Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones (expanded edition) was the only "textbook" I used in this term's Publication Workshop class, and it seemed to be what the students needed. Its subject is the discipline of writing, and attitudes toward the practice of writing, rather than technical details of composition. That seems to be a subject ( Read more... )

      Down in Savannah we picked up Images of America: Historic Bonaventure Cemetery, by Amie Marie Wilson and Mandi Dale Johnson. This is the cemetery that was the central image of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It's a very Romantic place, and well worth the visit. We spent a couple of hours there, and could happily have spent a couple ( Read more... )

        So when I was down in Savannah recently, the History Museum in the old train station reminded me of a memoir I'd been meaning to read: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers, by Susie King Taylor. Taylor was a washerwoman with the regiment, the same regiment that Thomas ( Read more... )

         So before I started reading my latest batch of student thesis novels, I finished The Best American Essays 2011, Edwidge Canticat, ed.. An excellent collection, as they always are.

Christopher Hitchens was the editor of the previous year's volume, and sadly this collection contained an essay ("Topic of Cancer") that discussed the ( Read more... )

         So I picked up Goa, by Kara Dalkey, and had it autographed, and it has only been sitting on my to-be-read shelves for, um, well, 18 years. Which is sadly typical, for me.

This book is subtitled Blood of the Goddess, Volume One, and the reality is that this isn't a book in itself, it's the first act of a book. There is no real ( Read more... )

         I've been reading McSweeney's 45, Hitchcock and Bradbury Fistfight in Heaven in snatches over the last few weeks, and enjoying the heck out of the experience. Most of this issue is a selective reprint of two volumes edited by Bradbury (Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, 1952) and Hitchcock (Stories Not for the Nervous, 1965) early ( Read more... )

        My latest read is Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, Vol. II, by, of all people, P. H. Sheridan. This volume covers the period from the staging of the Shenandoah Valley campaign to Sheridan's return from Europe after being an observer during the Franco-Prussian War. (Though he served as Commanding General, U.S. Army for several years, his ( Read more... )

         I'm scoping out candidates for the next time I teach World Literature, and China in Ten Words, by Yu Hua, was on that list. The book is made up of ten essays, each about a single word or name. The ten are: people, leader, reading, writing, Lu Xun, revolution, disparity, grassroots, copycat, and bamboozle.

I realized that I've ( Read more... )

        I read Alexander McCall Smith's The Miracle at Speedy Motors during our recent trip to Savannah both because I generally take a Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency story on vacations, and in self-defense. The self-defense is against the anger of my wife, who is reading the series along after me and is irritated that I'm six years behind the ( Read more... )

        My 15th completed book of the year is China Miéville's Embassytown. I should probably hate Mr. Miéville, for being so wildly inventive, and for pulling off things that I've long wished to do. In fact, I will hate him for it, once I get over enjoying the ride.

This is a work of speculative fiction, mostly resembling science fiction ( Read more... )