Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 7

We’ll start with my Christmas recommendations, which won’t be tremendously different from last year’s.

A Christmas Carol, Charles DickensHonest Advent, Scott EricksonHow to Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. SeussThe Polar Express, Chris Van AllsburghLittle Women, Louisa May AlcottThe Christmas Pig, J. K. Rowling“The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Here are some of the Christmas/holiday books that I haven’t yet read, but that I’m planning to read some day. Maybe not this year. So many books, so little time!

Afterward, Edith WhartonThe Life and Times of Santa Claus, Frank L. BaumMr. Dickens and His Carol, Samantha SilvaWishin’ and Hopin’, Wally LambHiddensee, Gregory MaguireComfort and Joy, Kristin HannahCelebrations, Maya AngelouHolidays on Ice, David SedarisWinter Street, Elin Hildebrand“Christmas Trees,” Robert Frost

But if you don’t just want to sit around reading holiday-related books for the next month, there are also some new books that will be hitting the shelves in time for gifting (or gifting to yourself while you have a second to read).

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, Sangu MandannaHeartstopper Vol. 6 (Heartstopper #6), Alice Oseman (which will be the final installment)Cabin, Patrick HutchisonRental House, Weike WandWind and Truth (Stormlight Archive #5), Brandon SandersonThe Rivals (Claudia Lin #2), Jane PekRoland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet, Samantha AllenThe Voyage Home (The Women of Troy #3), Pat Barker

I also just bought my daughter the first book of the Murdle series for her 20th birthday. She sat right down after cake and started solving murder-riddles. The books are on front tables in book stores everywhere, right now. And just so you don’t think it’s just another Mensa-like book, there is a story that unfolds in the puzzles, one that develops over the volumes of the book. I don’t know how novel-y the story is, but it is there. Also, there is a website where you can solve a Murdle puzzle, do a a Mini Murdle, or join the Detective Club.

Murdle, Volume 1., G. T. KarberMurdle: More Killer Puzzles, G. T. KarberMurdle: Even More Killer Puzzles, G. T. KarberMurdle: The Case of the Seven Skulls, G. T. KarberMurdle: The School of Mystery, G. T. Karber

I have also had a few titles recommended to me this past week. Probably you have heard of them. The first is from a couple at my sci-fi/fantasy book club. The other three require short exposition: I read a cozy this week. A Christmas cozy. This is not normally my genre but it was for a book club, one that does not normally read cozies. So it was either an accident or this club likes to read a cozy now and then, or maybe for the holiday party. You’ll get a review soon, but the thing is that I hated the writing. It was so bad. But I thoroughly enjoyed taking a mental and emotional reading break. Which made me turn to some reading peeps last night and ask, “Do you know of any cozies with respectable writing? Like Emily Henry is to romance.” These are the three possible answers I was given last night. Not sure if any of them truly count as a cozy, but we have heard things…

If you have any suggestions for this, please let me know in a comment.

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1), Naomi NovikHis Majesty’s Dragon (Termeraire #1), Naomi NovikThe Spellshop, Sarah Beth DurstPiranesi, Susanna ClarkThe House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune

This is is short because half my clubs don’t meet during the holidays. The other half parties together. One of these books is not usual for my book clubs, but here we go a wassailing…

The Book Club Hotel, Sarah MorganSame Bed, Different Dreams, Ed ParkWhiteout, Clayton, Jackson and Stone

Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1), Rebecca RoanhorseGiovanni’s Room, James BaldwinWe Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley JacksonStraight Out of Brooklyn (Miles Morales: Spider-Man Vol. 1), Saladin Ahmed

The movies to watch this season, beginning with the new ones. I can’t say much for those four movies at the top, but the rest of them are my top recommendations, the movies I watch year after year. (Yes, there are a lot.) About the first half are my most favorite.

Red One (2024)The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024)Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (2024)An Almost Christmas Story (2024)Elf (2003)A Christmas Story (1983)The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)Love, Actually (2001)Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001)The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)Arthur Christmas (2011)Klaus (2019)Spirited (2022)Home Alone (1990)It’s a Wonderful Life (1996)Miracle on 34th Street (1947)Last Holiday (2006)Four Christmases (2008)Christmas with the Kranks (2004)Edward Scissorhands (1990)While You Were Sleeping (1995)Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1939)A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)Scrooged (1988)Rise of the Guardians (2012)The Grinch (2018)The Christmas Chronicles (2018)Jingle Jangle (2020)Violent Night (2022)Last Christmas (2019)A Boy Called Christmas (2021)The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)Family Switch (2023)

I thought the afterword to Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jonathan Letham was rather clever. Among other things, he says, “Jackson is one of American fiction’s impossible presences, too material to be called a phantom …. too in-print to be ‘rediscovered,’ yet hidden in plain sight.” He goes on to tell about a parlor trick he used for a while, in which he would say his favorite author was Jackson, and when everyone said, “Never read her!” he’d say, cryptically, “Oh but yes you have.” Because nearly everyone (at least up until a point not that long ago) had read her short story, “The Lottery,” in school. And not only read it, but remembered it. It remains one of my favorite short stories and, indeed, I used to teach it in homeschool co-op. Both of my children have read it.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is considered psychological horror. Taking place in the late 50s and published in 1962, it is the book after the short story, that (both) put Jackson on the map. In a small New England town, you have Merricat (Mary Katherine), an underdeveloped eighteen-year-old girl who is painfully shy and isolated and also creepy and more than a little off. But twice a week she must leave her secluded life in the town’s “castle” (read: old mansion with lots of land) with her older sister and ailing uncle to shop for supplies, facing a barrage of strange and cruel rejection and jeering from the young and old villagers. It is a mystery, this book, so I don’t want to go much further with the details, though I found the write-up on the cover to be too cryptic. I’ll give you this: there is murder most foul in the past. There is a gold-digging relative who shows up and brings things to a climax. There is an extremely quirky set of sisters.

Speaking of which, it took me a long time to get my bearings because for some reason Jackson does not give us some information I would have appreciated. For example, it takes place in Vermont. You’re welcome. Also, it is stated in the first sentence that Merricat is 18, but her voice and actions are so ridiculously younger that that piece of info flew right out my head within a page. But she is 18! And Constance is 28! You’ll just have to accept that they are stunted by their lack of interaction and some mental issues (including agoraphobia). Try very hard to see them the age they are, and not the ages they totally seem. I was fighting this battle valiantly the entire time. I wasn’t always winning.

Apparently, kids are still reading this book these days (like The Perks of Being a Wallflower). Maybe it helps that it’s shortish and that it is often marketed as horror. I mean, kinda. Perhaps psychological horror, but even then… There are themes that pop up in Jackson’s writing that were not only ahead of her time but also relevant today and likely for a long time to come. (I actually thought “The Lottery” was written in like colonial times or something.) The sheer lack of adults probably appeals to teens, as well. (The uncle hardly counts. You’ll see.)

I was kept guessing. Some things I got right and some things I got wrong, which is great fun for me when I don’t have it all figured out. I mean, eventually you are supposed to figure everything out. I was a little surprised that Jackson never takes us back into the past, really, to get to know the family members who are dead. And without a real peek into the sisters’ past, I did feel like something was lacking, like there was much unexplained. Like motive. Like the driving forces behind all the quirks.

One of the things this book does masterfully is build and keep tension. Even though—especially for a short book—it moves a little show, there is always this looming destruction, this dread of turning the page and yet desire to turn the page and find out more. Right from the first scene, with Merricat in town and all these people acting like complete, depraved fools around her, you begin to feel squirmy. Not just what comes next, or what is going on, but also this can’t be good. Speaking of which, this is not an uplifting book. If you normally read cozies, this is not your book. It is a little depressing, and like “The Lottery,” we find out, among other things, that society as a whole sucks. People as a whole suck. I didn’t ruin anything for you. It takes about three pages to understand that.

The writing itself is clear and clean. The “castle” becomes a character all its own, as well as the garden. There is an extremely strong sense of place. (Though I was often left wanting for a little more description to help me picture what was going on, largely with the main characters and the house itself. Like, there is so much vibes, but not so many details to build the setting in my imagination.) While it’s true that I enjoyed this book less than I thought I would—something about the voice, the tone, and the way the characters were aged—I did walk away thinking that it would be a great book to teach highschoolers. They would like it fine. And there is so much to discuss. Too bad I didn’t read this for a book club. (I read it to figure out comps (comparable titles) for the book I’m about to try and sell. But I’ve had my eye on it for years.)

YA. Mystery. Psychological horror. Classic. Letham also said, like her other works, themes include “…the wickedness in normality, cataloguing the ways conformity and repression tip into psychosis, persecution, and paranoia, into cruelty and its masochistic, injury-cherishing twin.” That about covers it. And a cat. And a spooky forest. And lots of cataloguing of poisons. And neighbors with pitchforks. You should read it. It’s intriguing, to say the least.

Shirley Jackson wrote six novels and tens of short stories, her most famous of which are the short stories “The Lottery” “Charles,” and “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” and her novels We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House. “The Lottey” was published before she was thirty, in 1949, and she was suddenly successful and famous. She died within a few years of the publication of We Have Always Lived in the Castle which is partly autobiographical about her own struggles with neighbors and agoraphobia. If she hadn’t died so young, we would almost certainly have a much bigger body of work to be talking about.

I watched the 2018 movie. The best thing it did for me was to give me actors and a house so that I could finally see things in my head. It also gave me a clearer sense of time/history. Other than that, I liked the story in the book better than the story in the movie. It was pretty different, and ended up with some different themes and different vibes. And a different ending, almost entirely. I wouldn’t say don’t watch it. It’s a pretty good movie. But it’s not as good as the book.

“I sat very quietly, listening to what she had almost said. Time was running shorter, tightening around our house, crushing me” (p84).

I am going to convince you that sometimes quitting is exactly what you need to do.

In this instance, I quit before I even started. At the same time, I visited a local bookstore (Posman Books in Atlanta) and bought a magnet that says, “Never never never give up,” which is supposedly a Winston Churchill quote. So how does this make sense?

I have participated in Nanowrimo for most of the past several years. The past two years I even “won,” meaning I proved that I put 50,000-plus words on the page of a novel project in the month of November. My plan was to return and win again this year, even though Nano is having a bit of a crazy year, and I know several people who are doing their 50,000 words without actual Nanowrimo. I started a novel last November and was excited to return to it, expecting to either finish it or get pretty close. I carved out a few days from the month—like I always do—deciding to write 2,400 words a day with certain strategic days off. For Thanksgiving. But also this year because I was going to be away at a conference until November 3.

On November 2, two agents said they were enthusiastic about the book I had just pitched them and please send the manuscript along—after I cut 15,000 words. Which means I went back to my hotel room, opened my bullet journal, and changed the heading of my Nano schedule from “Nano 2024” to “Cutting Revision.” Number two.

Because every choice we make is a decision to not do something else.

And never, never, never giving up on The Edge selling this year means quitting Nanowrimo 2024 before I even begin.

Good luck to you writers! I will probably see you next year. And I’ll be busy doing other things, waiting for a moment in 2025 when I can finish the book about the girl and the donkey and the Bigfeet.

I am very enthusiastic about Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. I loved this book, and I am going to very soon go on to read the next in the series. But I can’t just leave you at that because this book has some graphic violence including some nasty scenes that involve children and the elderly. These are life-changing moments for our protagonist so they work on the whole, but I would not fault you if you were like, nah, thanks. I just can’t go there. And I had to warn you. But I also had to tell you that this book rocketed to my Favorites list out of nowhere. Despite the brutal scenes (and the first person present POV which I didn’t even notice after like a paragraph).

In a postapocalyptic world where climate change floodwaters remapped the coastlines and decimated the population, Dinetah (known to outsiders as the Navajo Reservation) is one of the remaining societies. Since this is the fifth flood, the Dine gods and heroes have returned to walk the earth. But so have the monsters. Maggie has clan powers that make her an especially lethal killer. But when her monsterhunter-mentor abandons her without an explanation, she’s isolated, angry, and wondering if she isn’t just another kind of monster. And when she kills a monster like none she’s ever seen before, she’s sent on a quest with a stoopid-handsome medicine man across an isolated, magical, gritty Dinetah full of strange creatures, desperate people, and hardscrabble towns.

There is a second book in the Sixth World series, Storm of Locusts. I have the impression that there were (are?) supposed to be even more, but Roanhorse has put out a number of other books, instead. Trail of Lightning ends, sure, but not completely. It is clearly meant to be continued. We have some unresolved questions here. I am hoping Storm of Locusts is more resolved. Unless there are more coming… (Roanhorse has blamed the lack of more books on the publishing industry, and while that totally tracks, I have to wonder if it is not also related to the accusations made by her critics, see below.)

So what did I love so much about this book?

I think it helps when you don’t know how great a book is supposed to be. Which means this review is not helping you with your reading. But it is helping you choose to read the book. I cracked the book open because it was next on my book club list, and a chapter later I was both disgusted (because of the scene with the kid) and so intrigued that I could not bring myself to put it down. Especially for New Adult (or YA fantasy or perhaps magic realism), the writing is super clean, sometimes even beautiful. The characters are deep, complicated, and compelling. Stuff happens constantly. And the world building is as close to perfect as I have seen. We are there. It makes sense. It pulls together elements of history and legend. I see it. I taste it. I smell it. I hear it.

And it is focused completely around the Dine society and culture, which is a big pro- for me. I actually have been in this part of the world before, staying on a reservation for a month. And I am always happy to see more Native American voices in the book world (and in the all the arts and culture things). (Techincally, Roanhorse is not a “Native American voice,” see below, but the voices in the book are. Plus you could argue she really is, anyhow, just part of a diverse chorus of Native voices.) And when that voice comes out swinging, like this? I enjoyed every minute (except those two scenes), even when the situations and characters and settings were grittier than I usually choose. (There is a lot of underground society, illegal and morally suspect things. Like American Gods or really—like the cover suggests with its styling—like Stephen King. Most people are perfectly comfortable in those spaces. Not so much me, usually.)

I am also going to have to read some of her other books, because I am already a fan with this one read. They are:

Between Earth & Sky:

Black SunFevered StarMirrored Heavens

The Sixth World:

Trail of LightningStorm of Locusts

Stand-alones:

Race to the SunTread of Angels

Short Stories:

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience”“A Brief Lesson in Native American Astronomy”“Harvest”“The Takeback Tango”“Falling Bodies”“Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death, and Subsequently Her Best Life”

There are some critics of Roanhorse, largely centered on her not being raised in the Native culture or having official affiliation. These critics claim that her stories amount to cultural appropriation and that her representation of the culture is inaccurate and discloses stories that are meant to be kept sacred. It appears that most of these critics are Navajo academics (and opposing critics accuse them of having a narrow view of Native literature). Roanhorse tries to be careful about how she represents herself as being a Pueblo descendent (as well as a Black woman) as well as the wife of a Navajo. (Her website mentions none of these things, at this point.) But she has written the books, and I am sad to see that Trail of Lightning has this criticism. I can’t speak directly to it—just share what I learned with you—but I personally found the books to be culturally exciting and more than respectful of the Dine people. As an outsider (with my own complicated genetic makeup), I felt invited into both the real and the magical aspects of a fantastical (and historical) version of Dinetah.

Like I said, I loved this book. I wished the gory violence hadn’t included children and the elderly, but I got past that because there was so much—like everything else—that I liked about it. We also have some stressing out and drawing blood with fingernails or teeth (like every single book written since 2015! I swear!). But this one is going onto my Favorites list, and I will be reading more Roanhorse.

Rebecca Roanhoarse was born in 1971. She is Black and Native (Pueblo, by blood) but was adopted and raised by white parents in Texas (and has no official tribal recognition). She graduated from Yale Law and was a clerk for the Navajo Supreme Court. She married a Navajo man, and they live in New Mexico with their daughter.

She started as a writer working on Marvel comics. In 2017, a short story catapulted her to fame when it won the Nebula and Hugo and was nominated for a Locus (and other awards). Her first novel was Trail of Lightning, which received critical acclaim and the Locus Award as well as nominations for the Hugo and Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. She has since then written more novels (and gotten many more awards) and short stories and worked on comics and in screen. She also has a book in the Rick Riordan Presents universe.

Her website can be found HERE.

“But I’m all alone out here, even with him standing a few feet away” (p75).

“‘Words matter,’ he says. ‘The name you give things, it forms them when you speak. You must always be careful with your words'” (p75).

“But here is Grace, she of the big talk and little stature, holding on to me like I mean something” (p190).

“‘Being a hero’s not about being perfect. It’s about doing the right thing, doing your best to get the people you care about home safely. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to do that” (p232).

“A good man can use a hammer to build a house. A bad man can use it to kill his neighbor. The hammer is the same” (p234).

“Everything you’ve done, your past, it’s all just a story you tell yourself. Some of it is true, but some of it is lies” (p235).

As far as Thanksgiving reading recommendations go, I have nothing different to recommend from last year. My favorite Thanksgiving-esque book is Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin. It doubles as a cookbook, at least a little. And many of the recipes are perfect for this time of year. Beyond that, I can recommend “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (in The Crack-Up (used)). “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene, 2015” (a poem) by Craig Santos Perez. Also, the first chapter from Tommy Orange’s There There.

I began reading Book of Delights by Ross Gay last Thanksgiving but still haven’t finished it. And although I can appreciate it on some level, I have found it to be about almost anything except delights. I don’t know if I have time to add another Thanksgiving-themed book to the TBR this year.

Here are a few, random other Thanksgiving-related reads that I have not read but maybe you could try out:

The Ice Storm, Rick MoodyThanksgiving Night, Richard BauschOldtown Folks, Harriet Beecher StoweThe Thanksgiving Visitor, Truman CapoteStrangers at the Feast, Jennifer VanderbesBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben FountainAmerican Pastoral, Philip RothThe Holiday Season, Michael Night

And here are some shiny new published books happening in November:

The City and Its Uncertain Wall, Haruki MurakamiThe Half King, Melissa LandersSomewhere Beyond the Sea, T. J. Klune (Cerulean Sea #2)The Magnificent Ruins, Nayantara RoyBelieve, Jeremy Egner (the story behind the making of Ted Lasso)The Authors’ Guide to Murder, Beatriz WilliamsMurder Town, Shelley BurrWe Shall Be Monsters, Alyssa Wee

And just because I want to mention it:

The Mythmakers, John Hendrix

I will be reading book club books this month, but I also am reading books like the one I am revising and trying to find an agent for. I added many, many titles to my check-it-out list last week while I had a crisis of comps. Comps in the publishing world (and probably other worlds) is short for “comparables,” and it means a brief list of recent, relevant books that are like the one you are trying to sell. They help a possible agent (or editor) understand where your book would fit in the current market. This is a different blog.

Here’s the book club reads:

Giovanni’s Room, James BaldwinTrail of Lightning, Rebecca RoanhorseThe Book Club Hotel, Sarah MorganSame Bed, Different Dreams, Ed Park

Here is the list of books I am pulling from to firm up my comps and read in my genre. The list might not make any sense to you or seem cohesive, but there are elements in each book which may (or may not) work (for my purposes):

City of Ghosts, V. E. SchwabHold Me Closer, Necromancer, Lish McBrideLost Man’s Lane, Scott CarsonWe Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley JacksonGhost Roast, Shawnee and Shawnelle GibbsNothing More to Tell, Karen M. McManusGideon the Ninth, Tamsyn MuirSabriel, Garth NixBelladonna, Adalyn GracesA Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, H. G. ParryMiles Morales: Straight Out of Brooklyn, Saladin AhmedThe Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1), Jonathan StroudTwo Sides to Every Murder, Danielle ValentineStalking Jack the Ripper, Kerri ManiscalcoVespertine, Margaret RogersonMoriarty, Anthony HorowitzThe Dysasters, P. C. CastRenegades, Marissa MeyerI’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara

PS. I skipped all of my book clubs in October. Every single one. I was swamped with work, getting ready for a conference I’ll tell you about shortly, and my books clubs (and book club reads) were one of the many sacrifices to be made. Still, I read things.

Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett JohnsonHow to Write a Mystery, Mystery Writers of AmericaWhat Feasts at Night, T. KingfisherRebecca, Daphne du MaurierThe Emotion Thesaurus, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

HERE’s a link to a list of movies and picture books you might want to watch and read for the Thanksgiving season.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson was my dad’s favorite picture book when he was a kid. (Published in 1955.) Which means it is an old picture book. It is also a classic. I was excited to see the movie in theaters this past summer, even though I don’t have kids the right age to make this a family outing. It was a book movie! And I am generally a fan of Zooey Deschanel. Despite the abysmal ratings and how quickly this release was swept under the rug of theaters everywhere, my husband and I were baffled. This is the missed opportunity of the summer for families everywhere, because it was cute and straight-forward and imaginative and fun. Enough, anyhow.

In the book, Harold is a four-year-old boy (with no hair. Did Johnson start the trend?) who wants to do things that he can’t. So he uses his magical purple crayon to create the world he sees in his head. He leaves his bedroom and goes on many adventures (in a very short, very few-words book) before coming back home and drawing himself back into bed. The movie takes a more meta approach. In it, Harold is a character written by Crockett Johnson who accidentally escapes his fictional world with his two besties (animals who turn into animal-resembling humans), stumbling into the confusing, overwhelming real world. But he’s extremely naïve, basically a child in a grown man’s body. And his crayon still works. He needs to find his way home, but first he is taken in by a single mom and her son, whose lives could use a little magic and fun. An evil librarian happens.

The book is a classic. It is short, imaginative, a great bedtime read for kids through the decades. There’s just not much more to say. If you have a solid picture book library, it should be there on the shelf between Where the Wild Things Are and Make Way for Ducklings. It still feels relevant and fresh after all this time.

I already said it, but my husband and I are baffled by the haters of this movie. So are many other reviewers online. And after taking something like 15 years to get this movie made (!), I can’t believe how fast they panned it. Especially when it was a perfect movie to take kids to in the summer. It’s not movie-making genius, but it is solid in a classic way. Most kids will like it. I thought that most adults would enjoy it enough to sit through it and get something fun from it, even a few laughs, and a reminder that they have an imagination and they should use it. Maybe the haters lack an imagination? It’s one of those movies I can see families watching over and over because their kids love it and they’re fine with it. Like Jumanji or Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I definitely thought it was better than IF, which was another summer release this year that did slightly better and lasted much longer in theaters. Don’t go into it thinking it’ll be a Cannes film. Go into it expecting it to be predictable with cheesy humor and a feel-good message. There are some misses, but certainly no more than in a movie like Sharkboy and Lavagirl (a beloved cult classic that gets abysmal reviews).

As for the world of Harold, there is an AJR musical in production (yes, please!), a handful of other books in the universe (one published posthumously), a short, animated version, and a TV series from the early naughts.

I’ve done my duty, I guess. Not my favorite movie of the year, but a family flick that I think deserves some defending. Stream it for your next pizza night and relax a little, people.

I am ten days behind reminding you that it is time to start planning for Nanowrimo. So you better get on it.

Image made by the Starving Artist on CanvaPro

I have been deep, deep in edits, but thankfully I am going to write the second half of the novel I started last Nano in November, so I don’t have a ton of planning to do. I already have a playlist, a basic outline, a strong character and voice… and I am workshopping the first chapter this weekend. Here’s the thing: beginnings of first drafts always have major issues. In most cases they plain need to be lopped off and thrown away. In some cases, they need a major rewrite. In many cases the novel needs a different beginning, so the reconstructed beginning needs to be moved to later. I find that when I’m writing a first draft, I am sort of thinking my way through the start and only later does the idea really crystalize, leaving me with a mess to clean up at the beginning. For this half-written book, I can already see that while the first chapter is necessary to the story, there are a few things in it that no longer work as they were written, including the title. I was hoping for helpful suggestions on these points from the workshop. Often, voice is also an issue, as that tends to really firm up as you go.

As for you, this is your month to get ready for Nanowrimo. Let’s take a moment, first, to check in with Nano. They had some real sketchy moments last year involving, I think, minors and forums that weren’t moderated properly. They shut down some of the website features halfway through November 2023 and have been doing a lot of re-working of the whole shebang since then. I am a little confused, but it looks like the local, in-person features of Nano are going to be unaffiliated with Nano, for now. (I looked up the local region on Nano’s website, but it says there is currently no ML, or leader, and there are no events listed. When I did a little more digging, I saw that the ML applications for this November were never posted. Which means that Nano is still working on its communities and (though vague in their announcement and I could be wrong) are going to be unavailable until further notice. Hopefully before next year. I am privy to intel, though, that my local group has been rebranded and un-affiliated and is still led by (some of) the old MLs.) This is a total bummer to me, since besides the tracker graph, it is my favorite part of Nano. And I’m concerned that finding your local Nanowrimo-non-affiliated-participating-in-Nano people will become much more complicated. You could check on Meetup or something, but I don’t know that you could use “Nanowrimo” in the search because the groups can’t use it. Just do some digging if you are interested in finding your community, at least for this year. (Good luck.) For those in the Triangle, NC, the new (non-Nanowrimo!) group is called NC WOrD Writers and they are searchable on Substack. And they’ll be supporting writers during and around November in a goal of writing 50,000 words, etc. If you want to pair this with signing up on Nanowrimo’s website, that’s totally on you.

They promise that they are working on all the things and that their hard work is rooted in issues that needed to be addressed even before the issues last November. They are restructuring and doing a host of other things to bring them into legal and best practices alignment. They also have some cool ideas for new features that will eventually show up on Nano, along with a brand-new website. They need operating funds, and have for years, so maybe consider donating. Currently you cannot purchase any swag, but their announcement refers to 24th anniversary merch. So in a few weeks?

Also, the old How to Win Nano podcast (which was never actually affiliated and stated that clearly) has had to rebrand and is now called Write Your Damn Novel! So, if you were looking for that…

Now, what should you be doing to get ready for Nano?

Come up with an idea for what you will write.Outline that idea as much as you need to (or want to) in order to hit 1667 words per day.Come up with some inspo to get you through the month, like a project playlist, a working cover, vision board, or character interviews.Read ahead in your genre, related materials both fiction and nonfiction.Clear November’s schedule as much as possible. I set five days aside around Thanksgiving and then write 2000 words the rest of the month. This is the best I can do, and it gets me to 50,000.Join the community even if you don’t think 50,000 is reasonable for you. You don’t have to hit 50,000 to participate and to find and support other writers.

There’s a more extensive list of ideas for Planning October HERE.

And I’ll see you all in twenty days.

It is spooky season, which is what T. Kingfisher called it at the Fright Night author event I attended in September. We’re going to be hearing more about that event later. But it is spooky season. If you are one of those readers who just plows ahead in October with their usual reading and ignores the spooky, there are plenty of recommendations below. But I lurve Halloween. And I go all in. Here are some of my fave spooky season books:

The Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling (I am a huge fan of the series. It can be read at any time, but not only does it feature Halloween scenes now and again, it is full of magic and all things witch-y and wizard-y.)The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (I read this book last Halloween and really enjoyed it. A good recommendation for a younger reader.)Among the Shadows, L. M. Montgomery (A lesser-known book of the Anne of Green Gables writer, it’s a book of spooky short stories written in early 1900s Canada and actually a lot of people love this as a Halloween read.)Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders or North Woods, Daniel Mason (I list these together because they are much more than fall reads, but they are both amazing books that feature ghosts and have a grit to them.)The Witches, Roald Dahl (Another one for even younger readers, but I love to read Dahl even as an adult.)Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (I have read several of the horror classics over the past few years, but Frankenstein remains my favorite. Plus, I reference it constantly. If you haven’t read it, it may not be what you are expecting.)The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Definitely the most Gothic of the Sherlock tales, this one might even feature some supernatural elements.)

As for books that I have not read yet but would fit into the spooky season well, I am going to concentrate on titles that are, ahem, already sitting on my shelves. My TBR is a little backed-up.

Rebecca , Daphne du Maurier (I have heard this is not really that spooky or Halloween-y, but I meant to read it last Halloween and didn’t get around to it. I am a spook-lightweight, anyhow.)We were told at this Fright Night thing that horror novellas are very hip. And when they mentioned it, I was like, oh my goodness, yes. I have been seeing them everywhere and I should have noticed because usually novellas are a really hard sell. I even have some already in my possession, like The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo. (Technically this is the fifth in a series that begins with The Empress of Salt and Fortune but I was told it can be read as a stand-alone. This might not be categorized as horror, but there is haunting.)The book that we bought with our ticket to Fright Night was What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher. (This might be a little scary for me, but I am curious because I like Kingfisher. It is technically second in a series but I already heard her read the first chapter. The series begins with What Moves the Dead .) When Among Crows , Veronica Roth (Another book that I procured with a ticket to an author event. I have no idea what to expect, as she is most famous for Divergent.)We have now left the novellas. Ninth House and Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo (I am a big Bardugo fan, so I am willing to go with her into her scarier stuff, at least just to see… Hell Bent is the one, you know, with the creepy-as-heck rabbit on the cover) Weyward , Emilia Hart (I heard about this book on a podcast and for some reason it really struck my fancy.)Preludes & Nocturnes, Sandman vol 1, Neil Gaiman (This is a graphic novel classic that has a reference in the novel I’m writing. The series of award-winning, compiled comics goes on for five more books.) Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures, Kira Jane Buxton (Technically I have these because they count as research for one of my cryptid projects… maybe.) Devolution , Max Brooks (Another book I have for research and one that is probably a little gorier than I would normally read.)Scythe, Neal Shusterman (I don’t know how spooky season this is, but it looks it, right? And there is quite a bit of death? The Arc of Scythe continues for two more books.)

Beyond my shelf (which I will definitely not make it past), here are some other books you might want to consider this spooky season. Recall that I have not read any of them:

Haunt Sweet Home , Sarah Pinsker (She read from this for Fright Night, but I did not take home a copy. It’s a great premise, especially if you like HGTV. And ghost stories.) A Fall in Autumn and Perishables, Michael G. Williams (I don’t know if these are scary enough to be here, but this author stepped in at Fright Night at the last second to cover a sick author. He is local and he read something from a horror novel he is currently working on. It was ah-mazing. So even though he doesn’t have tons of reviews, these are two of his books that are currently available. Perishables is first in a series.) North American Lake Monsters , Nathan Ballingrud (A book of short stories that was recommended at Fright Night.)

The list of anticipated books that are being published this month is not enormous. Or I don’t want it to be, maybe that’s it. Here’s some options:

The House at Watch Hill, Karen Marie MoningThe Message, Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Mighty Red, Louise ErdrichAmerican Scary, Jeremy DauberThe Elements of Marie Curie, Dava SobelAbsolution (Southern Reach #4), Jeff VanderMeerGood Reasonable People, Keith PayneThe Universe in Verse, Maria PopovaThe City in Glass, Nghi VoBe Ready When Luck Happens, Ina GartenRevenge of the Tipping Point, Malcolm GladwellWhat I Ate in One Year, Stanley TucciDogs and Monsters, Mark Haddon

Sometimes I just run across a book or a title that really sparks my interest. Here are the things I have come across in the past few months, in no particular order.

Whalefall, Daniel Kraus (Somewhere I heard something about this book. The cover just pulls me in so much.)Half-Life of a Stolen Sister, Rachel Cantor (An experimental novel about the Bronte sisters? Well, I wouldn’t want to miss out. Has pretty terrible reviews.)America Fantastica, Tim O’Brien (Two decades later, O’Brien has published another book. And somehow I missed it. Doesn’t have great reviews.)Piranesi, Anna Clarke (This is everywhere. And everyone has been recommending it. Okay, maybe not everyone.)Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain and Wild, Amy Jeffs (mixed reviews)Heroes and Troy, Stephen FryThe Book of Japanese Folklore, Thersa MatsuuraThe Mythology Book, DK, Big Ideas Simply ExplainedFlame Tree series: Aztec Myths & Tales, Irish Fairy Tales, Lost Atlantis Short Stories, Babylon & Sumer Myths & Tales, Persian Myths & Tales, African Myths & Tales, Scottish Folk &Fairy Tales, Gods & Monsters Myths & TalesThe Emotion Thesaurus, Ackerman and PuglisiThe Conflict Thesaurus, Puglisi1,000 Character Reactions from Head to Toe, Valerie HowardThe Psychology Workbook for Writers, Darian Smith (Not exactly what I’m looking for, but I couldn’t find anything closer.)

This is what I’ll be reading this month for the thousand book clubs I am in:

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, James McBrideHell Followed with UsMidnight’s Children, Salman RushdieHouse of Suns, Alistair ReynoldsTrue Biz, Sara NovicThrough the Night Like a Snake

I will be attending other events this month, for which I would like to have read:

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky (for Kwame Alexander event)Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions and Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut (for Atlanta Writer’s Conference)

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking , T. Kingfisher The Chocolate War , Robert Cormier North Woods , Daniel Mason (emphatically)The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley (with caveats)Tom Lake, Ann Patchett (also with caveats)Our Town, Thornton Wilder

Sometimes, just for funsies, I write about movies. My movie reviews are largely movies that have something to do with writing or with a book, but I also love to blabber on about holiday movies. Here are some possibilities for your October, especially if you are a scary-lightweight like me.

Movies I actually haven’t seen. But would like to this year. Don’t judge:

ClueThe Rocky Horror Picture ShowWhat We Do in the Shadows

Great spooky season flicks:

Beetlejuice (and now Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice)Lisa FrankensteinHaunted Mansion (2023)The Nightmare Before Christmas (and The Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie)CoralineSuper 8Cloverfield (scarier than the others, and the related movies)Warm Bodies (gorier than the others, but campy)The X-Files (TV series, etc.)Rear WindowGhostbusters (and one or two of the later movies)GoosebumpsWednesday (TV series)The whole Harry Potter series of eight movies

I loved reading North Woods. Not everybody at book club did. There were even DNFs. I suppose it’s not an easy book and it is rather literary. But I thought it was exciting, very beautiful in its prose, unique, and well-executed. I will be looking into Daniel Mason’s other books and waiting for the next one. This one is going on my Favorites list.

In the early days after the Europeans “settled” the land that would one day be Massachusetts, a Puritan woman and man run away from their colony and make their home in a valley. Over the next many seasons, they are succeeded on the land by a great number of living things: plants, animals, people. Victims and rascals. Many things that change the land or scar it. Sometimes things that happen far away from the land affect it. And so goes the march of hundreds of seasons across one small space on the surface of a much bigger world.

I read this book for book club. My reading it is a dramatic story in itself. I was new to this particular book club last springtime and the members were scheduling their next reads. In order to recommend a book, (as in many book clubs) you have to have already read it. So, someone recommended this book. Then I seconded it, saying that I hadn’t read it but that I really wanted to since it was one of the New York Times Best Books of 2023, a finalist for the Pulitzer, and I had been seeing it around. From that point on, every time the book would get mentioned (like “We’re reading this in September”), one lady would figuratively pounce at me: “It’s gonna be your fault if this is a terrible book!” To which I would say, “I haven’t even read it!” No one ever came to my rescue to claim they had actually recommended it. I understand their predicament; it was a lot of weight to carry. However, by the time we got to the book club (and the recommender finally confessed), I arrived with North Woods in my hand like sword which I would use to vanquish any naysayers. I was its biggest champion though I hadn’t known I would be. Was it because I had been positioned to defend it? I really don’t think so.

Let us first discuss what this book is. If you have read any blurbs about it, you might be confused by my blurb above. But I wanted to be clear: this book is about land. (And themes. And metaphorically, the United States.) It is not first and foremost about the characters in the story. It is not a book about a house (though a house features in it and could be called a character). It is not about apple trees. (Though also dominantly featured.) Those things are all there, but I read it like it was about the land and I believe that it improved my reading—it made things make more sense. As for structure, this book is a chronological hodgepodge of POVs, documents, and voices. Each section could he a short story (or essay poem or song) unto itself. But if you see it as short stories, then it is a novel through short stories. Personally, I think it is a straight-up novel constructed in an alternative way. With the land as the main character. And unlike many authors, Mason pulls off a number of different voices, different personalities and styles from different centuries, very well. And they are all woven together so that there IS a plot, just a crazy one.

I agree with some people that it would have been nice to have some dates. It seems like Mason purposefully gave us clues to approximate timing but wanted to steer clear of specifics. I wonder if this is intentional, because the land wouldn’t be dated like that: it’s the seasons and the geological eras that matter. The problem is that it makes it more difficult for the reader to see the settings and even characters in their head without that reference point. And sometimes I’d be merrily reading along with, say, some flappers in my head and then realize with a clue that we were still in Victorian times. I think. Everyone had to change clothes, suddenly, and come back to the stage of my imagination. And also things were different in different decades, so sometimes that mattered, too. What were the norms? What were the rules? How does this story make sense in context? In human history?

Perhaps seeing the land as the main character helps because there are few, if any, likable human characters in this book. Though there are many interesting characters. Some people at book club found they enjoyed reading the despicable characters because they were so fascinating. But we have the full breadth of the seven deadly sins and more in the stories of the people. Which is part of the point. Because they’re not ultimately affecting the land in a good way. And also because part of what persists or changes the land is expressed in this book as ghosts.

I don’t know if Mason would want me to tell you that this eventually becomes a ghost story. Slowly. But I found that many of the people who didn’t enjoy the book complained that it was a ghost story and they didn’t see it coming and they didn’t like that idea at all. I was surprised when I got to the conclusive moment of “Oh! Ghost!” but I was very pleasantly surprised. I was like Dang, Mason! I am along for the ride! And then it does develop slowly. And while I want people to have the same slow awakening to this as me, I also think it would have helped a lot of readers at club to know a little bit what to expect. You can go ahead and read the ghosts however you want, but North Woods is, among other things, a ghost story. It reminded me a smidge of Lincoln in the Bardo because of it.

Speaking of which, there is one thing in the book, one big moment in a subplot that I found unbelievable, uncompelling. And it didn’t need to be that way. Without giving spoilers, let’s just say there is this pottery scene that is, let’s face it, weird and not in a good way. Like the most oblique and not-great moments of the book. By making this such a strange and non-dramatic scene, Mason missed an opportunity to foreshadow violence and real depth of negative emotion through violent action. Because he didn’t do that, there is a big moment later when I was surprised (this book is full of surprises), but I was like Nah, not buying it. That came out of nowhere and it totally didn’t need to. I could see where he had been setting me up, but he hadn’t gone far enough, and if he had just done it in the pottery scene—gone there—then it would have been a perfect book.

BTW, I liked the ending. I found it fun and fitting. It changed tone a bit, but when was this book not changing tone? Some readers find the ending a cop-out, a slight of hand. Endings are so hard. But it worked for me.

Also, some readers found this book difficult to read because it is deep in language. Like, some of them plain didn’t know what was happening at times. North Woods is literary. If you don’t like big words, purple prose, and acrobatic sentences, then I guess this isn’t your next read. I like all those things when done well. It is a book brimming with beautiful language. Just brimming.

I am not a fan of the cover. Many are. It did not get me interested.

So strap on your shoes for a trek through different times, voices, species, and even genres. You’re going to meet a lot of interesting plants, animals, and people and most of the people are going to disgust you on some level. They will also intrigue you. There will be death. There will be after-death. There will be amazing apples, catamounts, cold steams, mayhem and murder. There will be beetle sex, adulterous sex, and paranormal sex (only graphic with the beetles). There will be mental illness, family, and boy will there be consequences.

Some books recommended to me as similar-in-some-way are The Overstory by Richard Powers, Barabara Kingsolver in general, and A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.

Don’t read this ahead of time, but for fun I put together a list of the chapters with their POV. I jotted down the POVs on the table of contents as I went because it helped me think about the book as a whole. (Parentheses mean it’s more of a focus than a POV; often that POV is a character I don’t want to say because it’s kind of a spoiler.)

One – Puritan loversAnonymous, The “Nightmaids” Letter – old Puritan woman + anonymous womanTwo – (deer and wolves)“Osgood’s Wonder,” Being the Reminiscences of an Apple-Man – Charles OsgoodThree – Alice and Mary OsgoodThe CATAMOUNT… — (sheep and catamount)From “Proverbs and Sayings” – (European seeds)Four – (Esther), Phalen, (Alice and Mary’s ghosts)The doleful account of the OWL and the SQUIRREL… – (owl and squirrel)Letters to E.N. – William Henry TealeFive – Portuguese nurse (William)A DECEMBER Song… – (ice)Six – Anastasia Rossi (the Farnsworths)Seven – (winds and chestnut spore blight)Case Notes on Robert S. – the doctor (Robert)Eight – elm bark beetle (Tom and wife)Nine – Robert’s mom LillianMurder Most Cold – Jack Dunne (Lillian)Ten – Robert’s sister HelenAn Address to the Historical Society… – Morris Lakeman as an unnamed member of the historical society (the Hills)Eleven – MorrisA Cure for LOVESICKNESS… – Alice, Morris, Mary3 Bd, 2 Ba – real estate listingTwelve – NoraSuccession – Nora

Daniel Mason is an author who has been putting out novels since the early 2000s. His books have won a number of prizes and much praise. A Registry of My Passage Upon This Earth was a finalist for the Pulitzer. He has also had short stories in some big-name publications and won the Pushcart, etc. He is a physician and an assistant professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry. He tends to write about mental illness, history, and literature.

His website is HERE.

His other books are:

A Registry of My Passage Upon the EarthThe Winter SoldierA Far CountryThe Piano Tuner

“Take a man in perfect health, and let him assert against the general opinion, and you will find such man accused of deviancy, or error, or madness” (p29).

“History haunts him who does not honour it” (p39).

“…call a man mad once and he will be forever diligent” (p41).

“There is not a fence that will keep out the porcupine; to try is folly. One must pay one’s taxes, sometimes” (p42).

“And yet to have claimed that a warm spring morning walking over earth carpeted with apple blossoms was somehow the same, substantively, spiritually, as a cold winter noon spent pruning, or a harvest evening heavy with the smell of juice and hay—this would have betrayed an ignorance not only of country life, but of the thousand seasons—of frogsong, of thunderheads, of first thaws—that hid within the canonical Four” (p53).

“…but Mary blamed his theory, and said he know that it was nonsense, but he was in too deep. So he just went piling it with more nonsense, like burying a pile of old manure with fresh” (p61).

“Ah, the whimsy of a God who would deliver water to the earth in the guise of such fine powder!” (p137).

“Nothing is more likely to make me abandon something than to be told to do it” (p137).

“With regard to the beetle, the romp began, as sox romps often do, with carpentry” (p236).

“Man’s a product of his environment, and that’s true for the upright and the sickos alike” (p267).

“…she also found that the only way to understand the world as something other than a tale of loss is to see it as a tale of change” (p368).

I don’t know if there is any real accounting for how much I liked this classic YA book. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier just struck me as a very well-written book, nailing the concept and the genre on the head while also feeling fresh, even 50 years after its publication. Even though it’s kinda, basically Lord of the Flies crossed with The Godfather. And football. In just about any sort of algorithm or calculation, this book should not have been my jam. What can I say? I admire talent—and enjoy it—wherever I find it.

Jerry is a freshman and new to his parochial, boys’ school. He is still reeling from the death of his mother, but he believes he’ll find something in football, even if he’s a little small for the game. The only other option to fit in is boxing. But fitting in during the annual chocolate fundraiser is going to be up to The Vigils, the secret society that runs the school through cruel pranks and veiled threats. And when Jerry decides not to sell any chocolates, well, he has no idea the violence and mob mentality that he’s pitted himself against.

I read this book because of a book club. This book club does not traditionally read YA, but they are reading banned books this year and this one jumped off the list for at least one of the members. I had heard of it, had meant to read it as research for the YA novel I am working on, but to tell you the truth, I had no idea what this book was like. I mean, given the title and the cover (of my copy, anyway), it seems to be a middle grades or even elementary school story with some goofy, playful plot. Like How to Eat Fried Worms or Frindle or something. Not so. It’s more on par with Stephen King’s “The Body” or The Goonies, but actually more ominous and tragic than both of those put together. Like Catcher in the Rye but a little younger. And, in my opinion, more entertaining by far.

“They murdered him” is the first line. I totally forgot about that. And I’m not going to tell you anything, really, but is it metaphorical or literal? Either way, I forgot it was there. But there was so much tension built into the book, that one need not remember it. You still get this mounting sense of dread, biting your nails and reading out of the corners of your eyes as you go. It was said at group that Chocolate War is more disturbing than Lord of the Flies because the characters are older and therefore more culpable. I have to admit that I have never read Flies—it was never assigned to me in school and I haven’t gotten around to it since—but I understand the thought here. I found that the real villain in this book is not one of The Vigils, it’s a teacher, because he is the adult. His role should have been much different and I certainly blame him with his (supposedly) fully-developed brain.

It is realistic. Painful. Tragic. Very contemplative of power, conformity, mob mentality, manipulation, and the male teen. Upsetting, but so well-written. It’s uncomfortable. Interesting. Horrific, Frustrating. Lawless, justice-less. It’s about power. The language and POV are interesting, solid. It kept my brain active. And somehow the reader experience is almost light, airy. I felt both joy and a sense of beauty while reading this—not just continual dread.

There is some jumping around in the narrative between perspectives (which can take a paragraph to orient), but the small scenes and small characters are very important to the story for some reasons. (It is also for sure confusing, trying to keep all the characters straight.) The small characters are used to ask questions and emphasize themes: Am I the bad guy (Goober)? Who are the real rebels (in a larger worldview, the Hippies)? If you say nothing are you complicit (the student who gets accused of cheating)? (I’m calling this shades of complicity, and it is a main theme in the book.) So many chilling and small moments (from different perspectives) grow to form a whole picture of what we’re dealing with. Also, they give us some breaks from the mounting tension. It’s a bleak painting of a parochial school, for sure. But you don’t have a sense that the whole world is like this. There are other people weaving in and out of the story in the background that make you aware that even if some of the characters are trapped, there is a reality where The Vigils are not in charge. Where people are unaware of the cruelty being done to others right under their noses. Where some people aren’t like The Vigils or Leon.

There were people in club who hated this book, didn’t like it, or were concerned about who might read it (even though the point is we don’t agree with banning books). I suppose that if a teen reads this alone, it could be disturbing and depressing without giving them an understanding within the context of real life. Would it be better if approached with the guidance of an adult (ironically)? Taught in the classroom? How to read this? What are we finding in its story? I think it’s worth the lesson, but I can see the point. The real reason it was banned repeatedly, let’s be honest, is not the violence (which serves a psychological purpose) or the tragedy, but the masturbation. It’s about teen boys and it gets really real about various aspects of their daily lives. Pre-internet, thankfully.

But I also just read along and admired the ride, literarily speaking. Could you read this book solely for entertainment? Can you read Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 simply for entertainment? I suppose so. It’s just not how a lot of these books are read or treated.

I am not going to throw in all the opinions that I disagree with from club. I thought it was a tragedy about resistance and futility in the package of a well-put-together YA novel. I kept thinking forward to the future. Who were these kids in the adult world? Who do these kinds of people become? Can we think about gangs here instead of the mafia? I don’t really think so. I think there is already cruelty in schools and among teens, and even the pathological misbehavior of some adults (like Leon). We don’t have to go any further than that.

Robert Cormier (cor-meer) spent his life in one town in Massachusetts, where he went to parochial school, married a local and had three daughters and a son (to whom The Chocolate War is dedicated). He was a Catholic, newspaper reporter, and scriptwriter who was interested in the concepts of intimidation and manipulation, inspired in fiction by news stories. It was a little later in life that he got around to writing novels. He published something like 18 novels for youth, his two famous being The Chocolate War and I Am the Cheese. His website can be found HERE.

“You could take a kid’s lunch or even his lunch money and nothing usually happened because most kids wanted peace at any price” (p48).

“Janza flipped his cigarette against a tree and watched the butt ricochet into the gutter. He withdrew a package from his pocket, discovered it was empty and tossed it away, watching the breeze move it along on the sidewalk. Emile Janza didn’t care about keeping America beautiful” (p98).

“Funny, he knew Leon was in a precarious position and yet there was always the danger of underestimating him” (p157).

“The maligners, the malcontents—they always rally around the rebel” (p157).

“Why did the wise guys always accuse other people of being wise guys?” (p200).

“If you want to get under a guy’s skin, accuse him of being something he isn’t. Otherwise, you’re only telling him something he knows” (p211).

“They tell you to do your thing but they don’t mean it. They don’t want you to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It’s a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don’t disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say” (p248).

There’s a 1988 movie that has decent ratings. I am interested in watching it, but I think I’ll wait until my husband reads the book. The topics and style of the book are right up his alley, and he’s bound to like the movie, as well.