Talk about jumping right in. As part of my goal for this blog, I've tried to be a more social blogger, mainly through reading and commenting on other people's Road Trip Wednesday posts until grading or sleep demand attention. This is something new I'm trying--and the volume is potentially much higher. I'm planning to spend the weekend intermittently checking out the blogs on the blog hop list, even though I am a little overwhelmed by what seems like the internet version of going out to a crowded club, when my speed is really throwing a Mad Men theme party in my apartment for like ten people.
Here's to new things!
Three blogs I enjoy:
Obviously, YA Highway because of Road Trip Wednesdays, and their excellent Field Trip Friday literary news roundup.
I'm really excited about YA Confidential--I always wonder if my students would agree with their "spies".
And, for good measure--Lois Lowry's blog! I was so thrilled to find it and it's very chatty and occasionally contains really tantalizing information about her new books.
Reading and Writing Wherever I Can
Friday, October 14, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Road Trip Wednesday--My Writing Journey
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. This week, YA Highway wants to know:
What has your writing road trip looked like so far? Excitement? Traffic jams and detours? Where are you going next?
Eek. I'm still a little squeamish talking about my writer-self. I'm way good with my reader-self and my teacher-self, but my writer-self has been dormant for so long, wth only brief outings. I do have the beginning of a WIP...insert standard author excuse-making here, I guess, but since I don't let my students indulge in those, I really can't get away with it either.
I started this novel last NaNoWriMo, with my 6th grade writing class. I am proud/chagrined to say that two of my 6th graders beat my word count...one by quite a bit (I came nowhere near meeting my goal, but it was more writing than I had done for myself since elementary school.) Since I was writing alongside 6th graders, I decided to try a realistic MG novel. Currently it stands around 7,500 words, and for the time being, I'm leaving it be in order to focus on the demands of the new school year. I think I may give it another go during this year's NaNoWriMo--which I know is against the "rules", but it will be more of an inspiration to start writing daily--even 500 words or so--and that can't hurt. The title right now is Minnow. It has an outline, a playlist, and blobby first chapters. And I think that's all I have to say about that.
I also wrote and submitted a short story to a writing contest this summer, something I had never done before and had never really even considered. But the Machine of Death contest called out to me, and I had some free time over the summer, and so it went. I didn't agonize over it; I didn't tell myself that secretly, the editors meant that the contest was open to anyone but me (as I often do); I simply wrote, revised, and submitted. It was a whole new thing.
And of course, I'm writing this blog now. I'm committed to at least RTW every week, plus following my students once they get their own blogs up and running, and keeping up with a number of the other RTW participants. Actually, I have a question for the many more experienced bloggers who might click over to this--I tend to follow blogs in my Google Reader. Is there a preferred/better way? What's the current thinking/technology on following people?
What has your writing road trip looked like so far? Excitement? Traffic jams and detours? Where are you going next?
Eek. I'm still a little squeamish talking about my writer-self. I'm way good with my reader-self and my teacher-self, but my writer-self has been dormant for so long, wth only brief outings. I do have the beginning of a WIP...insert standard author excuse-making here, I guess, but since I don't let my students indulge in those, I really can't get away with it either.
I started this novel last NaNoWriMo, with my 6th grade writing class. I am proud/chagrined to say that two of my 6th graders beat my word count...one by quite a bit (I came nowhere near meeting my goal, but it was more writing than I had done for myself since elementary school.) Since I was writing alongside 6th graders, I decided to try a realistic MG novel. Currently it stands around 7,500 words, and for the time being, I'm leaving it be in order to focus on the demands of the new school year. I think I may give it another go during this year's NaNoWriMo--which I know is against the "rules", but it will be more of an inspiration to start writing daily--even 500 words or so--and that can't hurt. The title right now is Minnow. It has an outline, a playlist, and blobby first chapters. And I think that's all I have to say about that.
I also wrote and submitted a short story to a writing contest this summer, something I had never done before and had never really even considered. But the Machine of Death contest called out to me, and I had some free time over the summer, and so it went. I didn't agonize over it; I didn't tell myself that secretly, the editors meant that the contest was open to anyone but me (as I often do); I simply wrote, revised, and submitted. It was a whole new thing.
And of course, I'm writing this blog now. I'm committed to at least RTW every week, plus following my students once they get their own blogs up and running, and keeping up with a number of the other RTW participants. Actually, I have a question for the many more experienced bloggers who might click over to this--I tend to follow blogs in my Google Reader. Is there a preferred/better way? What's the current thinking/technology on following people?
Friday, October 7, 2011
Defining My Terms
As an English teacher, I'm constantly recommending books and/or haranguing my students to come peruse my overflowing bookshelves. I try to stock a wide variety, including some books that just don't catch my interest but that I know will be appealing to certain of my students. (BTW, thank you Borders, for choosing back-to-school time to close up shop. At 70% or even 90% off, I was much more willing to purchase books that I don't want to read, if I know my students will. There is much more non-fiction sports writing in the collection now, for example.) At the same time--I'm buying these books on my own time, with my own hard-earned, y'know, blah blah blah, so I feel ok about letting my quirks shine through. I stock very few vampire books--my entire Twilight series walked away my first year and I never saw fit to replace it. If someone wants to make a case for a vampire book or series that stands out, I'll try it--it just seems too hard to sift through and find what's good vs. what's pulpy and mass-produced. A crummy vampire novel is just plain crummy--whereas even a crummy dystopian novel
at least, inherently, has a social critique of some kind for the reader to think about.
Ok, so all that is to say, I think a lot about what makes a "good" book. I get asked at least once a day, "Mrs. S, is this one good?" I have to interpret what that question means based on who's asking--some kids mean, "I don't really read--is this going to grab me and suck me in?" Other kids mean, "You know me, you know what I read--is this my style?" Other kids are willing to try anything and just want some reassurance that something is worth a shot.
As an adult with a degree in English who reads at least 75% YA, I feel like I need to be judicious with applying the big g-word when I'm talking to other adults. I find myself saying things like, "Oh my god, I just read ____________ and I'm so obsessed right now," or "This plot has me so hooked--go away and let me read my book." (Sorry, Mr. S!) With knock-out, absolutely wonderful books, I'll take the step. I stand by every part of the His Dark Materials and Hunger Games trilogies. (If I ever get a tattoo--which I don't plan on doing, but who knows--it will be a particular four-word phrase from Mockingjay which I can't even think without getting a little winded.)
I have to have a few go-tos when people hear about what I do and ask questions (go-to recommendations that I am willing to call "good books", even to adults, right now: Divergent, The Ship Breaker, Delirium). But this is a weird standard that I don't necessarily apply in my teaching life, except with a few students who are really voracious and discerning readers. I hold these multiple definitions of "good" in my head all the time. And I'm sure we all do--the book you can't put down even as you find the actual writing hard to take. (A recent experience like that for me was Vixen--I was desperate to know how it would turn out, but the dialogue and some of the description just clunked along, to my ear. If you interrupted me when I was reading it and asked if it was good, though, I would have shooed you away so I could keep reading, which most people would take as a yes.)
So--what's a good book? The part of my brain that feels like I should be reading more Wharton, Dickens, or (oh help) David Foster Wallace* says it has to do with the prose itself--how is the story told? The part of my brain that only learned to form letters so I could write my name on a library card, that's been reading hungrily and instinctively since I was four says it has to do with the experience in the moment. Am I enjoying it? Am I going to keep turning the pages?
And of course, as a teacher, I have the ultimate test. Is this student going to connect in a way that makes him finish this book? Will this student read this one and then want to read another one?
How do you define a "good" book?
*A footnote, in honor of the great man: my husband, also an English major, claims Infinite Jest is his favorite book. I love my husband and so I'm supposed to say things like "I would do anything for him" or whatever. Infinite Jest disproved that after about a hundred and twenty pages. Sorry. Taken together, Mr. S and I would make the ultimate English major, with him covering Chaucer, Marlowe, and everything from Virginia Woolf to the present, and me taking Shakespeare and everything from Tom Jones through Edith Wharton.
at least, inherently, has a social critique of some kind for the reader to think about.
Ok, so all that is to say, I think a lot about what makes a "good" book. I get asked at least once a day, "Mrs. S, is this one good?" I have to interpret what that question means based on who's asking--some kids mean, "I don't really read--is this going to grab me and suck me in?" Other kids mean, "You know me, you know what I read--is this my style?" Other kids are willing to try anything and just want some reassurance that something is worth a shot.
As an adult with a degree in English who reads at least 75% YA, I feel like I need to be judicious with applying the big g-word when I'm talking to other adults. I find myself saying things like, "Oh my god, I just read ____________ and I'm so obsessed right now," or "This plot has me so hooked--go away and let me read my book." (Sorry, Mr. S!) With knock-out, absolutely wonderful books, I'll take the step. I stand by every part of the His Dark Materials and Hunger Games trilogies. (If I ever get a tattoo--which I don't plan on doing, but who knows--it will be a particular four-word phrase from Mockingjay which I can't even think without getting a little winded.)
I have to have a few go-tos when people hear about what I do and ask questions (go-to recommendations that I am willing to call "good books", even to adults, right now: Divergent, The Ship Breaker, Delirium). But this is a weird standard that I don't necessarily apply in my teaching life, except with a few students who are really voracious and discerning readers. I hold these multiple definitions of "good" in my head all the time. And I'm sure we all do--the book you can't put down even as you find the actual writing hard to take. (A recent experience like that for me was Vixen--I was desperate to know how it would turn out, but the dialogue and some of the description just clunked along, to my ear. If you interrupted me when I was reading it and asked if it was good, though, I would have shooed you away so I could keep reading, which most people would take as a yes.)
So--what's a good book? The part of my brain that feels like I should be reading more Wharton, Dickens, or (oh help) David Foster Wallace* says it has to do with the prose itself--how is the story told? The part of my brain that only learned to form letters so I could write my name on a library card, that's been reading hungrily and instinctively since I was four says it has to do with the experience in the moment. Am I enjoying it? Am I going to keep turning the pages?
And of course, as a teacher, I have the ultimate test. Is this student going to connect in a way that makes him finish this book? Will this student read this one and then want to read another one?
How do you define a "good" book?
*A footnote, in honor of the great man: my husband, also an English major, claims Infinite Jest is his favorite book. I love my husband and so I'm supposed to say things like "I would do anything for him" or whatever. Infinite Jest disproved that after about a hundred and twenty pages. Sorry. Taken together, Mr. S and I would make the ultimate English major, with him covering Chaucer, Marlowe, and everything from Virginia Woolf to the present, and me taking Shakespeare and everything from Tom Jones through Edith Wharton.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Road Trip Wednesday 10/4/11
It's time for another Road Trip Wednesday post!
This week's topic:
What supporting character from a YA book would you most like to see star in their own novel?
Ok. Well. Where to start? I mean, it feels like the major supporting characters are too obvious (a Gale's-eye version of the entire HG trilogy, especially once we lose sight of him in Mockingjay? Yes, please. Or even the Tale of Effie Trinket.) And I wrote here last week about how much I would love to see more of anything set in the world of Ship Breaker. When I polled my students today, I put myself on the spot and talked about how interesting a story about Aunt Edith from The Luxe Series could be--her youth must have been quite something.
But surely there must be a better answer--a character I'm really attached to, from a book that's on my all-time greats list. Hmm.
Ooh--ok, got it. Either Asher or Lily--maybe both--from The Giver. Lois Lowry has continued to write within that universe, but I want a direct sequel to The Giver, maybe alternating first-person or third-person limited narration between Asher and Lily, since their ages and relationships to Jonas are so different. Ooh--and while I'm getting greedy, maybe Fiona, too. Someone who actually participates in Release in her work. Ok, maybe Fiona actually wins this contest. Yeah, definitely. So, my answer is:
Fiona from The Giver, by Lois Lowry!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Road Trip Wednesday--What Was The Best Book You Read In September?
I'm new to this but I'm going to jump right in. YA Highway's Wednesday Road Trip this week asks: "What was the best book you read in September?" Since school started this month, I got my built-in reading time back and I've been devouring the books that I didn't get to this summer. It's really, really hard to choose--so I'm going to have to make a list.
1) Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly. I loved Alex and Andi, the dual protagonists, and I actually also loved the bits of history and music theory I picked up along the way. I really appreciated that it was a standalone novel--YA has gotten really series-heavy, which is great because I always want more of my favorite characters, but it can be really satisfying to read a story that actually ends at the end of the book.
2) The Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm hearing rumors of a sequel to this book, which I would be really excited about, but it also felt like a satisfying standalone in terms of plot. What I really want is more of this world, whether or not we see more of the main characters. Information about this dystopia is dropped throughout the story like breadcrumbs, and each new piece of information is so fascinating that I want a whole story just to explain it. I want more information about the different religions, the drowned cities, and most especially about the "half-men".
3) Delirium, by Lauren Oliver. This is another dystopian world that I'm excited about. While there weren't as many tantalizing details as in The Ship Breaker, there was a great premise--what if love was seen as a disease--and science found a cure? What if you grew up learning that love was something dangerous, and the goal was simply to get children to age 18--the age at which the surgical cure can safely be administered--without falling in love?
4) The Luxe, by Anna Godberson. I know everyone compares this series to Gossip Girl, which is justified in a kind of macro sense, but IMHO, it is much better-written. Much. (I'm thinking about addressing my issues with both Gossip Girl and Vixen, which was also similar, in another post, so I won't do too much bashing here.) The point is, it's romantic, it's suspenseful, it's clever, and the third-person limited shifting narration does a great job of letting us into each character's head in turn. Plus, I'm a sucker for period society dramas, with all their rules just waiting to be broken...and, the clothes. I worked in our theater's costume shop in college (Best. Workstudy. Ever.) so I at least have some idea of what the various detailed descriptions of fabric, cut, and color actually mean. And I love it. And I am jealous of it. Suffice it to say, with about a hundred and fifty pages left last night, I marched out to the bookstore and grabbed all three sequels off the shelf because I knew I wouldn't be able to wait to read them. I was right--I made a sizable dent in the sequel, Rumors, on the way home today.
So, those were the best books I've read this month. And yes--I did read a few books this month that didn't make the cut, so consider yourself lucky!
An Introduction
Welcome to my blog! I'm Mrs. S, an English and Theater teacher currently working in New York City. I've tried blogging before but never with much success or longevity. I think my problem was that I was never part of a blogging community before. I'm hoping all that will change now that I'll be running a book blogging club at my school. I'll also be participating in some writing challenges from other blogs, notably those from YA Highway (Road Trip Wednesdays) and Should Be Reading (Teaser Tuesdays).
The title of my blog comes from the place I do most of my reading these days--on the F train! My commute to and from work gives me about 45 minutes of good reading time on the train each way, for about an hour and a half every day (and more if I'm waiting for the train a long time!)
I really want to follow more blogs that are related to YA literature, writing, publishing, or reading in general, so please leave a comment saying hello and sharing a link if it's ok for me to add you to my blogroll!
The title of my blog comes from the place I do most of my reading these days--on the F train! My commute to and from work gives me about 45 minutes of good reading time on the train each way, for about an hour and a half every day (and more if I'm waiting for the train a long time!)
I really want to follow more blogs that are related to YA literature, writing, publishing, or reading in general, so please leave a comment saying hello and sharing a link if it's ok for me to add you to my blogroll!
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