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Dec
31
*Throws Confetti, Pops Champagne*
2010 at 4pm Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Happy New Year and a HUGE thank you to all of you who helped make 2010 so fantastic! I’ve never had so much fun reading and discussing books as I did this year, and I’m just so grateful to all of who you have taken time to visit, subscribe, and share a little corner of your world with me this year. I look forward to keeping the good times going here at The Book Lady’s Blog, and I hope 2011 will be your best year yet.
And because one of my goals for 2011 is to read some poetry (more on those goals next week), here’s “A Poem for New Year’s Eve” by William Cullen Bryant.
Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay—
Stay till the good old year,
So long companion of our way,
Shakes hands, and leaves us here.
Oh stay, oh stay,
One little hour, and then away.The year, whose hopes were high and strong,
Has now no hopes to wake;
Yet one hour more of jest and song
For his familiar sake.
Oh stay, oh stay,
One mirthful hour, and then away.The kindly year, his liberal hands
Have lavished all his store.
And shall we turn from where he stands,
Because he gives no more?
Oh stay, oh stay,
One grateful hour, and then away.Days brightly came and calmly went,
While yet he was our guest;
How cheerfully the week was spent!
How sweet the seventh day’s rest!
Oh stay, oh stay,
One golden hour, and then away.Dear friends were with us, some who sleep
Beneath the coffin-lid:
What pleasant memories we keep
Of all they said and did!
Oh stay, oh stay,
One tender hour, and then away.Even while we sing, he smiles his last,
And leaves our sphere behind.
The good old year is with the past;
Oh be the new as kind!
Oh stay, oh stay,
One parting strain, and then away
The Great Backlist Binge of 2010
2010 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
The majority of my reading year focuses on forthcoming and recently published books, and I’m generally very happy with that. I like being current, able to contribute to conversations—both virtual and IRL—about books, trends, and the state of publishing, and in on the shared excitement for the titles that, whether unexpectedly or not, blow the reading community out of the water. The dearth of backlist in my regular reading life is a problem entirely of my own creation, and I usually don’t mind it so much.
But by the end of the year, when the holidays are approaching, and I’ve read my way through the book world’s version of Oscar season, the TBR pile starts singing its siren song, and I want nothing more than a cup of coffee and some time to curl up with a book I can read purely for enjoyment. And because nothing zaps my ability to think critically about a book (or, well, anything) quite like repetitive, excessive consumption of ham, pie, and holiday treats—not to mention the amount of time I spend napping and taking bubble baths this time of year—it makes more than a little sense for me to take some time away from reviewing.
This December’s backlist binge was even better than I anticipated. Here’s a look at the first chunk of my recent reading.
Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
This was my first experience with Flannery O’Connor, and I am irate that no one shoved it into my hands and forced me to read it sooner. I have a feeling that O’Connor would have been inescapable if I had grown up in the South, but I went through 20 years of schooling in the midwest with hardly a mention of her, and that just seems wrong. This collection, originally published in 1956, reveals O’Connor’s obsessions with change (and the consequences of resisting it), faith, and morality (of the sort that would be considered pedantic if it were written today but is instead brilliant because 1) this is Flannery O’Connor and 2) hello, it was 1956).
There is a matter-of-factness to O’Connor’s writing that makes it tempting to take her words at face value, but there is such movement and depth—like something rippling just below the surface—that it is impossible to resist looking for more. Everything that Rises Must Converge is great reading on many levels, and it is *just* the kind of thing my inner English geek gets off on. O’Connor is a master of the short story, and it is evident that she thought and re-thought every last word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. A must-read for anyone who loves short fiction pretty much everyone. Read more
Author Peter Geye Imagines “A Christmas Dinner of the Mind”
2010 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
I’m telling you, the folks at Unbridled Books just get cooler and cooler. As if publishing some of the best books I’ve read in the last few years isn’t enough, they took time to ask several of their authors to write surprise guest posts so that several bloggers could have a taste of “Unbridled Holiday Cheer” and an extra day off! I’m thrilled to welcome Peter Geye, author of Safe from the Sea, back to The Book Lady’s Blog.
“A Christmas Dinner of the Mind”
It’s not that having dinner with ten kids under the age of six isn’t my idea of fun—what could be more fun?—but when asked, “What writer, alive or dead, would you most like to have dinner with this holiday season?” my mind fairly exploded. A better question might have been, “What writer wouldn’t you like to have dinner with?”
So I headed to my bookshelves and started culling. Here’s what I settled on: This Christmas-in-my-mind I’m having dinner with the Norwegians. Henrik, Knut, Per, and Tarjei. Just the five of us, in Tarjei Vesaas’ Telemark farmhouse. We’ll all sit there silently, sipping our coffee and eating our bread and cheese and soused herring (there’s no lutefisk at this feast). Once in a while one of us will grunt and the others will grunt back and maybe smirk. After our third cup of coffee Henrik Ibsen will open a bottle of Aquavit and pour us each a finger. He’ll talk about the long view. After three or four of Aquavits, Knut Hamsun will start talking about what it was like writing Hunger. When I tell Tarjei that The Birds is one of my very favorite books, he’ll only nod and smile thanks. He’s heard this before.
Eventually the ghosts will disappear and it’ll just be me and Per Petterson. It’ll be snowing outside, and the candles on the Christmas tree will cast crazy shadows and he’ll give me the inside scoop on how to write an international bestseller. We’ll finish the ‘Vit and call it a night.
Maybe in the morning we’ll go skiing through the forests around Vinje, way in the hell up north, out with the real Christmas trees.
Peter Geye is the author of Safe from the Sea published by Unbridled Books. He was born and raised in Minneapolis and continues to live there with his wife and three children.
