Take Me To the River: Wicked Cool Overlooked Books

It’s the first Wicked Cool Overlooked Books of the new year! (In case you need a refresher as to why we do this, Chasing Ray will remind you.)


I am not, generally, a fan of novels about the Civil War. I am of the opinion that most books treat the subject simplistically, unfairly vilifying certain persons while equally unfairly deifying others. Throw in someone saying “Yassuh, mastuh,” and a few belles in tragically faded frocks, and you’ve got Gone With the Wind, and me puking.

I wouldn’t have picked up Richard Peck’s The River Between Us, except that I respect his writing tremendously, enough to read anything of his. And I’m glad I did.

Far from being the usual tale of the fragile-but-beautiful-belle, this history is framed within a narrative told in the voice of fifteen year old Howard Hutchings, who is, together with his father and brother, on a journey to see family that they’ve never met. Howard’s story is itself textured and layered, and doesn’t feel tacked onto the main story, which takes place in a small Southern town in 1861. I love Peck’s talent with setting and pace, and his imaginative detail of “the town, steeping like tea in the deep summer damp” (p12). It’s a quiet place where nothing much happens until a steamboat from New Orleans arrives in town and Delphine and Calinda Duval depart the boat seeking a safer place to stay. They take a room in the home of Tilly Pruitt and forever change that family’s lives.

Much is made of the contrasts between Delphine and the Pruitts. Delphine is lavish with scent; the Pruitts’ use plain soap and water, sparingly. Jewelry, money, even talk is wealth that she shares freely about. p.47 “We weren’t used to talk at the table, and the kitchen rang with hers.” The women in this family are so different, there seems no possible way that they can ever come together in any meaningful fashion — and yet they do. The Civil War interrupts so much of their lives that coming together is the only way they survive.

Because this is a woman’s perspective on war, this is a story that has moments of heartbreak, and rather than being fragile, the women have to be tough and resourceful to survive. However, there are droll, funny moments too that are pure Peck, and best of all, nobody stands around saying “the South will rise again.” For another perspective on a piece of American history, pick this one up.

In Case I Haven't Mentioned It…

So many people have graciously asked about my book, I’d like to give you an update:

1. It’s for YA. It’s about a girl who really wants to outshine Emeril (and erase Rachel Ray) on the TV cooking show circuit. (Respect to the Big Man from the Big Easy and the perkysmiley little cook, but don’t we all??) This from the flyleaf: Seventeen-year-old Lainey dreams of becoming a world-famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren’t? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom.) But when her best friend – and secret crush – suddenly leaves town, Lainey finds herself alone in the kitchen.

With a little help from Saint Julia (Child, of course), Lainey seeks solace in her cooking as she comes to terms with the past, and begins a new recipe for the future.
Peppered with recipes from Lainey’s notebooks, this delicious debut novel finishes the same way one feels after a good meal – satiated, content, and hopeful.

2. It’s meant to come out in June. From what I’ve heard from others, that date is rather amorphous; often authors find their books in bookstores before the release date, and are shocked. I’m expecting one of you bookseller types to tell me if you see it — since I’m here in the UK, and it won’t be sold here until possibly after the Bologna Book Faire, which is when Secret Agent Man takes advantage of an Italian vacation plus work to sell the foreign rights to his client’s books.

I really apologize for all of you who have looked for the book and felt a bit out of it when you couldn’t find it. Mea culpa!

In Case I Haven’t Mentioned It…

So many people have graciously asked about my book, I’d like to give you an update:

1. It’s for YA. It’s about a girl who really wants to outshine Emeril (and erase Rachel Ray) on the TV cooking show circuit. (Respect to the Big Man from the Big Easy and the perkysmiley little cook, but don’t we all??) This from the flyleaf: Seventeen-year-old Lainey dreams of becoming a world-famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren’t? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom.) But when her best friend – and secret crush – suddenly leaves town, Lainey finds herself alone in the kitchen.

With a little help from Saint Julia (Child, of course), Lainey seeks solace in her cooking as she comes to terms with the past, and begins a new recipe for the future.
Peppered with recipes from Lainey’s notebooks, this delicious debut novel finishes the same way one feels after a good meal – satiated, content, and hopeful.

2. It’s meant to come out in June. From what I’ve heard from others, that date is rather amorphous; often authors find their books in bookstores before the release date, and are shocked. I’m expecting one of you bookseller types to tell me if you see it — since I’m here in the UK, and it won’t be sold here until possibly after the Bologna Book Faire, which is when Secret Agent Man takes advantage of an Italian vacation plus work to sell the foreign rights to his client’s books.

I really apologize for all of you who have looked for the book and felt a bit out of it when you couldn’t find it. Mea culpa!

Fifteen Seconds Of It

Famous

By Naomi Shihab Nye

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do.

“Famous” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Portland, Oregon: Far Corner Books, 1995). Copyright © 1995 by Naomi Shihab Nye.

I think that’s a resolution of sorts, right there: Buttonholes, pulleys, tacks: small jobs being done accurately and consistently — with little fanfare. Never forget what you know how to do.

Poetry Friday: First Poetry of the Year

The Sixth of January

The cat sits on the back of the sofa looking
out the window through the softly falling snow
at the last bit of gray light.
I can’t say the sun is going down.
We haven’t seen the sun for two months.
Who cares?
I am sitting in the blue chair listening to this stillness.
The only sound: the occasional gurgle of tea
coming out of the pot and into the cup.
How can this be?
Such calm, such peace, such solitude
in this world of woe.

by David Budbill, from Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse (Copper Canyon Press)

This poem breathes out with the soul of the season. It’s darkdarkdark here today, but with tea and solitude, who cares? I can see snow on the hills above the city.

Find out what else is shaking this first Poetry Friday of 2008 at A Year of Reading. Happy Winter.

Ambassador …Schezka? Sheezikka? Skezzka…?

Can you imagine the awards dinners? The glitzy state affairs at the White House? And none of them able to say nor spell the name of a guy we all know is the cool brainfather of Guys Read and a bunch of other books like The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs?

Via Read Roger, we’ve discovered that awesomely energetic and funny Jon Scieszka is the newest — and the first — National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Congratulations!!! And YAY for young people’s lit — it’s about to get a most serious kick in the pants!

Echolocation in the International Year of the Bat

I absolutely love how everyone has a theme for this year. According to my calendar, it’s the International Year of the Bat, and with that in mind, may I present to you the first SQUEALworthy (or “squee”worthy which is more batlike, and really more the sound I made when I read this) event of the year: The Teens & Kids Fantasy & Science Fiction Convention. This is in its nascent stages, and is the brainchild of one TAMORA-my-idol-Pierce and Julie Holderman.


(YES. That is a bat at a hummer feeder. I happened upon this coolness here.)

A YA Fantasy/SciFi Convention? People: How cool is this, really?
I’ve never been to a Something-Con in my life, but I’ve always thought it would be fun to go. I read Maureen Johnson’s blog this past year, about her getting ready to go to some science fiction thing and wear a (very scary) costume. It sounds like so much fun for …um, non-costume wearing, lurking, observant introverts like me.

Okay, never mind.
Seriously: It sounds like such a great idea. So, why don’t the REST of you who are all about costumes and craziness — and especially those of you who were so awesome with the Kidlit Bloggers conference, and who know how to do these things: a.) drop by Tamora Pierce’s site and give her some ideas, b.) start thinking about who you’d want to hear at a conference like this, c.) join me in squealing.

And this really does fit with the International Year of the Bat: every conference, convention and convocation of readers and writers and bookish types is like…echolocating. So we fantasy and science fiction book nerds can all find each other.

2008 looks like it’s going to be happy already.


Wow. The Class of 2K8 officially begins. Though I didn’t join, that’s a reminder that my book is out this year, too.

Squeak.

Via Galleycat: Have you heard the story of the guy with the imaginary publicist? Oh, WOW, could you imagine doing this? Troy Tompkins claims he merely used “every trick up his sleeve” to attract the attention of Simon & Schuster with his self-published YA novel, including signing his “press releases” with a fake name, so that it appeared that he had a publicist.

Some people are fairly peeved that he’s won himself a hefty contract out of it (one guy mentioned that it was a “bad message to aspiring writers” but do you honestly feel like you’ve been put on earth to give messages to other writers? Maybe the point we’re missing is that this is a YA novel… is this a message-to-YAers thing, here? Do we as YA authors stand in as examples… maybe that’s a whole ‘nother blog topic…). What do you think: did he benefit from a lie, or is that part of vigorous self-promotion? I have to admit that I would not have the chutzpah to do that — but lying gives me hives… not because I’m not good at it. I’m very, very, VERY good at it (I’m a writer, after all). But I always like to begin as I intend to go on… I don’t think I’d do it. You?


Mitali is a readergirlz diva. Can you say “Cool?!” Looking forward to this year’s lineup with readergirlz, definitely. Nikki Grimes! Sarah Dessen! Shannon Hale!!!!

Sara has posted about the best advice for the new year that I’ve seen yet: plan for failure. No, don’t plan to fail, have a Plan B. for when things go completely “pear-shaped” as the Brits say, and the Universe says no to your carefully thought out plans. And since this is Sara we’re talking about? Her Plan B. sounds remarkably fun. Could it be that there’s no real failure in failing… unless you don’t acknowledge that not getting things done the way you want can teach you something you didn’t know?

Hm.

Pssst. Anybody awake yet?

“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point.”

Already we have a Best Quote of the New Year. Those immortal words come from the incredible Archie Leach… oh, wait, never heard of him? Sorry, sorry, let me tell you his “real” name: Cary Grant.

Making resolutions about changing who we are always brings to mind actors to me — people who imagined a character and then assimilated those values and traits successfully enough to draw success to themselves in turn. Archie Leach was a latchkey kid who had seriously problematic parents, but he truly hustled and turned himself into the icon he’s remembered as today.

Something to think about.

Meanwhile, there’s a new secret agent in the house! Congratulations to <

Pssst. Anybody awake yet?

“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me. Or we met at some point.”

Already we have a Best Quote of the New Year (although I must admit that it’s only one – more great ones at Kelly’s). Those immortal words come from the incredible Archie Leach… oh, wait, never heard of him? Sorry, sorry, let me tell you his “real” name: Cary Grant.

Making resolutions about changing who we are always brings to mind actors to me — people who imagined a character and then assimilated those values and traits successfully enough to draw success to themselves in turn. Archie Leach was a latchkey kid who had seriously problematic parents, but he truly hustled and turned himself into the icon he’s remembered as today.

Something to think about.

Meanwhile, there’s a new secret agent in the house! Congratulations to Secret Agent Jen, aka “literaticat”, the newest agent at Andrea Brown! Just… don’t send her any religious or talking animal stories, and you can stay her friend.

Oh, sorry. Are you still groggy? Fine then — go back to sleep.

A Hogmanay Hootenany

Wow, it seems like only yesterday, the Cybils were still in the nomination stage, and we anxiously kept checking the list to see what else we could track down at the library. And now I can report that Saturday night at …um, midnight in the UK, anyway, our list was pushed screaming into the world.

Oh, it was not an easy birth by any means.
There were those books which each of us were clutching and sobbing over and writhing on the floor and drumming our heels to force everyone else into voting for them because they were our PRECIOUS LOVELY BABIES, but… *sigh* There’s just a limit to the number of books we can foist off on the judges without giving them hives, and that’s all there is to it. We’ve got to stop somewhere, but people, the books of 2007 — are amazing. Thank-you to everyone who took part in the Cybils, by nominating or reading or talking up your favorite books. It’s all about the books, isn’t it? Look for the Science Fiction/Fantasy shortlist on January 1 to ring in the new year.

So much fun stuff going on! British station ITV has an interview with JK Rowling tonight which the British SCBWI is buzzing about (here’s a clip). The documentary follows her through the last year of writing the Harry Potter series. So many people on our Cybils team really responded strongly to the book, so here’s hoping this shows up on American TV for the HP7 fanbase sometime soon.

Quite an honor has been bestowed upon children’s author Jacqueline Wilson. She’s now Dame Jacqueline, having been made a peer of the British Empire. I’ve only read one Jackie Wilson book, but The Illustrated Mum, about a mother with tons of tats who isn’t always able to take care of her kids, due to her bi-polar disorder, left me in tears. She’s an amazing writer, is our Dame Jacqueline, and I look forward to reading more of her books now that I’m in the UK (and the Cybils are over).

Hey – want to learn a little Latin? A little learning isn’t always a dangerous thing.

Once a graphic novel about an Islamic childhood, told from the point of view of a young girl, Persepolis is now a short film. Has anyone else seen this? I’m very interested, and the graphic looks really interesting. Hmm! Something else to look forward to on the TBR list.

Bottom Shelf Books leaves us laughing this year with the best list of book resolutions — from book characters themselves. The Giving Tree vows this year to stop letting that wretched little boy walk all over her. Stop by to see who else is making resolutions. And don’t forget to leave one of yours!

It’s bad luck to wish you a Happy Hogmanay, according to Scottish tradition, so I’m not — until tomorrow, anyway. Enjoy your burning sticks (which is what a Hogmanay is, literally), fireworks, bubbly drinks, and animal-skin wrapped processions. (Also part of historic Hogmanay celebrations, strangely enough. And don’t get me started on the decorated herring in Dundee). Find a good looking dark-haired man to be the first over your door step after midnight, visit friends and bring them the traditional gifts of coal, shortbread, salt, black bun (a kind of fruitcake) and whiskey — and play safely, kids.