As one of my “genre” reads for this term, I read “Why Mermaids Sing” by C.S. Harris. To sum it up? When I first started reading this book, I thought I would enjoy it. The writing was crisp and clear and the plot moved along quickly. The characters were colorful enough and there was no dearth of dead bodies.

By the end of the book, however, my view of changed entirely. To sum it up, this book was essentially the Regency mystery version of “In the Woods” by Tana French in that the ending absolutely floored me with its absurdity, and caused me to go back and reconsider whether I’d actually liked any part of the book.

To use a phrase that has thus far often appeared in my reading journal responses, this book was competent but not stirring.

Minutia about this book: It is 342 pages long. The author, C.S. Harris, writes Regency mysteries and has also written one nonfiction book.

Adjectives I could use to describe this book: competent, somewhat quick paced, ludicrous, overly contrived, puzzling in parts (and not in a good way), laborious, disappointing

Things I found ridiculous about this book:

1) The idea that the protagonist's love interest was his half sister was ludicrous and in my opinion, ruined what might otherwise have been a decent story. As a device, the whole “your lover is really your sister/aunt/brother/uncle” bit has been done to death, in my view, and as I said, really detracted from my enjoyment of the book.

2) I never felt a real kinship with the protagonist because I did not find his character to be all that sympathetic. For that matter, I never felt much of a connection with any character in the book. They all seemed rather two-dimensional to me, and what complications existed in their lives just seemed to me to be either stereotypical or downright pointless.

3) When the murderer was finally revealed, it seemed to me that author had basically picked a random character out of the all of the ones she had previously introduced. The motive seemed overly contrived.

4) Speaking of characters? I found the sheer number of them to be overwhelming. The author would have been better served to follow the old adage “too many cooks spoil the stew.”

5) The way the side story - with Lord Charles Jarvis threatening Kat Boleyn's life if she doesn't reveal the name of a fellow spy - was resolved was just silly. The idea that she'll be safe from his henchmen if she marries a nobleman, well, it just didn't sit right with me. If Lord Jarvis is the type of fellow to have people tortured and killed if they cross him, well, it doesn't make sense that he'd be dissuaded from his aims by mere considerations of class and social standing.

6) The very use of the surname “Boleyn” seemed hackneyed and seemed to allude to something about Kat’s character that was never fully realized.

In conclusion? This book is the literary equivalent of heartburn. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, much less would I want to emulate any part of it aside from the fact that the writing was, on the whole, competent and moved the story along at a relatively rapid pace.

"Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher is/was the common text for the June residency, hence why I read it. Already, I’ve noticed there seem to be two schools of thought regarding this book being expressed on the SHU message boards. People either love this book or hate it. Of the two, I am among those who really loved this book, for a whole host of reasons that I will explain more fully below.

Minutia about this book: It is 288 pages long, and the edition of it I purchased includes a question and answer section featuring thirteen questions about the book, written by the author. This is a debut novel by Jay Asher

Adjectives I could use to describe this book: moving, emotionally stirring, poignant, baffling, thought provoking, fast paced, well written, original

One of the viewpoints expressed about this book on the SHU message boards was that the character Hannah Baker seemed selfish to kill herself without telling anyone how she was actually feeling beforehand. While I have no intention of saying so on the boards (out of a desire not to injure anyone’s feelings), I do feel that particular comment was made by someone who may have missed the whole point of the book. In my experience and based on what I know about the subject, people who are suicidal and/or commit suicide frequently choose that course of action because they are unable to share their feelings with others, thus they bottle those feelings inside themselves and simply self destruct. What Hannah did, in my view, was just that. She was unable to express herself prior to killing herself, so she chose instead a method that would enable her to so after she was dead. Perhaps the act of recording tapes intended only to be heard when she was already dead is a cowardly act, but I don’t think it was a selfish one. I don’t think that was the author’s intent either, to paint a portrait of Hannah as either selfish or mentally unstable. I think she just endured too many hardships and cracked under the strain.

Another matter that’s been discussed on the boards about this book is the point of view. The author mixes Hannah’s recorded voice in with the narrator Clay Jensen’s thoughts, reactions and actions. I felt this was a very effective way of linking the two, related stories together in a way that while it may have been harder to read still maintained the sentiment that the stories were in fact very much connected. Had the author separated the two into separate chapters or even separate sections of chapters, I don’t feel it would’ve been as effective. Contrasting the two stories by italicizing Hannah’s voice seemed to me to be as good a method of distinguishing the individual voices as any other.

Also, in regard to the POV, by having Hannah recount her conversations with others and by including Clay’s encounters with others as well, we as the reader were introduced to a whole host of other characters from either the perspective of either Hannah or Clay. At times their impressions of the other characters were very alike, but at others they were very different. For me, reading both perspectives gave me a deeper understanding of each character. Some characters I obviously liked less when they were viewed through Hannah’s eyes, but given what she ultimately does, I think that’s understandable. I think part of the point of this novel was the Hannah was unable to see what redeeming qualities each character did possess, and therefore her view of them and of life in general was dark and hopeless, leading eventually to her suicide.

I don’t read a lot of young adult fiction, or at least I haven’t done so in years, but reading this book re-ignited my interest in the genre. Reading “Thirteen Reasons Why” took me back to my own adolescence, and the experiences of the two main characters vividly reminded me of instances in my own past. I think the author very effectively conveyed how a lot of young adults feel in relation to a variety of issues they face. One example would be how the author approached the issue of teen sex and others related to it (i.e. first kisses, sexual innuendo, rape, masturbation, voyeurism, etc.). I felt the author really captured the essence of how young adults feel about that issue and depicted their experiences and reactions in a very real, credible way. Unlike a lot of young adult books that I read as a child, the author did not shy away from admitting that it’s a very serious issue in the lives of teenagers. That approach I very much enjoyed, and found to be refreshing.

In addition to the author effectively re-creating the mindset of teenagers, I also felt he did a terrific job of creating dialogue that was very close to how teenagers would actually talk.

I liked the fact that the author’s descriptions of various settings were somewhat sparse. While he did create, for me at least, vivid pictures of the different locations the characters visit in the book, he didn’t overwhelm me with so many details that I couldn’t visualize those same locations for myself. That, I felt, created a bond between myself as the reader and Asher as the writer, because I felt he respected my intelligence enough to allow me to fill in any gaps that may have existed.

The only thing that bothered me about this novel was this: I felt the author foreshadowed a lot of events that simply did not happen. Perhaps the clearest example of this was in how he foreshadowed what happens between Hannah and the English teacher/guidance counselor, Mr. Porter. I knew from almost the beginning of the novel that Hannah was going to be sexually assaulted by someone, but it seemed to me after reading the whole book that Asher chose a rather weak “supporting” character to commit that act. There was no twist in the fact that Bryce Walker essentially assaulted Hannah in the hot tub because we already knew he was a rapist from the all important party scene. I personally, up until close to the end, thought it would be Mr. Porter. Had the author taken that route, I think it would have been more effective.

Finally, also in regard to the characters: I thought there were simply too many of them. The fact that so many people “wronged” Hannah, in her view, made what each of them did to her to be less significant, in my eyes.

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to others. However, I don’t think it would be appropriate for all young adult readers as it contains a number of fairly adult themes. I certainly wouldn’t want my 11 year old son to read it, for example.

Of the two craft books I read this semester, I found “How to Write Killer Fiction: The Fun House of Mystery & The Roller Coaster of Suspense” by Carolyn Wheat the least helpful. (The book I found most helpful was “Telling Lies…” as I covered in an earlier reading journal response.)

Minutia about this book: It is 191 pages long with an index. The book’s author, Lawrence Block, is primarily a mystery writer who was won multiple awards and who also teaches writing courses at UC San Diego.

Adjectives I could use to describe this book: interesting, competent, informative, well-written, quick paced

Perhaps what I found most off-putting about this book was the fact that the genre in which I am writing, that of a suspense novel written (largely) from the point of view of the criminal, was only mentioned once on page 95, and even then the coverage was not indepth.

This book does possess some redemptive qualities, including:

1) Extensive coverage of how to build an arc. This is an area I’m sketchy on so the book was helpful in that regard.

2) Lengthy sections devoted to “The Hero’s Journey”, another relatively new concept for me that I’m learning more about as I write my own thesis novel. Thinking about the journey my own antihero is taking has really helped me crystallize my focus as far as where I want to take his character.

3) Considerable discussion of writers as either “outliners” or “blank-pagers”, which I found useful in helping me define which of the two I am. I think I am both, depending on what the situation calls for, but I’m probably truthfully more of a blank pager and reading this book made me realize that I should treat the writing process accordingly.

4) Extensive coverage of how to write successful endings was very helpful and highly informative.

5) I did enjoy the quote used to open the book. In Wheat’s own words: “The best advice I’ve seen on writing I’ve ever seen came from a fictional character. Seymour Glass, J.D. Salinger’s cryptic antihero, tells his brother, Buddy, an aspiring writer: ‘You think of the book you’d most like to be reading, and then you sit down and shamelessly write it.’”

6) In the introduction to the book, I very enjoyed and identified the comparison between fiction and dreams. I find that fiction does have a dreamlike quality, and very much agree with Wheat’s premise.

7) The section on storyboarding was interesting, though I don’t know that it’s necessarily a method that appeals to me personally.

8) I thought Wheat did an excellent job of defining the differences between mystery and suspense, and it really helped me to define the genre of my own thesis novel. I have come to one conclusion: I am not writing a mystery. In fact, I’ve begun questioning if I truly even read mysteries as they are defined in this book.

There were several aspects of this book that I found somewhat noteworthy but was mostly apathetic about, including:

1) There was very little discussion of a writer’s style, but this is to be expected as this is primarily a “how to” book more than a craft book.

2) There was only a small section of the book devoted to the process of actually getting commercially published but, again, this is to be expected. I did not begin reading this book thinking I would learn a lot about that process, so I wasn’t disappointed by the lack of information on that topic.

In conclusion, I found this book competent but not stirring. It was very informative, and did help me to define part of who I am as a writer, but it did not inspire me to write like “Telling Lies…” did. To be fair, I really enjoyed “Telling Lies…” and I read this on the heels of reading that book. “How to Write Killer Fiction” I found to read more like a textbook and I wasn’t able to get as deeply engrossed in it as I was in “Telling Lies…” I read this book in its entirety once, and then only re-read the sections that pertained to writing suspense novels, as I did not find the sections on writing mysteries relevant to my own work.

I would recommend this book to other SHU students and to other student writers, but only if they were specifically writing mystery or suspense novels. Aside from containing a lot of information on those topics, this book was not particularly inspiring or helpful. 

Of the two “craft” books I read this semester, “Telling Lies for Fun and Profit” by Lawrence Block was the best. (The other book I read was “How to Write Killer Fiction” by Carolyn Wheat, and I will cover that in a separate journal.)

Minutia about this book: It is 256 pages long with an index. The book’s author, Lawrence Block, is primarily a writer of crime fiction and articles for Writer’s Digest and publications like it. Sue Grafton wrote the introduction.

Adjectives I could use to describe this book: inspirational, motivational, informative, stirring in parts, fast paced, comic in sections, and above all, extremely well written.

This was the first book I read as part of my semester contract, and it was one that I returned to time and time again. Below are my thoughts on each section interspersed with how that section and the information it contained corresponded with other parts of the book and with my enjoyment of the book:

Introduction: Sue Grafton’s engaging introduction would have quickly drawn me into the book had it been the first section of the book I read, but it wasn’t. I tend to read books like “Telling Lies…” in pieces. I start off with the material I find particularly intriguing and then skip around in the book until I’ve read the whole book. The introduction was actually the last section of the book I read, but as I said, it did prompt me to go back and re-read several sections of the book. Having said all that, having a well-known, oft published writer of popular fiction like Sue Grafton write the introduction certainly lent credibility to this book, in my view.

Preface: In Block’s preface to this book, he started off with personal anecdotes about his own journey as a writer, and his willingness to share so much with his reader was one of the things I liked best about this book on the whole. Block doesn’t shy away from talking about the fact that writers, in addition to being craftsmen and professionals, are also individuals with lives outside of their writing careers. Those lives are often tumultuous, as Block illustrates throughout the book by revealing some of his own life experiences, including his failed personal relationships and his struggles with alcohol and other drugs. By telling me so much about his journey as a writer and an individual, Block really gained my trust, and made me think about how my personal life impacts my writing life and vice versa, and even about how sometimes you have to separate the two.

Part One: The Liar’s Trade: Fiction as a Profession: Reading this section prompted me to think about how I, as a writer, editor and student have not always thought of writing as necessarily being my profession. My undergraduate studies in creative writing at Cal U focused more on the actual process of writing than the product. I probably read a few “craft” books but none were so memorable that I can recall their names now. But reading this section, combined with much of what I learned during my first SHU residency, really crystallized in my mind the fact that I aim, above all, to become a published writer of fiction. In order to do that, there are certain commitments I must make to accomplish that goal. Generally, here are the topics Block covered in this section that I found particularly relevant to my own growth as a writer and progress towards become a published writer: It is necessary for me to study the market. It is important for me to read what I hope to write/have published. It is imperative that I remember that the only way to become a writer, to complete a full-length manuscript, is to engage in the process of actually doing just that. And, finally, it is necessary for me to approach writing as a business and to be prepared for both rejection and triumph. One last tidbit about this section? Mention of one’s own mentor on page 68!

Part Two: Nose to the Grindstone, Shoulder to the Wheel: Fiction as a Discipline: This was the section of the book I returned to again and again, and the section that above all I found inspirational and motivational. Block tackles the topics of when do writers write, how much writers write, procrastination (a personal favorite!), writing when you don’t want to, writing when the ideas won’t come or you don’t feel they’re adequate, and of learning when to not write, to give yourself a break. All of the aforementioned are topics and issues that are very relevant to my own writing life. Even after I had completed this book the first time, I found myself reading this section over when I felt blocked, when I felt unmotivated, and when I felt just plain inadequate. More often than not, those re-readings forced me into the chair to begin/continue the writing process. In the future, I think I will continue to refer to them occasionally when I need reinforcement (which is often!).

Part Three: Oh What a Tangled Web: Writing as a Structure: This section of the book I would describe as “competent but not stirring” mostly because while Block certainly did the job he set out to do in writing this section, I found other books I’ve read to be more helpful. “How to Write Killer Fiction” I found much more useful when it came to thinking about the structure of my thesis novel. Having said that, again I must stress that this was well written and informative.

Part Four: One Damned Word After Another: Fiction as a Craft: Again, I would describe this section of the book as “competent but not stirring” for the same reasons as outlined in my thoughts on part three. “Self Editing for Fiction Writers” is definitely a superior book when it comes to thinking about the craft of writing.

Part Five: Isn’t that the Truth: Fiction as a Spiritual Exercise: This section serves primarily as a conclusion to the book. A couple of issues Block raises in this section I found particularly intriguing, including: I must remember that I am not in competition with other writers. I can only be the best writer I am personally capable of being. I must strive for honesty in my writing even as I write a “pack of lies.” (p. 248) I must accept my own limitations as a writer even as I strive to become a better writer. I was sort of turned off by the fact that this section is framed as a prayer, but I do agree with Block that writing is on some level a spiritual exercise.

In conclusion, Block tackles a remarkable range of topics in this book, and I found reading it to be an invaluable experience. I very much enjoyed his style and his quick pace. I particularly appreciated his honesty and his willingness to share so much about himself. As I mentioned earlier, this really helped me as a reader to form a bond with him and thus with the work itself. I liked how he stressed that writing is a business first and foremost. Finally, I really related to his idea that while the writer is an individual with distinct stresses and issues in their life, it is necessary to distinguish between one’s personal life and one’s writing life.

I would definitely recommend this book to all SHU WPF students, in fact I think it should be required reading.

So, I tried the whole "blog about each book" on a regular basis and it just didn't work for me, thus in the future I'll just be posting the responses I sent to my mentor that were in Word format for each book. 

The genre book I am currently reading in conjunction with my close examination of Telling Lies for Fun and Profit is The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl.

I am about 29 pages in and so far I am not feeling the love for this book. I will post more about it, though, after I've read more of it. Maybe it's just a slow starter. I've got several other genre books my mentor gave me, though, so if this novel proves to be a non-starter, I may elect to read another one instead.

Stay tuned!