Book of the Day Roundup: January 23-27, 2023
(Don’t) Stop Me if You’ve Heard This Before
And Other Essays on Writing Fiction
Peter Turchi
Trinity University Press
Softcover $19.95 (304pp)
978-1-59534-976-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
For creative souls who yearn to achieve greatness in their work, the insights shared throughout Peter Turchi’s (Don’t) Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before will be game-changing.
Turchi’s essays push past the solid but limited advice of 101 workshops (“show, don’t tell;” kill your darlings) to advocate for greater awareness in the construction and revision of one’s stories: “There is value in thinking the process through, in examining every part of what we do.” Deconstructing notable novels and stories (and even personal anecdotes) to highlight instances wherein greatness arises, Turchi walks aspiring authors through the nuances of factors like imagery, narrative perspectives, character relationships, and even the dreaded first line. The upside to being so meticulous, he suggests, is that care enables storytellers to create works that don’t only hold attention in the moment, but that last in people’s memories––whose sharpest bits burrow into readers’ beings.
“I encourage you to at least consider being a little more scheming, even a little devious,” Turchi winks. Those daring writers who rise to the challenge will find their work enriched by (Don’t) Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before, the most valuable (and cost effective) creative writing course you’ll ever take.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (December 27, 2022)
Fae and the Moon
Franco Aureliani
Catherine Satrun, illustrator
Sarah Satrun, illustrator
Little Bee Books
Hardcover $24.99 (144pp)
978-1-4998-1328-9
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Franco Aureliani’s charming graphic novel Fae and the Moon, a girl pulls the moon from the sky, hoping that it will bring her mother home to her.
Fae lives in her little house with the company of two rats, Frik and Frak, and one rabbit, Percival. She longs for her absent mother, who loved the moon, planted a moon garden, and told Fae stories about the moon. So Fae pulls the moon from the sky, hoping that if her mother sees that it is no longer there, she will come home. But taking the moon leaves the night in complete darkness and the world’s inhabitants vulnerable to dangers that Fae did not anticipate.
The colorful illustrations add life and energy to the story. Their lines are graceful, and their depictions of movements and emotions are thrilling. Each character acts in accordance with motivations that are often unpredictable; who is (and who is not) loyal to the heroine is not obvious. This carries the plot through some surprising twists: a nefarious rat king with an army of underlings and an angry dragon are exciting elements that challenge Fae as she attempts to keep the danger at bay, protect the moon, and find her mother.
The story is set in a fantasy world, and the magic that Fae uses fits the setting well. Fae learns that she has the strength to take care of herself and to face the world and its dangers on her own. The book’s lessons about believing in oneself and the importance of family are clear, important, and meaningful.
Fae and the Moon is an entertaining fantasy story about personal empowerment and family love.
CATHERINE THURESON (December 27, 2022)
The Red-Headed Pilgrim
Kevin Maloney
Two Dollar Radio
Softcover $18.95 (223pp)
978-1-953387-28-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
With a mix of humor, melancholy, and pathos, Kevin Maloney’s memorable novel The Red-Headed Pilgrim follows an office worker through his midlife crisis.
In his childhood, Kevin came to the realization that he was going to die. This drove him to search for beauty throughout his life. And after growing up in a mundane Oregon suburb, he longs to sow his wild oats and find meaning on the road. He first decides to follow a woman; she will spend time with him, but she has no romantic interest in him. Later, his adventures take him to a failed roadside attraction in Montana and to a small Vermont town where he meets a woman “with an uncanny resemblance to George Washington”; she changes his entire life, even though he meets her while pretending to be a cowboy.
Maloney’s prose is expert in its formation. The book’s sections are packed with witty references and sly digs at Kevin’s lack of self-awareness. There are scenes that are downright heartbreaking, too. Indeed, in addition to Kevin’s freewheeling adventures, the novel covers the consequences that adventuring can produce. Kevin enters into a far-from-ideal marriage, raises a child in that milieu, and works to manage elements of a life that can’t be put back together. His story becomes somewhat of a parody of itself, even as he grows and struggles. And this life story—one filled with squandered potential—is an engaging one.
In the fun, adventure-filled novel The Red-Headed Pilgrim a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery and struggles to find meaning as his bad decisions compound.
JEFF FLEISCHER (December 27, 2022)
The Vegetarian Reset
75 Low-Carb, Plant-Forward Recipes from Around the World
Vasudha Viswanath
Alexandra Shytsman, photographer
The Collective Book Studio
Hardcover $35.00 (208pp)
978-1-68555-037-0
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Written in a welcoming tone, Vasudha Viswanath’s cookbook The Vegetarian Reset shares fresh alternatives to vegetarian diet staples like “lab-grown burgers” and carbohydrate-laden pastas and rices. These “moderately low-carb” and “predominantly gluten-free” recipes stand to satisfy foodie palates and put the healthy vegetable factor back into vegetarian dishes.
Viswanath—a self-declared culinary tourist who enjoys discovering new recipes and adapting them to vegetarian tastes—shares creative and spicy recipes that represent a range of cultures. There are Indian, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, and Latin American flavors represented. Viswanath’s South Indian Dosas can be served with Peanut-Garlic or Cilantro-Coconut chutneys. Inspired by a visit to the French Riviera, her intriguing Socca Pizza’s chickpea-flour flatbread crust is topped with smoky eggplant, jalapenos, and mozzarella. And with her Vegetable Paella, she opts for chickpeas, olives, and artichoke hearts rather than meat and seafood; saffron-scented cauliflower rice is used instead of traditional grains.
The book also includes adaptations of Korean Bibimbap and a lemony North African-style tagine. There are classic salads like Caprese, Waldorf, and Russian Olivier, along with the simple yet vibrant Indonesian Gado-Gado platter. The Curried Bolognese swaps zucchini noodles for pasta, while lentils and mushrooms provide a robust base for the sauce. And Hazelnut Brownies and Mango Cheesecake Jars are among the dessert selections that utilize less sugar yet remain “craveable and satiating.” Many of the dairy and egg-based recipes can be “veganized” with slight adjustments, just as the versatile Vegan Béchamel is a creamy addition to numerous dishes. Bright photographs, calorie counts, and helpful breakdowns of fat, carbohydrate, and protein contents round the book out.
The Vegetarian Reset takes a healthy, light approach to vegetarian cooking, sharing splendid, flavorful recipes that explore the diet’s potential.
MEG NOLA (December 27, 2022)
Ink
Angela Woodward
University Press of Kentucky
Hardcover $21.95 (160pp)
978-0-8131-9653-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Angela Woodward’s ruminative surrealist novel Ink, everyday life is juxtaposed with testimonies related to war crimes.
The skill most appreciated in a typist is accuracy. All Marina and Sylvia know about their new job is that they need to type what has been recorded on tape, they need to use typewriters, and they can’t talk about what they hear. For weeks, as their necks ache and their backs grow stiff, they listen to the classified testimonies of the inmates of Abu Ghraib, recited in the monotone voice of a translator and accurately typing every word they hear. Juxtaposed to these horrors are the mundane events of Marina and Sylvia’s everyday lives: single motherhood, a marriage on the rocks, and office bureaucracy.
Inspired by French essayist and poet Francis Ponge, Ink is thoughtful and meandering, but also precise and sharp. Observations about the existential meaning of everyday objects, such as the mechanics of a typewriter and the production of ink, are woven into the narrator’s alter ego as she struggles with the craft of writing and with the story of Marina, Sylvia, and the tapes. Cutting in and out of the text are excerpts from the testimonies of the victims of Abu Ghraib. Though brief, the excerpts are shocking in their straightforwardness, appearing as glimpses of a reality Marina and Sylvia can exit and enter at their choosing.
Based on the real events and testimonies of Abu Ghraib, Ink is at times fragmented to the point where its purpose seems to be lost. But this layered narrative still turns its subject inside out, wrapping ordinariness into acts of violence.
Brutal and surreal, Ink juxtaposes extreme and mundane events in its story of two women hired to transcribe horrors.
ERIKA HARLITZ KERN (December 27, 2022)
Barbara Hodge
