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.

If I’m not reading, I have to listen to whatever drivel is on the TV at night.

Even when I experienced bouts of insomnia, I couldn’t really focus on what I picked up to get me through the night.

I feel like I might be making a slight comeback since work is starting to slow down for the rest of the year. Fingers crossed because I’m about to go stir crazy!

C’est la vie.

The December Books

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris

I finished this one and it was amazing. And I felt a little sad at the end. This collection takes us through 2020, meaning it’s going to be quite a while before Sedaris accumulates enough diary entries for another volume. That said, I saw he has a new collection coming out in May 2022. Yes, I already pre-ordered it.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

The thing I like about Sally Rooney is that her writing is smart but fun. A lot of times when I read “smart” writing, I feel dumb because the books are a slog to get through. Not here. It’s like a huge gab-fest with your best friend, where you talk about intellectual, important things, and in the next sentence, you talk about sex, pop culture, or whatever.

I didn’t finish this one because it didn’t quite fit with my mood, but I definitely can’t wait to get back to it.

The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Like I said last month, I really wanted to re-read this one after reading Towles’s newest book. I had forgotten how much I love this story and the writing in it! This one takes you through New York City in the late 1930s and it is just exquisite. A working-class girl finds herself rubbing elbows with the upper class. 

Again, I set it aside, but I can’t wait to go back to it. (I’m noticing a theme here…)

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

I re-read this one in a day. Once upon a time, Nora Ephron was married to Carl Bernstein and their marriage totally crashed and burned. Then she wrote a hilarious novel about it. Revenge might just be a dish best served by Nora Ephron.

I love how she took a painful experience and rendered it in a humorous way. It definitely got my wheels spinning about a novel I’d like to write.

The Fran Lebowitz Reader

This past month I wanted to laugh and read smart things (which maybe wasn’t the best impulse to follow because my concentration was nonexistent). This volume pairs two collections written by Lebowitz. Her pieces are short, funny satires that are definitely a style to aspire to.

I also love that she is a notoriously slow writer. It gives me hope.

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

As I was trying to make progress on a project for NaNoWriMo, I was reviewing Save the Cat Writes a Novel, which gives examples of the different types of novels. I was looking at road trip novels and this was a suggestion. I don’t typically go for YA, but this sounded like a lot of fun.

Amy has just gone through a family tragedy and has to make her way across the country where her mom has taken a new job. She doesn’t want to be in a car, let alone drive. So her mom finds a friend’s son who needs to get across the country as well to drive with her. The route is planned out, but they decide to go on an adventure instead. 

I definitely want to get back to this one because it’s just cool. Also, I get the sense that there’s more going on than we’re told, so I want to get to the bottom of it.

The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder

One of the new perks of my job is getting to read for work! I got access to an arc of this one for an upcoming episode of the podcast and was thrilled to sit down and read it. I haven’t finished yet, but I think this one is going to be a blast and that you should definitely keep an eye out for its release next month.

The Bone Spindle is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty with some Indiana Jones thrown in. Oh, and Vedder flipped the genders of the main characters. I am super excited to read about how the female rescues the male. And it’s a great buddy tale of the treasure hunter and the bookish historian. This is absolutely the type of book I hope we’ll see more of in the future.

The sad part of all of this is that I am certain I started more books, but I just can’t remember what they were! That said, I know I didn’t finish more than I did. Here’s hoping next month goes better. I should probably focus on finishing all of these half-read books.

Total Books Read in 2021: 36

Tell me in the comments below: What’s on your TBR for December?

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 — December Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

This fall has been really disappointing for me in terms of the amount of time I’ve been able to spend reading. Far too often, I have been spending my evenings and weekends sitting comatose on the couch instead of ingesting wonderful words. And I truly hate that, because that feels like so much time wasted, but I simply have not had the mental bandwidth to read. I’m hoping to turn a corner and finish out the year strong.

Anyway, without further ado…

The November Books

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Wow! I pre-ordered this book on my Kindle because I knew I would be out of town on its pub day and I didn’t want to wait to get started reading this one. Amor Towles has the gift of bringing an everyday scene truly to life. He does this amazingly in The Rules of Civility and in A Gentleman in Moscow (which I’ve started and read most of but haven’t finished yet). In fact, The Lincoln Highway made me decide to start rereading The Rules of Civility so that I could savor the world a bit more.

This was a great road trip novel, and he does an amazing job of writing multiple voices that actually sound distinct. It starts off with the simple premise of a boy being released from a juvenile facility in the 1950s after his father passed and morphs into this brilliant journey. I think some of my favorite sections featured characters whose voices we only heard once or twice. 

Highly recommend it!

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris

I pre-ordered this book close to a year ago, as soon as it was announced (at least I think it was close to a year ago—it’s been a while is what I’m getting at). Sedaris is an auto-purchase for me. I know I don’t need to extol his talent because I’m pretty sure I’ve already done that a time or two in this column.

I love reading his diaries. It’s really cool from a craft perspective to be able to see the evolution of one of his essays from a mention in his diary to a piece in a book or in The New Yorker. I don’t know how so many crazy things happen to him, but it’s highly entertaining reading. (I’d also venture to guess that at this point, people go out of their way to “earn” a mention in one of his pieces.)

Unfortunately, this collection takes us to 2020, so it’s going to be another 15+ years before we are likely to get another collection of Sedaris diaries.

I’m still reading it because I don’t want it to end.

Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

I had never read anything by Sally Rooney before. I’d heard tons, of course, about how she’s currently the frontrunner as the voice of Millennial literature. I can see it. As I read this one, I saw a lot of myself and my best friend. We talk about high-level stuff, then veer into vapid and silly topics. We struggle with a lot of the same questions about caring about the future and our ability to effect change.

Reading this prompted me to get her other books to see what else she has to say that speaks to me. I haven’t read them yet, but I can definitely relate to her characters and their disillusionment.

Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

This was another wow book for me. It’s the text of the one-woman show written and performed by Waller-Bridge that became a smash TV show that I haven’t seen. I would love to see Waller-Bridge perform this herself (and perhaps that’s available on the internet; I haven’t looked yet).

I loved the gritty tone and attitude of this text. It was a perfect amount of rawness without being over the top, in your face, ugly to be ugly quality that I really find off-putting. My next assignment, yes, is to watch the show and read Fleabag: Collected Scriptures, which is the shooting scripts of the first season (or first two seasons?) of the show.

That’s it for November. Just four books to mention. I started a few others but didn’t read enough to warrant mention in this column. And I’ll be honest, next month isn’t looking great so far either, but we’ll see.

Total Books Read in 2021: 34

Tell me in the comments below: What’s on your TBR for November?

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 — November Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

It wasn’t a great month for me reading-wise. I started off strong, but fell into quite a rut. I did finish kind of strong though, with two that I read quickly in a bout of insomnia. If the last couple of months had a bit of a theme, this month did not. I am all over the place. I’ll just blame that on work.

But as always, I keep reading. Here we are…

The October Books

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisburger

This was my great start! I read the whole thing in about two or three days. I read it a million years ago, back in high school, but came back to it for reasons unknown. I am glad I did though. This was a lot of fun to read. I knee-jerk bought the other two books in the series as well. I am looking forward to reading them at some point.

I love books that are fun and take me on a ride. I think everyone knows about Andy Sachs and her nightmare of a boss by now. Because of my job, I could relate to certain aspects of the job (like sending emails saying “My boss needs this yesterday!”) while others just seemed crazy and I don’t know how Andy put up with it for as long as she did.

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life by Megan Stielstra

Wow. This collection is amazing. I haven’t finished it yet. I am savoring it. Each piece is a great little morsel of amazingness. I first heard about Stielstra on Instagram and on a whim bought this collection. I am so glad I did. I’ve read so many essay collections over the years that it is rare I stumble across somebody new and different. What a gem!

Stielstra does an amazing job of exploring and dissecting the female experience in 21st century America. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I feel like she is a braver version of me and who I wish I would have been. (Though, I guess it’s not too late, right?) Anyway, highly recommend!

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

This is another insomnia read for me. It’s a book I can just fall into when I can’t sleep that will help me ride the wave of non-sleep (as in, it entertains me and doesn’t just put me to sleep). This is a really interesting imagining of what would happen if the heir to the throne fell in love with an American. It’s about Bex who has to navigate dating the future king, convince his family that she’s all right, and a whole lotta drama.

I’m only about one-third of the way through, but it feels like a ton has happened and I cannot even begin to imagine the twists and turns to come in the remaining nearly 400 pages. The authors really move the pacing well. It could be easy to get bogged down, but nope. Things keep moving along. I’m kind of looking forward to another extended period of insomnia so I can keep reading.

Beautiful World, Where Are You? By Sally Rooney

I pre-ordered this one because it sounded really interesting. Like many millennials, I love reading about the millennial experience. There’s just something comforting in reading about characters who are similarly screwed up.

Every other chapter is an email exchange between the two main characters, who are best friends. They capture that ability to talk about nothing and everything in a single correspondence. It reminds me of the text chain between my best friend and I. Even though I haven’t finished yet, I am really enjoying this one.

Enola Holmes and the Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

I’ve had this on my Kindle for quite a while, but reading Sara Farmer’s recent post on Modern Girl Detectives, I just had to start reading it. This series is for children (I don’t know all of the various terms for types of children’s books, but it’s for ages 8 and up) that features Enola Holmes, much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft. She finds herself alone in London, solving mysteries like her older brother. I love this concept. Very girl-power.

This was a perfect insomnia read. I stayed up until 6 to finish it and was able to fall asleep happy, knowing that Enola was on the hunt for the next case…

Enola Holmes and the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer

Which brings me to Enola’s next case. Being a left-handed person, I was a bit intrigued by the title. Then I started reading all of the really not nice things 19th-century people believed about left-handed people. I know that historically, we’ve been thought to be evil and had the left-handedness beaten or trained out of us, but this was the first time I really read about it. I must say, it hurt my feelings a bit.

But I am HOOKED on the series! I ordered the next two books to accompany me on vacation. I wish I had bought them on my Kindle for insomnia, but note to self for books 5, 6, and beyond! Seriously, kudos to Nancy Springer for coming up with such an interesting and entertaining concept. And please write more.

There you go. My October books. 

Total Books Read in 2021: 31

Tell me in the comments below: What’s on your TBR for October?

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 — October Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

It may be September, but I am still celebrating summer Fridays and taking off for the afternoon so I can get some more reading done.

I think if the last month had a theme, it was fun. I had so much fun reading these books.

Let’s get the ball rolling…

The September Books

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

I finally finished this one before my vacation. It was really interesting to read about the science behind female sexuality and relationships. Still, like I mentioned last month, the section on the stress cycle was the most compelling part for me and a topic I am very much looking forward to learning more about in Nagoski’s follow-up book, Burnout (which I decided to not take on vacation as originally planned).

The book was definitely science and research heavy, but Nagoski wrote in such an accessible and entertaining way that made it not super dense like a textbook.

Highly recommended!

Beach Read by Emily Henry

I suddenly decided to get into contemporary romances. I have no idea why because I’m really not a happily-ever-after kind of person. But there’s something nice and relaxing about seeing the pieces fall together like a puzzle. That’s the thing with genre fiction—you know certain things are going to happen and the fun part of the journey is in seeing how they unfold.

This was the book I took on vacation. I had every intention of reading it and the three of the next four books mentioned in this post while on vacation. I was on the beach. I was not going to be working. I should be able to finish several of these books, right? Wrong! I think I still had eight pages left by the time we got to the airport.

Anyway…this was a great introduction to contemporary romances. They start out as enemies and then they eventually become not enemies and then they become more. The really fun part about this book was that they were both writers, feeling a bit stuck in their current genres, so they decided to switch. To go along with that, they each plan field trips to introduce the other to their genre. 

This was a lot of fun to read and it had great characters. But that’s pretty much true of all of the contemporary romances I’ve read.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

I started this one on the plane back to nowhere. And I devoured it! I think I was close to halfway through by the time we got home, which is kind of crazy for me because I’m really not a fast reader.

I loved the premise of this one. The protagonist’s sister won a free honeymoon, then the entire wedding party comes down with food poisoning except for the protagonist and the best man, who totally hate each other. The trip is nonrefundable and nontransferrable, so they pretend to be a married couple and go on the trip. 

It had some surprises thrown in along the way that made it even more fun to read.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

I picked this one up in the airport on the way back because I had been seeing the Hulu commercials. I didn’t know a lot about it when I grabbed it, but I am so glad I did! I could hardly put it down. I haven’t watched the series yet, but I plan to soon.

The thing that got me about this one was how similar the premise sounds to the ScribLandia program DIY MFA ran this summer. People who don’t know each other wind up at a hotel/resort and crazy stuff happens. There’s even a bit of a romance! This one had lots of twists and turns and was so much fun to read.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

I practically inhaled this one, but admittedly the title didn’t make sense until almost the end of the book. It’s a contemporary romance of the best friends to lovers variety, but it wasn’t like they were hooking up with random people they met during vacation and as per usual, they didn’t get together until almost the end. Instead it’s about isolation and chance meetings that help you feel connected to something bigger.

The protagonist in this one had a really fun job as a travel writer. She started out as a blogger, then built a social media following, and parlayed that into a job at a travel magazine. Yet, she eventually finds herself feeling disconnected and dissatisfied. And I could totally relate to that.

I really look forward to what Henry comes up with next!

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I think of all the books I’ve mentioned, I read this one the quickest. In less than 24 hours, actually. I went through a bit of a book slump. The thing with contemporary romances is that all of the ones I’ve found are written in the first person. I love a good first person narrative, but after three first person narratives, I was looking for a bit of variety. Or so I thought.

This one has a unique premise. A married couple going through problems decide to not exactly separate but, really, yes, separate for a year to see what happens. Will they get back together? Will they not? (You know they do.) For me, the most interesting part was reading about all of the characters’ thoughts on love and marriage. Lots of shades of grey.

I’ve read a lot of TJR books and I just don’t know how she does it. This is, I believe, her second book and her writing has only gotten richer, more nuanced and complex, with each new release. 

That’s what I’ve got for September. I’ll be back next month with another batch of books.

Total Books Read in 2021: 28

Tell me in the comment below: What’s on your TBR for September?

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 — September Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

I haven’t been reading as much as I would like, but I have been finishing most of what I’ve picked up, which is a nice break from a bookish dry spell. Those drive me crazy. I pace in front of the shelves, silently begging the right book to leap off and smack me right in the face. So far, no flying books, but I have managed to pick some gems.

The August Books

Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie

Initially, I was a bit on the fence about buying this one. Not because I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but because I wasn’t sure it could possibly compete with Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 

But I caved to peer pressure and bought it and it’s the first book I’m sharing this August.

I love reading about the music scene in the sixties and seventies. This one is supposed to be inspired by James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and crew. It made for some really juicy reading. I was very tempted to have Mitchell’s Blue playing on repeat all month long, even after I finished reading it.

This was a fun read. It gives really good insight into the business side of the music industry and also a bit of the sexism women face within the industry. It would be a great beachy read to take on vacation this August.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino

I’ll be up front. I didn’t get super far into this one because some stuff came up, but I am really digging it. The thing I love most about it is its place within literary history. It’s a brand new book. But it’s written in the tradition of pulpy novelizations of films and I think that’s so fun. Even the design of the book pays homage to the history.

I really enjoyed the film, so I was ecstatic when I saw Tarantino was novelizing it. In it, he expands on certain parts—namely the backstory of the main characters, Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth—and trims other parts that were in the movie. I’m excited to pick this one back up at some point.

Anna K by Jenny Lee

I loved Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. So I was equal parts intrigued and skeptical when I heard about this modern retelling featuring super, crazy rich NYC teenagers. I love books set in New York. My issue was 15 year olds, who’ve never dated anybody else, pondering true love. 

*Eyes roll back in head*

Yes, the book features teenagers talking about true love and marriage and all that. But they’re also really hardcore into the drug scene and have way more freedom to do whatever (and I do mean whatever) they want than I have ever had, so I just let it go and enjoyed the ride. 

And it was a great ride. I love how Lee modernized the retelling. There’s definitely the whole rich-people-behaving-badly thing in the original, but she made it fresh and fun. I wish there had been YA like this when I was a teenager! 

Daddy by Emma Cline

I have a difficult time with short story collections. I think, for me, they’re more aspirational—I want to like them more than I actually do like them. And that’s OK. 

This one was an exception! Cline’s debut was The Girls, a novel about a teenager who stumbles across the Manson Family, so I was definitely prepared and looking forward to something equally gritty. And she did not disappoint. Each story in this collection is about a different pretty screwed up person who is trying to navigate life in a normal way, but things just don’t click. It made for really entertaining reading. 

The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West

I really love how Lindy West can write passionately, intelligently, and humorously about super serious topics. In this collection of essays, she’s taking on 2016-2018 American culture. The reading is enjoyable because her writing is that powerful, but I almost feel like I read it at the wrong time. Since the book is about current events, I am just far enough removed for information to be a bit dated (like reading a newspaper from 2 months ago), but not far enough for there to be perspective.

Still, it’s a great read and I love Lindy West!

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

Recently, Burnout by Nagoski and her sister came across my radar. I bought it. In the course of checking out the author bios and blurbs, I came across this book, so I decided to read it first. This book is fantastic! I am still reading it, but so far the most interesting part so far is the stress response cycle. Fortunately for me, the stress response cycle is the focus of Burnout. 

That’s what I’ve got for August. I’ll be back next month with another batch of books.

Total Books Read in 2021: 22

Tell me in the comment below: What’s on your TBR for August?

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.

The post The Book Nook — August Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

Not exactly. I’ve struggled to concentrate for whatever reason. I’ve been picking up lots of books, but quickly setting them aside. I’ve been pacing the floors of my living room in front of my book shelves, begging for something to jump out at me and grab hold of my attention. Nothing doing. It’s been awful.

As a result, I don’t have too many books to share with you this July. (Um, seriously, where did the first half of the year go? How rude is it that it’s already July?!)

Anyway…

The July Books

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The month actually started out pretty good. Malibu Rising released on June 1. I had pre-ordered it. I was READY for this one. I love a drama-filled family saga. (Family sagas and World War II fiction are my genre kryptonite—I am powerless against them!) I slurped this one down in a week.

It was a fun read. I got really invested in the characters and their trajectory. There were a couple of storylines that didn’t get a real conclusion. Then again, the entire thing leaves itself open for a sequel. And I want to say Reid dangled that possibility somewhere. How amazing would that be!

This has all the components of a good, beachy read. Highly recommend.

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

This was another that I heard about months ago and waited and waited for it to arrive. It got a lot of great hype. People have described the protagonist as raw and gritty, and just really fully female. I started this one the day it came out (fortunately, I finished Malibu earlier that morning, so I was free), but I haven’t finished it yet. 

While I love a good gritty and raw character, sometimes they hit a nerve and I have to walk away for a bit. That’s what happened here. I am super excited about this one and I definitely plan to finish it later this month.

While Malibu would be a great beachy read to devour with a fruity drink in hand, Animal is one to read with some bourbon. It packs that much of a punch.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I’ve owned this one for years, both in print and on my Kindle (which is really a great combination because I can read anywhere, even when I’m wanting to avoid screens). I don’t really know what possessed me to pick this one up, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it so far.

Bourdain detailed his training and development as a chef, which is an interesting and wild story. But he also throws in some interesting bits about food and dining out that I hadn’t really considered before, but make perfect sense, such as the ideal days to order seafood and the quality of meat you get when you order your steak well-done (I’d never commit such a sin, but I know somebody who does). 

This one is fun to dip in and out of, kind of like a short story or essay collection. You don’t necessarily have to read it in long settings to get the most out of it. I’ll probably take this on my next vacation, if I don’t finish before then.

California Diaries by Ann M. Martin

This was a series of 15 books that came out in the late 90s. I was the target age for the early ones in the series, but moved on after the first few. I got an idea for a book, so I was super happy to discover the bulk of the series for sale on Kindle. They’re fairly short and written for children, so I was able to finish them quickly. I read all 15 books in about a week.

It was a fun blast from the past. I was a bit surprised at how some of the mannerisms, comments, whatever from the early books stuck in my head all these years later. 

Martin also wrote the Babysitters Club series, but this one is way more gritty. The kids in this series deal with eating disorders, alcoholic parents, absent parents, and suicidal friends to name a few things. I don’t know for sure because I never read many YA or MG books (and I’m fuzzy on the actual parameters of the genres), but it feels like this was probably one of the first series for 12-14 year olds that tackled this subject matter.

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

After California Diaries is when I hit my dry spell. It was awful. I had nothing to do. (Seriously, what do people who don’t read do with their free time?)

Then I picked up an old friend, Caitlin (pronounced Cat-lin) Moran. I read this book in 2017 and loved it. Moran takes a pretty weighty topic like feminism and makes it less scary, even kind of fun. She makes some good jokes, some major points, and does a lot to dispel some of the negative stereotypes about feminists and feminism. I know there are many brands and flavors of feminism, but Moran’s really hits home for me.

I re-read this book in just a couple of days to round out the month and found an inexpensive copy that I had shipped to Angela to pressure her to read. Highly recommend this one by Moran and all of her other books as well.

Total Books Read in 2021: 18 (I didn’t count the California Diaries as individual books because I didn’t want it to skew my reading stats for the year)

That’s all for July. It felt like a pretty good mix of fiction and nonfiction. I’ll be back next month to tell you about all the great things I’m reading this month. 

Tell me in the comments below: What have you been reading?

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 — July Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

I was very fortunate last month to have a nice, long spell of cool weather, which meant lots of back porch reading! This month I have something strange to report. Most of the books I started, I actually finished. Like, all but one of the books I started I finished. I can’t tell you the last time that has ever happened to me. Probably sometime before I got an Amazon account.

I present you with…

The June Books:

The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith

I read this book in one day. It’s on the short side, but still. I skipped work for a day to read this. I underlined so many things, then I went back and took notes over what this book had to say about memoir writing. Smith’s approach has radically changed the way I think about memoir writing in particular, but also about writing in general. I feel like this will be one I regularly return to for a refresher.

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

Wow, two memoir craft books in a row, you might say. Yes. But. These books are really quite different. While Smith presents an overarching framework for how to approach memoir writing, Karr does an amazing job of talking about some of the more nuanced stylistic decisions that you will make in your subsequent drafts, after you get the skeleton put together. Karr cites loads of examples of how she approached these choices in her own memoirs and also how other masters of the genre accomplished these things. She also includes a lengthy list of recommended reading.

The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

I couldn’t read Karr’s book about memoir writing without picking up her first memoir. Holy crap! This memoir is so well executed in how she’s able to blend writing about her childhood while retaining that childlike voice but also infusing it with her adult perspective. I wasn’t even halfway through before I bought the other two memoirs she’s written. She is such a great storyteller. Highly, highly recommend to anyone who wants to read some powerful writing.

Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit

I mentioned this one last month and I finally finished it! I think Angela finished way before I did, but that’s OK. It wasn’t a race. (I’d probably say that even if I hadn’t lost, but I’d probably be more smug about it) The bulk of this book details Solnit’s formation as a young woman living alone in a city. It was really interesting to read about her feminist awakening. For me, though, the fascinating part was where she talked about writing and art.

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

I can’t really say what made me decide to buy and read this one. It just seemed interesting. I’m glad I read it. I learned some interesting things about Dazed and Confused, which is one of my favorite movies. And McConaughey also provides some really poetic and inspirational musings on making art and being a creative. 

Night Shift by Stephen King

There was just something about spring fading into summer that made me want to pick up some spooky Stephen King and what I’ve read did not disappoint. I’m not great with short story collections. If I read them too quickly, all of the stories run together, so I read them in fits and starts. This collection starts with the source story for ‘Salem’s Lot and it was really good! It also features the short story that was King’s jumping off point for The Stand, which is one of my favorite King novels. I plan to keep plugging away at it throughout the summer.

Total Books Read in 2021: 15

Well, that’s all I have for you for June. Still not a lot of fiction. I can’t explain it. I’ve been just way more interested in memoir, but I also feel a need to take a bit of a break from reality, so we’ll see what I have to report next month.

Tell me in the comments below: What have you been reading?

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 — June Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.

For some reason, I find myself reading more during the warmer months. Probably because I suffer from seasonal depression, so when it’s cold and dark, I end up staring into the distance trying to summon the willpower to make it from one day to the next. 

But no matter. It’s reading season! And I have a few gems for your May TBR pile.

The May Books…

Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit

I’ve been reading this one for a while, and I really wanted to finish, so I bought a copy for a friend and suggested we do a read-along. I think she’s blown past me, and I’m still not quite halfway. But that’s not a reflection of this book. It’s me. I need to be in a particular mindset to read this book because it speaks so directly to me that I don’t want to miss anything. 

I’ve been very interested lately in memoir, and this is a very powerful one. Solnit details her development from a young girl to a writer and feminist in a world that prefers women to be silent. It’s made me think a lot about my own growth as a person.

The Hard Crowd by Rachel Kushner

This is a fabulous collection of essays that spans twenty years, multiple continents, and various cultures (and subcultures). Each piece is like a different chocolate in the box, but without any of the gross ones that you leave for somebody else. The topics range from an unsanctioned motorcycle race to an ode to a deceased writer to a refugee camp and so much more.

I’m still reading this one, but it’s a true delight, so I’m not looking to race my way through it. Rather, I’m taking each piece one-by-one and thinking about it before moving on. However, I can definitely tell it’s a collection I’ll return to again and again.

Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens

This was a recommendation on Instagram, and I’m so glad I picked it up. The subtitle of the book is “Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles.” Each chapter tackles a different hurdle that artists face in making, prioritizing, and professionalizing their art. 

It’s been pretty eye-opening for me as I consider my writing. Not all of the chapters have applied directly to me (naturally, the ones that don’t apply are less interesting than the ones that do), but they’ve all had great wisdom and have taken away the excuses we make to not create. I definitely need to re-read the chapter on priorities because that’s where I fall short. I continually say I need to do this and that before I can write, and by the time I’ve finished those things, I’m too worn out to write.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion

Ah, my Queen. This was her latest collection of essays spanning the 1960s to the early 2000s, and it covers a wide variety of topics from Gamblers Anonymous, to Hemingway, to Martha Stewart. This was another collection I nibbled at instead of devouring. Didion just has such a way of approaching a topic. I wish she would teach a master class on her approach. 

Hawaii by James Michener

I have been reading this novel for many years. Initially, I was going to spend the spring working on finishing Moby Dick, but then I realized that I have 200 pages left, not 100 like I had been thinking and that was a huge bummer. So I shifted gears to Hawaii. I had 300 pages left of that, but those were a more enjoyable 300 pages than various chapters on marine biology. I digress…

I haven’t been reading much fiction lately. I’m not really sure why. But this book, which details the formation of Hawaii over the millennia, is a lot of fun to read. Michener is a master at weaving together multiple stories and cultures and adding those rich and nuanced details in a way that’s not totally overwhelming. At this point, I have just under 200 pages left, and that’s OK by me. Maybe next month I’ll be able to report that I finished.

Total Books Read in 2021: 10

I can say that I’ve already finished a couple of books this May, but you’ll have to come back in June to find out what they are. I’m devious like that.

Tell me in the comments below: What have you been reading?

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 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 and on Twitter at @Lori_the_Writer.

The post The Book Nook — May Edition appeared first on DIY MFA.