On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

I'll be the first to admit I have not read nearly enough Stephen King.   In fact, I've only read one other of his books besides this one: Misery. It was quite good and enough to convince me that all this hubbub about him and his being a great writer wasn't just talk. He knows what he's doing with a pen. Thus, I was pretty excited when my brother bought this book for me.

Part memoir and part instructional writing guide, this book is pretty much everything I wanted in a book on writing. It features a successful author being genuine about his journey to get where he is now and the ups and downs it took to get there. He talks about the technical side of writing as well as the joy it brings to those of us who love it. He talks about the merits of being a writer, as well as some of the things that end up coming around to bite us in the ass.

I absolutely adored this book. This is yet another of those books which I have attacked with tabs for things I want to remember or the things that really stuck out to me. I found a lot of his suggestions helpful, even the ones that I'm inclined to disagree with. Like I said, Stephen King knows his craft and his advice in bettering your writing is absolutely invaluable.

This is definitely a must-read for anyone thinking of going into the business of writing or anyone who is even vaguely interested in it. It is inspiring and more than a little helpful. And, if you're like me, you'll only find yourself wanting to put it down when it means picking up the pen yourself.

Rating: ★★★★★

GNW: Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Sixth grade isn't known for being an easy time in anyone's life. In Raina's case, that is especially true. When she knocks out her very permanent two front teeth while running with some friends, she is whisked into a nightmarish sequence of visits to the dentist, orthodontist, periodontist, and all those other "dentists" who can help her get her mouth back to normal.

In Smile, Raina Telgemeier takes us back to that awkward stage in her life where dental drama wasn't the only drama in her life and worrying about her teeth was simply added to worrying about boys and whether or not she was wearing the right clothes.

Smile is an autobiographical graphic novel in which Raina tells her story and draws us all back to a time when awkwardness was our overwhelming concern and nothing ever seemed to go the way we expected.

After falling in love with Drama, I was more than a little excited when I spotted Smile on the shelf of my local B&N. I snatched it up immediately and fell in love almost as quickly. As a girl who spent nearly four years of her life in braces and took a couple of trips to the periodontist, this graphic novel really drew me back to that time and gave me the chance to laugh at all those dental disasters I thought I would never make it through. 

Smile was a wonderful story about growing up and growing into your awkwardness, bringing the reader back to a time where the worst thing that could happen was that you looked a little geeky. I really enjoyed it from beginning to end. Whether you're just entering this awkward stage yourself or those years are long behind you, I'd absolutely suggest picking up this lovely graphic novel. You won't be sorry.

Rating: ★★★★☆

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.

I picked up I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings off of one of the "Summer Reading" tables at Barnes & Noble. It had a gorgeous cover and I recognized the name Maya Angelou from about a thousand different sources. I figured it was about time that I read something of hers that wasn't just a single poem I happened upon once in a library. Besides, I usually comb the "Summer Reading" tables at bookstores because I know I missed out on a lot of Teen Read classics that most kids read in their high school English classes and I try to make sure that I get the chance to check out as many of those as I can.

I wasn't aware until I was a good few chapters in that the book was autobiographical, but that merely added to the intrigue. I'm always hearing people say that real life is stranger than fiction and, looking at my soap opera of a life, I'm rarely surprised by it. However Maya Angelou has quite the story to tell and it's one that would seem quite insane and too crazy to be true, only it really did happen.

Maya Angelou grew up in the South at a time when slavery was a thing of the past, but racism was booming. She lived in a time where it was common for white men to kill black men for looking at their women and where a white woman could "rename" her maids because she felt like it and they had no say because they were black and lower class.

But Maya grew up in a time of change and, though she lived through more hardships than many might be able to stand, she stood. She pushed through everything that blocked her way and came out the stronger for it. Her story is a hard one, but it's a tale of triumph and never backing down in the face of fear.

I really enjoyed this book. There's just something about getting to hear about a person's life by looking through their eyes that really gets to me. This is especially true in the case of Maya Angelou. Getting to peer into her life through her eyes and see how she triumphed over evils that are much greater than the ones I am currently battling reminds me that there's always hope and there is always beauty to be found from the ashes.

The author is known for her stunning poetry and her prose is no less impressive. I cannot tell you how many times I had to go back and reread sentences and paragraphs just to inhale the beauty of her words a little more deeply. The ability to create such intense beauty in the span of a few sentences is a talent that will always impress me (as well as make me deeply jealous).

If you're looking for a good read, this is definitely a book to consider. It's worth your time, if only to remind you that, though life can be far darker than we ever hoped, there is always something beautiful just around the horizon if we choose to fight for it.

"Your grandmother says you read a lot. Every chance you get. That's good, but not good enough. Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning."

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler

At first, women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them. Women secretly love to talk about their vaginas. They get very excited, mainly because no one's ever asked them before.

I had heard of The Vagina Monologues once or twice before, but never really noticed until I saw the title peering out at me from the Women's Studies section of my local Half Price Books. It's a relatively small volume and sounded interesting, so I picked it up and added it to the pile.

A friend came over a few days later and started reading a random monologue from it while I was cleaning my room. It was the monologue entitled "The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could," which happens to be quite a sad story, though it ends in the woman's healing and restoration.

That was the point at which I was certain I would enjoy this book. I knew it would introduce me to more women like this and make me sit back and think. That's exactly what it did.

The Vagina Monologues is exactly what it sounds like. It's a series of monologues all about vaginas originally performed by Eve Ensler. It is a collection of stories, of moments, concerning women and the various relationships they have or have had with their vaginas. From the girl whose husband forced her to shave her vagina, though it was uncomfortable and upsetting for her, to the one whose boyfriend taught her that her vagina wasn't something to be ashamed of, but something beautiful; these stories are the stories of women who have been systematically told that their vaginas are dirty places that should never be spoken of, when the truth is exactly the opposite.

I really enjoyed Eve Ensler's collection of monologues. Each was heartfelt and portrayed women from every end of the spectrum. It was absolutely what one would call art; poetry about a faction of humanity that has been taught that the very thing that makes them who they are is something to be ashamed of.

It is absolutely worth reading, for men and women. It opens your eyes, makes you sit back and think. Ensler may not have realized the power she tapped into when she began her "vagina interviews," but it is raw and untamed and exactly what I had hoped for when I cracked open The Vagina Monologues.

Rating: ★★★★☆

We forget the vagina, all of us 
what else would explain
our lack of awe, our lack of wonder.

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

But I wasn't simply going nuts, tumbling down a shaft into Wonderland. It was my misfortune- or salvation- to be at all times perfectly conscious of my misperceptions of reality.

I found this book after watching the movie of the same name that stars Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. I had been eyeing the movie at my work for a few weeks and finally had time to watch it. I rented it out and grabbed a beer before settling in to watch it.

Turns out, it's a ridiculously interesting movie with quite a bit of great acting in it (particularly from the aforementioned leading ladies). When I realized it was based off a novel, I immediately headed over to bookdepository.com. I had already purchased it by the time the credits began to roll.

Girl, Interrupted is the memoir of Susanna Kaysen in which she details the events of her stay in a mental hospital in the late sixties. She had been sent to this hospital after being diagnosed with depression and borderline personality disorder.

In the book, Kaysen recounts her two year stint in McLean Hospital and her coming to terms with the conditions that brought her there. She details the friends she made and the encounters she had with her own mental instability as well as the instability of others.

As someone who takes a particular interest in memoirs, particularly those written by those who have had to tackle their own mental illness, I was not at all surprised that I enjoyed this book. It was deeply interesting and I really enjoyed getting to see through Susanna's eyes as she dealt with the daily rigors of living in a mental infirmary.

Girl, Interrupted is an insightful look at what it was like to be diagnosed with a mental illness in the late sixties, while providing the reader with an incredible view of the practices and malpractices of McLean Hospital at that time. It's definitely one of those memoirs I'm glad I didn't pass up the opportunity to read.

Rating: ★★★★☆

This clarity made me able to behave normally, which posed some interesting questions. Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? If some people didn't see these things, what was the matter with them? Were they blind or something? These questions had me unsettled.

Harry, A History by Melissa Anelli

All of us led other lives, with work and school and families who didn't understand how we could love anything as much as we loved Harry Potter, who even, at times, made fun of us for devoting so much time and energy to it- but then would spend six hours shouting themselves hoarse at a football match, and five after that shouting themselves hoarse at each other as they discussed the same game.

I picked up Harry, A History at LeakyCon when I attended last year. The author, Melissa Anelli, runs the convention and I'd heard her speak a few times (and even met her once) when I saw this in the LeakyCon bookstore. I figured it was worth a read and added it to the stack books I had in my arms at the time.

I still hadn't managed to read it a few weeks ago when I was getting reading to go visit my family. It was about that time that news got out about the stalking case going on with Melissa Anelli. To make a long story short, Melissa has been stalked for the past five years by a mentally unstable woman who has threatened both her, her family, and her friends. Though this has been an open case for a while, no justice has been brought to the situation yet.

There isn't much of anything I can do personally for this lovely author, but I wanted to show some sort of solidarity with her. I wanted to show, in some small way, that I support her and my thoughts and prayers go out to her in this rough time. So I yanked this book off the shelf, settled it into my carry-on, and spent most of my ten hour plane ride tearing through it.

In Harry, A History, Melissa Anelli documents the Harry Potter movement, showing the numerous ways it impacted a generation and launched more than a few people into following their dreams and making the difference they had always hoped to make in this world.

Anelli tells her own story of falling in love with the Harry Potter series, all the while weaving in the stories of the people she has met- from the brothers who started the band "Harry and the Potters" and thus started the Wizard Rock (WROCK) genre to telling us about the popular Draco Malfoy fan fiction written by Cassandra Claire (who now goes by Cassandra Clare and is the author of the Mortal Instruments series, with its first movie adaptation coming out in the fall). She even takes a full chapter to  detail how she met with Laura Mallory, one of the top spokespersons for the banning of Harry Potter in the United States.

This book was incredibly interesting. As someone who really only entered the Harry Potter fandom about two years ago, I really missed out on a lot of the excitement of waiting anxiously for the release of each new book. The closest I managed was seeing the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on the night of the release (and I hadn't even read the books yet!). I really enjoyed having Melissa Anelli take me back to when Harry Potter was a bit more underground and not that book series that nearly everyone has read by now. She let me experience that excitement and that thrill with her.

If you're a fan of Harry Potter or even want to see what all the chatter is about, I definitely suggest that you give this book a chance. It's absolutely worth it and will draw you in from page one.

Rating: ★★★★★

What does [J.K. Rowling] hope people will take with them about this time?
She pauses, but the answer is right on her tongue.
"When all the fuss and hoopla dies away, and when all the press commentary dies away, I think it will be seen that this phenomenon was generated, in the first instance, by kids loving a book. A book went on shelves, and a few people loved it. When all of the smoke and lights die away, that's what you'll be left with. 
"And that's the most wonderful thing for an author."

The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon

I know that darkness is the absence of light, but where does the light go when it's not here? And how do you know if it'll ever come back?

Picked up this volume in the Non-Fiction shelf in the YA section at my library. It seemed interesting and I really enjoy interesting memoirs, so I figured I'd give this one a shot.

Let me just go ahead and inform you: as soon as I finished, I found The Burn Journals on the Book Depository and bought it immediately. That's how much I enjoyed this book.

When he was fourteen years-old, Brent Runyon got in trouble at school for accidentally setting something on fire. When he got home from school, he went to his bathroom, doused his bathroom in gasoline, and set himself on fire. Brent survived his suicide attempt, but not without burning 85% of his body and spending over nine months in the hospital.

In The Burn Journals, Brent Runyon gives us a first-hand account of his healing process. The reader receives the chance to take a look inside his head as he comes to terms with what he's done and begins to realize his own warped way of seeing things. Runyon brings the reader in, giving us fascinating insight into the mind of a depressed fourteen year-old boy who only wanted to be happy.

If I could describe this memoir in one word, that word would be "fascinating." I cannot tell you how deeply enthralled I was with this book. I really did enjoy getting to see inside the mind of Brent Runyon at such a vulnerable time and, though I'm sure it was hard for him, I couldn't be more thankful to him for writing it.

The Burn Journals is an important book for many reasons. I'm honestly quite sad that I hadn't heard of it before now. I think it addresses a deeply important issue and a prominent mental illness that too often goes right under the radar. Nearly everyone I know, including myself, has undergone some type of battle with depression and it seems like everyone is scared to address that. However, Runyon handles it with a finesse that I cannot praise enough.

One of my favorite things about the way he handles it is the fact that the reader gets to see exactly what was going on behind the closed doors of his mind through various stages of his struggle. It is absolutely insane how well the reader can see the various little bits that show just how warped his thinking was, and yet it is warped in a way that it's clear he thinks is normal and you can absolutely understand how he would think that.

All in all, it was a fabulous book and one I'll be suggesting frequently to as many people as I can manage from now on!

Rating: ~★★★★★~

I'm standing in the closet with my head in the shirts. I can't stop crying. I can't stop.
"You're asking me all the wrong questions." Why don't they love me? Why don't they take care of me? Why don't they act like I'm their son? The tears are all over my face and I can taste them in my mouth, like salt water, but I can't stop crying. I can't stop crying. I can't believe how little they know me.