Ball, Mary Sullivan

Ball

 

Mary Sullivan

Category: Children’s Picture Book

Synopsis: There is only one thing on Dog’s mind. Ball. But when Girl goes to school, how will he get through the day?

Rating: *** (3-star scale)

Award: 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book

Comments:

A one-word book—because that’s all you need when you’re a dog with a one-track mind.

I adore this book. The illustrations are absolutely wonderful. And Sullivan captured dog nature to the last tail wag.

And did you read the cover? “Word and pictures by Mary Sullivan.” I laughed out loud.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Absolutely. You've got to read this one!

Other hilarious dog books:

Say Hello to Zorro
Zorro Gets an Outfit

 

Make Good Art, Neil Gaiman

 

Make Good Art

 

Neil Gaiman

Category: Self-help

Synopsis: Gaiman’s 2012 graduation address to Philadelphia’s University of the Arts’ graduating class.

Date finished: 9 June 2014

Rating: ***

Comments:

The only other Gaiman book I’ve read is Fortunately, the Milk. There, I feel better now that that confession’s been made. I know he has quite the following, but he doesn’t write the kind of books I enjoy. That’s why I was so excited to read this. It’s an easy way to get a peek into a writer’s creative genius without having to read a novel you don’t enjoy.

Plus, I tend to geek out over little advice books and graduation speeches.

But you know how the Bible says “There’s nothing new under the sun”? That’s how I feel about this one. There’s nothing new here that I haven’t been reading in “how to be a writer/artist/musician” books for years.

A summary:

1. You have no idea what you’re doing. This is Great, an Advantage.
2. Do what you want to do.
3. Be thick-skinned about failure.
4. Make mistakes. It means you’re doing stuff.
5. Commit the art that only you can.
6. You get work however you get work.*

See? Good advice, but nothing new or particularly life-changing. And his personal stories to illustrate these points are lackluster at best.

The best part about this book is the graphic design by Chip Kidd. It’s a three-color design that uses every layout you can imagine. Way too often, the design was so distracting that I missed the meaning and had to re-read the text. It felt like amateur-night at a music club when they don’t get the mix of the guitar, drums, and vocals right, and the singer is drowned out. Trouble is, I enjoyed the graphic design more than the text.

All in all, I’ve read better. And you probably have too.

 

*He advocates lying. This was the nail in the coffin for me.

 

Would you recommend this to a friend?
Not really.

You might also enjoy:

On Writing, Stephen King (another writer I’ll likely never read outside of this book for writers)
What Now?, Anne Patchett
Just Who Will You Be?, Maria Shriver

Top Ten Tuesday (blogging confessions)

Click to play along.

 

This week's topic: Top Ten Blogging Confessions

1. I don’t remember Jane Austen characters.

I love Austen, but her characters blend together for me.

2. I don’t trust books that only come out in paperback.

Why do some books only get released in paperback, anyway? Do publishers not expect them to sell well, so they go straight to paper?

3. I don’t like how we've changed the definition of "reading" to include listening to audiobooks.

I mean, if I'm also cleaning the toilet, I'm not reading, I'm listening.

4. I never read the quoted selections from a book in a book review.

I used to. But when I realized I was forcing myself to do it, I quit. I think they are too often so removed from the story that they don't really work for me.

5. I don’t like to read outside.

The sun is too bright, or the shade is too cool.

6. I don’t read the notes section of non-fiction books.

Busted! I don't like to break up the narrative flow by looking things up in the back. And if I read the notes after reading a chapter, they don't make sense. I guess I just have to forgive myself and move on.

7. I don’t even want to understand how someone who works in a library doesn’t read.

I mean, come on, shouldn't that be a prerequisite?

8. I love reading the Acknowledgements page(s) in books.

Some writers write a mean Acknowledgments page. Don't skip the Acknowledgements in a Laura Hillenbrand book.

9. I base my picture book selection on the covers.

I guess I never got past first grade in that respect.

10. One reason I don’t check out more library books is that they’re beat up and grody.
I'm a reading princess. I like a nice pristine copy. I buy almost all the books I read.


So, fess up, what are your blogging confessions?

God bless you, Louis Zamperini

With tremendous respect, awe, and sadness, I comment on the life of Louis Zamperini, Olympiad, World War II Air Force bombardier and POW, and the 97-year-old subject of Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 New York Times best-seller, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.


"When I want to know what happened to me in Japan," Mr. Zamperini said, "I call Laura." He had deep affection for Ms. Hillenbrand, who issued a beautiful statement regarding his July 2nd passing.

The motion picture based on Louis's life as chronicled in Unbroken is set to be released in December. It is being directed by Angelina Jolie.

A man who suffered unfathomable cruelty, forgave with unimaginable grace, and lived with admirable dignity, everything good about Mr. Zamperini lives on in this world. It does not cease. It does not go with him. He gave us a legacy of hard truth, easy love, and tremendous spirit. A true American hero.

New York Times article about Mr. Zamperini's life, here.

Happy Independence Day

Wishing you a happy July 4th weekend!

I'll be spending the weekend reading and catching up around the house. Since grilling for two isn't much fun, hubby and I have decided to go out for burgers tomorrow. And we might take in a movie. I've been dying to see "Million Dollar Arm." (I heart baseball movies.)

Have a great weekend, all!

Of Introverted Bulls

Do you ever have a dream at night that urges you to read a specific book? Working in a library, I spend my whole day ordering, organizing, thinking about, and reading books, so books are never far from my mind, even when I go home. On many occasions, I'll wake up thinking about a book.

Yesterday, I woke up with The Story of Ferdinand on my mind. I even saw the cover. This is strange because I've never read the book. I ordered a copy of it a couple years ago for our library, but that's my only encounter with it as far as I know. So I checked it out after work and read it.

Do you know the story? Ferdinand the bull is a shy guy. He prefers to spend his days in a pasture under a cork tree smelling the flowers and thinking. The other bulls are aggressive and vie for spots in a Spanish bull ring. When Ferdinand is scouted and placed in the ring, he does what makes him most comfortable, what makes him who he is, he sits down and ponders the flowers in the ladies' hats.

In short, Ferdinand is an introvert. And the world doesn't change him.

The funny thing about this reading experience is I was just finishing Quiet the day Ferdinand came to me in my dream. You know Quiet, right, the book by, about, and for introverts?

Fortuitous? Serendipitous? Prophetic?

Have you ever had an experience like this? Please share.

Still, Lauren Winner

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis

 

Lauren Winner  

Category: Nonfiction: Memoir; Faith

Synopsis: Winner takes us through her troubling faith crisis.

Date finished: 3 June 2014

Rating: ***

Comments:

Several years ago, I read Winner’s Girl Meets God, about her conversion from Judaism to Episcopalism, and I was enthralled. I learned a lot about the Bible there. It was a smart, well-reasoned book with depth and heart. It was very hopeful and positive. It was about the beginning of a faith journey.

Her follow-up book, Still, is about the middle of that journey. After her mother’s death and her own divorce, Winner finds her faith shaken. She goes to church, but she quits praying. She feels estranged from God. It’s a common occurrence in lives of faith. While I’m not experiencing doubt in my own religious life, I do sometimes feel estranged and alienated. I sometimes throw prayer out the window. I sometimes wish for an easier path. So I had high hopes for this book. I expected it to be a growth experience, if not a solidarity read.

But this book just didn’t do it for me. It was short on quiet and long on loud, overanalyzed obscurity. What made her first book a favorite of mine—her scholarly approach to faith and the church—ruined this one. She talked about everything but what was really going on. She never reached the obvious conclusion: you can’t reason your way to God, to faith, to prayer.

There were moments of brilliance, and Winner sometimes has a way of relating two seemingly unrelated things that is fascinating. (Other times, the writing got ploddingly pretentious.) But I feel that she never really got to the heart of things. She skimmed along the surface and plunged into the depths of things that weren’t essential to the story, but I never felt like she was able to make a connection after all the talk. The book just sort of ended, and while I thought she was still “in the middle” apparently she was “at the end.” I couldn’t tell the difference.

I’m glad I read this, but I’m quite disappointed in it, too. When I want to read a good religious memoir, I’ll be re-reading Girl Meets God.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

No. But I would whole-heartedly recommend Girl Meets God.

You might also enjoy:

-Anne Lamott’s books on faith: Traveling Mercies, Plan B, and Grace, Eventually
-A book that’s similar in writing style: Joan Didion’s Blue Nights (I really didn’t like that book.)
-Divorce memoirs: Happens Every Day and Around the House and in the Garden