Road Trippin’ with a Comic
Title: Road Trippin’
Author: Jeff Hodge
When you’re reading about the life and times of a comic on the run, you get a lot of information you’d probably rather not – unless you’re a dude. This is definitely a dude’s memoir!
It’s good! Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying getting to know Jeff Hodge. I’m enjoying reading up on all the little adventures that made up his life. But more than his adventures and sexcapades, I love his bits about growing up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and then in Houston. Those are my favorite parts.
I’m preemptively writing this review. I’ve had the book in my possession for awhile now (longer than I usually do when I am sent a review copy) and I’ve been picking it up and reading it leisurely. I do this with memoirs sometimes, and Hodge’s is a memoir to take in over a long time, because I want to actually become acquainted. I want to hang out once a week, as you would with an old friend, and absorb his life story – not just read the book in a day and forget about him like a one night stand.
Maybe it’s because he’s sort of wonderful. Maybe it’s because going into it, his one night stand stories made me sad before I even heard them. Call me a judgmental Christian homeschool mom, but tromping around with your pants down in bars all the time doesn’t sound like a happy life to me. The fact that he seems to innocently stumble into these situations is both endearing and frustrating as hell. But I do love that Hodge has way more going on than that in his memoir. So rather than dismiss getting to know him through his book after reading about his rendezvous with a married woman (for shame!), I calmly set it aside, and pick it up another day when my irritation has worn off – curious to see what he learned from the experience. Exactly how I would be if I was hearing this story in person.
Road Trippin’ belongs on the shelf with Dave Barry and alongside I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. A little more than halfway through his book, with full intentions of finishing, I’m curious to see one of his acts. Next time Hodge is in Houston, I plan to pay him a visit. But as a true fan – for the record – not as a skanky hoe (and no matter how pretty you dress these girls up, I think for the most part, they were skanky hoes).
I’ll keep you posted how it all turns out in the end. Or, you could download the 99 cent ebook and read it yourself.
The Secret Keeper and Storytellers
Title:The Secret Keeper
Author: Kate Morton
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Fiction/ Historical Fiction
Length: 484 pages
I broke my Kate Morton rule. I read TWO Kate Morton novels in a 12 month period. And it was wonderful.
Forget my previously mentioned warnings to space out her books as long as it takes her to write them. This was a perfect winter read, she sucked me in – as always – and I found myself thinking it was her best piece since The Forgotten Garden. Don’t I say that every time?
I don’t just love Kate Morton as a reader, I find her inspiring as a writer. When everyone else is diving into NaNoWrMo – something I signed up for, but just really don’t get – I dive into Kate Morton and find that’s the push I need to get my own stories out of my head. (Same goes for Stephen King, that man really pushes my buttons and moves me to write.)
Semi side note: Is it just me or is NaNoWrMo distracting as all get out. I write 2k words a day on average – granted, not all usable, obviously – but every time I open an email for NaNoWrMo I find myself reading and sifting through a bunch of stuff and not getting ANY writing done at all. It’s fake motivation for me. It’s a complete and utter distraction. Like going to a pep rally. I’m more excited for a football game when I’m at the football game, but if you push me through the noise of a pep rally I just don’t feel like going anymore. SO counter productive.
You really want to be motivated to write? Read a good book. Read a really good book. Find someone who just moves you and you can’t help but think – I want to do that. Not exactly that, mind you, I want to write my own stuff. But I want to get a story out that moves people the way I’ve just been moved. Or excites people the way I’ve just been excited. The best motivation for a storyteller, I think, is to hear/read a good story.
Kate Morton’s stories are always good. No, not good, GREAT. She weaves through time with the skill of a T.A.R.D.I.S. and the hearts of a TimeLord. She is always a master of her chosen histories and reveals stories with an onion layer effect that always makes me giddy. The best moment of every one of her books is the, “I knew it!” moment. I love that she feeds you all the details but somehow leaves you thinking she might just surprise you – even though you don’t want to be surprised because you need to be right about this one detail that has dropped bread crumbs all over the story but hasn’t outright made itself obvious.
Click to read another blogger’s review.
Even more than that, though, is Morton’s uncanny ability in every novel to write a character that feels so overly familiar to me. Or, if not familiar, someone I want to be familiar. The Secret Keeper had a lot of familiar faces from my real world.
Gifting Reviews
A Co-Worker did this for the Author… I’m conceitedly honored that it’s MY review in the frame.
“I almost teared up. The card said, “Hang this on your wall and think about your sequel. Write it and have a cup of coffee on us.” There was a $5 SB gift card with it.” – Gershom Reese Wetzel
Everyone should do things like this for the writers in your life. You have no idea how much this means to authory introverts.
A Pocket Full of Kisses
Remember when I had a Weekly Low Down on Kids Books… yeah, this is me remembering that I’m supposed to do those!
Title: A Pocket Full of Kisses
Author: Audrey Penn
Illustrator: Barbara Leonard Gibson
Some of you may be familiar with The Kissing Hand, it’s a story of Chester the Raccoon and his mother. It’s a beautiful tale between mothers and children and one my daughter loves. As she grows, I have found myself often opening her palm to plant a kiss there.
Did you know there are sequels?
A Pocket Full of Kisses is great for only children and siblings alike. It’s mostly about the jealousy that comes from having a younger sibling and thinking there won’t be enough love from your mother to go around – but just like the stars, a mother’s love is limitless.
Out of all the Chester the Raccoon books, this is Kiddo’s favorite. She just brought it to me to read this morning, insisting that I pay closer attention to her than just mindless morning snuggles. I don’t know why this is her favorite – but it is. In the vast world of kid’s books (millions and millions of book written, of course, FOR the children) this says a lot about a book.
Raine Corbette
From Gershom Reese Wetzel’s Teres
He seemed vampiric, sallow. Maybe it was the light from the table lamps. Maybe it was his size against the looming scale of the room with its tall windows. Perhaps it was just Raine’s abundant personality, magnified like a sun when he smiled, churning like a storm when brooding suited him.
“How long have we been friends, Teres?”
The Latest from M.G. King!
Title: The Clock Snatcher
Author: M.G. King
Illustrators: Angela A. Corson & Sebastian Alvarado
Genre: Children’s Picture Books
NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!
Bartholomew the Dragon
When I heard M.G. King was writing another book, I was pretty excited. We love Librarian on the Roof! here at our house and I completely devoured Fizz & Peppers. Anything M.G. King touches, pretty much turns to gold in my opinion. She’s Texas’ very own Rumpelstiltskin.
This latest picture book is 47 pages long, with a lot of glorious black and white pictures. Think The Spider and the Fly when Tony DiTerlizzi did the illustrations – a myth to last the ages in combination with high quality sketches can’t go wrong.
Right now the book is only $3.99 on Kindle. Maybe if everyone buys one and supports our favorite local kid’s author there will be a hardback edition in our future. My bookshelves are already itching for a copy… I can hear them calling for it… this book belongs in every mother’s library… and child’s, and dragon lovers’, and clock collector, and art appreciator, and…
Teres – It’s About Time
Title: Teres
Author: Gershom Reese Wetzel
Publisher: LucidBooks
Genre: Science Fiction
I read this book in April of this year (2013) when it was still a pdf file. Go back in time a few (or ten) years and I remember listening to Gershom (my dear friend) talk about his ideas regarding a character named Teres. I remember a very cool dinner party at Macaroni Grill with Teresa Noreen, who seemingly semi-inspired the character Wetzel invented in his mind.
She was stunning. So is the book.
I read the book in approximately three to four hours. I believe it’s 300 pages or so long. It was riveting, and I was doing a real time discussion as I read with the author, searching for mistakes. There really weren’t any that I recall.
I’ve been leery about posting a formal review on any of my typical sites (shelfari, goodreads, amazon, etc.) though. Not because I don’t like the book – I love it – but because I have the great honor of being mentioned on the back of the book and I don’t want any potential customer to feel duped or think my thoughts are self-serving or insincere.
I feel too close to write an unbiased review, but I am way too excited about Teres to leave my thoughts undocumented.
Teres is all action and go from start to finish. It’s glorious sci fi patterned stylistically after typical books of the genre, but with a depth that is not easily comparable in anything else I’ve read. Wetzel may not have intended on delivering such a moving message about life, government, and religion, but by nature he’s a wise messenger and that couldn’t help but come across in his writing.
As I mention in so many of my posts, I am a sucker for dystopian societies, and this one is right up there with the infamous Big Brother from 1984 and Libria from the amazing film Equilibrium.
What makes Wetzel’s work so engrossing is what a visual masterpiece he has created. He is first and foremost an artist, then a graphic designer and author. His writing is enhanced by the images his fingers itch to draw out on paper. It’s also really cool that he has the ability to do all his own cover and concept art.
I can’t wait to see more from this character – and her creator. I see sequels and graphic novels and films of the Aeon Flux caliber in Teres’ future.
Impromptu Post on Being Changed
There’s a little chain status going around on facebook that I recently participated in…
Completely off the top of my head, in about five minutes versus the fifteen offered, and in no particular order I wrote:
Soon after posting my version of the status update, conversation ensued. One of my friends posted his own list on my thread instead, Tanya Egan Gibson felt honored to be on the list (she is so beautifully humble and I just love her and her work, she tickles me), and a college buddy posted a query.
Andi, I’d love to hear more about your thoughts on how “Metamorphosis” was life-changing for you. I studied it, but would have never thought of that one, so I’d be interested to hear how it was, for someone unlike me. : )
I started to answer right there on facebook, but I thought it deserved a blog post instead.
I read Metamorphosis first in… I’m not sure… 8th grade? I think it is best first experienced during puberty when you’re going through that everything creepy is wonderful phase. Young teens are always the ones who haunt the shelf where Edgar Allen Poe is; and for me it was Edgar Allen Poe, Franz Kafka, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I identified greatly with Gregor, which if you read a Sparknotes’ character summary, try to think of a 13 year old geek who wouldn’t.
Gregor Samsa – A traveling salesman and the protagonist of the story. Gregor hates his job but keeps it because of the obligations he feels to pay off his father’s debt and care for his family. He has transformed into a large bug and spends the rest of his life in that state. Although hideous and unrecognizable to others, Gregor retains his some of his inner life and struggles to reconcile his lingering humanity with his physical condition. (-from Sparknotes)
Obviously a teen is the protagonist of their own story, they hate their job (school) but keep going because of obligations (to their existence, their parents, and the government). Teens work their butts off seemingly for the sake of their family… chores, chores, more chores… honestly what 13 year old thinks they’re doing the dishes for themselves? And rarely do they actually think school is for themselves. I wanted to learn and I enjoy research, but ultimately I wanted to make sure my parents weren’t pissed off by my report card. Gregor is hideous and unrecognizable to others, and at thirteen who doesn’t feel gross and pimply – simultaneously invisible and on display to the world like a freak show. At thirteen you’re sub-human, neither child nor adult, and most of your life feels like it’s happening in your head.
Or, maybe that was just me.
To quote another post I wrote:
[…] I read The Metamorphosis over and over again, wrote a paper on it in high school and two more in college. I can’t count how many times I’ve read it, I just think its so wonderful. After reading The Castle and The Trial, however, I’m realizing that Kafka’s greatest skill is in writing the most frustrating scenarios a human being could be plopped into – alienation and bureaucracy. Whether it becoming a giant bug, living under mysterious and unfair authorities, or dying after a year long quest to discover what crime you have been accused of, Kafka has helplessness down to an art. I love Kafka!
I love him because his concepts are fascinating. He is the most wonderful creator of modern day myth that I’ve read. […]
(-from my review of The Trial)
When you read something that reminds you that you are not alone in your feelings, that even this great emaciated and pale world renown author could understand you, everything seems a little bit better. If a dude can turn into a giant cockroach, I can get through middle school – at least I’m not literally a disgusting bug.
I recommend that anyone re-read The Metamorphosis, but from the eyes of their 13 year old self. What do you think of it now? I remember feeling like my parents were repulsed by me. I remember feeling like every adult saw me as a liar and was distrusting of my existence. I remember feeling alone and wanting a friend. What do you remember?
Old Souls
Title:Been There, Done That, Really!
Author: Paulette Camnetar Meeks
Publisher: Xulon Press
Genre: Memoirs/ Short Stories/ Christian Living/ Large Print
Length: 496 pages
Paulette Meeks stood at the table of books at the bookstore after her signing, “Pick one you think you’ll like.” She is in her seventies, has several titles out, and has recently become a writing machine though she’ll tell you, “I never thought I’d be a writer, but God gave me these stories.”
Paulette and her friends. (Ms. Meeks is on the far left.)
I looked over the books. One is fit for a Sunday School class, one looks fun and spunky featuring a nun zooming by on a motorcycle. I picked Been There, Done That, Really! It has an elderly couple, the sort you imagine have grown old together, looking off into the distance over what I presume is a cup of coffee (could be tea, but I’m partial to coffee drinkers). Obviously, this appeals to me.
I always thought there were two kinds of people in the world – those that prefer the very young and those who prefer the very old. I’m of the old variety. I love my child, but I’ve never been a natural nurturer to children. To me they are just little people who haven’t learned how to function well in society. They don’t yet look beyond their own noses, they are selfish and self-serving. Thanks to hormones and motherhood that view has changed a bit – my daughter is indeed a little person, but I can see the wise woman she will one day be. And the cute, snuggly factor helps.
This picture was taken about thirteen years ago, but I remember this woman vividly.
The elderly, though, have always intrigued me. Even as a very small child, I preferred white hair and wrinkles to the company of my peers. I learned to count by playing SkipBo with a woman who was born at the turn of the century – the 1899 to 1900 one, I realize I have to specify these days. In high school when I did community service projects, I always opted for cleaning homes for assisted living homes in low income neighborhoods over playground session with tiny people. I enjoyed the conversations. Then and now, I like hearing the stories.
If you’re one of those people too, the kind who likes to hear about a lifetime of adventures from someone interested in sharing them, Paulette Meeks’ collection of stories are for you. They are sweet, simple tales from people who just want to talk about their lives a little bit. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
My favorite story was Paulette’s own: Never Too Old to Be Smitten. There is a picture at the start of the story of Paulette and her husband Bill on their wedding day June 29th in 2001. I found the idea of finding love in your sixties so wonderfully sweet. Bill was a widower before Paulette, and I hope that if I die first, my husband finds someone to keep him company before he leaves this world. (We wives like to believe our men can’t live without us. ) More than anything, the word ‘smitten’ is a magical word and it is easy to get caught up in the romance of the meaning while you read the story of their first meeting and first date.
Reading through these stories reminded me of another book I’ve reviewed here before, Rich Fabric
Anakalian Whims 