Game and Buzz

Game by Anders de la Motte
Atria/Emily Bestler Books; 12/3/2013
Paperback, 400 pages
ISBN-13: 9781476712888

Description:

One Sunday morning after a long night of partying, Henrik “HP” Pettersson, a slacker with a lot of ego and very little impulse control, finds a cell phone of an unfamiliar make on a commuter train. Through insisting and slightly uncanny messages that refer to him by name, the phone invites him to play a game. HP accepts without hesitation.

The rules are that HP must complete tasks that range from childish pranks to criminal acts, as allocated by the mysterious Game Master. HP is the perfect contender—alienated from society, devoid of morals, and desperate for fame. His completion of the assignments are filmed and uploaded onto a protected server where viewers rate the Players’ performances.

The Game starts out innocently enough and then becomes increasingly risky, threatening the safety of someone close to HP. He is determined to become a superstar, but when the dark and tragic secrets of his family’s past are at stake, HP must make a choice. Will he suffer the humiliation of defeat, or will the need to win push him to the limit—no matter the cost?

First in a fast-paced and riveting trilogy, Game will leave you guessing. Follow the rules, and everybody gets hurt . . .

Buzz by Anders de la Motte
Atria/Emily Bestler Books; 1/7/2014
Papaerback, 496 pages
ISBN-13: 9781476712918

Description:

It’s been four months since HP Pettersson was dragged into a ruthless Alternate Reality Game that nearly cost him his life. Although he now has everything he ever wished for—freedom, money, and no responsibilities—he isn’t satisfied. He’s plagued by insomnia and paranoia, and misses the adrenaline rush of the Game. He misses the attention. At times, he even hopes the Game Master will find him. And when HP catches the eye of a rich and powerful CEO for all the wrong reasons, he may get his wish. But he quickly learns that sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for . . .

My Thoughts:

Game and Buzz are the first two books in a three book thriller series by Swedish author Anders de la Motte.

In Game, the first installment, we meet Henrik “HP” Pettersson and his sister Rebecca Normén. HP is an aimless loser while Rebecca is a bodyguard with the Swedish Security Police. When HP acquires a cell phone left behind on a train, the mysterious device keeps asking him if he wants to play a game. He was just going to sell the thing for some quick cash, but when it asks him by name to play the game, he decides to give the game a try. He becomes embroiled in a game that is wide spread, more vicious than he could have ever anticipated, and more profitable if he is willing to take big risks. When HP decides to play this most dangerous game where his every move seems to be watched, he inadvertently gets his sister involved.

In Buzz HP was on the run for four months after the events in Game, but a set-up and circumstances force him back to Sweden where,  in order to investigate why he was targeted overseas (and to see if it was part of the Game), he gets a job by masquerading as someone else. In the meantime Rebecca is facing trumped up charges and is suspended from the security Police. While she's waiting for the investigation to be completed a cop-blogger seems to be targeting her for a fall.

In both Game and Buzz there are many references to social media and how it can be (or is) used for nefarious purposes or at least for influencing and trying to sway public opinion in a targeted direction. While they were interesting and at times quite thrilling, for me, at least, it felt like something was lost in the translation from the original. The whole narrative in both books just switches back and forth from HP to Rebecca with no indication of a transition. I got used to it over two books but it also diminished much of the potential enjoyment of the series.

Honestly, I found HP grating and annoying, while, basically, I liked Rebecca. Over time HP redeemed himself slightly above annoying in Game and into Buzz, but then I just grew tired of him and Rebecca - not a good sign. My lack of empathy with the characters coupled with the lack of transitions did not bode well for me overlooking the language and unattractive actions of the characters. While there were some interesting ideas, in the end both books amounted to a so-so read for me.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Atria/Emily Bestler Books via Netgalley for review purposes.

Camels Are Easy, Comedy's Hard

Camels Are Easy, Comedy's Hard by Roy Blount Jr.

Open Road Media, 12/10/13
eBook, 303 pages

ISBN-13: 9781480457751

Description:

An eclectic collection from Roy Blount Jr., master of American humor writing

I’ll tell you what kind of book I believe in: one that makes people say, at first sight, what the first person who ever saw a camel must have said: “What in the world is that?” And then, after a while, “Yet it seems to fit together some way.”

In this laugh-a-minute assortment of essays, travel writing, poems, and even the occasional crossword puzzle, Roy Blount Jr. covers sixty-four different subjects, all unified by his trademark humor. “Tan” is a personal essay about Blount’s lifelong battle with—sometimes for and sometimes against—that elusive summer glow. “Wild Fish Ripped My Flesh” chronicles his misadventures navigating the Amazon River. And “Lit Demystified Quickly” is a tongue-in-cheek poem about larger-than-life literary figures such as James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Walt Whitman.

Camels Are Easy, Comedy’s Hard is a classic compendium of the wisecracks and wisdom for which Blount is renowned.

My Thoughts:

Camels Are Easy, Comedy's Hard  by Roy Blount Jr. is a  collection of  writing which includes; essays, poems, short stories, travel writing, reminiscence, sports writing, political discussion, interviews of famous people, and crossword puzzles. I hope I didn't leave anything out. There are 64 pieces in the book; 61 originally appeared in 28 different publications. They range wildly in length from the very short (23 words) to long (10,000 words). Many are recent but a few, as Blount says, "have been acquiring patina for ten to twenty-one years." This is a newly released eBook edition of Camels Are Easy, Comedy's Hard which was originally released in 1991.

As anyone who has ever read Roy Blount Jr. knows, this is a humourous book simply based on Blount's presentation and the way he looks at things. The stories run the gamet from exploring the Amazon to French painting to coon dogs to synchronized swimming meets. The travel writing includes some reflections on camels as well as visits to Dierks, Arkansas; Kampala, Uganda; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Esperanza, and Peru. Famous people written about include Gilda Radner and Jonathan Demme.

For example, Blount says about the Amazon "To tell the truth, when people ask me what the Amazon was like, it is not man-eating fish that spring to mind. It is the mud. Strange gray-green-blue-brown mud." in "Eating out of House and Home"  Blount writes: "You know why Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe is so sexy, don’t you? Not just because one of the people in it is outdoors naked—I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that half the people in the entire history of French painting are outdoors naked. It’s because she is outdoors naked eating lunch."

Or in "I Model for GQ" he writes"On a scale of the ones to the nines, I am usually dressed to roughly the twos. In order to avoid giving offense at special occasions, I will go as far as the threes or fours. The only reason to move on up to snazzy, however, is to attract business or women. And the type of business or women you attract by dressing snazzy is the type that will expect you to dress snazzy all the time. I wouldn’t want to live like that. Another reason I am not natty is that I like to eat lying down sometimes. I also like to eat sitting up, standing and walking, but let’s face it, you can’t always be sitting up, standing or walking when you eat; sometimes you’re going to be eating lying down. Or at least leaning back. And you spill stuff on your lapels."

How can you not laugh at a man who is that honest?

I particularly enjoyed reading his piece on Gilda Radner, but I could easily list a dozen others (The Amazon (well, all the travel monologues), getting a tan, Jonathan Demme, all the crossword puzzles...

Highly Recommended

 
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Media via Netgalley for review purposes.

Contents include: 

About the Title; How a Camel Goes; Man Chewed by Many Animals; Eating Out of House and Home; The Vanity of Human Dishes; Tan; Gilda: “This Stoff Came Outta Me?”; Nancy Is Herself; Couldn’t Use Them in a Game; What Is Funny about the National Geographic? (An Analysis That Appeared in the One-Hundredth Anniversary Issue of that Magazine); Caesars for the Bath Gel; Wild Fish Ripped My Flesh; I Model for GQ; Demme: A Damn Good Kennel Man; YouDon’t Say“Mush”; Yo Yo Yo, Rowa uh Rowa, Hru Hru; Yet Another True Study of Mankind; On Science; Hyenas Feel Good about Themselves; How to Struggle; We Feed, We Lions; Lit Demystified Quickly; Harper’s Bazaar Asked Me to Write a Review of My Last Collection Which I Am Now Reprinting in This One, So Sue Me; The Way Mama Tells It; A Man’s Got to Read; On Manhood; MEOW Dumber Than War?; Words for the Gulf; Goofing on Yahweh; The Fall (If the Original Story Had Been Conceived, pace Harold Bloom, by a Man) On Being One’s Own Guy; Gutes and Eulas; The Puzzle Section: A Partial Explanation New World Order: Chaos; By Christ’s Ego! (Out of Aerobic Guilt); Are We Ready for Leaders We Can Read?; Can Credibility Be Had?; Back-to-School Double Bind; Despicability Sucks!; Our Original Mama; Declining Change: Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me, Guess I’ll Go 15 Across; Slippery Pleasures; Too Hot to Smooch?; GOP Soul Train; Clusters Gonna Get You If You Don’t Watch Out; Fly Third Class; The Sunday Paper: A Column Three-Dot Column; In-Your-Face L-Wordism (And the Role of Poetry and Flaggot Jokes); Don’t Deficit There… DO SOMETHING; Should the South Re-Secede?; The New Solvency: We Owe It to Ourselves; Sticking It on the Gipper Sideways; Free Speech, My Foot; National Griper’s Day Is Just Like Everything Else These Days; The CEO Blues; Forgive Them, for They Have Told Us How They Did It; A Christmas Carol (for the Eighties); Christmas Dwindles; Tomorrow Will Not Wait; And Now for the Resurrection(Blub;) Gospel Rap; Afternoon with a Buck; Good and Over; Acknowledgements

The Tenth Circle

The Tenth Circle by Jon Land

Open Road Integrated Media, 12/17/13
Paperback/ebook, 536 pages
ISBN-13: 9781480414792
www.jonlandbooks.com

Description:

McCracken races to stop a terrorist attack on the State of the Union speech and confronts an ancient weapon of unimaginable power

Blaine McCracken has just pulled off the impossible in Iran, ridding the world of a terrible threat—only to return home to face another. The reverend Jeremiah Rule spews hateful rhetoric and inflames half the world, setting off a series of devastating terrorist attacks. Rule, though, isn’t acting alone. A shadowy cabal is pulling his strings, unaware that they are creating a monster who’s about to spin free of their control.

Finding himself a wanted man, McCracken must draw on skills and allies both old and new to get to the heart of a plan aimed at unleashing no less than the tenth circle of hell. A desperate chase across country and continent takes him into the past, where the answers he needs hide in some of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries. As the clock ticks down to an unthinkable maelstrom, McCracken and his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle fight to save the United States from a war that the country didn’t even know it was fighting—but that it may well lose.

My Thoughts:

The Tenth Circle by Jon Land  is another installment to the Blaine McCraken series, #11, I believe. In this outing McCracken almost singlehandedly (he has some help from Johnny Wareagle and Sal Belamo) almost does the impossible - several times. He begins by ending a nuclear threat in Iran to tackling an even bigger terrorist threat based right at home in the USA. Tied into the threat is the answer to the disappearance of the Roanoke colony and the mysterious word "Croatoan"that was found caved on a tree, as well as the disappearance of the Mary Celeste.

Land has this novel gallop along at a good clip, which includes many short chapters, and has a whole lot going on.

I found myself of two minds while reading The Tenth Circle by Jon Land. On the one hand I pretty much knew what I was going to get when I started reading it. It's an action/adventure thriller with an emphasis on action. On the other hand I actually found myself bored reading it because it didn't stand out amount others in the genre. I understand having a hero who can get things done but McCracken, along with others (Wareagle, Belamo, and Zarrin - a Palestinian assassin) is just too good, too perfect. All of the characters in this book are caricatures.

What this is is a good airplane/traveling book: Something with action; short, quick chapters; better than making small talk with strangers; you won't cry or feel a need to replace it should it get lost in the shuffle (of course now it would possibly be on an e-reader, which I wouldn't want to lose, but I digress.) It does deliver excitement and entertainment, so it is a perfectly adequate book based on my airplane book criteria, but it's not going to stand out heads above the others in this genre.

Recommended - but find it used or at a discount price

Excerpt

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media via Netgalley for review purposes.

Plague

Plague by Lisa Hinsley

Simon and Schuster Digital Sales; 12/9/2013
eBook: 129 pages
ASIN: B00BSBVF86
lisahinsley.weebly.com/novels.html

In this enthralling debut thriller written in the vein of Contagion, a young couple struggles to save their plague–stricken son as they desperately fight back against a tyrannical government.

A new strain of the bubonic plague is diagnosed in London. Before it can be contained it spreads through the population, faster and deadlier than anyone could have imagined. Three weeks is all it takes to decimate the country.

Johnny and Liz are devastated when their young son, Nathan, starts to show symptoms, but Liz phones the authorities anyway, and a few hours later the army arrives and boards up their house.

Now Nathan is dying and there is nothing they can do to help him. Hours pass like weeks as their little boy grows weaker and weaker. All Liz wants is for them to die with some dignity, but the authorities refuse to help. Then their Internet and phones stop working. Cut off from the world and stuck inside their house, the family tries its best to cope—but there is nothing they can do to stop the lethal epidemic.

My Thoughts:

Plague by Lisa Hinsley is a novella with a huge impact. Johnny and Liz know their son Nathan is sick, they also realize that it is a new strain of the bubonic plague. Authorities are telling people that the outbreak isn't spreading but clearly, as seen in their neighborhood, the authorities are lying. Liz, Johnny and Nathan find themselves trapped in their home which has been literally boarded up tight to keep them inside. A government watcher is supposed to help them should they need anything - and also shoot them if they try to escape their home/prison.  Soon it becomes clear that everything is much worse than anyone has said.

Hinsley accurately describes the symptoms of the plague and how it would affect the infected person. For those who know, the symptoms aren't pretty and Hinsley is graphic in her descriptions. The chapters are presented as days so you can get a feel for how quickly the plague ravages the victim. Hinsley describes this as a horror novel, and rightly so. The real effects of the Bubonic Plague on a person would be horrendous and the descriptions make that quite clear.

Since this is a novella it is just a slice of an ordinary family's battle with the plague. It is one family's struggle to survive a horrific event. There is no huge backstory on how or why it started or who set a new strain of the plague loose. Currently people can't spread Bubonic plague but they can pneumonic plague. What makes Hinsley's story even more frightening is that this time the plague can spread from person to person.

Those who follow this sort of thing (um, me) know that the plague (Yersinia pestis) exists right now, among us, in various populations of animals (prairie dogs, black footed ferrets, chipmunks, squirrels, marmots, rodents, coyotes) and yes, it can jump to human hosts through a flea bite. The Bubonic plague does show up from time to time today. This knowledge makes Plague even more frightening.

Very Highly Recommended - Certainly worth the price of $1.99!

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of of the publisher for review purposes.

Escaping Home

Escaping Home by A. American  
Penguin Group; 10/30/13

Paperback, 336 pages 
ISBN-13: 9780142181294
Book 3 of The Survivalist Series 

Description:

When society ceases to exist, who can you trust?

After the collapse of the nation’s power grid, America is under martial law—and safety is an illusion. As violence erupts around him, Morgan Carter faces one of his most difficult decisions yet: whether to stay and defend his home, or move to a more isolated area, away from the prying eyes of the government. He and his family are hesitant to leave their beloved Lake County, but with increasingly suspicious activities happening in a nearby refugee camp, all signs point towards defecting. Morgan and his friends aren't going to leave without a fight, though—and they'll do anything to protect their freedoms.

From the author of the hit survivalist novels Going Home and Surviving Home, Escaping Home describes the struggle to live in a world with no rules, and how, sometimes, the strength of family is the only thing that can pull you through.

My Thoughts:

Escaping Home by A. American is the third book in the Survivalist Series. The first two books are Going Home and Surviving Home (previously reviewed). 

In Escaping Home Morgan, his family, Thad, Sarge, Jess and the rest of the characters are back and the story continues. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continue to perpetuate nefarious deeds on unsuspecting Americans, now in containment camps. The DHS and FEMA want all survivors in camps, but they are also keeping track of anyone who comes into the camps who is a known subversive based on previously collected information about citizens. In the camps, there is rampant corruption and an abuse of power of those in charge.

"Life in the camps isn’t what it appears to be. While there is food, water and warmth, the price is near slave labor and virtual imprisonment. In the care and custody of FEMA, backed up by the DHS, those inside the camp have no rights, no freedom and, worse yet, are exposed to the possible brutality of their caretakers. Every barrel has a bad apple, and over time those bad ones start to rot the good ones. Left unchecked this rot can take over the entire barrel. With so much absolute power over so many helpless souls, horrors are bound to be committed. Among those in the camp is our friend Jess, who walked with Thad and me on our long adventure home. We don’t know how she’s faring, but with the mixed reports about the camp, one thing is certain: surviving in the camp may prove far more difficult than the struggle outside." (Location 21)

Once he was trussed up, the DHS woman who started it all came up and spoke with one of the guards. “Here’s his paperwork.”
“Which list is he on?” the man asked, looking the forms over.
“He came up on a couple. He’s subversive by nature.” They grabbed the man by his arms and dragged him out of the tent. Jess slowly got back in her chair, thinking, What have I gotten myself into? (Location 79)

Jess is in a camp and hears from another survivor/prisoner that Morgan is alive and with a group that may be near the camp. She is hoping to find a way to escape the camps.

As they went through the line turning in their trays, Jess whispered in Mary’s ear, “I want to find out if they know where Morgan is. If he and Thad are nearby, we can go there.”
Mary cocked her head to the side. “If we can get out of here.”
“Oh, I’ll find a way,” Jess said, with a devious look on her face. (Location 392)

I agreed to review the latest installment of this series based on the sheer entertainment value found in the action contained in the first two books and not the writing. Here is my dilemma: This time the actual quality of the writing is noticeably better but the forward motion of the story has slowed w-a-y down. Essentially this is a middle book in a series that will be continued for another book (or more). While there is a prologue for new readers the first two books actually introduced the characters and developed them more fully than this third installment. I knew all the characters and what they had been through from the first two books, but new readers won't have that luxury. 

The first two novels also go into much more detail on the preparedness and skills Morgan and others used in their ongoing survival, so anyone interested in a survivalist life style might want to start with the first two books. There certainly are some survivalist techniques present, just not as many. 

One thing I want to note is Morgan's strong love and devotion toward his family and his commitment to protecting them. Morgan's affectionate demeanor toward his wife and daughters is actually a nice reflection on the author since it seems that these emotions are obviously a representation of how the author feels in his daily life.  

I am conflicted on rating Escaping Home. Based on the improved quality of the writing, I'd be willing to rate it higher than the first two in the series - except the point where Escaping Home ends feels like it was originally just a chapter break rather than an actual stopping point for this installment. The story just stops. It appears that most of the action is yet-to-come in the next book (or two?).


Recommended

Excerpt


Disclosure: I received a digital advanced reading copy of this book from Penguin Books for review purposes. 

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World   
by Haruki Murakami;  Alfred T. Birnbaum, translator
Knopf Doubleday; 3/28/1993
Trade Paperback, 416 pages
ISBN-13: 9780679743460

Description:

A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.

My Thoughts:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, translated by Alfred T. Birnbaum, is one hard novel to describe. Kirkus Reviews calls it an elegiac allegory, which barely touches on it's attributes. It is an elaborate post-modern novel that is part cyberpunk science fiction and part film noir crime novel.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World follows two stories, told in altering chapters which are seemingly alternate universes. Eventually the two alternating universes connect.

One part is set in Tokyo sometime in the future where the narrator is a Calcutec, who works for The System. He launders and shuffles data. He's been hired to do a top secret job for a professor whose lab is underground where he has to hide from the carnivorous INKlings, not to mention the competing info organization, the Semiotecs. These chapters feature references to whiskey, pop-culture, old American movies, music, as well as lots of astute comments and nimble wordplay.

The alternate chapters feature a dreamreader who is living in a walled city surrounded by grazing unicorns. He has been separated from his shadow which is not allowed in the city. Attended to by the librarian, his job is to read dreams found in unicorn skulls in the library, but he can't help but wonder about his disconnect to his emotions and memory since he came to this town.

Murakami won the Tanizaki Literary prize (the Japanese equivalent of the Pulitzer) for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. This is a well written novel teeming with ideas and styles that seem incongruent at first (crime novel vs. fantasy) but eventually it all begins to makes some sense. It has an underlying complexity, which makes it one of those novels that requires some time to process all the ideas.

Highly Recommended

The first Murakami novel I read, 1Q84, also had an alternate reality.

Quote:
Once again, life had a lesson to teach me: It takes years to build up, it takes moments to destroy. pg. 187

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

HarperCollins, 11/5/2013
Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062236678
annpatchett.com

Description:

The New York Times bestselling author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto creates a resonant portrait of a life in this collection of writings on love, friendship, work, and art. "The tricky thing about being a writer, or about being any kind of artist, is that in addition to making art you also have to make a living."

So begins This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, an examination of the things Ann Patchett is fully committed to—the art and craft of writing, the depths of friendship, an elderly dog, and one spectacular nun. Writing nonfiction, which started off as a means of keeping her insufficiently lucrative fiction afloat, evolved over time to be its own kind of art, the art of telling the truth as opposed to the art of making things up. Bringing her narrative gifts to bear on her own life, Patchett uses insight and compassion to turn very personal experiences into stories that will resonate with every reader.

These essays twine to create both a portrait of life and a philosophy of life. Obstacles that at first appear insurmountable—scaling a six-foot wall in order to join the Los Angeles Police Department, opening an independent bookstore, and sitting down to write a novel—are eventually mastered with quiet tenacity and a sheer force of will. The actual happy marriage, which was the one thing she felt she wasn't capable of, ultimately proves to be a metaphor as well as a fact: Patchett has devoted her life to the people and ideals she loves the most.

An irresistible blend of literature and memoir, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a unique examination of the heart, mind, and soul of one of our most revered and gifted writers.

My Thoughts:

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a collection of 23 essays (including the introduction) written by Ann Patchett between 1996 and 2012. The stories not only showcase some of the nonfiction she has written,  but they serve as a genuine introduction to the person of Ann Patchett. It is a well-known fact that Patchett is an excellent writer. How she approached this pinnacle of success is well documented in the introduction and the subsequent essays bear the truth/fruit of her efforts.

Some of these essays originally appeared in some form in various magazines: Atlantic Monthly, Audible, Gourmet, Granta, Harper's, New York Times, Vogue, and the Washington Post Magazine. Others were written for a venue with this collection also in mind. 

Actually, I'm hard pressed to pick favorites from her essays since I found strong points in each one. They all deal with commitments, whether it is to a spouse or a dog or a grandmother or a state or a vocation or an idea. But what all of these essays excel at is tutoring and illustrating how it should be done for would-be-writers. All of these essays are just as compelling as any short story and prove the point that a good writer can write about the ordinariness of everyday life, like caring for a loved one, and make it interesting, honest, and poetic. 

All of these essays have something to say. The writing is outstanding... simply superlative. Patchett is able to accurately describe scenes and people in such an extraordinary way that you will feel a connection to the writing. While this is a collection of essays, in many ways it also functions as a memoir, an incredibly literary and beautifully rendered memoir with insightful vignettes and heart-felt disclosures.

Fans of Patchett's fiction should do themselves a favor and purchase this collection asap.  

To Patchett I just want to say:  Thank you for giving me a small glimpse of some of the things composting in your humus. The brief scenes and insight you chose to share have widened my perspective of your work and given me an even greater appreciation of your talent.


Very Highly Recommended


Excerpt

YouTube

Contents:

Nonfiction, an Introduction explains the fact that a writer has to earn a living too. It covers how Patchett not only paid her dues as a freelance nonfiction writer, but also how this helped her become a better writer.

How to Read  a Christmas Story is a recollection of various Christmas memories and her first happy Christmas.

The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life - is another great essay for those who want to be writers. Two thoughts to share:

"I am a compost heap, and everything I interact with, every experience I've had, gets shoveled onto the heap where it eventually mulches down, is digested and excreted by worms, and rots. It's from that dark, rich humus, the combination of what you encountered, what you know and what you've forgotten, that ideas start to grow." (pg 41)

"I believe in keeping several plots going at once. The plot of a novel should be like walking down a busy city street.... All manner of action and movement is rushing toward you and away. But that isn't enough.... Many writers feel that plot is passe' - they're so over plot, who needs plot?  - to which I say: Learn how to construct one first, and then feel free to reject it." (pg. 48)

The Sacrament of Divorce is about her very short, first marriage. "Honey, I know. Things happen that you never thought were possible." (pg. 65)

The Paris Match is about a trip to Paris and a word game.

This Dog's Life is the story of how she found her dog, Rose.

In The Best Seat in the House she explains how she satisfies her love of opera.

My Road to Hell Was Paved is about renting a Winnebago to explore RVing in the American West for an article.

In Tennessee she reflects on some of her experiences living in the state.

On Responsibility is about caring for her dog and her grandmother.

The Wall is about the time Patchettt went through the written and physical tests to try out for the police academy in Los Angeles.

Fact vs. Fiction is the Miami University of Ohio Convocation Address of 2005.

In My Life in Sales Patchett reflects on going out on book tours to sell her novels.

"The Love Between the Two Women Is Not Normal" discusses a protest at Clemson University over Patchett's nonfiction book Truth and Beauty, a memoir about her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy.

The Right to Read is the Clemson Freshman Convocation Address of 2006.

Do Not Disturb discusses Pachett checking into the Hotel Bel-Air for some peace and quiet in order to get some work done.

Introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2006 (self-explanatory)

Love Sustained is a moving tribute to her grandmother.

The Bookstore Strikes Back explains how Patchett came to be co-owner of an independent bookstore in Nashville, Parnassus Books.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is the story of her family history of failed marriages in comparison to her now successful relationship.

In Our Deluge, Drop by Drop, Patchett reflects on flooding.

In Dog without End she is faced with her faithful companion Rose's decline in health.

In The Mercies Patchett helps Sister Nena, a Sister of Mercy and former teacher, move into an apartment by herself for the first time at age 78.


Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins for review purposes.