XLIX - July 2011

My big news is that Random House has decided that the forthcoming Under the Skin will be in trade paperback rather than mass market paperback.  And they are working on an all new cover. 

I was surprised, to put it mildly.  It will make the book more expensive (probably $15) -- but easier to read (bigger pages.) And there are many reviewers who just don't bother with mass market but will review trade. 

We'll see if this is A Good Thing. I hope so.


In other news, I am still working on the next book, somewhat distracted by the garden which, as Candide says, we must cultivate.

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 If you're in the western NC area, look for the July issue of WNC Magazine -- free at bookstores and other locales. I'm pleased to say I'm one of various NC writers who were asked to do a piece on 'Why We Love Western North Carolina."  You can also read it HERE.

After a very hot beginning to the month, the weather has moderated. Ample rain has brought out the best in our day lilies-- I can't stop taking their pictures as readers of my daily blog are, no doubt, all too aware.

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I have some good reads to share, if Miss Susie Hutchins will let me at them...  

Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler is charming and low key in the way I expect of Tyler's novels. No one does families better and this is Tyler at her best. It begins, "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." 

Le Divorce by Diane Johnson is a must if you've ever daydreamed of living in France. An young American woman comes to Paris to lend support to her stepsister whose aristocratic French husband wants a divorce. A comedy of manners and the conflict between French and American ways -- I was fascinated.

Lamb by Christopher Moore is my kind of quirky, wise and wisecracking humor. It's the Gospel according Biff, Christ's childhood pal. I loved this book and all the various threads it pulled on to explore where Jesus might have been between his childhood and his last years. The more you know about the Bible, the more of the allusions you'll 'get.'


A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King. A re-read - Ms. King is such a good writer! Her Mary Russell series is one of my favorites but I'm growing more and more fond of this earlier series featuring Kate Martinelli, a San Francisco police detective. Wonderful setting, characters, plotting -- small wonder this won the Edgar for Best First Novel back in 1993.


Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James.  A wonderful survey of the genre by a woman who is one of its top practitioners.


Time is a River by Mary Alice Monroe.  I talked about this one HERE

FROM YOU ALL

Pat Browning writes ... my reading is not usually what everyone else is reading -- except that I did read and love THE HELP. I just finished reading THE LAST CONVERTIBLE by Anton Myrer. Not a new book (1978) but the kind of intergenerational (is that a word?) saga I love.

Martin in England says ...thanks for flagging up 'The Book Thief', in a recent post. It's an extraordinary book. I've just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go', which was a good read, but this is something else.

We also have roses and clematis...
But it's the day lilies that get the attention...

A slide show with more of my favorite June pictures -- and lots more day lilies.

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

XLVIII - June 2011

Can it be June already? Two or three weeks ago we were worried about frost. But Heaven knows, the past few days have felt like July. 

We've gone into deep summer mode -- hitting the garden early and getting back to the house before noon, not to set foot outside before three. Fans are roaring; the eastern windows are shut till the sun's off them; and a big pitcher of minty iced tea has taken up residence on the kitchen counter.

I'm still doing research the Civil War novel.  Our little neck of the woods --which is, of course, where I'll set my story -- is somewhat atypical for the South in that there were very few slave owners and quite a few rugged individualists who just wanted to be left alone.  There are stories of men conscripted by the Confederate Army who deserted to return home only to be conscripted by roving Union soldiers. 

And then there were the Outliers -- men who took to the woods rather than fight but all too often ended up as little better than criminal gangs, taking advantage of war's anarchy to settle old grudges.

A wealth of possibilities . . . I hope to give you a taste of it next month.

I've also been on a bit of a reading spree.  My dear friend Josie up and moved to California, taking only part of her extensive library with her.  I have been feasting on the remains -- an eclectic selection..

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 A Girl Like I by Anita Loos is a memoir of Miss Loos' long. long career in show biz.  Loos is best known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but she got her start in the silent films, writing her first script in 1912.  I found it a fascinating picture of an era.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith is a terrific example of an anti-hero. I didn't expect to like this book but I couldn't put it down. That said, I'm not sure I'll look for the next in the series -- I really didn't like Ripley, even while I admired Highsmith's writing.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.  Didion could write about air fresheners and I would read it for the elegance of her prose. But she's writing about widowhood and she does it with such fine-wrought delicacy that I couldn't help thinking of an oyster, producing a pearl from the pain of an unwanted intrusion.

 The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble could have been a cliche -- woman who has lived for her husband is left by her husband and goes on to find herself in a new life. That's the book --but the writing is beautiful and  the characters excruciatingly real.

The Glorious Adventure by Richard Halliburton. Halliburton's romantic travel adventures fueled my teenage imagination back in the mid-Fifties. Of course, since he was writing in the Twenties,  the world he described no longer exists. But what fun to follow his travels as he attempts to trace the wanderings of Odysseus, swims the Hellespont, climbs Mount Parnassus, consults the oracle at Delphi, and takes shelter in the Cyclops's cave!

The Book of Small by Emily Carr is a real oddity. Carr is a well-known artist of the Canadian Northwest and this is a memoir of her childhood -- growing up in Victoria, British Columbia in the late 1800s. I found it completely charming.

To Dance With the White Dog by Terry Kay. The story of an old man whose wife dies suddenly, his and his children's attempts to cope with the new situation, and the mysterious white dog that only he can see. It could have been corny and maudlin but it's not. It's quietly moving and the old man is terrific.

I talked about The Year of the Hare  and  Feeding a Yen   over HERE. And there were more which I'll get to another time.  Currently, I'm rereading The Book Thief and enjoying much more than my first time through.

 

Here's a small plea to all of you who receive my heads-up notices that a new Goodweather Report has been published. I'm in the midst of switching my stuff, including mailing lists, from one computer to another. In the past, this has not always gone well and whole chunks of my address book have disappeared.

What I'd like to suggest, if you want to be sure to continue to receive the Report on the first of every month, is that you sign up, over there on the right and almost to the top, to subscribe to this blog by email.  I'm going to try very hard to maintain my lists  and will continue to send reminders as long as I can but the ways of information transfer from Vista to Windows 7 are fraught with hazard -- at least for me they are.

Wishing you a happy June --- looks like it's gonna be a hot one!

XLVII - May 2011

At last I can share the cover of the next book -- no foolin'!  Except that it's not the final one -- the blurb will change -- that's just a place holder.

You can click over HERE to read an excerpt from Under the Skin, the next Elizabeth book.

April was a beautiful and busy month -- we began to ready the garden, potatoes were planted, the Easter party and all that entails occupied us for several weeks -- getting ready, family coming to visit, the preparty and the party -- and the cleanup. Yesterday I returned the last quilts, finished washing the guest room bedding, and put my notes and shopping list for next year's party in a safe place.  

A new batch of chicks arrived as well as a second milk cow. And the flowers kept delighting me -- one bright new face after another.

I was honored that Kathryn Stripling Byer, North Carolina's  past Poet Laureate, included Miss Birdie and me on her Poets of the Day blog series. Kay does a wonderful job of bringing contemporary poets to our attention . . . 

Reading List

I've been reading for research -- for the next book. Lots of Civil War in western North Carolina stuff. And, in other reading  (or re-reading in many cases) let me mention the following:

Tepper's Not Going Out by Calvin Trillin. I've always adored Trillin's food books. This is something different -- and endearing. I wouldn't have expected to enjoy a book about a New Yorker's quest for a parking place but I did, I did! Highly recommended.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. My goodness, this woman can write! A slender novel about an English village besieged by the Plague. Effortless historical detail and a female protagonist who comes to life on the page.

High Tide in Tucson --by Barbara Kingsolver. Probably my fourth or fifth time to reread this book of essays by a writer I feel as if I know. Witty, wise, and wonderful!

You all have been reading too. I'd love it if more of you shared your opinions and recommendations. I've been told of one librarian who uses your comments to get ideas for what to order. . .
 

One commenter said, re THE HELP:  I loved "The Help" and so did my daughter!. Since my Mom had TB, we had a maid whom we called Edgie. I loved her and her cooking. In the 60ty's, she got a job in a mill.This book helped my explain to my daughter why I am old fashion about some of the things that happen today. For many of us that is the world we were born into. And as the saying goes :When we knew better, we did better. 

Another liked it too: I read THE HELP.  I liked it and can see why it's such a book club hit.  It's Civil Rights Lite (and I mean that spelling).   Plenty to talk about and it's all so safe ---  doesn't raise many messy issues.  Of course, I did have trouble believing all those black women did all that housework and then came home and did more and never seemed to have a solitary ache or pain.  But it's an entertaining read nonetheless, and you get to feel good about yourself for being so liberal and understanding.

I just read an Irish thriller, WINTERLAND, by Alan Glynn, that I really liked.   The Irish have a nice way of writing this tightly focused, small scaled thriller I don't think Americans do as well.  But then the Irish, if their lives depended on it, couldn't write a big scale crazy-wild-out-there thriller like Josh Bazell's BEAT THE REAPER, which is pure nutsy and all out fabulous Americana.  If I told you the plot you'd say, no way can that work, but it does, man it does.

Liz G shared her reading list: Just finished - Just Kids by Patti Smith - I think that fact that I worked in radio and thus around lots of musicians added to my enjoyment of this National Book Award winner.

Started the new Maisie Dobbs book from Jacqueline Winspear - A Lesson in Secrets - I enjoy the simplicity of these books and all things British.

Finally bought Saving Ceecee Hunnicutt - but haven't started it yet.

I have been reading Master and Commander (in the john for the past six months!!) and am finally enjoying it - so many people - you included - have told me how much they love this series. But it took me a long time to get into it (and I am an avid sailor). I think I might enjoy it on tape as you have said.

I enjoyed a Dean Koontz book - Breathless - I haven't read much of his - except for his four Odd Thomas books - but I liked this strange little book.

 A very happy May to all of you!

XLVI -April 2011

As some of you know, Herself, my esteemed editor, and I have been going round and round about what book I should write next. Of course, I could write anything I felt like and then hope that Ann, my esteemed agent, could sell it. But I keep hoping to tantalize Herself into offering me another contract. 

I want to write a kind of multi-generational story, set in Marshall County and beginning around the time of the Civil War --which was especially uncivil in these parts. 

Think Gone With the Wind    meets Cold Mountain.

Lots of romance, lots of lush scenery and period dialog, lots of fascinating characters.... I think it could be really good.

But in today's skittish publishing climate, They want something more, something that would really get people's attention. So...

So we make  some of the main characters vampires . . .

Working title -Vanished with the Wind on Blood Mountain

What day is it? Oh, yes, April 1.

A happy Spring to everyone! It's been too wet to plow here and we haven't done a thing in the garden, not even planted potatoes.  John is painting gates and mending fences and getting ready to build a permanent chicken house for our broiler raising operation. Justin is making butter and cheese with all the milk Marigold is producing now -- there's even talk of a second milk cow.

I am trying to tackle some painting and cleanup in the house, as well as settling down to begin the next book -- with or without a contract.  There will not be vampires. Or zombies.

And I've been asked to be part of a fun collaborative mystery novel -- Twelve writers, each writing a longish chapter....but that's all I can tell you at the moment.

RECENT READS

One of my dearest friends writes: What is the matter with me...I HATED The Help, couldn't read past pg 50...all too obvious and certain to make the reader feel superior...UGH! But I'm the only one on the planet so I must be nuts...just read another book I think you will love: "The Year of the Hare", written in 1975 by a Scandinavian writer and has now been translated into over 20 languages...I GUARANTEE THIS ONE!

I haven't read THE HELP yet -- I know lots of you all loved it. Will have to take a look soon.

One Was A Soldier I really did love and carried on at length over on my daily blog. There's a drawing over there to win an advance reading copy so if you're interested, click on over.

I'm also very enthusiastic about a Young Adult book called The Blue Sword. 
I loved reading it and only wish I'd first encountered it when I was around ten.  A perfect gift for the young girls in your life.

NOTE OF CLARIFICATION

Under the Skin is available for preorder now, though it won't be out till October 25. It is subtitled "A Full Circle Farm Mystery" which has confused more than one of you all, looking for the next Elizabeth Goodweather.  

Yes, it IS the next Elizabeth book. 

This new tag is from Random House marketing, who obviously hoped it would sell more books. We'll see; no one listened when I said I thought it was confusing.

A slide show of March -- click to biggify and read captions.

XLV - March 2011

What I did in February...

I also watched turkeys courting and I read some good books and turned 68 and was given a Kindle by my sons along with some 'real' books from others. I've talked about them over on my daily blog... 


And I've had a lot of fun downloading free books to my Kindle from Project Gutenberg . . . Oz books, Edgar Rice Burroughs books, Wodehouse books. . .

A fun thing happened -- Roseanne Daryl Thomas, the author of Beeing, a book I mentioned here last month, as well as blogging about it on my other blog,  got in touch with me after reading my write up.  We've had a pleasant exchange of emails and discovered quite a lot of things that we have in common --including a love for P.G. Wodehouse.

Who's Reading What

Witch of Stitches said, "I just picked up a copy of India Black this afternoon - both you and someone else, can't remember who, mentioned it and I thought it looked interesting. Also picked up copies of Gaskell's Wives & Daughters and Cranford for my Gaskell challenge - all of this after picking up several books at the library! Of course, as always, there is a pile of books next to my chair waiting to be read."

Deana the Queena of the Hell or Highwater Book Club writes:  "This morning I finished "Dogs," by Abigail Dewitt, also a local writer, whose prose is like a polished gem. You can read about it on Amazon if you'd like a more complete explanation of the story. I'll just say that my tears continued to flow after I closed the last page, partly because it was sad, partly because the story was so easy to relate to, and partly because it was told so beautifully."

Deb A of Aliens and Alibis says, "I’ve gone back to the older authors lately.  A number of library books are looking at me with soulful eyes but somehow the old books are what comes to hand when I want a new book.  Right now I am reading Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley – this is one I’ve read before but I read it more for the characters now.  I’ve also got some Mary Stewart on the shelf.  I have a couple of Barbara Michaels to read also – Into the Darkness and Die for Love which is by Elizabeth Peters.  (Note: As you may already know: Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters are the pen names of Barbara Mertz.)  Not really old books but very satisfying.  Maybe it’s a sign of aging but these writers have the power to keep me glued to the pages without a serial killer, tons of blood and inventive torturers. 

Back to the final pages of Shadowy Horses."

 Pat in East TN tells me: "I have finished reading a couple of Jo-Ann Mapson's earlier books.  I like her writing and had never gotten into the earlier books.  About a year ago I read HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls and really enjoyed it, so now I am reading her book THE GLASS CASTLE.  It's an account of her growing up and believe me, she had quite a life! "

Eleanor W "just finished a book I really like, "Enough About Love" by Herve Le Tellier...different, French-style...ooolala!"

Time to begin to think about the garden . . .

XLIV - February 2011

I cut some unpromising looking forsythia branches just before our last January snow and brought them inside in hopes of coaxing them  into bloom.

The snow was beautiful, as it always is -- at first. 

 Those snowy days were great for reading though.  One favorite was Mountain Born by Jean Boone Benfield, the subject of a blog post a while back.  I couldn't resist sharing some of the great old sayings -- many of which I've heard my neighbors use.

Then Stephanie, one of my readers, sent me a wonderful list that the doctor who is her boss has collected over the years. I posted some of them here but here are a few more:

"Pin stroke" -- mini stroke.  "'Mama had been having these pin strokes right along and then the big one got her."'

"Belly washer" -- soft drink (soda, pop.)  "He bought him a big old belly washer and a Moon Pie."

"Biggety" -- stuck up or acting big.  "She's  acting awful biggety ever since she got that raise."


"Gommin' and piddlin'"-- loafing. "He hadn't done a lick of work -- just gommin' and piddlin' all the day long."


"Ill as a red-tailed wasp" -- extremely irritable.  "She's ill as a red-tailed wasp ever since her divorce."


"Swimmie-headed" -- dizzy.  "Law, that white liquor made me swimmie-headed!"


Do any of you have some good ones?

At last! My year of reading mysteries as a member of the committee to select the best mystery of the year is over!  It was fun but frustrating as I signed a pledge not to review or talk about any of the five hundred plus books I dipped into during the past year. I've packed up most of the books to give to our local library and now I have a bit of time to read whatever I like. And recommend it, if I liked it!

(The Edgar Nominees are here, if you're interested.  I am allowed to say that I thought they were all very, very good.)

 

Recent Reads -- Mine and Yours

Beeing by Roseann Daryl Thomas is a charming memoir of "Life, Motherhood, and 180,000 Honeybees." Beautiful writing that had me thinking about becoming a beekeeper.

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman kept me turning pages, even as I found myself disliking many of the characters. I found the ending unsettling in spite of its inevitability.

Patchwork Planet by Ann Tyler.  What a good writer she is! This book isn't as good as some of her others, in my opinion, but it's still well worth reading.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson. I kind of feel like I may have been the last person in the known universe to have read these. Quite compelling reading, that's for sure.  I really liked the kick ass Salander.  And, yes, I read the third one but it's one of those books I can't discuss. And no, I haven't seen the movie.

India Black  by Carol K. Carr is a fun read that I talked about over on my daily blog.


The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal is a fascinating memoir about a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna before,WWII and the impact of the Nazi regime on the various member. Follow the link to my blog post.

Deana the Queena has just finished In the Wood, The God of Animals, and The Secret River.

Pat M. says " I'm reading Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand which I am enjoying for the WWII history & B-24’s giving me more insight about my dad."

Aleen S. writes: "Just started Vergehse's Cutting for Stone, (I was hooked after the first couple lines,) and find it helpful to read it with an Atlas by my side. So much about the geography of India-Africa I don't know, actually have never been challenged to think about it, other than mountains here and rivers there, savannas and desserts in the middle and the coast line run around." 

I'm watching the amaryllis in  our bedroom stretching taller in the morning sun.

And I'm keeping an eye on the  lone domestic goose amongst the flock of Canada geese down by the river. Previously it seemed to be paired up with one of the wild ones but on this day I wasn't so sure.

At the end of January, we had several balmy days, warm enough to melt most of the snow and to entice me out to do a little winter cleanup in the flower beds.  What bliss!

And after a few sunny days, the forsythia on the dining table bloomed.

 

XLIII - January 2011

 

 A new year dawns and with it once again a chance to do better -- to love our neighbors, to care for our planet, to slow down and pay attention, to be thankful for our blessings . . .


Do you make resolutions? I don't -- not formal one. But if I did, it might be this:

Practice random acts of kindness

And senseless acts of beauty.

Reading appears to be alive and well, whether with paper and ink books or one of the various electronic alternative.  I did recent posts on the books I got for Christmas and heard back from many of the readers of my daily blog about their reading.

Martin in England is downloading classics– free from the Gutenberg Project -- to his new Kindle.

Pat in east TN has a new Kindle too and is reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and is looking forward to reading Heartbroke Bay and Mountain Born (which I talked about HERE.) 

Crafty Green Poet in Scotland is currently reading Ian McEwan's Atonement; The End of Oil by Paul Roberts and Staying Alive, a brilliant poetry anthology edited by Neil Astley.

Brian Miller is reading Never Let Me Go which is fascinating...and rereading some poetry...by Saul Williams and the New York cafe poets . . .

Louise in NY state said... I've got some old L.M. Montgomery books, that I missed growing up, on my Kindle that I'm making my way through. They're good, but Anne Shirley is definitely her greatest heroine. 

 Star in England is reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett and is loving it.
 

Helen T in SC said... On my Nook I'm reading C.J. Sansom's Dissolution. At a Barnes and Noble after-Christmas sale I bought "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin. Last night I went to an Inklings exhibit at Greenville Library. I was thrilled to be in the same room with Dorothy L. Sayers autograph, hence her fingerprints. 

Tipper in NC said...  During my snowy days-I've put away a few books: Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell, U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton, Made in the USA and Shoot The Moon both by Billie Letts. 

Darla said... I've added Red Lily to my wish list. I'm finally reading The Secret Life of Plants (been meaning to for literally years), as well as The Home and The World by Rabindranath Tagore, and Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda.
 

Vagabonde said... Books and more books – they make the best presents. You received some nice ones and I did too. I pictured several of them (not all) on my new post. If you click on the picture you will see that I received Art’s Blood from a favorite writer given to me by my daughter from California.. I have started Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese It is no.1 on the Independent Booksellers fiction

Bouncin' Barb said... I'm in the middle of The Girl Who Played With Fire. 

Hélène GLEHEN in France said.. I am reading: Walden ou la vie dans les bois by Henry David Thoreau, haïkus by Basho and my best "whodunit" 

jennyfreckles in England said... I'm reading....The Day of Small Things - about five chapters in and I'm seriously hooked..

Donna D. reports reading THE HELP, SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME,THE MAGICIAN'S ELEPHANT [juvenile] and says they're all well worth reading.

Donna also says  --PACKING FOR MARS took a back seat to A DAY OF SMALL THINGS and I need to get back to it, although I've just begun THE PIG DID IT, which seems to have promise.

 

Many thanks to all of you for your support and friendship in the past year. I am buckling down to a new book and hope to be able to tell you more soon. 

The happiest of New Years to all of you!