April Book Roundup
I had a very nonfiction-heavy month overall; I am in the middle of another fiction book that I may finish by the end of the week but the two novels I’ve been reading are long – 477 and 502 pages, respectively – so I’ll cut myself a little slack. It’s not about seeing how many books I can cram into a month anyway.
Nonfiction:
Everything Is Figureoutable – Marie Forleo. As you can tell from the first three titles, I read some very similar personal development books this month. I liked this book, although in the past I’ve found Marie’s style to be a little too rah-rah, you go girl! for my taste. The title is her mantra, and it pretty much explains the book in a nutshell: you can figure out how to make anything happen if you want it badly enough, and are willing to give up your excuses and work for it.
Your Best Year Ever – Michael Hyatt. Another book about taking action on your dreams. Nothing earth-shattering here, although he’s a guru of the personal development movement. Uncover the beliefs that shape your reality, embrace gratitude, figure out how to engineer your habits to achieve your goals, discover your Why, create an action plan… I don’t hate this book at all, and many people have found it to be exactly the road map they need. It just didn’t light my fire, but maybe I’ve just read too many of these type of books lately.
The Miracle Equation – Hal Elrod. You’d think I’d be done with personal development and Hal in particular since this is, I believe, the 4th book on his methods that I’ve read this year. This is different than the Miracle Equation books, in that it goes deeper, beyond just creating a morning routine that gives you time for personal development. It talks about his Miracle Equation: Unwavering Faith + Extraordinary Effort = Miracles, and delves into what that means. He is remarkably persuasive and passionate, and a great dose of inspiration once you are getting up extra-early to do all that personal development. One thing I like about his focus is that it’s not just about setting goals, but about who you become in the process of attempting to achieve them.
Just as I Am – Cicely Tyson. Amazing that this book was written when Ms. Tyson was already in her late 90s, clearly still sharp and in full possession of her memory and faculties. I’m so glad she was able to finish it before she passed earlier this year. I knew little about her before reading this book, other than through her public career, and although she did have a ghostwriter, her voice comes through loud and clear. She intended it as a testament to the power and endurance of Black women, and it is a fascinating (and maddening) glimpse into growing up in Harlem as the child of immigrant parents in the 1920s and ’30s, and building a career playing complex, dignified characters in Hollywood at a time when most Black actresses were shunted into roles as maids or prostitutes. She’s too much of a lady for any lurid Hollywood gossip, but her feisty, independent spirit glows through these pages.
Writing the Cozy Mystery – Nancy J. Cohen. I read this mainly because I have clients and friends writing them, and I wanted to know more about the genre conventions. This is a great, readable introduction that assumes no knowledge of writing (although it is not a craft book, per se: it doesn’t teach you how to craft witty dialogue, say, just that it is advisable between your sleuth protagonist and the love interest). It does give great examples of how you might put such a mystery together if you are inclined to write one.
Fiction:
Sunshine – Robin McKinley. I had high hopes for this one: Robin McKinley is an award-winning writer of such books as The Hero and the Crown, and this book itself won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. On the front it has a blurb from Neil Gaiman saying it is “pretty much perfect.” Well… I wouldn’t go that far. It tells the story of a human girl in a world very close to but not quite our own, where Others (demons, weres, succubi, and worst of all, vampires lurk). And how she becomes, in a not-very Twilight-ish way, an ally of one vampire in particular. I won’t spoil it further because I quite enjoyed the story overall – however, I was shocked that it won such high praise and awards. The author gets into the head of the protagonist, Sunshine, completely, which is good. But a surprising amount of the story is told in exposition, rather than shown in scenes. For example, we are told that Sunshine and her mother have a tempestuous relationship, but we never even hear the mother speak. Numerous and detailed asides help explain this world, but many of the details don’t end up mattering very much, if at all. When we do see Sunshine and Constantine together, there is tension and some action – but a lot of the time is spent simply in her head, narrating her world and her thoughts about it.
As a writing coach, I would never think this book would have a chance in the market. It reads like a first or second draft. I would have said something like This has a lot of potential, but it needs to be cleaned up and we need more actual scenes. McKinley gets away with it because she’s an established writer, and overall, the writing itself is excellent. But don’t expect to write like this and get picked up as a first-time author, writing a killer opening line like, It was a dumb thing to do, but it wasn’t that dumb – and then spend the next 27 pages narrating the protagonist’s family life, the history of Others, and how she came to be out at the lake, before she wakes up in the clutches of vampires. One reviewer titled their review “The Eternal Rambling of Sunshine’s Mind” and I had to laugh, because that about sums it up.
On to the pile for May…
