Read This: The Final Character Approved Picks

photo: Shem Roose Photography

In the summer of 2011, I took on a gig as the “Writing” correspondent for the USA Network’s Character Approved blog, providing weekly pointers toward new books and authors. My first post was a five-book summer reading list, so it seems somehow fitting that as USA puts the blog on hiatus, I end with another summer reading list, this time focusing on debut novelists.

I actually didn’t realize it as I was picking out the books to include on this list, but both Can I Get an Amen? by Sarah Healy and Wichita by Thad Ziolkowski are comic novels about adults who move back in with their wacky parents—whether that wackiness is of the born again or New Age variety—and it’s also a prospect that comes up in Leni Zumas‘s The Listeners. (The protagonist of Gilded Age, a modernization of The House of Mirth by Claire McMillan, returns to her hometown as the novel begins, too, but it’s a slightly different scenario.) So there’s a cultural/literary trend I may have inadvertently stumbled upon, eh?

photo: Travis Tanner

When I got the news about Character Approved suspending publication, I’d just submitted what was going to be my next post, about Meg Howrey‘s The Cranes Dance. It’s hard not to think about Black Swan when you’re reading this novel, especially since it leads off with a performance of Swan Lake, as described by Kate Crane, one of the dance company’s leading performers. It’s a semi-sarcastic recap of the plot, with a few insider jokes thrown in. (Later, Kate will admit you might have seen her and her fellow dancers in the background of a recent ballet film, lending ambience to the star actress’s performance. “Between the actress’s lobster-claw hands and biscuit-shaped feet, no one could mistake her for the real thing,” Kate snarks. “Except for the millions of people who completely loved the movie, of course.”) The deeper we get inside Kate’s head, though, the more Howrey—herself a former professional dancer and actress–is able to take the story in her own direction. So, although my post may not run there, I wanted to make sure you knew to keep an eye out for this one.

(more…)

3 July 2012 | read this |

Life Stories #9: Gary Marcus

Photo: Athena Vouloumanos

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an installment of Life Stories, the podcast series of interviews with memoir writers about their memoirs and the art of writing about your life. Here’s a conversation with Gary Marcus about Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. Marcus, a psychology professor specializing in language and cognitive development, was 38 years old when he decided to ignore all the previous life experience that suggested he had no talent for playing music and start studying the guitar. It turns out he’s not so bad, after all—and his professional training has led him to some interesting ideas about how we pick up new skills such as learning to play a musical instrument. Strictly speaking, Guitar Zero is only partially a memoir; it’s also got a fair amount of science and interviews with expert guitarists like Pat Metheny.

Listen to Life Stories #9: Gary Marcus (MP3 file); or download the file by right-clicking (Mac users, option-click).

2 July 2012 | life stories |