Booking Through Thursday

The question today:

"So ... you're halfway through a book and you're hating it. It's boring. It's trite. It's badly written.

But ... you've invested all this time to reading the first half.

What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?
Or, cut your losses and dump the second half?"

I used to read every book to the end whether I "hated" it or not, thinking that there is something of value in every title. Though when I finished the "hated" book, I would throw it across the room! My husband, in another room, would say, "Didn't like that one, huh?"

Since working in the book business (bookseller for 13 years and owner of Reading Group Choices for 6 years), I have had to edit my reading criteria. I don't have the time to read a book completely, if I don't really love it.

But I never skip to the end. If the book intrigues me enough, I will finish it.

It is Interesting that my working in the business has hindered my ablility to read all books whether I enjoyed them or not.

I'm thrilled to welcome Emily St. John Mandel, author of the newly released The Singer's Gun and Last Night in Montreal, to On the Bookcase. Emily talks about her writing process -- scraps of paper, wisps of ideas, and then, finally, a final draft. Writing is a lot of work! Thanks so much for sharing this, Emily.

I went to an event at a bookstore here in Brooklyn recently; Jonathan Lethem was reading from his latest book, Chronic City. Toward the end of the Q&A, someone asked hesitantly about whether Lethem would mind talking a little about his writing process. Lethem replied that he didn’t mind at all, but that there wasn’t really that much to say: “I just sit down and write,” he said.

I’m much the same way: writing is something that I try to do every day, although there are a few unhappy days in the middle of the week where my time’s entirely taken up by my part-time day job, my long commute, cooking dinner, etc. It’s an uncomplicated process: I write on scrap paper—I have vast piles of paper lying around from printing out successive drafts of things, and I’d feel bad if I wasted it—and I edit as I’m transcribing it into my computer.
I never have any idea where I’m going—my books begin as wisps of ideas, and I generally don’t know how they end until I’m a couple hundred pages in—so there’s a lot of flailing around at the beginning. I listen to ambient electronica or classical music while I write; it helps me focus. There’s usually a cat on my lap throughout.

The first draft’s invariably a little embarrassing: the structure’s all wrong, the sentences seem clumsy, the plot has holes you could drive a truck through, but having a draft to work with makes the whole thing much easier. It’s more fun after that. Somewhere around the third or fourth draft I’ll try to get a few friends to read it, which is easier said than done—everyone has their own busy lives, and waiting for friends to get around to reading a manuscript is generally an exercise in zen-like patience. Eventually I’ll get their feedback, do some more revisions, and decide that I have a final draft, which always seems hilarious in retrospect; the “final draft” that I send to my agent has been, for both of my novels, vastly different from the real final draft that emerges after several rounds of revisions with my editor.

What Lethem was driving at, in the reading I went to, is that writing is work: something you sit down and do as often as possible until the book’s done. Writing a book is at times difficult, and it takes a long time. Still, though, it’s work that gives me tremendous joy.

Brief Summary of The Singer's Gun

Emily St. John Mandel follows up her electric debut, Last Night in Montreal, with a spellbinding novel of international crime, false identities, the depths and limits of family ties, and the often confusing bonds of love. Taut with suspense, beautifully imagined, full of unexpected corners, desperate choices, betrayals and halftruths with deadly consequences, The Singer’s Gun explores the dangerous territory between one’s moral compass and the heart’s desire. Great topics for reading groups!

Praise for The Singer's Gun

“A nail-biting thriller…[a] diverting read that manages to both entertain and prompt valuable contemplation of its stickier issues.”—BookPage

“An intriguing and suspenseful read that will appeal to those who like mysteries.”—Library Journal

“A gripping, thoughtful meditation on work, family, and the consequences of major life choices.” -Booklist

Emily was born on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, in 1979. She studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York.

Tweeple have spoken -- American Gods by Neil Gaiman is picked for the One Book One Twitter (#1b1t) selection. Book Club Twitter-style! 

Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.

One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.

2010 One Book One Twitter
Hugo Award/Best SF/Fantasy Novel
Bram Stoker Award/Best Horror Novel
Locus Award/Best Fantasy Novel
Nebula Award/Best Novel

Critical Praise
"Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic prose – American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages."  --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"A fascinating tale . . . by turns thoughtful, hilarious, disturbing, uplifting, horrifying and enjoyable -- and sometimes all at once, in a curious sort of way. Those who are familiar with Gaiman’s earlier work will find a satisfying yarn by a familiar master storyteller. Those who are meeting him for the first time may be surprised at just how good he is." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Saying Neil Gaiman is a writer is like saying Da Vinci dabbled in the arts."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A crackerjack suspense yarn . . . juicily original . . . Wagnerian noir." --Salon.com

"Here we have . . . a real emotional richness and grandeur that emerge from masterful storytelling."
--Peter Straub

Grab your book and start tweeting! #1b1t   

Talbots and Kelly Corrigan -- what a fine way to spent an evening!

Kelly Corrigan, author of Lift and The MIddle Place, spoke with over 50 women with a splattering of men yesterday night at Talbots in Annapolis, MD. I met Kelly many years ago (2007?) at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance where she was touring for The Middle Place. Liked her that and I like her now!

Kelly spoke of her desire to write about the crisises in all of our lives and how we deal with them. Lift takes its name from handgliding, a pursuit that requires flying directly into rough air, because turbulence saves a glider from "sinking out". For Kelly, this wisdom -- that to fly requires chaotic, sometimes even violent passages -- becomes a metaphor for all of life's most meaningful endeavors, especially in guiding children. Written as a letter to her children, Kelly writes a meditation on the complexities of life filled with love, risk, sorrow, and joy. A book for everyone who needs a lift and wants to live a life more fully.

After listening to Kelly and her great sarcastic wit, I struck up a conversation with a fellow fan and shopper. We talked about Kelly and her books and then she fitted me with a pink trench coat! I loved it and bought it. Mary, the fellow shopper, deserved a commission from Talbots! Books, food, (with a little wine), fashion, and friends -- now that's a night out on the town!

Kelly said that she can't really experience life on a blue-sky day -- there are no clouds that create the turbulence that require the joy and sadness of a life fully lived! Think on that thought.

Kelly video "Transcending" about women's friendship was sent women-to-woman to more than 4 million viewers.

Here's is that profound video and the video for Lift. Both of them make me cry they are so good. Here's to Kelly, friendship, and the lift to live!