It has been a minute
There are a million drafts of this newsletter saved someplace. I'm just glad to be back in touch, and hope you are, too. Below, some new book news, some writing news, and some reading news. I hope everyone's 2020 is going as well as can possibly go.
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There's no reason for this photo, really. I just have always liked the strangeness of this building, which I mistakenly believed was a former air control tower for LAX. It turns out, the Bob Hope USO lives there, and it's just an observation deck. You can visit on the weekends still, and I might just, one day!
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Things What I Read This Month
A change! I used to highlight a local bookstore I had visited, and then link to them in the book covers so you could buy from them, but this month I'm going to link you to bookshop.org, a terrific engine that's raising money for independent bookstores everywhere. I'm an affiliate, so if you buy online through bookshop.org using my link, I'll get a percentage of the sale, and so does the local bookstore. Bookshop is in the process of becoming a BCorp, and with your receipt, you'll get information about a great local bookstore in your neck of the woods, and any events they have coming up. Shop my list here, or by clicking on any of the book covers. |
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Island of Bones: Joy Castro
In a class I'm teaching at Bay Path University, we are reading this book. Castro writes with such soft lyricism about her childhood and her identity that you'd never guess you're learning so much, from a perspective that you may not have had the advantage of hearing from before. I found myself flagging a lot of places in the book, phrases and thoughts I wanted to share with people. I was really moved by this collection, and I think it's likely that you will be, too. I know my students are, for sure.
Buy it by clicking here or on the cover.
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The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate
I do not mind letting you know that I basically cried through most of this book. Now, you may not be as prone to animals with voices and personalities as I am, but I still think you will find this one remarkably effective. It'll utterly transport you, and not because you want to be where Ivan is. These characters really grow on you. I used a great many Kleenexes on them and I was a wreck to talk to for at least an hour after I'd closed the cover. But I am better for having known all of these characters.
Buy it by clicking here or on the cover.
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One Day I Will Write About This Place, Binyavanga Wainaina
Some books make you wonder where you have been all your life. What else from this demographic you were missing out on. Where you can get more. This is one of those. I read this one a while ago, but it's still very much on my mind. Some of it has to do with the language, but an awful lot of it has to do with the vivid sensation of getting to know someone new. Wainaina died months before I finished reading his book, at age 48, and I was so sad that I couldn't tell him how much I loved his book. Buy it by clicking here on on the cover.
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Quotidien Object I Love
Even though I am a fully functioning adult human being, I only last year discovered the joy of Post-Its. Witness:
 I know, right? This usually only happens with books that I know I'll want to or need to come back to again and again. The flags are things I can take action on, or things I can use in the near to immediate future.
Here's how I use them. I'll flag and write on the Post-It itself, or even, if there's too much to say and too much on the page to annotate, I'll just underline or circle right on the page. I know, I'm a monster. And then, when I'm done reading the book, I'll review those flags again at a later date, just so I can keep those points locked away in my head somewhere, too.
In the case of at least one of these books, though, which I was using as a reference for a museum exhibit I'm writing, I made some broad-stroke notes directly on the endpapers. I found these really useful as I worked to put organize the exhibit and my thoughts.
One caveat, though. Get the really tacky Post-Its. I found one at the bottom of my bag from Rebel Talent, with some notes on it, and I have no idea where it belongs. Most frustrating.
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Where You Can Find Me
First! I have a new web site. I am super excited by it and hope you are too. A lot of the artwork on it is mine. Please tell me what you think here: yishun(at)thegooddirt(dot)org.
Second! I'm still penning my monthly column, "From the Front Lines," for The Writer magazine. You can read a good selection of those here.
Third! You can catch me in April at the Central Coast Writers Club, a branch California Writers Club. Here's their monthly newsletter, which misspells my name (oops!) and tells you a little bit about the topic I'm addressing. Groups like the CWC provide much-needed community for writers, so if you don't belong to a group like that yet, consider joining one.
Finally, I'm teaching this term and semester in the MFA programs at Southern New Hampshire University and Bay Path University, respectively. Click through to learn more about these great online MFA programs. They could be just what you're looking for.
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The Last Word
Folks, it's really great to be writing this newsletter again. At some point I said that I thought folks knew me best by my procrastination skills, but I'm finding that it's really so good to be able to keep writing these newsletters. I hope you're getting as much out of them as I am. Have a terrific weekend.
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