F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Life in Letters is a portal to 1917 to 1940, a magical mailbox where you can receive letters from F. Scott Fitzgerald.

On December 21, 1940, F Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack, and, as the letters approached that date, I had to choke back tears—I wasn’t ready to let go of this broken man with tremendous dreams, a struggling artist, a committed father and husband, waging battle on too many fronts.

A Life in Letters is highly addictive; while I was reading this, I would share glimpses of letters with friends, and they would inevitably return, clamoring for more.

Struggling Artist

A Life in Letters paints a portrait of a struggling artist—despite Fitzgerald’s commitment to quality, he never attained boundless riches and glory in his lifetime.

And the life of an artist can be depressing. For example, Vincent Van Gogh died a relatively unknown; he only attained fame posthumously as a result of his brother’s wife tirelessly promoting his work.

One of the funniest books that I have ever read is A Confederacy of Dunces, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. However, the author, John Kennedy Toole died in 1969, heartbroken due to the countless rejection of his book. His mother, Thelma, found his book, read it, and discovered that it was legitimately excellent. She spent years finding someone to give it a chance. According to Wikipedia, over five years, she sent the book to seven publishers, and all rejected it. Finally, she cornered a college professor who agreed to read it to get her off his back. He intended to only read one page, but the book was so enchanting that he couldn’t put it down, and the rest is history.

The point is that the life of a true artist is rarely easy, and Fitzgerald was no exception. Let’s look at some of his quotes:

“I want to be extravagantly admired again.”

“Who in hell ever respected Shelley, Whitman, Poe, O. Henry, Verlaine, Swinburne, Villon, Shakespeare ect when they were alive. Shelley + Swinburne were fired from college; Verlaine + O Henry were in jail. The rest were drunkards or wasters and told generally by merchants and petty politicians and jitney messiahs of their day that real people wouldn’t stand it And the merchants and messiahs, the shrewd + the dull, are dust—and the others live on.”

“The book comes out today [The Great Gatsby] and I am overcome with fears and forebodings. […] In fact all my confidence is gone. […] I’m sick of the book myself—I wrote it over at least five times.”

“Everything that I have ever attained has been through long and persistent struggle.”

“When I was your age I lived with a great dream. The dream grew and I learned how to speak of it and make people listen.”

“In a small way I was an original.”

“You don’t realize that what I am doing here is the last tired effort of a man who once did something finer and better.”

“What little I’ve accomplished has been by the most laborious and uphill work, and I wish now I’d never relaxed or looked back—but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: ‘I’ve found my line—from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty—without this I am nothing.’”

Secret Insights

A Life in Letters doesn’t disappoint if you want to know the secrets behind Fitzgerald’s works.

Did you know that Fitzgerald considered many different titles for The Great Gatsby? Below were some possibilities:

Under the Red, White, and Blue
Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires
Gold-Hatted Gatsby
Trimalchio in West Egg
The High-Bouncing Lover
On the Road to West Egg

Literary Critic

A Life in Letters is also a literary guide. Fitzgerald gives his colorful yet eloquent opinion on many works of literature from Charles Dickens to Gertrude Stein to William Blake to John Keats to Edith Wharton to Sinclair Lewis to Henry David Thoreau. Toward the end of his life, Fitzgerald worked very briefly on the script for Gone With The Wind.

While living in Paris, Fitzgerald met Ernest Hemingway. For A Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, Fitzgerald gives Hemingway detailed review notes, reprinted in A Life in Letters. If one were so inclined, a reader can discover if Hemingway accepted Fitzgerald’s “suggestions.”

One of my favorite authors is John Steinbeck, and Fitzgerald had strong opinions about him. He accused Steinbeck of stealing a scene from McTeague, a book by Frank Norris, and using it in Of Mice and Men.

Fitzgerald also had a front row seat to the clash between his editor, Maxwell Perkins, and writer Thomas Wolfe. This is covered in the brilliant 2016 film, Genius. Of course, now I have to read Look Homeward Angel.

If you have a strong literary curiosity, who better than Fitzgerald to give his honest opinion?

A Reminder to Be Kind to Each Other

In 1936, Fitzgerald broke his shoulder in a diving accident, making writing impossible. On September 25, 1936, The New York Post published a particularly troubling article, resulting in Fitzgerald attempting to take his own life. By 1939, Fitzgerald writes of spending months in bed with ill health, high temperatures, and a lung cavity.

In parting, keep in mind Fitzgerald’s advice to his daughter, Scottie:

But it is a different story that you have spent two years doing no useful work at all, improving neither your body nor your mind, but only writing reams and reams of dreary letters to dreary people, with no possible object except obtaining invitations which you could not accept. […]

On the other hand, when occasionally I see signs of life and intention in you, there is no company in the world I prefer. For there is no doubt that you have something in your belly, some real gusto for life—a real dream of your own—and my idea was to wed it to something solid before it was too late.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $31.80 from eBay

★★★★★

In a warped sense, On the Road by Jack Kerouac can be viewed as a philosophical work. Instead of a supercilious, fatuous intellectual debate, let’s cut to the long-forgotten text, a book that shaped American literature, a work untouched by the depravity of modern times. Henry David Thoreau states in Walden:

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Thoreau further elaborates, “The philosopher is in advance of his age even in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed, warmed like his contemporaries.”

Do these knuckleheads members of The Beat Generation live a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust in On the Road?

In terms of simplicity, the characters of On the Road travel light, frequently hitchhiking with the bare minimum of possessions. A pervasive sentiment is “Don’t worry about nothing. We’re all in this together.” (Page 83) The characters flit from place to place in less than luxurious accommodations from a cold-water flat (Page 4) to a “cheap hotel room I’d never seen” (Page 15) to a simple tent (Page 85).

I asked the big fat woman who owned the camp if any of the tents were vacant. The cheapest one, a dollar a day was vacant. I fished up a dollar and moved into it. There was a bed, a stove, and a cracked mirror hanging from a pole; it was delightful.

The On the Road diet, although questionable for one’s health, is quite simple. It largely consists of apple pie and ice cream (Page 13, 14, and 16), franks and beans (Page 9), and store-bought spaghetti and meatballs, bread, butter, coffee, and cake (Page 87).

Sal and Dean enjoy an unusual amount of independence in On the Road. They tend to be free of conventional romantic relationships, family commitments and loathe working in general but particularly jobs that would involve being micromanaged. “We’re really all of us bottomly broke. I haven’t had time to work in weeks.” (Page 40)

“Dean then had four little ones and not a cent.” (Page 225) and “So now he [Dean] was three times married, twice divorced, and living with his second wife.” (Page 277) This freedom, however, comes at a steep cost. Galatea Dunkel gave a scathing, hostile rebuke of Dean: “You have absolutely no regard for anybody but yourself and your [edit: darned] kicks. All you think about is what’s hanging between your legs and how much money or fun you can get out of people and then you just throw them aside.” (Page 176)

These characters are also least likely to be nominated for Employee-of-the-Month.

He [Dean] only worked like a dog in the parking lots. The most fantastic parking lot attendant in the world, he can back a car forty miles an hour into a tight squeeze and stop at the wall, jump out, race among fenders, leap into another car, circle it fifty miles an hour in a narrow space, back swiftly into tight spot, hump, snap the car with the emergency so that you see it bounce as he flies out; then clear to the ticket shack, sprinting like a track star, hand a ticket, leap into a newly arrived car before the owner’s half out, leap literally under him as he steps out, start the car with the door flapping, and roar off to the next available spot, arc, pop in, brake, out, run; working like that without pause eight hours a night, evening rush hours and after-theater rush hours. (Page 8)

One of Sal’s associates, Eddie, was kind enough to get him a job, but Sal couldn’t be bothered to show up. “We found a man in the markets who agreed to hire both of us. […] ‘I like boys who like to work.’ […] Eddied showed up in the morning; I didn’t.” (Page 42) While temporarily holding down a job as a barracks guard, Sal and Remi break into the barracks cafeteria and help themselves to the unattended food. “Here, realizing a dream of mine from infancy, I took the cover off the chocolate ice cream and stuck my hand in wrist-deep and hauled myself up a skewer of ice cream and licked it […] then walked around the kitchens, opened iceboxes, to see what we could take home in our pockets.” (Page 63)

Later, while Sal is supposed to be picking cotton, while a young mother and her child are desperately trying to work the field, Sal takes on a more relaxed approach, “If I felt like resting I did, with my face on the pillow of brown moist earth. Birds sang an accompaniment. I thought I had found my life’s work.” (Page 87)

Dean’s restless, wild spirit will be tamed by no one–even Sal is not exempt from Dean’s flightiness. When Sal and Dean’s adventures take them to Mexico, Sal becomes sick with fever. While Sal’s condition deteriorates to the point where he is “delirious and unconscious”, his buddy Dean is planning his escape.

“Gotta get back to life. Wish I could stay with you. […] I’ve got to go now. Old fever, Sal, good-by.” And he was gone. Twelve hours later in my sorrowful fever I finally came to understand that he was gone. […] When I got better I realized what a rat he was, but then I had to understand the impossible complexities of his life, how he had to leave me there, sick, to get on with his wives and woes. (Page 276)

In terms of magnanimity, while Sal is quick to forgive, others are not quite so eager to put the past aside. “I forgave everybody, I gave up, I got drunk.” (Page 70) Despite Dean leaving Sal sick in Mexico, when Sal sees Dean at the end of the book, he isn’t angry. “I was thinking of Dean and how he got back on the train and rode over three thousand miles over that awful land and never knew why he had come anyway except to see me.” (Page 281) However, “Chad King had decided not to be Dean’s friend any more, for some odd reason, and he didn’t even know where he lived,” (Page 34) and “Remi would never talk to me again. […] It would take years for him to get over it.” (Page 70)

Although a strong argument can be made as to all the previous elements of living according to wisdom, trust is lacking in On the Road. One could even argue that the characters, particularly Sal and Dean, are reliably unreliable.

Nearly at the outset of the novel, Dean is described as “he was simply a youth tremendously excited with life, and though he was a con-man, he was only conning because he wanted so much to live and to get involved with people who would otherwise pay no attention to him. (Page 6) “…[A]ll Dean was, was just a very interesting and even amusing con-man.” (Page 178) Dean continues to be described as a con-man until the end of the novel. “The holy con-man began to eat.” (Page 194)

While on a trip with Dean, Ed Dunkel marries Galatea in order to finance their way out East. Within a matter of days, “Dean and Ed gave her the slip in a hotel lobby and resumed the voyage alone, with the sailor, and without a qualm.” (Page 101).

Despite his wife being pregnant and relying on him to provide childcare, Dean decides to walk out, and Galatea criticizes him. “’I think Marylou was very, very wise leaving you, Dean,’ said Galatea. ‘For years now you haven’t had any sense of responsibility for anyone. You’ve done so many awful things I don’t know what to say to you. […] Camille has to stay home and mind the baby now you’re gone—how can she keep her job?’” (Page 176-177) These unmistakably insightful revelations were not enough to change Dean’s plans, and he vehemently pursues his unbroken series of questionable decisions adventures.

Even Sal expresses his concerns about Dean, “Where is Dean and why isn’t he concerned about our welfare? I lost faith in him that year.” (Page 155) Dean’s own family has a healthy dose of distrust regarding Dean. Sam Brady, Dean’s cousin says, “Now look, Dean, I don’t believe you any more or anything you’re going to try to tell me. […] We want absolutely nothing to do with him [Dean’s father], and, I’m sorry to say, with you either, any more.” (Page 197) Tony’s reaction to Dean summarizes the impact that Dean has on others: “For some odd intuitive reason he [Tony] became terrified of Dean and threw up his hands and drew away with terror writhing on his face.” (Page 201)

Despite vows of forever, Sal and Dean constantly run out on their romantic partners and even bounce out on each other when tough times approach. For a season, Sal is romantically involved with single-mother Terry, and they plan to reunite in New York. “’See you in New York, Terry,’” I said. (Page 92). Yet, within a day or two, Sal meets a girl on a bus. “I made the acquaintance of a girl and we necked all the way to Indianapolis.” (Page 93). Despite largely living off of Terry and her young son’s labor, Sal doesn’t feel compelled to help or support them. For when he arrives home, “My aunt and I decided to buy a new refrigerator with the money I had sent her from California,” (Page 97) rather than trying to provide meaningful help or acknowledgement to Terry. “All my life I’d had white ambitions; that was why I’d abandoned a good woman like Terry in the San Joaquin Valley.” (Page 164)

While one might be able to read On the Road as a philosophical work if one could get past the matter of trust, this point might be moot because On the Road is also a coming-of-age novel—Sal specifically calls out “the forlorn rags of growing old.” (Page 280) After the disappointment of Dean’s abandonment in Mexico, Sal is at a watershed moment and starts to pivot away from the childlike, carefree lifestyle that characterizes Dean’s lifestyle. When Sal runs into Dean on his way to the concert, for the first time, he doesn’t halt his plans—Dean will no longer derail his life, and Sal allows Dean to go his own way, and refuses to give him a ride downtown. And the consequences of Dean’s riotous ways have descended upon him, leaving him “ragged in a motheaten overcoat” and walking off alone. (Page 280) Instead of being a leaf blown about by the winds of Dean, being a reactionary to Dean’s whims, Sal is exploring a new sort of unknown territory—he is now forging his own path forward.

Oh Booktwitter, Bookstagram! You lied.

This wasn’t v. good.

Better than Babel but worse than The Poppy War, Yellowface is about June Hayward who steals a manuscript from her best-selling author frenemy. After her friend dies in a bizarre accident, June polishes up the prose and sells the book as her own without crediting her friend.

Most of the book is just internal angst about Twitter.

Maybe I am not the key demographic for this book (I’m in the over 35 crowd). But how I approach social media is like Marie Kondo – if it doesn’t spark joy, I get rid of it. If people spew hate, I just block them.

So I don’t really feel like we were making progress in this novel because I would not give any credence to these naysayers on Twitter.

There is some commentary on the book community. Some of it was interesting.

I will clarify a few things.

If you write a negative review, you are not supposed to tag the author.

While the internet may seem like The Wild West, GoodReads does have Community Guidelines. GoodReads states, “Criticizing the opinions of others is permitted, but attacking individuals for their opinions is not.”

Personally, I have never had a problem with an author, publisher, or GoodReads. So you can write negative reviews (just make sure not to violate the Community Guidelines).

The book does bring up some interesting points around who gets to tell certain stories and plagiarism.

I found this issue of plagiarism particularly ironic because Yellowface didn’t strike me as very original, essentially a mashup of The Plot by Jean Hanoff Korelitz and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum. Furthermore, RF Kuang had a scene in The Poppy War (published 2018) where the main character was training by carrying a pig up a mountain.

Well, in Holes (a story published in 1998) by Louis Sachar someone carries a pig up a mountain.

However, people create retellings all the time. There are lots of familiar and time-tested tropes and plots. At what point is it plagiarism? This would have been a great book for a book club.

Overall, Yellowface was an average book, definitely not the riveting book, have to read in one sitting that the world has lost its mind over.

★★★

Growing up, I devoured books. All the way through high school, reading was a passion. During the summer between high school and uni, I was reading Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare for fun. However, I had to put that down and read Bel Canto for my first college assignment. Desiring to be ultra prepared for school, I read it twice. Between work and school, I was short on time, and the assigned reading material wasn’t challenging. This led to a long period of no books.

Then, I came across this book list. I started off by reading just 6 books a year, one book every other month. The books vary in subject matter and length.

Now, I am at the #3 US book reviewer on GoodReads, but it all started with this list.

1. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
2. Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill
3. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
4. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
5. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
6. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
8. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
9. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship by Alice Munro
10. Henry and Jane by Anais Nin
11. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
12. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
13. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
14. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
15. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
16. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
17. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
18. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

*Yes, I know that 18 does not equal 30. When I started to read the books from the list, I became concerned that the list might disappear before I could finish them all. So I saved all of the books that I had not yet read at that time. These are the books that I saved from the list.

Press 1 if you would like to wait on hold for 3 hours and 45 minutes for a representative. Press 2 if you would like to listen to a recording of our website. Press 3 if you are so disgusted with this process that you just want to give up.

Option 3 is more and more tempting these days…

Atlas Shrugged is on many college admission essays that I wonder how often this very review with be plagiarized. Hi, Harvard and Oxford!

Before I really get into this 1,000+ page tome, GoodReads, can you do me a favor and give out badges when we read 1,000+ page books?

Readings books of this size is like climbing Mount Everest, and it is an event worth celebrating. As an aside, I would also like to see a lifetime pages badge.

Anyways…

In some respects, Atlas Shrugged is more relevant today than when it was first authored. It speaks to the weariness of overachievers as they go about the world with so many people not doing a good job.

Why does it take 45 minutes to buy a single loaf of bread at the store?

About two years ago, I ordered a treadmill for under the desk. After meticulously following the instruction manual, the belt would jump forward then slide back. The situation was especially dangerous because there were no handrails. After spending 30 minutes on the phone, I was told that the product was sold by a third-party seller. Up came the chat box where the seller tried to get me to load the 300-pound treadmill into my car, drive it to UPS, haul it in on my bare shoulders, and pay at my expense to ship it back to China. Let’s just say that didn’t happen…

COVID is now the blanket excuse for everything. People now make TikToks about quiet quitting, brazenly describing with pride how they intentionally do a bad job.

Withdrawing completely from society is so tempting, hitting Option 3.

Another point raised in Atlas Shrugged is how the government, non-businesspeople who don’t really understand the situation are making the rules governing business. This really resonated with me but in a slightly different way.

Most countries ban human-genome editing. In the US, the FDA prohibits DNA-editing.

Sorry, you probably fell asleep. What am I talking about?

A bunch of scientists at the FDA in their gilded white towers decided that people with life threatening genetic conditions cannot be cured before they are born. It is easy to pass such a sentence onto other people.

Have they bothered asking the person who has had two heart surgeries, can’t control their left leg, is covered head-to-toe in rashes, takes 14 pills a day, spends 4 hours a week at the hospital, is told by the very same United States government that she can work with restrictions while her heart was stopped, literally dead, treated as a pariah by society with no support, and it all could have been avoided if just one gene, ALDH4A1, was tweaked before she was born? No. No, they haven’t.

There are so many parallels between gene editing and Rearden Metal.

However, Atlas Shrugged is deeply problematic.

This book needs to check its premises.

Ayn Rand subscribed to a philosophy known as Objectivism and referred to the poor as “takers” and “refuse.”

In Atlas Shrugged, only two women are overachievers: one is a wife of an overachiever and the other is the granddaughter of the company founder.

What if Dagny was born poor or of color? What if she had a major illness or accident?

How do I really feel about this book? Take my hand. Let’s go back in time…..

Once upon a time, there was a young but poor scholar who attended a snobby, expensive elite university.

The financial aid officer told the scholar that she would have to drop out because her parents could not help with tuition.

One day, the scholar took out her sharpened pencils and turned her notebook to a fresh, clean, crisp page, arriving early to her psychology class. Her classmates consisted of the uber-wealthy of America, the types who have summer houses and fathers who work as CEOs of global corporations.

As she waited for class to begin, raised voices broke the stillness of the classroom. Two distinct voices engaged in an argument, turning to shouting, and then escalated into threats of violence.

“I’m going to throw this book at you!”

The young scholar leapt to her feet and bolted out of the room, intent on helping, while the rich students were still giving each other awkward stares and shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

She quickly located the students in question, determined that they were merely playing, and high-tailed it back to class.

As the scholar returned to her seat, her rich classmates turned their attention to her, smothering her with the same question, “What happened?”

Before the scholar could respond, the psychology professor burst into the classroom, exuberant, an enormous smile crossing her face.

“Lisa is the first person in seven years to respond to this experiment.”

Is there room in these esteemed academic institutions for the virtuous?

You say who is John Galt. I say who is Lisa of Troy.

★

Lisa of Troy takes on two prestigious literary heavyweights in the classic, “The Elements of Style.”

Round One

Ding! Ding!

When I was in high school, my Spanish teacher frightened me to the point where I wouldn’t speak. It was one of those situations where you internally plead, “Please don’t call on me. Please don’t call on me.” Of course, disaster struck. During one class, I got something in my eye. Tears were streaming down my face. The other students noticed and essentially crowd-surfed me up to the front of the class, explaining the situation in rapid fire Spanish. After nearly 20 years, I still remember this experience so vividly.

This fear-based environment profoundly impacted my Spanish skills in a negative way.

Do you want to know when I learned the most Spanish?

When I was at university, I met two native Spanish speaking students – one from Mexico and one from Venezuela. We would learn from each other. We would talk in a mixture of Spanish and English, discussing things like to how order from Subway when you didn’t know the name of all of the toppings (ultimately, we settled on using words like “this”, “that”, and pointing). My learning extended beyond dated textbooks, and I learned slang, swear words, and listened to music in Spanish for fun. Soon I even started dreaming in Spanish. There wasn’t a person of authority, no “I’m-better-than-you.” We learned from each other, and we unlocked worlds by doing so.

This book transported me back into Spanish class.

If Charlotte’s Web is a hug, The Elements of Style is a punch in the face.

Although the authors have passion and enthusiasm, this book lacks kindness, basic respect, and empathy. The authors write in such a conceited tone as if they are talking to peasants.

Shall we look at some examples? Strunk/EB White in italics below.

Colloquialisms. If you use a colloquialism or slang word or phrase, simply use it; do not draw attention to it by enclosing it in quotation marks. To do so is to put on airs, as though you were inviting the reader to join you in a select society of those who know better.

Enthuse. An annoying verb growing out of the noun enthusiasm. Not recommended.

I am not enthused by the authors’ pompous demeanor.

Finalize. A pompous ambiguous verb.

Is this the author’s favorite word then?

Meaningful. A bankrupt adjective. Choose another, or rephrase.

Prestigious. Often an adjective of last resort. It’s in the dictionary, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it.

He says that you are illiterate if you don’t know that inflammable means combustible.

The truth is…The fact is…A bad beginning for a sentence. If you feel you are possessed of the truth, or of the fact, simply state it. Do not give it advance billing.

Extreme disagree! The truth is always perks up my ears. What is the truth? What is the point?

This shame-based education should be a thing of the past.

Do not affect a breezy manner.

Terrible advice. What I loved so much about Project Hail Mary is that I felt like one of my nerdy friends was having a conversation with me. Rick Riordan in the Percy Jackson series took some classic Greek mythology, modernized the language, and retold the myths in an unpretentious, interesting way, making them his own.

In ordinary composition, use orthodox spelling. Do not write nite for night, thru for through, pleez for please, unless you plan to introduce a complete system of simplified spelling and are prepared to take the consequences.

Stay in your lane, Strunk, telling me what I can and cannot write! This paper is my canvas. As the painter, there are no limits. My creativity isn’t bounded. If I want to say, “Good nite, my readers!” who cares? Maybe it will wake some people up. Why can’t I use magic in my writing? Why can’t I make up words or spelling, stretching myself, pushing readers to think outside the box?

Overly stuffy and formal writing and expecting strict compliance to a rigid set of rules is paralyzing.

The truth is that plot, character, and setting as well as using appropriate sentence and paragraph length are more important than using a few words correctly. In fact, I have already violated several of the rules of The Elements of Style in this review.

Avoid foreign language. It is a bad habit. Write in English.

What about carpe diem? Seize the day? Readers are smart. Treat them as such.

Avoid fancy words. Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready, and able.

Isn’t that one of the beauties of reading? Ordinarily, our vocabulary is limited to a certain set of words in our everyday usage; however, when you read you get to dust off those fancy words, words that you recognize but you don’t often use when you speak. When I encounter a fancy word, I feel like when I am walking along a beach and find an amazing seashell. The fancy words are beautiful treasures.

For example, take the first sentence from His Dark Materials by my favorite author, Philip Pullman:

Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.

Darkening is not a word that I normally say out loud, but I really enjoyed it in this sentence. Of course, fancy words should be balanced. If I attempted to use the thesaurus to change every single word into something more sophisticated, the sentence would sound ridiculous and take away from the storytelling.

Do not inject opinion.

Is this guy joking? This is classic, “Do as I say and not as I do.”

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.

Who proofread this? The entire book is distrustful of the reader and is patronizing. Also, you don’t need a comma between “intelligence” and “or.” What kind of grammar book is this?

Time for street justice. Who won: Lisa of Troy or Strunk/EB White? Put your “two cents” in the comments!

★★★★★

“Someone should say – hold on stop—this person deserves their privacy. You are not allowed to go there. I go around the world dealing with running and hiding and I can’t take a walk in the park. I can’t go to the store. I have to hide in a room. You feel like you are in prison,” Michael Jackson said in an interview after Princess Diana’s death.

He spoke about how the paparazzi put a machine into his toilet to try to capture pictures of him and said that the paparazzi chase him on scooters. Jackson has had to intervene and tell his driver to slow down. He confessed that he has had to do that many times.

“I’m not a Jacko! I’m Jackson.”

“Wacko Jacko. Where’d that come from? Some English tabloid. I have a heart, and I have feelings. I feel that when you do that to me. It’s not nice. Don’t do it.”

Have things gotten better since 1997?

Let’s take a look at this past September 2022.

Blake Lively posts a picture of her pregnant self in a swimsuit on Instagram. “Here are photos of me pregnant in real life so the 11 guys waiting outside my home for a unicorn sighting will leave me alone. You freak me and my kids out.”

In Spare, Prince Harry points out a sincere problem with the press. To be clear, it is not the regular press that he has a problem with. It is the paparazzi.

As much as he hates the paparazzi, why isn’t he doing more? Why isn’t he pushing for more legal reform? How is it legal to wait outside someone’s doors for days? Why isn’t there more protection for children? Toilet Cams? Hacking phones and putting tracking devices on cars? Can’t we all agree that these activities should be illegal?

That is the powerful theme throughout this book.

However, I am extremely disappointed in the ghostwriter, JR Moehringer. The book is divided into 3 main sections: Harry’s childhood after Princess Diana died, Harry’s military service, and Meg.

The first two sections were very boring. Where was the tell-all part? Harry wrote about losing his innocence to an “older woman” in one paragraph. What was he feeling? Was this a relationship? The details were missing.

There is almost no dialogue in this book, and it is so high-level. It does not feel like I pulled up a chair next to Prince Harry and was experiencing his life.

There is an old saying that it is better for an author to show the audience something rather than to tell the audience. However, there was far, far too much telling. During one relationship, Harry broke up with his girlfriend. That was how he put it. No! I want dialogue, feelings. What was said? I want to be invested, and I want to feel your heartbreak and despair.

Spare reads like a news article with a few below-the-belt comments sprinkled in.

We don’t even make it to Chapter 1 before Harry writes about his brother: “his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own.” Harry, if you want people to have vulnerability and authenticity with you, they have to feel safe. These types of comments are out of bounds.

Some passages were very strange like when Harry decided to share with us his frozen junk. Um awkward turtle.

But that fault I squarely blame on Moehringer. He also ghostwrote Shoe Dog which is a memoir about the founder of Nike. Holy Smokes! That book was so good that I remember even years later exactly where I was when I was reading that book.

Spare is no Shoe Dog.

Then, an article came out recently. Prince Harry cut the juiciest bits out of the book. “There are some things that have happened, especially between me and my brother, and to some extent between me and my father, that I just don’t want the world to know. Because I don’t think they would ever forgive me.”

As for Prince Harry himself, I would recommend reading Michelle Obama’s book, “The Light We Carry”, specifically the last chapter, “Going High.” Trust me. Michelle Obama has had some very unfair and downright lies published about her in the media. What is her motto? “When they go low, we go high.”

Here is a passage from her book that I feel is appropriate here:

Are we still supposed to be going high?

Okay, what about now?

My answer is yes. Still yes. We need to keep trying to go high. We must commit and recommit ourselves to the idea. Operating with integrity matters. It will matter forever. It is a tool.

★★★

If you like the cold, hard truth about book reviews, someone who doesn’t just dish out 5-star reviews to pander to publishers, follow me on GoodReads or check out my homepage.

I was recently reading in the Troy Times that you were soliciting public feedback about the library’s goals.

Hello. Here I am with lots of opinions and ideas.

First, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lisa of Troy. Last year, I read 200 books, have 4 library cards, and am the #4 US book reviewer on GoodReads.

It seems to me that the library is extremely focused on foot traffic. However, I use the library resources electronically much more frequently. Last year, I checked out more than 100 items through Libby, a phone app. On Libby, I have three library cards: the Brooklyn Public Library, Broward County Library, and the Midwest Collaborative Library Services (through Troy Public Library).

The best access by far is definitely through Brooklyn. Sadly, Brooklyn will be phasing out their non-resident program by the end of this year.

The wait times on Libby are ridiculous especially for in-demand books. For example, I wanted to secure an audiobook copy of Spare, the latest book by Prince Harry. In Brooklyn, the wait time is 14 weeks. In Midwest (aka Troy), several months!

Earlier this week, I was at the Troy Public Library to pick up my hold for Notes for a Small Island when a sign caught my eye, HITS, high interest titles where participants can’t place any holds, have one week to read the book with no renewals, and $1/day in late fees.

Sign at Troy Public Library detailing HITS program

I really question the value of this program. As mentioned earlier, these books have extremely long wait times electronically but they are collecting dust on the shelves? How many people can read The Last Chairlift, a 900+ page book, in one week?

Who is going to drive to the library every day to see if these titles are available?

Also, is the big sign about the $1/day fines creating a welcoming environment when so many libraries are waiving fines completely?

Alright, so I just complained and have no solutions. I do have some solutions, but I am getting there.

If you decide to keep the HITS program, might I suggest that your staff put a short daily video on Instagram and Twitter with what is on the shelves so people know what is available?

Can we please make electronic borrowing part of the library metric? What can the Troy Public Library do to be more competitive with Brooklyn Public Library?

I have also seen other libraries print on their receipts, “Using the library in 2023 has saved you $326.” This makes people feel like they received an incredible value. Perhaps the TPL can consider the same?

Additionally, I strongly encourage the TPL to have a better way of handling book donations. Given the large volume of books that I read, I like to donate most of them. Wouldn’t it be nice to shorten the ridiculous wait times for high interest titles? For example, I would be more than happy to donate The Dictionary of Lost Words and Daisy Darker to the TPL. However, the process for donating is that I give them to The Friends of the Library, and then the Friends sell my books and give TPL the proceeds. It makes absolutely no sense to donate a high-interest title to the library just for it to be sold for $2 and repurchased for $30. Can someone please review the books being donated?

Now, there is an incredible library not far from us that I think should be the Troy Public Library’s benchmark.

The Baldwin Public Library (located in Birmingham, Michigan) is the best library that I have ever been to (and I have been to the New York Public Library and The Boston Public Library). Why doesn’t the Troy Public Library partner with the Baldwin Public Library?

The Baldwin Public Library is a magical blend of old school architecture with modern touches and loads of natural light. I can read all day beside the fireplace. It also has an Idea Lab which includes 3D printing!

Troy High Schools consistently rank quite highly in robotics. As soon as some of the robotic parents discovered Baldwin’s 3D printer, they started planning to meet there.

Why doesn’t Troy have its own 3D printer? Shouldn’t the library evolve to meet the changing needs of the community?

Furthermore, the Baldwin Public Library has an amazing children’s section. In addition to loads of books, there is an interactive digital play table where the kids use teamwork to play games. They also have a puppet area including a stage. Come in on the weekends, and it is packed! Now, take the Troy Public Library. There used to be a train set, but it was “retired.”

I would suggest having all of your staff visit Baldwin Public Library to see what a library can really be for the community. Personally, I am going to attend their Library Board Meetings because I want to learn all I can about this highly successful library.

Yes, it will take loads of money to renovate our library, but when did readers stop reaching for the stars? And you won’t be alone. I have more than 7,500 followers on GoodReads, and I would be more than happy to help out with fundraising efforts, giving a speech, or auctioning off a lunch or personalized book recommendations.

Please let me know how I can help the readers of the future. If you have any additional questions or follow up comments, I would be more than happy to discuss.

Best bookish wishes,

Lisa of Troy
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/124132123-lisa-of-troy

Last year, I read 200 books, and, frankly, it was too much. In 2023, my goal is to move beyond consuming to creating (sounds like a bumper sticker).

My Type A personality took over. I ordered some very studious writing books and already envisioned myself as a best-selling author by the end of the year.

Of course, I have actually written nothing this year.

To avoid the reading that I am not doing, I started using my time productively, looking at YouTube naturally, when I stumbled across some lectures by Brandon Sanderson. I guess if I am going to take writing advice by someone other than Philip Pullman, Brandon Sanderson will do.

Brandon Sanderson talked about how he wrote 13 novels before he finally sold any and that it takes about 10 years to finally perfect your craft of writing. When Sanderson was first starting out, he would write a novel, get better as he was writing the novel, and then write a new “better” novel. Things finally started to change for him when he started to revise his work.

Sanderson might be onto something here. Normally, I am so pressed for time that I throw my writing together, happy to read over it quickly for grammar and spelling errors once before submitting. However, today, I had to cut my writing piece down to 2,200 characters. Thanks, Instagram!

When I deleted phrases like, “we find that X”, the writing became a lot stronger.

When I look back over the time period where my writing was the strongest, I was writing constantly. Maybe my writing journey should begin with journaling instead of super lofty goals. I mean I have 10 years according to Brandon Sanderson, right?

If you made it this far, check out my bookish yammering on GoodReads!

The Last Chairlift isn’t a perfect novel. In fact, it is an awful mess at times. But it speaks to me, and it moves me.

Don’t read the book blurb. It doesn’t accurately describe The Last Chairlift.

So what is The Last Chairlift about?

Well….if it was easy to explain, the book blurb would be more accurate, but I’ll do my best.

On the surface, The Last Chairlift is about Adam’s life. He is born to an unwed single mother, Little Ray. He grows up with an eclectic family including a grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We follow Adam through his life including how he navigates the sexual politics of those he loves and also his journey to discover the identity of his father.

At first glance, The Last Chairlift is horrible. It is character driven, and it doesn’t have a strong plot. It should have been broken up into various books as it is almost 1,000 pages. Some of the topics aren’t that interesting (like wrestling…snooze fest). About 25% of the book is a screenplay which just doesn’t work (if you are really interested in a mixed media book that works check out Maddie Mortimer’s Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies).

There are also many, many similarities with A Prayer for Owen Meany. Adam even lives on Front Street with his grandmother, the exact same street as in A Prayer for Owen Meany. John Irving is a talented enough writer to create a different setting for The Last Chairlift.

So all of that sounds awful right? Why in the world did you rate this book 5 stars? Have you lost your mind?

Probably. But that’s beside the point.

“The Last Chairlift is an anthem for our times.”

-Lisa of Troy

The Last Chairlift felt like home: the little snowshoer, the little English teacher, Little Ray, the ski patroller, Em, Matthew, Adam, Nora. These characters will stay with me for a long time.

The Last Chairlift feels like what Lessons by Ian McEwan should have been. Irving was able to elevate Adam’s problems from just Adam’s life to societal problems as a whole. The Last Chairlift is much more than just the troubles of one man.

But let’s talk about the symbolism, the deeper meanings of the book.

In The Last Chairlift, Adam talks about editing his book, that when you put forth your work, you can’t be afraid of ruffling a few feathers.

He also talks about his small hands. It reminds me of the song by Avicii, Wake Me Up.

“I tried carrying the weight of the world

But I only have two hands.”

Adam is one person. He wants to make changes in the world, but how much can one person do?

In the book, there are two characters who don’t speak: the grandfather and Em, the pantomimist. This really moved me. Aren’t there a whole bunch of people just talking, talking away? Isn’t that essentially Twitter? A whole bunch of people just talking and no one listening. In fact, these days corporations direct us to chat bots and to leave voicemails that will never be returned. Why try to engage when no one is listening? People just don’t try anymore. They retreat.

Em is incredibly interesting, and she has Nora who “interprets” her pantomime. However, Nora is not always faithful in representing Em’s thoughts. How many voiceless people groups are out there? Many groups have an advocate, but that message being conveyed by the advocate might become garbled or not truly represent the underlying voiceless or powerless group.

There is an event that happens, and Adam shows great bravery. However, the press doesn’t consider Adam a hero. For all of the people advocating for others without a voice or power, should they just give up? Even if they are successful, they usually don’t get any credit, and they don’t even know if what they are doing is working.

One of the characters in The Last Chairlift is Jasmine. She is one of Adam’s girlfriends. She is always calling her ex-boyfriends/husbands on the phone and chewing them out. Why was she in the book? Have you ever been caught up on something? You just can’t move past it. Is that our country? Is that our society? Are we caught up on the past so that we can’t move forward?

In The Last Chairlift, there is also a lot of piggybacking between two characters. At one crucial moment, one character carries the other. Is that what we, as a society, need to do? Do we need to carry each other?

★★★★★

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book exchange for my fair and honest opinion.