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Robert Plant: A Life by Paul Rees

December 4, 2013 by

Sources: It Books, HarperCollins
Hardcover, 368 pages
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Robert Plant: A Life by Paul Rees is an unauthorized biography of one of Led Zeppelin‘s front men — the one some called a golden god.  Beginning with his early years in grade school, Plant was not destined to be the straight arrow his father wanted him to be.  His antics started as a young adolescent stealing small instruments from well-known musicians that visited local clubs.  He was initially influenced by the sway of Elvis, miming his records on the sofa with a hairbrush for a microphone.  But Rees also provides a background on the region and its hardships, which shaped his father and his older family members.  The hardships the family faced also shaped their attitudes toward a young man finding his love of music and barreling headlong into it.

Rees prose is engaging, like an old friends talking to one another, and the smattering of quotes from friends and family about the events that shaped not only Plant, but also the band, make readers feel like their watching a documentary unfold.  And like most documentaries with producers close to the subject, some of the more sordid details of drug use and sex are muted — though a salacious tale about the band and its members has likely been done before and does not need to be repeated.  Rees has a greater focus on the music Plant created in a series of defunct bands, his poor luck with bands when he started out, and his wild success as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin.

“He had felt fear gnawing away at him.  The dread of how he might appear to all the thousands out there in the dark.  Here he was, a man in his sixtieth year, desiring to roll back time and recapture all the wonders of youth.  Did that, would that, make him seem a fool? In those long minutes with himself he had looking in the mirror and asked over and over if he really could be all that he had once been; if it were truly possible for him to take his voice back up to the peaks it had once scaled.  He had so many questions but no answers.” (page 1)

As a young husband, he’d made a pact with his bride that if he had not made it by his twentieth birthday in a successful band, he’d give it up to support his family.  It was just before he was set to find a real job that he was asked to join Jimmy Page to create Led Zeppelin.  Plant soon finds himself separating his personalities in two directions — the devoted family man and the consummate rock star.  Several tragedies and the weight of drugs and violence lead to the band’s demise and Plant’s moving onward — creating more music.

Robert Plant: A Life by Paul Rees leaves analysis of the personalities behind and merely relies on outside sources, interviews, and other insights from those who were there to give shape to a tumultuous time of a rock star.  But beyond that, the biography offers up a human look at a rock god, though one with a limited view.  Readers will feel like its rehashed and glosses over the real man in favor of critiquing the music.  It seems like his early beginnings in music, Plant’s career after Zeppelin was up and down, but he never seemed to lose his love of music.  Just wish there was more fresh research.

About the Author:

Paul Rees has written about music for more than twenty years. In that time he has interviewed everyone from Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna to Bono, Take That, and AC/DC. His work has appeared in many publications, including the Sunday Times Culture, the Telegraph, the Independent, and the Evening Standard. He was also editor of two of the UK’s most successful and long-standing music publications, Q and Kerrang!, for a total of twelve years.

This is my 80th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, Harper Collins, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

The Artist’s Way for Parents by Julia Cameron

October 24, 2013 by

Source: Finn Partners and Penguin
Hardcover, 288 pages
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The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children by Julia Cameron with Emma Lively and foreword by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese is less a how-to manual of creative activities for parents to engage in with their children, and more of a series of situations to emphasize the advice Cameron gives about how to cultivate creativity in children and ourselves.  From providing children with simple tools like paper and colored pencils to paints and free time on their own, rather than televisions, computers and video games, Cameron says that parents must adjust to new routines that incorporate their children, but also must remain open to creating a safe place in which children and parents can act creatively.

Each parent should begin by writing three pages per day of their thoughts and feelings before their child gets up for the day or even during snatches of quiet time, just to clear the decks.  Secondly, parents and children (depending on their age) embark on a once-weekly dual adventure, something that can be looked forward to, such as going to the zoo or a museum.  The final tool she offers is creating a bedtime ritual, which can either be reading a bedtime story together, singing songs, sharing the day’s highlights, and many other ways of unwinding.  Some great activities that can be done together including sharing the creation of meals with children through simple recipes, cutting out holiday decorations each season, visiting a florist or pet store to talk about each species and its requirements, and learning how to make instruments out of household objects.

Another part of the process is to create a creativity corner for both parent and child, which is where projects can be worked on together or in the same room but separately.  Cameron also talks about the benefit of allowing children to explore their own creativity without parents over-directing or re-directing their children’s activities.  One great aspect of the book is the discussion on reading together but separate books, and how that it is still considered sharing quality time together even if the parent and child are doing separate activity.  Separate activities in the same space are just as good as working together on projects, so long as the parent and child share their experiences with one another through discussion.

There are moments that come off preachy about faith and God, but overall the message is about nurturing children and their creativity without neglecting the well being of the parent or their own creativity.  It’s about seeing the possibilities in ourselves and our children without hindering growth and exploration.  The Artist’s Way for Parents: Raising Creative Children by Julia Cameron with Emma Lively and foreword by Domenica Cameron-Scorsese is a solid book that helps parents create the right mindset for themselves and their children, but only offers a few activities to consider.

About the Author:

Julia Cameron has been an active artist for more than thirty years. She is the author of more than thirty books, fiction and nonfiction, including her bestselling works on the creative process: The Artist’s Way, Walking in This World, Finding Water, and The Writing Diet. A novelist, playwright, songwriter, and poet, she has multiple credits in theater, film, and television.

Latest endeavor: Julia Cameron Live, an online course and artists’ community led by Julia. It is the most comprehensive discussion she has ever done on The Artist’s Way, and the first time she has allowed cameras in her home.

These are my 69th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Penguin, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, Reference, reviews Tagged With: ,

Camelot’s Court by Robert Dallek

October 22, 2013 by

Source: Harper Collins
Hardcover, 512 pages
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Camelot’s Court by Robert Dallek (who was inspired to write the book after a poll similar to a recent one in Politico) is a highly detailed account of the Kennedy White House, but it also provides an inside look at the political machine the United States has become — from the bureaucrats with aspirations to rise above their stations to the military with its tunnel-vision to stop Communism at all costs.  One of the big takeaways from this book is JFK’s ambition to become president even when he won his first House seat — it was clear that he was bored with “small time” politics and merely cared about big picture issues, particularly foreign policy.  Dallek repeats most of what people already knew about Kennedy — that he liked the ladies, had an illness he hid from the press, and came from a rich family with some skeletons in the closet.  However, what Dallek provides is a comprehensive look at how dysfunctional an executive branch can be, particularly one with a young president at the helm who surrounds himself with the smartest of men (those that accepted the positions) and is forced to keep on less-than-desirable men for political reasons.  The interplay between the groups, the president, and even the brothers Kennedy is contentious, but it also becomes paralyzing.  However, it was not beneath Kennedy to use underhanded tricks or to dupe the press to get what he wanted.

“As Rusk sat in Kennedy’s living room, waiting to see the president-elect, he noticed a copy of the Washington Post sitting prominently on a coffee-table — it announced Rusk as secretary of state.  When Kennedy entered and saw the headline, he ‘blew his top,’ asking Rusk if he was the source of the leak.  Told no, Kennedy called Post publisher Philip Graham to chide him for printing the story.  After Graham explained that Kennedy was the one who had told him, Kennedy said, ‘But that was off the record.’  Hardly, since it was exactly what Kennedy wanted; Kennedy had no interest in giving Rusk a choice of accepting;”  (page 99 ARC)

Dallek carefully demonstrates his statements through dialogue from the men in the room with Kennedy when foreign policy issues were discussed, citing their own books, statements, diaries, and/or notes — not to mention the declassified government documents.  There are even quotes from Jackie Kennedy about private conversations she had with her husband or from conversations she overheard.  What’s telling about the situation when Kennedy was president is that he had the book knowledge from FDR and other presidents to guide him in building the best team, but that circumstances outside his control and his inability to ignore advice and go with his gut instinct often landed his administration in political hot water, like after the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.  The defeat left a bad taste in the administration’s mouth, which may have fueled the military’s fire to win anywhere at any cost against Communism — hence the entry into the Vietnam War.

For those interested in Kennedy the man, this is not the book; but for those interested in how an idealist with big aspirations and big ideas about solving foreign policy issues gets caught up in the political machine and essentially worn down, this is the book for you.  Camelot’s Court by Robert Dallek is not a linear tale, but does touch upon the forces at work against the Kennedy Administration and how the administration pulled the wool over its own eyes when it came to foreign policy issues.  In many ways, the book chronicles a young president’s dream of greatness that fell short of its goals, not because of an assassination, but because of inexperience and failing to ask the right questions.

About the Author:

Robert Dallek is an American historian specializing in American presidents. He is a recently retired Professor of History at Boston University and has previously taught at Columbia University, UCLA, and Oxford.

These are my 68th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, Harper Collins, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: ,

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk

October 2, 2013 by

Source: Purchased at Novel Books
Paperback, 241 pages
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Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk, which was my book club’s September selection, is the kind of nonfiction that could be engaging with a different kind of narrative.  The author seeks to cover the archaeological digs and finds of six men over the first quarter of the century — Sven Hedin of Sweden, Sir Aurel Stein of Britain, Albert von Le Coq of Germany, Paul Pelliot of France, and Langdon Warner of the United States, though there is a little bit about Count Otani of Japan.  There is little about Otani, and as such could have been omitted as the records are considered secret by the government.  There also is little about Pelliot and Warner, which really leaves the author with the three main archaeologists — whom the Chinese view as thieves given the art and manuscripts the men stole.  The harsh conditions of the Silk Road through the Taklamakan Desert left many expeditions decimated, animals dead, and others sickened.

“On one stretch they found the route marked by wooden posts placed there to prevent travelers from straying away from the caravan trail at night or during a sandstorm as so many unfortunates had done over the centuries.”  (page 76)

There is a complete chapter of China’s past going as far back as 221 bc and before the birth of Christ, and a second chapter that focuses on the elements of the map, going across every road and aspect of a map that could easily be looked at on its own.  These pages would have been better served with details of the expeditions of the individual men, which the author clearly obtains from personal accounts of the men.  Hopkirk does quote from some of these accounts throughout the book, but readers may soon find that reading the first accounts of these expeditions would be more detailed and engaging than the recounting of them by Hopkirk.

The narrative is dry for more than 60 pages, leaving readers wanting more from the author.  It seems odd that the book would be so light on details of how the archaeologists obtained the frescoes and manuscripts they found until more than halfway through the book.  Rather than make rubbings of the artifacts or careful drawings — cameras were more than likely cost prohibitive at this time, not to mention huge — these archaeologists used knives and saws to cut away the wall drawings in pieces.  These actions are very disheartening and seem to be motivated by personal glory or scholastic gain.  Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk could have been so much more, but the narrative was lacking, and readers would be better served finding the accounts from the archaeologists and their peers — though one caution would be to watch out for political spin as a number of countries were competing for these treasures at the time.

**Unfortunately, with other obligations on the table, I missed the September discussion of this book.***

About the Author:

Peter Hopkirk is a British journalist and author who has written six books about the British Empire, Russia and Central Asia.

This is my 61st book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, purchased, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: ,

Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River by Beth Kephart

September 26, 2013 by

Source: Purchased
Hardcover, 120 pages
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Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River by Beth Kephart is a well imagined autobiography of the Schuylkill River (Hidden Creek) near Philadelphia told from the point of view of the river.  A hopeful river intrigued by the humans that come upon her, collecting those forgotten items, and enjoying the natural wonders of frozen surfaces and fishing.  Coupled with the poetic narrative are notes on the time period and the major events near and around the river, including the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  As the industrial revolution takes hold, the river finds that the humans who have been intrigued by her beauty and hidden secrets and those that have piqued her interest are busy moving through their lives with little thought to her, dumping their waste, chemicals, animal parts, and more into her flowing waters.

“Imagine taking a needle to the point of blood on your palm.  Imagine drawing that needle around and around, leaning in on it, forcing an edge, rearing at the creases and the lifelines, the ridges and slightest hills that forecast your happiness.  Imagine the skin giving way.

That’s skating.”  (Page 32)

There are moments of fear, curiosity, and hatred.  “How is it that I became the quickest route to your confession–the door you close to those parts of yourself that you hope no one will see?  Call me what you’ve made me, which is a grave.”  (page 87)  She’s a river (dare I call her Flo) who ages beyond her years thanks to the careless dumping and even direct interference as dams are built to harness power.  Kephart melds her prose with photography, poetry, and factual notations.  There’s a sense of nostalgia in Flow that breathes life into history, ensuring readers sense the culture of the time period, the struggles of the people, and their dreams.  The river just wants to live, but she remains curious about her own environment, curious about how the people use and abuse her, and disheartened when it seems as though she has been forgotten or replaced.

Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River by Beth Kephart is a historical look at the river and Philadelphia, handled with a careful and creative hand.  The river comes alive, just like Philadelphia’s people and her history.  Readers will learn a great deal about the river, the industrial revolution, and our nation’s history.  The Schuylkill River is no longer the hidden gem of Pennsylvania.

About the Author:

Beth Kephart is the author of 10 books, including the National Book Award finalist A Slant of Sun; the Book Sense pick Ghosts in the Garden; the autobiography of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, Flow; the acclaimed business fable Zenobia; and the critically acclaimed novels for young adults, Undercover and House of Dance. A third YA novel, Nothing but Ghosts, is due out in June 2009. And a fourth young adult novel, The Heart Is Not a Size, will be released in March 2010. “The Longest Distance,” a short story, appears in the May 2009 HarperTeen anthology, No Such Thing as the Real World.

Kephart is a winner of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fiction grant, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Leeway grant, a Pew Fellowships in the Arts grant, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Kephart’s essays are frequently anthologized, she has judged numerous competitions, and she has taught workshops at many institutions, to all ages. Kephart teaches the advanced nonfiction workshop at the University of Pennsylvania. You can visit her blog.  Here’s my most recent interview with her too.

My other Beth Kephart reviews:

Filed Under: fiction, nonfiction, purchased, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: ,

Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture by José Saramago, translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor

September 17, 2013 by

Source: Public Library
Hardcover, 464 pages
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Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture by José Saramago, translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor from Portuguese, is a travelogue, but not in a traditional sense of naming specific destinations, their locations, and offering impressions in a straightforward manner.  Readers looking for a travel guide would be best served looking for another book about Portugal.  Saramago refers to himself as the traveler, which can be wearisome throughout 400 pages of text, and many of the visits he makes throughout the country are to either museums or religious locations/buildings, which is odd given his atheism and tenuous relationship with the Catholic church after writing The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.  Moreover, this travelogue is as close to being a memoir as it can be given Saramago’s reflections, daydreams, and observances about the more modern Portugal around him.  (He exiled himself, a Communist, to the Spanish island of Lanzarote following The Carnation Revolution in 1974 where he remained until his death in 2010.)  However, he does say that he wishes these religious relics and pieces to be preserved as works made by human hands.

“The traveller thanks him, and sets off in the direction indicated.  There the palheiros survive, huge barracks made of wooden slats blackened by the wind and the sea, a few already stripped beams exposed to the gaze.  A few are still inhabited, others have lost their roofs to the wind.  It won’t be long before nothing will remain beyond a photographic record.” (page 146)

In many ways, Saramago is reflecting on the life he’s led, the perceptions he’s had and still has, and how as time moves on the ornaments of those memories and perceptions are stripped bare, leaving only the barest outline of the past — until the emotions and personal connections are lost and all that is left is a photo out of context.  “During the lengthy voyage that took nearly six months, the conviction was born in me that in every place I passed through there was a piece of old Portugal bidding farewell to the traveller I was, an ancient Portugal which was beginning, finally, while still doubting whether it wanted to or not, to move towards the twentieth century,” he says. (page xii)  He reconciles the past with the present, as seen through a melancholy perspective, and like the villages and people the traveller approaches slowly, he passes through one town to another, gets lost, and meditates on what he encounters.

Saramago reflects on stonework quite a bit and its ability to stand the test of time, and through his ruminations, readers are likely to see his struggle with the endurance or inability of workers and tributes to stand the test of time — there are some shrines and other edifices he finds hold stories that are no longer accessible.  Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture by José Saramago, translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Nick Caistor, may suffer from poor translation, but there are moments of great reflection and insight that shouldn’t be missed, even if they are mired in melancholia and dark moods, by patient readers.

About the Author:

José de Sousa Saramago is a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist. He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party.  His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor rather than the officially sanctioned story. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998. He founded the National Front for the Defense of Culture (Lisbon, 1992) with among others Freitas-Magalhaes. He lived on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, where he died in June 2010.

This is my 57th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, challenges, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje

September 3, 2013 by

Source: Public Library
Paperback, 207 pages
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Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje is a travel and family memoir (highly recommended by Beth Kephart), and he says that it is a composite of two return trips to Sri Lanka, formally known as Ceylon, in the 1970s, as well as endless stories and questions-and-answers from family members and those that knew his father Mervyn best.  Michael is among the youngest of the family, having left Ceylon when he was 11 after his mother and father divorced.  Much of this memoir borders between fiction and truth, but like all memories and perceptions, the story of someone’s life can be as fluid as the relationships that begin and end with and around them.  The crux of this memoir, in which Ondaatje embarks on his own journey of remembering about his family and the country he came from, is about the fluidity of memory and the inability to truly know even our closest family members.

“What began it all was the bright bone of a dream I could hardly hold onto.  I was sleeping at a friend’s house.  I saw my father, chaotic, surrounded by dogs, and all of them were screaming and barking into the tropical landscape.  The noises woke me.  I sat up on the uncomfortable sofa and I was in a jungle, hot, sweating.”  (page 21)

Ondaajte’s magical realism shines through in the narrative, particularly as he takes trips to the former family home and into the jungle.  There are humorous anecdotes about his grandmother, Lalla, who clearly had a love for life and freedom.  There is one incident in which she doesn’t realize her breast is being fondled by a stranger on the bus, but the reasoning is something very unexpected.  His father and grandmother did not get along well, and whether that is because Mervyn is a victim of dipsomania, also known as alcoholism, or Lalla’s inhibition after her husband’s death that enables her to do as she pleases without one thought to the consequences.  

More than anything, Ondaatje’s memoir is about learning about his family’s outrageous past in a time of excess (1920s), but also realizing that there are mysteries about the interconnectedness of their lives that may never be resolved.  He must come to terms with what he knows about his family through his own memories and that of others and what will always remain a mystery — how can he reconcile the two.  But this is not just all prose, he also illuminates some of the family stories with poetry.  Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje is sparkling in the jungle, a bead of sweat that slithers down your arm and seeps beneath the skin and causes a startling chill.

About the Author:

Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers – his artistry and aesthetic have influenced an entire generation of writers and readers. Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje’s work also encompasses poetry, memoir, and film, and reveals a passion for defying conventional form. His transcendent novel The English Patient, explores the stories of people history fails to reveal by intersecting four diverse lives at the end of World War II. This bestselling novel was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, random house, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With:

The Real Jane Austen by Paula Byrne

August 29, 2013 by

Source: Harper and Public Library
Hardcover, 361 pages
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The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne (which I began reading as a review copy, but opted for a finished borrowed copy to finish because the photos and images were inserted after the ARCs were distributed) is expressive, carefully crafted, and incisive in how it sketches out the true Jane Austen.  In this non-linear biography, Byrne debunks a few of the myths around Austen, particularly about her alleged romantic encounters and her homebody persona.  Through careful analysis of her novels, characters, the correspondence she had with her family and others, and other tidbits from other documents at the time, Byrne demonstrates the careful and perfectionist nature that was Jane Austen, particularly as a novelist.  With that perfectionism also came a penchant for telling her family members exactly what she thought, knowing that they would not take her criticism lightly, especially if they were writing their own stories or poems.  But she also was critical of their life choices and worried about childbirth and the consequences of marriage, especially as a means of stifling a woman’s voice.

“Strikingly, Jane Austen’s heroines are rarely described as beautiful and accomplished.  Even Emma Woodhouse is ‘handsome’ rather than ‘beautiful.’  Physical descriptions of her heroines are rare.  Austen shows instead how they grow into loveliness or possess a particular fine feature, such as sparkling eyes.”  (page 82)

In addition to the importance of family — such as sisterly bonds — Austen seems to have drawn her characters and many of the situations in her novels from real life, things she herself may have experienced on her “expeditions” or to her family members.  Another parallel: the mysterious ways in which her heroines are described — with none being detailed as beautiful or their features particularly outlined to give readers an impression of the whole — and the mystery surrounding her surviving portrait, which may not be her, but a sketch drawn by her sister is most likely her, but she is turned away and her features are unknown.  Byrne also points out there is evidence to suggest that like modern-day Janeites, Austen thought of her characters as real people as well, and often scribbled out afterlives for characters from some of her contemporaries after reading those novels.

“The acknowledgement of the incompleteness of human disclosure [in Emma] strikes at the very heart of Jane Austen’s creative vision.”  (page 255)

Byrne uses her knowledge of the Regency period to better grasp Austen’s daily routines and jaunts, noting that the “turnpike system” was introduced during her lifetime and that while her mother may have suffered from travel sickness, Austen did not.  The author of so many great “domestic” novels traveled a fair share, including to the seaside, which became integral parts of her later novels.  And through her distant relations, her connections to royalty and those engaged in the plantation and slave ownership trade were not as far flung as one would expect for an impoverished woman.  These relationships and sources enabled her to maintain as close to truthfulness in her novels as she could without experiencing things first hand.

The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne is a must have for those who have read Jane Austen’s novels and wish to get a better handle on the author and her influences, and while some of those influences may be small in comparison to the wars abroad during her lifetime, they shaped her writing and her expectations in countless ways.  There are moments in which the biographer takes some liberal turns in determining Austen’s character and motivations, and in some cases they may seem plausible, while in others they do not.  But with an absence of facts, thanks to Cassandra Austen’s burning of her sister’s letters, biographers are left with gaps in time that are hard to fill.  From whether Chatsworth or Stoneleigh Abbey is the model for Pemberley in Pride & Prejudice to how an unnamed lady came to be published first by a military publisher, Byrne handles each aspect of Austen’s life with care and consideration, but she never shies away from the more mischievous side of Austen, either.  For those looking for lost secrets, this is not the book for you, and many of us will have to be contented with what we do know about Austen and forget about what moments are lost to us forever.

About the Author:

Paula was born in Birkenhead in 1967, the third daughter in a large working-class Catholic family. She studied English and Theology at the college that is now Chichester University and then taught English and Drama at Wirral Grammar School for Boys and Wirral Metropolitan College. She then completed her MA and PhD in English Literature at the University of Liverpool. She is now a full-time writer, living with her husband, the Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate, and their three young children (Tom, Ellie and Harry) in an old farmhouse in a South Warwickshire village near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Paula is represented by The Wylie Agency. She is an Executive Trustee of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Warwick.

Paula is the author of the top ten bestseller Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson (HarperCollins UK, Random House USA).  Check out her Website and join her on Twitter.

This is my 54th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, Harper Collins, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: ,

What Matters in Jane Austen? by John Mullan

July 24, 2013 by

Source: Public Library
Hardcover, 320 pages
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What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan is a detailed look at 12 stylistic techniques and concerns in Jane Austen’s numerous works, including the unfinished The Watsons and Sanditon.  The twelve puzzles Mullan explores range from the importance of age in her books, what characters call one another, and what games characters play to why her plots rely on blunders, what her characters read, and how experimental a novelist she was.  There are moments in the book where Mullan’s examinations become bogged down and overly verbose, but he clearly enjoys picking apart the most innocuous moments in Austen’s novels to support his theories.  Most of the theories he offers and backs up with source material from Austen’s books and letters to family members also are discussed by other scholars, whom he cites.  For aspiring writers, Mullan’s book can be used as a guide for creating those unique moments and nuances in a novel, emulating Austen but adapting it for modern sensibilities.  Although it is not a how-to guide for writers, it does offer some insight into elements of the craft.

“Admission to a bedroom is a rare privilege, for the reader as well as for a character.” (page 29)

“Names are used by Austen, as well as by her characters, as though they are precious material, so we sometimes hear only once, glancingly, what someone’s name is.  Thus the label on the trunk seen by Harriet Smith, directed to Mr. Elton at his hotel in Bath, which names him as Philip (II. v).” (page 46)

“But Austen wants us to think not so much about how characters look, but how they look to each other.  Her sparing use of specification when it comes to looks is striking when looks can be so important.”  (Page 57)

“Meteorology clues us in to the passing of the year.  But it is more than this.  Austen likes to make her plots turn on the weather.  Having arranged her characters and defined their situations, having planned her love stories and hatched the misunderstandings that might impede them, she lets the weather shape events.  It is her way of admitting chance into her narratives.” (page 101)

“The rather few critics who have written on speech in Austen’s fiction have discovered how each of her speakers seems to have their own idiolect — a way of speaking that is individually distinctive.”  (page 132)

Austen is an often underestimated author, especially in light of the writers who dismissed her early on.  Mullan pinpoints the genius of Austen beyond the morays of the time period in which she wrote and the social commentary.  Readers who have read all of Austen’s major works but once are likely to want to read them anew after reading Mullan’s examination.  Even those have read certain Austen books multiple times could find new theories in this book.  It is interesting to see what it means when characters blush, why weather is important, and what seaside resorts mean in Austen’s work.  Mullan also asks whether there is sex in her books.

What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan is less about the puzzles of Austen than about her techniques as a writer and creator of fiction.  It was an interesting look at how she stacked up to her contemporaries and offered something more.

About the Author:

John Mullan is a Professor of English at University College London. He specialises in 18th century fiction. He is currently working on the 18th-century section of the new Oxford English Literary History. He also writes a weekly column on contemporary fiction for The Guardian and reviews books for the London Review of Books and New Statesman. He occasionally appears as an 18th-century and contemporary literature expert for BBC Two’s Newsnight Review and BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time. Mullan was a judge for The Best of the Booker in 2008 and for the Man Booker Prize in 2009. He was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge and a Lecturer at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before coming to UCL in 1994.

This is my 47th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

Filed Under: Bloomsbury, borrowed copy, challenges, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With:

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris

June 26, 2013 by

Source:  Little, Brown & Company
Hardcover, 275 pages
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Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris is a collection of essays and some short blurbs that he suggests could be used by students in their competitions for “forensics.”  Many people talk about Sedaris’ humor and outrageous tales, and while many will look for his signature humor here, they may find that it is a bit subdued and less abrasive than usual.  Many of these essays seem more reflective than probing (think poking with a needle), but they also resemble the tall tales that young children tell their parents when explaining what they did that day or why they got in trouble, etc.

“Their house had real hardcover books in it, and you often saw them lying open on the sofa, the words still warm from being read.” (page 60 ARC)

The first two essays in the collection showcase backhanded sarcasm aimed at American and especially modern ideas about parenting and socialized healthcare, especially the dark fear that socialized healthcare means dirty cots and “waiting for the invention of aspirin” and the coddling of kids who are clearly engaged in bad behaviors simply because a stranger points out the child’s misbehavior.  The end of the collection, “Dog Days,” is a bit more crass in its humor, written in a rhyming poem about various dogs and the parts of themselves that are licked, snipped, and dipped.  These little stanzas were by turns slightly funny to just mediocre as they are things that any person with “toilet” humor would come up with.  In this essay collection, they stood out from the rest, but in a grotesque way.

The essays that reach back into his early family life are the most interesting, and the essay “Author, Author” is ironically humorless in its telling, but it drives the point home not only about author tours — the good and the bad — but also the changing landscape of book stores and readers.  Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris is an interesting essay collection, but fans may find it a bit more subdued than his other work.

About the Author:

David Sedaris is a playwright and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, Dress Your Family in Corduroy, Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Me Talk Pretty One Day. He travels extensively though Europe and the United States on lecture tours and lives in France.  Visit his Website.
This is my 41st book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.
Filed Under: ARC, challenges, essays, Hachette Books, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, reviews Tagged With: ,

Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak About Addiction and Dependency edited by Diana M. Raab and James Brown

June 6, 2013 by

Source: Modern History Press
Paperback, 185 pages
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Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak About Addiction and Dependency edited by Diana M. Raab and James Brown is a collection of essays, memories, poems, and stories about addiction and dependency, but more than that they are harrowing experiences of surviving with addiction and dependency and the continuous struggle that dogs these writers throughout their lives.  Most, if not all, of these essays are frank and honest about the vacillation between lying about an addiction and being honest about it and confronting it.  The poems are similar in that way.  From alcoholism to suicide and depression as well as overeating addictions, these writers share the struggle with themselves, each other, their readers, and sometimes even their families.  “These writers were more often than not, perps–their own or somebody else’s.  It’s roughly akin to reading a recollection of Nagasaki survivors by people who dropped the bomb on themselves,” says Jerry Stahl in the Foreword.

There are perfect examples in these writers’ lives of what addiction can lead to, and there are examples of friends who successfully killed themselves that haunt these writers and scare them to keep away from their addictions.  But even the scariest moments in these addicts lives may not be enough to stave off addictions for long, while there are times when addiction is held at arms length for a longer period of time, there are always moments of weakness around the corner.  What these writers strive to illustrate through these essays is that life and addiction go hand in hand, and some addictions may be more destructive than others, but it is when they become obsessions that people can lose control of themselves and lose all that they have and love.

From John Amen's "23":

... Jul called an ambulance,
and I came to in intensive care, sunlight flooding
through barred windows, tubes flowing like power lines.
I'd been here before, each survival bolstering some
myth of invincibility, but this time I knew I was treading

Clarity is the moment when each addict learns that they are addicts and that they must do something differently or die. “The language of poetry is the means by which one human consciousness speaks most intimately, directly, and precisely to others. Yet it is also an empty mirror, if I tell the truth of what I see,” says Chase Twichell in “Toys in the Attic.” More than a look at the addiction that has shaped these writers, this volume offers lessons and examples of struggle and includes an appendix of organizations and support groups to help those who need it.  Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak About Addiction and Dependency edited by Diana M. Raab and James Brown is heartbreaking and inspiring, with selections that echo off one another to shout the louder truth of surviving addiction — it is a never ending process that must be undertaken every day, every hour, and at every moment.

Filed Under: nonfiction, Read in 2013, review copy Tagged With: , , ,

Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder

April 16, 2013 by

Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder is atmospheric and an indulgent retrospective of the lives of Mademoiselle‘s summer guest editors, who were hand picked from a bunch of college essays and pieces submitted by college women.  The magazine was not only known for its fashion and celebrities, but also for the writing it published from heavyweights like Dylan Thomas and Truman Capote.  Additionally, the magazine published its college issue.  “Sunday at the Mintons” by Sylvia Plath, a short story, earned her a guest editorship at the magazine, a summer that became the basis of her novel, The Bell Jar.  Winder bases her “loose” biography on interviews with those summer guest editors and others who had contact with Plath that summer, which are backed up by letters and journal entries from Plath herself as much as possible — though there is the pitfall that some memories may be nostalgic or missing certain truths about that time as memories fade.

From the moment she sets forth in New York, readers are introduced to a different Sylvia Plath from the moody and dark one they have come to know. This younger version of the writer is full of whimsy, loves fashion, and is eager to please.  Her Northeast upbringing probably instilled in her a deep sense of courteousness and decorum, but there were also inherent eccentricities already present in her character, especially during one luncheon in which she gobbles up all of the caviar appetizer without sharing.  A commune of young women was built at the Barbizon Hotel that summer, as many of the young women wanted careers and still to raise families in a period of history before the pill was available and before career women were considered part of the norm.

“A white enameled bowl bloomed out of one wall–useful for washing out white cotton gloves.  (Within days there would be little damp gloves hanging in each room like tiny white flags.)” (page 5 ARC)

While Winder provides a great many anecdotes about Sylvia from her fellow guest editors and roommates, there seems to be a disconnect between the Sylvia these women saw and the Sylvia that was.  At the outset, Winder tells the reader she wants to paint a different portrait of Sylvia Plath than the iconic one we all know of the suicidal poet.  And while she succeeds in showing a “good girl” that was Plath in her 20s, she also demonstrates how as a young woman free from the constraints of her own society, she was given more freedom to pursue men and other experiences, to which she might not otherwise have been exposed.  And like many young women — and even men — still finding their place in the world and how to accomplish their goals, they often suffer from the “grass is always greener” problem when the reality of their ideal opportunity is not as wonderful as it has seemed from afar.

There were some among the guest editors in 1953 who were given menial tasks and envied Plath’s work with Cyrilly Abels doing rejections and editorial work, but Plath languished in the role and her talents for graphics were cast aside in favor of her fiction-writing talents.  In many ways, those who believed in her talent had begun to stifle it.  While she may have looked the part of a professional interviewer and editor, Plath was chained to a makeshift desk that anchored down her spirit, while many of the other girls were enjoying their time as editors — meeting Plath’s hero writers and attending dinners and events.  It seems that this separation isolated her from the other guest editors, even though on the outside she was conversing with them and enjoying their company as well as the company of many strange men throughout New York.

It is too easy to suggest that Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder aims to undo the iconic woman that is Sylvia Plath, but it does provide a wider view of her whole person.  Not just the mother, burdened artist, and ex-wife of Ted Hughes, but the spirited poet who was stifled by a dream job that she saw as a launching point who succumbed to her tendency to depression upon her return home after a series of unrelated rejections flooded in after that summer.  Plath was a woman plagued by her own dichotomies, who was unable to break free from the labels of society without the guilt that accompanied those actions, but she also was talented and burned brighter than many other women of her age.  What Winder succeeds in doing is providing an excellent look into 1950s New York and the pressures these young women faced as progressive ideals began to emerge.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Winder is also the author of a poetry collection. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Review, the Antioch Review, American Letters, and other publications. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and earned an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University.

This is my 20th book for the 2013 New Authors Challenge.

 

 

 

 

Please click the image below for today’s National Poetry Month Tour Post!

Filed Under: ARC, challenges, Events, Harper Collins, national poetry month, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, Publishers/Publicists, Read in 2013, reviews, tlc book tours Tagged With: , , ,