Posts Tagged ‘books’

So, it’s Emily Brontë’s birthday, and I am reminded of the strangeness of families. 

See, Emily was a bit…odd.  She had a really hard time being out in the world (not that Haworth afforded her much of a chance of that).  She didn’t identify with others.  I always think of her thinking as orthogonal or perpendicular to that of the people she was surrounded with at the time (yes, I just used a math metaphor; no, it won’t happen again).  I truly think she saw life differently than those around her.  She identified with the nature and the animals with which she chose to pass her time.  She was familiar with a kind of passion that is still scary and transgressive these days. 

But she was also a sister, and vital to her family in her small way.  Mrs. Gaskell reports that sister Charlotte was haunted by the lost howls of Emily’s dog, Keeper, in the hallway outside of Emily’s door once she had gone.  Anne’s grief over the death of Emily surely contributed to her early decline.  Emily herself had suffered greatly with her anger and grief when her brother, Branwell, preceded her in tubercular death. 

I guess what I am reminded of today is that Emily, no matter how different from her family, no matter how unsociable or inscrutable, was also as much a member of her family as the close-halled, quiet parsonage in which they lived and died.  She was as much a part of her sisters’ (and her brother’s, though he did not pursue a literary career in adulthood) writing as they were themselves.  Many recent circumstances remind me that we keep our families with us wherever we go, whether they are intractable and difficult or not.  They can be part of us in mysterious ways, as I am discovering in a small way (my mom and grandmother are both participating in next week’s readalong…what were the odds?).  I am glad we have this literary family to look back on and remember.  Happy birthday, Emily. 

As the dog days of summer pull us further into the world of reading, it’s time for some communal book bliss. 

It’s time for the Great Gone With the Wind Readalong! 

Discover (or reacquaint yourself with) Margaret Mitchell’s perennial classic, which turns 75 this year.  It’s a chunkster, to be sure, but it’s also a hotbed of romance, scandal, historical detail and roiling controversy…and it features one of literature’s most petulant and complex heroines. 

How It Works

To participate, just tell me you plan to read along in the comments below.  Then procure a copy of the classic and start reading.  We’ll meet here on the blog on the following schedule to discuss the book in parts.  I’ll summarize each part and include historical background and fun ways to approach the book as a conversation-starter…then we’ll discuss in the comments.  And I’ll be giving away GWTW-inspired prizes to make this summer read even juicier!

The Schedule*

• August 1: Discuss Part 1 (Chapters 1-7)
• August 15: Discuss Part 2 (Chapters 8-16)
• September 5: Discuss Part 3 (Chapters 17-30)
• September 26: Discuss Part 4 (Chapters 31-47)
• October 17: Discuss Part 5 (Chapters 48-63)

*Due to the chunkster nature of this novel, I’ve broken our group reading down into five parts.  You’ll have two weeks to read the first two parts, and three weeks to read each subsequent part.  But buyer beware…this book just might be hard not to read in one feverish, fell swoop! 

Are You In?

Please introduce yourself, tell us where you’re from and whether you’ve read the book before.  Happy reading!

 

Wanna tell your readers? Right-click save the banners below:

  

I’m at loose ends these days.

Between the usual summer rush of entrepreneurship, my long to-read list, an unfinished novel taunting me from the corner of my desk, and a book to promote, life feels like a hodgepodge more often than not.

Not that I’m complaining…not at all.  This summer has brought all sorts of bookish pleasures, including but not limited to:

 

• A road trip with Eleanor Brown to Salida, Colorado, where we’ll participate in a literary shindig, mountain style
• Further reading encounters with Georgette Heyer, who has made this year all the merrier
• Plans for the Great Gone With the Wind Readalong (still pending)
• Sweet notes and reviews from readers
• The knowledge that the more time I spend on my writing, the closer I get to what I increasingly see as my calling (a capital C is probably necessary here, but it makes me nervous)

How about you? What literary delights are punctuating your protagonist’s summer?

Today, my friends, is the 75th anniversary of the publication of Gone With the Wind.*

Despite all the well-deserved hoopla (with very worthy press coverage of the amazing Ellen F. Brown’s Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and even a thrilling upcoming media appearance for yours truly…more on that later), I can’t help but think about my first encounter with the book.

Like most people, I ran into the movie before the book.  I remember Alexandra Dodd’s very ’80s mother sitting us down and telling us we were in for an EVENT.  We watched, were intrigued.  I promptly forgot.  Until sixth grade, when the monotony of my first regular long bus ride set in and I borrowed my mother’s copy.

 

I remember the smell of the bus seat and the bump of the roads, but not as much as I remember the hell of a summer’s day when birthing babies, escaping Atlanta and displaying gumption were on the docket for Scarlett O’Hara.  Little did I know that I was meeting a lifechanger, a book that would stay with me for the rest of my life.

I used to carry a battered copy of GWTW in my car, ready for my many solitary lunches, a book I’d open at random or read from cover to cover and then start over again right after reading the end.  I have to pause when writing my own historical fiction to make sure I’m not speaking in Peggy Mitchell’s beautiful prose by mistake (don’t worry, there’s usually no danger of that, especially in a first draft!).

Over the years, I have gone from viewing the book as an adventurous love story to a very adult novel of loss, hubris, trauma, and miscommunication.  I’ve gone from loving Scarlett to hating her and back to love again.  I’ve come to really appreciate Mitchell’s deft characterization, her exhaustive historical knowledge that never feels boring, her ability to show us a hell of a good time while everyone is crying their eyes out. I know that GWTW is a book with a troubled history and a polarizing nature (something I do address in my book and have given a lot of thought to), but I also know that it changed my life as a writer, as a woman, and as a reader.

Thanks for the lifechanger, Margaret Mitchell.

*Well, technically not today, but the beginning of June marks a month of celebration and GWTW-related high-jinks, and besides, the original book was printed in May 1936, which you’ll learn all about in EFB’s book!

I do a lot of events, and most of said events usually include a question and answer session at which I am asked a question something like this:

What do you think of Twilight/Harry Potter/vampire books/fanfic/The Downfall of Literature?

I get the feeling most people expect me to launch into some kind of tirade about how they suck and are diminishing the grand world of books for one and all, but they are bound to be disappointed.

You see, I’m what you could call a catholic or voracious reader, a person who will peruse the shampoo bottle or the Penny Saver as long as it’s covered in words.

Somewhere along the line, I got hooked on reading.  Not just by Dickens, Alcott, Wilder and Brontë, but by the lesser goddesses of literature…V.C. Andrews, Francine Pascal, and Ann M. Martin, to name a few.

I don’t have any problem with books that get people hooked on other books.  In fact, I would rather someone read 29,252 Sweet Valley High SuperSpecials (if only!) or Dollenganger monstrosities or Twilight/Miley Cyrus crossover fan fic and never encountered a word of Austen or Colette than never learned to love reading at all.

Books can be gateway drugs, my friends.  I saw my brothers become voracious readers thanks to a nerdy magician named Harry.  I watched my English as a second language, indifferent-to-books-on-a-good-day mentee get reeled into the wide world of YA by issue novels of questionable quality.  After all, who am I to tell someone what they can or can’t enjoy?

My own reading habits are not always high-brow or impressive…in fact, I could (and probably should) write a whole blog post about my love/hate relationship with women’s magazines.  I’m never going to apologize for loving me some series romance, fan fiction, or celebrity memoir.  And neither should you.

Ever feel curious about the oh-so-prolific painter of the fabled Sweet Valley High covers?  Here’s a great pic of Jimmy at work via The Dairi Burger. Is it wrong that I really want to commission a piece of SVH-style art from him?