4T Olio A Book I've Enjoyed

Here's a shocker. Reading for information doesn't have to be dry and boring.

Besides the few minutes I steal to read for pleasure, I read a lot for information, mostly to get the facts right for a character or her clothes or car or location.

But I read several writing manuals a year, the best recommended by friend and amazing author Edie Ramer. I always find at lease a couple gems in the links she sends, but this book...OMG this book, I have 28 notes, all of them BIG EFFING CONCEPTS that I wonder why I didn't learn RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING.

Why did I enjoy it?
He applies the principals of great storytelling to the material
He tells YOU how to apply  the principals of great storytelling to your material, whether a novel, a screenplay, a TEDD talk, or your PTA speech

Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t

by Steven Pressfield

Tough love from the author of The War of Art. Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh*t is Pressfield’s “lessons learned" from a career in five different writing fields—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, narrative nonfiction, and self-help.
This is wisdom from the trenches, teaching you how to obey the platinum rule of writing ... THOU MUST MAKE IT INTERESTING!

Amazon | Nook | Author




Frankly, doing book reports as a child was grueling. I just wanted to read the story, to experience the adventure and the emotion. But I do want to share my favorites with you. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a book I've enjoyed!

A Book I've Enjoyed--A thank you to Helen for helping bring back my love of reading

I've loved reading ever since I first picked up Nancy Drew and Bambi. Which is a good thing--writers are supposed to read.

Problem was, after I was first published, I lost the pleasure of reading. Spent most of my reading mentally editing or critiquing or downright rewriting.

So when a friend of mine, fabulous author and writing educator Helen C. Johannes, started making book recommendations to me via Goodreads, I marked them as "Want to Read" -- but didn't manage the actual "reading" part, lol.

Until recently.

Life is getting more and more complex. Takes more time and energy. I'd simply had it--I needed downtime and I missed my reading. So I made a mental effort to stop critiquing, editing, rewriting.

Shockingly, it worked!

Freed, I went back to Helen's recommendations and reserved a bunch at my library, thinking I'd get a few dribbling in every week.

But noooo. Nine of them came in at once. (Insert reader fright/excitement here (!!)) So I tried one...and found myself gobbling up most of them in less than a week.
 There are many that stand out from my first reading frenzy. One is First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones.

Why did I enjoy it?

• Charley is sarcastic
• She has an enigmatic, sexy love interest
• Mysteries!
• Quirky secondary characters (including a dead guy who only stands facing the corner of her room!?!)
• Awesome concept. "A smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper."

First Grave on the Right

Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an entity who has been following her all her life…and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.


Tons of buying choices on Darynda's site.




Thank you, Helen!!



Frankly, doing book reports as a child was grueling. I just wanted to read the story, to experience the adventure and the emotion. But I do want to share my favorites with you. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a book I've enjoyed!

4T Olio--A Book I've Enjoyed

Recently a local librarian mentioned a book that made her ignore her Thanksgiving turkey. I'm all about books that are so gripping they make me forget about daily life, so I asked her for the title. This was my introduction to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I used to read more literary books when I was younger. It takes a certain amount of time and concentration I don't usually have these rushed days.

But there are a few books that transcend the literary to become ripping good reads. This is one.
 
Why did I enjoy it?

• Lots of interwoven story lines.
• Interesting food and drink.
• Interesting, almost exotic characters. 
• Magic!
• Kittens!
• A fantastic love story.

I wasn't sure at the beginning of the book if it was going to be too esoteric for the mood I was in--and I may have skipped the introduction--but within a few pages I was hooked. I did skim a couple pages in the middle, but again, that was life hounding me rather than the story lagging.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

The Night Circus is available for Kindle and Nook as well as many other formats at many other retailers. Erin Morgenstern's website is here.

Frankly, doing book reports as a child was grueling. I just wanted to read the story, to experience the adventure and the emotion. But I do want to share my favorites with you. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a book I've enjoyed!

4T Olio--a Book I've Enjoyed

photo credit: book dog groucho via photopin (license)

I picked this one up from the New Releases on my local library's shelves on a whim. I'd read the author some years back and enjoyed the series but didn't keep up on it.

But this one? Gladiators on a trampoline, it was awesome.

The book is Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis, third in the Flavia Albia mystery series, with continuing characters from the Marcus Didius Falco series.

Why is it so amazing?

• Flavia Albia is seriously hilarious. Lots of really witty observations.
• Well written.
• She's a 1st century detective. How cool is that?
• I like stories that I can painlessly learn something (through the action). These stories are well researched, yet her research was represented in vivid interaction with the time and place, not dry facts.
• A love interest who does NOT get tossed to the side or murdered.
• I like mysteries.
• Good editing.
• She's widow living on her own, and an adopted Briton with no known past, so she's a mystery and a bit of outsider even though she's totally accepted by her adopting family. 
• Her family has money but she doesn't, except what she earns. 
• She's capable and smart and kind, but also strong mentally. She's a woman so she notices stuff like jewelry and makeup and how a home is put together from the woman's point of view and women's roles in her society.

Deadly Election: A Flavia Albia Mystery

In the first century A.D., during Domitian's reign, Flavia Albia is ready for a short break from her family. So despite the oppressive July heat, she returns to Rome, leaving them at their place on the coast. Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, the famed private informer (now retired), has taken up her father's former profession, and it's time to get back to work. The first order of business, however, is the corpse that was found in a chest sent as part of a large lot to be sold by the Falco family auction house. As the senior family representative in Rome, it falls upon Albia to identify the corpse, find out why he was killed, who killed him, and, most important, how did it end up in the chest.
At the same time, her potential young man, Faustus, comes looking for help with his friend Sextus's political campaign. Between the auction business and Roman politics, it's not quite clear which one is the more underhanded and duplicitous. Both, however, are tied together by the mysterious body in the chest, and if Albia isn't able to solve that mystery, it won't be the only body to drop.

Deadly Election is available on Kindle and Nook as well as Kindle UK. It's also available in hardcover and paperback (and audio at Amazon.com).

Frankly, doing book reports as a child was grueling. I just wanted to read the story, to experience the adventure and the emotion. But I do want to share my favorites with you. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a book I've enjoyed!

4T Olio--a Book I've Enjoyed

I have to admit, between deadlines and practicing flute and trying to keep up with all the other various things that life demands between, I get very little time to read for pleasure any more. But I thought I'd share a few of those books I have read, and why I enjoyed them.

The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross.

I love the Laundry Files. Why?

• Stross plays with the English language in new and brilliant ways.
• Bob, the lead character is a geek!
• Computer geek turned occult master, what's not to love?
• Who else can make such pithy observations about bureaucracy?
• Did I mention how funny Stross is?

This one's different. Why?

• The lead character is Mo, Bob's wife.
• She's a musician
• The series story arc has taken a dark turn.

There are many, many people who have not connected with Mo. It took me a while to work through my own feelings during and after reading the story. But I think this book was amazing. Why?

• Stross shows Mo as being numb emotionally because of what's happened instead of telling the reader flat-out. (I think that's why the bad reviews. Some readers have to be told, not shown.)
• Despite a darker story, Stross is still amazing with his on-point, brilliant writing.

I am afraid the series story arc will go to a place I can't follow. But I still think this author is amazing.

The Annihilation Score is available for Kindle and Nook as well as in print where good books are sold.

Frankly, I disliked doing book reports as a child. I just wanted to read the story, experience the adventure and the emotion. But I do want to share my favorites with you. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a book I've enjoyed!