The Rotating Stack by my Bed #2: What I'm reading

So my fabulously resourceful book club friend Elise talked Ron Rash into calling into our book club night a couple of weeks ago. Elise selected his book Serena as her choice in July and was so enthusiastic that she emailed Ron's agent who emailed Ron who emailed Elise--well, you get the idea. Mix twenty readers with vino and a chance to ask the author anything and guess what? We acted like reporters for the New York Times. We zealous readers fired questions from sofa, chair, or ottoman into that speaker phone and Mr. Rash, who agreed to a half hour, answered questions for close to two hours. I don't know if it was our passion for his work or his passion for his own glass of wine, but he stayed on the line. He was funny, gracious, and earnest in his answers. It was a good evening.

Ironically, earlier in the day, I had the good fortune to be in the same room with another author who answered my questions earnestly. North Carolina Poet and Writer Tony Abbott talked with me about his book The Three Great Secret Things. The book felt slow to me to begin with. When I slowed my usual 90 mile an hour pace, I realized that it wasn't the book. It was me. I'm too fast. The minute I arranged myself accordingly, the book became a beautiful unfolding of a boy's world class coming of age.

The novel is chockful of references to books, plays, and events of the 1940s. David Lear and his fellow students create and are transformed by their own rich community at boarding school. The Three Great Secret Things is a lovingly written positive novel. I especially enjoyed asking Tony which plot lines were true and which were made up. But I can't tell you what I learned because it's a great secret thing. (I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself.)

Fearless Confessions, A Writer's Guide to Memoir is next in the rotating stack of books by my bed. I met Sue Silverman in Vermont last year and she is the kind of writer you aspire to be. A wizard with metaphor and the beautifully turned phrase, she is also inspiring. And kind to podunk blog writers like me.

The last few lines of Sue's essay over at Powell Books will give you an idea what to expect from her new book.

Whether we grew up listening to rock, grunge, or hip-hop, we all discover that, through language, we transform experience into meaning. We engage in this endeavor with the same wholeheartedness with which we rebelled or sinned or simply persevered. That's why memoir, as a genre, has such energy. We are not going gentle. We are making the same great noise in retrospect as we did the first time around.