What I'm Reading; or, How Googling It Quickly Led To The Most Surreal Website Ever

I'm currently reading Diana Tutton's Guard Your Daughters, recommended years ago by my friend Curzon, and which I will be enthusing about more than you can imagine.  I'll be hunting you down and making sure you read it if you have any affection for I Capture the Castle.  But I couldn't resist posting a link... I googled Guard Your Daughters and not many people have written about it, but it does feature in a photo blog called 2 bison, where the photographer takes photos of everyday objects and two small bison... see here, and marvel.  (And make sure you click on '2 bison' at the top of that page, to see what else has been given the same treatment.)

(Oh, and have you read Guard Your Daughters?)

Showing the Book's Face to the World Before its Born

by Priscille Sibley

It’s all about buzz. THE PROMISE OF STARDUST is due on February 5, 2013. And a few weeks ago I received 10 advanced reading copies. I cannot express what the feeling is like, to see your book, solid and sturdy. It’s very different from looking at the pages on a computer screen, different from a printed manuscript, even different from the proof pages. It’s real. Not a figment of my imagination. It’s an entity of its own. And those things, those characters I conjured up in my imagination, they are about to become real for someone else. The book is no longer in my hands. It’s out there in the world.

This is a hazy purgatory. Because it isn’t published yet, not exactly, but it is out there. It’s been sent out to media outlets, magazines, newspapers. Harper Collins gave away 50 ARCs to readers in sneek preview via Bookreporter.com. Along with the ARC, readers received a questionnaire. The book is being read by real people, not my agent, not my writer friends, not my editor or other people at my publisher (not that these are not real people) but by honest to God readers.

This is wild. My wonderful editor, Emily Krump, sent along their responses and I must say the comments brought happy tears to my eyes because the majority of them were very, very positive. The recipients said they’d recommend the book to their book clubs, to their family, to everyone. They said they felt happy, and sad, and satisfied. They said they cried. They said they loved it. This is what an author works for, to make a story something that will resonate and evoke an emotional response. So if you’re one of those readers who read THE PROMISE OF STARDUST and sent along your comments, I want to thank you.

Famous authors also have my book in their hands and have given me some very flattering blurbs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you writers who took the time out to read an unknown author’s debut.

But you see, at this point, the book writing is done. Now, to quote my wonderful literary agent, Laney Becker, now we just have to make sure readers find it.

So… now there’s that social media flaunting. I’m beginning to like Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest is fun although I have no idea if it will mean anything in terms of book sales. And blogging, well, throat clearing time, I’m nervously raising my head here and there. 

 This is a different world for me. In my real life I’m never the center of attention. That I have to wave my hand up in the air to draw focus onto my book still feels foreign and self-aggrandizing, but this is it. My book is about to make its entrance into the world. The fact is most books only live for a short short time. I want mine to have a chance, so I am here. My book is stirring, weighing on me. I am joyous with anticipation. 

So, yes, please follow me on Twitter @PriscilleSibley

And please like my author page on Facebook.

And stop by my webpage. 

This is the part where we authors wait, a period of confinement. This Book Pregnant. 

Back soon...

Off to conference for a couple of days, and then busy weekend, but will see you next Monday!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) always seems to arrive before I expect it, and disappear before I've managed to hop on board - at least since I joined in back in 2009, or thereabouts.  Well, this year I'm not going to manage to join in every post, but it came at a time when I've been feeling especially appreciative about the book blogosphere, so I'm going to do my BBAW contribution all in one post.  There will be a lot of links to other bloggers... but I love them all.  And it's only the tip of the iceberg, so please don't think that not being mentioned means I don't adore your blog.  Get ready for an appreciative ramble!

I was struck by what an amazing job bloggers do.  Nobody gets paid, most have families and/or jobs and dozens of other commitments - but they all manage to write intelligent, compelling, funny, charming, touching book reviews and literary posts.  It takes up a huge amount of time (I seem to spend less time than many, and it still takes up loads of mine!) and yet we all do it willingly, happily, joyously!  And you know why?  Because all the other book bloggers are so darn brilliant!  What started for each of us, I suppose, as a love of books and reading, has grown into more than that.  We still love books, and have picked up so many recommendations from each other (thank you blogosphere for introducing me to Shirley Jackson, Muriel Spark, Joyce Dennys... so many) but it's become about so much more than that.

I was going to try to list every book blogger I've met, but I realised that it's probably 40-50 people.  Which is amazing!  But it might be a little exhausting - for me and for you - if I type them all out, and I'd be bound to forget someone lovely.  So, instead, I shall write about bloggers I've had the pleasure of meeting who live in distant lands... two from Canada, three from the U.S., and one from Australia:

Claire/Captive Reader - from her very earliest days, Claire leapt to the top of my favourite blogs.  Her taste is impeccable, her style engaging, her reviews incredibly perceptive.  I had the fun of book shopping through London with Claire, and buying vastly more than she did...

Darlene/Roses Over A Cottage Door - oh, what a ray of sunshine Darlene is!  Both her blog and, even more so, in person - I wanted to drag her across the ocean and make her visit tea shops with me at least once a week.

Thomas/My Porch - such a funny, incisive blog, and such a charming, engaging man!  Our two hours over tea and scones this year, each talking nineteen to the dozen, ranks amongst my favourite blogging-related occasions.

Teresa/Shelf Love - gosh, this meeting was an age ago, when I'd only 'known' her for a bit.  Now I want to meet again, Teresa!  I'm so impressed by the discipline Teresa and Jenny show in maintaining the very high standard of their wide-ranging blog (not to mention the humility involved in co-authoring a blog) - they just don't seem to have off-days.

Diana/Light, Bright, and Sparkling - another infectiously enthusiastic lady, who has forgotten more about Jane Austen than I will ever know.

Karyn/A Penguin A Week - many of us have a fairly good idea of our own blog's identity, but nobody has as ingenious and precise a premise as Karyn - picking one Penguin Book a week from her enviable collection, and writing wonderfully engaging reviews on them.  A truly unique blog.  And we had a lovely afternoon, bookshopping through Oxford.

And who would I must like to meet, outside of the UK?  So many!  But I'm going to say Eva/A Striped Armchair.  One day, Eva!

I always remember the author I met who said "Oh, you're a blogger - you must be lonely."  I'm sure it was kindly meant (er, I'm far from sure) but it isn't true.  Even without all the face-to-face meetings, blogging is all about community - we're all typing away in our garrets, but the best bloggers and the best blogging experiences are those which value community.  Nothing puts me off a blogger more than if they don't have a 'blog roll'.  But that's just the start - over the years I've loved participating in various readalongs and publisher- or author-specific weeks.  Just thinking about author-reads, there have been Stu/Winston's Dad and Henry Green, Thomas/My Porch and Anita Brookner, Annabel/Gaskella and Beryl Bainbridge, Florence/Miss Darcy's Library and Rosamond Lehmann, Simon/Savidge Reads and Daphne du Maurier.

I was so thrilled by the enthusiasm for Muriel Spark Reading Week, which the encouraging, perceptive and incredibly well-read Harriet co-organised with me.  Not only did lots of my favourite bloggers join in, but I got to meet many more.  And it couldn't have come at a better time - I didn't mention it then, but during the week I underwent an examination for cancer, the culmination of the scariest and most horrible weeks of my life.  I was lucky - it ended up being a false alarm.  But you'll never know how much it meant to me to have all the enthusiasm and support for Muriel Spark Reading Week distracting me.  Thank you, all of you.  (And thank you especially to Harriet, who did know what I was going through, and couldn't have been kinder or more understanding.)

I especially love bloggers like lovely Kim who dedicate an ongoing series to interviewing bloggers and finding out their literary preferences.  Blogs should have porous boundaries, flowing into one another, as we would at a book group.  So it feels like a good time to announce that I'll be hosting a third series of My Life in Books in October - it previously appeared in March 2011 and March 2012, but the feedback was so positive that I couldn't wait til next March.  I shan't reveal names yet, but I asked 14 people and everyone said yes!  They'll join the thirty (thirty!) bloggers and blog-readers who've already shared their lives in books.

But something I realised, while writing out my list of bloggers to ask (which was at least thirty names long - plenty of people to ask next time!) is that I'm not doing very well at keeping up with the blogosphere.  Victoria (who has such intellectual sensitivity, but also - wonderfully - once shared my phase for Sweet Valley High) covered a similar topic here.  Book Blogger Appreciation Week is also demonstrating to me how widely spread the blogging world now is - when I started, I felt I had a fairly good grasp on who was blogging, and we all seemed to more or less know one another.  A huge number of those dearly familiar faces are still around - delightful, warmhearted Karen/Cornflower, infectiously enthusiastic Danielle/A Work in Progress, dear Elaine/Random Jottings, whom I've met so many times and has shaped my reading life so much over the years, and Margaret/Books Please who started at almost the same time as me, to name but four.  I love the way we've all grown together as bloggers, and the archives we've each built, stretching back for years and years... and, ladies, you're not looking a day older.

But there must be so many young bloggers out there (young in blogging terms, I mean - lots of literate six-month-olds) to whom I must be introduced.  True, it would easily take up all my time just to keep track of the long-standing book bloggers - but imagine what would have happened if I'd stopped seeking out new blogs three or four years ago?  What I would have missed!  So I mustn't rest on my laurels; I must keep my eyes open.  When I tried to think of book blogs I love which are less than a year old, the only two I could think of immediately were Helen/A Gallimaufry - an impressively thoughtful, thorough, inviting blog - and Karen/Kaggy's Bookish Ramblings, with her great range of twentieth-century fiction reviews akin to my own bookish loves.  Which makes me wonder... how many other gems I am missing?  (Sorry if you're less than a year old and I already know you, it's probably just because I can't imagine the blogosphere existed without you!)

There are perils involved with having been a book blogger pretty consistently for five and a half years.  There are so many joys too - I still get excited when I get a comment or a lovely email - but I mustn't get complacent or too settled.  And so... I'd love you to comment with a recommendation of a new blog.  And by 'new', I mean less than a year old.  Spread the love!  And, whilst you're at it, why not comment and tell me what you love about any blog or any blogger - just keep the appreciation overflowing this week!

Finally - I want to reiterate how much I appreciate everyone who comes to visit Stuck-in-a-Book, whether this is your first time, or you've been here every week since the beginning (hi Mum!)  I wouldn't have the patience to continue if it weren't for your interest, or if there weren't so many fascinating blogs around to keep the community going strong.  I never could have imagined all the joys and adventures blogging and blog-reading would bring - please, bloggers and blog-readers, feel 100% appreciated!  The internet would be rubbish without you.

The Novel Diner

My friend Claire Coutinho (and her friend Mina) has recently started up a brilliantly novel idea - a literary-themed supper club!  The next one is at Shoreditch House on September 18th with American Psycho as the theme... nearly sold out, but keep an eye on future events.  More info here, but do read my interview with Claire below.  Since it's a supper club, I thought I'd arrange it as a menu card, divided in Starter, Main, and Dessert...

The Great Gatsby

Starter

1.) So... what is the Novel Diner?

We are a pop-up supper club that brings to life the world of a different novel at each event. We create a bespoke menu using food references in the novel, and we also have live performances, costumes and decor.

2.) How did you come to be doing this?

We are passionate about food and books, which naturally led to a few conversations about ways to marry the two. We came up with The Novel Diner because it is the kind of event that both of us would love to attend, but it's also incredibly fun for us to organise. Every month we sit down with our favourite novels and antique recipe books and work out how best to capture a particular story for our diners. We see it as a labour of love and hopefully, this translates onto the plates of our guests!

Main

3.) How do you decide upon the books you use?

We choose books where food plays a big part in the narrative or context of the novel. In the case of To The Lighthouse we recreated Mildred's masterpiece - a melt-in-your-mouth boeuf en daube. For Proust we of course had madeleines in addition to other classic belle epoque fare like chicken liver parfait, fried sole and asparagus veloute. For The Great Gatsby, where we wanted to capture some of the Jazz Age's decadence with luxe canapes, a beautiful summer buffet and (naturally) plenty of Gin Fizzes. Then, up next, American Psycho where we can play around with fusion food (e.g. Indian-Californian a memorable mention in the book) and the nouveau cuisine which will really set the yuppie party scene of the late 80s/early 90s.

To The Lighthouse

4.) The photos from the To The Lighthouse event are wonderful - could you describe the evening for us? Any backstage anecdotes to share??

There were some first event nerves! We were lucky enough to have the pianist from the Savoy playing a 1920s music which swept us up in the mood. The music and (ahem) a couple of gin cocktails saw us through. Mostly, it was the music of course…. 

5.) Have you come across any meals-in-novels which are too repellant to consider?

Leopold's Blooms urine-tanged kidneys in Ulysses is probably up there.... We were also considering an Enid Blyton summer spectacular although sardines with condensed milk and ginger cake probably isn't very nice (despite what those Malory Towers girls say).

The Great Gatsby - the pudding!

6.) What has the response been like?

Incredibly positive - we never thought it would be this popular. 

It's wonderful to see how passionate people are about literature, and more specifically about some of the novels we've chosen which are some of our own all time favourites. People seem to like the way that the marriage of food with novels gives them a communal experience of their most-loved books. It's also quite fun that we get suggestions for future events, we always welcome more!

To The Lighthouse

Dessert

7.) And the question I always ask everyone... what are you reading at the moment?

Claire just finished Jonah Lehrer's Imagine and is now reading The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild. Mina is reading The Ask by Sam Lipsyte and recently finished Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It by Geoff Dyer.

The Great Gatsby

Do go and have a look at their website or their Facebook page, and maybe try to get along to one of their future events if you can!

Talking of Grief

I hope I don't sound odd when I say that I am rather fascinated by the idea of grief.  Not in a sadistic way, of course, but simply because it is a fundamental aspect of human life which I have yet to experience.  Recently I have read two very different non-fiction books on the topic, and it seemed to make sense (briefly) to consider them together - Calvin Trillin's About Alice (2006) and C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed (1961).  Both are by husbands who are coming to terms with the premature loss of their wife to cancer, but from that point, they are incredibly different.

As the title suggests, Trillin's book is about Alice, his wife.  It is essentially a memoir of their marriage, concentrating on those qualities he most loved in Alice - and how bravely and determinedly she was when she first had cancer, which went into remission, and then returned.  What made About Alice moving to me was, actually, the fact that I didn't warm to Alice at all.  The characteristics Trillin adored - such as bluntness,  or a willingness to use her beauty to avoid speeding tickets - weren't ones which I admire, which made Trillin's portrait all the stronger and affecting.  Reminiscences - in fact or fiction - which detail how uniformly perfect the deceased was, and how terribly they are mourned by everyone, never quite ring true.  We all know that our very favourite people are not everyone's favourite people, and a personal grief is much more powerful for being personal.

I'm struggling to know what to write about About Alice.  It's a beautiful portrait of a relationship, as well as a woman.  It is not really a book about grief - that isn't the sort of book Trillin chose to write.   I found it moving, but as the reflection of a life that has sadly ended, rather than reflections upon Trillin's own ongoing life.

Lewis's A Grief Observed is the flip-side of the coin.  There is little about Joy's character and life, because Lewis's focus is the process(es) of grief - particularly, grief as a Christian.  A Grief Observed isn't a work of theology, though, because that would suggest settled conclusions, with arguments and illustrations to support and work towards them.  Lewis writes that sort of book very well (c.f. Mere Christianity), but in A Grief Observed he is openly flailing.  It really is the documentation of an ongoing process.  Lewis hasn't edited the book to make it feel consistent or conclusive - indeed, he often backtracks or offers alternative interpretations of what he has already written.

I wrote that last night.  It was a yell rather than a thought.  Let me try it over again.

Somehow, Lewis manages to write down the varying states of his mind and spirit without sounding self-absorbed or introspective.  Grief genuinely seems to confound and puzzle him, as he tries to ascertain how he really feels, and how he will manage the future.  Part of this is concerned with his faith, and re-assessing his understanding of God.  In soaps or light fiction, grief would have ended his faith - Lewis's relationship with God was too strong and real for that, but the pain of losing his wife does make him reconsider God's character, and how he has previously misunderstood it.  Again, Lewis doesn't have any predetermined conclusions here, and he doesn't really come to any by the end of the book, but he is remarkably eloquent about his journey here.  (Sorry, I meant to avoid the word 'journey', but... well, it felt like one.)

A Grief Observed is starkly, vividly, astonishingly honest.   It is also eloquent and thoughtful, without losing spontaneity or genuine emotion.  Through the nature of Lewis's approach, it is of wider applicability that Trillin's book.  Although nobody else will have the exact experience Lewis did, plenty of people will probably agree with the general points he discovers along the way.

I thought I could describe a state; make a map of sorrow.  Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.  It needs not a map but a history, and if I don't stop writing that history at some quite arbitrary point, there's no reason why I should ever stop.  There is something new to be chronicled every day.  Grief is like a long valley, a winding valley where any bend may reveal a totally new landscape.

I read A Grief Observed with the interest of the outsider, keen to understand a facet of emotion I cannot grasp.  One day, presumably, I will need to turn to it as a fellow-griever.  I found Lewis's book so powerful and wise even without having experienced grief - and now, thankfully, I will know exactly where to turn when I first experience it.  And I imagine it will feel like a completely different book then.

Song for a Sunday

At the moment I've got Jessie Ware's 'Wildest Moments' on repeat... so enjoy that this warm Sunday afternoon!

Meanwhile, I've been reading an odd combination of books... the other day I sat in the park with Marie Stopes and E. Nesbit.  Huh.



Oh, and here's what I made yesterday, with my friend Rachel:

Mmmm....