Three Smart Writers Who Will Knock Your Socks Off

I love Smart Writers.

Now, when I say "Smart Writers" I don't mean stuffy academic writers (although let's tell it like it is, I like reading them too). When I say "Smart Writers" I mean authors who write books that express new and thought-provoking ideas with beautiful, playful, intelligent language. When I say "Smart Writers" I mean writers that I want to pluck off the page and bring home for coffee and conversation. I'm talking about writers who inspire and challenge me, and who make me laugh.

Right now I'm reading Simon Pegg's autobiography Nerd Do Well; and I tell you, that man is a Smart Writer.

What Should You Read Next? Six Mini-Reviews to Help You Decide

The past four weeks have brought with them flu, fever, and a heavy workload, but they’ve also brought with them some really wonderful books! So this week, instead of one long book review, I’ve written six mini-reviews: Three books released in 2012, two due for release later in 2013, and one tried-and-true classic. I hope you will enjoy these books as much as I have, and that you’ll share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Books Reviewed in this Post
Glaciers by Alexis Smith
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
The Innocents by Francesca Segal
The Third Son by Julie Wu
A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Happy Reading!

Glaciers by Alexis Smith
This was a perfect gem of a book, a story (and an author) to fall in love with! Perfectly encapsulated in one single day, this book nevertheless takes us back into the narrator Isabel’s childhood, launches us into her sweet hopes for the future, and ends in the bittersweet reality of the present. Glaciers is somewhat like Joyce’s Ulysses in its ability to make one day the embodiment of all days, but with a decidedly feminine twist. Smith’s writing is simply beautiful: It is poetic, vulnerable, dreamy and insightful—a perfect representation of the narrator herself. The story is deceptively simple; a shy girl who loves vintage clothing, the postcards of strangers, and the quiet ex-military man who works with her. But there’s so much more to Isabel, and to the novel, than seems at first glance—it’s all (as the title suggests) just underneath the surface. This book is not to be missed!

Publisher: Tin House Books
Release Date: January 17, 2012

Book of Questions, Book of Miracles, "The Book of Why" by Nicholas Montemarano

In A Nutshell

The Book of Why is one of those rare books that is exactly what it claims to be: It's a book of questions... But with very few answers.

The Whole Enchilada

"This is a self-help book. Didn't think it was, but it is. It's also a revision, a question, a confession, an apology, a love letter."

This is how The Book of Why by Nicholas Montemarano begins. But don't let that beginning fool you; this is a book that asks more questions than it answers. Our narrator and main character Eric Newborn is a successful author and "your thoughts create your own reality" self-help guru who, after the death of his wife, has gone off his own philosophy. At least this is what he claims on the outside. On the inside, Eric is still afraid to think negative thoughts for fear that they might manifest, still afraid that his wife killed herself with her own lack of belief, or worse yet, that Eric himself killed her  because he wasn't strong enough (or didn't want enough) to will her back to health with the power of his positive thinking.

Book Review: Auraria by Tim Westover

In a Nutshell

Westover's Auraria is like having a great novel, a night of ghost stories around a campfire, and a college course in Appalachian folktales all rolled into one.

The Whole Enchilada

We all love fairy tales and legends when we're kids, but as we get older the fairy tales--and I'm talking about truly compelling fairy tales, not the simple, syrupy plotlines so many bad romantic comedies are based on--seem to dry up. Some might argue that the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre can satisfy the grown-up desire for magic and wonder, but what you get from Sci-Fi/Fantasy isn't quite the same as what you get from Fairy Tales. Fairy Tales and Legends tend to be local rather than off-world (or alternate world), and the skeleton of the Fairy Tale is often familiar. In fact, it's this very familiarity which makes the Fairy Tale so alluring... The protagonist of the story could just as easily be ourselves--our house, our grandmother, our innocence, our own deep dark woods.

The Passion is Back! Looking Back on December and Forward to 2013

Can the last month of 2012 be an indication of what's to come in 2013? I hope so, because when it comes to books, December 2012 was my most satisfying--and hopeful--month in a long time. This wasn't because I read the best books of the year during this month, but because this was the month when I found my passion for reading again. After too many months of reading ennui and halfhearted dips into chapters and verse, December found me falling once again down that literary rabbit hole; getting caught up (delightfully) once more in words and story. And I'm not ashamed to admit that it all started with Romance...

December Books Read

The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen
Unmaking Hunter Kennedy by Anne Eliot
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Malory Family Series by Johanna Lindsey
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells 
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Trust Me, "The Iliad" Is Not As Scary As You Think

Although the length, age, and revered "classic" status of The Iliad can sometimes make the thought of reading it for the first time intimidating, the story is well worth that initial leap of faith. Once a reader has taken that leap and read the first couple of chapters they will be hooked; so wrapped up in the story of Achilles, Hector, Patroklus and Paris that they will be unable to put it down.

The Robert Fagles translation is especially accessible, bringing these ancient heroes with their anger and honor right into our modern realm. Who could not be hooked when they read of Achilles' disgust with Agamemnon in Chapter 1: "Shameless--armored in shamelessness--always shrewd with greed! How could any Argive soldier obey your orders..." Or when they get a peek at how Hector, the great hero of troy, softens when he is with his wife and son in Chapter 6: "Loving father laughed, mother laughed as well, and glorious Hector, quickly lifting the helmet from his head, set it down on the ground, fiery in the sunlight, and raising his son he kissed him, tossed him in his arms, lifting a prayer to Zeus and the other deathless gods..."

Of course, interspersed with the chapters filled with drama and emotion are chapters filled with battle and death, the pettiness of the gods, and chapters which outline the history--not only of the Trojan war itself and what led to it, but the histories of individual warriors and their families. All of this means that while some chapters may be more difficult to read than others, there will be something for everybody in The Iliad, you just have to keep turning the pages.

Book Review: "The Age of Miracles" by Karen Thompson Walker

 

In A Nutshell

Adolescence or the Apocalypse, it’s hard to say which experience is more traumatic; but The Age of Miracles handles them both with a deft—if somewhat emotionally distant—talent.

The Whole Enchilada

Something about adolescence begs to be compared to the end of the world as we know it. In fact, when it comes to coming-of-age novels they seem to fall into one of two categories: disturbing dystopian post-apocalyptic, or sentimentally earnest and understanding true-to-life renditions. It’s easy to understand why this is; after all, it’s hard to look back on adolescence with any kind of objectivity. What with the raging hormones, the parade of first discoveries, the fear of/struggle for independence, and the cutthroat social wrangling, comparing adolescence to an apocalypse actually seems generous. 

Horror and Familiarity Go Hand-In-Hand: Review of Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"

In A Nutshell

Simple, subtle, and insidious. The most horrifying parts are the ones that are the most familiar.

The Whole Enchilada

Never Let Me Go is a book I couldn’t stop reading, and one I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about for quite some time. On the surface it can almost come off as a simple love triangle, although the circumstances (revealed slowly over the course of the book) make the story so much more; and beyond the story itself, the moral and societal issues brought up in the book are hardly the kind of thing you can sweep under the rug after reading the last page. The story of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy is a centuries-old one: two girls, one boy, love, uncertainty and betrayal. On its own there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the triangle between these three young adults; it’s the dark secret that underlies their very existence which makes this story so compelling.

Coping with the Uncomfortable in Dan Chaon's "Stay Awake" Stories

In a Nutshell

These stories will turn your brain inside out and you'll spend days trying to put it back together again... In a good way.

The Whole Enchilada

Reading Dan Chaon's Stay Awake was one of the most disquieting reading experiences I've had in a long time... and one I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the odd, the sad, the philosophical and psychologically sideways--or anyone who simply feels they need their reading life shaken up a bit. Each of these twelve stories draws you into the pre- and post-tragedy experience of the main character, brings you just shy of a crystalline point of enlightenment, and then leaves you with one foot over the dark edge of an abyss, wondering whether you should back away or jump off.