New Series: Reads and Recs

I recently retired (or temporarily laid off) my weekly “Nightstand” post that outlined what books, articles, blog posts, and short stories I planned to read for the week ahead. It resonated with a few followers, but the majority seemed uninterested.

“Reads and Recs” is a renovation of “Nightstand,” with the focus instead on pieces I’ve read and liked in the last week and a short review of each. Let me know what you think in the comments. What do you like and what would you change? Do you prefer the simpler “Nightstand”? Or should I stick with my usual blog fare (photographs and the occasional essay) and leave the literary criticism to other bloggers?

I welcome all constructive criticism. As a writer, rejection is my constant companion. I revel in it.

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What I read last week, why I read it, why I liked it (and a quote to entice you). Click on the link or accompanying photo for each to access the piece:

• What I read: “The Art of Independent Publishing” Jonathan Lee interviews Fiona McCrae (Guernica, April 15, 2014)
• Why I read it: Small, independent presses outshine large publishing houses in my eyes most days. Plus Graywolf, the press featured, resides in my city and published one of my favorite books of the year, The Empathy Exams.
• Why I liked it: The interview with McCrae offers an inside glance into the independent world of book publishing. It gives hope to exceptional writers who never plan to publish to the masses (at least at first) but instead savor the chance to be nurtured by a respected and exceptional publisher that is looking to unearth something original.

“A person who lived their whole life without reading a Graywolf book wouldn’t keel over and die. But they’d be impoverished in some way, I think. Our books enrich the people who read them. All good books do. I really believe that. And I think a culture has a responsibility to nurture its talent.”

• What I read: “Crime Fiction” by Nicholas Schmidle (The New Yorker, August 4, 2014)
• Why I read it: This caught my attention right around the time the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, occurred. It’s about one case in Chicago where the guilt of the African American man sentenced for the murder of a young basketball star is in doubt, likely because Chicago police and the detectives who worked on the case used unethical tactics to solicit confessions.
• Why I liked it: Schmidle skillfully unravels the case against Tyrone Hood, who has been in prison for 21 years for a murder he claims he didn’t commit. It calls into question the tactics used to prosecute and jail Hood. While the facts are murky, Schmidle highlights the systemic problems within the Chicago Police Department and the tactics some officers are notorious for using to solve “heaters” or cases that draw significant media attention

[Upon Schmidle meeting with Kenneth Boudreau, one of the homicide detectives on the case whose interrogation practices have been suspect for years] “When I went to turn on my audio recorder, Boudreau flashed a dimpled grin and said, ‘Nobody tapes me.’”

• What I read: The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant (1963)
• Why I read it: A re-read — one of my favorite books. But I’ve yet to meet one person who has read it or even heard of it.
• Why I liked it: It’s a fantastic study of hope in the midst of pain and desolation. Norman Moonbloom is an agent who collects rent from tenants in four run-down New York City apartment buildings. He has avoided pain most of his life by exerting the least amount of effort in order to maintain a comfortable, yet dull, existence. As he collects the rent every week, Moonbloom catches a glimpse into the tenants’ struggles. He tries to deflect their complaints (e.g., leaky faucets, vermin, bulging walls, burnt out hallway lights), but he begins to reflect on his aversion to pain and conflict and contemplates what change might mean for him, possibly bringing with it extreme pain, but maybe joy as well. In an effort to make the transition, he begins to repair the apartments and the tenants’ lives, expecting a breakdown or breakthrough by the end, welcoming either. Wallant eases the reader into Moonbloom’s metamorphosis from nice but reticent agent who fears inevitable pain to an agent of change who seeks it out. It’s a reminder that life is agony, but unless we open ourselves up to the pain, we’ll never experience the joy that comes from loving and helping others and pushing our limits.

“His solitude now was the result of his metabolism, that constant breathing in of joy and exhalation of sadness. He had come to take shallower breaths, and the two had become mercifully mixed into melancholy contentment. He wondered how pain would breach that low-level strength. ‘I’m a small man of definite limitations,’ he declared to himself, and relaxed in the admission.”

• What I read: “Why Walking Helps Us Think” by Ferris Jabr (The New Yorker, September 3, 2014)
• Why I read it: I walk a lot, not just for exercise, but to clear my head and jumpstart my creativity, especially when writer’s block sets in or I need to solve a problem.
• Why I liked it: The article reiterated what I already knew or suspected about the benefits of walking to spur the imagination. Jabr outlined why it has been a treasured exercise and tool for writers through the ages, including Thoreau, Woolf, and Wordsworth, and that’s kind of cool, right? To be on the same wavelength as those writing gods.

“Because we don’t have to devote much conscious effort to the act of walking, our attention is free to wander—to overlay the world before us with a parade of images from the mind’s theatre.”

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I also took my daily photo of today’s harvest moon, obscured:

UFOs (and Renovating “Nightstand”)

UFOs. Or a blurry photo of parking garage lamps. Either/or.

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As much as I love to read and share book and article suggestions with others, I’m finding my weekly “Nightstand” series really doesn’t add much value, at least to followers. I’m thinking of some ways to repackage the recurring post, perhaps reviewing a recently read book or article rather than developing a list of what I plan to read in the coming days.

The series has been a great motivator for me to read the books and articles I post, and I like having a record of items I’ve read that I can refer to when I want to make a recommendation to family and friends. Yet I don’t know how much my followers actually enjoy it.

My plan is to introduce a new iteration in a week or two, focusing on a fresher format of greater interest to people who love to read as much as I do.

I’ll end with a possible topic for a future post. I adore Joshua Ferris’s writing and am loving his latest book, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. It’s about an atheist dentist who discovers someone is impersonating him online to promote a strange religion. I loved Ferris’s first book, And Then We Came to the End, and I look forward to seeing where this story leads.

Post-Rain (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Eight)

Hidden

Found

Dripping

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What I’m reading this week:

• “Being a Times Square Elmo” by Jonathan Blitzer (“Currency” blog, The New Yorker, June 30, 2014)
• “Calling Yourself a Writer (Or Not)” by Grace Miel Jasper (“Writer’s Block” blog, The Loft, July 3, 2014)
• “From Sarajevo to Baghdad: The Lessons of War” by John Cassidy (“Rational Irrationality” blog, The New Yorker, July 1, 2014)
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2003)
• “A Rogue State Along Two Rivers: How ISIS Came to Control Large Portions of Syria and Iraq” by Jeremy Ashkenas, Archie Tse, Derek Watkins, and Karen Yourish (The New York Times, July 3, 2014)

Bloom (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Seven)

My mom grows beautiful flowers, and her peonies are among the loveliest of her blooms. A bouquet of pink and white blossoms from her garden is nearing the end, but it’s still stunning.

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What I’m reading this week, including a series on World War I from The New York Times. I won’t get to all of the new pieces and archived articles, but it’s definitely worth a look if you are as fascinated by that era and the senselessness of the war as I am:

• “Facebook Adé” by Ida Hattemer-Higgins (n+1, June 24, 2014)
• “Fulfillment” by Luke Finsaas (Monkeybicycle, June 30, 2014)
• “The Great War: A 100-Year Legacy of World War I” by various journalists (The New York Times)
• “Let Them Eat Cash” by Christopher Blattman (The New York Times, June 29, 2014)
• “The Right to Write” by Roxana Robinson (The New York Times, June 28, 2014)
• The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen (1978)

Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Six

What I’m reading this week, including an interview conducted by a favorite writer (Hessler), a book by another favorite writer (Portis), and a sneak peak at a new book celebrating a favorite photographer (Leiter). Oh, and then there’s McSweeney’s “Short Imagined Monologues,” which are brilliant. Two recent versions top this week’s “Nightstand”:

• “A Bear Explains How to Survive a Bear Attack” by Janelle Blasdel (McSweeney’s, June 23, 2014)
• “Because I Said So” by Marsh McCall (McSweeney’s, June 23, 2014)
• “Chocolate Milk in the Schools and Other Products of Expert Opinion” by Paul John Scott (StarTribune, June 22, 2014)
• The Dog of the South by Charles Portis (1979)
• “An Empty Heart is One That Can Be Filled” by Lily King (The New York Times, June 18, 2014)
• “How a Woman’s Plan to Kill Herself Helped Her Family Grieve” by Alix Spiegel (NPR, June 23, 2014)
• “John McPhee, The Art of Nonfiction No. 3” interviewed by Peter Hessler (The Paris Review, Spring 2010)
• “Lest Ye Be Judged” by Jon Mooallem (ESPN The Magazine, June 20, 2014)
• “Saul Leiter: Early Black and White” (L’Oeil de la Photographie, June 23, 2014)
• “Sick, Frail, and Abandoned by Home Care Firms” by Chris Serres (StarTribune, June 22, 2014)

Decor (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Five)

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What I’m reading this week — from Pooh to NYC to the troubles in Iraq, with some O’Connor thrown in for good measure:

• A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor (1955)
• “Lunch at Gitlitz’s” by David Sipress (“Culture Desk” blog, The New Yorker, June 14, 2014)
• “The Poetics of Pooh: On the Urge to Unsee and the Act of Imagining” by Andrew Panebianco (“Brevity’s Nonfiction” blog, Brevity Magazine, June 10, 2014)
• “Wider War” by Dexter Filkins (The New Yorker, June 23, 2014)

Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Four

What I’m reading this week — lots of good stuff:

• “The 100-Year-Old Who Taught Greta Garbo to Waltz” by Matt Weinstock (Los Angeles Review of Books, June 4, 2014)
• “The Art of the Sentence: Joseph Mitchell” by Robert Cochran (“The Open Bar” blog, Tin House, March 26, 2013)
• Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig (1939)
• “Bookstores of New York” by Bob Eckstein (“Page-Turner” blog, The New Yorker, June 4, 2014)
• “Local Story” by Rachel Aviv (The New Yorker, March 4, 2013)
• “The People Who Can’t Not Run” by Katherine Dempsey (The Atlantic, June 4, 2014)
• “Sitting Is Bad for You. So I Stopped. For a Whole Month.” by Dan Kois (New York Magazine, June 9, 2014)
• “Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant?” by Wells Tower (GQ, June 2014)

Purse in Booth (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Three)

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What I’m reading this week:

• Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (1957)
• “I Would Only Rob Banks for My Family” by Skip Hollandsworth (Texas Monthly, June 2014)
• “Motel Life, Lower Reaches” by Charles Portis (Oxford American, January/February 2003)
• “Of Bikes and Men” by Amanda Giracca (Vela, May 29, 2014)
• “On the Trail of White Horse” by Christopher McDougall (Outside, April 12, 2012)
• “Poet Vs. Novelist” by Philip Schultz (“Opinionator” blog, The New York Times, May 24, 2014)
• “The Writing Workshop Glossary” by Amy Klein (“Opinionator” blog, The New York Times, June 2, 2014)

Initially (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-Two)

I’ve walked by this building for years and only recently noticed all the initials carved into the side:

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What I’m reading this week:

• “Bob Dylan: Fanboy” by Ian Crouch (“Page-Turner” blog, The New Yorker, May 20, 2014)
• “Christopher Michael-Martinez’s Father Gets It Right” by Adam Gopnik (“News Desk” blog, The New Yorker, May 25, 2014)
• The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison (2014)
• “On the Road Again” by Robert Moor (The Paris Review, January 15, 2013)
• “Survival Skills at a School in LA” by Anne P. Beatty (The American Scholar, Winter 2013)
• “Want to Write Great Narrative? Study Screenwriting” by John Capouya (Neiman Storyboard, March 14, 2014)

Soaked (and Nightstand 2014: Week Twenty-One)

The day I’m having:

• I awoke at 6 a.m. to go running. Then decided to sleep in 10 minutes longer. Next thing I knew it was 7:45.
• I finally went for a run at noon. The light rain didn’t look too ominous, so I left unconcerned. But within blocks it began pouring and didn’t let up the entire time I was out. And then there was the lightning.
• I decided to take on a major spring cleaning project about a week ago and have only managed to create a bigger mess. Today I just looked at it and wanted to throw all my belongings in the dumpster.
• Tennis was cancelled for a third time this season because of rain. My serve is destined for un-greatness.

At least I got out during a reprieve from the precip and took this photo to brighten my surly mood:

Something pink

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What I’m reading this week: I adore The Goldfinch so far. I’m only 300 pages in with nearly 500 to go, so no new books this week, but a few articles:

• “How to Master the Fine Art of Small Talk” by Laura Vanderkam (Fast Company, May 7, 2014)
• “The Joys of Trimming” by Pamela Erens (“Opinionator” blog, The New York Times, May 12, 2014)
• “The Reykjavik Confessions” by Simon Cox (BBC News, May 15, 2014)
• “Schooled” by Dale Russakoff (The New Yorker, May 19, 2014)
• “Why Jill Abramson Was Fired: Part Three” by Ken Auletta (“Currency” blog, The New Yorker, May 18, 2014)