Recent Reads

The last month has been a month of reading. Most of the time, I read the entire book, but sometimes I cherry-pick certain sections that interest me. Here’s what I’ve been reading.

Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews by Sam Weller. Bradbury was a prolific writer, and from the interviews he gave, it would appear he never had a wobbly moment, confidence-wise, his entire life. He also made friends with a wide variety of famous people, and he loved writing and being creative. Bradbury spoke of being asked by the director, John Huston, to write the screenplay for Moby Dick, to which Bradbury replied, “I’ve never been able to read the damn thing.” I laughed because that was my reaction as well. A couple pages in, I decided life was too short and took Moby Dick back to the library. (Does that make me a terrible librarian? Possibly.)

Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir by Amy Tan. I skimmed a lot of this. Tan’s memories of her mother’s last days (she had Alzheimer’s) were poignant, particularly since her story brought back memories of my mother-in-law’s last diminished days in a memory care unit. I also latched onto a comment Tan made about looking at old manuscripts of “abandoned novels”—novels that she realized weren’t ever going to be print-worthy. I have lots of manuscripts like that; it surprised me that Tan did, too. I appreciated her words, which basically said, "I still very fond of these stories and their characters, even if I am the only one who gets to enjoy them."

I’m currently working on a teen novel and am trying to insert pieces of an American lit. class into the story. This has forced me to think back to much (much!) younger years and try to remember: What did I read in my American lit. class? What should I ask my protagonist to read now? And how could those novels reflect the unfortunate situations that have shaped the antagonist, who has his own alternate story line? I’ve looked at lists and lists of “best of” books online, and I’ve pored over 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die by James Mustich. I went to the library and checked out On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Close Range by Annie Proulx. I dug out my old copies of Where the Lilies Bloom and Dandelion Wine and Ordinary People. I wondered if I should reread I Heard the Owl Call My Name or The Meadow. Would Grapes of Wrath be a better choice than Of Mice and Men? Is The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian too young a read for high schoolers? Should I throw in True Grit? Beloved? The Color Purple? The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet? On and on it goes, and my list of “must reads” grows ever-longer.

It’s a good challenge. I let my mind coast during the Year of COVID and indulged in what could only be termed as “literary comfort food”—mostly mystery series that didn’t involve much thought or emotional involvement. Now I’m ready to dig into deeper literature.