From Kate’s Writing Crate…
I have
lots of books waiting to be read, but I’ve chosen the next twelve I want to
complete this summer.
I started
reading Wonder and Other Survival Skills:
A Selection of Essays from Orion Magazine on July 1st. I love to
wonder, as most writers do, and I think it is a survival skill so the title
really appealed to me. Among the contributors, I have read Diane Ackerman and
Rick Bass before—in fact, I own most of each of their books—but I have never
heard of Michael P. Branch whose essay “A Ladder to The Pleiades” I chose
randomly to read first. It was a delight. I will never look at a night sky
without thinking of his three-year-old daughter and the life lessons she taught
him.
I am not
sure in which order I will read the rest of these books.
Astrophysics
for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson ties into the essay I
mentioned above, but I chose it long before that because of the author and
subject. I did the same with Bang! The Complete
History of the Universe by Brian May (guitarist in Queen) Patrick Moore,
and Chris Lintott.
As I mentioned above, I read
Diane Ackerman so her book The Human Age:
The World Shaped By Us is on the list.
Since I am a writer, I like
to read books about writers as well as books that help me improve my writing
including: Arthur & Sherlock: Conan
Doyle and the Creation of Holmes by Michael Sims; Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for the Page, Stage, and Screen
by Robert McKee; and the memoir The Dead
Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries by Jessa Crispin.
Also on the list is Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane
Gay. I saw her speak and read some of her work on Book TV on C-SPAN. She is an extraordinary
writer.
In the fiction category, I
have chosen Midnight at the Bright Ideas
Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan; Grief
Cottage by Gail Godwin; and A House
Among the Trees by Julia Glass. All of them tie into books and/or authors.
My final choice is Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the
World by Jane Hirshfield. I also started reading this book. It is so
profound and beautifully written that I recommend it to all writers. This book will
be a future Masterclass blog post.
I hope you enjoy your summer
reading list as much as I’m going to enjoy mine.
My word count for the week of June 25-July 1 was 15,798.
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