It’s a Mystery
August 6, 2008 | 8:02 am
“I’m embarrassed to admit it,” said a friend recently. “But I love reading trash. It’s just plain relaxing!”
As I pointed out to her, there’s nothing embarrassing in that admission. People have a lot of reasons for reading, and relaxation is as valid a reason as any other. My own “relaxed” reading happens mostly at night: I go to bed an hour before I need to go to sleep, and I treasure that time, the lamplight spilling onto my comforter, the curtains around my bed keeping me snug, the ceiling fan moving lazily above, the mug of hot milk on my nightstand. And my books … my own choice for relaxation: mysteries.
I’m under some pressure right now to finish reading two “serious” books, books about playwriting that I need to have under my belt when I leave later this month for a playwriting retreat in the Catskill Mountains. And I’m a little behind … so last night I took one of them to bed with me and tried to concentrate on it. I really did. What happened, however, was that I found myself resenting it, angry with the author for intruding on “my” time. Paul came in and when he heard me remark something to that effect, offered an alternative: “What about that book about the constellations you bought at the library sale?”
“No,” I said firmly. “That’s nonfiction. What I need is … Morse.”
That would be Colin Dexter’s wonderful Chief Inspector Morse of the Thames Valley police, of course. And I happily put the playwriting away and scrambled for The Way Through The Woods instead.
Did I feel guilty? Not a bit of it. Books do wonderful things: they instruct, inspire, enlighten … and entertain. And the latter is as valid a function as any of the others.
Indulge your own “guilty” pleasures today, or tonight. It’s the most joy you’ll get for the least amount of calories … and time decidedly well-spent!
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Words, Opening the heart — jcezanne
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Bookstores Doing Just Fine, Thank You
July 30, 2008 | 3:45 pm
At least some are!
Amid the dire economic forecast, the ebook and ereader movement, and the almost irresistably deep discounts offered by online purveyers such as Amazon, in some places at least the traditional brick-and-mortar bookshops are thriving.
And I’m happy to report that the shops in Provincetown are among those doing well. Which is great, since there’s nothing like a new book to take to the beach for beach reading.
The oldest and most venerable of the shops is the Provincetown Bookshop, located on busy Commercial Street, which has been there since the 1930s and is still going strong, with an eclectic and marvelous selection of books. The Voyager, also on Commercial Street, specializes in gay and lesbian literature, and I’m seeing a steady stream of visitors there. Still further down Commercial Street is WomenCrafts, which doesn’t have the bookshelves that it used to but which is dear to my heart since they carried my first published novel back in the 1980s.
Recovering Hearts manages to be Buddhist- and Taoist-oriented gift shop and 12-step bookshop all in one, and while the tourists are heavily into the gifts, the locals frequent the bookstore portion. Small surprise: the Sunday morning AA meeting regularly attracts dozens of people in the summer.
And then of course there’s Tim’s Used Books, down an unassuming alleyway and located in an old house that has more twists and turns than some roads I’ve been on. I can spend hours, happily, in Tim’s, looking through out-of-print treasures. What am I saying: I can spend hours in any and all of the bookshops, each with its own distinctive feeling and flavor.
What about you? What local brick-and-mortar bookshops hold precious memories … or current interest? Let me know, and I’ll publish the results here!
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: Tao Te Ching, reading, reading books, Spiritual issues, Opening the heart — jcezanne
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And Even More Summer Reading!
July 16, 2008 | 8:43 am
It’s beginning to feel like I have hold of a theme, here … but the July/August issue of Poets & Writers has some excellent summer reading suggestions that I just have to pass along … (and this in addition to an article on André Dubus, whom everyone should read …)
Recommended are:
- My Sister, My Love: Joyce Carol Oates, out in July: according to the publisher, “her most controversial novel to date.” (Not to be difficult, or anything, but how can it be controversial before it’s published?). Inspired by the JonBenet Ramsey murder.
- Commonwealth: Joey Goebel. Two brothers juggling what it means to be a patriot.
- The Other: David Guterson. Another two-protagonist novel, this time two boys (one wealthy, one blue-collar Irish) brought together by a common love of the outdoors.
- The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: Rebecca Miller. A couple moves to a retirement community.
- Somebody Else’s Daughter: Elizabeth Brundage. An adopted daughter sees her life and values change as she learns about both of her families.
- No One Tells Everything: Rae Meadows. A murder brings up memories for the protagonist, whose younger sister was murdered twenty-five years earlier.
- My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare: Jess Winfield. How can you resist a title like that? It’s a tale of two Shakespeares, and is on my TBR pile!
That’s it for this week. Maybe I’ll just spend the summer here giving you titles to take with you to the beach!
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
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And Still More Summer Reading!
July 9, 2008 | 9:58 am
Some suggestions have come to me via email, so here are some more possibilities for you folks heading out to the beach, the mountains, or just wanting something different to read on the balcony or in the backyard:
One correspondent told me what he’s reading this year: “Simon Winchester - “A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906.” Since I grew up in California, the San Francisco has been prominent in my learnings. This is a fascinating read, as he is primarily a chronicler of what people were doing at the time, events of the world, and then the geology of what happened. I read another of his books, “Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded”, and loved it, so I bought the other one. For those wordophiles out there, another of his books is “The Meaning of Everything — the making of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)” I have a few other books strewn around that I pick up and read bits and pieces of, but I don’t seem to be able to carve out time for as much reading as I would like. If you want to challenge your vocabulary, read Simon Winchester, as he uses a lot of unusual words and writes very well.”
My friend Edie adds, “I just finished The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger. I liked it better than I expected to, and learned something. Junger writes pretty well, I think.”
A member of a discussion list says, “I’m reading Apples and Oranges” (Marie Brenner) “part memoir about her relationship with her quirky brother. Excellent writing.”
So there are some more options for your summer reading. Make sure that you also read Carolyn Haley’s suggestions in her comment on my earlier post about summer reading. As for me, I’ve started a new (to me) series by my favorite author, who is writing under a different name for these books — Will Kingdom — and they’re keeping me up at night quite nicely, always the mark of a great story.
Keep your suggestions coming! And keep reading!
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Opening the heart — jcezanne
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More Summer Reading — Seaside Observations
July 2, 2008 | 8:55 am
I can’t help but talk about it, as it’s on my mind. Two reasons (ha! as though I ever needed a reason to think about, talk about, or read books!) come currently to mind: I live in a resort area so am constantly seeing people who are on vacation; and my writing group is looking for new members, and one of the questions we’re asking applicants is what they like to read.
From what I can see, nonfiction is trumping fiction at the beach. Note that this is a small and casual survey, what I’m observing rather than what I’m asking about. But in this election year in the United States, it’s interesting to see some early involvement, with political titles all over the place.
Writing group applicants, on the other hand, are reading fiction; but it’s a skewed sample since they’re interviewing to be part of a group that does fiction and poetry.
I’ve seen a few Kindles, Amazon’s ebook reader, and people seem to be managing with them even outdoors, so the screen resolution and lighting must be superb. Sony Reader, an earlier model, is absent; but there are still few enough ebook readers around to make that observation somewhat moot. I like seeing the ebook readers: unlike many of my colleagues, I don’t think that the sky is falling on the book publishing industry, and I believe that the future is filled with opportunities for people to continue reading: and that’s what matters. How they’ll do it is a matter for the technocrats; all I care about is that we all continue to read, that authors continue to write, and that the world may always, to borrow a phrase from my own book, fly away on its bountiful imagination.
РJeannette C̩zanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Words, Opening the heart — jcezanne
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Changing the World One Book at a Time: Conference Information
June 18, 2008 | 11:00 am
This notice comes to me from my colleague Charles Patterson, author of a startling and well-worth-reading book called Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust:
Want to Change the World? The San Francisco Writing for Change Conference Can Help!
Gay Hendricks, coauthor of You’ve Got to Read this Book!, will be a keynoter at the Second San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Saturday and Sunday, August l6 & l7 at the Hotel Kabuki.
The SFW4CC is the first conference devoted to nonfiction writing about any kind of change, from the personal to the planetary, including the environment, politics, health, culture, and spirituality.
The theme of the conference this year is “Changing the World One Book at a Time.”
New and published writers will be able to learn from bestselling authors, editors, and agents, and get feedback on their work.
Registration is a mere $395, including meals.
For information and registration, visit www.SFWritingforChange.org.
Quite up the Open Your Heart alley, I’d say, and you may see some of our west-coast DreamTime authors there. In any case, consider going — because who can afford to not think about changing the world?
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Something completely different, Opening the heart, Being Peace — jcezanne
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Summer Reading List
June 10, 2008 | 8:02 pm
It’s officially summer. No, we haven’t yet passed the solstice, but we’ve broken 90 degrees even here on “cool” Cape Cod, so that makes it summer in my book.
And, speaking of books, summer brings … summer reading!
What are you reading this summer? Something light and filled with fluff? Or are you buckling down to that “important” book you’ve had on your TBR (to be read) pile for months and months? I’d love to hear your recommendations for a great read, be it to take to the beach or just to relax with at the end of a hot day!
In the meantime, here are mine:
- Strapless by Deborah Davis: the subtitle is “John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X.” The author explores the scandal that surrounded the artist and Virginie Amelie Gautreau, the “it” girl of the early 1880s Belle Epoque Paris, through the portrait that he did of her — and explores, also, the concepts of beauty, infatuation, and conformity. This is a nonfiction account that reads like a novel and manages to be both fun and profound.
- Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd. Those of us who live for our art, whatever that may be, often chafe at the need to “make a living” in a way that pulls us away from that art — and may well pull us apart in the process. Lloyd gives us a crash course in career survival by encouraging us to articulate our dreams and then invent the means to support them.
- Travel That Can Change Your Life by Jeffrey Kottler. It’s not about the destination in this book, but rather about how you can make every trip the best trip of your life. The author, a psychologist, urges the reader to “discover how you can make the most of your vacation, business trip, or getaway by seizing the moment to create a profound personal transformation.”
- The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman. Anyone who has read by book knows how much I adore and admire this author, and this latest paperback addition to his Merrily Watkins series does not disappoint. Rickman’s ability to give the place in which his novels are situated equal billing as characters in the stories is legend, and here the Melverns play a prominent role. If you haven’t read any of his books, you may want to start with earlier ones, though that’s not necessary: one of the finest novels you’ll read this summer!
- All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot. I recently revisited this old series of books about a Yorkshire country vet and found it as wonderful as it was when I first read it years ago. Amusing, hilarious, tragic, and filled with anecdotes that stay with the reader long after the book is closed: check out your local used-book shop for this one and rejoice that you don’t need to put your arm into a cow to make a living!
So there it is: my summer list. What’s on yours?
Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Reading toolkit, Words, Opening the heart — jcezanne
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What Is Wrong With This Country?
May 28, 2008 | 8:02 am
No, this isn’t going to be a political diatribe. Not really. Well, almost not.
But I’m struck as I’m out promoting Open Your Heart with Reading by the inability of many well-meaning people to understand how destructive it is to live in a country with 90 million functionally illiterate adults. That’s the kind of statistic one expects to see in third-world countries. That’s the kind of statistic one never expects to see at “home.”
And yet it’s true.
Emma Goldman, one of my favorite rabble-rousers, said, “The most violent element in society is ignorance.” It makes for a clever bumper sticker, but it also reflects a clarity of thought we’d do well to consider and even emulate.
No, I can’t be light-hearted about this. Because it’s my fault. It’s my fault, and it’s your fault: it’s the fault of anyone who can read these words that we’ve allowed this kind of situation to develop. Why aren’t we clamoring for better education? Why aren’t we out on the streets, claiming that a basic education — the minimum amount of eduction required to navigate through life in a first-world country — is not accessible to all and required of all? Why aren’t we more appalled? 90 million people in this country cannot read what I am writing here. More importantly, 90 million people can’t read voter registration cards or warning labels or lease agreements. They can’t supervise their children’s schoolwork. They can’t function in an environment that many of us take completely for granted.
And the fact that we’re not appalled is itself appalling.
Other countries take it more seriously. Today’s Shelf Awareness carried this tidbit of information: “I think that each book has its own soul; they know how much I love them,” bookseller Phan Trac Canh told Viet Nam News, adding that during his student years, his book obsession was a challenge. “I skipped breakfast so I could use the money to buy books. I sometimes even rummaged through rubbish bins looking for books.”
If many people in this country did that, they wouldn’t be able to read what they found there.
So I’m not going to be bright and chipper in today’s blog. I’m not going to say that all we have to do is open our hearts and everything will be wonderful. Part of opening our hearts is opening them to others, to take responsibility for ourselves and our communities, and to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to open their hearts as well.
No one can do it for you. Consider contributing to or volunteering with a literacy group today: 90 million people are waiting for you.
-Jeannette Cézanne
Open Your Heart with Reading
Posted by: reading, reading books, Words, Opening the heart, Difficulty, Overcoming difficulty, Overcoming obstacles, growth — jcezanne
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Challenge Yourself — And Help Others Read!
May 14, 2008 | 7:05 am
I was excited to hear that First Book has teamed up with actor John Lithgow to present this year’s Cheerios Book Donation Challenge, which gives you the chance to determine where Cheerios will donate 100,000 new books to children across the country.
For every question you answer correctly, you can vote for the state you’d like to see receive the new books for children in need. The top five vote-getting states will each receive 20,000 new books for local children. Visit the Cheerios Book Donation Challenge to cast your vote. Don’t delay: the challenge closes on June 15th.
And let’s hear three cheers for Cheerios for the company’s generosity in spearheading this literacy effort!
Jeannette Cézanne
www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Open Your Heart with Reading
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Read to Feed
May 7, 2008 | 7:42 am
Another DreamTime author, Kelly Smith (Open Your Heart with Quilting) turned me on to this extraordinary event that happened in her community and that I’d love to see spread to others.
A teacher at a local elementary school organized a “Read to Feed” program with his third-grade class. The goal was for the kids to read a combined 9,000 minutes at home; if they did, then a local grocery store would organize a $500 shopping spree to benefit a food pantry.
The students took the mission seriously and read for a combined 16,900 minutes; the store director was so overwhelmed that he doubled the donation. The children did the shopping themselves, armed with calculators and carts and with the help of mentors, after which they formed a fireman’s line outside the rescue mission to pass the 15 carts’ worth of food––3,459 pounds in all––in to food pantry staff. “We’re definitely feeding more families now,” said the mission director. “The numbers are way up compared to last year.”
Want your kids to read more? Want to support the hungry in your community? Read to Feed could be the answer for you, too!
–– Jeannette Cézanne
www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Open Your Heart with Reading
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