Category: books

Overused Book Titles

In addition to writing, I work in a public library. This gives me an opportunity to notice when certain book titles have been overused. Looking for a book called The Gift, because your friend recommended it, but you can’t remember the author? Okay, well, sure. No problem. None at all. Let’s spend the next twenty minutes reading through the descriptions of the sixteen different books we have with that title in an effort to figure out which one it is. Authors and publishers, consider yourselves put on notice. I will actively discourage readers from any new book titled The Gift.

Here are more titles on my list for recommended retirement:

Twilight – Did you know about a dozen authors thought of using this before Stephenie Meyer? Time to let it fade into darkness.

On Thin Ice – Don’t go there; too many writers already have.

Redemption – This title is beyond itself

Forever – Which is how long it will take to narrow down the search to the one you’re seeking, if you don’t remember the author’s name.

The Return – It keeps coming back into the publishing world.

Reunion – Publishers keep revisiting this title, too.

The Search – Didn’t go far enough for an original name.

The Secret – It’s enigmatic why you’d want to have your book confused with so many others of the same title.

Sanctuary – It can blend in with the crowd and never be found.

The Island – Where overused book titles go for sanctuary.

In Too Deep – But if you can find your way out, maybe you can build a new title for yourself.

Is it a Scandinavian Thing?

I finally read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. So, I’m a little late to the party. I liked the book; I plan to read the next two. I don’t feel compelled to write any kind of review. Considering the book’s lingering status as an international bestseller, I think it’s been reviewed plenty.

I did come away from the reading with a nagging question. Is it a Scandinavian thing or just a Larsson thing? I’m talking about the author’s need to inform us readers of the exact square footage of every room and building mentioned in the story, along with the engineering specs of every computer used by any character. I know specific is supposed to be better than general when it comes to writing. “Humvee” is better than “really big vehicle.”  “PowerBook” is better than “laptop”. It allows the reader to visualize the scene better. But do we need to know the date of manufacture, size of the screen, hard drive capacity, processing speed, and whether the keyboard is backlit?

I find this more amusing than annoying. My computer jock spouse (he of German ancestry) would likely consider the paragraphs describing the computers as the most important information in the story. But I can’t help wondering if this is a literary tic – all writers have them – or a cultural thing. I haven’t read much Scandinavian fiction, so I can’t compare. Maybe it’s time to broaden my horizons and perhaps find the answer to my question.

Book List: Coming of Age Books

Update:  After reading The Hunger Games, I had to add it. Scroll down for a short description.

Here’s a list that could go on and on and on, kind of like adolescence for some people. I decided it was long enough when I got tired of finding new titles for it. Most are novels, but I’ve added some nonfiction titles, as well, mostly as an excuse to be able to included one of my favorites: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt.

Fiction

After Tupac and D Foster
Jaqueline Woodson, 2008
Young adult novel focusing on the lives of three girls bonding over the music of Tupac Shakur in 1990s New York.

Alice, I Think
Susan Juby, 2003
Fictional diary of Alice, a teen with  hippy parents. She is trying to find her place in the world, with the assistance of adults who seem to need a bit of help themselves.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon
Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Two cousins team up to create comic book adventures, fighting their own version of WWII on paper.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Judy Blume, 1970
Recently (April, 2010) re-released in its approximately 3,000th print run, Blume’s  book explores the age-old question: If there is a god, why doesn’t he or she give girls the breasts they want when they want them. Could it be so hard? Okay, it’s a little deeper than that.

Bang
Sharon Flake, 2005
In this YA title, an inner city boy is left in the woods to survive on his own, his father’s effort to toughen him up in hopes he’ll be able to survive the violent environment that has already claimed the life of his brother.

Beasts of No Nation
Uzodinma Iweala, 2005
The story of an African (no country is named) boy’s involvement with a group of guerilla fighters during his country’s civil war.

Bee Season
Myla Goldberg  , 2001
A girl’s unexpected spelling bee success causes equally unexpected consequences for her family.

Black Swan Green
David Mitchell, 2007
I’ve read this one and it’s quite well-written. The protagonist is a 13-year-old British boy who is struggling with a stutter, his parents’ dissolving marriage & the anguish of being 13. Mitchell captures perfectly the depth of the agony inherent in the every-minute decisions of adolescence that can make or break your standing with the peer group. The wrong choice of facial expressions, wrong choice of words, wrong poster on your wall, can lead to the worst sort of shunning and torment. But there is profound growth and insight as well.

Blind Sighted
Peter Moore, 2002
A high school misfit lands a job as a reader for a blind young woman. Insights ensue.

Blue Boy
Rakesh Satyal, 2009
12-year-old Indian-American, Kiran, is the 10th reincarnation of Krishnaji. Isn’t he? He believes he must be. Why else would his skin be turning blue?

The Bone Collector’s Son
Paul Yee, 2004
Set in early 20th-century Vancouver, Canada, the story of a boy who must deal with the facts of his father’s unpleasant profession, the ghosts who haunt his employer’s house, and the racism directed at Chinese immigrants.

Bringing the Boy Home
N.A. Nelson, 2008
Two boys from a fictional Amazonian tribe prepare for their coming 13th birthdays, and the accompanying ritual/survival test. One of the boys has been adopted and raised by an American.

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger, 1951
You’ve probably heard of it. 16-year-old Holden Caulfield’s three days in New York.

The Chosen One
Carol Lynch Williams, 2009
Teenaged life in a polygamous cult. The protagonist is a 13-year-old girl chosen to marry her 60-year-old uncle. Eww.

Edenville Owls
Robert B. Parker, 2007
The noted crime writer turns to YA writing here. The Owls are a high school basketball team. Basketball, courtship, and a mystery surrounding a teacher, in post WWII America.

An Egg on Three Sticks
Jackie Fischer, 2004
San Francisco in the early 70s with a mentally ill mother.

Farewell Babylon: Coming of Age in Jewish Baghdad
Naim Kattan, trans. Sheila Fischman, 2005
Mid-19th-century Baghdad, that would be.

The Foretelling
Alice Hoffman, 2005
Coming of age in an all female tribe of Amazonian warriors.

Getting in Tune: A Novel
Roger L. Trott , 2008
Written by a former music critic, the story of a young rock band in the 1970s.

A Girl Made of Dust
Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, 2008
Coming of age near Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war.

Girls in Peril: A Novella
Karen Lee Boren, 2006
1970s Lake Michigan area, a group of girls, don’t know much more. If you’ve read it, maybe you can enlighten us.

Goldengrove
Francine Prose , 2008
If you’re 13 years old and your older sister has recently died, it’s probably a bad idea to get involved with the sister’s boyfriend. But it sounds like a good idea for a novel.

Guitar Highway Rose
Brigid Lowry, 2003
Australian teens run away together. Poetry and guitars, hitchhiking and hippies.

Handcuffs
Bethany Griffin, 2008
If you were inferring something from the title, you were right. A bit more risque than your average YA coming of age novel.

Have Space Suit – Will Travel
Robert A. Heinlein, 1958
I loved this book when I was about 13 (considerably later than 1958.) I wonder if I would now. I remember a boy winning a space suit in a contest , but I think there was something about a basket of money on the kitchen counter that really hooked me.

Holding My Breath
Sidura Ludwig, 2007
The story of a girl pursuing dreams of being an astronomer, while living with multiple generations of her Jewish family in Manitoba in the 1950s.

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins, 2008
In a future dystopian North America, the one thing that remains from our culture is reality television. See, I told you it was dystopian. Two youths from each of the 12 “districts” are selected each year to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death, with only one survivor. Participation and viewership are mandatory.  But the two teens from District 12, Katniss and Peeta, turn the games in an unprecedented direction. There are two more books in this extremely well-written trilogy: Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

In Search of Mockingbird
Loretta Ellsworth, 2007
After receiving her deceased mother’s diary, which reveals a passion for the book To Kill a Mockingbird, a 16-year-old girl hops a bus to go meet Harper Lee.

Intensely Alice
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, 2009
Part of the Alice series. She’s 17 here.

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte, 1847
I can include this if I want. After all, Jane is 10 when the book begins; it’s not all her relationship with the mysterious Mr. Rochester.

Keeper
Mal Peet, 2005
Fictitious interview with a fictitious world-famous goalkeeper for a World Cup championship soccer team. He recounts being taught the game by a spirit being in the rain forest.

Last Child
Michael Spooner, 2005
In 1830s North Dakota, a girl who is half Scottish, half Mandan struggles with identity, smallpox and war.

Last Dance at the Frosty Queen
Richard Allen Uhlig, 2007
A high school senior is desperate to escape his small Kansas town, circa 1988.

The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine
April Lurie, 2008
A 16-year-old boy copes with being the subject of a friend’s documentary while trying to help his falling-apart family to get a grip on itself.

Life at These Speeds
Jeremy Jackson, 2002
A high school track star copes with being the only surviving team member after his teammates die in an accident.

Lili: A Novel of Tianenmen
Annie Wang, 2001
Growing up in Beijing during the time of the famous events in Tianenmen Square.

Looking for Lucy Buick
Rita Murphy, 2005
Girl who has been raised by a family who found her in the back seat of a Buick sets off to find her biological parents.

The Lucky Place
Zu Vincent, 2008
Set in the 1950s & 60s. A girl finds her loyalties divided between her father and step-father.

Me, the Missing, and the Dead
Jenny Valentine, 2008
If you were a 16-year-old Londoner who has been accidentally left in charge of an urn of ashes, what would you think? What if your father had mysteriously disappeared? Would you start to think things, such as “The person who used to be these ashes is talking to me?” Quite possibly.

No Laughter Here
Rita Williams-Garcia, 2004
Female genital mutilation comes to Queens, New York. No laughter indeed.

On Rough Seas
Nancy Hull, 2008
In 1940, a 14-year-old British boy, feeling in need of redemption, involves himself at Dunkirk.

One Lonely Degree
C.K. Kelly Martin, 2009
Sexual assault and love triangles provide more than enough struggle for a teenager.

Peak
Roland Smith, 2008
A 14-year-old sets out to climb Mount Everest.

Sag Harbor
Colson Whitehead, 2009
Autobiographical novel. A teen spends his school year at a prep school and his summers in the African-American community of Sag Harbor.

The Sand Fish: A Novel From Dubai
Maha Gargash, 2009
In 1950s Dubai, a 17-year-old girl unsuccessfully tries to flee an arranged marriage.

Sonny’s House of Spies
George Ella Lyon, 2004
Set in post-WWII Alabama. A boy tries to solve the mystery of his father’s departure.

The Speed of Light
Ron Carlson, 2003
Two 12-year-old boys spend a summer performing scientific experiments. And if a few things get blow up in the process…

The Story Sisters: A Novel
Alice Hoffman, 2009
The three Story sisters lead tragic and magical lives. I haven’t read this, but since it’s written by Alice Hoffman, I will eventually.

Tell Me Lies
Patrick Cooper, 2007
Life in the counterculture in 1969 England.

Thicker Than Water: Coming-of-Age Stories by Irish and Irish-American Writers, 2001
12 writers, 12 stories. You know you want to read it. Who can resist Irish storytelling?

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee, 1960
Do I really need to give a synopsis? The perfect novel. That’s my summary.

Walk Away Home
Paul Many, 2002
A teen who loves to walk, walks across the state to live with his aunt, who lives in a commune.

The Wednesday Wars
Gary D. Schmidt, 2007
Set in 1967. On Wednesday afternoons, all of 11-year-old Holling’s classmates attend either Hebrew school or catechism class. As the sole Presbyterian, he’s left alone with the teacher.

The Winter People
Joseph Bruchac, 2002
The experiences of a 14-year-old Abenaki boy during the French and Indian Wars.

Wish You Well
David Baldacci, 2007
Not one of Baldacci’s usual legal thrillers. In 1940, two children move from New York City to their great-grandmother’s farm, following the deaths of their parents.

Yoss
Odo Hirsch, 2004
A boy sets out on his coming of age journey only to find himself in slavery.

Non-Fiction

Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt, 1996
On the first page of his memoir Frank McCourt says “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version.”  McCourt’s version contains almost unbearable heartbreak and misery, but very little martyrdom. When you get past the heartbreaking parts, keep your hanky handy for the tears of laughter. Often the two elements mingle. A brilliantly-written book. I said up-front it’s one of my favorites.

Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With the New York Yankees
Matthew McGough, 2005
Talk about getting to live your dream.

The Bitter Sea: Coming of Age in a China Before Mao
Charles N. Li, 2008
May you live in interesting times. Li has.

The Cat With the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin
Susan Goldman Rubin, 2006
A book for younger readers – middle school ageish. The story of a Jewish girl who starred as the cat in the children’s opera Brundibar, performed by children in the Terezin concentration camp.

Coming of Age in Samoa
Margaret Mead, 1928
Did Margaret Mead know what she was talking about? People are still debating.

First Darling of the Morning: Selected Memories of an Indian Childhood
Thrity Umrigar, 2004
Coming of age in Bombay in the 60s and 70s, attending Catholic school amidst a largely Hindu population.

Freddie and Me: A Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody
Mike Dawson , 2008
Freddie Mercury as role model.  Hmmmm..

How I Learned to Snap: A Small-Town Coming-Out and Coming-of-Age Story
Kirk Read, 2003
The small town would be Lexington, VA.

The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic
Edward Beauclerk Maurice, 2005
A 16-year-old British youth finds himself working among the Inuit in the 1930s.

Loon: A Marine Story
Jack McLean, 2009
Experiences of a teenaged Marine in Vietnam.

Miss American Pie: A Diary of Love, Secrets, and Growing Up in the 1970s
Margaret Sartor, 2006
Memoir based on diary entries kept during the author’s adolescence in the deep south.

Moon Mother, Moon Daughter: Rituals and Myths That Celebrate a Girl’s Coming of Age
Janet Lucy, 2002
Synopsis is in the subtitle.

My Little Red Book
Anthology, 2009
An anthology of stories about first periods.

Nylon Road: A Graphic Memoir of Coming of Age in Iran
Parsua Bashi

Once Upon a Quincanera: Coming of Age in the United States
Julia Alvarez, 2008
An examination of the Latina 15th birthday celebration.

An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland
Michael Dirda, 2003
Coming of age through reading.

Point of Departure: Nineteen Stories of Youth and Discovery
Anthology, 2005

A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Survival, Learning, and Coming of Age in Prison
R. Dwayne Betts, 2009
Sentenced as an adult at age 16, Betts grew up in prison.

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, 2003
Urban non-fiction.

Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday
Anthology, 2004
I have this in my non-fiction list, but am not sure whether any of the stories are memoirs, or if they’re all fiction.

Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution
Moying Li, 2008
1960s China was not an easy place to grow up.

Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada
Bruce McCall, 1997
Sure, it’s easy to write a memoir if you grew up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, or had to escape a polygamist cult. But Canadians who are bad at hockey can be interesting, too.

Things the Grandchildren Should Know
Mark Everett, 2008
What do you do if you lose your entire family in short period of time at a young age? Start an indie rock band, of course.

Writes of Passage: Coming of Age Stories and Memoirs From the Hudson Review
Anthology, 2008.
I have arbitrarily put all anthologies on my non-fiction list.

Book Thoughts: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Working in a public library as I do, I’m often reminded of how much has already been written. Occasionally I look around at the shelves full of books and think “It’s all been done already. We can all stop writing now.”  But I’m happy to report I’m consistently proved wrong.

For instance: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. A werewolf novel written entirely in verse. Epic verse isn’t new, of course. And werewolf novels are everywhere right now. But a combination of the two? I couldn’t not read it, figuring it couldn’t be mediocre; it had to be completely terrible or really, really good.

I count the book a success on all counts. It works as a novel, with engaging characters and an intriguing plot. There’s love and life and death and power plays and vengeance, and confused characters muddling through life caught up in it all. And it works as poetry, the choice of words and meter striking the place in you where poetry strikes, and still keeping the story flowing.  Example: “At night he lies down on the benches and contemplates/ the deception of starlight, long dead suns making small lights/ almost bright enough to guide the way.”

Barlow gets the balance right, sacrificing neither the fiction nor the poetry aspect in the cause of the other.

Is it obvious how much I liked this book? It’s so nice to come across something fresh, a reminder that we humans are endlessly creative. And it’s nice to see a writer following his own vision and making it work. I’m thinking of all of those writing conferences where authors are asking what editors are looking for at the moment, and nobody ever answers “Werewolf poetry.”

I have one warning for the squeamish. Though not gratuitous because it does serve the story, some of the violence is quite graphic.

Book List: Women of Adventure

Fiction

Ahab’s Wife, or, the Star-gazer: a Novel
by Sena Jeter Naslund;  1999
This is a hefty 668 pages, but having read it personally, I can tell you they go pretty quickly. Turns out the woman who married Moby Dick’s pursuer had been to sea herself, and other places, all full of adventure. Warning for the squeamish: intense scenes of cannibalism.

The Cage
by Audrey Schulman; 1994
A female wildlife photographer sets out with an otherwise all-male crew to photograph polar bears.

Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas
by Morgan Llywelyn; 1986
Historical fiction set in 16th century Ireland. Grania, aka Grace O’Malley, was a real Irish chieftain who clashed with Queen Elizabeth I.

I Was Amelia Earhart: a Novel
by Jane Mendelsohn; 1996
Earhart is the narrator of this story, which takes place after she and her navigator disappear.

The Little Balloonist: a Novel
by Linda Donn, 2006
Historical fiction, featuring Sophie Armant Blanchard, a female aeronaut in Napoleon’s France.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
by Jim Fergus, 1999
More historical fiction. This one addresses the “Brides for Indians” program instituted by Ulysses S. Grant.

Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition
by Joseph Bruchac, 2003
Want more historical fiction? This story alternates viewpoints of Sacajawea and Clark. Young adult.

Stone Heart: a Novel of Sacajawea
by Diane Glancy, 2004
The title explains it.

Non-Fiction

Ada Blackjack: a True Story of Survival in the Atlantic
by Jennifer Niven, 2004
The story of a young Inuit woman who managed to survive becoming stranded on an Arctic island with a group of ill-prepared explorers.

Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine
by Holly Morris, 2006
Morris *and her mother* travel the world searching out women who are changing their corner of it.

Amelia Earhart: the Mystery Solved
by Elgen M.  & Marie K. Long, 2009
The Longs’ theory of what happened, backed up by extensive research.

Amelia Earhart’s Daughters: the Wild and Glorious Story of American Women Aviators from World War II to the Dawn of the Space Age, 2000
Leslie Haynsworth
Look! It’s both a title and a synopsis!

The Cowgirls
Joyce Gibson Roach, 1978
John Wayne didn’t have to hire little boys. The west was full of competent women.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia, 2005
by Janet Wallach
So she was the one who drew up those political boundaries…hmmmm.

East to the Dawn: the Life of Amelia Earhart
by Susan Butler
Another Earhart biography. Yeah, I know I have a lot of books about her on this list. So demand your money back if you don’t like it.

Eight Women, Two Model Ts and the American West
by Joanne Wilke, 2007
What could be more fun?

Facing the Extreme: One Woman’s Story of True Courage, Death-Defying Survival, and Her Quest for the Summit
by Ruth Ann Kocour, 1999
The one woman would be the author, who writes of her experiences on Mt. McKinley in 1992.

Finding Amelia: the True Story of the Earhart Disappearance
by Ric Gillespie, 2009
Yes, another one. Remember what I said before. Again, lots of documentation for the theories.

Four Years in Paradise
by Osa Johnson, originally published in 1941.
Johnson covers her four years in Kenya, filming wildlife documentaries.

Go Girl!; The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure
edited by Elaine Lee, 1997
Travel essays by Black women, including Gwendolyn Brooks and Alice Walker.

Gutsy Girls: Young Women Who Dare
by Tina Schwager, 1999
Written for the tween/teen audience. Stories of young (teens and early twenties) women who took of the challenge of pursuing a dream.

I Married Adventure
by Osa Johnson, first published 1940
Her marriage to adventure lead to the four years in paradise. African adventures with wildlife documentaries.

The Ice Cave: a Woman’s Adventures from the Mojave to the Antarctic
by Lucy Jane Bledsoe, 2006
11 travel/adventure essays about Bledsoe’s forays.

K2: One Woman’s Quest for the Summit
Heidi Howkins, 2000
Women climb mountains, too.

Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe
by Brian Dolan, 2001
What was a given for British men of a certain class at the time, was also seized by a handful of women.

Living With Cannibals and Other Women’s Adventures
by Michele B. Slung, 2001
Women adventurers from the 18th to the 21st centuries.

Maverick Women: 19th Century Women Who Kicked Over the Traces
by Frances Laurence, 1998
Couldn’t find a real description of this book. Be adventurous! Head into unknown territory! Read it without any more advance information than the title!

No Horizon is So Far: Two Women and Their Extraordinary Journey Across Antarctica
by Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, 2003
In 2001, Bancroft and Arneson – two former school teachers – were the first women to cross the Antarctic on foot, at the ages of 46 and 50 respectively. Here they write about the experience.

Nobody Said Not to Go: The Lives, Loves and Adventures of Emily Hahn
by Ken Cuthbertson, 1998
Biography of the New Yorker writer who spent decades penning hundreds of articles about her globetrotting adventures.

Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark
by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, 1999
She traveled, she explored the Middle East, she made maps,  she worked against the Nazis. This book details all of that and more.

Sacagawea Speaks: Beyond the Shining Hills with Lewis and Clark
by Joyce Badgley Hunsaker, 2001
Drawing on extensive research, the author attempts to give insight into the famous trip from Sacagawea’s point of view.

They Went Whistling: Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways, and Renegades
by Barbara Holland, 2001
Women who broke free of convention.

To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa
by Pat Shipman, 2004
Who needs Victorian fiction when the non-fiction from that era provides so much adventure? Orphaned, raised in a harem, sold at auction, rescued from slavery and off to explore the Nile, all by the age of 15.

Uppity Women of the New World
by Vicki Leon, 2001
Profiles 200 women from North and South America and Australia.

Vanished Kingdoms: a Woman Explorer in Tibet, China and Mongolia, 1921-1925
by Mabel H. Cabot, 2003
The woman explorer was Janet Wulson.

Wild West Women: Travellers, Adventurers, and Rebels
by Rosemary Neering, 2000
Examines a variety of females experiences in the Wild West.

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman
Alice Steinbach, 2002
The author shares her experience of learning to take chances.

The Woman Who Walked to Russia
by Cassandra Pybus, 2004
The author attempts to follow the footsteps of Lillian Alling, who in 1927 set out to walk from New York state to her original home in Siberia.

Women of Adventure
by Jacqueline A. Kolosov, 2003
For the young adult audience, profiles 7 women.

Women Were Pirates, Too
by C.T. Anthony, 2006
Yes, they were.

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey
by Lillian Schlissel, 2004
We’re talking Oregon Trail here.

For Kids

Amelia Earhart: the Legend of the Lost Aviator
by Shelley Tanaka, 2008
Biography.

Finding Where the Wind Goes: Moments From My Life
by Mae Jemison, 2001
Autobiography of an astronaut

Harriet Chalmers Adams: Explorer and Adventurer
by Durlynn Anema, 1997
Biography of an early 20th-century explorer and war correspondent.

How High Can We Climb ?The Story of Women Explorers
by Jeannine Atkins, 2005
Twelve women who pursued their adventures on land, sea and in the air.

Mae Jemison: The First African American Woman in Space
by Magdalena Alagna, 2004
Not even the sky is the limit for Mae Jemison .

Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folk Tales for Strong Girls
by Jane Yolen, 2000
Folk tales from around the world, starring strong female leads.

Outrageous Women of the Middle Ages
by Vicki Leon, 1998
Biographies of influential women of the Middle Ages. This is nice – she’s goes beyond Europe to Africa and Asia.

Sacagawea
by Liselotte Erdrich, 2005
Picture book biography for young readers.

Sacagawea and the Bravest Deed
by Stephen Krensky, 2002
Another one for younger kids, this is a story of the child Sacagawea.

Women Explorers in North and South America: Nellie Cashman, Violet Cressy-Marcks, Ynes Mexica, Mary Blair Niles, Annie Peck
by Margo McLoone, 1997

Women of the Wild West: Biographies from Many Cultures
by Ruth Pelz, 1995
Imagine that! There were a variety of women in the old west.

Women of the World: Women Travelers and Explorers
by Rebecca Stefoff, 1992
Women explorers and discoverers throughout history

You Can’t Do That, Amelia
by Kimberly Klier, 2008
Picture book bio of Amelia Earhart

Update:

Titles suggested in the comments –

Tell Me a Story 3: Women of Wonder

West With the Night by Beryl Markham

Vocabulary

I used to pride myself on having a large vocabulary. I know words such as noesis, after all. I even know and use some words you only find in the most unabridged of dictionaries. Stoit, for example, means to move in a staggering fashion, like Captain Jack Sparrow in those pirate movies. When I was a kid, I always aced vocabulary tests in school.

Then one day, I was walking with a friend and pointed out the lovely violets in someone’s yard. She corrected me, letting me know the plant was creeping myrtle. Since I have a brown thumb, I’m not great on plant names. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there are whole subject areas of vocabulary in which I’m deficient: plants, cooking, knitting.  What does al dente mean anyway? What are you doing when you braise something? Is a purl a little bead you fasten into your scarf?

One of the most generally known rules of good writing is “be specific.” Don’t say “tree.” Say “juniper” or “thorny locust.”  How can I be a good writer if I don’t know the difference between violets and creeping myrtle?

It turns out other writers have the same problem, this lack of an omniscient vocabulary. Nobody knows everything about every subject. That’s where research comes in. If I want to have one of my characters knitting and speaking knowledgably of the process, I don’t have to have the knowledge already stored in my brain. I can read knitting magazines, books and blogs, and talk to one of the 1,000 people I know who do knit in order to lay some nifty terminology into my story.

Writer’s Digest has a whole series of books dealing with need-to-know information in different areas. Need to poison one of your characters, but don’t know much about poisons? Serita Stevens will help you out with the Book of Poisons: A Guide for Writers.  Want to get your legal vocabulary straight for a courtroom scene? Try Order in the Court: A Writer’s Guide to the Legal System by David S. Mullally. Not clear on the difference between an abrasion and a contusion? You may want to browse Body Trauma: A Writer’s Guide to Wounds and Injuries by David W. Page.

Violets: 

Creeping Myrtle:

Book List: Libraries

Time for another book list. I figure people who are interested in book lists are interested in libraries, so that’s my theme this time around. I haven’t included instructional books about how to use a library or decode a particular classification system, but I did find a fair amount of non-fiction to include.

Fiction

Applied Mythology
by Jody Lynn Nye
What will become of the not-so-mythical-after-all creatures who inhabit the basement of the university library when the old building is torn down?

Bibliophilia: a Novella and Stories
by Michael Griffith
Humor and sex and shushing all in one book.

The Body in the Library
by Agatha Christie
A Miss Marple mystery.

The Burglar in the Library
by Lawrence Block
Not a Miss Marple mystery, but a mystery nontheless. Bernie Rhodenbarr, actually but I like the way “Miss Marple mystery” sounds so much I made up an excuse to repeat it twice.

The Case of the Missing Books
by Ian Samson
Mystery. Where could 15,000 missing library books have gone in an Irish village?

The Destruction of the Books
Mel Odom
Sci Fi. It’s up to the librarians to save the world. Just as in real life.

Ex-libris
Ross King
A  quest to track down a missing library book. Set in the 17th century England.

The Geographer’s Library
Jon Fasman
Smugglers involved in alchemy operate secret libraries? This is one I’ve got to read.

Instant Karma
Mark Swartz
Conspiracy theorist and potential terrorist stalks the Chicago Public Library.

Library: No Murder Aloud
Susan Steiner
Mystery. I guess if they’re kept quiet, it’s okay.

Lord of the Libraries
Mel Odom
SciFi. Odom knows how to pick heroes. It’s the librarian to the rescue again.

Miss Zukas and the Library Murders
Jo Dereske
Mystery. What is a research librarian but another form of detective, really?

Mobile Library Mysteries – series
Ian Samson
Mystery. Series.

Murder at the Library of Congress
Margaret Truman
Mystery. And all over some old diary by a guy named Columbus.

The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
14th Century Monastic library, heresy, murders.

Open and Closed
Mat Coward
Mystery. Library advocates – can the threatened closing of their favorite facility lead them to murder?

The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog
Doris Lessing
Want to save civilization? Find a library.

Non-fiction

At Home With Books: How Booklovers Live With and Care for Their Libraries
Estelle Ellis
The art and style of the home library.

Banned in the U.S.A.: a Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries
Herbert N. Foerstel
Fairly self-explanatory I think.

Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Vicki Myron
Again, the synopsis is in the title.

Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper
Nicholson Baker
Who will save the historical newspapers? Nicholson Baker. Or at least he’ll try his darndest.

Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library
Don Borchert
Hilarious and alarming all at the same. And I’m in a position to tell you none of it seems exaggerated from an insider’s perspective.

Home Office: Library and Den Design
Tina Skinner
You got those books and things. How ya gonna organize ’em?

Homes and Libraries of the Presidents
William G. Clotworthy
U.S. Presidents, that is.

The Ideals Guide to Presidential Homes and Libraries
Peggy Schaefer
Again, U.S. presidents.

Interlibrary Loan Sharks and Seedy Roms: Cartoons from Libraryland
Benita L. Epstein
Really funny cartoons for those who frequent or work in libraries.

Libraries in the Ancient World
Lionel Casson
Starting with clay tablets.

Library: an Unquiet History
Matthew Battles
Viva la revolu – er, library!

The Library at Night
Alberto Manguel
Life = reading. Reading = life.

Patience and Fortitude: a Roving Chronicle of Book People, Book Places, and Book Culture
Nicholas A. Basbanes
An exploration of bibliomania and bibliomaniacs.

The Raven King: Matthia Corvinas and the Fate of His Lost Library
Marcus Tanner
A book about a Hungarian king and the place he and the library he built occupy in history.

Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian
Scott Douglas
Memoir from a library employee. More about the people than the books.

Reading Rooms: America’s Foremost Writers Celebrate Our Public Libraries with Stories, Memoirs, Essays and Poems
Publisher: Doubleday
An anthology, in case you hadn’t figured that out.

Unshelved Collection:
Bill Barnes
Cartoon series on library matters.

The Right Book at the Right Time

A friend recently shared the information that her daughter had been assigned to read the book Beloved by Toni Morrison for a high school class last spring. The daughter struggled through the text, disliking it all the way through.

Beloved is one of my favorite works of literature. But I first read it in my early thirties, after my children were born. Would I have understood the book at age 16? Parts, I think. Would I have liked it? I’m not sure, but I think not. I came upon the book at the right time in my life, after I’d had enough life experience to be haunted by some true regrets.

Thinking back, I can recall books I’ve read in years past that left me shaking my head in bewilderment. Crime and Punishment comes to mind. I wonder if I should re-read it now. Maybe I’d get it in some fundamental way I didn’t before. Or maybe not.

I did read, enjoy, and understand many “adult-level” books in my adolescence. So I’ve put very few restrictions on what my kids read.  I think they’ll either be ready for a book or they won’t and they’ll figure it out for themselves. Maybe there are hundreds of teens out there who do appreciate Beloved. Maybe there are even some who appreciate Crime and Punishment.

I remember the first true grown-up book I read and enjoyed. It was A Tale of Two Cities. But I had started to read it twice before I finally finished it on the third go.

My 11-year-old son just finished reading the Harry Potter series. When he was younger, we read the first couple of books to him, but he lost interest even as the rest of us in the family were avidly reading and discussing the series. He’d say “I don’t see what the big deal is. I don’t think they’re interesting.”

Then one day around his 11th birthday (the same age as the main character at the beginning of the story), he was looking for something to do, having used his allowed computer time for the day. He spotted Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone lying out on top of the bookcase and picked it up. Two hours later, he looked up and told me “This book is better than I remembered.”

He proceeded to read all seven books straight through. He’d become ready for them.

I think what I’ve figured out is that not only should you not judge a book by its cover. You possibly shouldn’t even judge it by your first reading of it. True, there are many honestly terrible books out there. But sometimes a book I don’t like right off may deserve a second look.

Book List: The Moon

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon. In honor of the event’s 40th anniversary this month, I’m providing a list of moon-related reading.  I have steered away from general astronomy books, and confined myself to books about the earth’s moon. Otherwise, the list would go on forever. In the fiction books, the moon is either the setting or a significant force within the story. Many of the non-fiction titles are self-explanatory. I don’t feel the need to expound.

Enjoy your lunar reading odyssey.

Book List: The Moon

Fiction

Back to the Moon
Homer H. Hickam
Techno-thriller about the hijacking of a moon-bound space shuttle, written by NASA engineer and author of  the memoir Rocket Boys. Published in 2000.

Bouncing Off the Moon
David Gerrold
Three young brothers deal with their parents’ divorce by moving to the moon, only to become embroiled in corporate intrigue and conspiracies.  2002.

The First Men in the Moon
H.G. Wells
Classic Wells, published in 1901. But if you think this is the first published story set on the moon, scroll on down the list.

Have Spacesuit – Will Travel
Robert Heinlein
Classic Heinlein first published in 1958. Space adventure story aimed at younger readers. What boy wouldn’t want to win his own spacesuit and take a trip to the moon?

Inconstant Moon Trilogy:
Inconstant Moon
Fall Girl
Exit Strategy
Piers Askegren
More corporate intrigue on the moon. These are newer books, all published since 2005.

Lunar Descent
Alan M. Steele
Factory work is factory work, even on the moon. 1991.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Robert A. Heinlein
Three books in one about revolution brewing in the lunar colonies of the future. 1966.

The Moon Pool
Abraham Merritt
Magic portal activated by moonbeams. Published in 1919.

Peter Nevsky and the True Story of the Russian Moon Landing: a Novel
John Calvin Batchelor
Historical fiction about the space race, written from a cosmonaut’s point of view. 1996

Roverandom
J.R.R. Tolkein
Written in 1925, published in 1998. (As a writer, this makes me all kinds of impatient.) In his quest to be real again, a dog searches the moon and elsewhere for the wizard who turned him into a toy.

Voyages to the Moon and the Sun
Cyrano de Bergerac
Yes, *that* Cyrano de Bergerac, from the 17th century.

Non-fiction

Apollo: the Epic Journey to the Moon
David West Reynolds
2002

Apollo: the Race to the Moon
Charles A. Murray
1990

Apollo 11: the NASA Mission Reports, Compiled from the NASA Archives
Published in three volumes 1999-2001.

Apollo 13
Jim Lovell
The moon landing that didn’t happen and how three astronauts survived disaster. 2006

The Big Splat, or, How Our Moon Came to Be
Dana Mackenzie
2003

Destination Moon: the Apollo Missions in the Astronauts’ Own Words
Rod Pyle      2007

Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Space Flight
David A. Mindell    2008

Firefly Moon Observer’s Guide
Peter Grego
It *is* an astronomy book, but focused solely on our moon.  2004

First Man: the Life of Neil A. Armstrong
James R. Hansen
Biography.  2006

The First Men on the Moon: the Story of Apollo 11
David M. Harland
2006

Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon: Tales of a Soviet Scientist
I.S. Shklovskii
1991

Fly Me to the Moon: an Insider’s Guide to the New Science of Space Travel
Edward Belbruno
2007

The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Space Race
Eugene Cernan
Memoir by the commander of the final manned moon mission, recounting his years with NASA.  2000

Magnificent Desolation
Buzz Aldrin
Memoir by one of the Apollo 11 astronauts.  2009

A Man on the Moon: the Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
Andrew Chaikin
2007

The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo
Piers Bizony
The politics of aerospace.  2007

Many Moons: the Myth and Magic, Fact and Fantasy of our Nearest Heavenly Body
Diana Brueton
1992

Men from Earth
Buzz Aldrin
From one of the astronauts who went there. 1989

Moonlore: Myths and Folklore from Around the World
Gwydion O’Hara
1997

Moon Shot: the Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon
Alan B. Shepard
Another astronaut scoops. 1994

Of a Fire on the Moon
Norman Mailer
1970

The Once and Future Moon
Paul D. Spudis
A geologist explains what we have learned about the moon, and explains why he thinks we should go back to increase our knowledge.  1998

Patrick Moore On the Moon
Patrick Moore
2006

Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age
Matthew Brzezinski
2008 

Rocket Man: Astronaut Pete Conrad’s Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond
Nancy Conrad
Biography.  2005

The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
Matthew Goodman
I haven’t read this book, but I’m thinking with a title like that I’m going to have to.  2008

Welcome to the Moon!: 12 Lunar Expeditions for Small Telescopes
Robert Bruce Kelsey
1997

What if the Moon Didn’t Exist
Neil F. Comin
Now there’s an interesting question.  1995