My Auto-Buy Authors

Rhys Bowen

When I started reading mysteries more often in the early 2010s, I turned to Bowen’s Molly Murphy mystery series. I was hooked and blew through the first dozen or so that were published at the time. I devoured her Royal Spyness series in a similar fashion a few years later. 

Whether it’s another entry in one of those series or a standalone, I always pre-order Bowen’s books. I can count on a thoroughly researched, witty, immersive story. Bowen’s depictions of other time periods and the characters she creates to inhabit them pull you in and keep you entranced. 

Favorite: Her Royal Spyness (Royal Spyness 1)

Latest: Wild Irish Rose (Molly Murphy Mysteries 18, co-written with Bowen’s daughter Clare Broyles)

Laura Lippman 

You can’t beat Lippman for the depth and complexity of the characters and their emotions. She also concocts gripping, dense plots. Her main characters are female, intelligent, and often hiding a secret past or leading a double life. They are resilient and strong and make the best out of their situations. 

Favorite: Sunburn

Latest: Dreamgirl

Megan Abbott 

When you enter a Megan Abbott book, the Modern Gothic atmosphere wraps around you. Abbott understands the dark side of being a woman and you identify with her characters even as you feel glad you aren’t them. 

She’s written everything from noir to dark drama about high school girls to books about adult women navigating a world that pits them against each other. She is quite simply one of the finest authors working today. Her books are dark, poetic, and deeply satisfying to those who relate to the darker side of identifying as female in this world. 

Favorite: Give Me Your Hand 

Latest: The Turnout

Gillian Flynn 

Flynn hasn’t published in a while, so she maybe technically doesn’t belong on an auto-buy authors list. But you better believe I would smash that pre-order button if she released something new. 

Her stories are horrifying, yet you melt into them and actually enjoy being there. They are so dark with amazing prose and thrilling plots. 

This woman single-handedly started the “Girl” trend in mystery and thriller novel titles. Gone Girl became the mark everyone aimed to surpass or at least circle. So many thriller writers tried to come up with a twist as good in the decade since. Many came close or even succeeded. But she was the first. She yanked the rug out from under us and spun the story in a different direction and we gleefully hung on for the ride. 

Favorite: Sharp Objects

Latest: Flynn hasn’t published a book since Gone Girl in 2012. She’s been busy with screen adaptations of her books and writing for TV and film. She is also writing a new book, but there is no release date yet. 

Lisa Jewell 

Jewell began her career writing romantic comedies and you can see that influence in her justifiably popular thrillers of recent years. She crafts intricate plots filled to the brim with emotion. She writes about families mostly from the female point of view. You become immersed in the worlds she creates, whether it’s a family dealing with the mother’s worsening hoarding issues or a family being infiltrated by a cult after their money. 

Her books are satisfying, intense, poignant, heartbreaking, and, at times, scary. They are a bit slow-burn to really be thrillers. They are just damn good books and there is a big back catalog to jump in and enjoy. 

Favorite: The Family Upstairs

Latest: The Night She Disappeared

Gilly MacMillan 

MacMillan is one of the rare authors who perfectly balances raw emotion with the pacing and tension so integral to the psychological thriller. Her stories usually revolve around the theme of facing uncomfortable truths in families, communities, and inside ourselves. You finish one of her books with that tingling sense of being changed by a new aspect of the human experience and its effect on the human psyche revealed. 

Favorite: The Nanny

Latest: The Long Weekend

Sophie Hannah 

When I read mysteries and thrillers, I sometimes try to figure out the ending. Quite a few times, my ending has been a lot more complicated than the real one. Hannah outdoes me in the intricate, too-muchness of my brain. I read one of her books for the first time and truly felt I had found a kindred spirit.

Her plots are meticulous, detail-oriented, wildly inventive, and dark. She comes up with crimes I never would have thought of. And literary references sometimes play a pivotal part in the plot. Swoon. 

Favorite: It’s a tie between Little Face and The Wrong Mother. 

Note: Hannah is British and some of her books have different titles in the US and the UK. It has made tracking them all down and reading them pretty confusing. I ended up making a list in my iPhone of ALL the titles from each country and matching them. Helped a lot.

Latest: The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (Hannah was chosen by Agatha Christie’s estate to write more Poirot novels. This is number 4.)

Ruth Ware 

Ware’s books are just so good. SO good. She seems able to handle any subgenre or setting while creating gripping, thoroughly interesting, dark, and complex women to navigate them. 

Whether it’s a glass house in a dark wood, a cruise ship, an old, creepy house, a ski chalet, or a hybrid new/old smart house, Ware beckons you into normal, even happy situations (bachelorette parties, cruises, reunions) and injects a jarring note that warns you to stay away. But you can’t resist seeing what’s hiding underneath the surface. 

Favorite: The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Latest: One by One

Tell us in the comments: Do you have any auto-buy authors?

Sara Farmer lives in Austin, TX, with her husband, three kids, and two cats. When she’s not chasing kids and cats, she reads and writes mysteries. You can find her at www.kittymomma.com and on Twitter @avonlea79.

The post Cozy to Cold-Blooded: My Auto-Buy Authors appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’ve been doing a bit of rereading like I shared last month, but I’ve been reading plenty of new and new-to-me books. As a result, I had a hard time picking one great book to talk about this month, so I thought I’d share three books that have been dominating my spring reading. These are the three books that I am juggling as they compete for my precious time, attention, and affection. I hope something catches your eye.

Spring Reading List

Seek You: A Journey through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

Initially, I had planned for this May Book Nook post to be solely about this book, but I’m still reading it. I’m really not sure how this graphic memoir flew under my radar when it came out last year, but I happened across it last week and immediately knew I needed to read it. 

Radtke initially began her research for this book in 2016. Then, in 2020, the topic became beyond timely. I love her early discussion about the evolution of laughter in the human species and how it fosters connection. I remember an old episode of Seinfeld where Elaine and George are unexpectedly forced to spend time together without Jerry. The next day Jerry asks how it went and Elaine tells him it was pretty meh, except for when they bonded over making fun of Jerry. As someone who loves reading and writing humor, this really rang true for me.

Further, I love her choice to write this as a graphic memoir as opposed to straight prose. The images really participate in getting across her point and her research. Very well done. I can’t wait to keep reading.

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski 

I’ve had a bit of a long-term flirtation with this book. I started reading it last summer and inexplicably set it aside. Then I picked it up again in both the fall and the winter. I may have even mentioned it in a previous column. It’s great, life-changing information, but I’ve been too burnt out to read about burnout.

No more. I finally bought the audiobook and I’ve begun listening to it in 40-minute increments while I go walking a few times a week. Exercise, the book says, is the number one best way of completing the stress cycle. You see, there’s a difference between managing the stressor and the stress, and getting rid of the stressor doesn’t physiology rid our bodies of the stress chemicals. These incomplete stress cycles accumulate over time until something bad happens.

I love their writing style, which blends science and research with pop culture references and easy-to-digest advice. It is geared towards women simply because men and women face different societal expectations and pressures, and (like old heart attack studies completely missed the fact that women can have different symptoms than men) I kind of like knowing that something as important as unlocking the stress cycle is geared toward someone like me.

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

I have this thing where if a book receives a ton of hype, I can’t read it right away. Don’t get me wrong—I’ll totally buy the book, but I just have a hard time reading it. I don’t know if that’s because I can’t process my own thoughts in the midst of all the others swirling about on Bookstagram or maybe it’s a case of wrong book, wrong time. Nonetheless, I pre-ordered this one, the fiction debut of the author who wrote Three Women (which also took me a few starts and stops to read), and promptly set it aside.

I’ve been doing a lot of tweaking with my writing and this book is really jibing with the voice I want to develop for my narrator. She’s edgy, kinda screwed up, but honest and raw. The narrator, Joan, witnesses a pretty horrific act of violence and leaves town. She drives to LA, where she searches for Alice in an effort to make sense of her past.

I love that this is an exploration of female rage and the path back. Still, so often female characters and writers are expected to be a certain way. This novel subverts those expectations. Or maybe it creates new expectations, new ways of being. I am totally digging the vibe of this novel and the journey of this character.

Who knows? Maybe by the time this article is published, I’ll have finished all three of these books. I’d love to think so. They are all so addicting and are speaking to different parts of myself. And isn’t that really why we read in the first place?

Tell us in the comments: What books are on your spring reading list?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven and Chaos Coordinator at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post The Book Nook: My Spring Reading appeared first on DIY MFA.

Fiction

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

I’ve often said that the best kind of book is the book that teaches while it entertains. Perhaps not surprisingly, YA novels tend to fall into this category. They make for lovely and usually simple reading, perfect for stressful times when we need escapist leisure (hmm… why is that so appealing right now?). Yet, they are also often quite instructive; at least, the really good ones are. Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After is a good LGBTQ+ Summer Read. Felix’s story, the story of a young trans black man, is a particularly important and powerful one right now. It is a story that needed telling.

Don Juan in the Village by Jane DeLynn

Jane DeLynn’s novel is a classic of lesbian fiction. It follows the escapades and sexual conquests of its female protagonist, a lady Don Juan, as she travels the world and sleeps with as many women as she can. The narrative spans the course of 20 years, beginning sometime in the 1970s and ending sometime in the 1990s. There is a clear and stark, sometimes painful, contrast between the freedom of the post-1960s sexual revolution and the advent of what the narrator labels, “the plague.”

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

Like A Love Story is not only a beautifully written YA novel, but it is a historically and socially important one. Nazemian reminds the reader just how hard gay and lesbian people had to fight to win their freedoms and equal protection, a fight that continues to this day and that is constantly under attack. 

The author includes several important historical lessons, weaving them seamlessly into the story of these characters’ lives so that readers who give this work a chance will find themselves learning critical history that is often overlooked, forgotten, or under-appreciated, while at the same time enjoying an excellent story. At the heart of it are themes of friendship, forgiveness, and first loves, as well as first losses.

Graphic Novels

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Somewhere amidst all the very heavy reading that I was doing last summer, I apparently needed a break. That break was found in Jen Wang’s delightful graphic novel, The Prince and the Dressmaker. The story is about a young man, a prince, who sometimes likes to dress in women’s clothes. He hears of a brilliant young dressmaker and hires her to be his own personal designer. 

The story is charming—delightful, really—and fresh in the way it bends gender roles separate from sexuality. The art, too, is simply wonderful. The story has its ups and downs, of course, and nothing goes entirely smoothly, not even for a prince, but the ending is a dessert worth waiting for. 

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

The heart of this graphic novel is three fairy tales, including two versions of Cinderella (the German and the Vietnamese) and The Little Mermaid. Also incorporated into the plot are concepts such as traditional coming out and coming of age in America, the immigrant experience, colonization and empire, post-war identity, and so much more. 

What on the surface might look like another wonderfully illustrated children’s story, is in fact a powerful, delicate, and uniquely rendered story about a queer, Asian American boy’s life, his family, and their heritage, not to mention language itself. I was utterly captivated by this one. The Magic Fish has found its place on my forever shelf.

Poetry

The Tradition by Jericho Brown

This collection contains three parts. Running through all three is a series of poems titled “Duplex.” Each one grows considerably sharper and more poignant as the collection roars forward to its conclusion. Somehow, Brown creates beauty where none should exist. His poems make explicit the horror we have grown accustomed to in our daily lives, but they do so in the way “Ganymede” promises from the outset: When the speaker asks us, who doesn’t want to be loved by God, we see the answer in the very craft of poetry. And what have we sacrificed for it? 

“I begin with love, / hoping to end there,” Brown writes in one of his “Duplex” poems, and I must cheer him for succeeding. This collection and every poem in it, whether it is tackling issues of rape or terror, mass shootings, workplace struggles, or the intimacies of the bedroom, is filled with love. Crafted with love. Expressing love in every word and line, in every syllable and caesura.

Fire to Fire by Mark Doty

This collection is a kind of “greatest hits” from a National Book Award-winning poet. It gathers the “best of” Doty’s previous seven poetry collections (pre-2008) and adds some of his more recent uncollected pieces. What it proves is that Doty is one of America’s greatest contemporary poets and certainly a standout for gay poetry. I responded most to his poems about loss and about the painful but necessary act of moving forward.

The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed

This one speaks directly to the current movement and to the violence that has been perpetrated against black bodies for too long. Reed uses a full arsenal in his exploration and call to arms, from mythology to modern cinema, from pop culture to classical poetic forms. At its core, this is a critique of exploitation, an expose, and while it often looks outward at the populations of marginalized people, it is also personal, intimate, and revolutionary. 

Reed’s style of free verse is deeply informed by formal structure. His poems are always in conversation with other poems, and other poets. This is likely to become a well-cited model for emerging poets.  

Non-Fiction

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first text in the “revisionist history” series, and it’s a decent inaugural text for that project. Although this study ends in the 1990s and could therefore use a new edition, the book is exactly what it says it will be, an illuminating and detailed history of queer people in the United States, from its founding to the AIDS crisis. 

Those new to LGBTQ+ history will learn a lot from reading this book, some of which will be surprising. If you’re hoping to add depth to your characters’ backstories or to write historical fiction, this is going to be a helpful read.

Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America by Christopher Bram

In the years following World War II, a group of gay writers established themselves as major cultural figures in American life. Truman Capote, the enfant terrible, whose finely wrought fiction and nonfiction captured the nation’s imagination. Gore Vidal, the wry, withering chronicler of politics, sex, and history. Tennessee Williams, whose powerful plays rocketed him to the top of the American theater. James Baldwin, the harrowingly perceptive novelist and social critic. Christopher Isherwood, the English novelist who became a thoroughly American novelist. And the exuberant Allen Ginsberg, whose poetry defied censorship and exploded minds. Together, their writing introduced America to the gay experience and sensibility; and changed our literary culture. What writer doesn’t love reading about other powerful and history-making writers?

Thinking About It

This LGBTQ+ Summer Reading list of course just scratches at the surface of a brilliant and ever-developing “canon” of LGBTQ+ literature in the United States and elsewhere. I could write for pages and pages about other writers, like Ocean Vuong and Emily M. Danforth, who deserve to be read.

If you have other great suggestions for LGBTQ+ summer reading, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Adam W. Burgess is a Professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada. He has a Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University and is pursuing a post-doc writing certificate at the University of California, Berkeley. He loves engaging in all topics related to LGBTQ literature and craft. You can find Adam on his website or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The post Prepare Your LGBTQ+ Summer Reading List with Ten Must-Reads appeared first on DIY MFA.

The original stories inspired others to create wonderful art. Sherlock Holmes contains endless possibilities. He is the type of character that opens up all sorts of avenues when cast into a different time period, age, race, or gender. There are even many series centering members of the supporting cast.

This will be a 2-part column, because of the volume of Sherlockiana. Even narrowed down to my favorites, it’s still a long list. Several excellent Sherlock pastiches are absent from this post since I’ve already spotlighted them. These are the Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series by Vicki Delany, and the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer. 

I rated the entries between 1 and 5 Cumberbatches, 5 being the best. 

The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson 

Series or Standalone: Series 

Case: Solicitor Reggie Heath just wants his brother Nigel to get his life together. Nigel is also a solicitor but is suspended at the moment. He now works for Reggie at his law chambers on the second floor of a building that takes up the entire 200 block of Baker St. 

Nigel informs Reggie that they regularly receive letters written to Sherlock Holmes. This has been happening for decades. The lease requires every occupant of the second floor to answer the letters with a specific form and to never attempt to contact the writers. 

Nigel has discovered two recent letters written by a woman who also wrote twenty years before as a child to ask Sherlock to help find her father. Now she wants the enclosures sent back. But Nigel doesn’t think she wrote the new letters and he isn’t the type to ignore something fishy. 

Type of Sherlock: “Real” world where Sherlock is fictional, modern world 

Evidence of similarities: Baker St., brothers working together as Sherlock and Mycroft often did 

Evidence of differences: Set in 1997, Sherlock Holmes is not actually in the story, versions of other Sherlock characters don’t appear.  

Deduction: The mystery is interesting and intricate. It is well written and you care about the characters. The visceral descriptions of LA really painted a picture of the smog and the heat. 

Cumberbatches: 4

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

Series or Standalone: Series 

Case: The great-great-great-granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes and the great-great-great-grandson of Dr. Watson have ended up at the same boarding school in Connecticut. Both Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson struggle with their familial legacy, as well as the problems and pressures of being teenagers. 

Charlotte, especially, has a rough history, starting with the fact that the Holmes family is very exacting and focused on excellence, unlike the more easygoing Watson clan. 

At first, they avoid each other but a murder on campus brings them together. It bears an eerie resemblance to one solved by their three times great-grandfathers. 

Type of Sherlock: Modern retelling, descendants of Sherlock and Watson, female Sherlock, teenage Holmes and Watson 

Evidence of similarities: Charlotte’s personality, intelligence, and vices. Jamie’s stability. Place names and cases pay homage to the original stories, as well as some of the non-canonical ones. 

Evidence of differences: Set in the 21st century, female Sherlock, teenage Holmes and Watson, Moriarty family has a truce with the Holmes and Watson families

Deduction: This is a kick-ass series, emblematic of the talent in children’s and YA literature these days. It is witty, fun, and at times heartbreaking. The mysteries and plot arcs in the books and the series as a whole are complex, emotional, and masterfully handled. 

Cumberbatches: 5

Sherlock Holmes and the Glad Game by Matt Ferraz

Series or Standalone: Standalone

Case: During the time that Holmes is presumed dead after his encounter with Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, Mrs. Hudson encounters a young woman walking home with a bag of oranges. The bag breaks and Mrs. Hudson invites the young woman with a strangely positive attitude back to 221 Baker St. 

The young woman is Pollyanna Whittier. THE Pollyanna. Her back pain from an old injury has returned and she is in London seeking treatment. Dr. Watson knows the doctor is a quack and convinces him to tell Pollyanna the treatment is done and to refund the rest of the sessions. 

Pollyanna returns to America and her aunt. But both she and Sherlock will be back and Pollyanna’s connection to the quack doctor will embroil her in a case that threatens her life and her positivity. 

Type of Sherlock: Literary mashup, female sidekick 

Evidence of similarities: Time period, supporting characters 

Evidence of differences: Just Pollyanna. But she is a big one. 

Deduction: This book is better than it has any right to be. Pollyanna and her game grew annoying at times and the author’s attempts at American dialect grated (Why was that even necessary?), but Pollyanna won me over.  

The book also explores some interesting psychological territory with Dr. Watson pondering if the Glad Game is always a healthy response. The relationships between characters ring true, especially when they admit annoyance with the Glad Game, while still loving Pollyanna.

Cumberbatches: 3

A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell

Series or Standalone: Series 

Case: Dr. Janet Watson served as a doctor in the New Civil War. She was wounded and lost her arm, which put an end to her career as a surgeon until she can get a new device. (The one supplied in the field belonged to a soldier who died and it had to be retrofitted. It’s also an older model.)

She returns to her hometown of Washington, D.C., and gets set up with the VA for counseling and job searching. She finds a job as a medical tech at the VA. And meets a mysterious woman named Sara Holmes who wants a roommate. She has a beautiful apartment. It’s a no-brainer for Watson to leave the hostel she has been living in. 

But then a former soldier dies suddenly. Then another. After Janet searches for info in the VA system, she is attacked on her way home. More soldiers die, all from the same unit. Janet discovers a dark conspiracy that someone will kill to keep from her … and that Sara Holmes knows just what to do about that. 

Type of Sherlock: Alternate universe Sherlock, female Holmes and Watson, Black Holmes and Watson, LGBTQ+ Holmes and Watson, American Holmes and Watson, modern retelling 

Evidence of similarities: Character names and roles, Holmes’s off-putting behavior, Watson’s background as a soldier

Evidence of differences: Race, gender, time period, sexuality 

Deduction: The alternate universe fascinates, as does Sara Holmes’s mysterious role. The mystery is solid and emotional. I love Dr. Janet Watson with her grit and determination laced through with sympathy and compassion, as well as some pessimism and fear about her future and the world’s. 

Cumberbatches: 4

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Series or Standalone: Series

Case: Sherlock Holmes and teenager Mary Russell meet by chance on the Sussex Downs when she almost walks over him while reading. She is an orphan, having lost her parents and brother in a car crash. She lives on a farm with her aunt, with whom she doesn’t get along. 

Holmes has retired to a nearby farm and keeps bees. He occasionally does top-secret work, but he misses London and the chase. Mrs. Hudson lives with him as a housekeeper and cook. 

Mary is an exceptionally intelligent and rather odd young woman. She and Holmes quickly discover their similarities and become friends. He teaches her about detecting. They solve some petty crimes, like stolen money from a pub, before moving on to a kidnapped senator’s daughter and finally dealing with a personal enemy of Holmes who threatens his life and the lives of everyone he loves. 

Type of Sherlock: Continuation with new characters, new partner, older Sherlock, female partner

Evidence of similarities: Main characters, Sherlock’s personality

Evidence of differences: Smart, witty female partner. Sherlock lives on a farm and keeps bees. He is also older and feeling it a bit. 

Deduction: This book lives up to the hype. I instantly adored Mary Russell and her dynamic with Sherlock. King’s aging Sherlock is a knockout characterization and Mary Russell fits right in with the gang while remaining a completely original character. King’s depiction of the setting is vivid and evocative. 

Cumberbatches: 5

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

Series or Standalone: Standalone

Case: It is the 1940s, and World War II dominates life. One day, an old man looks out his window and sees a little boy with a parrot on his shoulder. The boy is a Jewish refugee from Germany and mute. The bird talks and sings, mostly in German, particularly the numbers 1-9 in German over and over in random order. 

The old man is Sherlock Holmes but is never addressed as such. He is in his 80s and retired with his bees on the South Sussex Downs. 

The boy and the bird live in the home of the vicar and his family. They keep a boarding house. One of the boarders is murdered and the bird goes missing. For the first time in decades, the game is afoot and Sherlock is overjoyed. The bird’s cryptic utterings might mean something very important and one side does not want the other to hear them. 

Type of Sherlock: Continuation with new characters, aged Sherlock 

Evidence of similarities: Sherlock himself 

Evidence of differences: Very old and infirm Sherlock, no other original characters, Sherlock never mentioned by name

Deduction: I really liked it. The writing was a pleasure to read with some beautiful and creative word choices and metaphors. Although a few of the sentences are so convoluted that by the time I got to the verb, I went back because I forgot the subject. So many clauses lay in between that I got lost again.

Cumberbatches: 5

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz 

Series or Standalone: Series

Case: A man named Carstairs visits Baker St with an extraordinary tale. He is an art dealer. A valuable shipment to Boston was interrupted by train robbers and the paintings were destroyed and two men killed. Carstairs and his customer united to capture the group responsible called the Flat Cap gang. The police managed to kill all but one. 

Right before Carstairs boarded the ship for his return to England, the customer was gunned down in his garden, presumably by the remaining gang member. 

A young woman befriended the distressed Carstairs on the ship. They married. Shortly after their return home, a man in a flat cap began appearing wherever Carstairs happened to be. Carstairs fears he is next. But there is more, oh so very much more, to the story. 

Type of Sherlock: Continuation with original characters, darker Sherlock

Evidence of similarities: Writing style, characterizations, time period, setting 

Evidence of differences: Darker story with more violence

Deduction: Anthony Horowitz was chosen by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to write new Sherlock novels and is one of my favorite writers. I love his Susan Ryeland and Hawthorne and Horowitz series, both of which I covered in this column. He also adapted Midsomer Murders, a British police procedural/cozy mystery show, which has aired since 1997. 

All of which is to say, he knocked it out of the park. 

Like Chabon and King’s contributions to this list, his writing was pleasurable to read with a cracking good story contained within. 

Cumberbatches: 5

Lock and Mori by Heather W. Petty 

Series or Standalone: Series

Case: James “Mori” Moriarty and Sherlock “Lock” Holmes attend the same private school in modern-day London. They are also neighbors on Baker St. But they don’t formally meet until Mori tries to drag Sherlock out of his lab at the behest of a teacher during a fire drill. 

Sherlock soon attempts to draw Mori into his latest “game,” solving the murder of a man found stabbed in Regent’s Park. She resists, but finds herself meeting up with him anyway. They feel a connection beyond an interest in crime. 

But Mori begins keeping secrets as she discovers her late mother’s connection to the victim and delves into her mother’s past. Mori is trying to protect herself, but learning to trust Sherlock could change her life … and save it. 

Type of Sherlock: Modern retelling, darker Sherlock, YA Sherlock, romantic Sherlock 

Evidence of similarities: Living on Baker St., Sherlock’s intelligence and personality, Mori’s gift for math and dark side

Evidence of differences: Very dark story, female Moriarty, the nicknames, their ages, their friendship and attraction to each other, the modern time period 

Deduction: I enjoyed it very much, although the parts where Moriarty, Sr., abuses his kids were hard to take. I like Mori and really hope she doesn’t grow up to be an evil criminal mastermind. 

Cumberbatches: 5

Tell us in the comments: Which Sherlock Holmes pastiche is your favorite? Do you prefer the original stories or new ones?

Sara Farmer lives in Austin, TX, with her husband, three kids, and two cats. When she’s not chasing kids and cats, she reads and writes mysteries. You can find her at www.kittymomma.com and on Twitter @avonlea79.

The post Cozy to Cold-Blooded: The Not-So-Elementary Universe of Sherlock Holmes, Part 1 appeared first on DIY MFA.

As you watch a Nora Ephron movie or—better yet!—read something she wrote, you can tell that she loved words, characters, and storytelling. She is famous for having said, “Everything is copy,” which is one of the truest things I have ever heard about writing and art. And she totally lived it! She mined her divorce from Carl Bernstein to write her hilarious novel Heartburn, which she also adapted into the screenplay for the movie.

Meeting Nora Ephron

I had seen her movies, of course. I remember watching You’ve Got Mail in theatres and I was utterly captivated by the power of books in other people’s lives. For me, it was one of those moments where I realized that it wasn’t just me.

But I don’t think I truly met Nora Ephron until after she died.

In 2014, my life (and the lives of my mom, dad, uncle, and grandma) revolved around visiting my beloved papa in one hospital facility or another. It consisted of a lot of sitting while he dozed. I’m not good at sitting and doing nothing, so I made sure to bring books with me. But when you’re constantly being interrupted by nurses, aides, visitors, etc, it’s difficult to get into the groove of a novel.

That’s where Nora came in. I had purchased The Most of Nora Ephron when it came out in 2013 and randomly decided to bring it with me. It’s a long volume, clocking in at just over 550 pages. But it contains multitudes.

Robert Gottlieb, who compiled the volume, arranged it by types of writing. You get to meet Nora Ephron the journalist, the novelist, the foodie, the blogger, and the essayist, among other her personas. 

As I flipped through the book, I gravitated toward the shorter pieces that I could finish in one gulp. These were by and large under 10 pages. And they were funny! It was a nice break to get to laugh when things sucked so much.

After that initial introduction, I began purchasing her individual volumes of essays: Wallflower at the Orgy, I Feel Bad About My Neck, I Remember Nothing, Crazy Salad, and Scribble, Scribble (those last two conveniently combined into a single volume). 

Whenever I finish a book, I sign my name and write the date on the inside of the front cover. Looking back at these books now, I can see that I read them in the days immediately after my papa passed. Those books, those essays, provided the balm I apparently needed in order to get through. Humor is, after all, a great medicine.

Realizing the Larger Context

As time passed and I became more serious about this whole writing thing, I began seeing Nora Ephron in a new light. I still thought she was funny as hell, but I became more interested in the arc of her career as well. She wrote a bit of everything. 

While I don’t harbor any desire to write screenplays, I do want to write essays. I want to write a novel. I want to write about food. I want to write widely because there’s just so much out there to explore. And I love seeing that somebody has done so. 

I know other authors have done it (hello, Joan Didion) but Nora Ephron was the first one I really noticed, which makes her special to me. Plus, her style is more intuitive and natural to me, which is why I gravitate toward her so strongly. 

Essays are my first love as a writer and probably the genre I’ll most frequently write in. And I have to credit Nora Ephron with that. She sparked an interest in personal essays that led me to David Sedaris and Joan Didion, then onto Samantha Irby, Rebecca Solnit, and so many others.

When you start something new and you’re alone, it’s kind of like the first day of high school. You walk into the cafeteria and you don’t know where to sit. Your eyes scan the room. You observe. You try to find connections amongst the people at the different tables so you know where you might fit in. 

Well, as I was scanning the writers’ cafeteria, Nora Ephron looked up, caught my eye, smiled a welcoming smile, and beckoned me over. 

I found my table. And I hope you find yours. 

Tell us in the comments: Have you ever read any of Nora Ephron’s books? What did you think?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post The Book Nook: Ode to Nora Ephron appeared first on DIY MFA.

A while back, I hopped onto Instagram and asked for a few book recommendations to add to my TBR pile. But here’s a little secret: while I love writing, I am guilty of not being an avid reader. In fact, I binge read 3 to 4 books and then read nothing for a long while. 

However, as I started reading a few of those book recommendations, I realized they were some of the best (in my opinion) to appreciate the basic storytelling elements. And I couldn’t help but think how much I would love to share them with you all. 

Today, I have 4 book recommendations for you to binge on and get a better understanding of storytelling elements.

But first thing first, what are storytelling elements?

There are many definitions out there, but I consider the following three elements essential when telling a story. Miss out on one and your entire story falls apart:

1. The Characters: Who are you going to follow around in the story?

2. The World: Where does this story take place?

3. The Plot: What is happening in the story?

There’s a lot to explore about these storytelling elements in themselves, but our focus for today is to appreciate them in practice. To avoid any spoilers, I have included the blurb for you to read and what I liked in the novels.

Without further ado, here are my recommendations:

The Characters: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

“It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up, and closed down.”

I am a sucker for fantasy characters being the narrator and here we have Death narrating the story. That sold me. But the novel is filled with characters that you fall in love with, sometimes hate, and then end up falling in love with once again. Much like people in real life. And you cannot help but love them, even Death, because they are so unyielding in the face of something so dreadful as war and their relationships so heartwarming.

Beautifully written with a heartbreaking yet absolutely realistic ending that would leave you in tears and have a profound impact on you. However, as is the case with many novels, people have a divided opinion on this one. If complex reads and tragic endings aren’t your things, maybe steer clear of this one.

The World: The Goblin Emperor by Sarah Monette

“The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an “accident,” he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.

Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.

Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor. All the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend…and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne—or his life.”

The strong world building was my key takeaway from this book besides the poignant characters. If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written, you know I love world building, and this novel had such detailed world building that I fell in love. You’ll find everything important about it here. The politics, mannerism, laws, interpersonal relationships, everything is mapped out so perfectly it is hard not to be in awe.

However, some parts are drawn out too long with descriptions and names that are hard to remember, but the coming-of-age trope is something I enjoy and saying this novel has done justice to it is an understatement.

The Plot: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

“The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.”

Some novels grip you the first time you read them. Then there are some that when you re-read them, you appreciate them on a whole new level. This one is a combination of both. 

There was so much foreshadowing and so many other nuances hidden in plain sight that re-reading it gave me a new sense of appreciation of just how spectacular this novel really is. You think you have uncovered all the layers of this novel, but end up finding another one right underneath. The plot is so skillfully crafted and detailed, anyone who appreciates high fantasy novels is bound to find this interesting.

Now, there’s a complaint that Jordan has borrowed many aspects from J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, but I argue there are so many pieces of literature out there and almost everything is inspired by something or the other. 

Jordan has included his own original magic and delivered us a story with growth and powerful allusions. But that’s my opinion and if long novels or series aren’t your cup of tea, we can find you another.

Complete Package: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

“What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-traveling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer’s, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .”

I am in love with this beautiful novel. Kawaguchi has touched upon the age-old question with his unique traces and it just warms your heart. With heart-rending characters and their stories that might leave you in tears, topped with such an interesting world building, it really makes you wonder what would I do if I could go back in time? 

The pacing is just as it should be and when you turn the last page, I promise you’ll learn the truth about past, present, and future that was right there on the surface of your head but it’ll hit you differently.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Novel is the debut novel of famous playwright Toshikazu Kawaguchi and you’ll find hints of his skills in the way the novel feels like a theatrical setup and it is in some ways. But that shortcoming is nothing compared to the way the novel will leave you feeling. Like a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day.

Tell us in the comments: Have you read any of these recommendations? What are some of your go-to novels that explore the basic storytelling elements?

The next time we meet, let’s create a world of wonder that can be, in equal measure, marvelous and intimidating. But we’ll take away the intimidating part with questions that can help you set on a path to create the perfect world for your characters.

Disha Walia is a lifelong storyteller and an enthusiastic writer and editor in love with the idea of exploring the creative world of words. While making her space in the world of non-fiction and fiction alike, Disha loves to spend even her free time daydreaming about what next to write. Connect with her on www.quillinary.com. You can also follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

The post Appreciate Storytelling Elements with these Book Recommendations appeared first on DIY MFA.

I have long been interested in banned books and have found the banning of books to be problematic. Any time “they” started telling “us” to not read a particular book, I just had to read it. This rebelliousness felt subversive when I was a teenager buying The Golden Compass series because my parents’ church came out against it. But it has grown into a desire to dig deeper, to read these books to figure out why they’re inventing excuses to have them banned.

This changed my thinking about this column. I don’t need to spend my time writing posts that promote the work of current and recent bestselling authors who really don’t need further promotion from me. Their books are good. Their books are available. Read them if you are interested, or don’t.

Instead, I am going to use this column to focus on commonly banned books and discuss why that banning is problematic. I’ll go into some of the commonly invented reasons for the book being banned, then I’ll discuss the larger implications. Some of these books will be re-reads, like the one I have planned for next month, and some will be new to me, like Maus today.

About Maus

Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel recounts his father’s survival of the Holocaust and has a frame depicting his relationship with his father as an adult. Both tales are gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. The tale of surviving the Holocaust is full of hiding and narrow escapes, close calls with death, not being sure whom to trust and for how long. The tale of the aging father speaks to anybody who has dealt with an aging parent or grandparent—the arguments, the confusion, the belligerent behavior—but it’s told against the backdrop of this unspeakable history that creates so many additional layers of nuance.

The genius of the tale is depicting the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. There are also dogs and frogs. This choice plays on common depictions of different groups as different animals. But it also takes the reader out of the factual history enough to grasp the story better by seeing the events unfold with animals instead of humans. 

Banning Maus

Maus was ostensibly banned because of profanity and nudity. After reading both volumes in a day, the profanity can readily be heard on primetime network TV. The one time the author meant a word stronger than that, he used symbols (ie $^&*@!) in lieu of letters. 

As for the nudity, in the first place, mice are already nude. They typically don’t wear pants or any clothes at all when you see them out in the wild. But also, it wasn’t sexual nudity. Rather, the nudity depicted the moment the Nazis took the clothes from the Jewish people in order to sanitize them, but also to dehumanize them. Nor was the nudity gratuitous. There were just a handful of panels with black and white line drawings of male mice with genitalia.

Why We Need to Read Maus

It is no secret that antisemitic acts of violence and destruction are on the rise in the United States and throughout the world. Survivors of the Holocaust are not going to be around much longer to tell their stories. These firsthand accounts are invaluable for understanding history and hopefully keeping it from happening again, for proving the strength of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable conditions and unspeakable acts.

General Eisenhower ensured the liberating armies took photographs of the horrors of the concentration camps as evidence that they actually happened. This was partly to collect evidence for what eventually became the Nuremberg Trials. But also, he had the foresight to see a time when people would deny this even happened. So too, with these firsthand accounts of the Holocaust—they keep history from being wiped away.

The outcry against the banning of Maus has been enormous. I was fortunate enough to procure a copy so that I could read it before they flew from the shelves. A local bookstore partnered with a local synagogue to give people in Tulsa free copies of the books to ensure people have the opportunity to read this important work. Hopefully, there are other such local efforts.

Tell us in the comments: Have you read Maus? What did you learn from it?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post The Book Nook: Maus by Art Spiegelman appeared first on DIY MFA.

However, as much as I truly value and enjoy this continual pursuit of knowledge, sometimes I need a break. We all need downtime while working on long projects, in between manuscripts, or even from just life in general.  

As such, this column will give you a handful of books, movies, and podcasts that are enjoyable enough to qualify as entertainment, yet still expand your base of literary knowledge. The items that will appear here are great for when you need a break from the world, lazy Sundays, or hanging with your (soon-to-be?) culturally inclined friends and family.  

Finally, I would like for you to know that, as a children’s picture book author, I am making it a point to include at least one item that is family-friendly or that can be enjoyed with school-age kids. This month’s pick masquerades as a children’s book but tells the remarkable story of the couple behind Curious George.  

That gem was found during my latest session of literary-cool-hunting, and so were these others: 

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer 

How did anyone pull this off? How did everyone pull this off? are the questions you’ll ask while reading through the escapades covered in this true story. 

Bad-Ass Librarians tells the harrowing story of an unassuming government archivist who, along with a network of citizens, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers of literature, saving over 350,000 Islamic and secular manuscripts from Al-Qaeda. 

This book should make all writers take pause, as it documents the undeniable evidence of just how important the written word is to a society.  

The Booksellers (1 hr 38 mins; Amazon, Apple TV, among other streamers) 

If you love bookstores, then this is the movie for you. 

It is a documentary released in 2020 and narrated by Parker Posey. This indie film gives the viewer an inside look at New York’s antiquarian book market. Watchers are given access to labyrinthine bookstores and book sellers who reside in apartments-turned-bookshops. Of course, the books themselves are objets d’art. 

Swooning is guaranteed.   

The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey by Louise Borden 

Did you know that the manuscript for Curious George escaped, along with the author-illustrator couple, from Paris under Nazi Germany’s advancing threat? 

The husband-wife duo fled France on bicycles, traveled by train through Spain and Portugal, eventually taking a boat to Brazil. This extremely well-illustrated biography is styled as a lengthy picture book and worth checking out for the visuals alone. 

Although this book is listed as appropriate for ages 8-12, it truly makes for an interesting adult read.  

The Madman’s Library: The Greatest Curiosities of Literature by Edward Brooke-Hitching  

The Madman’s Library is a lushly illustrated collection of odd literary ephemera. It’s kind of like the Mutter Museum of books. From the chicken poet of Massachusetts to a book made of American cheese slices, this sometimes macabre compilation is wonderful to pick up and wander through if you have a few moments. 

It’s a personal favorite to consult when I need something interesting to write about and it has yet to let me down. 

WARNING: May cause excessive texting, OMGs and furious communication with other book lovers. 

Muse of Fire: A Shakespearean Road Trip (1 hr 23 mins; iTunes, Amazon, YouTube) 

It is my absolute pleasure to share this documentary with fellow DIY MFA word nerds. Muse of Fire started out as a grassroots project to explore Shakespeare’s works in contemporary times and garnered enough of a reputation to include Tom Hiddleston, Ewan McGregor, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and several other names you will recognize. 

From students required to learn Shakespeare, to prisoners needing something that sparks their humanity, to the formidable list of award-winning actors, they all come together for this film has it all: two friends, one crappy car, and a review of iambic pentameter.     

(If you don’t mind a movie broken up into 4 parts, you can view it for free on YouTube: Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4 Courtesy of the Ewan McGregor Vault) 

Tell us in the comments: How are you going to start your Leisure Learning this month?

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among other books. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat or download a free coloring page at www.catulathebook.com.

The post January 2022 Leisure Learning appeared first on DIY MFA.

I wanted to do this article in January because the five books below are ones worth picking up now, as they should serve you throughout the year. Most of them were written to be read briefly—in ten or fifteen-minute stints—whether you are warming up for a writing session or waiting to pick someone up from school. 

Now, just because these picks are meant to be consumed in small bites doesn’t mean they’re lacking in substance. In fact, the last two are for those who are here for the literary challenge. 

Regardless, they are all great books to kickstart 2022 with plenty of writer’s fuel for the year ahead!

Besides, isn’t it time to reward yourself for that new writing habit?

1. Author’s Accountability Planner 2022 by 4 Horsemen Publications

I looooove planners, and this is by far the best one I’ve come across for writing. While most writing planners are basically just regular planners with literary quotes and spaces for word counts, this one is for the working writer. In fact, it’s all about data.  

Weeks are divided into days where you can chart not only your word count but also time spent editing, marketing, brainstorming, researching and reading. One of the big draws in this planner is the circle habit tracker, which divides each day into previously mentioned categories and, if you don’t want to track the minutes spent doing each activity (or, like me, you’ve forgotten to set your timer!), you can just check off the days where you showed up and feel fulfilled seeing your streaks of progress.

2. Daily Writing Resilience: 365 Meditations & Inspirations for Authors by Bryan Robinson, Ph.D.

There are tons of writer’s devotionals out there, focused on helping you get in touch with your muse every day. Many of them have provided me with just the right words I’ve needed to hear at precisely the right time. However, this one is different. 

How? It was written by a doctor with a Ph.D. in psychotherapy who has also written over 35 books. He knows the fears we face and helps foster the resilience we need. I’ve used it for several years and it’s almost kind of a daily self-care guide for authors. 

What kinds of issues are treated? The opening quote by Walt Kelly says it all, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” 

3. Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo by Grant Faulkner

This book was written by the executive director of National Novel Writing Month, and boy, is it useful in November! These short essays encourage you to go forth into the wilderness that is your writer’s mind. They help you flip the switch from “I (still) have to do my writing” to “I GET to do my writing!”

BONUS: If you’re an Audible member, you can download it for free through the Audible website.

4. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

A Swim in a Pond was written by renowned author and professor George Saunders, the recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, among many other awards. Seven short stories are presented with great warmth here. They are intended to be savored and questioned, with Saunders guiding you through the psychological space where reader and writer meet. 

This book is worth working through over several months. Not only is it 403 pages, but it is also intended for the reader to consider just a portion of a story. These stories and ideas deserve several days of cogitation. Not only will your writer’s mind come alive, your humanity will as well.

5. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr 

Ok, this is the outlier of the group. Up until this point, all of the suggestions have been non-fiction. Normally, I wouldn’t put a novel in such a practical list, but hear me out: everyone who considers stories to be important should read this book.

What is Cloud Cuckoo Land? Cloud Cuckoo Land as a concept is Anthony Doerr’s fictitious land of a golden, glittering, animal-inhabited utopia, where all needs are met and happiness shines as bright as the sun. 

The book Cloud Cuckoo Land revolves around this fable, which is presented as a supposedly found ancient manuscript that then travels bit by bit throughout a variety of different peoples and lands, all used to illustrate how literature can connect us across time and space. It is 1/3 historical novel, 1/3 contemporary literature, 1/3 science fiction. 

If you are predisposed to literary fiction, this is one that can be read again and again. 

Moreover, it is the perfect way to set a literary tone for 2022.   

Bonus: You get to use the Greek alphabet you acquired in 2021.

Tell us in the comments: What books are you reading books to kickstart 2022?

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among other books. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat or download a free coloring page at www.catulathebook.com.

The post #5onFri: ​​Five Books to Kickstart 2022 appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’ve gone through my shelves and selected twelve books that I have had for quite a while that, for various reasons, I want to have read by now, but just haven’t. Some are older releases, some are newer ones. Some I have never picked up and some I have read a chunk of. Throughout the year, I am going to finally finish them and I’ll use this column to report back.

Why now? Well, January seemed like a good time to mix things up with this column, just like it’s a good time to mix up anything.

The Reading Challenge Books:

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
2. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
3. Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky
4. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
5. Howl by Allen Ginsberg
6. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
7. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
8. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
9. The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero
10. Swing Time by Zadie Smith
11. Yoga for a World Out of Balance by Michael Stone
12. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A note about the order: These are listed alphabetically because in my opinion there is nothing more fair than the alphabet. I’ll read them in whatever order strikes my fancy.

Why These Books?

Each book in this reading challenge has its own personal reason for being on the list. I’ll run through a couple right now. Killers of the Flower Moon? They shot the film in the next town over from where I live and I want to read it before the movie comes out. Swing Time? I love Zadie Smith, but sometimes her writing makes me feel dumb, so it’s a good challenge for me. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? I am ashamed that I didn’t read this book back in high school and I need to rectify that. Kitchen Confidential? I love food and cooking and started this one last year and it was pretty badass, so I want to finish.

As I finish these books, I’ll explain the personal reasons for reading them.

Make It Personal

That brings me to my next point about reading.

Reading is such a personal thing. We approach books for our own reasons, with our own thoughts, feelings, and histories. And we set books down the same way—individually. Hopefully the process of reading a particular book leaves us changed in some way, but still the experience of reaching The End is a unique proposition.

I’ll give an example. I read Catch-22 in high school. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. I loved the logic or lack thereof. I know some people get frustrated with that one because it jumps around. Like with many books I love, I shoved it in my dad’s face and he read it. His verdict? Well, he couldn’t get past the profanity. (Cue major eye roll from 17 year old me.)

But that really illustrates my point. People bring their own stuff to each book they pick up, which makes it a unique and personal experience. No two experiences are alike. And I think that’s beautiful.

DIY Your Own Reading Challenge

I’m (gently) challenging you to look at your shelves and find 12 books that have been hanging around for a long time. You bought them at some point. Now is the time to remember why.

If you’re anything like me, there will be an additional challenge with this reading challenge. As soon as I “have” to read a book, I struggle to do it. I avoid it. But I’m hoping for a little social accountability here.

Tell us in the comments below: What books are part of your reading challenge for this year?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post Book Nook: The Reading Challenge appeared first on DIY MFA.