All Rileyed Up

So, for those of you still looking for a good book to buy for your loved ones, here are eleven books by Literary Mama editors and two more that I give the Riley stamp of approval to (it’s kind of a big deal on certain small islands):

1. Mama, PhD: Women Write About Motherhood & Academic Life
Edited by Elrena Evans and Caroline Grant
A literary anthology of deeply-felt personal narratives by women both in and out of the academy, writing about their experiences attempting to reconcile bodies with brains. These essays voice stories of academic women choosing to have, not have, or delay children, and make recommendations on how to make the academy a more family-friendly workplace. Candid, provocative, and sometimes with a wry sense of humor, these essays speak to and offer support for any women attempting to combine work and family.

2. Literary Mama: Reading for the Maternally Inclined
Edited by Amy Hudock and Andrea J. Buchanan
This unique collection features the best of Literary Mama. It celebrates the voices of the maternally inclined, paves the way for other writer mamas, and honors the difficult and rewarding work women do as they move into motherhood.

3. Peeking Under My Skirt
by Stephanie Hunt
From intimate peeks at marriage to ruminations on candlelight, to an expose of the mayhem surrounding the annual extended family beach trip, Peeking is both lyrical and light-hearted.

4. A Ghost at Heart’s Edge: Stories and Poems of Adoption
Edited by Susan Ito
Fifty short stories and poems reveal the sometimes heartbreaking, often affirming tales of adoption, written by birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees.

5. The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan
Edited by Suzanne Kamata
This collection of short stories is an absorbing look at the Outsider in a nation that does not absorb foreigners easily.

6. Losing Kei
by Suzanne Kamata
Jill Parker is an American painter living in Japan who must choose between freedom and abandoning her child. Told with tenderness, humor, and an insider’s knowledge of Japanese family life; an exceptional expatriate voice.

7. Love You To Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs
Edited by Suzanne Kamata
The first collection of literary writing on raising a child with special needs, Love You to Pieces features families coping with autism, deafness, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and more. Here, poets, memoirists, and fiction writers paint beautiful, wrenchingly honest portraits of caring for their children, laying bare the moments of rage, disappointment, and guilt that can color their relationships. Parent-child communication can be a challenge at the best of times, but in this collection we witness the struggles and triumphs of those who speak their own language—or don’t speak at all—and those who love them deeply.

8. Generation
by Sharon Kraus
Generation maps the survival of a traumatic childhood. Kraus masters the toxic fall-out of abusive experiences by rendering them fiercely meaningful, almost as a dance or a biblical drama.

9. Strange Land
by Sharon Kraus
Chronicling the life of a woman embarking on marriage and contemplating motherhood, these poems wrestle with the narrator’s violent childhood and work to reconcile her past with the course of her future.

10. Real Life and Liars
by Kristina Riggle
As a wilted flower child, Mira Zielinski has never been one to follow orders. Not from her husband, not from her boss - not even from her oncologist. Mira has her own idea about handling her newly diagnosed breast cancer, and it does not involve hopping up on the operating table. Her grown children will no doubt object — when she gets around to telling them.

11. The Maternal Is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood and Social Change
Edited by Shari MacDonald Strong
Exploring the vital connection between motherhood and social change, The Maternal Is Political features forty-four powerful, hard-hitting literary essays by women who are striving to make the world a better place for children and families—both their own and other women’s—in this country and globally.

12. One Bird One Stone: 108 American Zen Stories
By Sean Murphy
Amazing collection of stories and interviews with Zen masters living in America.

13. A Thousand Dollars for a Kiss
by Cindy Bokma
Dark chick lit comedy about what happens when a celeb-obsessed gal ignores everyone in her life to pal around with her favorite music star.

What do you have to do in the next 14 days?

1. Come up with exciting things to keep the kids busy while they’re out of school, like hang gliding off the roof with a couple umbrellas and a baseball bat. Hey, MacGuyver could do it.

2. Send out last minute cards. E-card or otherwise.

3. Buy last minute presents. And keep them hidden from prying eyes.

4. Partake in a White Elephant gift exchange where you wind up with the clown shoes and bow tie that squirts water. Score!

5. Write something for the True North contest.

Whoa, whoa, whoa… wait… what’s the True North contest?

Trust me, you want to enter this (though part of me would prefer it if you didn’t because it would increase my chances of winning).

True North Snacks, nut snacks from Frito-Lay, is sponsoring a contest for everyone to share their True North Story. In 300 words or less. This story should say what keeps you going, what drives you, what you want out of life, that old chest nut (pun intended).

The winning story writer receives twenty-five grand (just imagine how many postcards I could buy with that) and the story will be turned into a 60-minute commercial directed by Helen Hunt and ideally aired during the Oscars 2009 (which will give you TOTAL bragging rights at that Oscar party you usually don’t like attending because all you wind up doing is making fun of the outfits and speculating over movies you haven’t seen).

So what’s My True North Story?

My writing. That really is what I want out of life, to continue to be a writer who pursues her passion with passion, who writes what she loves, who writes words that can change people or move people or, in select instances, cause them to jump up and scream aloud, “Yes, Elvis is the Man!” (or “I’m all shook up”) I am having trouble formulating this story into a compelling string of 300 words, though.

Can you define irony?

Anyhoo, go ahead and check out the site. Seems like a fun thing to enter, and gives you a chance to really ponder the question “What do I want out of life?” and if you ask me, there aren’t enough of us asking ourselves that question these days.

Here’s the list of books I’ll be reading for book club this year. Feel free to join in. I’ll try to post reviews as I read them:

January: “The View From Mount Joy” by Lorna Landvik

February: “Behind The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C. Boyle

March: “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan

April: “One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd” by Jim Fergus

May: “The Lace Reader” by Brunonia Barry

June: “Ahabs Wife” by Sena Jeter Naslund

July: “The Island” by Victoria Hislop

August: “The Secret Between Us” by Barbara Delinsky

September: “The Life of Freya Stark” by Jane Geniesse

October: “A Gesture Life” by Chang Rae Lee (my choice! I’ll probably read it before October)

*Alternate Books:
“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larson & Reg Keeland
“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hamif (also my choice, which I STILL haven’t gotten around to reading)

On another note, look for yours truly in Literary Mama’s Essential Short Story Collection list. Anyone else a Roald Dahl fan?

On a visit to Steph at The Red Clay Diaries today, I was led to this poetry site, Pensieve.

A writer friend of mine says she likes to study and write poetry because it gives her the opportunity to examine words from a completely different persepctive than when you’re writing fiction or nonfiction. I couldn’t agree more. So I decided to participate in Pensieve’s monthly Poetic License. The deadline for submissions was Friday, but it was a fun exercise so I’m posting anyway.

The theme was winter or Christmas and the form was haiku or pensieve. I chose the pensieve, defined as this: “A titled, five-line poem; each line correlates to one of the five senses–sight, sound, scent, taste, touch–and describes the subject (title). The goal is for the reader to take on the poem as his own, being able to ‘experience’ your subject through your words, by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling what you described.”

Tree Decorating

Giggles and gasps as the tree branches receive their wares one by one:
Glittering glass orbs that sparkle in the white lights;
Gingerbread men, baked with vanilla and cinnamon;
Gilded, bumpy angels, a texture little hands can’t resist.
Ghirardelli hot chocolate, to cap the night off.

I just finished reading Second Nature by Alice Hoffman. I was into it at first, then it slowed down for a while, then I just sort of hurried through it to the end. (WARNING: moderate spoilers following)

Second Nature is about Stephen, a man raised by wolves who is found by trappers and turned over to a hospital, and Robin, the woman who introduces him to life among humans. It is about love and all its manifestations, and about the darkness that can exist in any human.

Love exists in so many relationships in this book. Robin and Roy. Robin and Stephen. Stephen and Connor. Old Dick and Ginny. Old Dick and Stephen. Robin and Michelle. Connor and Lydia. Michelle and Lydia. Stuart and Kay. Roy and The Doctor. Erotic love, familial love, adoring love, new love, old love, earned love. There was Michelle, mother of Lydia, who worked as a high school guidance counselor but when she realized her daughter was growing up she found the advice she usually gave to other parents much harder to swallow. There’s Robin and Roy and their teenage son Connor, all of them judging one another for the way they handle their intimate relationships. And then there’s Old Dick, a wonderful character, the grandfather and main caregiver to Robin and Stuart, a man who didn’t seem to give a damn about his family but as you learn more about him you see what he does value — courage and the adventurous spirit. He’s a modern take on early American lit figures, the man who values land and exploration.

Second Nature also takes place on an island, which adds a sense of claustrophobia and inevitability to all this tension, that there is no way to escape love. Or death (no man is an island, anyone? oh, the irony). And this love, this love that has everyone on the island up in arms, thrives off a single unspoken rule here, a rule that drives Stephen crazy as he tries to adjust to living among men vs wolves:

When it comes to love, you mustn’t speak.

Don’t ever say what you’re truly feeling. Don’t ever say what you mean. And those who do pay a price in this book. That is what compelled me the most in this book, the way it always went back to Stephen and his animal tendencies from living amongst the wolves, and one of the best parts was Stephen’s reflection on acting on impulse. To act on impulse AND not be wrong. There is no debate in the woods, no time to question if something is or is not the right move. There is only a moment to do it, and do it right, or suffer the consequences. And entering a world of humans where every move is scrutinized and everything can mean something else, and lo, even the people you least suspect can turn out to be the worst kinds of people anywhere – it’s almost too much for Stephen. He’s gone from living amongst wolves to humans, or is it the other way around?

The reason I continue to read Alice Hoffman, above all, is because I am a fan of magical realism. I’m a fan of believing that a man could be raised by wolves and after a few months of hanging with the humans would simply fit in. I’m also a fan of Hoffman’s descriptive passages, of blood in ice, of cold weather and warm bodies, of our beautiful world.

I leave you with this passage and you can decide for yourself if this book is up your alley:

One afternoon, when the light was cool and bright, Stephen went into the kitchen to fix their lunch, and when he returned he found Old Dick crying. All at once Stephen realized what had been happening during those hours when they didn’t speak: he had been learning to tell what it was Old Dick wanted just by looking at him. That he should ever know a man as well as he knew one of his brothers was disturbing, but it was also a simple fact. Stephen put their plates of soup down on the night table, then bundled Old Dick in a blanket, the heaviest one he could find, and carried him downstairs. It was nothing to carry him. Stephen felt he could have gone on forever, but he stopped in the center of the lawn, where the pile of scarlet leaves was scattered on the grass. This was all Old Dick wanted, to see the sky, not through glass but as it truly was, a blue dome so brilliant it could bring tears to a man’s eyes.

Want to hear my exciting news?

I’m the new E-zine Editor for Literary Mama. You can see me on the masthead (”Jessica DeVoe Riley”). Editor. I feel very official. This must have been what Daniel-San felt like when he did the Crane Kick and won the All Valley Karate Championship.

Get him a bodybag!

Yes, I made a Karate Kid reference. It’s been on mind since reading this uber-hilarious post from Bill Simmons. (props to Lawyer Girl for turning me on to this).

But back to Literary Mama.

I started reading Literary Mama I don’t even know how long ago. It’s wonderful writing by wonderful women. My favorite drink from this well of good writing is Vicki Forman’s retired column, Special Needs Mama. Here’s the archive of it. I recommend reading all of them, from the bottom up, which is the order in which they were published. And you should know, you will probably cry.

“You’ve got to keep your wits about you in cooking and not stop in the middle of things to let your thoughts rove all over creation.”
–Anne of Green Gables, XIII

I went to a tent sale today for Children’s Orchard, which is a store that sells used children’s clothing, toys, accessories, etc. They were doing scratch off tickets and I won my choice of any book under $3.99, which is how I came home with this:

To tell you the truth, I have never actually read any one of the Anne of Green Gables book series. I am very fond, though, of unique cookbooks, and this particular cookbook is written by L.M. Montgomery’s granddaughter. This book will fit in nicely with my Narnia Cookbook, Star Wars Cookbook, Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook, and The Ruby Slippers Cookbook.

So let’s see what Anne has up her sleeve:

Cowcumber Boats. This caught my eye immediately because of the “cow”. This recipe doesn’t actually use cow, but cucumber. It also doesn’t take much tweaking to be The Boy-friendly. And looks like a nice way to get the kids eating fish for a change. Fish. My last battlefront.

Saucy Chicken. You saucy chicken, you. I’ll make this for the name alone.

Diana Barry’s Favorite Raspberry Cordial. I totally expected to read a recipe for an alcoholic beverage in a kids cookbook, but to my simultaneous disappointment and parental approval, it’s just sugar and fruit.

Poetical Egg Salad Sandwiches. More than your average Humpty Dumpty variety, this is Ode to a Grecian Egg.

Miss Ellen’s Pound Cake. Guaranteed to harden the arteries of all ages.

Anne’s Liniment Cake. When I read this title, I immediately thought – what? Muscle massage? After reading the description, it seems Anne made a similar mistake in one of the books. All I can say is, any girl who accidentally cooks with anodyne liniment is a friend of mine. A virtual high five to whoever tells me which one of the series contains this escapade (my money is on Beck).

On my way to the library…

With a little help from Random.org, Kristen of Frugality in the Making was declared the winner of my Amazon.com gift card.

Kristen told me “I always have to have a book to read. If I run out, I will read my 12 yr old son’s books.” So naturally, when I told her she was the winner I asked her what book she is reading right now. Mother of Pearl is her current book, though before that she was reading her son’s Alex Rider book, and there you have it — she is a woman of her word. I hope she uses the gift card to buy herself a new slew of books.

In honor of Kristen’s love of books, here is an old post of mine, from way back in 2006:

The Written Word is a Wonderful Thing

Well, I was visiting the lovely Toddled Dredge and saw a meme that I couldn’t pass up.

1. One book that changed your life: Animal Farm by Orson Welles. (EDITED SINCE 2006: I feel the need to leave it as Orson Welles, because that is how I originally typed it. I always mix him and George Orwell up, because, well, I’m an idiot). Because without this book, I would have had no idea that animals could so cruelly mistreat and brainwash one another to unlimited degrees. That’s exactly why we should continue to support the meat industry. Allegory? What’s that?

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. I don’t really like the movie, but the book is total horrid fascination.

3. One book you would want on a desert island: The complete comedies of William Shakespeare. Perhaps you think I should go for something more thought provoking, but frankly, if I’m all alone on a desert island, the last thing I’m going to want to ponder is life, the universe, and everything—I AM ALL ALONE ON AN ISLAND. I’m pretty sure my answer would be life sucks, the universe is rotten, and everything is against me. I’d rather have things to laugh about.

4. One book that made you laugh: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Those people know how to throw a mad, swingin’ party, yo.

5. One book that made you cry: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. The problem is, I don’t know if I was crying at what we’ve done or what I’m not doing now.

6. One book that you wish had been written: The Greatest Novel of Our Time by Me. I’d settle for A Novel by Me.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: It’s a toss up between Scarlett, the Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and Babywise. Probably Babywise, because nobody ever took Scarlett seriously.

8. The book that you are currently reading: Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman. Fooking hi-larious. Stop what you’re doing and go buy it and read it. No, I’m serious. Do it.

9. One book that you have been meaning to read: What are you doing still reading this????? I just told you to stop! Go read Killing Yourself to Live. Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!

“This is Graham Roumieu’s fourth or fifth book. He is willing to accept honorary doctorates from any reputable learning institution.”

This is what prefaces the start of the book, Bigfoot I Not Dead, and already, I knew I was in for a laugh.I checked this out after Hayden’s Ferry Review recommended Me Write Book and I Not Dead. My county’s entire library system did not have Me Write Book, but they did have I Not Dead.

I Not Dead is a series of statements written by Bigfoot. They’re written in a diary entry kind of way, though it’s not intended to be a Bigfoot journal. It’s more like a chronicle of the thoughts that go through Bigfoot’s mind, among them “Me totally look awesome on camera” and “How many reflective vest Bigfoot have to wear before people stop run Bigfoot over on foggy mountain road at night?”

More than the writing itself, the illustrations are the true gem in this book. I love the portraits of Bigfoot, and the drawings of what has become of his forest friends when he visits his old stomping grounds is an image that will remain in my mind for some time (think crack pipe). Roumieu clearly has the same sick sense of humor I do, so I laughed a lot while reading this. If you’re a bit twisted, you’ll laugh too.

Unfortunately, the illustrations were so appealing that the kids wanted to read it too, and I’m not entirely sure it’s on par with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I wound up showing them select pages and making up my own words. “Look - Bigfoot likes to jog because it makes him healthy!” (Hey, a mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do.)

I visited this new site, FieldReport, which is self-described as the following:

“On the outside, FieldReport is a contest, big enough to get a lot of people involved. On the inside it’s a community of writers and readers dedicated to great storytelling and to breaking down walls of human isolation.

The message of FieldReport is a simple one: The only thing that really matters about life is how you open your heart to it.”

It’s an interesting site. I’m still getting the hang of it. Actually, there’s not much to get – Write or Review. Write your own life stories of 2000 words or less and read ones written by others. You have to review five in order to write one. Winners are judged by other members of the FieldReport community (Fun! Who wants to buy me?).

There are monthly contests to win $1,000 and a grand prize for $250,000. Which is no small chunk of change. It could buy you a sweet Harry Winston ring. Or a house or something. (Which begs the question – who is funding this? Maybe John McCain doesn’t know he’s fronting the prize money.)

All in all, looks pretty cool. The one piece I’ve reviewed so far got a ten from me, about a mother bringing a second child into the home and its effect on the firstborn. I think all of us parents of more than one child remember that feeling of “the second time”… If the rest of the writing is this high quality, you’re in for a treat as a reader.

Go check it out for yourself. Currently, I’m reviewing under the name Riley, but I’m still debating changing the name of my writing persona. It’s a toss up between Glorious Beastmaster and Amiable Anaconda.

Tough call.