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BOOKS CHANGE LIVES

Books That Changed My Friends’ Lives

In my last blog I asked if books change lives. The resounding answer I got from Facebook friends and family was yes, of course. I also ended up with a long reading list that keep me busy for the rest of the year, and likely beyond.

Books That Create Readers

Many of us grew up assuming that books change lives. We assumed the books we read at school were life-changing. We had lists of classic books and trendy books and devoured them, changed by each and every one. For natural readers, the mark of a “good” book is, of course, the mark it leaves on you.

But not all books that change lives are “good” or “classic” or “literary.”

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DO BOOKS CHANGE LIVES?

Our family New Year’s celebrations are tame (and aren’t they all these days?). We dipped fondue around a fire, “Zoomed-in” absent family members, and answered questions that forced us to reflect, reminisce, and prophesize. One question asked us to name a book read in 2021 that had changed our lives.

Do books change lives? My husband claimed he was too old to be changed by a book. But after listening to the rest of us report out, even he admitted that reading could change his life, at least a bit.

Our Family Favorites

Within a blink of the eye my daughter named named Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life, a book about fungus of all things that offers a profoundly new way to view the world and our place in it.

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BOOKS THAT GOT US THROUGH 2021

Last month I asked readers of this blog–and my friends–to help build a list of books that got us through 2021. Now that December is upon us, I’m delighted to share it. It’s a little different than the bestseller lists, so maybe it will give you some new gift ideas–or new year’s resolutions?.

I wasn’t interested in the top-selling or most-read books of 2021. I just wanted to know what people most enjoyed reading in the year we’re about to lose.

Some of these were on my 2021 list too. But there were many surprises that truly expand my reading horizons. And, interestingly, quite a few of the books, even the many about dystopias, illness, and warfare, were packed with hope.

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BUILDING A READER FAVORITES LIST FOR 2021

As we careen toward December, I’m realizing that 2021 will soon be relegated to another heap of memories. So it seems like an appropriate time to build a list of reader favorites for the year. And what better way to do it than by asking Late Last Night Book readers for suggestions?

What's the best book you read this year? — Share your favorite book to help us build a list of reader favorites

Your Favorite Book of 2021

Fiction or non-fiction, just published or dusty–it doesn’t matter. It will just be fun to put together a reader favorites list for next month’s blog featuring the books we’ve enjoyed in 2021.

I suspect there will be some surprises.

Whether I’ll find anything profound to say about that list remains to be seen.

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A CRASH COURSE IN CLARITY: TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Note: This article was originally commissioned by and published in The Singapore Microbiologist, July-September 1997 and republished in Medium.com on September 2021. While the article focuses on scientific writing, writers of any sort should find the tips useful.

In my many years editing scientific manuscripts I have discovered two extremely common myths about writing. The first is that the more obscure you are, the more profound. The second is that all people could write well if only they had enough time.

To some extent, I’m grateful for these myths (after all, the provide me with a decent living). On the other hand, they’re both dead wrong, and they lead many otherwise excellent studies to go unpublished and unrecognized. In this article, I briefly discuss each myth, hoping to convince you that writing clearly is a worthwhile goal for any scientist, at least any scientist who expects to be published in a major journal.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH IPPY AWARD WINNER MARTHA ENGBER

This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Martha Engber, whose new novel Winter Light won the 2021 Gold Medal IPPY Award for Young Adult Fiction. Adding to the fun was discovering that we both grew up in the Chicago suburbs around the same time–which turns out to be the setting for Winter Light, the story 15-year-old Mary Donahue, a smart but troubled kid navigating the brutal hand life has dealt her.

Engber who received a journalism degree before working as a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other national publications, is also also a freelance editor and workshop facilitator. Her writing career has included work in a wide variety of genres, including newspaper articles, poems, essays, and plays.

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CARELESS LOVE: AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE ZETTLER

Steve Zettler — Steve Zettler, author of the new novel Careless Love

Steve Zettler, the author of the recently published novel Careless Love, is a professional writer, actor, and photogapher. His earlier works include the international thrillers The Second Man, Double Identity, and Ronin, as well as the Nero Blanc Mystery Series, which he co-authored. Steve has also had a long career as an actor on the stage of both New York and regional theaters, as well as appearances on countless television shows and feature films.

I had the privilege of interviewing Steve Recently about Careless Love¸ which was praised by Kirkus Reviews as “powerful tale of the many ways love can go wrong.” Here’s what he had to say.

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WRITERS AS READERS: READING THE WRITER’S LIBRARY

The Writer's Library offers an intimate and fascinating glance of writers as readers. — The Writer’s Library offers an intimate and fascinating glance of writers as readers.

What is your favorite book? As a writer, this is the most common–and most dreaded–interview question I get. I know writers are supposed to be readers, and I am one. But my mind always goes blank.

In The Writer’s Library, literary mavens Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager ask this question of a slew of prominent authors. And these people know how to answer. This fascinating book is filled with 23 interviews with authors including T.C. Boyle, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Louise Erdrich, Madeline Miller, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Donna Tartt, and Ayelet Waldman on books that “made them think, brought them joy, and changed their lives.”

Books that Change (Writer’s) Lives

This is a book you’ll want to keep around just for the lists at the back of every chapter naming the most influential authors and books each author cites.

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LOOKING FOR AUTHORS (AGAIN)

If have written a book lately (or not so lately), we’re still looking for authors to be interviewed on Late Last Night Books!

Writers Wanted

A publicity opportunity

Once again, I am looking for authors who want help publicizing their books or writing project in future blog posts. In my experience, getting your name and work “out there” is the most painful part of being a writer. I’m hoping this blog can help make that process a little less painful for others–especially writers (and that’s most of us) who don’t have well-funded publicity machines working on our behalf.

In the past this offer has brought forth many talented writers, including Todd London, Harriet Arden Byrd, Bill Woods, Nancy Burke, Lila Iona McKenzie, Anna Marsh, and Michael J.

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CHILDREN’S SERIES: KICKING OFF A LIFETIME OF READING

Last month I reflected on on how Beverly Clearly‘s death brought back cherished memories of childhood reading. Most especially, it reminded me of the many children’s series that kicked off a lifetime of reading for me: Cleary, Carolyn Haywood, Madeline L’Engel, Sydney Taylor, and Noel Streatfeild among them.

I asked if others had similar memories, especially about series I may have forgotten.

Nancy Drew and Judy Blume Books

I was surprised to get so few responses. Perhaps I had done a better job than I thought remember. Perhaps I was a broader reader than I remembered. But there were a few obvious series I had embarrassingly overlooked:

How could I have forgotten?

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BEVERLY CLEARY AND A LIFETIME OF READING

The death of Beverly Clearly last month immediately brought me back to the Evanston Public Library cerca 1966. I saw my 8-year-old self scouring the shelves for every book I could find about Ramona, Ribsy, or Henry Huggins. I limited myself to 5 books per check-out. But I loved that I could come back for more.

My heart beat fast every time I returned to the library for another fix. It beat even faster when I carried my cache home and dove into the stories. My goal was to read Cleary’s entire oeuvre.

A Serie-ous Habit

I was only busy clearing out the Cleary collection because I had read my way through every one of Carolyn Haywood‘s series.

That habit had started the day I discovered Betsy’s Little Star on the shelves of the Washington School library.

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THE DIALECT DILEMMA: LISTENING TO THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE

I’ve gone on and on about accents and dialect in audiobooks. They often drive me nuts as a listener. But I’ve never been as nuts as I became listening to Abi Daré’s The Girl with the Louding Voice.

Here the problem wasn’t just the dialect and accent, which I found hard to understand. It was the voice.

Distracting Dialect

This gripping and heart-wrenching story is told through the narrative voice of Adunni, a 14-year-old girl from a small rural village in Nigeria. She speaks in what I believe is a version of pidgin English, which struck me as similar to the speech of many non-native English speakers. Many listeners praised this “Nigerian accent” in Amazon reviews.

I’m all for dialect, too.

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FAVORITE BOOKS ON PANDEMICS, PLAGUES, AND SOCIAL ISOLATION

Last month I asked readers about favorite books on pandemics, plagues, exile, quarantines, and social isolation–on many of our minds for obvious reasons. This month I wanted to share the list of selections in case you have a bit of time on your hands.

Thanks to everyone who helped me build these lists. I’m looking forward to reading some of the selections as the lock-downs promise to continue. Then again, perhaps I’ll just keep plowing through Proust.

Fictional Books on Pandemics, Plagues, and Social Isolation

Here’s a short list of fictional books on pandemics, plagues, and other human tragedies that require quarantines and other forms of social isolation:

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. Ten young Italian aristocrats flee Florence to escape the bubonic plague and self-isolate in a secluded countryside villa telling stories, some tragic, some bawdy and irreverent.

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WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK ABOUT SOCIAL DISTANCING?

One “silver lining” of the COVID-19 pandemic has been time (dare I say too much time?) for reading. I am plowing through my library, and may even complete my lifelong quest to finish Proust. I’m also drawn to books about social distancing, pandemic-inspired and otherwise.

I know I’m not alone here. The movies and documentaries about plagues and pandemics topping Netflix’s lists make that obvious. So do recent book club suggestions to resurrect books like Love in the Time of Cholera and Station Eleven. So I thought it might be fun this month to see what other books about pandemics, plagues, quarantines, exile, and/or social distancing homebound readers have found.

Socially Distant Stories

As both an historian of medicine and science writer, I have many books about plagues and pandemics on my bookshelves.

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AUDIOBOOKS AND ACCENTS

How does the narrator's accent shape the reading experience? — How do a narrator’s accent and voice shape the audiobook experience?

Do a narrator’s accent and voice necessarily enhance the audiobook experience, even if they differ from the author’s? Clearly some audiobook producers think so. But would the author agree? The reader/listener?

I pondered audiobooks and accents in last month’s blog (The Narrator’s Accent). It turned out that I wasn’t the only one with strong opinions on the subject.

Most people who responded turned out to be fans of accented audiobooks. In this month’s blog, I share some of their responses.

The Audiobook Experience

Is a regional accent helpful in creating atmosphere? Or does it restrict a listener’s imagination? Does it pull you out of the story because you are struggling to understand the words?

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THE NARRATOR’S ACCENT: VOICE AND AUDIOBOOKS

How does the narrator's accent shape the reading experience? — How does the narrator’s accent shape the audbiobook experience?

Oh no, I thought, as Dominic Hoffman read the opening lines of Yaa Gyasi‘s Homegoing with what struck me as an African accent. Thanks to the narrator’s accent, I am going to struggle to understand this audiobook. Plus I was miffed to hear a man narrating a book written by a woman and following a matrilineal lineage.

My next audiobook experience evoked similar reactions. In Say Nothing, Belfast actor Matthew Blaney uses a thick brogue to read Patrick Raddon Keefe’s “true story of murder in mystery in Northern Ireland.” This time whether the voice was recognizably male or female didn’t bother me, however: gender seemed less central to the narrative, which involves a woman’s kidnapping, plus backstory about the IRA during the Troubles.

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DOES HEARING A BOOK CHANGE THE BOOK?

Getting exercise while "reading" — Hearing or reading a book? Does it matter?

Does hearing a book meant to be read with the eye change the author’s intent—or your experience of the book? Have any books changed for you when you read them versus heard them or saw them as a movie?

I asked these questions in last month’s blog. The result was a lively Facebook conversation–and lots of strong opinions.

I’m Not Alone

Last month I noted a clear split in one of my book club’s regarding Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House. Those who had read the book found it disorganized and could not identify with (or even identify) the protagonist. People who listened to Tom Hanks read the book (myself included) had no issues.

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DOES HEARING THE BOOK CHANGE THE BOOK?

I’ve been trying to move more lately for health reasons. Instead of scribbling at my desk 10 hours straight—or curled up nose in book—I’m trying to walk whenever possible. That is changing my reading experience, inclining me to audiobooks. It’s also making me wonder: does hearing a book change the book?

Getting exercise while "reading" — I”m finding it hard to change my lifelong couch-potato reading habits. I also find my efforts are changing my experience of reading.

Fighting the Audiobook Prejudice

I harp on audiobooks a lot in this blog. But the subject continues to intrigue me, undoubtedly because it’s such a big part of the reading experience these days. And I have to admit to a prejudice: I grew up thinking that reading with the eyes is somehow intellectually and morally superior to reading with the ears.

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HARRIET ARDEN BYRD: A NOVEL REALM

Harriet Arden Byrd

This month I had the pleasure of interviewing Harriet Arden Byrd (aka H.A. Byrd), author of the new fantasy novel Aru’s Realm. Like the novel itself, this “realm” is hard to shoe-horn into a category. A young girl who has caught the interest of a “master of magic,” Aru’s realm in some ways resembles the 19th century, including steam trains and horse-drawn carriages. In other ways, Aru’s realm is one we have never seen before, not only because it includes monsters and magic but also because it has many strong women and lacks the concept of war.

TZ: Your work has many roots in traditional epic fantasy but is distinct in having a pacifist bent–and also in centering on strong female characters.

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THE CO-WRITING EXPERIENCE

An Interview with Co-Writers Michael J. Tucker and Tom Wood

Michael J. Tucker

I’ve co-authored non-fiction for most of my career, but never considered co-writing novels or short stories. Having complete control over the work has actually been one of fiction-writing’s chief draws for me–distinguishing it from the science writing, playwriting, and other collaborative writing I do.

But recently authors Michael J. Tucker and Tom Wood had made me re-think co-writing. They have just published a co-written, A Night on the Town. a short story about two strangers whose paths cross on a fateful rideshare encounter.

Both were gracious enough in this interview to enlighten me about the co-writing experience.

TZ: A Night on the Town is written using alternating first-person voices—which strikes me as particularly well suited to co-writing because it gives each author the ability to develop a distinct character or characters (kind of like improvisational theatre).

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