Genre Fiction

Mental Floss just published a list of 15 surprising stories about 15 best-selling authors. The article — which revealed that Jodi Picoult once wrote comics, Danielle Steel has been married five times and two of the husbands were convicted criminals, Dan Brown used to be a singer and songwriter and had an album titled Angels & Demons, and Nicholas Sparks holds a track and field record at Notre Dame as part of the 4 x 800 relay team — is a fun read! It has also inspired me to see what I can dig up about some of my favorite authors.

* Running With Scissors author Augusten Burroughs, who comes from a writing family with a poetic mother, philosopher father, and memoirist brother, didn’t have formal schooling beyond elementary school. Following him on different forms of social media I have learned that, although he likes eating at restaurants, he would never be caught at an “it” restaurant and enjoys vending machines.

* The Lovely Bones author Alice Sebold originally wanted to tell her story (of how she was raped and attacked) in poetic form. She didn’t really dive into becoming a successful writer until she moved to California and worked as a caretaker of an arts colony. During this time she lived on less than $400 a month, in a cabin in the woods without electricity, and wrote by the light of a propane lamp. Her story was published in 1999 as the memoir Lucky.

* Audrey Niffenegger, best known for penning The Time Traveler’s Wife, has only written this one novel. Most of her other work, aside from a few short stories, is in pictures. She has written visual books and graphic novels including one very “special” one called The Three Incestuous Sisters (cover shown here).

When books that I really really want are first released in hardback only, I force myself to wait it out, usually impatiently, until it either goes on sale, releases in paperback, or becomes available on Paperback Swap. Sometimes I check nonstop for a deal on the book, and other times I forget about it until one day I am pleasantly surprised by a sale. This weekend, I was overjoyed when not just one but two of the books on my long list of “patiently waiting for” ones came to me cheaply!

On Saturday morning I headed out to check out a nearby Seventh-day Adventist church. With no car, I am a slave to public transportation and thus ended up in the area 45 minutes before the service started. As luck would have it, a Borders was just across the street. Continuing on my lucky streak, I popped in and found a hardback copy of Augusten Burroughs’ (easily one of my fave authors) latest book, A Wolf at the Table, for a mere $7.99. I was sad for him that his book had so many copies that didn’t sell at full price, but still quite excited to find it.

Later that evening, I got a notice from my Paperback Swap account that another user posted Jennifer Weiner’s Certain Girls and that I was next in line to receive it - for the cost of just one credit, which I earned by mailing out one of my old books to someone else.

It was a very good -very book surprise filled - weekend. Now, if I can just get my hands on a copy of Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs …

Although I still haven’t read ay of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books, I did finally see the movie starring Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as the dreamy vampire that sparkles, Edward Cullen. And I loved it! When it ended I was tempted to watch it again already!

The movie absolutely lives up to the hype, and according to my friends and family that have read the books, they do too. However, the consensus does seem to be that the first book is easily the best and, although they are all good, they get progressively less so. Recommendations that I read at least the first one have been coming in from everyone from my mom to a 20-something straight edge coworker. The latter told me yesterday that Meyer’s writing is not an outstanding aspect, but rather her concepts and stories are what makes them such good reads.

Now, the next movie chapter, The Twilight Saga: New Moon or simply Twilight 2, is being filmed. With an expected release date of November 20, 2009, number two will hit theaters exactly one year after the big screen release of the first film, on one of the biggest movie release dates of the year.

Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the movies, released this synopsis of New Moon, which is based on the second book in the Twilight series of the same name: “Bella Swan is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.”

With the first film breaking several records, and earning worldwide total ticket and DVD sales of $380 million and counting, New Moon has big shoes to fill and there are a lot of people anxiously awaiting its arrival … and I am now one of those people!

April is National Poetry Month, as declared by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Literaries around the country spend this month celebrating the impact that poems have had on our culture. To kick it off, I am throwing on my party hat and celebrating by sharing with you some of my favorite poets, in no particular order.

* Saul Williams lyrics grabbed me, but I was really hooked because the first time that I heard him perform was the first time that I heard of spoken word poetry.

* Jewel captured my interest with her music, but the poetry that she writes about being a teenage girl and living in Alaska blew me away.

* I am a fan of a lot of the classic poets - Whitman, Dickinson, Blake, Yeats, Eliot - but my favorite is easily Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Last night I hit the midway point of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, and in my copy of the book there is a photograph collection in the middle. There are pictures of China in the 20s and 30s, a marketplace, and a lot about the personal life of Buck. And this was what has made me intrigued not only by her writing, but by this author’s other work, too.

She was born in 1892 in West Virginia, but as the daughter of a missionary, she was living in China before her first birthday. Her family eventually came back to the states for a year, but returned to China. Pearl left to go to college in the U.S., but once again returned to China and married a missionary, John Buck. Pearl also became a missionary herself. During her first marriage, Pearl had a child and adopted for the first time, while earning her Masters. Her marriage to John did not work, and she later remarried to Richard Walsh. And this is where my fascination enters.

Pearl established Welcome House, the first international, interracial adoption agency in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where her and Richard lived. Pearl was passionate about human rights and adoption. She took in countless mixed-race children, especially Asian-Americans, who were considered “unadoptable” at the time. Pearl went on to also establish other foundations to help children in need, including the Opportunity House and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation.

“The purpose,” said Buck, “is to publicize and eliminate injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and civil privileges normally accorded to children.”

Today, Pearl S. Buck International continues to bring Pearl’s dreams to reality, and helps thousands of children worldwide. The house still runs out of the original Bucks County location, which hosts events and tours and just happens to be right down the road from where I live!

I have not been captured by a book in a long time. I have certainly been enjoying reading books here and there, or else I wouldn’t spend so much time doing so. But it’s been far too long since I discovered one that had me staying up way too late to read just one more page. And I don’t mean like it’s been a few months since I’ve been fully enveloped by a novel, I am talking years, perhaps even since Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife or Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (released in 2003 and 2002, respectively).

Until now, that is. I am exhausted with bags under my eyes because I cannot put down Lesley Kagen’s 2007 National Bestseller Whistling in the Dark. To think, I picked it up at the used bookstore primarily because the main character - a young girl in the summer of 1959 with a sick mother, recently deceased father, drunk and abusive stepfather, murder mystery to solve, younger sister to take care of, and wild imagination to tie it all together - is named Sally. If she had been a Susie or Allie I might never have known the wonderful world of the O’Malley sisters of Vliet Street.

Since I mentioned them, how about an update on the film versions of Time Traveler’s Wife and Lovely Bones? The first has been pushed back yet again, though estimated release for big screen is still within a year: February 2010. The latter should be coming a few months sooner, though still not soon enough: December 2009.

I have found it - the ultimate source for discovering your favorite authors’ favorite books.

The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, edited by J. Peder Zane and published by W.W. Norton, “is the ultimate guide to the world’s greatest books.” The editor asked several of today’s top authors and writers to pick their the ten books that have meant the most to them. The book also summarizes all 544 books that are named on the various top ten lists.

In addition to each author’s ten favorites, the book also tabulated additional top ten lists based on common responses in categories such as: of all time, comedy, mystery, by living writers, and of the 20th century.

On the Top Ten Web site you can find a list of all participating writers, all books mentioned, and a blog to keep up with the top ten project.

One of my favorite bloggers to read regularly is the green guru Allie Larkin of Allie’s Answers. Allie has som exciting fiction-related news to share with everyone: she just announced that she has finished her first fiction novel, Stay. Her novel is set to be published in 2010 and is already generating movie potential buzz.

Stay was announced last week by Publishers Marketplace:

“Allie Larkin’s STAY, pitched as in the tradition of Emily Giffin and Claire Cook, the story of a woman whose relationship with a loveable Slovakian German Shepherd helps her recover from heartbreak after the love of her life marries her best friend.”

Publisher Weekly said:

“Allie Larkin’s debut novel, about a woman who nurtures a broken heart and survives her failed marriage with the help of a lovable German shepherd, was preempted in the mid five figures. … [It's being pitched] as a “broad romantic comedy” in the spirit of My Best Friend’s Wedding meets Must Love Dogs.”

On her personal blog, Incidents and Accidents, Allie spoke of her novel:

“Yeah, that’s me. That’s my book. And I feel like the luckiest girl in the whole wide world right now, for getting to work with my awesome agent and amazing editor on this book. I love my main character so much, and I’m thrilled that she’s in such good hands.”

Start reading one or both of her blogs now while you await the arrival of Stay. Then, when she becomes a New York Times Bestseller, you can say “I knew her (on the internet) when …”

Congrats, Allie!

CNN and Oprah.com have collaborated on a series of reading- and writing-related articles. Today’s piece, Free your ‘damaged anigel-in-waiting’ was written by author Wally Lamb and includes three tips for writing your personal story.

Click here to finish reading.

I decided to have some fun playing around with Amazon.com’s recommendation function to find some new books to read today. Whenever you look up a book on the site, they tell you what else people who have bought that book were interested in. The first book I looked up was one of my all-time favorites, The Time Traveler’s Wife (for which the movie still does not have a release date, although screen shots have been appearing such as the one shown here). It appears as if Amazon’s suggestions are pretty spot on because the first few it named were ones I have also read and loved: Water for Elephants, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The Secret Life of Bees.

Here are some suggestions from Amazon that I haven’t read yet. So, if you like this, Amazon thinks you will also like this:

* The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger … The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

* Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen … Addition by Toni Jordan and March by Geraldine Brooks

* Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See … Loving Frank by Nancy Horan and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

* Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs … I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

* The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards … The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

* Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier … Body Surfing by Anita Shreve and Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland

Several of these suggestions appeared with multiple ones that I looked up. Have you read any of them? Would you recommend them?

I haven’t read any of the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella that inspired Isla Fisher’s new starring role as Becky in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic. I have, however, read two of Sophie’s other books: Can You Keep a Secret? and The Undomestic Goddess. Here’s a snapshot review of the first.

Novel Title: Can You Keep a Secret?

Author: Pen name Sophie Kinsella; real name Madeleine Townley Wickham.

Year: 2003

Story Behind the Book’s Name: The main character, Emma, spills her inner thoughts to the man sitting next to her on a plane when the flight experiences turbulence.

Type of Story: Friendly stranger turns out to be the new boss.

Main Setting: London office

First Sentence: Of course I have secrets.

My Thoughts: I grabbed this paperback from the used bookstore before I had heard of Kinsella, based on the bright pink cover and “New York Times Bestseller” label. The story is very formulaic chick lit - bumbling girl struggles with love, work, and finding her way in the world - but the witty dialogue and easy to relate to awkward situations make it a bit more. It’s fun and light, an entertaining, easy read.

Similar Reads: Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger. Kinsella has a similar tone and style to Jennifer Weiner.

Other Books by the Author: The Shopaholic series, which consists of five books published from 2000 to 2007. Outside of that series, she wrote The Undomestic Goddess (2005), Remember Me? (2008), Twenties Girl (2009), and contributed to Girls Night In (2004). Under her real name, she also wrote another seven novels.

Here’s a quick rundown of books that were made into movies, that I have both read and watched, and whether I liked one more than the other.

* The Secret Life of Bees: I wasn’t able to get fully into the book, but sobbed through the movie.

* Running with Scissors: Augusten Burroughs’s writing is what makes this quirky story make sense. The movie is a fun supplement to the novel, but on its own struggles and leaves the viewer lost and confused.

* White Oleander: Book? Awesome. Movie? Awesome.

* Bridget Jones’s Diary: Hands down, the movie is better.

* The Da Vinci Code: Both are very good, but the book captured me more.

* Riding in Cars with Boys: The movie gets a slight one-up because of Drew Barrymore.

* The Devil Wears Prada: The book manages to focus on developing, changing relationships more and less on vapid, superficial stuff. I’d read the book again before I watched the movie again.

* The Nanny Diaries: I would have guessed that the novel, being written by two people, would be confusing and disjointed, but it wasn’t. Scarlett Johansson saved the movie; the book stood strong on its own.

* Girl with a Pearl Earring: Everyone I know that read this book and then watched the movie agrees that the filmmaker missed the target. The best scenes to read were not even incorporated into the film.

* The Notebook:I’m slightly leaning toward favoring the movie, but like Riding in Cars it’s because of the cast. Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling nailed their roles as Allie and Noah - just check out the chemistry in this cover art photo!

Writer Augusten Burroughs is easily one of my favorite authors. He won me as a fan through his detailed, hilarious, brutally honest storytelling of his memoirs - Running with Scissors and Dry. But after I finished those two books, I was desperate for more Burroughs. So I went back into his past, to Sellevision, his first novel which was published in 2000.

Sellevision was Burroughs only work of fiction, but still featured his dry, off-beat sense of humor and his intriguing writing style. The novel follows four people whose stories are connected by Sellevision, a home shopping television channel. Peggy Jean is the best host at Sellevision, but begins to lose her footing as she turns to Valium and alcohol to deal with having a stalker. Leigh is younger, newer host who is having an affair with her older, married boss. Bebe, another host, meets her soulmate, and then slowly learns his secrets.

And then there’s Max. Max causes the biggest Sellevision scandal ever when hosting “Slumber Party Sundown.” During the “Toys for Tots” segment, Max, well, the first paragraph of the book explains the scandal:

“You exposed your penis on national television, Max. What am I supposed to do?”
“I didn’t expose it, Howard, it just sort of peeked out.”

Sellevision came to Burroughs while he was attempting to get sober, and stayed up all night watching home shopping TV.

“I woke up one morning hung over, and I sat down and I wrote something,” Burroughs said in an interview. “It was two pages and it made me laugh, and I hadn’t laughed for years at that point, and that turned out to be the first couple pages of my first book, which was Sellevision. It’s a novel about the home shopping world, that whole world - and, I didn’t know what I had written. But it amused me, so I kept on writing, and I wrote until very late that night. And I drank a little bit less. And the same thing the next day. Again, I had no idea what I was doing or where it was coming from, but by the seventh day, I was not drinking at all.”

In case you’re still snagging some last minute gifts for your family and friends, Books are Great Gifts (.com) thinks that, well, books would make a great gift. The site promotes books as Christmas gifts because “they always fit under the tree; one size fits all; they have shelf life longer than a fruit cake.” For Hanukkah celebraters, they point out that “8 candles make for great reading light.” And how about New Year’s? “Reading more is the easiest and most fun resolution to keep.”

Even if you’re done with Christmas shopping, still check this site out - it has several quotes from celebrities about reading, literature, and why books make the best gift, including some video clips, too. There are also links to publishers, places to get good prices, and other sites for book fans. The site itself is put together and maintained by the Association of American Publishers.

Here are some of my fave quotes from Book are Great Gifts:

“Books make great gifts because they are a perfect way to get a conversation started.” - Barbara Walters

“Books make great gifts because they make great friends. Your cherished book can hold your secrets, and you can tell it every secret you have. And, it can’t blab.” - Maya Angelou

“Books make great gifts because they’re everybody’s favorite things.” - Julie Andrews

“Books make great gifts because they’re not as hefty as fruitcake, but they’re enjoyable and they’re easy to devour.” - Rachael Ray

So enjoy celebrating this holiday season and consider giving a book or two as gifts, because … Books are Great Gifts!

Dear Santa:

With a low salary, in a bad economy, I’ve been unable to buy new books much this year. If you still have room in your bag for me these titles are all on my “buy when I have lots of spare cash” list. They’ve all gotten good reviews, and the authors are all ones whose work I’ve loved over the years.

* The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

* Knit Two or Comfort Foods by Kate Jacobs

* Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

* The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

* Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos

* Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

* A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

For the kids in my life, dear Santa, can you please bring some good children’s books, too? How about some of these:

* Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor - every little girl needs a copy of the original book from this collection.

* Christina Katerina and the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch - I’ve looked everywhere, Santa, but stores don’t stock this classic any more. Maybe you could help?

* Doris TheSaurus by Maria L. Corkern - you can see how cute it looks here, plus I think every kid should love synonyms and this book will help. Can you add my mom to the list for this one too, please? Because her name is Doris.

And, although I prefer fiction, some nonfiction books have been catching my eye lately, too.

* Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

* In Defense of Food or The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

* Thanking the Monkey by Karen Dawn

Thanks,

Sally

P.S. I’ve been really good this year; I promise.