What I'm reading: The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue and tips for writers

I'm reading as much and as fast as I can these days, refilling the reservoir and doing research for agent queries. I just finished a great book by Ronlyn Domingue, The Mercy of Thin Air: A Novel. The story and the writing are incredibly sensual (great use of the sense of smell), and the POV, from a ghost, is pretty unusual and interesting (I know there are a couple of others out there--The Lovely Bones and A Certain Slant of Light). She does a pretty masterful job of weaving together the past and present and the stories of two couples who are more related to each other than they think, in many ways.

While we're on the topic of Ms. Domingue, if you're a writer you might find her web site helpful. She's got a whole section of her site for writers that talks about the business side of writing, that covers getting an agent and book publicity and more. Very extensive and informative.

Current Book Pile

I've been on a reading tear lately, for a bunch of reasons.

• I finished my novel, so I have a little more time.
  
• I finished my novel, so I need some time to recharge. Reading helps.
  
• I finished a draft of my full-length play (for now), so my second big project is done.
• I'm looking for an agent, so I'm reading books represented by people who might be good agents for me, or I look up agents, and then see a book that sounds good, so I request it from the library. Or I go to the bookstore, to see what's out there, and see stuff that looks good, so I bring it home.

Here is a picture of my current nightstand pile. A little scary (it's actually living mostly on my desk at the moment). Usually, I'm lucky if I can read 24 books in a year, but I've already read 9 so far this year.

In my pile, I have:

• House & Home by Kathleen McCleary (strong similarities to my new one, but different enough that I'm not depressed)
• Busted Flush by Brad Smith (this is cheating, I actually just finished it last night. Very fun book.)
• A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb (sounds like Kira will like this one, too)
• Mina by Jonatha Ceely (written by a friend who lives here in Brookline)
• How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish (I've read it before, but I wanted to doublecheck)
• Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey
• No one belongs here more than you, stories by Miranda July (I liked her movie, and she has a really cool web site to promote the book).
• Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby (Nick Hornby is my very favorite writer, but I'm forcing myself not to read this right away, which is proving hard.)
• The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue (I saw her web site and it looked cool)
• Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan (he's a friend of a friend and an Amazing writer.)
• A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing (Blessing, Corthron, and Svich are going to be at a staged reading in Baltimore next weekend--all four of us are having short plays read--so I thought I'd try to read some of their work first. Not to be a big suck up, but so we can have a conversation. Maybe to be a little bit of a suck up.)
  
• Breath, Boom by Kia Corthron
• Any Place But Here by Caridad Svich
• Lee Blessing, Four Plays
• The Winning Streak by Lee Blessing
• All Hat by Brad Smith

That's it. Could keep me busy for a while.

Farming on my mind: "The One-Straw Revolution" and "You Can Farm"

I just finished two great books about farming (and food and business and life).

The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka is a classic text, written in 1978. He was a pretty amazing guy (long dead now, I’m sure), both a farmer and philosopher. I’m really interested in his Do-Nothing Farming method, which utilized ground covers and mulching and eschews tillage. He’s dedicated to having the farm and crops being in great alignment with nature (Nature with a big N, meaning seasons, predators and pests, native plants, etc.). I’m curious to know if anyone in the Northeast U.S. has duplicated his methods, with crops that would grow here. His dual-season crop rotation works well for where he lived in Japan, because he could grow a grain crop in the winter, and then the mulched each crop (rice in summer, or rye and barley in winter), with the straw of a different crop, so that the diseases/pests that come were not automatically passed to each successive crop. His use of white clover as a perennial ground cover ended up enriching the soil, sort of like green mulch/fertilizer. Timing is everything with his method, especially in terms of combating weeds.

He talks a lot about zen philosophy, too, about being and meaning and nothingness, which I also enjoy considering. But it’s about a lot more than that, and he’s practical, too, in his considerations about what herbicide and pesticides are doing to the people, animals, plants, and the world.

What’s interesting is that he wrote all this more than 30 years ago. There is a big wave of this now, but people have been worried and trying to take action for decades now. Maybe now, it’ll really grab hold.

I also read You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
by Joel Salatin. (Tracy posted about him and his book on her blog, too.) As one of many folks who fantasize about living on farm someday, this book was both entertaining and enlightening for me. Salatin's "stacking" methods, of rotating various animals across his fields, with the proper timing to allow build-up of the soil and great reduction in pests and disease, is so cool. I'd love to try it for myself (though I have no interest in raising any animals on my farm beyond chickens, to be honest) just to see it in action.

Just as much as his farming methods, I appreciate his great energy and enthusiasm (and tremendous libertarianism) for the business side of farming. He's thought hard about how to make money from his ventures on the farm and refuses to price himself into starvation (he generally doesn't do projects that generate less than $25/hour). He makes his decisions about what to farm and what to sell from smart, considered business perspective.

Though this is a book about the business of farming, it's a good fun business book for anyone, especially writers, I think. Farming, like writing, is more than just a job, it's a way of life, and if you want to keep that way of life, you need to find a way to make your living from it. And like farming, that's all a lot easier if you live an especially frugal life. He talks a lot about making sure that you don't go into debt at the wrong time and making sure that you are clear about your necessities versus luxuries. The same applies for writers. He writes about making the transition to farming gradually, i.e. you might not want to quit your day job and buy property until you've already got customers. The same thing applies to people who want to support themselves through writing.


Both of these two books dovetail nicely in their thoughts about the importance of eating healthy food grown in a natural method that does not harm the earth. I'm all for that.

Maybe it's time for Tracy and me to go through our seed catalogs and start getting ready for our spring garden.

What I'm Reading: Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fairly well-written book about a pretty amazing guy. Greg Mortenson's quest to create schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan is one that really taught me a lot about what one man can accomplish (or at least start in motion). His patience and sensitivity has a chance of accomplishing what bombs cannot--trying to bring peace (or more peace) to a region rent by war.



Tracy read this book and suggested that I read it. She was so inspired that she bought several copies and started giving them away. I was just as inspired and moved as she was. I may not start traveling to the wilds of Pakistan next week, but it's definitely the kind of book that really makes you think about what you're doing with your life.


View all my reviews.

What I'm Reading: Writers Workshop in a Book

I got Writers Workshop in a Book entirely because I love the Fear of Finishing essay by Mark Childress and wanted to see if the other essays in the book would be as helpful. They were.

I know some readers have been disappointed because they thought this was going to be a sort of step-by-step instruction book about how to write. It's nothing at all like that. Instead, it's a collection of essays by writers who have been around for a while, and are willing to talk about things as specific as point of view or writing historical fiction, or as general as anxiety about writing your second book (from Amy Tan).

For me, this was all like sitting around the couch with a bunch of mentors and just listening to what they had to say. It helped me keep plunging ahead with my own second novel. I have a feeling this will be a book that I'll go back to again.

I'm especially jealous of my friend Jessica, who is planning to attend the workshop in the flesh next month. Maybe someday I'll get there (these things just aren't practical when you've got kids). An added treat for me was the afterword, by Oakley Hall, where he talks about how the workshop actually got started. It's the kind of grassroots venture that I'd love to start myself someday. Maybe on the east coast. With a big huge garden, where the writers and I can plant and pick organic produce, and maybe a theatre for workshopping plays. Maybe.

What I'm Reading: Non-Fiction Binge

This past month or so, thanks to lots of doctor's appointments and some compelling text, I read a lot more books than I usually do. I went through a whole fun non-fiction binge of four terrific books.

Spelling Love with an X (A Mother, a Son, and the Gene that Binds Them) by Clare Dunsford. I'd read parts of this before, because Clare is in my writer's group, but I was glad to finally get to read the whole thing. She's a terrific writer and tells about her journey, as a mother of a son with fragile x syndrome, in a way that's both compelling and literary. Not an easy challenge, but she pulls it off. My own son has various special needs, and though they're not the same as Clare's son, JP's, I can relate closely to her experiences with doctors and diagnoses and special education classes. And the shift from an over-educated, middle-class sense of certainty and security about the future of our children, to having to stumble through life one day at a time, being forced to look at this moment and love our children for who they are right this instant. I'm grateful to Clare for writing this book and know I will return to it again in the future.

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. Yet another book about boys with challenges that made me think about my own son. The boy in this case is a 6'6", 340 pound black teenager, basically abandoned to the streets of inner city Memphis, who ends up basically being adopted by a white, rich, evangelical Christian family with deep ties to college athletics (Ole Miss). (We adopted our son at a young age, unlike the boy in Lewis' book, but our son is black, we are white, and he's on track to be 6'4" and big enough to play football.) Lewis is an astounding writer, blending in details about professional football and the rise of importance of the position of left tackle , with the story of a gifted athlete who becomes highly sought after by college scouts nationwide and a family who takes him into their home and tries to protect and educate him. It's a fast read. I'm definitely going to read Michael Lewis' other books as soon as possible. I've been hearing great things about Moneyball for a long time now.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Another book about sons, really. Just as compelling as Blind Side, but Krakauer's style is so different--much more lyrical-- as he tries to puzzle out the mystery of why young Chris McCandless apparently trudged into the wilds of Alaska, poorly equipped, and starved to death. The story ends up being a lot more complex than it seems at first, and it's especially interesting to watch Krakauer pursue it, because he clearly sees himself in McCandless and feels a strong paternal protectiveness for the young man and his choices. I have no idea how they turned this into a movie, because part of what makes the book work is the disjointed narrative of Krakauer trying to pull together all the pieces, and telling us about similar adventurers in the past (and his own escapades). Still, I'll probably watch the movie, and I can't wait to read Into Thin Air.

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food doesn't really have anything to do with sons (I tried to find a tie-in, but no luck). In a way, it doesn't cover a lot of new ground (I LOVED his Omnivore's Dilemma), but it does hit the high points about some important ways to think about food and eating (it's basically an expansion of his essay in the NY Times Magazine from last year). His main points are simple: Eat Food, Not too Much, Eat Mostly Plants. If you stick with that, you're likely to stay healthy and avoid a huge amount of stress from trying to figure out how to interpret the latest mishmash of dietary studies and fads. Luckily for us, our family has already been eating this way for the past year, so this book serves more as a support and confirmation of our efforts, rather than a challenge. It's a quick, sensible read--if you're concerned about your health and confused about how eating might fit in, this book is the place to start.


Oh, I also read Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof. If you want to start a worm bin, this is worth getting from the library.

What I'm Reading: The Trap

I've been having a great time following the discussion at Scott's Theatre Ideas blog, and I happened to see his listing of books of note and The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America by Daniel Brook caught my eye. They happened to have it at my local library, so I was in luck.

It's a fun read, especially if you're an American artist trying to figure out how the hell to stay afloat, when life seems to cost more all the time. The basic point he makes is that the growing income disparity in America is wreaking all sort of havoc on the middle class. Part of it comes from the growing class of rich folks bidding up the price on housing and college education and childcare. Middle class neighborhoods are quickly disappearing from our major cities, leaving only the rich and poor.

This growing income disparity affects our entire society, because professions in which one once used to able to support a family in a modest middle-class lifestyle (like being a teacher or social worker or even a public interest lawyer) have not seen their wages rise with the cost of living.

"In 1980, it was inconceivable that a University of Chicago student's first job--even as a social worker or editorial assistant--would pay less than her annual tuition. Today, it is entirely conceivable, indeed probable that students who take jobs as social workers or editorial assistants will earn less than their tuition fill. An idealistic University of Chicago graduate from the class of 1980 who opted to stay on the South Side and teach in an inner-city public school would have earned $13,770, more than two and a half times her $5,100 senior year tuition. Today, such a student would earn $38,851, only 23 percent more than her senior year tuition of $31,500."

The truth is, it doesn't just feel like it's harder (financially) than ever to be an artist or intellectual, it actually is harder than it was in our parent's generation.

He points out that there's a deep cost to our society when the financial burden of undertaking society-benefiting jobs is so high. The best and brightest are drawn away from public service, not just because there's riches to be had working for consulting and corporate law firms, but also because it takes more and more money to support a family these days.

On the other hand, there is a bit of elitist whining underway, and sometimes it's annoying. Still, if you can get past that, you will hear a passionate voice calling for strong reform to make ours a more supportive society for people who want to create and serve. He even talks about how our screwed up healthcare system suppresses our entrepreneurial undertakings. Having a stronger social safety net (healthcare, education, childcare) would provide more freedom for all Americans to pursue their dreams.

As with many books that take the time to point out our system's various failings, the time spent on laying out actual solutions is small. I'd like to see a book that starts out assuming that the readers agree on our problems (10% of the book for this) and then helps provide a plan of action solution (revolution, anyone?). This book is 95% about the problems, which is fine--he certainly got me all worked up (it's a quick read). But I'm more interesting in how we take action to make things better (campaign finance reform, universal healthcare, state financed education from Kindergarten through college).

What I'm Reading: Nightstand Report

Over the past month, with work and the holidays, I've been a very slow reader. My nightstand pile is growing, rather than shrinking, though not for any lack of interest in the books on my part. Since it might take nearly forever to report on the books after I've actually read them, I'll at least mention them now. I've been trying to alternate fiction and non-fiction, but you'll see that my pile is heavily weighted with non-fiction act the moment.


The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell. I've been promising my wife, Tracy, that I'd read this for quite a while. She was so impressed by it that she bought copies for everyone in our family. I've already started it and it's already very compelling. At its heart are the results of dietary study that shows that despite positive mythology that began with scientists in the 19th century and was actively promoted by the meat industry, eating protein from animals is not good for your health, and actually can promote cancer. A diet rich in vegetables and whole grains is apparently the way to go.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. Just got this one for Christmas. I've wanted to read something by Krakauer for a while, so here's my chance.


The Bubble of American Supremacy and The Age of Fallibility both by George Soros. These are there purely out of curiosity. Tracy's an academic librarian and received this because apparently Mr. Soros is rich enough to send out thousands of copies of his book to librarians across the country. I'm interested to learn why this guy feels strongly enough about his thoughts to write a book (or pay someone to write a book), rather than buy a broadcast network or newspaper and trick people about it (a la Rupert Murdoch).


Spelling Love with an X by Clare Dunsford. This book is by one of the writers in my fiction writer's group--I've read pretty good chunks of it, and it's great. I've been waiting for an open slot of time and concentration, because I want to really take it all in. The subtitle--A mother, A Son and the Gene that Binds them gives you a sense of what it's about. She's a terrific writer and handles the subject of parenthood and fragile x syndrome with poetry and wisdom.


Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan. Here's the one novel in the pile (and it's a short one). I heard Stewart give a reading of it at Brookline Booksmith a month or so ago. I was totally blown away by O'Nan's book, A Prayer for the Dying, and I can't wait for this new one, though it's going to be totally different.

A Cabinetmaker's Notebook by James Krenov. I'm reading this as some research for my new novel, but I'm sort of taking a break from that project at the moment, so I'm not sure when I'll get to this book, though it looks to be the perfect sort of thing, and just what I like to read. I fear that I've renewed this from the library about as many times as I can. Might be time to just pick up a used copy online.


Boston's Abolitionists by Kerri Greenidge. I've taken the African American Freedom Trail tour around Beacon Hill three or four times. The author of this book used to give those tours, and she's also the sister of one of the writers in Rhombus, my playwright's group. I have a feeling that once I read this, I'll have a few ideas for a few new plays.


Mind Performance Hacks (Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain) by Ron Hale-Evans. Tracy read this and liked it (as if she wasn't smart enough already). If I don't read it, I'll never have a chance of keeping up with her.

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde. This is actually not in the pile, since my father-in-law has it in Connecticut. I want to read it soon, but the argument was made that perhaps he, and an entire army of other readers, might finish it before I'm able to get to it. Jasper is always good for a laugh, and I loved the first book in this series, The Big Over Easy.


Ah, it's almost a new year, and I'll have plenty of new resolve to read my way through the pile.