Category: The Wandering Writer

Reads

So many of my friends ask me for book recommendations that I thought I’d dedicate a post here and there to what I am reading or have just read.  I don’t do reviews, so don’t expect long dissertations on any particular book.

  • Best book I’ve read lately:  Hands down, A Prayer for the Dying, Stewart O’Nan. If I told you it’s about a town with people dying from the plague, well, don’t let that stop you from reading this amazing book.  It is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

  • Book I couldn’t finish:  Great House, Nicole Krauss.  Just couldn’t get into it.  Maybe I’ll try again someday, because I’ve heard really good things about it, but it sure didn’t do anything for me.
  • Book I’m reading now:  The Red House, Mark Haddon.  If you read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, or A Spot of Bother, Haddon’s first two novels, well, you won’t know a thing about this book.  It’s a totally different experience.  Haddon’s dry humor is nowhere to be found, or at least I haven’t gotten to it yet.  It’s written in multiple points of view, so it took me a while to get into it, but I’m hooked now.

  • Next on my “to be read” list:  The Chemistry of Tears, Peter Carey.  I’m a huge Carey fan, so I’m really looking forward to it.
  • Book I’m going to read because of reviews from fellow bloggers:  Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn.  Everybody who has read it has said great things.
  • Book I’m going to reread soon:  Anna Karenina, Tolstoy.  About ten years ago I tackled this book, mainly because it was a book I thought I should read.  After a struggle getting started, I ended up falling in love with it.  The new movie coming out at the end of the year reminded me how much I loved it and made me want to read it again.

Hope I’ve given you some ideas for your next read.

To Improve Your Writing, Think Like a Two-Year-Old

I just spent three glorious days in Boston hanging out with William, a toddler who recites Shel Silverstein and loves Thomas the Train and strawberries and Maisy books.  We played, we pretended, we chased bubbles, and we ate ice cream.  He has a rectangular wooden puzzle piece that doubles for his very own iPad (which he made me sleep with at night so it would be ready to use as soon as he woke up).  He talks to carpenter ants, and stomps in puddles, and loves sticks and rocks and pretending to water the garden with a jump rope.

I tell you all of this because if you haven’t hung out with a two-year-old in a while (or ever), you really should. If you’re open to it, a two-year-old can return you to a state of wonder.

When was the last time you sat and watched ants drag crumbs across a sidewalk?  Or stared up at the sky through a ceiling of leaves, watching the light shift and shimmer?  It’s such a luxurious way of living, and so important for a writer.  We are often too busy, though, trying to create the perfect sentence, and we forget to listen, and look, and just be.

William’s descriptions are clear and concise – he likes brown ice cream – and he plays with words the way a good writer does.  He loves to tell stories, and loves to hear them. I have to admit that after he went to bed each night I rushed to my computer to steal his ideas.  But what I got most from him was a reminder that the world is indeed a wondrous place, and that everything in it is worthy of attention.  (Oh, yeah, and that if you tell a carpenter ant he can’t have your snack, he will leave you alone.)

Rolling Down Highway 95

This past weekend I spent a long few days driving from Charleston to Charlottesville to pack up my stuff in storage and bring it back with me.  Along the way I had lots of time to think.  Not only is it a long drive, but the cargo van I was driving had no CD player, and the radio didn’t work (so neither did my iPod).  There is nothing more crazy-making than no music and no book to listen to on a trip.  So to kill time and maintain sanity, I decided to put together a list of helpful hints for anyone thinking of driving down to see me.  Hope this doesn’t talk you out of it – I’d love the company.

1)      Make sure the radio and/or CD player works.  The only thing longer than the 24 hour flu is the 8.5 hour drive from Charleston to Charlottesville without anything for company.

2)      Make sure you have cruise control.  Driving long distances without it is a little like riding a one-speed bike up a mountain.  It’s possible to do it, but there are sure way easier ways to get there.

3)      If you are going to rent a cargo van to go out of state, it’s cheaper to rent it for a whole week and let it sit than to rent it for just the 3 days you actually need it. Really.

4)      In Virginia, if the speed limit is 65, it actually means 65.  In NC, it means 70 – 75.  In SC, 65 means if you’re driving under 80, you’ll probably get run off the road.

5)      If you don’t buy anything else on your trip, buy peaches as soon as you cross from North Carolina into SC.  There are no better peaches in the world than those from upstate SC.  Trust me, I know – I grew up eating Gaffney peaches, and I’m a peach snob because of it.

6)      If you’re looking for a place to eat, the Golden Corral has the best buffet in Wilson, NC.  At least, that’s what the giant billboard says.

7)      And on the topic of food, the Sombrero Restaurant at South of the Border is not a Mexican restaurant.  So don’t get your heart set on bean tostadas and chips and salsa like I did and then end up with an iceberg lettuce salad from the salad bar.

8)      If you’ve never been to South of the Border, you should stop.  It’s like a time machine, with all the entertainment families thought cool before there were backseat TVs and water parks.  There are junk shops, and a reptile lagoon, and big plaster flamingos and bears and gorillas hanging out together on the sidewalks (not sure why that makes sense – are there bears and gorillas and pink flamingos living side by side somewhere south of the border?).

9)      Try to make it out of Virginia before you buy gas.  For some reason, gas in VA is at least 10c more per gallon, sometimes as much as 30c per gallon more.

10)  The last thing is a reminder to myself – never, never, never try to cram a lifetime of stuff into a cargo van again.  It’s not gonna fit.