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Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory

January 24, 2012 by

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory brings back the parable, the allegory, and the fable in an absurdist manner — think Animal Farm meets the Myth of Sisyphus and Paul (particularly with its comedic attributes and alien encounters). Each story is about 20 pages long, but is utterly absorbing. Readers will fall head first over a cliff into these stories and as the waters of Loory’s prose wash over them, they will be in a new fantastical world where anything is possible no matter how impossible. At the end of each story, readers will have to either shake off the fantasy or simply continue delving into the worlds Loory has created without pause.  Coming back up to reality can be tough, but each story is worth the moments of initial fuzziness.

There are televisions and animals that talk quite animatedly with humans, as do aliens and trees.  And some of these characters have very set-in-stone opinions, and on more than one occasion, those opinions are proven wrong or even turned upside down in just a few lines.  Loory’s prose shies away from the poetic and flowery language used by other writers, but in his sparse lines, there is a depth of philosophical intent and even just a joking nature to be uncovered.   Readers will be giggling, smiling, and scratching their heads, but either way, these short stories will impact their thinking and mood for the better.  Do not be fooled, however, by the seemingly tongue-in-cheek style Loory uses because there are darker elements, which are nicely reflected in the deep, dark blue in the cover and the imposing octopus tentacle.

The Shadow

"ONCE THERE WAS A MAN WHO WAS AFRAID OF HIS shadow.
    Then he met it.
    Now he glows in the dark." (page 58)

The ominous feeling in some of these stories is haunting, like in the way that “The Tunnel” resembles the darkness that Stephen King easily creates as a gang of kids follows a killer clown into their town’s sewers in It.  The impossible becomes possible in these stories, and Loory’s words touch upon faith, love, loss, and the darkness within the human spirit — there is a logic to be found in absurdity.

In “The Poet,” the man writes a poem and becomes angered when it is rejected, but even before he sent it out, he knew it wasn’t that good.  Rather than revise it, he self-publishes it and posts and hands out his xeroxed copies to passersby.  Here Loory seems to be indicating the absurdity of demanding to be published even if the work is poorly written.  However, looking deeper, the story seems to be talking about the dedication it takes to become a good writer and that not being published shouldn’t matter if good writing is the goal.

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory speaks to the inner child, coaxing it out from behind the adult into a fantastical world of monsters and talking animals only to slap that child back into place and point out the absurdity of blind categorization and conviction that many of us cling to steadfastly in adulthood.  There is a world of possibilities in this short story collection and readers will be blown away by Loory’s imagination and ability to create new myths to break down and rebuild.

Author Ben Loory

About the Author:

Ben Loory lives in Los Angeles, in a house on top of a hill. He was born in Dover, New Jersey, and is a graduate of Harvard College. In November 2008, his story “Photographs” was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers Contest. Since then his fables and tales have appeared online and in print in journals and magazines of all shapes and sizes, ranging from literary to fantasy, humor to horror, young adult to SF to sports-related and more.

 

***Thanks to Unabridged Chick for making me want to read this (check out her review)***

This is my 3rd book for the 2012 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Penguin, Publishers/Publicists, purchased, Read in 2012, reviews Tagged With: ,

New Book Club, New Beginning

January 23, 2012 by

Anna and I have had bad luck with book clubs over the last several years, as we continue to seek like-minded individuals who are willing to give anything a try in their reading and not quit a book club simply because they hate one of the books they’ve read.

This past Saturday, we met with our new book club at Novel Places — my new favorite bookstore. Our meeting lasted about 2 hours as we browsed the books — used and new — and chatted about how we’d select the books we’d read. So far, we have all our books through August selected. A few of our members were not able to make the meeting, so I suspect their book nominations will fill out the rest of the year. We have an interesting mix of classic and contemporary fiction, historical fiction, scifi-like fiction, and nonfiction. I cannot wait until the February meeting where we’ll talk about our first book, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

In case you’re interested in the rest of our list, here it is:

Feb.: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
March: Star Wars & Philosophy by Kevin Decker
April: A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear
May: City of Thieves by David Benioff
June: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
July: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
Aug.: Ashes by Ilsa Bick

What will your book club be reading?

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With:

Mailbox Monday #161

January 23, 2012 by

Mailbox Mondays (click the icon to check out the new blog) has gone on tour since Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch. This month’s host is the At Home With Books.

Kristi of The Story Siren continues to sponsor her In My Mailbox meme.

Both of these memes allow bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here’s what I received this week:

1.  The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy, which I received for my TLC Tour stop in March.

2.  Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller, which came unsolicited from Random House.

These I won from BookHounds and some of these will find homes with my mother (who just loves mystery novels) and some other friends:

3. Fadeaway Girl by Martha Grimes

4. Day by Day Armageddon Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne

5. The Rock Hole by Reavis Wortham

6. Bet Your Bones by Jeanne Matthews

7. Swift Justice by Laura DiSilverio

8. Electric Barracuda by Tim Dorsey

9. Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward

10. Dracula in Love by Karen Essex

11. Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

BACK to the review copies and the book buys from the weekend:

12. The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachman by Ken Brosky

13. The Three Colonels by Jack Caldwell for review from Sourcebooks

14. Mr. Darcy Forever by Victoria Connelly for review from Sourcebooks

15. Catalina by Laurie Soriano for consideration in the Indie Lit Awards Poetry category

16. If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O’Brien, which I bought at the book club meeting at Novel Places for $1.50 to complete by collection of O’Brien books.

17. The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore, which I also bought at the book club meeting at Novel Places for $1.99 because I loved this book when I first read it and want my own copy.

18. Definitely Not Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos, which I also bought at the book club meeting, since Anna told me it was hilarious.

What did you receive this week?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Gauntlet Has Been Dropped: Monthly Poetry Event

January 22, 2012 by

Lu, Kelly, and Eva have talked about reading more poetry in 2012, and they want us all to join in.  Stuck for a list of enjoyable poetry books, check out the Indie Lit Awards 2011 list and Lu’s list.

This challenge is open to everyone — from those who love poetry already to those just starting out or returning to poetry — and you don’t even have to read poetry, but post about poetry.  You could post about your favorite poet, why you hate poetry, why you want to read poetry, different poetic forms, something you remember about poetry from school, and anything else you can think of as long as it is about poetry.

This is the schedule for posting ONCE per month:

Poetry: Read More/Blog More – A Monthly Event!

January 31st
February 28th
March 27th
April 23rd
May 29th
June 26th
July 31st
August 28th
September 25th
October 30th
November 27th
December 18th

Once you’ve posted, visit Lu and Kelly’s blogs to put your link in the Mr. Linky!  Once you have your sign up post ready, link up here.

I’ve picked up the gauntlet, will you?!

Filed Under: announcements, Events Tagged With: ,

133rd Virtual Poetry Circle

January 21, 2012 by

Welcome to the 133rd Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April 2011 and beginning again in April 2012.

Today’s poems is from Philip Levine:

A Story

Everyone loves a story. Let's begin with a house.
We can fill it with careful rooms and fill the rooms
with things—tables, chairs, cupboards, drawers
closed to hide tiny beds where children once slept
or big drawers that yawn open to reveal
precisely folded garments washed half to death,
unsoiled, stale, and waiting to be worn out.
There must be a kitchen, and the kitchen
must have a stove, perhaps a big iron one
with a fat black pipe that vanishes into the ceiling
to reach the sky and exhale its smells and collusions.
This was the center of whatever family life
was here, this and the sink gone yellow
around the drain where the water, dirty or pure, 
ran off with no explanation, somehow like the point
of this, the story we promised and may yet deliver.
Make no mistake, a family was here. You see
the path worn into the linoleum where the wood,
gray and certainly pine, shows through.
Father stood there in the middle of his life
to call to the heavens he imagined above the roof
must surely be listening. When no one answered
you can see where his heel came down again
and again, even though he'd been taught
never to demand. Not that life was especially cruel;
they had well water they pumped at first,
a stove that gave heat, a mother who stood
at the sink at all hours and gazed longingly
to where the woods once held the voices
of small bears—themselves a family—and the songs
of birds long fled once the deep woods surrendered
one tree at a time after the workmen arrived
with jugs of hot coffee. The worn spot on the sill
is where Mother rested her head when no one saw,
those two stained ridges were handholds
she relied on; they never let her down.
Where is she now? You think you have a right
to know everything? The children tiny enough
to inhabit cupboards, large enough to have rooms
of their own and to abandon them, the father
with his right hand raised against the sky?
If those questions are too personal, then tell us,
where are the woods? They had to have been
because the continent was clothed in trees.
We all read that in school and knew it to be true.
Yet all we see are houses, rows and rows
of houses as far as sight, and where sight vanishes
into nothing, into the new world no one has seen,
there has to be more than dust, wind-borne particles
of burning earth, the earth we lost, and nothing else.

What do you think?

Filed Under: virtual poetry circle Tagged With:

Guest Interview: Rock Band Glossary’s Joey Knieser Gets Literary by Vicki Keire

January 20, 2012 by

While I often talk a lot about books, poetry, writing, and author and publishing events, I rarely talk about music here, even though it is one of my passions.  I could go on and on about the reasons I love certain bands and certain genres of music, and why I dislike other bands and other genres of music.  However, rather than listen to me ramble on about my tastes and thoughts, I thought I’d share with you an interview from Vicki Keire with Glossary‘s Joey Knieser and his thoughts on books.  (Click on the band name for a few YouTube videos of their songs)

Without further ado, please welcome Vicki and Joey.

The summer before I met Joey Knieser of the rock band Glossary, I was hundreds of miles from home writing the novel that would eventually become The Chronicles of Nowhere (volume one released today through Curiosity Quills Press.) I spent the weeks preceding our meeting wandering beaches bleached white as bone, watching as BP oil-choked kelp rolled in and strangled the shoreline.

Armed only with a battered laptop, I propped it open and listened to my modest music library while watching the waves, waiting for them to carry away the personal disaster that had driven me here. That’s when Glossary started to haunt me. One album in particular became a favorite, on almost constant repeat: their album Feral Fire, with the aptly named “Your Heart to Haunt” in heavy rotation. If the band hadn’t planned a stop in my hometown that summer, I’m not sure I would have come home. But come they did, and I had the genuine pleasure of both hosting them in my home and seeing them play one of the songs most influential to my writing. Naturally, Glossary is at the top of my list when I think about writing and music, and how, for me, the two often intersect.

I caught up with guitarist/ singer-songwriter Joey Knieser to find out if books had a reciprocal power with musicians. Joey, along with most of the band, lives in Murfreesboro, TN, just outside of Nashville. He graciously agreed to answer questions on everything from his favorites books to the impact of the digital revolution on books and music:

Q: What books are you reading now or want to read?

A: I am currently in the middle of reading Tom Franklin’s novel, Hell at the Breech. I’d like to read the rest of Tom Franklin’s stuff. There are a couple Walker Percy books that I haven’t read, and I hope that I will be able to some day.

Q: What are some of your all time favorite books?

A: My all-time favorite books are Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  Just like the music I seem to go back and listen to over and over again, these classic books just seem to have in them something that appeals to me. You could pick up these two books at any time and read a couple sentences, and before you know it, you’re back into reading it for the millionth time. Being a Southerner, these books have become really important to me.

Q: Do you prefer eReaders or “regular” books, and why?

A: I prefer eReaders because I’m legally blind, and before the eReader, I was limited in what I could read. I had to read only what I could find in large print. But now, with an eReader, I can read any book by just increasing the size of the font.

Q: Do you think the digital revolution will have similar effects on the book industry as it has had on the music industry?

A: Absolutely. It will have the same effect in that content is delivered directly to the customer, which, as a result, changes the current business model that both those industries have had up to this point. In the music industry, there seems to be less and less of an importance to have major labels. In the same way, in the book publishing industry, it seems that the major publishing companies have less and less importance. The digital revolution has put the power in the hands of the artist. The way an artist can connect with an audience is simple and direct. The only problem the artist will have now is to find their audience.

Q: Your album Feral Fire got its name from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. What about the novel appealed to you?

A: The quote from the novel had little to do with the novel itself. I liked the novel, but they were two words that poked out to me. I thought the alliteration had a real sense of longing. I could never really get that title out of my head while I was writing the songs for the album. It seemed like “feral fire” had a sense of longing and desperation, and basically I felt the songs on the record reflected those emotions.

Q: Are any of your songs influenced by books, and if so, which ones?

A: There are several. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to a church and they sing a hymn that talks of heaven being, “the sweet forever.” I thought that was a great way to describe eternity. I used that phrase to actually title one of my songs in Feral Fire. I did write “Adalina” after I read The Sun Also Rises, because the song deals with a man that can’t have the woman that he wants much like the narrator in The Sun Also Rises can’t have Lady Brett. I actually used a line in “Adalina” that is straight from the book: “of all the ways to be wounded.” I just used it in the same way that Hemingway does, that there are a million ways to be wounded in this world, but that one person you love so much doesn’t love you the same way, and that’s the deepest sort of pain you’ll ever experience.

Q: What particular genres interest you?

A: Being a Southerner, I’m always drawn to Southern writers. Southern goth, too. Anything that deals with the issues of Southern culture and identity, books that deal with the Southern culture and way of life.

About the Band:

Glossary just released its seventh album, Long Live All of Us, available from This Is American Music and Last Chance Records. Glossary has been featured on NPR’s World Café, mentioned in USA Today, Paste magazine, and numerous other acclaimed music publications while being routinely featured on too many “Best of” lists to count. The band consists of bassist Bingham Barnes, singer/percussionist Kelly Knieser, pedal steel/guitarist Todd Beene, drummer Eric Giles, and frontman/ guitarist Joey Knieser.

 

Vicki Keire

About the Interviewer:

Vicki Keire grew up in a 19th Century haunted house in the Deep South full of books, abandoned coal chutes, and plenty of places to get into trouble with her siblings. She has taught writing and literature at a large, football-obsessed university while slipping paranormal fiction in between the pages of her textbooks. She is the author of the bestselling Angel’s Edge series, which includes Gifts of the Blood and its sequel, Darkness in the Blood. She is included in the Dark Tomorrows anthology with J.L. Bryan and Amanda Hocking and now writes full time. You can find her online.

 

This post is part of the Curiosity Quills Blog Tour 2012.

Curiosity Quills is a gaggle of literary marauders with a bone to grind and not enough time for revisions – a collective, creating together, supporting each other, and putting out the best darn tootin’ words this side of Google.

Curiosity Quills also runs Curiosity Quills Press, an independent publisher committed to bringing top-quality fiction to the wider world. They publish in ebook, print, as well as serialising select works of their published authors for free on the press’s website.

Filed Under: guest post, Interviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tracks by Eric D. Goodman

January 19, 2012 by

Tracks by Eric D. Goodman is a expressive and reflective novel told in stories or what some would call a short story collection published by Maryland-based publisher Atticus Books, and unlike other short story collections, there are very few weak stories, if any.  Each protagonist in the story is on the train headed somewhere and each of their lives is in transition, from a young woman on the verge of promotion who must decide between lover and career to a man and woman at the end of their years who must face their fears.  Goodman is adept at ensuring readers care about his characters in just a few pages, and even though the end of each story comes quickly, there is rarely a sense that there was more to the story that was not told.

“The train has a way of transforming a person.  Sometimes passengers become aware of things they didn’t know before boarding.  Something about the stillness on a moving train, being around people and alone at the same time.  They’re neither here not there — in transition.  That frees them up to do things or say things they might not ordinarily do or say.” (from the preface)

The Cardinal that rides between Baltimore, Md., and Chicago, Ill., carries all of these passengers on their way, and some of these passengers have been on the train in both directions, while others have traveled the rails between Chicago and Washington, D.C., and more than once.  It does not matter where these characters come from; what matters is that the rails provide them with hope and a time out from their hustle of their daily lives.  The train and the rails are an escape, a quiet place to contemplate their lives as the undulating sway of the cars lulls them into deep meditation.  Paralleling their actual lives, the trip on the train has each member making contact with strangers, and like the conscience that guides their decision making, the conductor on the train whispers advice and nuggets of observation/wisdom to those with whom he speaks.  Beyond the characters, the city of Baltimore and the rail line itself loom large in the story, almost becoming characters themselves, with the city representing an anchor weighing down certain characters and the rail a symbol of liberation.

“one station, joy; the next, grief
the soul pulled along
by the hope for peace
at the next junction.” (page 198)

Each story is tied together by the people the characters meet on the train, the conductor, and the railway itself.  The rails come to symbolize the journey life takes us on, with some of the moments in our lives speeding by us too quickly for us to pause and reflect, while others gently impress upon us the gravity of their meaning.  Readers spend time with each character, getting to know their reasons for being on the train, the events that have hammered them recently, and how they view their fellow passengers, but Goodman also sprinkles in a bit of mystery and mayhem into the narration with the introduction of Gene Silverman in “Reset” and Charlie in “One Last Hit.”  Several stories also delve into the detrimental effect of war on not only the victims who survive, but also the soldiers called to action.

Tracks by Eric D. Goodman demonstrates how we are all traveling the same line and how we have similar fears and failings, but also similar hopes and dreams.  In spite of that, we all end up in different places.  Even with the characters who seem unsavory or hard to like, they offer a lesson to readers — seize the moment because in the next, it could be gone.  Opportunity arises and disappears just as quickly, and life on the train ride of life is quick and unrelenting.  There’s not much time for reflection and a deeper examination of pros and cons when living life at full tilt, but stepping back for a few hours on a train ride can be enough to reassess and rejoin life’s journey with a new purpose.  Excellent novel in stories with a common theme, setting, and interacting characters tying them together.

About the Author:

Eric D. Goodman has been writing fiction since he was in the third grade, when a story assignment turned him on to the craft more than a quarter century ago. He regularly reads his fiction on Baltimore’s NPR station, WYPR, and at book festivals and literary events. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Baltimore Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Writers Weekly, The Potomac, Grub Street, Scribble Magazine, The Arabesques Review, and New Lines from the Old Line State: An Anthology of Maryland Writers. Eric is the author of Flightless Goose, a storybook for children. Check out this interview with Eric at Atticus Books.

 

This is my 2nd book for the 2012 New Authors Challenge.

 

 

 

This is a stop on The Literary Road Trip since a lot of the book Tracks focuses on Baltimore, Md., the author is a regular on Baltimore’s NPR, and the publisher is based in Maryland.

Filed Under: challenges, Events, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2012, review copy, reviews, short stories, The Literary Road Trip Tagged With: , ,

Guest Post: A Workspace and Inspiration by Jeanette Baker

January 18, 2012 by

Irish Lady by Jeanette Baker is about Meghann McCarthy who had left Belfast behind until Michael Devlin re-emerges and needs her help.  He’s charged with murder, but as she attempts to uncover the truth, a history reveals itself through a series of linked histories back to the time of Queen Elizabeth.  This is an emotionally charged romance novel with intrigue and mystery.

Today, Jeanette Baker is offering to share her writing space with my readers and to share a little bit about what inspired her to write Irish Lady.  Please give her a warm welcome and stay tuned for a giveaway.

No one would ever call me a perfectionist. I’m more of a big-picture, good-enough kind of person, but my environment, both writing and living, has always been important to me. My personal space has changed over the course of my career, adapting with the changes in my family and my finances. At first, when my children were small, my “space” was a small computer table and steno chair in the family room. My children played games, watched television and invited friends to play while I created and typed away, oblivious to noise, music and, occasionally, minor wounds.

As my family grew and square footage increased through moves and room additions, I graduated to my own office complete with desk and chair, a comfortable couch and, the most wonderful of inventions, a laptop computer which allowed me to move between desk and couch as the mood struck. Over the years, I’ve done away with the desk and straight-backed chair, choosing to, at first, keep files in a cabinet and, eventually, in bookmarked pages on my computer. I’ve come full circle because, now that I’m an emptynester, my office has returned to the family room. I sit in a very deep, comfortable chair, usually cross-legged but, sometimes, with my legs stretched out in front of me on an equally comfortable ottoman.

I love color and my space reflects it. My chair and ottoman are a deep garnet-red. A chest hand painted in gold, black and more red serves as a coffee table for my tea habit and the shelves of my bookcases are painted a dark, lacquered green. Even more than writing, reading is my passion. I surround myself with books, hundreds and hundreds of books, written by authors who inspire me, as well as photos of my family to remind me of my focus, and prints of Ireland and Scotland, the settings for many of my novels.

The idea for IRISH LADY first came about after living for several years in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A country divided by religion and economics for 800 years has more than its share of conflict. Meghann McCarthy escaped the slums of Belfast to become a rich, successful attorney in London. Yet she can never quite banish Ireland from her heart, or forget Michael Devlin, the boy she once loved with a passion that nearly tore her apart. When Michael, a notorious Irish nationalist, is accused of a heinous crime, Meghann agrees to defend him. But even as she jeopardizes her hard-won success, she finds the true power and spirit of the Irish heritage she has too long denied…and the courage to face her love for Michael. Meanwhile, throughout her life, Meghann is regularly visited by visions of her direct ancestor, Nuala O’Donnell, a noblewoman from the 16th century who struggles to keep her husband, legendary hero, Rory O’Donnell, and their land free from English occupation.

The furniture changes, as well as the size of the space, but comfort, the perfect chair, access to a cozy pot of tea and a wall plug are consistent staples of writing space.

Thanks, Jeanette, for sharing your writing space with us.

To enter for 1 copy of Irish Lady, please leave a comment about how far you would go for love.

If you follow, tweet, Facebook, or otherwise share the giveaway, leave a comment with links for more entries (up to 4 additional entries)

Deadline is Jan. 25, 2012, at 11:59PM EST (US/CANADA)

Filed Under: giveaway, guest post, sourcebooks Tagged With: , ,

Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai, Translated by Allison Markin Powell

January 17, 2012 by

Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai is a short book of less than 100 pages from One Peace Books and is translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell.  The novella, which reads more like a narrative poem, has readers spend the day with a teenage girl who is adjusting to life after the death of her father and as a blossoming women in a post-WWII Japan.  Readers clearly see the clash between traditional Japanese customs of women who are quiet and subservient to others needs with the young woman’s need to express herself and be an individual.

“Waking up in the morning is always interesting.  It reminds me of when we’re playing hide-and-seek — I’m hidden crouching in the pitch-dark closet and suddenly Deko throws open the sliding door, sunlight pouring in as she shouts, ‘Found you!’ — that dazzling glare followed by an awkward pause, and then, my heart pounding as I adjust the front of my kimono and emerge from the closet, I’m slightly self-conscious and then suddenly irritated and annoyed — it feels similar, but no, not quite like that, somehow even more unbearable.” (page 7)

Like many pieces from Asian culture, spirits make an appearance, but these ghosts are thoughts and images that assail the young girl on a daily basis — perhaps images of war or the regrets she has about how she has treated her mother since her father’s death or even the moments she shared and failed to share with her father when he was alive.  It is clear that she is wavering, stuck between her girlhood and her pending womanhood — the past and the present.  She revels in the simple beauty of nature, while she reviles the obsequious nature of her family life.  The dichotomy of her existence plagues her throughout the novella as she rails against her servile nature and tries to hold back her individuality, at least in the presence of her mother.

“Falling asleep is such a strange feeling.  It’s like a carp or an eel is tugging on a fishing line,or something heavy like a lead weight is pulling on the line that I am holding with my head, as I doze off to sleep, the line slackens up a bit.  When that happens, it startles me back to awareness.”  (Page 93)

Dazai and Powell have captured the inner workings of a teenage mind with ease, and for those who have moved beyond those years, it could be tiresome.  However, there is beauty in Dazai’s simple prose that captures feelings so easily, evoking camaraderie with readers and deep seated understanding.  Not much happens plot wise in the novel, but its not necessary as readers come to understand the protagonist and her motivations.  She’s angsty, eager to please, frightened of the future, and mourning her past.  Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai, translated by Allison Markin Powell offers readers a stream of consciousness in a young girl’s life during not only her transition from girl to woman, but from her country’s transition from the past to more modern sensibilities and the struggle that places on individuals torn between tradition and change.

**I received this book from Caribousmom, and was eager to read it as part of my efforts to read more translated works in 2012.**

This is my 2nd book for the 2012 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, challenges, fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2012, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Mailbox Monday #160

January 16, 2012 by

Mailbox Mondays (click the icon to check out the new blog) has gone on tour since Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch. This month’s host is the At Home With Books.

Kristi of The Story Siren continues to sponsor her In My Mailbox meme.

Both of these memes allow bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here’s what I received this week:

1.  Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, which I purchased after reading War Horse and already reviewed.

2.  Until the Next Time by Kevin Fox, which came unrequested from Algonquin and will be published in February.

3.  The Sleepy Hollow Family Almanac by Kris D’Agostino, which came unrequested from Algonquin and will be published in March.

4.  Pocket Kings by Ted Heller, which came unrequested from Algonquin and will be published in March.

5.  The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead, which came unrequested from Algonquin and will be published in April.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

132nd Virtual Poetry Circle

January 14, 2012 by

Welcome to the 132nd Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April 2011 and beginning again in April 2012.

Today’s poems is from Eavan Boland:

 Atlantis -- A Lost Sonnet

How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder
that a whole city—arches, pillars, colonnades,
not to mention vehicles and animals—had all
one fine day gone under?

I mean, I said to myself, the world was small then.
Surely a great city must have been missed?
I miss our old city —

white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting
under fanlights and low skies to go home in it. Maybe
what really happened is 

this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it. And so, in the best traditions of 

where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name
and drowned it.

What do you think?

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Savvy Editing Services

January 13, 2012 by

As part of my 2012 efforts to generate money from this blog, I’ve decided to use it to publicize and offer editing services.  Since I’m an editor full time for an electronic newsletter company and have worked on PR materials and other items over the years, why not offer my services to my readers and others who need help with grammar, spelling, typos, and even style suggestions.

If you’re interested or know someone who is, please feel free to pass along my information to them.  Here’s the link to the detailed information of my services and the prices:  https://savvyverseandwit.com/policies/editing-services

Thanks for spreading the word.

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