A Love Letter to Book and Movie Blog Reviewers

Dear book and movie review bloggers,

As previously mentioned, I hate book reviews. But I love books. And movies. I find myself searching out movie reviews after watching each random film Netflix or Amazon Prime or my parents' borrowed Comcast Xfinity sucks me into, an observer of conversations that took place long ago.  Some people seem to feel like there's a glut of opinions online, like Rotten Tomatoes' offering of "regular folks" opinions via blog is an unnecessary addition to the professional reviews which precede them. But. If you're watching a random movie from fifteen years ago, the regular media has dumped those links that promise reviews. It's nothing but 404 messages ad infinitum.  

Bloggers aren't constrained by the concerns of the regular media. Their reviews shine brightly years and years after they first appeared. So, by extension, I would like to extend my hand to book reviewers. Although not as subject to turnover as film, the splashing out of opinion about books is a gift to one who wants to listen to a conversation about a book she just finished at 2 a.m. 

What did I do before all this? As a child of the '90s, this constant access to information is something that has bricked over the past. I swim easily in the sea, forgetting how I used to do things. So what was different? I saw more movies with other people. Watching VHS or DVD releases was a thing. It's still a thing, and a much more accessible one, with Redboxes outside every WalMart. 

Why I Love/Hate Book Reviews

(NationaalArchief)

Although I write reviews from time to time, I don't enjoy reading them. This may seem like an odd confession, considering that my blog professes to be about books. But unless I'm consulting a critical review for information about a not-for-pleasure book, I tend to avoid them. Book reviews, especially ones written from a more personal reader's perspective, tell too much. Even with spoiler alerts, they usually go way beyond a basic plot synopsis.

You might be thinking that an extensive discussion of a book is kind of the point of a review. But after I read one, I feel like I've practically read the book. I've learned the key elements of plot, setting, and characters. But worst of all, I've absorbed the reviewer's experience. The anticipation of reading the actual book has evaporated.

But I love talking about books. I love getting recommendations and giving them. So instead of exhaustively reviewing amazing books, I'm just going to virtually hold them out to you, saying, "Oh my god this was awesome read it now" (All in one unpunctuated breath). Think of me as your friend in the computer.

Megan Abbott's "Dare Me" is about the intensity of teenage female friendships and competitive cheerleading. If you're making a face about the cheerleading part, take a little leap of faith and check it out. It's one of the most real books about being a teenage girl I've ever read. It kept me up all night, which is the highest praise I can give.

Questions for the Future Answered #3

New Year, New Project

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves way too much and got to spend today relaxing. This is a resolution free space, but I do want to share something new that I'll be doing this year. Artist Patrick Artazu and I are collaborating on a series of graphic short stories. It's strange, challenging and fun for a writer like me who can't draw a straight line to try to marry words and images. Collaboration carries the added bonus of making writing a little less solitary. 

Watch this space in the upcoming weeks for our first graphic story, "Wet Spot." At left is a little teaser panel from the story featuring Anya, an au pair whose seduction by her employer has bizarre and unexpected consequences.

Tangentially related, I recently bought my first comic book as an adult. When I was very young, I loved listening to stories of Wonder Woman on my Fisher Price tape recorder. As a kid, I was very into "Betty & Veronica" (Team Veronica!), but my comic/graphic novel reading experience as an adult has been more "literary." Yes, this is a slippery descriptor that can evoke endless debate, but no one can argue that "Persepolis" is a very different beast than the works of DC and Marvel. 

In an effort to learn all things comic, I've been listening to the 3 Chicks podcasts. Their motto is "comics should be good," and they raved about "Ghost." I was sold. But when I read volume one, I was surprised by the huge gap in the quality of the art and the quality of the writing. I won't be buying any more of the "Ghost" series, since clunky, smug narrative voices make me want to tear my hair out.  But the art is so purty. Anyone have a recommendation for a comic that has art as good as Phil Noto's, with writing to match?

Questions for the Future Answered #2

Answering Questions from the Future #1

On the first day of 2012, I started a series of posts that asked questions of the future. Now that the year is almost over, I'm sharing the answers! Though some questions remain unanswered, others were as predicted. A few were a complete surprise. In the final tally, I think my almost 2013 self has far fewer answers than my past self wanted. But the questions are still a useful yearbook of bookish and cultural events of 2012.
 

Easing My Way Back In

(Almost) Back From Summer Break

(Source)

I've been on vacation from the blog for much of the summer. Like returning to school, I'm both dreading and excited about resuming my usual posting routine. But come Labor Day, I'll be back in my seat in Blogland.

I couldn't resist popping in to talk about NPR's Top 100 List of YA Books. Argument over the value of this list has been heated, and several have eloquently discussed it. I won't rehash the discussion here, but it's worth checking out. 

The most interesting thing about the list is how off some of the entries are. They're simply not YA. There are a number that are borderline: The Hobbit; Fahrenheit 451; To Kill A Mockingbird. I don't think they're YA, but an argument could be made about their audience. But the books below are unarguably children's books. And in a survey of over 2,000 people, a fair number voted for these books. Someone probably could approximate the statistics, but that someone is not me. Bottom line--people do not know what YA is. But don't ask me to define it. Like obscenity, I know it when I see it!

Without further ado, my top 10, next to the spot the book or series was given on the list:

1/100 The Betsy Tacy series

2/33 The Call Of The Wild

3/14 The Anne of Green Gable series

4/30 Tuck Everlasting

5/41 Dune 

6/51 Treasure Island 

7/44  The Dark Is Rising series

8/18  Lord Of The Flies

9/3 To Kill A Mockingbird

10/7 The Lord Of The Rings

There you have it, folks. The above are by and large awesome books, but they're not YA. Even worse, NPR actually made an attempt to weed out books meant for younger readers. If this sloppiness bugs you, consider the following: for all anyone knows, The Hungry Caterpillar and Good Night Moon could be in the mix, below the one hundred mark. Oy.

Bookish Marry, Fuck, Kill: Female Psychological Thriller Authors

 The Rules:

Marry means this will be a book or author you will  read for the rest of your life. Fuck means you get to read once, in a literary one night stand, and never again. You're attracted to the boo or author, but you don't want to wake up next to him/her/it every morning for the rest of your life. Kill means you eradicate the book or books from the world. You may even be reaching back in time and strangling the work before it was ever written.

The candidates:

Sophie Hannah, Tana French and Carol Goodman

 My choices:

Marry: Tana French. She's a genius, full stop. She's also one of the very few writers whose books I enjoy rereading. Typically I don't love books in a series that follow different characters in the same universe, but French makes you feel like every new protagonist is worth spending time with, no matter how much you loved the last. I'm totally proposing.

 

Fuck: Carol Goodman. I've never read another author who uses water as a central thematic element in every single one of her two billion books (more like seven, probably). Water is really conducive to obsession.  Sailors, fish, flowers: if they like water, I like them. If I could, I'd marry her too. But since I can't, this will be a long cherished literary one night stand. I will keep a folded photo copy of a cover of one of her books in my wallet until it's falling apart at the folds.

Kill: Sophie Hannah. I like Hannah's work. I've been reading a lot of it lately, and have no real desire to erase it from existence. But since I have to choose, I'm going to eliminate Hannah's books. While compelling, they're also unnecessarily confusing at times. Please don't hate me, Sophie Hannah!

Book Review: Between You And Me

Title: Between You And Me

Authors: Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin

Publisher: Simor & Schuster

Imprint: Atria Books

Pub. Date: June 12, 2012

ISBN: 978439188187

The publisher’s summary:

In Between You and Me, twenty-seven-year-old Logan Wade has built a life for herself in New York City, far from her unhappy childhood in Oklahoma. But when she gets the call that her famous cousin needs a new assistant, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. Logan hasn’t seen Kelsey since they were separated as kids; in the meantime, Kelsey Wade has become one of Fortune Magazine’s most powerful celebrities and carrion for the paparazzi. But the joy at their reunion is overshadowed by the toxic dynamic between Kelsey and her controlling parents. As Kelsey grasps desperately at a “real” life, Logan risks everything to try and give her cousin the one thing she has never known—happiness. As Kelsey unravels in the most horribly public way Logan finds that she will ultimately have to choose between saving her cousin and saving herself.

Between You and Me has the kind of ripped from the headlines plot you expect from an episode of Law & Order. That’s not to say that this kind of inspiration is illegitimate; even Joyce Carol Oates took this route with her JonBenet Ramsey inspired novel My Sister, My Love. The allure of Between You & Me lies in how closely it shadows the story of Britney Spears’ personal struggles.  People like gossip, and it’s fun to read a story that allows you to imagine you’re discovering all the inside dirt on a (fictional) pop star so similar to Britney Spears that their names are almost interchangeable.

So far, so good. But the problem is that Kraus and McLaughlin have established a pattern of novels that have happy endings. Coming to the tragic ending of Between You & Me feels like being mauled by a chihuahua: while not truly painful, it’s totally unexpected. Surprising the reader is usually a good thing. But when you read a book by Kraus and McLaughlin, you expect glossy, fast-paced fun. Between You & Me adheres so closely to its inspiration that it forgoes the necessary happy ending of a fun read.

Kraus and McLaughlin alter the outcome of Kelsey’s tumultuous life to make her ultimate situation even worse than that of Britney Spears. Instead of suffering from an actual mental illness, Kelsey is the victim of a Gothic plot cooked up by her parents to retain control over her. After she rebels against her parents, Kelsey is placed under conservatorship despite the fact that she’s healthy and able to run her own life. It’s hard to decide which is more appalling: the real life example of Spears, in which a mentally ill woman legally under the control of her parents is pimped out for millions, or the fictional example of a healthy woman who accedes the legal control of her life to her parents because she’s sick of fighting for freedom from their pimping.

For the most part, the novel is well written enough to make you ignore the stock descriptions, constant label-checking and sentences so sloppy they weigh down paragraphs like lead balloons. But you don’t read a book like Between You & Me for its fine prose, and the novel fulfills its promise to entertain. Fans of Kraus & McLaughlin will enjoy the book, as will anyone who is looking for a decent beach read. The ending may even appeal to those who haven’t gotten a dose of fictional schadenfreude lately. Being forewarned about the ending should make the reading experience as reliable as it typically is for this genre and these authors.

Book Review: The Unquiet

As I read, I kept waiting for The Unquiet to improve. It has an interesting premise and an engaging narrator. But issues with plot, characterization and plausibility torpedo the novel. The Unquiet’s central theme of the ghost seeking vengeance is very common in both YA and adult literature. It’s common because we as readers enjoy experiencing it over and over again. But it's employed predictably and without sufficient logic, the ubiquity of the trope makes the book that much more disappointing.

Rinn, who suffers from bipolar disorder, and her mother move back to her mother’s hometown in small town Ohio.  They are dealing with the destruction that her illness has wrought in the lives of her and her family. Almost immediately, Rinn is embroiled in the mystery of Anneliese, a ghost who supposedly haunts a “tunnel” like hallway that connects a half-built pool to the rest of the high school school. There are some areas where the novel succeeds. The Unquiet is an interesting exploration of a teen struggling with bipolar disorder,  yet at times the descriptions of her manic episodes feel too generic. The depiction of Rinn’s relationships with her family members is the greatest strength of the novel. 

One of the main problems with The Unquiet is that underdeveloped characterization prevents the reader from caring about what the evil ghost does. We don’t develop enough of a connection to the new friends that Rinn’s made in Ohio to really care when the ghost starts to punish them. Similarly, the “instalove” romance that erupts overnight between Rinn and Nate, the boy across the street, doesn’t feel like it’s founded on anything more than a running gag about Rinn being a city girl and Nate being a country boy. However, Rinn has moved from L.A. to a small town in Ohio. Both Rinn and Nate act as though they’re in an isolated spot in Montana or Idaho. They’re not even in Iowa! Ohio just doesn’t fit the bill as the setting for a truly country bumpkin town. Minus the plausibility of the subject of the constant teasing between the two, the relationship feels completely random.

Garsee states in an author’s note at the end of the novel that her inspiration came from a real life “tunnel” at her school that was believed to be haunted. Garsee’s genuine attachment to this element of the novel is clear, but the underdeveloped plot feels like window dressing designed to enable the author to write about the tunnel. The final revelations of the ghost’s motivation in harming the teenagers of River Hills High School and Rinn’s ability to banish the ghost aren’t very logical. Without giving away too much of the plot, I was left feeling that Rinn beat the ghost because she was the main character, and that’s who's supposed to save the day. Needless to say, that’s not a great ending.

It's easy to find examples of recent, better written YA novels that I would direct fans of the ghost seeking vengeance theme to first. Anna Dressed in Blood is a much more satisfying read. Laura Whitcomb’s A Certain Slant of Light, while a totally different take on teenage ghosts, is another great book. But those who can't read enough books in this particular vein will still find some enjoyment in this book, as the appeal of the narrator helps smooth over the problematic spots in the book until the inadequate ending . For everyone else, I'd classify The Unquiet as a bench warmer, an adequate back-up for when you must read something but don’t have anything better at hand.

Bookish Public Service Announcement: Don't Reread

Danger! Danger! On their Books Blog, the Guardian recently asked "Which children's books should you avoid rereading as an adult?"

All of them! Don't do it! Rereading is like the popular conception of time travel: just being in the past will inevitably change things in unexpected ways. It's not that an adult reader can't get a lot out of a book that was a favorite in childhood. I think preserving those first memories is much more important than revisiting a book. As a child, you haven't accumulated hundreds of reading experiences, so any impression is stronger. Books take up emotional and mental space that isn't already cluttered.

When you layer the adult reading experience over the childhood one, inevitably the childhood one is retroactively altered. The first memory is harder to access, because you have to fight through the film of the most current read. The poignancy of the emotional response evoked by the book will never again be so sharp.

Here's my top five list of books I will never open again:

A Wrinkle in Time
Everything about this book was special. Meg's strength, her interesting little brother (I wasn't big on the idea that little brothers couldn't be interesting when I was a child) and the terrifying alternate universe they journey to were different from anything I'd ever read. I can't remember the names of people I met two hours ago, but I can remember almost every detail of this series.

Bridge to Terabithia
This book is special because it opened my eyes to issues of class for the first time. It's also special because it was the first book in which I saw my own tendency to create pretend kingdoms reflected back at me. Finally, the death was so unexpected and painful. I couldn't ever feel that punched-in-the-gut feeling again if I reread it. For some reason, I want to hold on to that.

Tuck Everlasting
I hated the fact that Winnie didn't choose immortality. I hated it so much I almost hated the book. But it forced me to confront the idea of mortality. Maybe that's not a memory one should want to hang on to, but it's a big part of who I am. I wouldn't want to change that.

Jane Eyre
Okay, this book is different because I've actually reread it multiple times. I still hold on to some of the feelings evoked by my first read. But I've lost the fear and loneliness evoked by the beginning, and the awe at the unique character whose brain I was inside. It's such a good book that I don't know how anyone could resist the temptation to reread. But I wish I did.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
My first experience of a Gothic thriller kicked off a lifelong obsession. The child heroines who beat the evil adults were pretty awesome too. I made the mistake of choosing this to read aloud to my resident Young Reader. I only got through about a paragraph, because the dense prose wasn't engaging to my listener. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed either. My surprise about not being swept away again is what I associate with the book now.

Of course, because I am perverse, all of the above books carry bittersweet memories strongly involving either death, sadness or fear. No happy frolicking adventures here! I think I'd extend this public service advice announcement against rereading to practically everything important of childhood that's been left left behind: schools, houses, friends, toys and foods. If you try to go back, you only experience a pale echo in the present.

Trash or Treasure: See It & Say It In Spanish

Title: See It & Say It In Spanish

Author: Margarita Madrigal

Publisher: Signet Reference 
Date of Publication: 1961 

I picked this book up at a Goodwill because of the kooky cover. See It & Say It In Spanish epitomizes everything that confuses me about books that claim to teach you a foreign language. The book does not speak to you! How are you supposed to learn how to say words in a foreign language if you don't hear them spoken? Ah, but the author Margarita Madrigal has come up with a handy pronunciation key, at right.

I may just be very slow, but I am positive that I would not be able to utilize that key to accurately pronounce any of the words in this book. Maybe it would be useful in learning how to read Spanish, but it's advertised in the title as teaching you how to speak Spanish.

If you had no prior experience learning Spanish, and took this book as a guide to any Spanish speaking country in hopes of communicating in the language, I'm pretty sure no one would understand a word you said. In the moment, while frantically flipping to the right page that teaches how to order chicken in a restaurant, the average novice is going to ask for "polo," not "poyo." Hopefully whoever utilized this book encountered waiters who were exceptionally gifted at guessing games. 

Pluses:

+It might be better than having no language guide book. Maybe.

Minuses:

- The drawings are so bad. Is it just me, or does the dinosaur in the picture at left look like it's praying?
- The book never mentions accents or tildes. The reader is left to assume that these are just visual decorations randomly sprinkled over various words, not an integral part of the language or anything.
 
Final Verdict: Trash! Totally trash. I feel sorry for anyone who actually tried to use this book for educational purposes. It's part of a Signet series that includes books on learning Italian, German, French and English. It might be fun to collect the set, so that you could brag you have the worst language books ever. Otherwise, just say no.

Book Review: Dark Companion

Title: Dark Companion

Author: Marta Acosta

Publisher: Tor/Forge

Imprint: Tor Teen

Pub. Date: July 3, 2012

ISBN: 9780765329646

First, the publisher’s summary:

Orphaned at the age of six, Jane Williams has grown up in a series of foster homes, learning to survive in the shadows of life. Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress's gorgeous son, Lucien. Things seem too good to be true.

They are.

The more she learns about Birch Grove's recent past, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student, whose place Jane took? Why does Lucien's brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much?

As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove--and what she would risk to stay there... 

I love paranormal thrillers set at boarding schools for girls. I love school stories in general, but if I could only read one sub-genre for the rest of my life, the PTBSG would be it. Yes, that’s a pretty unwieldy acronym, but how often do you make up one in every day life? Never. It’s good to seize the opportunity to create one when it presents itself.

Among my favorite PTBSGs are Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series and Lois Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall. There are tons more potential favorites that I haven’t read yet: Hex Hall, Vampire Academy, The Name of the Star. One could make the argument that there isn’t the need or room for another PTBSG. But Dark Companion has its own compelling spin on the sub-genre, and is definitely worth reading.

Warning: this review will be totally spoilerish. If you don’t want to know pivotal plot points and secrets, read no further!

Back From BEA: 2012 Superlatives Awards

The Best, Worst and Weirdest

Worst Book: Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends, by Venice A. Fulton. Is there really a need or market for an anorexia handbook? The internet is already crawling with thinspo and fitspo. Craziness.

           

New Book I’m Most Excited About: There were so many awesome books, but I’m currently reading the ARC of Jussi Alder-Olsen’s new Nordic thriller, The Absent One. Apparently Alder-Olsen has written a number of books in this series, but this is the second that’s been translated into English. I’m seriously thinking about learning Danish so I can read through without waiting for the next book to be translated.

Best Celebrity Sighting:

It’s a tie between Tom Wolfe & Tim Gunn. Tom Wolfe was being interviewed in a mini TV studio booth. His white hair perfectly matched his white suit. He looked exactly like you’d expect, except older. Tim Gunn was signing in a booth, and looked very pleasant and elegant.

Nicest Industry Professional:

Joanna Volpe.

Most Intimidating Industry Professional: Lynn Nesbit. Watching her on a panel made me sit up straighter in my chair and quit fidgeting.

Group Achievement Award:

The perfectly turned out young women who were 
working the publishing booths all day long in high, high heels. They were like the Ginger Rogers’ of BEA.

Best Booth: All of them? Seriously, it was a paradise of books.

Worst Booth: Dianetics, aka Scientology. It was front and center, and very red. The booth and its workers oozed creepiness.

Coolest Promotional Gimmick Bigger Than a Bread Box: The life size bubble mimicking the cover of the final book in Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy, in which you could get your picture taken. I got mine taken, and will have to update once I have access to it.

Coolest Promotional Gimmick Smaller Than a Bread Box: The postcard for Claire Legrand’s forthcoming The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls. Check out the bug!

Worst Promotional Gimmick: A young woman running around in a see through white bodysuit with angel’s wings. I’m still not sure what she was promoting.

Best Tote Bag: Olivia the Pig.

Best Purveyor of Confusion: The cart selling nuts at the back of the exhibition floor. Every time I passed by it, I thought I was smelling cookies baking and got excited. Nope. Just nuts.

Worst of the Javits Center: The most easily accessible bathroom while wandering around the exhibition floor was a 
four stall bathroom that had a long line of women snaking out at all times. Of course, there was no line for the men’s room. Come on, conference center designers! Four stalls?!

Best of the Javits Center: The pretty views available from perches on high staircases.

Worst Behaved: People pushing, shoving and clawing to get at tables of ARCs.

Best Behaved: People bonding while waiting in endless lines to get books signed.

Strangest Animal Sighting: A small dog being aggressively pushed through the aisles of the exhibition floor in a carriage.

_______

BEA was awesome, exhausting and something everyone should go to once. Luckily, none of my anticipatory worries came to pass. I had lots of fun, and I'll definitely be back.

BEA Bound!

I leave this morning for my first trip to BEA. I'm more of a country mouse than a city mouse, so my preparations have involved mentally gearing up for the psychic onslaught of hordes of people, in addition to packing and all the usual things you do.

I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to do much blogging, but I'll be Tweeting my little heart out! If I accomplish the following three things while at BEA, I will die (or just go home) a happy woman.

1. Get Zadie Smith or Megan McDonald to sign a book. I will say really ridiculous things like "you are so amazing,"and she will wearily smile at my lack of originality and over-enthusiasm. But I will still be filled with glee.

2. Pick up ARCs without feeling guilty. They're free? And I can just take one? It just doesn't seem right! I'll be the one hanging out behind the crowd stacked three deep at at a both, waiting to get someone's expression permission to take a copy.

3. Not snoop around the apartment I am staying in with Phoebe North (author of Starglass, forthcoming in 2013! Get psyched, people!) via airbnb. I blame the writer in me. I visually case people's homes on a regular basis because I'm constantly curious. With the owner gone, I'll be like a kid in a candy store. The temptation to open drawers will be excruciating. If only I could feel worse about violating a stranger's privacy and better about taking free things!

Feature & Follow Friday #21

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly social blog hop between book bloggers. There are two regular hosts: Parajunkee and Alison of Alison Can Read, and two special guest hosts every week. If you want to join in, click on either of their blogs to get the details. The FF question of the day is: 

Q: You are a matchmaker — your goal, hook up two characters from two of your favorite books. Who would it be? How do you think it would go?

This question makes me laugh, because I've advised many fictional couples not to be together on this blog as the Cranky Divorcee (at right). It's really hard to turn it around and be proactive! But for Feature & Follow Friday, I'm going to play Miss Lucky in Love (lower left). She's very sweet. See, she even has kittens!





I'm matching up Katniss Everdeen and Four from the Divergent series. This is assuming an alternate plot/world scenario in which neither of them is attached, because I like Peeta/Katniss and Tris/Four, and Miss Lucky in Love would never ever try to come between two sweethearts. But I think Katniss and Four would have even more sparks and crazy times together than Tris and Four. Plus, they'd move between both of their worlds really smoothly.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #19

"Road  Trip  Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors  post a  weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be  answered.  In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination  and get  everybody's unique take on the topic." Today's question on the  YA  Highway Road Trip is:

What book and/or writing conference would you love to go to?

This question is particularly timely for me because I am going to BEA for the first time next week! The YA Highway conference theme posts have been giving me some good ideas. Take snacks, for example. I wouldn't have thought of snacks, which is surprising, because as a mom, I am always carrying snacks!

Maybe I should prepare for BEA like I prepare for an outing with my child: arm myself with food, drink, wipes and distractions to pass the time? As you may have gleaned, I'm very excited about going. Here's a list of some of the things that I'm most looking forward to, and the accompanying supplies:

1. Free books! Okay, glorying in the potential literary loot is a little tacky. But I love being in any place that's full of books, whether it's a library, bookstore, or a conference that's been described as "the Disneyland of Books." And being in a place full of books that people just want to give you? Heaven. 

I'm preparing for this exciting aspect of BEA by bringing tote bags. I have dozens of them. In my home, totes are the opposite of the universal disappearing sock. The bags multiple when left alone together in a closet. Let's hope they keep performing this trick at BEA, in case I run out of bags!

2. Taking pictures of everything and tweeting random reactions. Because if you're not documenting and tweeting it, it's not really happening, right?! 

 

3. Getting some of my favorite books signed by their authors. Although this makes me nervous, and arguably there's not much to the interaction--you push your book towards the Author, like the dozens before and after you, trying not to embarrass yourself--I'm so excited about it.

4. Going to the YA Teen Author Carnival (and similar social things). I'm bringing my lucky t-shirt. I may not wear it, but having it with me makes me happy!

5. Seeing the spectacle. I'm looking forward to just being a part of such a crazy, whirlwind, enormous gathering devoted to books.

I would be really, truly, pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top grateful if you could share your tips or thoughts about BEA! What would you suggest to do, bring or see?

Memorial Day: Dulce et Decorum Est

(Soldiers carry a wounded comrade through a swampy area, 1969)

If you do nothing else this Memorial Day, read the following poem by Wilfred Owen.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

In a letter home, Owen translated the Latin phrase from Horace as: “It is sweet and meet to die for one’s country.” Wilfred Owen died in combat in World War I. He was twenty-five.

I remember exactly where I was when I first read Dulce et Decorum Est: in a Brit Lit survey class at Grinnell College, with sun coming over the page of my Norton anthology from the window behind me. If this is your first time reading the poem, maybe it will haunt you too.