It’s Friday, friends, and you know what that means… let’s take a break from the news cycle and talk about what we’re reading!
I’m still reeling from the week-long reading festivus that was show prep, and I’m still thinking about Christine Coulson’s magnificent novella ONE WOMAN SHOW. It is the story of a woman’s life told through museum wall labels. I know, that sounds…difficult. It is a short but impactful read, as the prose is top-notch, and the conceit of telling a story in 75-word increments means not a single word is fluff. I can’t recommend this one highly enough, and especially for you writers out there, because I think this would be a super cool way to build a story. If you could distill your main character’s life down to the most important moments, and use those to define their current and future state, they’d be very rich indeed. Christine and I had a fascinating conversation about her life at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, too. Good stuff.
Mary Beard has a new book out, EMPEROR OF ROME, which I preordered (twice—I was thrilled when two copies showed up LOL). I am currently collecting books that deal with a certain emperor, and couldn’t wait for this installment.
This piece by Heather Hach in Crimereads about her move from Broadway to writing thrillers captured my attention. This line specifically made me stop and think:
…Suspense is the lynchpin for the medium, the art of dialing up the tension to hold an audience captive…
Building suspense and dread *is* an art. I read and spoke to one of those artists last week, Megan Miranda, about her fabulous new book, THE ONLY SURVIVORS. It’s superbly constructed, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, because the dread, the dialing up of the tension, is what makes this book work so incredible well.
Food for thought as I start turning my brain to my next suspense novel…
What about you? What’s on your plate this weekend?
I finished The Woman in Me by Britney Spears last night.
I was 30 when she hit it big and i wasn't a big fan of pop music. However, I started following her on Instagram during the whole Free Britney movement.
I feel confident that she actually wrote it as it's similar to her Instagram posts. Not always proper English, or punctuation and many run on sentences. Someone obviously helped her organize it into a book.
I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good and I read it in ONE Dat!
The lack of support and absolute abuse she went through is heartbreaking. She really was/is a pioneer.
Great to hear good news! I recommend Judy Reeves "When Your Heart Says Go," a brillant memoir. About love, loss, and the healing powers of travel and writing.
Just finished rereading my latest draft in prep for the next revision and Harrison Scott Key’s “How to Stay Married” which I have intensely complicated feelings about. I am halfway through Bret Lott’s writing craft book called “Before We Get Started,” and am desperately in need of an absorbing, fun, maybe even cozy novel to round out October!
This week I returned to reading KNOW MY NAME by Chanel Miller. She's the victim of assault by a Stanford student. I was in Northern California with family when the verdict came out and we were all shocked by it. Even my in law who works in administration for Stanford felt the same way. This is going to be a slow read because I have a lot of heavy things besides the chaos in the world happening in my life right now. Like Kristine Neeley, I need a good, fun read.
One Woman Show sounds intriguing. I have to check it out. I'm so behind with my reading... or with about everything. 🙈 Too much traveling, it's tome to settle somewhere. ☺️
I finished The Woman in Me by Britney Spears last night.
I was 30 when she hit it big and i wasn't a big fan of pop music. However, I started following her on Instagram during the whole Free Britney movement.
I feel confident that she actually wrote it as it's similar to her Instagram posts. Not always proper English, or punctuation and many run on sentences. Someone obviously helped her organize it into a book.
I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good and I read it in ONE Dat!
The lack of support and absolute abuse she went through is heartbreaking. She really was/is a pioneer.
Great to hear good news! I recommend Judy Reeves "When Your Heart Says Go," a brillant memoir. About love, loss, and the healing powers of travel and writing.
Just finished rereading my latest draft in prep for the next revision and Harrison Scott Key’s “How to Stay Married” which I have intensely complicated feelings about. I am halfway through Bret Lott’s writing craft book called “Before We Get Started,” and am desperately in need of an absorbing, fun, maybe even cozy novel to round out October!
This week I returned to reading KNOW MY NAME by Chanel Miller. She's the victim of assault by a Stanford student. I was in Northern California with family when the verdict came out and we were all shocked by it. Even my in law who works in administration for Stanford felt the same way. This is going to be a slow read because I have a lot of heavy things besides the chaos in the world happening in my life right now. Like Kristine Neeley, I need a good, fun read.
One Woman Show sounds intriguing. I have to check it out. I'm so behind with my reading... or with about everything. 🙈 Too much traveling, it's tome to settle somewhere. ☺️