Sorry for the sporadic postings of late. Life has gotten increasingly busy in the last few weeks with school and work.

The book that I read recently that I want to share with you is “The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison. It is quite different from all the other books that I have reviewed on here.

1. It is Creative Nonfiction (If you haven’t heard of this genre before, look it up because it’s brilliant. I mostly write in this genre).

2. It is a book of essays, primarily personal and journalistic.

3. I had to read it for class, not for myself.

My professor shared a review of the book with us that said that each essay is worth reading individually, but not compiled together. I have to agree. Since I had to finish this book in two weeks, I had to read one essay after the other without much pause. By the end, I started to feel overwhelmed by her personality, which is strong and not very much like mine.

But many of the essays are worth reading by themselves. The first one, “The Empathy Exams” tells of a trying time in her life using the framing of her experiences of a medical actor. I would also recommend “The Immortal Horizon” and “Fog Count” as they are connected by one character, even though they aren’t really connected by plot.

The essays that I felt could have been revised more or thought on a little more are “In Defense of Saccharine” and “Devil’s Bait.” Although both of them were interesting, “Saccharine” was too long and seemed too experimental in form to really make sense and “Devil’s Bait” made me a little irritated with Jamison because she preaches empathy, but didn’t really practice it.

Leslie Jamison is only in her 3os and “The Empathy Exams” won the 2011 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize. Yes, her essays do have flaws, but I think it is utterly remarkable that a woman who is only a decade older than me was able to win such a prestigious prize. I think that by the time she reaches her 40s or 50s, she will truly be an amazing writer who has both an amazing grasp of form and a wonderful understanding of how to portray herself.

Furthermore, this book helps me realize that I really can be a writer if I practice. If she can be successful, I can. I just have to write, write, write, write, and then write some more.

One of the books that has been a current fascination to me is this i know: notes on unraveling the heart by Susannah Conway.

Conway’s memoir tells of her struggles after the man she loved died from a heart attack as well body image and being alone. Through amazing language and extraordinary Polaroid pictures  (she published this in 2012 and Poloroids are very rare), she seized control of  my heart. I am half her age and never have been in love, so much of what she was talking about, I couldn’t imagine, but it was relatable all the same because of her beautiful, yet fairly simple language.

At the end of each chapter, she had a reflection for her reader to do. Some of them I felt didn’t apply to me as I am not a photographer. But as I am a writer, some of them struck me as absolutely necessary. Such as this one that I’m going to do today:

Write down ten things your audience/readers don’t know about you. Conway called it “bean-spilling.” The beans that you spill do not have shake your families foundations. They can be about parts of your personality only known to you and a select few. For her first bean spilling, she wrote about her loved one dying from a heart attack. I am not ready to spill my own darkness quite yet, although I have written about it for myself almost too many times to count, but I will try to dig as deep as I am willing for my ten facts.

1. I love the rain and the way it smells like hope and forgiveness.

2. I have a comfort book. It is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I read it whenever I’m down or stressed. I read it yesterday.

3. I am quiet, not shy. There is a big difference. The latter is being afraid to talk and the former is only talking when I deem it necessary (or when I’m nervous. I do, unfortunately, babble talk).

4. I like depressing books and find it hard to write stories and poems that aren’t depressing.

5. I have to be surrounded by music. I am currently listening to the music from Doctor Who Season 5. When there’s silence, I find that my thoughts are too distracting.

6. That said, I purposely force myself to drive in silence every once in a while because I really need to spend time with myself.

7. I like receiving letters and writing letters. The regular mail might be slower than e-mail, but I always feel a rush a pleasure at pulling out a new correspondence from my mailbox.

8. I am a very family oriented writer. Many of my creative nonfiction pieces are about my family.

9. I have a memory box which includes all my journals, letters, and other keepsakes from the past few years. Written on the lid and sides are quotes. The ones on the lid are the most important to me.

10. My favorite quote is “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” It is said by my favorite wizard, Albus Dumbledore.

Thank you so much Alice Conway for your delightful and inspirational book.

What would you, my readers, include on your list?

One of my newest book interests has been Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord. The prevalent issue of the book is one that is very close to my heart as one of the characters is showing the early symptoms of dementia, the same disease that I’ve watched my own grandmother go through.

Being a book for younger readers, the language is quite simple, but typically difficult topics are easier and better said in the simplest form possible, so that children can understand it.

That said, Half a Chance does not claim to understand dementia in the slightest. It simply lays out what it looks like and feels like. And I’m glad that it doesn’t explain what is happening to Grandma Lilah, who is unfortunately aware of some of what is happening to her. The majority of people who witness their relations travel the Alzheimer’s path are forced to just simply watch. The book captures that helplessness perfectly because, like with most diseases, the Alzheimer’s patient is not the only victim. I’m not saying that I don’t want somebody to someday find a cure because I definitely do…

Dementia is not the only issue dealt with in the book. It also deals with the loneliness  and uncertainty of moving constantly as well as the everyday beauty of life. The narrator is remarkably observant. She reminds me somewhat of the narrator of Alice Munro’s “Walker Brother’s Cowboy,” who doesn’t understand everything she sees, but sees a plethora of things that many people might have missed.

Don’t let me tell you about the book (or Munro’s short story, if you haven’t read it), read it for yourselves. It speaks for itself.

I think there’s a certain attraction to rereading a book. Just like seeing a movie for a second time, rereading allows the story and the language to fully sink in.

Right now I am rereading A Sweet Far Thing, the last book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray.

One reviewer on audible.com wrote this about her experience with this magnificent series:  “Well, I might not be smart enough to get it,  it was overall a repetitious imaginary land of witches, witchcraft, fantastical beings, or maybe hobbits that went the wrong way looking for “precious”. Well, it wasn’t that great.”

It is an understatement to say that I was outraged by this reviewers’ view. It most certainly provoked a loud and rambling rant that I’m not quite sure was coherent.

I think this trilogy is magnificent because:

1. Libba Bray’s language is deliciously spectacular.
2. While it is listed as YA, there are certain themes (like sexual abuse and addiction) that a middle school reader might not have understood.
3. It does reflect on serious issues, but it has a lot of humor. For instance, the main character complains that “The trouble with mornings is that they come well before noon.” As I woke up at seven for my eight o’clock class this morning, I completely understand.
4. It does not have a particularly happy ending. It might sound odd to list this as a pro, but I think so often writers are so pressed to make all endings happy, that some of them don’t come out quite real.
5. Libba Bray did a lot of research on the Victorian era and it shows because she captured the strict rules of that period quite nicely.

As always, if you  haven’t had the pleasure of reading this series, I would definitely recommend it.

If you have already read it, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I like to describe myself as a voracious reader, but since I am a college student, I do not get to cuddle up to a book as often as I would prefer. However, I will try to write about books I am reading (or rereading) as often as I can.

The book right now that is consuming me is Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally. A week and a half ago, I decided to watch the movie of the same title again. I wasn’t aware of its being a book originally until a sentence in the credits alerted me to its existence. I tried to resist getting it for about five minutes before ordering it used on Amazon. I’m a sucker for books.

To those who aren’t aware, Schindler’s List, details the true story of how Oskar Schindler saved more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II in Germany.  The author wrote the novel because one of the Jews that Schindler saved asked him to. The same man also was the main convincing force behind Steven Spielberg’s movie adaptation.

It is always a little strange and often frustrating to read the book after you’ve seen the movie, but by what I’ve read so far (I’m about half way in) the movie was extremely similar to the book. Which should be expected in a 3 hour long movie. But even in a 3 hour long movie, there were details that were left out. They were mostly relatively unimportant, but interesting, details like Herr Schindler’s upbringing, which the author devotes an entire chapter to.

A detail that was only hinted at in the movie, but is an important piece for understanding the historical figure of Oskar Schindler is the number of affairs that he managed at the same time with all of the women knowing.

After seeing the movie, one thing that I appreciated about the novel is the spattering of small insights into various people’s lives. For instance, the red girl in the movie has an actual name and personality. She isn’t just a symbol to Schindler.

I would definitely recommend reading the book and then seeing the movie. But be warned: do not attempt to read/watch if you are in a sensitive, feel-good mood. It is a book about history, therefore it contains both the pain and the unexpected humor of events of the past.