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To my family and friends (including those that I haven’t met yet): This year I decided to sit down and force myself to write. When I was an elementary school, middle school, and high school student, I loved to write short stories for class assignments. The hardest part for me was thinking of an idea, but once I had one I really went for it, researching the topics that I had chosen (usually some kind of war), infusing my stories with as much drama and suspense as I could, and taking creative liberties right and left (usually because I wanted my characters to fall in love). But once I was no longer forced to write for a grade, I didn’t do it anymore. I thought that I didn’t have any ideas and decided that the writing thing was a fluke. This is what I learned from forcing myself to sit in front of my computer: I was scared to try to write, I wasn’t a disciplined writer, writing makes me incredibly happy, and I can finish a book if I want to. I just self-published a romance novel, Finally You, on Amazon and I’m blogging regularly on my website, jessicashuck.com. Finally You is a contemporary romance set in Louisville, Kentucky (yay, Louisville!) and features a high school English teacher named Eliza, her long-time crush, Luke, and her long-standing foe, Theo. It’s available exclusively on Amazon for $2.99 (and free through Kindle Unlimited). I tried to include the same characteristics in Finally You that I enjoy in the romance novels that I read: snappy banter, frequent literary (and other cultural) references, humor, and lots of emotional/physical chemistry. Thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog and sending me encouraging comments/giving me an endorphin rush with your Facebook likes. I would so appreciate it if you would give my book a chance, too. If you get a chance to read it, I’d also appreciate it if you would complete an Amazon review and/or share your reading experience of Finally You with others. I was (and also, remain) incredibly nervous to put myself out there, but I’ve also discovered that it feels really good to be doing something that I love and to know that I went for something that scared the hell out of me. I hope that you’ll like what I’m writing/have written, but if you don’t, you can blame me, but also my amazing friends* and family, who have given me SO much encouragement, support, and love my entire life that I had the confidence to pursue what makes me happy. Love, Jessica P.S. I'll write more about this later, but I'd like to say a special thank you to my amazing BFFs, Mary Catherine Starr and Laura Whitaker, who served as my beta readers and gave me invaluable advice. Mary Catherine Starr also designed a fabulous book cover for me (so check her out for any and all creative projects. She is a marvel!) Dear Readers: I'm so excited to turn the reins over to my amazing friend, Laura Whitaker, for the day. Laura is Program Director at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, Kentucky, an organization which "empowers people to explore and and express their voices through imaginative learning and the literary arts." Laura has written more about the incredible work that the Carnegie Center does below. Reading and writing are two of my favorite activities, so I'm so proud to support this wonderful organization today through the GoodGiving Challenge, and I hope that you will too! *********************************************************************** I’m guessing you’re a reader. Obviously you read blogs, but I bet you also read books (an assumption I’m making based on the fact that you’re here on this blog for bibliophiles!) I, too, am a reader. I love all the magical – and not-so-magical – elements that books comprise: knowledge, empathy, understanding, imagination, escape. I could go on, but I’ll stop there for now. So we’ve established a shared love of reading (which is enough for me to consider you an amazing person and close friend!) Now, what about writing? In my work, I’m asked at least once a week if I’m a writer, since I work at a literacy and literary arts center. I usually sheepishly say, “No,” then I quickly add, “but I love to read!” For some reason, I feel bad because I appreciate the work of writers so much that I feel I should do it, but I don’t actually want to. Instead, I just love reading. And fortunately, my literary colleagues remind me that I shouldn’t feel guilty about this. Writers need readers. And readers need writers. One’s not better or more important than the other. Together, they create a mutually beneficial cycle that keeps us bibliophiles and word-lovers satisfied. What if I told you there was one place that supports {almost} all components of this cycle, from learning to read to publishing bestsellers? And that this place wasn’t an imaginary place in a book, but that it actually exists in the real world? Well, it does exist. And it’s where I work. At the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning in Lexington, KY, with the help of volunteers, teachers, parents and donors, we create a Cycle of Literacy. This cycle starts at the dawn of a child’s learning life. For babies and toddlers, the Carnegie Center hosts story times, gives away free books, and teaches parents strategies to read at home with their little ones. For kids and teens, we have reading groups and other academic support programs, as well as creative writing enrichment programs. The Cycle of Literacy gets strength from our afterschool tutoring program. To help children who fall behind in school, the Carnegie Center offers low-cost tutoring for almost 250 kids per week. The Cycle of Literacy continues among adults. Carnegie helps immigrants learn English, and English-speakers learn Spanish and French. We help adults who want to enhance their writing skills. We teach advanced writers how to get their books published and host their book releases in our space. And then the Cycle of Literacy comes full circle: Many of those published writers share their love of reading and writing with young children and emerging writers who are at a different stage in the cycle. Oh, and all along, we give away over 10,000 new and used books a year to readers of all ages through our in-house and outdoor reading rooms. So whether you’re a reader or a writer – or both – you have a home at the Carnegie Center. Join us for our weekly Young Learners Story Time, our annual Books-in-Progress Conference, or any of our other classes and events. And our work wouldn’t be possible without the support of community volunteers and a diverse group of donors, so if this marriage of literacy and the literary arts speaks to you, consider getting involved in those ways, too. Through December 31, we are taking part in a local fundraising challenge, and we’d so appreciate your donations via the GoodGiving Challenge. Remember: readers need writers, and writers need readers, so let’s do our part to support them all by bringing them together under the same roof. Are you interested in writing a guest post (on any topic related to literacy or pop culture) for The Naptime Writer? Contact me on my website! The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware Before The Woman in Cabin 10, these were my ocean-related anxieties: sharks. Barracudas. Sting rays. Rogue waves. Now I can add being murdered at sea to the list. Thank you, Ruth Ware and The Woman in Cabin 10. Lo Blacklock, a writer for travel magazine Velocity, is invited to attend the inaugural cruise—from England to Norway—of a super-luxury boutique ship. Before she leaves on her trip, she is the victim of a home burglary, an incident which traumatizes her. Fresh from this event, Lo is all the more distressed when she believes that her neighbor aboard the ship, the woman in cabin 10, has been murdered and thrown off the side of the ship. Lo’s anxiety is exacerbated by the fact that after she reported the incident, the officer on board found no evidence of a murder, and indeed, no evidence that a woman (or man) ever stayed in cabin 10. Did Lo imagine all of this, and if not, can she trust anyone on-board? Mysteries abound in this book, and Ware did an excellent job of keeping me invested in the story. Lo makes slow progress with her mystery throughout the novel; just enough to keep the reader invested without spoiling everything too soon. (Some TV shows that I’ve watched should take note of this. I’m looking at you, The Blacklist. FYI, I stopped watching this show a season or two ago because of this very issue.) When the answers are revealed to Lo’s Cabin 10 inquiry, I was truly surprised. Luckily for the reader, Ware doesn’t end the drama there. You have to keep reading until the end to figure out what happens (or happened) to the woman in cabin 10 and what happens (or happened) to our narrator, Lo. I’m trying not to ruin the plot for you, in case you haven’t noticed. Some of you might be familiar with Ware’s first novel, In a Dark, Dark Wood. In both cases, Ware offers us a female narrator who feels virtually isolated with her terror—an effective, and also, fright-inducing narrative strategy. I have to say that despite this similarity, I enjoyed The Woman in Cabin 10 much more than In a Dark, Dark Wood. Perhaps it was because of Ware’s evocative language—the repeated imagery of a victim floating amidst the cold fjord waters and seaweed is particularly haunting. Or maybe it was because the thought of not being believed has been a fear of mine since I saw a random movie about a night security guard as a kid (it wasn’t Night at the Museum). Or maybe I just liked Lo, and pitied her for having one of the worst possible weeks that I could think of. Regardless, this was a well-written, suspenseful thriller that makes me look forward to Ware’s next book and will make me think twice before boarding a cruise ship. Check Out: I recommended Tana French’s The Trespasser in a previous post, along with S. J. Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep and the Goddess J. K. Rowling's Robert Galbraith series. I think we’re really living in the age of the thriller/mystery. What thriller/mysteries have you read lately? When I was growing up, Southern Appalachia was a mystery, a region of the United States that was (and to a large degree, is) often denounced, caricatured, and stereotyped. When I began deciding what area of American literature I wanted to focus on in my graduate program, I chose Southern Appalachia. I wanted to learn more about the region and challenge the stereotypical representations of it—the hillbilly and Deliverance, among them—by studying the voices of people who live(d) in Southern Appalachia and who love(d) it. James Still’s River of Earth is a beautiful novel which scholars frequently put into conversation with Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. A much slimmer, faster read, River of Earth is just as impactful as Steinbeck’s giant. Told from the perspective of a young, unnamed boy, we learn that the Baldridge and Middleton families are struggling to survive economic hardship, that the boy’s parents fight about whether they should be a farming or mining family, and that the boy must decide which communal and familial values he wants to embrace as he matures and which he wants to reject. River of Earth is a compelling, tender coming-of-age story set in Eastern Kentucky that offers insights into a region that is often uniformly portrayed and/or misunderstood. Though it was published in 1940, the same year as The Grapes of Wrath, it remains relevant and timely. [Think for a moment about the uproar when Hillary Clinton said in 2016: “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right?”] I think that part of our Post-Trump election project is to consider how little we actually know about people with other backgrounds and/or beliefs than us and try to educate ourselves about American (and international) diversity. We do this partly through reading. We shouldn’t expect River of Earth to tell us everything we need to know or everything that’s important about Southern Appalachia (because a big part of the problem is thinking that any one person can speak for an entire region or group of people), but it’s a good start. Simone St. James I am what we call in American parlance a “scaredy cat.” I still watch scary movies through a crack in my fingers. When the music starts speeding up and I’m positive that at any moment a ghost-hand is going to dart out from underneath a bed (thank you, The Sixth Sense, for ruining my life), I turn the sound down to half the normal volume so that I won’t be quite as frightened. All of this is to say that I’m surprised that I love gothic stories. And gothic stories, particularly those with romance in them, are my jam/my happy place. Simone St. James had been on my “to read” list for a couple of years and 2016 was the year that I finally made it through her catalog: The Haunting of Maddy Clare (2012), An Inquiry into Love and Death (2013), Silence for the Dead (2014), The Other Side of Midnight (2015), and Lost Among the Living (2016). Paranormal romances set in England between the world wars, St. James’ novels are atmospheric, suspenseful, and tender, and I devour them like they’re Chocolate Chunk cookies from Costco. (That means that I read them very, very quickly). In each book St. James’ main character is an intrepid woman who engages with some element of the occult. Whether the woman is battling a ghost or trying to solve a murder, the stakes are high. And on the romantic front, the main female character in each book finds herself falling in love with a deliciously attractive man. Yes, all of this is highly realistic—and I’m not being sarcastic. So if you like your frights to be balanced with a healthy dollop of sensuality (more sweet than explicit), try Simone St. James’ books. They offer a delightful, satisfying escape. Perfect If You: Want to be scared but not too scared; love gothic romances and you’ve read Rebecca a million times already Not Recommended If You: Are a highly skeptical person who is unwilling to believe that a person might be able to end a haunting + fall in love with a human simultaneously. Check Out: If you like St. James’ books, try another great book I read in 2016, This House is Haunted, by John Boyne. I also have a MAJOR literary crush on Kate Morton, who has published numerous books in this same vein. While I didn’t read any of her books this year, I recommend her HIGHLY. (I contemplated using “bigly” instead of “highly,” but as far as I’m concerned it’s too soon for those kinds of Trump jokes.) I will make fun of myself a lot in this book, but understand I feel good, healthy, strong, and fuckable. I'm not the hottest chick in the room. I would be like the third-hottest bartender at a Dave & Buster's in Cincinnati." The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer I chose to read most of Amy Schumer’s The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo while travelling to and from Cape Cod on a wonderful visit with my best friends. Since I was travelling alone I can’t be positive of this, but I have the feeling that I had a smile on my face, occasionally interrupted by a more pensive expression, nearly the entire time that I read this exceptional book. I’m sure that these facial expressions, (in addition to my bulky black laptop bag, which Mary Catherine assured me was not cute), went a long way toward convincing those sitting near me that I was a well-meaning but awkward stranger, which is, in fact, what I was. A series of essays, lists, journal entries, and meditations on Amy Schumer’s life, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is very frequently LOL-funny, often inspirational and insightful, and by turns sad or sentimental, without becoming cloying. Schumer covers a gamut of topics, ranging from her family life (her relationships with her parents and siblings, her dad’s battle with MS), to her sexual and romantic experiences, to her drive to be a stand-up comic, to what she would want people to say and do at her funeral. These are some of the things I love about her book: Schumer is unapologetic about what she believes in, like common-sense gun reform. Second, she’s absolutely clear that while she is able to laugh at herself and the things that she has done, this self-deprecating humor is not an indication of low self-esteem. And third, she shows compassion toward the younger girl she was, the woman she is, and the woman she will be. A recurring theme in her book is that it's possible to learn from mistakes and appreciate that that growth and evolution help make us who we are; beautiful, complex humans. This was a huge lesson for me, someone who still internally cringes when I remember awkward/insensitive/arrogant things that I’ve said and done. Schumer even includes old journal entries (with 2016 annotations) in her book; can you imagine putting yourself out there like that? While I am aware that any kind of creative project—autobiographical or otherwise—allows the author to control in some way how they are perceived (by what they tell or don’t tell, how they tell it, what they focus on and omit, etc.), this is how I, as the reader, walked away feeling: that I knew Amy Schumer better and that I could relate to her. This was a hilarious, moving read. Perfect If You: Love Amy Schumer, comedy, memoir, coming of age stories, dirty humor; want to celebrate being human Not Recommended If You: Would rather not read intimate details about Schumer’s life (but if you have watched her show or stand-up, you probably won’t be surprised by some of the things that she includes) Check Out: Last week’s recommendation on Jessi Klein’s You’ll Grow Out of This; Amy Schumer’s show Inside Amy Schumer; any of the essays written by Klein, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling. *I’ve read 95 novels in 2016 so far. This is part of a series on my favorites. The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev Romance novels which focus on a couple reuniting—novels referred to as “Second Chance” in romance writing/reading parlance—have never been my favorite. I think that I have always wanted to believe so firmly in the “happily ever after” that I hate to think of couples who belong together separating for any length of time and then having to deal with all of the deep heartache before reconciling. Yes, I know, it’s a rich theme and sometimes people who are wonderfully suited for one another don’t work out because of timing, etc., etc., but the fact remains that the “Second Chance” plot usually isn’t my first (or even second) choice. All of this is to say: Sonali Dev’s The Bollywood Bride uses this premise—two lovers who separated under intense circumstances, coming together again—and it was sexy, explosive magic. Ria Parkar is a famous Bollywood actress with the moniker “Ice Princess” whose beloved cousin Nikhil invites her to Chicago for his upcoming wedding. Ria wants to celebrate with her family and friends, but she also can’t fathom reuniting with Viky, her former lover whose heart she broke roughly ten years earlier. I’m of the opinion that I fell hard for the “Second Chance” angle in this story because it’s clear that Viky remains furious/heartbroken/devastated/confused about why Ria broke things off, and it’s also clear that their way back to one another is not going to be easy. Dev expertly establishes the emotional and sexual tension between Ria and Viky throughout this novel. When they finally re-consummated their relationship the sense of relief and happiness that I felt revealed to me how much I had been invested in that tension. But as is often the case in romance novels (and real life), physical intimacy doesn’t magically dissolve the huge problems that Ria and Viky confront. Will Ria be able to overcome her fears, particularly those related to her mother and father, or will she leave Viky for a second time? I knew that because this is a romance novel, I was guaranteed a HEA (Happily Ever After), but, due to Dev’s masterful plotting and characterization, I still nervously doubted whether it was going to happen. That isn’t a feeling that I frequently experience to this degree when reading the romance genre, and it made my reading of the The Bollywood Bride more exciting and dramatic. The Bollywood Bride offers an incredible story with sensitively developed conflict, sizzling emotional and physical romance, and characters whose happiness I genuinely rooted for. Perfect If You: Want a HEA to hope for; would like to broaden your reading in the romance genre (Dev’s book is set in Mumbai and Chicago and it’s rooted in Indian culture) Not Recommended If You: Have a heart of stone; shy away from hot romance reads Check Out: Since I loved this book I’m going to check out Dev’s other books: A Bollywood Affair and A Change of Heart. A Bollywood Bride first came to my attention through NPR’s 2015 Book Concierge site—a fabulous resource if you’re ever in the mood to select from some of the year’s best reads. *I've read 95 books in 2016 so far. This blog is part of a series on my favorite reads of 2016. To put it simply, Imagine Me Gone is a wrenching portrayal of the toll that mental illness can take on an entire family; in this novel’s case, a wife and husband and their three children. Sometimes I shy away from books like this, which confront issues that I may be vaguely uncomfortable with and/or issues which I know are important but not quite the kind of book that I want to “escape” into. But as a reader, I found this book to be incredibly haunting and moving, in many ways infuriating and terribly sad, but in others, hopeful and inspiring. And as an anxious person (and I don’t say that flippantly, but as in, a person who experiences anxiety), I thought that this book was a necessary fictional representation of how mental illness can distort, lie, disturb, and ravage, and how its effects aren’t just limited to the individual immediately suffering from it, but also extend, in varying degrees, to those who love the individual and often can’t understand the path that the individual’s mind takes. (But to be clear, not every person suffering from mental illness has the kind of support that John and Michael do in this book. The lack of support/empathy/understanding surrounding mental illness--on a local and/or national/global level--is one of the sadder facts surrounding mental illness.) John, the patriarch featured in Adam Haslett’s Imagine Me Gone, internally describes his mental illness as the “monster” or the “beast.” This monster has haunted John for most, if not all, of his life, and he sees it replicated in his eldest child, Michael, a fact which makes him avoid and to some degree, reject, him. The family members showcased in Haslett’s book react to the characters’s mental illnesses in varying ways, and their responses are highlighted in each of their narrated sections which alternate between the past and present. What is so heartbreaking and lovely about this book is how each of the family members gives their greatest effort in this struggle, although it probably would have been easier not to. While it’s clear that there’s no shortage of love in this family, Haslett does a remarkable job of pointing out how isolating mental illness can be. These are notes from my own experiences with anxiety, which of course colored how I read the book: it’s hard to describe to someone how an anxiety or fear which you also dimly recognize is “irrational” feels unbearably rational to you. It’s hard to describe how your mind latches onto something and can’t let it go, and it’s hard to describe how you wish that you could just “get over it,” but you just can’t. While my own experiences with anxiety have been nowhere close to as severe and debilitating as the psychological difficulties the characters in the book face, I found that my own experiences did allow me to relate, in even a small way, to the characters in the book. This is not an easy book to read regardless, I think, of whether you can relate to the characters a lot or just a little, but it was an amazing reading experience. Imagine Me Gone is not just a beautifully written book; it also offers valuable insights into the resilience, strength, and love of families who deal with issues like this every day. |
About me.Give me that HEA, please.
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