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Recommended Read: Still Writing by Dani Shapiro

August 9, 2017 Roni Loren

This week I've been focusing on pulling quotes from books I've read this summer about devices and the internet and all that jazz. But that's not all I've been reading this summer. So today I thought I'd take a trip down a side road and talk about a fantastic book I read about writing.

Still Writing by Dani Shapiro was so life-affirming and wonderful, not to mention beautifully written. This is the book I started my new Smartphone-Free Morning Routine with. Also, I used Book Darts to mark quotes or passages I love in my print books, and this one must weigh a pound more than when I bought it because it has so many freaking book darts lol. (see photo, all those little dark lines are the book darts.)

The book is written in essay format, so it's perfect to read a little each sitting, which is why it worked well as a morning read for me. The passages are short but filled with things to ponder, so it's one to savor rather than inhale.

I'm pulling some of my favorite quotes for y'all today to give you an idea of the style and tone, but if I quoted every passage I loved, I'd end up retyping the whole book, lol. So I'll try to choose carefully. : )

On Beginning:

"Every book, story, and essay begins with a single word. Then a sentence. Then a paragraph. These words, sentences, and paragraphs may well end up not being the actual beginning. You can't know that now. Straining to know the whole of the story before you set out is a bit like imagining great-grandchildren on a first date. But you can start with the smallest detail."

On the time between books:

(This passage resonated with me so much, and right now I'm between books, so I completely relate to this phase.)

"When I'm between books, I feel as if I will never have another story to tell. the last book has wiped me out, has taken everything from me, everything I understand and feel and know and remember, and...that's it. There's nothing left. A low-level depression sets in. The world hides its gifts from me. It has taken me years to realize that this feeling, the one of the well being empty, is as it should be. It means I've spent everything. And so I must begin again."

On why we write:

"The loneliest day in the life of a published writer may be publication day. Nothing happens. Perhaps your editor sends flowers. Maybe not. Maybe your family takes you out for dinner. But the world won’t stop to take notice. The universe is indifferent. You have put the shape of your soul between the covers of a book and no one declares it a national holiday. Someone named Booklover gives you a one-star review on Amazon.
So what is it about writing that makes it—for some of us—as necessary as breathing? It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.”

On the jumping to the internet when we get stuck in our writing:

"This may be the most important piece of advice I can give you: The Internet is nothing like a cigarette break. If anything, it's the opposite. ...By the time we return to our work--if, indeed, we return to our work at all--we will be further away from our deepest impulses rather than closer to them."

On the writing life:

"when writers who are just starting out ask me when it gets easier, my answer is never. It never gets easier. I don't want to scare them, so I rarely say more than that, but the truth is that, if anything, it gets harder. The writing life isn't just filled with predictable uncertainties but with the awareness that we are always starting over again."

I could include so many more, but I hope that gives you an idea of how amazing this little book is. So if you're a writer, do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy. And if you're not a writer, I also highly recommend her marriage memoir Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage which was written in a similar style and was equally as lovely and thought-provoking. 

In Book Recommendations, Books, Writing Tags still writing, dani shapiro, hourglass, book recommendations, memoir, books on writing, writers, writer, creative life, roni loren, book darts
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My Summer Reading So Far: Romance, YA, and a Memoir

June 23, 2016 Roni Loren
Summer Reads - June - Roni Loren

One of the best things about going on vacation for me is that I get big chunks of time to read. Even though it's my job to write books and reading is vital to that, I still struggle to fit it in sometimes. In fact, this year, I've been in a bit of a reading slump. Usually I read 50 books a year minimum. This year, I've only read 13 so far, which is way behind. Part of that is due to being busy, but I also had a number of books that I didn't finish because they weren't speaking to me. So I was looking forward to some vacation reading.

And I lucked out and enjoyed both of the ones I took on vacation. This first one, I finished on the plane ride over, lol. So it definitely was a compelling and quick read. American Girls by Alison Umminger is not a romance, though there is a small romantic thread. It's what I would call literary YA. The premise is what got me to pick it up in the first place. Fifteen year old girl is fed up at home and runs away to stay with her sister in California for the summer. But while she's there, she ends up researching the Manson girls for a project. That intrigued me. And though the Manson murders are a thread in the book, it doesn't dominate it. This is mostly a coming of age story with some angst, some grit, and a non-glossy look at LA. Recommend. 

American Girls: A Novel
By Alison Umminger

Back cover:

She was looking for a place to land.
Anna is a fifteen-year-old girl slouching toward adulthood, and she's had it with her life at home. So Anna "borrows" her stepmom's credit card and runs away to Los Angeles, where her half-sister takes her in. But LA isn't quite the glamorous escape Anna had imagined.
As Anna spends her days on TV and movie sets, she engrosses herself in a project researching the murderous Manson girls—and although the violence in her own life isn't the kind that leaves physical scars, she begins to notice the parallels between herself and the lost girls of LA, and of America, past and present.
In Anna's singular voice, we glimpse not only a picture of life on the B-list in LA, but also a clear-eyed reflection on being young, vulnerable, lost, and female in America—in short, on the B-list of life. Alison Umminger writes about girls, sex, violence, and which people society deems worthy of caring about, which ones it doesn't, in a way not often seen in YA fiction.

The next one I read was Always on My Mind by Jill Shalvis. Believe it or not, this was my very first Shalvis read. I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm glad I finally picked one up. This was a sweet and sexy story about a firefighter and a pastry chef. The Great Dane Kevin stole the show for me though. I laughed in every scene that dog was in. And this is book 8 in the series, but I had no trouble jumping in without reading the previous books. I never felt lost.

Always on My Mind (Lucky Harbor Book 8)
By Jill Shalvis

Back cover:

After dropping out of pastry school and messing up her big break on a reality cooking show, Leah Sullivan needs to accomplish something in her life. But when she returns home to Lucky Harbor, she finds herself distracted by her best friend, Jack Harper. In an effort to cheer up Jack's ailing mother, Dee, Leah tells a little fib - that she and Jack are more than just friends. Soon pretending to be hot-and-heavy with this hunky firefighter feels too real to handle . . . 
No-strings attachments suit Jack just fine - perfect for keeping the risk of heartbreak away. But as Jack and Leah break every one of their "just friends" rules, he longs to turn their pretend relationship into something permanent. Do best friends know too much about each other to risk falling in love? Or will Jack and Leah discover something new about each other in a little town called Lucky Harbor?

Last is one I haven't finished yet, but I thought I'd pass along because I breezed through the first half last night. It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell one is a memoir, which is outside my usual zone, but I saw it recommended on another site and decided to try it. So far, it's a very compelling read. The author has a great voice (funny and honest) and she grew up in the 90s, so a lot of the references resonate with me. And though the main topic is binge eating, it's really a story of growing up, dysfunctional families, and trying to find your way through life.

It Was Me All Along: A Memoir
By Andie Mitchell

Back cover:

A yet heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance.
All her life, Andie Mitchell had eaten lustily and mindlessly. Food was her babysitter, her best friend, her confidant, and it provided a refuge from her fractured family. But when she stepped on the scale on her twentieth birthday and it registered a shocking 268 pounds, she knew she had to change the way she thought about food and herself; that her life was at stake. 
It Was Me All Along takes Andie from working class Boston to the romantic streets of Rome, from morbidly obese to half her size, from seeking comfort in anything that came cream-filled and two-to-a-pack to finding balance in exquisite (but modest) bowls of handmade pasta. This story is about much more than a woman who loves food and abhors her body. It is about someone who made changes when her situation seemed too far gone and how she discovered balance in an off-kilter world. More than anything, though, it is the story of her finding beauty in acceptance and learning to love all parts of herself.

So that's what I'm reading. What are you reading right now? Or what have you read lately that was great?

 

In Book Recommendations, Books, Reading Tags reading recommendations, books, memoir, jill shalvis, alison umminger, andie mitchell, it was me all along, always on my mind, american girls, YA, romance, contemporary romance, reading
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