I’m not sure how our agreement came about, but whenever I finished my work, I was allowed to go to the library nook. And let me just say, my academics were stellar that year. I discovered a love for all things Aurthurian, Greek mythology, and Beverly Cleary. Classical, fantastical, and the absurdity of a mouse on a motorcycle. That trifecta still defines my literary tastes and they were definitely my gateway books into science fiction and fantasy.

So when my kids hit that golden age, I was beyond excited to introduce them to SFF with some solid reads.

It did not go as planned.

Do things ever with kids? They thought Ralph was cool, and were sad when his trilogy ended. I was stoked. No, not that it ended, that they liked reading a series. Totally indicative of epic fantasy fans. Bring it on! I had just the wizard for them to meet…

And guys, I didn’t think it was possible, but every last one of them hated Harry Potter.

I know, I know! They’re seriously not normal, but let’s be honest, considering who their mother is, their odds at pulling off normalcy were never very good to begin with. They fight over who gets the last brussel sprout for cripes’ sake. Yup. totally bizarre, especially because we all know that sprout belongs to me.

Anywho, after the aforementioned Potter debacle, I left them to their own devices while I recovered from the shock of their betrayal. That took some doing, but Mr. Nevermore was adamant we couldn’t disown them for the offense. I mean, technically we could, but he wouldn’t sign his portion of the paperwork. In the end, I suppose that was for the best, because you know what? All of them redeemed themselves by settling into genre fiction.

So what do they read and what was their gateway book?

The teen

My eldest loves to test my limits. She began as a Pollyanna / Heidi fan, which, I’m not gonna lie, kind of made my eyes bleed. Thankfully, some voodoo I don’t know what happened during her tween years, and her taste morphed into a gothic horror. Don’t ask me how or why, I’m not complaining, and FYI, that pretty much sums up her personality and our relationship.

I am happy to report she’s also way into fairy tales (the original gruesome ones) and mythology (for the exact same reason.) 

When I asked her what gateway book got her hooked on horror, I was thrilled to learn it was also one of my very favorite authors as a kid, Mary Downing Hahn. I remember being totally freaked out reading Wait Til Helen Comes, and my eldest had the same experience. 

And if your kids like that, then check out Jane Emily by Patricia Clapp. It’s a gothic YA horror that’s like the kids’ version of reading Shirley Jackson.

The tween

My middle raven has inherited my appetite for books and can be caught reading well past his bedtime. He’s all about Star Wars, Marvel, and those weird fact books. I don’t anticipate his tastes doing a 180 like his sister’s and will be strewing some classic Asimov around his haunts. Pretty sure he’d be down with Lucky Star. 

But he didn’t start out reading that stuff. His gateway books were all courtesy of Jane Yolen, one of my all-time favorite authors. Her Commander Toad series is frickin’ brilliant and hilarious to boot. I mean, how can a cross of Star Wars, Star Trek, and amphibians not be? My personal favorite? Commander Toad and the Planet of the Grapes. Yup, it is as epic as it sounds.

Not for nothing, but my kids burnt through her How do Dinosaurs…? series when they were younger, too.

And the little

Right, my youngest? She’ll read anything featuring a cat. This ranges the gambit of fiction to nonfiction, though I did draw the line at getting her that book on felting with cat fur. Yes, apparently that’s a thing, and not to yuck anyone’s yum, but no. Just no.

Her very favorite cat books all feature Jenny Lindsky, heroine feline of the Cat Club series, written by Esther Averill. It’s a super cute series about a shy little cat making friends and doing good deeds. I highly recommend it. There’s also the Cat Wings series by Ursula K. Le Guin… which is by Ursula K. Le Guin. Nope, that wasn’t a typo. That’s all the reason you need to read it.

Kids’ books have changed.

So, I’d be remiss if I didn’t address the fact that the majority of those gateway books aren’t recent releases. I said it above, and I’ll say it again. Kids’ books have changed, and if you have kids, you know how true it is. Especially if you’re reading them first.

That’s not to say good kids’ books aren’t being published now, but to me, the plots seem simpler, pacing faster, and—oh, my head—the sass. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good comeback, but not out of an eight-year-old’s mouth. Especially not my eight-year-old’s mouth.

Shocking, I know. 

And yeah, I’ll own the fact that I’m a book snob. The books I’ve recommended above are ones I feel promote good family values. As far as some of the older books having mindsets or themes not currently embraced, (as many classics do), I find that’s a great opportunity to discuss tough subjects with my kids.

Don’t have time to read everything cover to cover? There are plenty of places to help you decide what is appropriate for your kids, like Common Sense Media, and Reshelving Alexandria. The latter of which I’ve used for years to build my kids’ homeschool library. 

And don’t forget the best resource out there, your public library. Most have librarians dedicated to the children’s sections and would be thrilled to hook you up with some awesome reads!

AK Nevermore writes science fiction and urban fantasy with spice. She enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes about dark worlds, perversely irreverent and profound, and always entertaining.

You can find her on her website or follow her on her sadly neglected Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds.

The post Genre Gateway Books for Kids appeared first on DIY MFA.

If you would like to see similar content (3 short things, that are often educational but not limited to literature), sign up for my biweekly newsletter at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com. No paywalls, no spam. Just 3 brilliant things that are actually worth your time.

Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché 

Be Natural is a documentary about the world’s first female cinematographer, Alice Guy-Blaché, a name whose role expanded to include studio owner and director, screenwriter, actress, producer, and occasional detective. (After all, if you want to catch the culprit stealing your scripts and floating them to other studios, it’s just one of those things you’ve got to do yourself.)  

As a 22-year-old secretary in France, Alice was invited along with her boss, Louis Gaumont, to preview the first equipment used in motion picture making. She fell in love with the technology, realized its potential for storytelling (as opposed to strict documentation) and went on to make over 1,000 films. She took it upon herself to learn the science behind these new cameras, and when she combined her efforts with her style of storytelling, it resulted in a host of new techniques, very much like Orson Welles’ Citizen Cane. 

Like many female artists, her work has been overlooked – to an extent that should make Hollywood historians turn rogue. Even worse, in the course of this documentary, we find out along with an elderly Alice herself, that her work has often been credited to the men she’d hired as assistants.

Be Natural follows documentarian Pamela B. Green’s first-hand efforts at tracing Alice’s relatives and others to see who might have scraps of this obscure but powerful woman’s work. Jodie Foster narrates this beautifully rendered, slapstick-hilarious at times, ultimately “wow!”-inducing film that should not be missed by anyone who has ever had a story in their head.  

The Lost King

The Lost King is an exceptional film that will rally the hearts of leisure learners everywhere. It is based on the real life story of Phillipa Langley, now known as “The Kingfinder,” not only to her children but also scholars the world over. 

Disappointed in her career and struggling with a chronic health condition, Phillipa dutifully attends a school production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. During the play, she relates to the character of the deformed king in such a meaningful way that she becomes consumed with learning more about him. 

She reads everything that she possibly can about the king, attends meet-ups at pubs and professional conferences, until the real Richard appears to her, prompting her to right a historical inaccuracy.

To do this, she must find his body. It is this decade-long, topsy-turvy, rollercoaster of a journey that constitutes most of the film. Tackling problem after unforeseen problem, Philipa’s efforts result in changing the formal historical narrative as well as acknowledgment by the British monarchy itself.   

For detail oriented underdogs, The Lost King is a riveting movie that succeeds in shedding a positive light on the phrase “doing your own research” while fully delivering on all the good feels. Script by Steve Coogan.

For Jane Austen Fans

I know that there are a number of Jane Austen fans here at DIY MFA, and so I thought it only appropriate to include some of the best Jane links I’ve found. 

First off, take a virtual tour of Jane Austen’s House (aka The Jane Austen Museum). Not only can you see where both Emma and Pride and Prejudice were penned, but narrations from Jane’s own letters provide a uniquely intimate dimension to this experience. The website offers a rich collection of “all things Jane”, including an essay overview and examples of her teenage writing.  

Next, spend a lunch break exploring these divine English manor houses and other prominent locations associated with Austen’s work.  While gorgeous and informative, it might take some playing around to see what buttons move you around. Using Firefox for Windows, I had to hold the left mouse key while simultaneously using left and right arrows to take a 360° whirl around the estates.  

Finally, if you need a good laugh or quick minute of gratitude for modern day plumbing, check out these hygiene procedures that Jane, as well as her characters, would have practiced. 

Links of Links

The following entries lead to lengthy lists of links. Click on anything below and open an intellectual buffet of free books, potential projects, and a treasure trove of culture that should serve your intellectual curiosity for years to come.

• Have a few mins and want to read a short story by a contemporary author? Go to LitHub’s no-need-to-register short story collection.

• In more of a mood to settle in with a book? Check out UpJourney’s roundup of all the places you can read or legally download free books.
  _{^{*They even have pages with high-end printable coloring books for the culturally minded.}}

• DIY for DIYers. This extensive list of open source software provides you with endless opportunities to add to your creative arsenal. If you want to make an interactive feature for your book, author website or simply see what is possible with current technology, this is the place to go.     

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post Leisure Learning: Filled with Love Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

This month’s column focuses on many authors that we were introduced to in school (with facts that are too fun to learn in school) and those elements at the heart of creating something from mere words – desks, handwriting, snarky Jane Austen inspired video games. 

Come and embrace the magnificent season where we put on our hardcore word nerd pants and get back to the business of writing like the legends in the links below.   

Plot Maps, As Revealed By Authors

Novelists create plot maps for the same reason that architects use blueprints. It’s how authors ensure that everything lines up at the right time, in the right literary place – a way to make sure all of those specific, well-researched details are actually supporting the overall plot. Here, in this article from the Daily Mail, we get a chance to dip into the notebooks of some of the most respected authors who ever put words on paper.

See how Jennifer Egan plotted a story released Tweet by Tweet, who seamlessly integrates swearing at their editor along with scene directions and who could’ve become a serial killer, had he not written Catch 22.

Cursive

Cursive writing is quickly becoming the Latin of our times. In fact, it’s an endangered species within today’s classroom, which saddens me.  If you remember hours spent rendering elegant loopy letters, attaching them together curve by curve, then you would be interested in this short article on the history of cursive writing. Find out where this type of penmanship started and how it has shape-shifted over the centuries. 

While you’re at it, why not be a steward of the tradition and let your kids in on this secret language of adults? (With the added bonus of potentially rehabbing your penmanship.) Once you’ve digested cursive’s twisted history, head on over to The Postman’s Knock where calligrapher Lindsey Bugbee offers a free, in-depth course aimed specifically at teaching elementary school children how to recreate this delicate art. Spooned out in small increments, this 4 hour course is one of the best on the web for cursive and at exactly $0, totally worth the price.  

Besides, won’t it be nice being able to read your own notes once again?

Writing Desks of Famous Authors

Pianoes, bookcases and writing desks are the furnishings that have a tendency to make me swoon. Often when I say this, people think it’s because of the gorgeous woodwork often found adorning these item, and sometimes that is the case. However, with the writing desk in particular, there is a unique dimension to its beauty, one that Neil Gaiman captured precisely when he said, “The writer’s desk is where dreams collide with reality, and ink becomes the thread weaving them together.”  

This magic happens on everything from museum quality Queen Anne era desks to simple pieces of leftover plywood. Most of us, including literary legends, have writing spaces that lie somewhere in between these extremes. 

Here, in The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, you can glimpse the writing desks where Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and more wrote (and re-wrote) their masterpieces. If you enjoy that perusal, consider following it up with a look into Jill Krementz’s photo collection, The Writer’s Desk, which focuses on the writing spaces of more contemporary authors. What era does your writer-self prefer?

Regardless of what a dedicated writing space looks like, whether the ambience inspires one’s thoughts to take flight or you’re scribbling on your knee, it is at the writer’s desk where words are spun into gold. 

First Editions

While investigating writing desks, I stumbled into the realm of literary first editions. 

How much would you be willing to pay for a first edition of your favorite book? How much do you think a hand written letter by the author ups the ante? 

In these clips from the Antiques Roadshow book appraisers evaluate both The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit.  

*WARNING: The Hobbit is not appraised at the eleventeen bajillion dollars I was thinking it would be. However, I still consider eleventeen bajillion USD a fair price, given The Hobbit’s cultural significance.

This weekend, leisurely learn how to identify the marks of first editions, including the differences between US and UK versions, so that you can keep them in mind anytime you’re at a garage sale, thrifting or when that crazy family member begins casting out “useless junk” (yes, some people actually think of books like that).

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Leave a comment that can be appreciated by fellow word nerds below.  

Austen Translation

It’s always interesting to see how universal themes can be transformed through the latest tech. Specifically, I’m speaking of when a certain author’s novels cross-pollinate with PCs and Macs.

Austen Translation is a short, narrative based video game , the social mechanics of Jane Austen’s drawing room are brought to life as you play a personally tailored heroine who is vying to land a lucky bachelor.

The experience is essentially that of playing “dinner party with chaperoned outings.” Other women eying potential suitors make sometimes catty, sometimes witty, sometimes charming moves to which you respond by picking an option that will win you points best in line with the bachelor of your choice (though spinsterhood still ensues, but unlike in Jane’s time, this game considers it a win).

Austen Translation is smart, satirical and its overall playtime is pretty quick (~15 mins). With whimsical illustrations inspired by the colors of the English countryside can be played along with any teenager or fellow word nerd. Personally, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would and I encourage you to spend the $7 on Steam, if only to see how classic literature is being translated into current technology. The interface is simple, the rules can be easily grasped through the tutorial and there is a wit that Jane herself would appreciate. 

But how does this format enhance the experiences created by novels written so long ago? For me, I can say that playing Austen Translation did add to my consideration of drawing room dynamics and made me acutely aware of how one’s choices can indirectly affect other players. Moreover, it made me feel the sense of competition Victorian women must have had when trying to land a husband more for practicality than love. I felt that it brought to life the competition for suitors in a way that I haven’t experienced through either book or movie. In case you can’t tell, I can’t say enough about this low-key, surprisingly relaxing game (i.e., even with the competition, the ambience is soothing and damask is abundant). I guarantee you it is the only video game where you can opt to accessorize with a cameo or country mouse, wield a fish knife as a weapon and hear phrases of ribaldry, such as men  “…hoping to catch a glimpse of an unguarded ankle.”    

P.S. If you’re a fan of casual games, keep your ears out for developer Worthing & Moncrieff, as they specialize in video games for erudite, quirky adults.

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post Leisure Learning, August 2023: Keeping It Old School appeared first on DIY MFA.

In the past, some leveled the criticism that puzzle mysteries lacked in character development. I read some of the classics thus accused, such as Agatha Christie’s novels, and I disagree. The puzzle takes precedence, but the characters are very real and alive. Well, all except the victim(s).

In recent years, genres mixed, and crime fiction became more emotional, descriptive, heartbreaking at times, and occasionally heartwarming. The books I selected today all involve a main character on two quests. One they know about – the actual puzzles leading to solving a mystery. The other an emotional quest, discovered and solved alongside the other. (When not actually mixed in with it.) Every one of these books thrilled my brain and my heart and I hope they will yours as well. 

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

By Stuart Turton

The Hardcastles throw a party at Blackheath to celebrate the return of their daughter Evelyn from Paris. But Blackheath is crumbling, because they abandoned it years ago, ever since their young son Thomas Hardcastle was murdered by the gamekeeper. 

The grieving parents banished Evelyn to Paris, because they couldn’t forgive her for not watching Thomas that morning as she was asked. This party, held on the anniversary of the crime, at the scene of the crime, will culminate in Evelyn’s death at 11 pm. Every morning, that day will start again, with our narrator in the body of a different party guest, until he solves Evelyn’s murder. 

A Goodreads reviewer described this book as “bonkers,” meaning it as a compliment. I agree. It’s confusing, but intentionally. It’s beautifully, creepily written, which keeps you turning pages to clear up that confusion. The twist at the end took me by surprise, which rarely happens. 

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

By Matthew Sullivan

Lydia works as a bookseller at the Bright Ideas bookstore in Denver. Her favorite Bookfrog (nickname for guys who spend all their time in the bookstore, often homeless) Joey hangs himself on the third floor at midnight. Lydia finds a picture of herself at her tenth birthday party in his pocket. She doesn’t remember this picture and can’t understand how Joey got it. He leaves her all his possessions and when she goes through the books she discovers cutouts in some of them. What do they mean? 

Meanwhile, her picture appears in the paper with the article about Joey’s death. Lydia has been hiding from her past, but now it comes to find her. Is there a connection to Joey’s sad story?

I can’t believe it took me so long to read this book. It includes horror aspects that you don’t often find in puzzle mysteries, but they tie the story together and explain Lydia’s trauma. The author evokes a marvelous sense of place with his descriptions of Lydia’s part of Denver (a city that hasn’t figured in many books I’ve read) and the mountain towns nearby. Somehow, the magic of books, the use of them to convey a message in code, and the horror and trauma aspects combine beautifully with great characters whose relationships you root for. This is a complex read, both puzzle and emotion-wise, but I enjoyed every page.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts

By Kate Racculia 

Tuesday Mooney grew up in Salem feeling different. Her best friend Abby disappeared at 16 and Tuesday started talking to her ghost. This raised concerns and Tuesday stopped listening to the voice. She’s still not sure if it really was Abby or her grief talking. 

Now she lives alone happily in Boston, wears all black, works as a charitable researcher for a hospital (a job she enjoys), has a sort-of friend Dex, and tutors her teenage next-door neighbor Dory on what they call Tuesday Thursdays. She feels safe. But Vincent Pryce, the eccentric billionaire, drops dead at a charity event for Tuesday’s work. Then, a notice appears in the paper of a game. The prize? Pryce’s massive collection of priceless oddities. 

This book is amazing. I can’t express how much I enjoyed it. It was everything I like and so very satisfying. The story includes some darkness, a few chilling moments, and some violence and peril, all of which are a bit unusual for the puzzle mystery genre. There are also heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. One is even transcendent. And it’s funny. You will love the characters. It is a testament to the skill of the author that she got away with naming a character Vincent Pryce. 

The Twyford Code

By Janice Hallett

This very twisty book keeps circling back on itself and adding details. Then changing everything again. Yet, it does not lose the reader. 

Steven Smith finds a mysterious book by the author Edith Twyford on the bus to school one day. He shows it to Miss Iles, his remedial reading teacher. The text contains strange notes and Miss Iles becomes convinced they lead to a treasure rumored to have been hidden by Twyford and her husband. On a class trip to Twyford’s home, Miss Iles disappears. Decades later, after a stint in prison, Steven is trying to start over and connect with his adult son, a professor of whom Steve is immensely proud. 

Steve’s son gives him his old iPhone, which Steve treasures. As a result, the whole story is told in voice memos, complete with incorrect transcription. (I thought he was talking about missiles at first, rather than Miss Iles.)

Steve feels haunted by the day his teacher disappeared, so he decides that he needs the truth to move forward to a better life. But none of his old friends want to talk about that day. However, after finding a partner in the search, bits and pieces come to light, through old photographs, stained glass windows, and abandoned basements. Steve inches closer and closer to the truth, but is he hiding something, too?

This book confused me at times and sometimes frustrated me a little. But I loved it. I loved the clues and the ways they were hidden and connected. I loved the twist. This book is intriguing and absorbing and you really root for Steve. 

Chester Keene Cracks the Code

By Kekla Magoon

Chester is a middle-schooler who lives with his mom. He has never met his dad, who is a spy. As he encounters difficulties in middle school, he wishes more and more to talk to his dad about things and figures out how to email him. 

Chester follows a careful routine everyday, which usually includes school and then hanging out at the bowling alley after school, so his mom’s friend Amanda can watch him. Chester is clearly neurodivergent and both Amanda and his mom understand and accommodate this.

Chester’s routine begins to fall apart when he finds a coded note tied to the front door on his way to school. He is convinced his dad is in trouble and asking for help. Then a girl named Skye plops down at his lunch table talking about “their” clues. Chester is taken aback, but decides his dad sent her. He and Skye combine their clues into a complete message and follow them to other clues hidden around Chester’s world. 

It took the puzzle part of this story a little while to get going, but hanging out with Chester provides a fun and interesting time. He’s a good kid with a big heart and very smart. His transition to middle school has been rough, a situation with which many can sympathize. When he bonds with Skye, your heart leaps. 

The clues are fun, but when Chester endures some disappointments and changes your heart aches for him. Magoon does a wonderful job of bringing Chester’s emotions to life as a middle-schooler and someone who struggles with being different. The strong love between him and his mother is beautifully portrayed, too, as well as his burgeoning friendship with Skye. It seems like she might be his first friend and a great one she is. 

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels

By Beth Lincoln and Claire Powell (illustrator)

This novel is delightful (adj. causing delight, charming). Shenanigan Swift is a young girl living in the family’s crumbling mansion with her Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude (the family Matriarch), Uncle Maelström, older sisters Felicity and Phenomena, and Cook. Everyone in the family receives their name from the Family Dictionary at birth. Their names seem to match their personalities for the most part. 

It is time for the Swift family reunion, which means it is also time to search for Grand-Uncle Vile’s Hoard, which has been hidden somewhere in the House for decades. This is Shenanigan’s first Reunion, but she has been prepping for this treasure hunt for a long time. She knows this House better than anyone and is sure she will find and keep the Hoard. However, a more pressing search takes priority when Aunt Schadenfreude is found at the bottom of the stairs. It does not look like an accident. Shenanigan, her sisters, and new friend cousin Erf, must put aside thoughts of treasure and find the culprit. As more bodies appear the tension causes many to question the role of their names, family traditions, and the meaning of family itself. 

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Pure fun from beginning to end. Shenanigan is a feisty, funny, smart character and the bonds between her, her sisters, their uncle and aunt, and Erf are lovely, but still realistic. I felt echoes of Flavia de Luce and her sisters from Alan Bradley’s Flavia series, particularly with Phenomena’s interest in science and Shenanigan’s troubles as the youngest sister. I am so glad a second in the series will be published in early 2024. 

Do you like puzzles and puzzle mysteries?

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: Puzzle Mysteries appeared first on DIY MFA.

Get ready for some mental stimulation, because here are your July 2023 Leisure Learning links:

Brain Games

(Puzzle book, good for road trips)

Neil Somerville’s Literary Pocket Puzzle Book: 120 Classic Conundrums for Book Lovers is a fun way of showing that you still remember a handful of facts from lit class, possess a vocabulary that includes “palimpsest,” and good way to pass the time on a road trip, especially if your backseat harbors emo teenagers. 

There are word searches, famous quotes that you may or may not be able to fill in, literary sudoku, as well as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings themed crossword puzzles. Go ahead, geek out—as a family.  

The puzzles are just challenging enough to make you think, but not embarrass one’s self (lol), and offer a great starting point for everyone to talk about what they’ve read over this summer. 

Fictional Places To Make You Smile

The American Writers Museum (AWM) is a relatively new institution. It opened its doors to the public in May of 2017 in Chicago, IL and started online exhibitions even before we’d ever heard the words “Covid-19.”

As with most institutions aimed at preserving traditional culture, their goal is to maintain the legacies of American authors for as long as possible, while adding new ones into the mix as well. 

However, in contrast to most institutions along these lines, the AWM has a sense of humor. I stumbled on their feature AWM Destinations, thinking it would be chock full of literary landmarks across America, but instead found myself laughing out loud over its content.

AWM Destinations is a collection of travel summaries inviting the reader to tour imagined settings, as if a trip to The Yellow Brick Road, complete with local wine tasting, could be booked through AirBnB.  

Visit The House of Usher, Where The Wild Things (Really!) Are, That Town In A Hallmark Movie, and my favorite, Amity Island, attempting to make things right (by which I mean there is some acknowledgement of a certain predatorial marine species) this time ‘round.

Come tour the places you already know, but with a wink and a smile because they represent realms where readers are always in on the jokes. 

Give Yourself the Coolest Experience

If you happen to be traveling to London, Paris, New York, Copenhagen, or any other major metropolis, do yourself a favor and head on over to Herb Lester first, so that you can go to the magnificent cities your friends have also probably been to, with the difference being you having a way cooler time.

Herb Lester is a small press that creates retro maps revealing quirky cultural spots. For under $25, you can take yourself on an excursion showing sites such as the flat where George Orwell and H.G. Wells fell out over curry and plum cake. 

Feel like assuming the identity of a British spy? Then check out this intensely researched guide to John La Carré’s London or learn about spots that appear unremarkable, only to come to life once you know that they were used for dead letter drops or to house double agents. 

Maybe you’re more into Agatha Christie’s England, Philip Marlowe’s L.A., or the esoteric side of Paris. 

Regardless of your tastes, the experiences brought to you in these artistic guides guarantee that friends and colleagues are actually going to want to hear more about the trip you’ll be talking about for years to come.

Ken Burns’s Walden 

(23 mins, free on YouTube)

Although they are American icons, few people realize that Henry David Thoreau worked as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s handyman and landscaper. It was through this relationship that Thoreau had the opportunity to abscond from society and meet his true self while living “off the grid” in the cabin he built for himself, by himself, for a little over $28. 

Ken Burns presents a majestic glimpse of Walden Pond, in a way that gives justice to Thoreau’s profound experiment, for it is in Walden that he declares, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” 

Not only did Thoreau find divinity in nature, his writings reveal that an entirely different set of emotions could be fostered through spending time alone in nature. 

Taken together, this documentary along with Thoreau’s writings will enhance that grand experience spent out in the woods, in the sun or under the stars. 

Virtual Literary Tours

Bear with me on this one, folks. Google Arts & Culture has put together two literary tours that are simply magic, featuring locations that will give most writers goosebumps at some point. However, you must go into them knowing that the text you are reading does not actually belong to the image it is next to. In most cases, the blurb is referring to the next slide. 

Normally, I would never feature something so haphazardly set, but some of the content took my breath away and it is with that attitude I now pass them along to you. (And, of course, I have contacted Google about this issue.)

If you are a Charlotte, Anne, or Emily Brontë fan, you will definitely want to check out Hawthorne parsonage and see the real life inspiration for Wuthering Heights in this Literary Tour of the Brontë Sisters. 

However, if the moors don’t call you, I promise you that something on the Famous Authors and Where They Wrote Virtual Tour will. See where Arthur Conan Doyle entertained Bram Stoker, the place where The Narnia Chronicles were penned, and the drafty Orchard House where Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth stayed up many late, fictitious nights producing their own works. 

Tell us in the comments: Which of these July 2023 Leisure Learning picks are you most excited to try?

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post July 2023 Leisure Learning: Word Nerd Tourism! appeared first on DIY MFA.

Like ghost stories in October, summer reading carries with it the indulgence of being simply delightful. It’s a time to break free of books related only to WIPs (at least, temporarily—and I do know that you actually love those books related to your work in progress). It’s just that sometimes knowing we have to do something zaps the wanting to do it from our creative selves.  

Over the next few months, I encourage you to reconnect with your Inner Reader. Grab things based on the criteria of “Hey, that looks interesting…” or “Ohhhh, I’ve heard that is SO GOOD!!” (ahem, Mexican Gothic).  Pick a day or evening or afternoon when you shirk the Should Dos in favor of disappearing into a book the way you did when you were a kid. The world will be ok without you for a couple of hours and you will be investing in one of the most important aspects of being a writer: strengthening your love of reading.    

In the spirit of fun and literary adventure, here are your June 2023 Leisure Learning links:

The Atlas of Improbable Places

Book by Travis Elborough (author) and Alan Horsfield (cartographer)

The Atlas of Improbable Places is a compendium of wayyyy off-the-beaten-path locales and is worth picking up, even if you have no travel plans whatsoever. In fact, especially if you have no travel plans whatsoever. This undertaking by British author Travis Elborough and cartographer Alan Horsfield will take you on short journeys that feel like you’re being led around by younger, hipper versions of Stephen Fry and Bill Bryson. 

The Atlas could easily be compared to other “weird places” guides. However, there is a marked difference in that each of the destinations have come about through a number of implausible events. Each of the chosen locales have stories worth telling. 

Just how did the Netherlands manage to reclaim land from the sea? What South American church was left untouched when the surrounding city was wiped out by lava? Why are there fire mummies?

Find out the answers to these and more questions one might never think to ask in this atlas that promotes the affordable armchair trip.  

The Best American Nonrequired Reading

Since 1915, The Best American series has become a staple on bookshelves of both readers and writers alike. 

How the series works is that a head editor selects what he or she thinks represents the “best of” American short works published the previous year, taken from smaller literary presses. Then, a famous-name author such as Ann Patchett, Stephen King, or Junot Diaz guest edits, choosing the crème de la crème to be anthologized for a specific year, which also happens to be reflective of the guest author’s personal tastes.

Over the years, The Best American series has expanded into other categories including essays, mystery and suspense, travel, sports, food—even infographics and recipe writing. 

However, one of the most overlooked compilations that the series ever produced is The Best American Nonrequired Reading, which began in 2002 as the brainchild of Dave Eggers. Like Eggers himself, the pieces featured are witty and irreverent. 

We all know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when they’re done by Banksy or Maurice Sendak for this series, make an exception. Inside you will find pieces by Conan O’Brien, Jennifer Egan, and Viet Than Nguyen, among many others whose names will surely come to thrill us on a larger scale.

Any edition that you pick up will make you feel like you’re spending the night getting a drink with that good friend from college.  

Humor

When was the last time you headed to the humor section of your local library or bookstore? If you’re like most adults, the answer usually hangs somewhere in between years and decades. Summer reading is the perfect excuse opportunity to nurture the humor we all have within us. 

Go on and grab that cartoonish-looking book filled with silly diagrams. Or maybe the one with the editorial bunny on it. The important part of this is to emotionally reconnect with the written word. Humor has a way of doing it like no other genre. These sit-down comedians of the world offer a great chance to bowl you over with laughter or tease out those gentle, inner smiles.    

Specifically, since we are all word nerds, I urge you to at least peruse both Revenge of the Librarians as well as Dreyer’s English. Revenge of the Librarians is a laugh out loud (or quietly to yourself, depending on location) anthology of book related cartoons, while Dreyer’s English is a witty up-to-date guide to grammar, written by chief editor at Random House, Benjamin Dreyer.    

You can’t go wrong with either. 

Postcards

Postcards make the perfect blank space to practice writing flash fiction. Get inspired by Paul  Beckman’s Postcard Stories that have appeared in a number of literary magazines or redefine the entire concept of postcard by putting your spin on what can be said in the fewest of words. 

If you want to take it to a whole new level, perhaps you might be inspired by artist Carol Lee’s Postcard Project, where she has created thousands of postcards in her minimal, supple style and invites visitors to her exhibitions to take one and send it on a journey. 

These postcards have lives of their own, sometimes coming back to her and sometimes rewarding her with new pen pals.  

Once Upon a Time

G.K. Chesteron once said, “Fairy tales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

However, sometimes once we grow up, we need a reminder of how to actually go about that in the modern world. In My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, founding editor of the Fairy Tale Review Kate Bernheimer brings the genre to its maturity in her compilation of 40 fairy tales rewritten for adults by some of the world’s most acclaimed authors.

Enjoy the different ways John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates recreate Charles Perrault’s Bluebird. Read Kim Addonizio’s retelling of seven dwarfs living in an overpriced loft, filled with futons. Moreover, it must be mentioned that Aimee Bender’s magnificent story, The Color Master, fits like a golden glove within this all grown up anthology. 

Commentary by the different authors on the tales they haven chosen provide additional insight into the artistic process as well as provide a bit of background for these enduring stories. 

Get ready to slay office dragons and swoon over these splendid, legendary takes on favorites and familiars.  

Tell us in the comments: Which of these June 2023 Leisure Learning picks are you most excited to try?

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post June 2023 Leisure Learning: Summer Reading, All Grown Up appeared first on DIY MFA.

Finally, if you grew up writing when paper was all the rage (or the only thing available) and struggle with the technological nature of contemporary life, have a laugh at what it must’ve been like when we switched from scrolls to books via The Helpeth Desk. 

May 2023 Leisure Learning Picks

Disney Rocks the Rococo

A while back, the Metropolitan Museum of Art held an exhibit showcasing Walt Disney’s inspiration from the French Rococo period. This overview of the exhibit demonstrates how Disney translated not just the style but the ideas found flowing within the French decorative arts into some of the works that are now part of our cinematic canon (i.e., Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella).

This is worth showing younger children to help them understand how real life objects can inspire different forms of art and introduces just about everyone to the overlooked woman behind Cinderella’s concept art. While the exhibit video constitutes my family pick for the month, these elegant, erudite 26 minutes are best to take in with the adolescent artist in your life or simply to enjoy on your own with a nice cup of tea. 

**Close ups of pieces mentioned in the video are available here. 

Hernando Colón: Son of Columbus & Creator of Bookshelves

Hernando Colón (aka Ferdinand Columbus) is best known for being Christopher Columbus’s second illegitimate son as well as a dutiful biographer.  However, he is rarely credited with what he considered his life’s work: creating the first European library.

Although he was illegitimate, Hernando was acknowledged and given everything a son could be given. Notably, he grew up in a number of different homes, always having access to aristocratic and even royal tutors. Early on, it was clear that, while his father was an explorer of the world, Hernando was an explorer of the mind. 

As such, Hernando passionately attempted to incorporate all that he had learned with all that was being discovered. Europe’s first library held three times as many books as the largest private book collection at the time. Still, one of his overarching contributions often gets lost in his own narrative, and that is his innovative implementation of how to access this knowledge. 

Hernando sought to put all of the world in order. After assembling numerous volumes of books, pamphlets, and anything else that could essentially be read, he paid an army of readers to write synopses and then log the various holdings.

In The Catalog of Shipwrecked Books, biographer Edward Wilson-Lee explains that prior to Hernando, bookshelves weren’t a thing. People walked into Hernando’s library and were astounded by not only the books but bookshelves! Prior to this, retrieving a tome from a tall stack was like playing an involuntary game of Jenga. His father might’ve found the New World, but Hernando made a new world. We owe the vertical placing of books to this guy. 

If you’d like to see the floor plans and other visuals, this lecture by Wilson-Lee offers the best images available. 

Normally, this would be the end of the write-up for Hernando Colón, godfather of the library (we can’t overlook the original in Alexandria). Yet, shortly after The Catalog of Shipwrecked Books was published, Hernando came into prominence again. In the spring of 2019, the codex containing his library holdings (El Libro de los Epítomes) resurfaced when accidentally purchased along with a collection of antiquarian Icelandic manuscripts. See a pic of the nearly foot-high volume and get up to speed with this NPR segment.

Letters Live 

Letters Live is a UK based organization that revives the art of written correspondence. Very much in the tradition of Mortified or The Moth, Letters Live has actors read letters that people have actually written or received. Their twist on it provides us with extremely well-dramatized, often humorous performances of something that has been largely lost in the age of texts and email. 

Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Coleman, and Ian McKellan are just some of the actors who infuse written letters with new lives. The curated collection of readings runs the gamut from personal correspondence to legendary letters written to departments, companies, and institutions.

Here, Keegan Michael Key reads a response from The Smithsonian to the man who kept sending them “artifacts” from his backyard. Taika Waititi gives dramatic justice to an Auckland man replying to an inquiry from the Wellington Police Department. Re-live what a WWI captain wrote to his wife just as opposing forces called a truce on Christmas Eve.      

If you are having a blah day, this is the perfect way to awaken your soul. Most YouTube clips are under five minutes and guaranteed to be emotionally gripping. Should you care to make an entire night of letters read live, entire performances of the show are available for free.

Medieval Words Worth Reviving

Remember when you were a kid and simply saying “shenanigans” or “bamboozle” occupied a terrific few seconds of time? Just between you and me, words can be fun. I still regard saying silly things such as flibbertigibbet as a simple but great joy in life.  

BBC newscaster Rob Watts feels the same. He is fascinated by words, and in this clip has done fellow linguaphiles the service of selecting top words from medieval English worth slipping into a conversation, manuscript or epic-ly controversial game of Scrabble. 

Find out when “mango” didn’t refer to a fruit, consider adding “russin” into your routine, or wryly name a parrot “Papa Jay” after listening to this “Best of” 13th century Anglo-English ever recorded.

Viewers should note that Watts’s list was compiled from an original contribution made by die hard word nerd, Herbert Coleridge who, at age 17, cataloged all of the known words from medieval England (specifically, 1250-1300 AD). 

BTW, if you were wondering, this does happen to be the grandson of the famed poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Love of English run in the family much? 

William Blake, Mixed Media Artist

William Blake is the Romantic poet best known for The Tyger, his idiosyncratic revival of the illuminated manuscript form, and that one time he and his wife got caught reading Paradise Lost in the nude.

Well, maybe not so much that last one. 

During his lifetime, Blake worked as an engraver while also practicing poetry and painting. His mind dwelled in the realm of the fantastic, favoring Heaven and Hell. Even today, his personal style is considered captivating and it is worth mentioning that Silence of the Lambs author Thomas Harris drew upon Blake’s Great Red Dragon paintings for his own book, Red Dragon. 

These days, Blake might be considered a mixed media artist. This video contextualizes what that meant in the 18th century and how Blake achieved his still stunning effects.

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post May 2023 Leisure Learning: Way, Way Back in the Day appeared first on DIY MFA.

I enjoyed The ABC Murders and just kept going with the Poirot series. I’ve wanted to read Christie’s books for years. My grandmother loved them and so many mystery writers say they learned all about plotting from her. Christie was a plotter par excellence. Her stories are twisty and unrealistic, but they work. Every single loose end tucks in. Plus, how have I been writing this column for three years without devoting one to Dame Agatha?

It took me a while to figure out what to write about Poirot. He is a big subject. He debuted in Christie’s first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920. The fastidious Belgian (not French as he must often remind those who assume) with the magnificent mustaches, egg-shaped head, green eyes that glow when he begins to figure things out, and passion for order and symmetry endeared himself to readers, despite his enormous ego, as they reveled in Christie’s complex puzzle mysteries. 

Poirot and his “little gray cells” (his preferred metaphor for brains) proved so popular that 33 of Christie’s 66 detective novels comprise part of the Poirot series. Fifty-nine short stories and a play by Christie and four new novels by author Sophie Hannah feature him as well. 

Christie herself both loved and hated him, asking herself why in the world she gave him an egg-shaped head. 

Prior to the publication of Poirot’s last Christie case, Curtain, the New York Times ran a front page obituary, the first time that was done for a fictional character. He’s also been portrayed on stage, radio, and screen by such actors as Albert Finney, David Suchet (considered by many to be the definitive Poirot), John Malkovich, and Kenneth Branagh, who wins the award for most outlandish Poirot mustaches.

You see my dilemma. Huge subject within another huge subject (Christie) who have both already been well-covered. I could write about my favorite Poirots. I considered writing about the twistiest plots, but that would necessitate spoilers galore. 

So, welcome to the Poirot Awards. I chose four unique Poirot novels and highlighted the characteristics that make them so unique. Don your finery and walk the very straight and symmetrical red carpet. But beware. Where Poirot goes, murder follows. 

Note: I want to acknowledge that Christie’s books contain racist, sexist, classist, and anti-Semitic attitudes and comments. Some are definitely worse than others. (I’m looking at you, Dumb Witness.) I in no way excuse or condone any of that and hope you will read her books with care if you choose to do so.

Twistiest Plot: The Murder on the Links

Poirot receives a letter from a Mr. Renauld in France. He says he is in danger and implores Poirot to come and help him. Unfortunately, by the time Poirot and his friend Captain Hastings arrive Mr. Renauld is already dead. Intruders broke in and bound and gagged his wife before walking him out and shooting him before an open grave. (Just over the Renauld property line on a golf course, hence the title.)

Why It Wins This Category 

You keep thinking you know the culprit. All signs point there. Poirot even talks as if they are the culprit. But Christie pulls the rug out from under the reader over and over. Poirot demonstrates why it is NOT so and the story twists in another direction. I kept going back and making sure I understood what happened.

Most Experimental: The ABC Murders 

Poirot begins receiving letters from someone called ABC. Each tells of a murder that they will commit unless Poirot stops them. The first one is Alice Archer in Andover and so on through the alphabet with the first letters of the town and of the victim’s names matching. 

Why It Wins This Category 

This conceit could have been ridiculous with anyone but Christie. Yes, serial murderers like to play games with police sometimes, but this seems a terrifically hard one to pull off, especially in these small English towns. Plus, she experiments with the idea of Poirot losing the challenge. The murderer manages to stay one step ahead of Poirot…for a while. 

Most Original Method of Murder: Death in the Clouds 

On a flight from France to England (on a dirigible), an old French woman is found dead. She has a mark on the side of her neck and a wasp was seen flying around earlier. But then a dart decorated like a wasp is found on the floor, as well as a blowpipe stuffed down behind the seat of fellow passenger Hercule Poirot. 

No one saw anything. How did someone blow a poison dart across the full cabin and no one see anything?

Why It Wins This Category 

Killed by a poison dart covered in boomslang (a snake native to Africa) venom on a dirigible. Need I say more?

Most Original Plot: Cards on the Table 

This one employed such a clever conceit. The victim (Mr. Shaitana) claims to Poirot that he collects murderers. He invites Poirot to a dinner party to prove it. 

There are eight guests at the party, including Poirot. Three are detectives like him—Colonel Race, Ariadne Oliver, and Superintendent Battle. All are Christie series characters who appear in books of their own. 

The two groups—four alleged murderers the host has befriended and the four detectives—are split into those two groups to play bridge. The party eventually begins to break up and they discover their host is dead. He was stabbed with a thin stiletto from one of his tables cluttered with his collections. 

He must have been right about at least one of the murderers. But which? Who got spooked by the host’s speech and killed him in plain sight during a bridge game? (The four detectives were playing in the other room.)

Why It Wins This Category 

Collects murderers and invites them to a party full of famous detectives? If that is true, they’ve all escaped detection before. Are they actually murderers? Which one killed their host? Poirot and his fellow detectives must not only investigate the death of Mr. Shaitana, but find and investigate the other four alleged murders. Alleged murderers vs. detectives, who will win?

Christie’s plotting ability wows me. I also found that she creates deeper characters than she receives credit for, especially in the later books. The emphasis is on the puzzle, but she doesn’t skimp on the other important elements of fiction. I think I see more Christie columns in my future. In the meantime, let me know your favorite Poirot novels and on-screen portrayals!

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 Poirot Awards appeared first on DIY MFA.

This month’s column explores the spectrum of friends, enemies, frenemies, and simply odd relationships found within literature, both on and off the page. 

In the same vein, I ask you to consider your own relationships. What author or characters have informed your idea of friendship? What moments in your own life may represent either the start or end to a Platonic relationship? 

While you’re at it, take some time to consider relationships that many of us have, yet seem to go undocumented. 

Add these into a WIP or make a note for future projects. 

Should you need help getting started or simply want to explore secret worlds shared intimately between characters, the following is offered for fodder.

Here are your April 2023 Leisure Learning picks:

Great Literary Friendships by Janet Phillips

Frodo & Sam. Watson & Holmes. Harry, Hermione, & Ron. For many of us, the bonds between these characters have been instrumental in defining our entire concept of friendship. 

In the book Great Literary Friendships, Janet Phillips takes 24 partnerships from both contemporary and traditional classics out of their normal settings to focus solely on this one aspect of characters relating to one another. 

The examples and their accompanying essays depict not only the warm, light-filled ties we usually associate with good buds, but also the contentious, complicated ones that can be found in great literature—as well as in life. Just what creates the alchemy between college mates in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History? 

Be prepared to explore the nature of teetering partnerships that may even feel uncomfortably close to home, now that you think about it. 

Great Literary Friendships boasts a beautiful, foil stamped cover, making it a wonderful gift to give to your BBF (best book friend). 

For writers, the book offers a multi-faceted view of how characters can function in tandem with each other to serve emotional context and/or plot. Regardless of one’s occupation, this book offers a look at the many ways people can intimately relate to each other on a mental (rather than physical) basis. As such, anyone who has ever had a friend or been a friend will find something to relate to in this worthwhile compilation. 

A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

Every author has that writer friend who “gets them.” This fellow author understands what the other is trying to say, but can pick out blindspots and plot holes otherwise unseen. Community is an idea heartily emphasized here at DIY MFA, and a writing partnership is one of the most important relationships an author can have. 

A Secret Sisterhood details some of the greatest friendships in literary history. Written by a pair of female author friends themselves, this volume provides tremendous insight into the women who helped develop the manuscripts we’ve come to know as masterpieces. 

Piecing together historical evidence, the reader is informed who Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf hashed out their ideas with. These relationships unfold as complex and dynamic, lasting over decades, always staying true to telling each other what it is she needs to hear in the service of making the work better. 

Additionally, we are given a glimpse of these authors as they are just developing their styles and then get an idea of what continues to make them curious after they’ve made their mark. 

If I were teaching Women’s Lit or a class on Feminine Creative Writing, I would make A Secret Sisterhood required reading. Not only is it insightful, the level of scholarship on relationships that prove themselves to be almost as central as a marriage is quite notable.  

(**The audiobook version is available for free if you are a member of Audible.com.)

Legendary Literary Feuds (YouTube clip, 23 mins.)

When we’re introduced to someone as one of the Great Authors, we usually aren’t told about their real life behavior, save for the occasional background on drinking. 

Given that the pen is mightier than the sword, it is only reasonable to suggest that insults between authors can get pretty darn wicked. 

In this YouTube video, Oxford English Lit graduate Benjamin McEvoy counts down some of the most outrageous feuds one can find in the literary arts.

(SPOILER ALERT: If you’re wondering whether or not Hemingway made the list, the answer is “Ohhhhh, yeah.”)

For the Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More by Graham Tarrant 

For the Love of Books is a light-hearted compendium of literary trivia that contains a variety of facts and stories about …well, stories…and the people who have become legendary for penning them. 

It offers a nice mix of Things You Can Bring Up At A Dinner Party in addition to providing background regarding how some of the world’s greatest authors got on with each other (e.g., Truman Capote and Harper Lee, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the very public fallout between J.K. Rowling and Stephen King).  

For the Love of Books is sectioned into reads that take only a couple of minutes. As such, it’s a fine alternative to screen scrolling & perfect opportunity to use those few minutes here and there to enrich your literary life.   

Barnum’s Lost Museum (CUNY website and archives)

Impresario P.T. Barnum earned his place in history as “the greatest showman on Earth” by creating what may be thought of as America’s earliest, most successful Gawker page. Sometimes this was in the form of a traveling show; at other times, he worked on creating more permanent exhibits.

In 1841, Barnum scored a deal on the Scudder Museum’s acquisitions, combined them with his own and opened the controversial American Museum in the center of Manhattan’s Financial District. Its popularity at the time rivaled that of what Walt Disney World’s is now. Unfortunately, this attraction succumbed to its own spectacular fire in 1868, thereby making its re-creation go by the title of The Lost Museum. 

When I stumbled upon City University of New York’s (CUNY)’s efforts to preserve what they could of this endeavor, just like people back then, I couldn’t help but stop and look—and I urge you to, as well.  

Now, I’m not recommending The Lost Museum for its outrageous spectacles. In fact, the exploratory area has a rather Nancy Drew point and click quality. 

Still, I am recommending this joint collaboration between CUNY and the American Social History Project because of the rich source of archives that reveal the American mentality and practices around the time of the Civil War. Whether you’re interested in the etiquette of the time, want to look at the Bowery boys in their original context, find out what is meant by “Circassian beauty,“ or just want to see what you missed via the museum’s illustrated guide, this is the place to go.

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

The post April 2023 Leisure Learning: Friends, Foes, & Infamy appeared first on DIY MFA.

Whatever your pleasure, I hope that you will find inspiration, renewal and sheer delight among the following:

Beatrix Potter: The Secret Life Of A Victorian Genius

Documentary, 45 mins. (free)

May I have a moment of your time? I respectfully request that you stop your jam-packed day to take a minute and consider this question: have you ever met anyone – anyone in your life – who doesn’t like Peter Rabbit? I have yet to meet such a person. I wonder if such a person even exists. However, from the completely unscientific research I’ve gathered from friends and (mainly) Whole Foods customers, it seems conclusive to me that such a soul does not exist. For, it’s as if Beatrix Potter’s work represents a universal constant of charm.  

But just because Ms. Potter is remembered for Jemima Puddleduck and Peter Rabbit doesn’t mean that Ms. Potter’s days consisted solely of drawing and writing. As fellow authors, you understand the many layers of actual life and research that go into creating a well-formed work.  

In the documentary Beatrix Potter: The Secret Life of a Victorian Genius, famed thespian Dame Patricia Routledge leads viewers into the other facets of Beatrix’s life. Learn how this unintended author/illustrator was dismissed by scientists (“treated scurvily” by the Linnean Society), and therefore somewhat relegated to becoming a Victorian breakout star, whose work continues to sell at the worldwide rate of one book every 15 seconds.  

LitHub’s (Better) Version of the Oscars

List of Lists

On March 12, Hollywood’s most notable will convene for the 95th presentation of golden statuettes. Yes, The Oscars (aka my personal “How To Know What’s Worth Watching” guide). Now, I am all for the glitz and glamor of couture styled artistes, but I also know that I’ll be spending a good portion of my evening with my Kindle.

_{¹ There is always one.
² Accompanied by a suspiciously large rabbit, which simply must be a hare IRL.}

If you are of the same mindset, I invite you to bookmark LitHub’s 2022 “If Books Were Given Oscars” article. From Best Documentary (Non-Fiction) to Best Cinematography (Setting), their take on The Oscars (But For Books!) will not only provide you with a smile, you will also be spending the night with some of literature’s most up-and-coming stars with all of their splendid, sparkling brains.   

Mountain Talk  

Documentary, 1 hour (free)

Everyone reading this knows how very important words are. When words become specialized into a specific dialect, they can expose layers of culture, values and history.

The documentary Mountain Talk chronicles some of the most frequently occurring yet unheard words and phrases spoken today. This film follows linguists and locals through the mountains of southern Appalachia to get at the heart of how words and stories can bind a people both within a region and throughout time. Moreover, you’ll be introduced to unforgettable, real-life characters like pro moonshiner Popcorn Sutton. This production is part of North Carolina State’s Language and Life Project, which seeks to document American dialects (including sign language). The Project invites you to view the entire film on YouTube for free. 

Operation Mincemeat

Film

I’m sure you are familiar with those stories that are so outlandish, they could only be true. Like, if the British government used a real corpse to transport fake documents in the hopes of deceiving Hitler. What if that corpse needed a backstory? What if you could order the future creator of James Bond to write it as part of his service to Royal Naval Intelligence? While pitching such a story would probably get you turned down by agents and publishers, the true to life factors in Operation Mincemeat have made it intriguing enough to be turned into a full-length feature film, starring Firth. Colin Firth. 

Operation Mincemeat was an actual, implausible, yet successful military operation carried out in 1943, with the purpose of redirecting Hitler to invade Greece rather than Sicily. This movie is filled with the wry humor its actual story implies. Still, on a more serious note, it highlights just how very important not only writing but also implementation of the human imagination can be when used in times of crisis.  

Tales from the Emerald Isle

Spectacular website

Old wives’ tales are serious business in Ireland; so much so that in 1935, the National Folklore Commission of Ireland was formed by the government. The project aimed to formally collect the legends of leprechauns and fairies from the Emerald Isle. As oral histories, songs, and regional languages were added to the initial materials, these resources were turned over to academics at the University of Dublin and aggregated into the National Folklore Collection. 

In 2012, these materials began to be uploaded via The Dúchas project and has become a localized Heritage.com for the realm of Irish folk knowledge. The Dúchas project contains oral histories, fables, jokes, remedies and more passed down by the Irish, generation to generation, with just the right amount of magic.

Moreover, one of the primary methods of collection couldn’t be more endearing: stories, as told by elders in the community, were recorded by children which visitors can actually see handwritten in the striving penmanship of grade school. 

Finally, check out their extensive Folktale Index, as it is an excellent way for writers to compare what regional variations (ahem, dialect) may reveal about the rich life Ireland is known for.

Melissa Haas is the author and illustrator of Catula: The Misadventures of Dracula’s Cat and The Night Before Christmas (NOW WITH CATS), among others. Follow Catula’s whereabouts on Instagram @CatulaTheCat. If you’re interested in downloading free coloring pages, getting some sparkle in your inbox every other Wednesday or seeing Margaret Atwood with a blowtorch, check out more Leisure Learning related content at www.MelissaHaasCreates.com.

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