Sex, Murder and a Double Latte

 

Sex, Murder and a Double Latte

by Kyra Davis

 

Sophie Katz is a best-selling mystery writer in San Francisco, divorced and enjoying life with her cat, Mr. Katz. She’s looking forward to having one of her books turned into a movie fairly soon when the director/producer turns up dead, apparently having committed suicide in the exact same way one of his characters did, right down to the vanilla scented candles around the bathroom.

 

The only problem is, Sophie doesn’t buy it. She had talked to him recently and this was a man with plans, not one planning to check out.

 

Then Sophie gets an odd note in the mail saying simply “You reap what you sow.” She promptly throws it in the fireplace. She is disturbed enough to lose sleep but turns that to her advantage by using the time to finish her latest novel. Then the prank calls start.

 

Sophie’s friends include Dena, who runs a shop of products just for adults, Mary Ann, a make-up artist for Lancome, and Marcus, a hairstylist. Dena and Mary Ann also happen to be cousins.

 

Then she meets Anatoly at Starbucks, where she has gone to get a Grande Caramel Brownie Frappuccino with extra whipped cream in celebration of completing her book, when he swipes the last New York Times right out from under her hand. He was born in Russia, moved to Israel and has recently settled in San Francisco.

 

“Had he just insulted my coffee drink? Unbelievable! Everyone who had evolved passed the Cro-Magnon level knew that one should never make snide remarks about a person’s weight, religion or choice in caffeinated beverages, which meant he was most likely a Neanderthal. A Neanderthal with really good hands.”

 

But is Anatoly really who he says he is? It is going to be so much fun finding out.

 

I found this in our library’s Overdrive e-book catalog but I know it is also available in hard copy. If you’re looking for a thoroughly modern cozy mystery series, I recommend checking this out.



David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

I am a latecomer to the ranks of Malcolm Gladwell fans so forgive me if I am a bit overly enthusiastic. I found a copy of the audio version of David and Goliath on my desk just before Thanksgiving. I wasn’t sure if I had ordered it or my husband had but I needed something for the long drive home, on the day before Thanksgiving, when the weather had turned bad, so I popped it into the CD player. I was entranced by the end of the drive. (Graciously, I allowed my husband to have it first since he had ordered it, but then I listened to it morning and night on my drive until I’d finished it.)

“David and Goliath is a book about what happens when ordinary people confront giants. By “giants,” I mean powerful opponents of all kinds – from armies and mighty warriors to disability, misfortune, and oppression. Each chapter tells the story of a different person – famous or unknown, ordinary or brilliant – who has faced an outsize challenge…”

Gladwell begins the book with the titular story of David and Goliath but explains it a bit differently than you might expect. David and Goliath has long been told as a story where the puny underdog wins against the vastly stronger and more dangerous giant through a miracle.

Gladwell contends that “ . . . we consistently get these kinds of conflicts wrong. We misread them. We misinterpret them. Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.”

Goliath was a giant warrior, well prepared for close hand to hand combat with mighty weapons. He didn’t expect a small and agile shepherd boy to fell him from a distance with a slingshot then dash in for the kill once he was down.

Gladwell uses stories from distant history mixed with modern history. He compares some seemingly disparate stories and shows us how the outcome can be explained by similarities you might not realize, as in the stories of Vivek Ranadive, who ran a successful software company, and decided to coach his daughter’s junior basketball team, and Lawrence of Arabia. In these two stories, not having the same advantages as someone else forces each protagonist to approach his challenge in a totally fresh way.

“Ranadive coached a team of girls who had no talent in a sport he knew nothing about. He was an underdog and a misfit, and that gave him the freedom to try things no one else even dreamt of.”

Likewise, T.E. Lawrence was a poet, not a military man, but he used what he had.

“There is a set of advantages that have to do with material resources, and there is a set that have to do with the absence of material resources – and the reason underdogs win as often as they do is that the latter is sometimes every bit the equal of the former.”

Gladwell covers so much in this book - the advantages of disadvantages (and the disadvantage of advantages) as well as the theory of desirable difficulty and the limits of power. He explains the U curve and class size. He talks about college choice and whether you will be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond.

One of my favorite chapters in the book is when Gladwell explains the principle of being a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond using the French Impressionists creating their own art show instead of sticking with the giant salon where they were lost in the crowd, and often laughed at. I think this is a great story which also illustrates my belief that we need to create the art we care about and then find the market rather than trying to conform to what we think others want.

I also particularly enjoyed his take on how dyslexia can affect how people approach challenges in a positive way and his points on how money makes parenting easier, but only up to a point, where it actually begins to make it harder.

I was absolutely fascinated by this book. There is a thread of persistence and audacity, being willing to face down the dreaded because you have nothing left to lose, that I have identified with at times in my life.

Gladwell’s reading was also particularly effective on the audio version. I recommended this to my writer’s group on the basis that the stories Gladwell tells are a great possible insight into character motivation, teaching you about the psychology of a possible character through stories. I think it’s also just fascinating insight into who people are and the way they function and thrive. 

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede

The Day the World Came to Town
by Jim DeFede

Most adults can tell you where they were when they saw or heard the news of the infamous day of September 11, 2001.  And the memory usually comes with a range of emotions including sadness and anger.

This book tells another story about that day, one that can bring a sense of healing and hope.

By 9:15 am on September 11, 2001, US airspace was declared closed.  All domestic airlines were required to land immediately at the nearest American airport.  All foreign airlines with US destinations were ordered to return to their countries of origin or to land in Canada.   This book is an account of how the people of Gander, Newfoundland, on the eastern coast of Canada (population: 10,000) generously opened their businesses, homes, and hearts to the 6,560 people (with a few animals, too) from around the world who descended upon the local airport during a time of great uncertainty, anger, and sadness.

The stories of the townspeople’s generosity and the response of the detoured guests are heartwarming.  My favorites include the respectful behavior of an executive of a high end clothing line who had to purchase underwear at Walmart.   And the Rabbi whose intuitive sense of purpose in this quiet place was validated by a visit with a local resident whose hidden past could now be shared.  And the man whose use of the local school’s computers to conduct a “little” business resulted in a large donation to the school. 

Soon after the last plane had left, the provincial government offered to fund a celebration for the townspeople, in honor of their service to the global community.  The townspeople declined, saying that they there was “no reason to throw a party just because they had helped a group of people who were in trouble…They did what they did for one reason only – it was the Newfie way.”

And what a wonderful way that is.

 Maryalice Little 14 October 2014

Halfway to the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel by Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave: The Night Huntress Series

By Jeaniene Frost

I’ve been on an Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance kick lately. This first book in The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost is more the former but there is a heavy dose of romance to it as well.  One description I heard said that if you could take the romance out and the story line still survived intact then it’s an Urban Fantasy. I’d say you could do that here but it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Cat was going out to kill vampires, just a regular Friday night for her. (Most people don’t believe  vampires exist in this world.) Then a vampire named Bones captures her. When she comes to, she expects him to kill her but he wants information. He is quite convinced that she is human and must be working for a vampire to take out rivals.  Once he cottons to the fact that she is half vampire, he decides he’s going to train her and offers her a partnership. The other choice, of course, is death.

This is the beginning of a very interesting partnership. Bones has his own agenda and it is not quite what he tells Cat. (Once I got done with the book I had to go back and re-read the beginning, knowing what I now knew about Bones.) Bones trains her to fight better, toughens her up and they work together to kill the vampires who kill innocent people.

One complication, her mother, Justina, has always told Cat that she was the product of a rape by a vampire.  From the time she is 16 years old, Cat feels she has to atone for that by killing vampires, who must all be evil, as Justina tells her. It’s a good time as Cat unlearns some of her prejudices.

Just plain good old-fashioned vampire fun.

The series continues with several books, the second one “One Foot in the Grave” is another rollicking good time and I am currently reading the third in the series. I don’t want to give too much away but I am thoroughly enjoying them and I hope you will too.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones : Mad About the Boy

By Helen Fielding

Okay, I loved this book! I will say that I didn’t go into this book with many preconceived notions because it has been over a decade since I saw the first movie and I never read the second book. I wasn’t as invested in the characters as someone might have been if they read the second book and were eagerly awaiting the third.

All the friends are still around – Talitha, Tom, Jude and even Daniel though he seems to be on a downward spiral. I won’t tell you what happened to Mark Darcy. It’s sad and a large facet of the story but it doesn’t overwhelm the story.

There’s romance, humor and even some action as Bridget takes care of the kids and attempts to get back into the dating and work worlds.

Bridget is now a single mom of two small children. As a mother I could relate to so many of the sentiments. There’s a point where both kids are sick to their stomachs and in the midst of all the gross out, “Billy’s bewildered expression overwhelmed self with love for Billy.” I felt it when she said that. You can’t help feel sorry for and overwhelmed with love for the sick munchkins.

One bit of the humor is kind of over the top and does maker her seem overwhelmingly stupid.  She’s working on a screenplay adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen but spells the title wrong and has the wrong author. If you’re adapting it, you must be referring to a copy of it so how do you get those things wrong? However, most of the time the humor is gentle or even a bit slapstick.

The format can take a little getting used to, mostly written in journal type entries with texts, emails, and tweets interspersed with regular prose. Hang in there and you do get used to it. I enjoyed it tremendously on audio CD.

There’s depth to this book, as well as humor. I highly recommend it. 

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

This was not the book I thought it would be. At first, I thought it rather boring, with its description of the opulence of the parties. Then it got interesting when Gatsby finally appeared and you thought it was a love story. Then, I thought it was less about love and more about Gatsby obsessing about someone who was out of his reach. It was not a simple book and I have still not decided.

 

Illustrative of how World War I changed how people thought and felt, the narrator, Carraway, says of returning home after the war, “Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe…”

 

The narrator’s shifting perceptions of Gatsby take us through the highs and lows of this book. He is not a one sided character, all good or all bad. As with life, it is in large part about perception. He is a self-made man who thinks that the end justifies the means and that he can get what he wants with money. Sound familiar?

 

 “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”

 

But no, no, you can’t, and the fact that he can’t or won’t see or accept that simple immutable fact tells you something about him.  He is fooling himself. He wants something so much that he is willing to lie to himself. Either that or he’s just plain crazy. Crazy in love? Perhaps, perhaps.

 

As I said, Carraway goes back and forth, based on events, thinking Gatsby a great guy or a jerk, by measures. His perception of Jordan, the girl he dates a bit, changes, as well as the husband Tom. Oddly enough, Carraway’s perception of Daisy, Tom’s wife, never changes. She is unscathed, though he comes to almost hate Tom.

 

It’s a short enough book, under two hundred pages, but I felt like I’d really been on a journey with this story. I hadn’t seen the movie and didn’t know a lot about it so I was surprised at every turn. I never saw the car accident coming or, honestly, what happened to Gatsby.

 

I highly recommend it for the aspiring writer. I learned so much from the most deceptively simple sentence, “As I tiptoed from the porch I heard my taxi feeling its way along the dark road toward the house.” "I heard my taxi feeling its way along the lane in the dark." Wait, what? Yeah, that is a beautiful sentence! The fact that the taxi is “feeling its way” is not possible and yet you know exactly what he meant, how a car moves slowly along a country lane so that the driver can see within the limits of the headlights. Then, the choice of “my taxi” instead of “the taxi” gives it a totally different feel than if he had chosen the other word. I was mightily impressed.

 

“Literary miracles are the work of writers who come closer than other writers to expressing what is in their minds through innate genius augmented by control, technique, craft.” Matthew J. Bruccoli, The university of South Carolina, 1992, in Preface to the 1995 Scribner edition of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Isn’t that the trick though?

 

Much like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, I did not go into the book expecting too much and found a true classic of literature that I soundly recommend people read. If you read it before, read it again. It is the type of book where you will find something new at a different age.

Hellraisers : The Life and Inebriated times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris , Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed by Robert Sellers

 

 

*This weeks Story Musing is written by library staff member Christine DeSousa. Thanks Christine!

 

Hellraisers : The Life and Inebriated times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris , Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed 

by Robert Sellers

This book was funny, crass, raw, and crude - and I loved every second!

Hellraisers is an unapologetic account of the lives of the four most alcoholic, self-indulgent, womanizing men on the planet. Following the lives of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed, it takes you on adventures of naughty nannies, restless school boys, liquor, and starving actors to starlet conquering, fame and fortune, more liquor, love, and up to their greatest last bows.

This wasn’t some expose intended to shock the reader, this read like you happened to walk into a bar and sat down with these men and just listened to their life story over a drink.

Now, in no way am I making saints out of sinners. These guys have crashed more cars, been hospitalized, hospitalized other people and caused more trouble than any star today. It also makes the case that these men were just fun loving guys and they wanted to live life to the fullest. They certainly seemed to, all died with their boots on. They were funny and irreverent but they weren’t malicious.

One of the things you have to be prepared for when reading this book is the colorful uses for words. It’s not a book for those who are easily offended, that is something that needs to be made abundantly clear. There are many cases of violence, profane language, sexual situations and alcoholic brawling.

It certainly never got boring, in part because of all of the different words they came up with to describe physical parts, or the recurring use of the word pissed in all of its definitions.

The most trouble I had was the way it was set up. Each chapter is a different decade and, within that, it covered a couple of years at a time, rotating through  Burton, Harris, O’Toole, and Reed, then back to Burton throughout the decade.

This book was written in 2002 so it was before Peter O’Toole died but it follows him up to that point, remembering each star in his turn - the good, the bad and the drunk. I highly recommend it.

C.D.

Skin Game: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Skin Game: A Novel of the Dresden Files

By Jim Butcher

How do you review a book like this without giving spoilers? I just loved it. I want to tell you all the wonderful, funny, unbelievable stuff that happened, but I won’t.

Jim Butcher is probably my current favorite author. He consistently writes at a level that I can only aspire to at this point. The books are deep and rich while being action packed.

Harry Dresden is a wizard in modern day Chicago and currently the Winter Knight for Queen Mab. He doesn’t really want to be but a wizard’s got to do what a wizard’s got to do, right? His character has developed throughout the fifteen book series, facing new challenges and growing. The twists and turns the books take are believable and yet surprising.

One of the things that I think makes these books so enjoyable is the “warm point of view” that Butcher talks about in his LiveJournal on writing.  That means that although there is a lot of action, there is a lot of time spent on Harry reacting to what happened, worrying and generally feeling.

And there’s a lot for him to worry about in this book. His friend, Michael, is taking care of his daughter, Maggie, whose mother he had to kill in the last book when she became a vampire. He has no real contact with Maggie, hasn’t even told her he is her father. Meanwhile, there’s a parasite in his head that’s giving him terrible headaches only Demonreach, the island, can suppress.

Then Queen Mab lends his services to his enemy, Nicholas Archleone, for one job in payment of a debt she owes. Archleone is a Knight of the Blackened Denarius and partners, you might say, with a Fallen angel. The job? Break into Hades vault in the Never-never and steal THE Grail. Harry is quite sure that Archleone has no intention of him surviving the job. Harry has other plans.

Hell’s bells. It’s another excellent book and the narration is good too if you prefer to listen. Enjoy!

Sixth Grave on the Edge (Charley Davidson Series) by Darynda Jones

Sixth Grave on the Edge

By Darynda Jones

Well, I’ve been in heaven the past week. First, Darynda Jones released her latest novel in the Charley Davidson series, Sixth Grave on the Edge, and I inhaled that in about two and a half days. As a side note, I would like to say how much I appreciate the Amazon Kindle’s ability to dim the screen so I could read while my sick child dozed on my lap.

Then Jim Butcher released the latest in the Harry Dresden Chronicles, Skin Game, and I am currently enjoying that tremendously. It was a particularly welcome distraction yesterday while I was waiting for two new tires to be put on my car because I got a roofing nail in the sidewall of one.  How does that even happen?

Anyway, the thing that I love about both of these characters is that even though the series is ongoing, the main characters continue to grow and change. There are plenty of surprises! I’m going to try not to give anything away, but the last surprise in Sixth Grave on the Edge rocked my socks. I absolutely LOVED it!

This was a bit lighter and more fun than some have been, though there are some pretty scary bits. Lots of time with Reyes with this one, some more background on him, and some interesting subterfuge with her father. There is definitely something going on with her dad.

I can never decide if Charley is really good at self-delusion or if her ADHD just makes it easier for her to skip over some things. I don’t think it will be really giving anything away to say that her Jeep, Misery, didn’t make it through the last novel.

“But at least Misery was okay. Like, really okay. It was weird. Her cough was gone. Her sluggish response time was no longer an issue. Her reluctance to wake up in the mornings as she sputtered in protest every time I tried to fire all engines was nonexistent.”

Hmmm… I wonder why?

Lots of interesting dead people popping up, like naked dead guy. I particularly enjoyed it when his wife showed up looking for him. Aunt Lil, of the blue hair and floral muumuu, is always a joy.  I love her idea of becoming a partner with Charley in the investigation business, though it didn’t seem to go anywhere in this book. Of course, young Angel is summoned up to help, though there is a big surprise waiting there!

Remember the old saying, “It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye?” Yeah, that seems to apply to Charley’s scheme to get Uncle Bob to finally ask Cookie out on a date.

One of the things I like about Darynda Jones writing is that there’s a balance. One minute you’re galloping along at a good clip, laughing joyously, then she hits you with the serious and you feel the character’s pain. That’s life. Then you have a mission and some humor to lighten the load. Well done.

I’d recommend these books to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, can go with the supernatural angle, and doesn’t blush too terribly easily. As always, you can get this at the library, but I couldn’t wait. I got it through Amazon Kindle and then added the audio, which is perfectly read by Lorelei King.

Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein

Job: A Comedy of Justice

By Robert A. Heinlein

         

I guess you could say I’m going back to my roots by choosing a science fiction title today. I grew up in a small town with a small library.  I certainly can’t claim to have read everything in the library and my interests shifted over time.  As a teen, mysteries became my main focus, with authors like Agatha Christie and Phyllis Whitney. Then I was introduced to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and it became my mainstay for many years.  

I still admire Madeleine L’Engle’s writing tremendously. I distinctly remember my father giving me a copy of Dune by Frank Herbert when I was a teenager and I discovered many more wonderful authors on the shelves of the public library in the town where I went to college. I think I read most of the books by Robert A. Heinlein over time and this was a favorite.

         

(All right, I have to share this one - as I sat here at the Reference desk writing this review, a patron asked me about the book and asked to be put on the waiting list for it so I gave it to her. Apparently she had read and enjoyed many of his books and this sounded interesting to her. Ha!)

         

Anyway, Job: A Comedy of Justice is a modern retelling of the story of Job. Job, in the person of Alexander Hergensheimer, seems to be a shining of example of faith. As in the original story of Job, Satan argues with God, who agrees to test Job.

         

Suddenly Alex finds himself living someone else's life, with a mistress, not the sort of thing a fundamentalist minister was brought up to. Then he falls in love with her.

Heinlein had a way of telling a great adventure story that is easy to read, told in the first person with a rollicking pace.

"His automobile was a triumph of baling wire and faith. We went roaring back to the dock at full throttle, frightening chickens and easily outrunning baby goats."

He also offers a tremendous amount of food for thought that is subtly inserted to this great adventure story. In my lifetime, Science Fiction has been a bastion of such thought provoking writing. Heinlein was truly a Grand Master of the genre. I highly recommend it.

The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot (Part of the Heather Wells mystery series)

The Bride Wore Size 12

By Meg Cabot

This past fall author Meg Cabot came out with the culminating volume of her Heather Wells Mystery series, The Bride Wore Size 12.

As with most modern mystery series, it’s amazing the number of bodies and murder investigations Heather gets caught up in and solves, mostly on her own, but sometimes with some help from her hunky P.I. landlord and future husband, Cooper.

The book opens with a copy of Cooper and Heather’s wedding invitation then a list of items that Heather should be doing, or have already done, with only four weeks to her wedding.

She and Cooper are eating Chinese takeout and discussing the viability of having all the students of New York College, where Heather is an assistant dorm director, bubble wrapped in order to keep them safe this year.

Ah, the helicopter parents that Heather has to deal with as students are moving in for the semester are very funny. That’s what makes these stories wonderful, the humor and the colorful characters, like Magda, the cafeteria worker who once had a bit part in a movie and comes to work every day dressed ready for her big break, but takes excellent care of Heather and all of her other “little movie stars.”

Of course, it isn’t long before we find out that one of the RAs is dead in her bed and the mystery begins.  Heather keeps promising not to get involved but she simply can’t help thinking about who might have done it and asking questions.

Along with Heather’s impending nuptials and the dead body, there’s a crown prince of a Middle Eastern country in residence this year, along with his body guards, and Heather’s boss gives all the signs of being pregnant. So starts another roller coaster ride of a year.

I highly recommend reading these books in order.  The other titles in the series include - Size 12 is Not Fat, Size 14 is Not Fat Either, Big Boned, and Size 12 and Ready to Rock. You might guess from the titles that this mystery series is a little quirky and pretty funny.

These are light books and a fun read, falling into the cozy category. Don’t expect big issues or incredibly deep thinking. It’s a puzzle with a bit of romance, and I enjoyed every one. The good news is that if you like them, there are five in the series and you know the last book is already out.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

The Cuckoo’s Calling

by Robert Galbraith

(aka J.K. Rowling)

I started this book on CD in my car driving back and forth to work then ended up buying it on my kindle that weekend to finish.  That ought to tell you something.

The main story line is not all that unique in the world of mysteries. A veteran of the most recent war, Cormoran Strike, has become a private detective and is hired by the brother of a former friend to investigate the suspicious death of his sister, a supermodel living in the glitzy world of high fashion who plunged from her balcony one winter night. The police have ruled it suicide but the brother is positive it is not.

Cormoran Strike is at once a traditional gumshoe, a veteran of war trying to make his way on limited finances, and also rather modern. He lost his leg in the army and he is, somewhat unusual for a private detective, not self-destructive.

What sets this book apart is the writing. It was noted when The Cuckoo’s Calling first came out that the story was so well crafted that it hardly seemed like a first novel. As we eventually found out, it wasn’t. The writing is masterful and that is part of what makes this novel so enjoyable.

The scene is set immediately with broad strokes in the first paragraph.

“. . . the watchers filled the waiting time by snapping the white canvas tent in the middle of the road, the entrance to the tall red-brick apartment block behind it, and the balcony on the top floor from which the body had fallen.”

At other times, the author seems to zoom in on what Strike is doing in detail, cataloguing each move, so that it takes paragraphs to search a few handbags. This is done very deliberately.

It is a quiet book with a gumshoe tracking down leads methodically. The strengths are in the characterization and the smooth writing that draws you on through the story.  It’s not a cozy mystery but it’s not a pulse pounding thriller either.  It’s a solid mystery in a rather traditional style with a modern setting.

She wraps things up so neatly too. We aren’t even left wondering about Strike’s leg, we know he is finally getting the help that he needs.

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery and look forward to the next one.

Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind

Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind

Edited by Jocelyn K. Glei

My husband gave me a book for Christmas that he heard about on the Chiot's Run organic blog, Manage YourDay-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your CreativeMind. It's a collection of essays on the topic, edited by Jocelyn K. Glei. I’ve been reading a bit of it every day.

Just as the title suggests, the articles in this book focus on building a good routine, and focusing while using creativity to your advantage in the workplace, or building your creativity in any area of your life. They are short and easy to digest. There are some great reminders and good information.

Just the simple admonishment to do the thing that is most important first in your day instead of trying to get all the other little things out of the way first, is so obvious and yet counter to my typical thinking. I tend to think that if I get things tidied up or cleaned in the house first, then I’ll be better able to concentrate, but then something always seems to come up and the creative work keeps getting pushed aside. It really has profound implications for all areas of my life – my work, my child and my writing.

The article on Harnessing the Power of Frequency by Gretchen Rubin really spoke to the heart of my writing dilemma. It helped me to realize that the key to my writing productivity is going to be writing smaller amounts more frequently.  There is just no other way in my current schedule to make room for writing.

Building Renewal into Your Workday by Tony Schwartz was a good reminder too. My boss is always saying that we are given vacations and breaks for a reason. If you don’t take them then you are doing yourself a disservice and you will become less productive over time.

The article on multitasking, Banishing Multitasking from Our Repertoire by Christian Jarrett, really echoed my thinking. I’ve been hearing that multitasking is counterproductive for a long time but he put it in a different light that I appreciated by explaining that there’s really no such thing as multitasking, just switching between tasks really fast.  However, there’s always some lag as your brain switches gears and you do the tasks you are switching between more slowly than if you had just focused on one to begin with.

The articles are organized into sections on ROUTINE, FINDING FOCUS IN A DISTRACTE WORLD, TAMING YOUR TOOLS, and SHARPENING YOUR CREATIVE MIND from a multitude of authors. Honestly, there is so much in the short articles in this little book that it took me a while to digest it and I’m sure I’ll be returning to it again. I highly recommend it.

Benediction by Kent Haruf

Benediction

By Kent Haruf

I just finished reading the novel Benediction by Kent Haruf.  My initial reaction is mixed.

I chose this book because the subject matter, life and death, have been on my mind a lot lately. The first week of December, on a Tuesday night, I got the call that a dear friend and surrogate grandmother had passed away. Wednesday morning I received an email that my uncle had passed. Finally, my father has stage five terminal cancer, though he is doing fairly well at the moment. You would think that would make me run from the story of a father dying of terminal cancer but all of this drew me toward it.

I’ve done a lot of writing considering all of this and I’m still looking for answers. I am the youngest of five at age thirty-nine. At this point in my life, I feel less certain about whether our consciousness survives after death. I was once secure in my faith and beliefs but now I’m not so certain.

There were a couple scenes in Benediction that hit me hard and really moved me.

Dad Lewis has just been told he is dying of cancer, and it’s going to happen quickly. His wife, Mary, is wearing herself out taking care of him all alone and she passes out. When he gets down on the floor beside her, scared for her, I cried. The prose is sparse and honest.

He got down on his knees beside her and felt her head. She felt hot. He pulled her toward him and slid his arms under her, propping her up against the couch. Can you hear me? I got to call somebody. I’ll be right back. She made no sign. Is that all right with you if I leave a minute? I’m coming right back. He hurried out to the kitchen and called the emergency number at the hospital. Then he returned and got down on the floor again and held her and talked to her softly and kissed her cheek and brushed back her damp white hair and patted her arm and waited.

Another scene was when the preacher gets up in front of the church and tells the congregation that Christ’s sermon about turning the other cheek wasn’t just a metaphor but something that we need to live even in these turbulent times.  The majority of the congregation don’t take that so well.

But then he was abruptly halted. Someone out in the congregation was talking. Are you crazy? You must be insane! A man’s voice. Deep-throated. Angry. Loud. Coming from over on the west side of the sanctuary near the windows. What’s wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?

Now, this was only the second book that I’ve read from the modern era that did not use quotes to set off dialogue. It wasn’t totally foreign to me but to be honest I wasn’t aware that there were a number of authors doing this.

I thought the lack of quotation marks was difficult to follow at first in Benediction but I was soon okay with it. It gave the book an internal and even timeless feeling, as if looking at events that happened through frosted glass.

I wondered why someone would choose not to use quote marks to delineate dialogue so I did a quick search online and found an article from Lionel Shriver on the Wall Street Journal. Apparently a number of modern authors, including James Frey, Kent Heruf and Cormac McCarthy are popularizing the trend.

Shriver contends “By putting the onus on the reader to determine which lines are spoken and which not, the quoteless fad feeds the widespread conviction that popular fiction is fun while literature is arduous.”

I also came upon a discussion by authors on this topic that pointed me to an interview Cormac McCarthy had done with Oprah some years ago in which he said that, “If you write properly you shouldn’t have to punctuate.”

Here’s one of my prime problems with it. I have no problem reading dialect and dialogue without quotation marks. I’m a very fast reader and can adapt. However, I know people that cannot read dialect at all, can’t read Mark Twain. Their brains simply don’t translate the written word into sound in their head. Writing is about communicating. Anything that gets between the reader and the story inhibits that communication. Now, I know that not every book is for every reader but my goal as a writer is to make things more understandable, not to obfuscate.

I asked my writer’s group about this last night. One of the group said that a good story will not be brought down by poor grammar or punctuation. Another member said she wouldn’t be able to get past the first few pages. Yet another threw something on the floor in disgust and said that it was sheer laziness on the author’s part.

I think I’ll continue to use quotation marks in writing dialogue but I won’t reject a book right away if the author doesn’t use them.

Honestly, after reading the ending, I set down the book and thought, what the hell was that? The ending really just didn’t seem consistent with the rest of the book to me. I’m going to have to puzzle on it for a while longer, but I did enjoy the book. It was about life. Death is part of that too. I didn’t find any answers, but I did enjoy the time spent on it.