The New York Times Book Review and Me

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

I generally keep my posts to 4-5 paragraphs so my busy friends will consider reading them. I get it! This one’s longer, though. Look at it as a loping re-entry after I let the summer and my novel-writing grab my attention away. (The following article was first published under the same title on Blogcritics.)

On Sunday mornings in Maine, my husband drives to the island’s general store around 7:30 and comes back with two egg sandwiches, a hazelnut coffee for me, and the New York Times. He hands me the Book Review section and the Magazine (read: crossword puzzle). I settle into the glider chair in front of the harbor-view picture window (swoon) and start with the Book Review. This past Sunday I made notes on the pages as I worked through the review, so that I could share with you the sorts of things I focus on. You cannot call me scientific about it.

Page 1: I always read the front page book review(s), whether I care about the topic or not. These are getting special attention for a reason, I figure, and will probably be bestsellers, so I should know about them. This Sunday’s front-page review was written by Jennifer Egan (author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, which I loved). Her review was on Michael Chabon’s Telegraph Avenue. I’ve been seeing the book a lot—it has a catchy cover (not that the NYT Book Review stoops to showing covers, unless it’s in paid advertising by the publishers). Egan’s review is generally positive, calling the book “rich” and “comic.” She emphasizes that the “novel is equally a tribute to the cinematic style of Quentin Tarantino …,” with which I sort of stop reading. But that’s just me. (So, even though I just said “I always read the front page book review(s),” I have already stretched the truth.)

Pages 2–5: These are ads by publishers, the table of contents, a lead-in by “The Editors,” and letters from prior-review readers. I scan all that. This Sunday I am caught by the page 4 ad for Jonathan Evison’s The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving. I’ve been seeing that cover a lot, too, so I read the ad’s blurbs and learn that according to the Boston Globe the book is “Little Miss Sunshine meets Rain Man … Big-hearted, and very funny, and full of hope.” What I don’t learn for another eight pages is that there is a NYT review of the book on page 12 in today’s issue. It is a pleasant surprise when I find it, since I have just been intrigued by the ad. (It is overall a positive review, by the way.)

Page 6: Yeah! An interview with Joyce Carol Oates, the prolific writer and professor of creative writing at Princeton University. I always enjoy reading about JCO. In this interview, she names the last truly great book she read as being James Joyce’s Ulysses. This kicks off a conversation with my husband in which I admit having never read it, and he admits having read only part before turning to Cliffs Notes for the rest. (Today, I check Cliffs Notes and decide I won’t even go that far.)

Pages 7–19: Here’s how I approach the guts of the Book Review section: I look at the review title and subtitle (different from the titling of the book being reviewed) and decide if I have any interest or should have any interest. If I’m not sure, I skip to the last paragraph in the review for an indication of the reviewer’s takeaway for the book. Since my predilections are for biography, memoir, and fiction, I tend to read the full reviews for those—but as you’ve already seen, I may quit on a review partway through. If the fiction is a book of short stories, I skim quickly and usually take a pass. If a review is science or social science, I often read it. If it’s war or history, I skip with only a tad bit of guilt. If it’s children’s books, I skip with no guilt at all.

I get my history from reading historical novels or biographies. For instance, in this week’s Book Review, I am intrigued by John Guy’s Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel: A Nine-Hundred-Year-Old Story Retold.

Another benefit of checking out the NYT Book Review is for gift ideas. Thanks to this week’s review of Daniel Smith’s Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety I know what I will be giving a certain someone for his birthday this year.

Pages 20–26: The bestseller lists (combined print and e-book, separated print, e-book, and types of print) are fun to look at, to see what’s topping the lists and to read snippets of extraneous info the editors provide on some of the books each week. Lately I’ve been pleased to note that I seem to be reading more nonfiction these days than I used to. Guess I’m starting to grow up.

Page 27: The last interior page is always an essay, and I rarely read it. (I’m not all grown up yet.) Besides, I’m itching by now to start the crossword puzzle in the NYT Magazine.

Page 28: This is always a back-cover advertisement page that some publisher(s) will have paid dearly for.

Some people prefer The New York Review of Books, and so I took a year’s subscription to it over a year ago. I never read a single complete article. It demands a high degree of sustained reading that feels more like work than pleasure. I’ll never have the level of concentration required. I prefer the variety and brevity of the NYT Book Review.

Tell me, do you read the NYT Book Review and if so, how do you approach it? Do you tackle the whole thing, or are you like me, picking and choosing?

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Housekeeping Post – Please Ignore

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

I’m updating my info with Technorati, which requires that I post this code QBMWTRNWKTVT in a new post. Please forgive the interruption to your day. I’m going to do a true post in the near future.

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Case of the Missing Timeline

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

The novel I’m writing has a lot going on over the course of a year across seven characters’ intertwined lives. I have managed the timeline very carefully, double-checking myself with each new scene. A cheat-sheet of dates and events and chapter numbers has helped me keep it all straight. This morning I went to check something on it, and it’s missing! Did you take it?

The piles in my office have been in worse shape. Things are looking under control, in fact. What probably happened is I misfiled it, which could mean I’ll never see it again.

I remember when a good friend had been teaching me how to play bridge for a couple years when she got aggravated by my reliance on a Goren quick-reference card and told me—in a stern voice—to put it down and trust myself. I’m at that stage now with my novel’s timeline. It feels like someone just let go of my hand.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Mentors in My Publishing Past

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

From Alan MacRoberts, I learned–to my great surprise in 1970–that not everyone cared about keeping a job where they were, that they might be enticed to work somewhere else. His own reason was a purchase of our company by Xerox, which he decided boded no good for the publishing experience as he knew it. He was my first boss in the career path of my choice, and I was starting as the high-school science department secretary. Of course, he taught me a lot more (as did all the mentors I’ll mention here), but I’m focusing on the gut-level learning, the aha.

From A.K., I learned that some people can be managers who don’t have a clue how to motivate others to meet a common goal. This manager sat in his office, smoking his pipe (ah, the good old days), thinking about who-knows-what, though rumored to be writing a book. Luckily for him, all of us on staff cared about getting things done. I must, however, credit him for making sure I was promoted to assistant editor before the company blocked that avenue to people who had never taught in a classroom. So, I also learned that people are not ever only what they seem.

From Jim Ashley, I learned a person can still be human while managing others. He had (still does have) great heart and could make me laugh like few others, thanks to a perfectly bent sense of humor. Jim was in charge of the development of a major elementary science series and then an individualized/modular science program for older students. While with Jim, I was promoted to editor and then program manager.

From Dick Morgan, I learned the value of keeping to agendas at meetings, and also that managers have the power to help their direct reports in quiet, strong ways. (You can see more of my thoughts about Dick here.) While Dick was my boss, I was chief cook and bottle washer on a junior high lab-science program, and later program manager in the reading department.

From E.H., I learned that one can harm their project by hiring a friend who can’t do the job. My mentor with regard to this boss wasn’t the boss but my dad (my chief mentor in life), who advised me how to get the work done despite roadblocks put in my way by my own boss. In this case, my dad advised–and I followed through–that I write a memo to my boss suggesting how the project might still be completed on schedule, and that I copy in the sales and other managers in the company who wanted that deadline met. E.H. leaned over the wall of my cubicle and said, “Meredith, do what you have to do to get it done.”

From Ruth Ann Hayward, I learned the importance of writing memos that could be read quickly, almost at a glance. She emphasized the value of using bulleted lists. This has served me extremely well, especially after emails came into vogue! (I also learned by negative example never to use multiple exclamation points!!! They riddled her informal communications.) Ruth Ann was in charge of the development of a major new K-8 reading program and then a major new K-8 language arts (English) program.

Following my involvement as program manager for the new English program, I transferred to the marketing department as a product manager to oversee the launch of the program into the marketplace. I had thrived in the editorial/development end of publishing but now had to learn to swim in the marketing/sales end. My boss, E.B., had different pressures on him than any of my former bosses. At first I required little attention from him as I performed my job (already being familiar with the product and how to position it). But when I needed help with the political aspect of working with the sales manager, the help was not forthcoming. And when an outsider was hired for a new position I thought I was perfect for, I learned it was time to leave the company.

I had not hit the glass ceiling but an experiential ceiling. E.B. didn’t know how to explain it to me, and I’m still not sure I understand the decision. I wish he could have talked to me about it, but “sharing” wasn’t the mode in that department. So, I’ll credit that boss with showing me by example that one does have to learn to “swim with the sharks.” E.B. wasn’t a shark, but he sure had quite a few reporting to him, and at least one biting him from a different department. The book by Harvey Mackay, Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive, first published in 1988, is a bit dated now but still gets rave reviews from users. I wish I’d read it at the time, and still would recommend it to anyone trying to survive in a business setting today.

And you, who was a favorite mentor of yours for positive learning? or for negative?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Creative Book Promotions

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Author Jennifer Miller promotes “The Year of the Gadfly” with a Novelade Stand

A friend of mine alerted me to this most wonderful book promo idea, a “novelade” stand! Read the short article (which begins with a tweet) by clicking here.

Sometimes–not often enough–books are used to promote other things. Click here for a unique case of hotel promotion using a particular book.

Here’s a truly creative book trailer, for a book titled Goodbye for Now.

Coming in November 2012 is the movie of the book Life of Pi. Have your read the book? You will enjoy remembering it while you watch the beautiful visuals in the movie trailer (below). The movie has been shot in 3D. As usual and on principle, I highly recommend reading the book before you see the movie.

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What My Teenaged Grandchildren Are Reading

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Foggy mornings are great for reading.

Over July 4 week we were fortunate to have a bunch o’ family with us, including three of the grandkids. They thanked me profusely for recent book gifts, and all three were partway through those books–but only one actually had the book with him. All three were in the midst of reading other books. That’s okay; they had all at least started, swore they were enjoying, and would finish them. I take them at their word!

Here’s what they were actively reading:

Tim at 18 (to whom we gave The Book Thief by Markus Zusak): As he heads into college at U. Mass. Amherst, he is reading the college’s 2012 Common Reading book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. A lead-in page bound into the paperback printed for this purpose explains that all incoming new students need to have read it by orientation time, and it will be “used in a variety of ways” during their first semester. The author will be the keynote speaker at the New Student Convocation.

Lauren at 16 (to whom we gave Misery by Stephen King): She is rereading The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson. She is rereading it because she wants to read the next of Ferguson’s books (The Angel of Death, I think) but wants to refresh her memory first. Her reading choice reassures me I wasn’t wrong to give her Stephen King’s Misery.

Jeremy at 14 (to whom we gave Damned by Check Palahniuk): He brought with him a book he was given by another set of grandparents, which is Little, Brown and Company’s binding of David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (Wallace’s only speech ever to a graduating class, this one in 2005 at Kenyon College). It’s about making conscious choices, and Jeremy has grocked it.

Before their week with us, I knew the kids could claim such mega-bestsellers as Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, and Wimpy Kid. But after their week with us, I’m reassured they’re reading a lot of other books too.

If you have teenaged grandchildren, what are they reading?

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Author Connections at “Books In Boothbay 2012”

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Railway Village in Boothbay, Maine

A happy, noisy, interactive book event occurs on a Saturday each summer at the Railway Village in Boothbay, Maine. I’ve been twice now, each time with the same friend–so it’s now an annual routine for us (right?). She goes because she’s an avid reader and book-gifter, and I go because I need to make the acquaintance of other authors and read more books in my chosen genre (cozy suspense).

The reading occurred in the Railway Village’s Chapel building, a sweet, old-feeling, little room with small pews facing the podium and large chairs that would seat a pastor and one other (if memory serves, so I can’t swear to the number). I felt uneasy at first, since churches aren’t part of my life anymore, but I got over it–guess that’s another story for another time?–and sat in the front pew with my pal. The low back of the small pew bit into my own back, giving physicality to my discomfort at seeing the pew to begin with.

Author Monica Wood

I wanted to meet Monica Wood because I keep her book Description in my pile of best books on writing. I refer to it whenever I see a section in my own writing that feels exceptionally flat. Wood is a master at creating mood and imagery with words. Her newest book is We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine. It begins with a poem by Gregory Orr, “This Is What Was Bequeathed Us,” that speaks directly to my own vision of earthly life after death. I’m sure, from Wood’s engaging reading, that I will love this memoir. She read from the Prologue to set the scene in the milltown of Mexico, Maine, and then from a chapter to describe the landlord of her childhood home.

Author Tess Gerritsen

I didn’t know I wanted to meet Tess Gerritsen until my friend, a fan of the Rizzoli & Isles series, went all excited over seeing that Gerritsen was the author slated to speak after Wood. We stayed in the Chapel (oh, my aching back) to listen to her. Like Wood, Gerritsen is a dynamic speaker. Both women are beautiful, psyched about their work, and fun to listen to. If I’m fortunate enough to “tour” Circling Great Wharf (my debut novel, if/when), I may need an hour or ten with a speech coach to get me back into that mode. Wood and Gerritsen set a high bar.

Author Vicki Doudera

After enjoying our chosen speakers, my friend and I went to the Railway Village Town Hall to meet authors and buy signed books. I had a chance to speak with both Wood and Gerritsen, and bought Wood’s memoir mentioned above and the first in Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series, The Surgeon. It was Gerritsen who pointed Vicki Doudera out to me as a cozy mystery writer. Doudera (whose first-in-series book I purchased, A House to Die For, A Darby Farr Mystery) gave me the name of her agent as someone who represents cozies. A colleague had suggested that I should focus on such agents more than agents who rep only “pure” mysteries, which I assume Gerritsen’s books are.

I can’t wait to read my three new books. Have you read any of these I’ve mentioned, or any by these authors?

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What’s That Book About?

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Upon completing my read of Jennifer Egan’s book A Visit from the Goon Squad, I begged my husband, “Please, please, please make the next book you read this one. I need to talk with someone about it!” He did as I asked, and we have now discussed it. I needed his opinion, because I knew I’d only gotten from the book what I could get from it, and it felt like every reader would probably have a different take-away.

In the recent First Reunion of the Stonecoast Class, someone asked the instructor and me (I think we were the only two who had read the book by that time) what the Goon Squad book was about. I declined to share my conclusion because I didn’t believe it was the correct or only conclusion, and I didn’t want to ruin the reading experience for others. I’d have been happy to share my thinking if everyone had read it, but that wasn’t the case. On the other hand, Lily, the instructor, was able to bring words to it that didn’t give anything away. (That’s why she’s the instructor.)

I feel much better about my feelings of inadequacy after reading this quotation from Bryan Basamanowicz: “[T]he narrative intelligences of our books should leave us feeling a bit pressed intellectually, a bit outmatched, amazed ultimately by the talent of the author who brought such an exquisite intelligence to life.” (Bryan Basamanowicz in article “From the Library of Your Soul-Mate: The Unique Social Bond of Literature”)

Hubby and I did, in fact, end up with similar takes on the book, with our own nuances. I still think it’s a book I’d like to read again someday; I’m curious to discover the way Egan used each chapter to pave the way to her main idea.

What was a book that left you wondering if you had really gotten the author’s intended message?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Brief Book Previews from The Millions Magazine

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

You may enjoy a look at what one magazine, The Millions, took much time/effort to create for people who live and breathe books–or for people who read only a few each year and want to make sure they’re picking up on good ones. Previews of new books coming out in 2012 are provided here in helpful article part one and part two.

I haven’t read any of these yet, and probably won’t for another year or two. You see, I don’t use our local library to borrow books, and I usually don’t want to pay the price of a hardcover (or heft the volume either). So I wait for the paperback, which also gives me time to learn whether my most trusted book-recommending friends think a particular book is a match for me. But you, dear reader, may be one who likes to be among the first to read the new books each season, and so the above links are for you. Enjoy.

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Write Poetry with Your Bookshelf

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Meredith Ann Rutter

Take another look at the titles on your bookshelf (#bookspinepoetry). Do some of them speak to you beyond describing the book itself? They will for sure if you start thinking about them in poems of your own making. I’ve done a brief, four-line poem with the books shown. The poem would look like this:

In the bleak midwinter,
Listen to the warm–
Selling the invisible
By cunning & craft.

This was a neat idea I first learned about from someone’s tweet awhile back. Wish I could remember who, to credit him/her. In lieu of that, I link here to a detailed blog on the subject. Ms. Neugebauer’s rules are for the seriously devoted title-poet. I didn’t follow them, because I “wrote my poem” before I’d seen her blog. Plus I’m a bit lazier than she. At the end of her post, she lists other sites where you can see others’ poems. (All but one of the links are still good; the “Poetry” link is out of date.)

So, is there a poem or two or three on your shelves? Do share.

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