I'm off to Atlanta on business for a week but that means flying for hours and eating alone in hotels = reading time for me!!! I have two books to take care of my reading needs and I'll be reviewing them later. I chose books that are out of my comfort zone for reading. I wanted to activate my neurons but also I need some literary pushes right now. I find that I have to drag out each word to fill the  pages in the book I'm currently writing (which is the sequel to the first Lost Fury Chronicles). That particular book wrote so easily - I felt like I was channeling it. The sequel is coming out word by word by word, and each comes out so unwillingly it feels like it has to ripped out of my brain.

I've never had this happen with my writing before. It doesn't feel like writer's block, at least not in the way that I experience it. For me, writer's block is about not knowing where the plot is going next and that's not the case here. I like the book and I like where it's going. I know how it ends and how it gets to that end so it's not like I've gotten lost in the plot. I know the characters very well and they have live an active life in my head, but ooohhhhh it's not nice working with them right now.

Anyway, I hope that reading something different from my norm will promote some change in this problem area. If not, it's back to dragging each word out ... no one said writing was easy.. did they?

The Little Stranger

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Stranger-Sarah-Waters/dp/B004JU1RWM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315431557&sr=1-1

I was already a fan of the author and so I eagerly anticipated this book. I found it had many of the same elements I already loved about Waters' writing - she creates interesting and evocative scenarios, and she is highly skilled at presenting complicated relationships. In this book, the main characters are struggling with the immense socio/economic changes that occurred in England after the Second World War and they try to isolate themselves from the externally forced transitions by becoming emotionally alienated from each other and from society in general. They manage to create an isolated little world in which each of them has a defined place and space, and it's a world which the first person narrator is desperate to join. Still, trauma, mental illness, death, and the paranormal all meld to create a tension that can't last, and their world begins to crumble. 

The story gripped me and I was fully engaged with the characters, however, I wasn't happy with the ending of this book. I found it to be a real disappointment, but in thinking about it, I realized that I also couldn't see how it could have ended any differently. I think my unhappiness came from how well Waters had engaged me in her characters lives, rather than from anything to do with the story. I wanted them to have a happy, or even mediocre, outcome to this time in their lives, but that just couldn't be. 

I highly recommend this book, but don't read it at a time when you need cheering up

Reviewing from the shallow end...

I've been honing my review skills by posting reviews on Amazon.com. I thought that if I reviewed books or movies that already have 1500 reviews then my lack of experience wouldn't be noticed and I don't have to worry about having a negative impact on something that deserves better. I also thought I had some skills in this area, because, you see, a  few years ago I taught a university course on critical thinking. I had loved those courses when I was in graduate and post graduate schools so I expected to be in my element teaching it. Of course, it didn't turn out like that - the students were all first year and they were still struggling with the academic structure required and the content of the course was the least of their worries. Oh well, as they say, if you want to learn something, teach it - especially teach it to people who don't want to learn it.

So, I felt I had a more than adequate base to apply critical thinking to literature and movies, but as I do more of this, I find it's not helping me at all. Why, because I have been reviewing books that I'm reading for pleasure, not to broaden my knowledge base (although historical lit provides that) and I don't really want to apply a critical analysis thought process to methods of light entertainment.

I also wonder, when I'm doing a review, what the review reader wants to know. Does she want to know if I liked the plot? Does he want to know if the characters were realistic? Does she care more about the  genre than the storyline? Does he rely on the synopsis to know if he's interested?

I was especially struck with this when I was reviewing The Book Thief. That's my favorite book in the universe. I read and re-read many lines simply to enjoy the wording, and to re-experience the feelings they evoked in me. Well, do review readers care that I can be enraptured by words?

Arrrgh... am I thinking this to death? That isn't my way - I'm a light thinker (embarrassing but true)...and I like to tread in the shallow end of life. Yet, with reviewing, I'm getting myself all twisted into knots. I guess I'll just keep doing Amazon reviews for a while - maybe even start reviewing products like pencil sharpeners ( do they even make those anymore?) till I feel some confidence.

Well friends, have your best day possible.