediately want to book a trip to check out Mexico City for myself, but it did give me a great admiration for the author and others who embark upon similar adventures.
 
I liked this Lucy, the narrator. I sometimes forgot that I was reading a book instead of hearing a friend recount her adventures abroad. For the first time in quite a while, I feel like I know Lucy and that she’s my friend. She’s relatable, spunky, and willing to keep trying until she finds a way that works. She’ll listen to your advice and she might follow it. Or she might find out for herself.
 
What I didn’t like about the book and fairly small compared to what I did. As Lucy struggles to decide between two men, her hot roommate Octavio and her kind-hearted boyfriend Ricardo, the decision in the book, whether it was in real life, was rushed. Lucy let us into her head, building up all the tension between her and Octavio right before he vanished from her life. Was it really like that? I suspect not since many people can’t just switch their emotions off that quickly and neatly. Then, as Mexico’s economy becomes greatly affected by the American one, Lucy and Ricardo decide to move back to Australia. Though the focus of the book was, obviously, life in Mexico City, I am so curious to know more about how things turned out once they got settled in Australia.
 
Lucy Neville, if Ricardo is a writer, please talk him into writing a companion book outlining his first year living with you in Australia. If he is not a writer, please consider how you could turn this new chapter in your life into a second book.