Come get a book signed next Saturday the 4th!

Haymaker Card and Gift will host a book signing for two new books by local authors on Saturday April 4th from 11 AM  until 1PM.

Hardwick author, Jodi Lew-Smith has written an action packed historical adventure fiction book set in 1810 USA. Her main character is a self-sufficient “nose-to-the-grindstone” never-give-up female inventor in a time few young women stepped outside the home and hearth.  Lew-Smith has already won several awards in the literary world for this book.  Top 10 on my list for this year!

Tim Hayes, now of Johnson Vermont, a nationally recognized Natural Horsemanship Clinician.  Has written a non-fiction book, Riding Home, the Power of Horses to Heal.  This is a must have for anyone who wants to understand the special relationship that can develop between horse and person.

Haymaker in historic downtown Morrisville is pleased to present these two fine authors and their books.  We will have 3 gift basket door prizes for those who attend the signing.

All the Light We Cannot See

I'm very late to the game of recommending this book, but in case you haven't heard of Anthony Doerr's new book, put it on your reading list right now.

What most impressed me about this book was Doerr's incredible patience in spinning this tale. He told it with little short chapters that each imparted a tiny piece of a larger puzzle, with a time sequence that flowed back and forth across present, past, and further past. There was something as precise in his technique as the careful craftsmanship of the model towns built by a father for his blind daughter in the story. There was something at once lavish and spare about the style, for the book as a whole provided a luxurious lake of detail, but did it one little thimbleful at a time.

I found the technique refreshing and thought it worked especially well for this story, which tells of a blind French girl and a radio-loving German boy whose paths eventually wind together just as the tides of the war turn in August of 1944. It's lovingly written and full of delightful small touches. I hear it took many years to write and I believe it!

The Subtlest Soul (Virginia Cox)

I am pleased to report that I have an indie book to recommend! I found Virginia Cox’s as an award winner at the Historical Novel Society site and was quite pleased that I fully agreed with the assessment of historical novelist Elizabeth Chadwick, judge of the award, when she said, “The history felt real and right. It was an immersive experience.  It was one of those books where I needed to know what happened next and kept having to go back and pick at it - you know like when you have that opened bar of chocolate in the fridge!” (Her full blog post on it is here)

I too found the story an addictive visit to the world of medieval Italy at the time of the Borgias— with all the attendant scheming, stabbing, and poisoning to be rivaled only by the Tudors, or perhaps the heyday of ancient Rome. It’s a time period I know only from my enjoyment of Dorothy Dunnett’s Niccolo series (thus not by any actual history, only via fiction) and it’s not one of my first choices for settings—however a good story makes any setting fun. Cameo appearances by Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo were intriguing, but Cox also managed to weave in Niccolo Machiavelli as a key player in the plot. In fact his words from The Prince underscore the entire novel: “It is necessary for a ruler, if he wishes to survive, to learn how to be not good, . . . “ Certainly the characters in this novel are excellent students of “not good!” 

Fictional protagonist Matteo de Fermo is a low-born man surrounded by powerful nobility who have use for him—mostly as a spy. The first person narration gives immediacy to his many predicaments and helps us feel the danger of serving so many dangerous men—and women—all at once. Matteo comes alive for us because his pervasive awareness of his own low status plays counterpoint to the physical beauty and quick mind that pique the interest of everyone he encounters. His star will seem to be rising and then, whoosh, at the whim of one of his many masters he is lying on a hard board in a cold cell crawling with lice. Turn a few more pages and voila, he makes a quick-witted observation, hides a coded note, and now he’s wearing a fancy satin doublet with a sharp dagger in his sleeve once more. Ms. Cox does a wonderful job of building each new adventure on the foundation of the last, letting the tale unravel in a series of twists and turns that are complex without being convoluted. What a fine achievement!

The novel isn’t short and thus I suggest it for a long flight or a rainy weekend—but it’s a wonderfully fun time and the historical details are both precise and delightful. If you like historical adventures, put it on your list to read. I can’t wait to read another by her!

A Tale for the Time Being

OK so it’s not an indie book, but I remembered another that I read this summer and neglected to write up immediately. A Tale for the Time Being is a gem.

The novel has many qualities of a dream. The story moves across time and oceans and there are moments when you’re not sure what’s real, and many where you’re not sure which voice is the author and which is the character who has many qualities of the author—as they’re both writers named Ruth who live in the Pacific Northwest. Which makes it sound like a bad literary novel when in actuality it’s a fabulous story with voices—especially that of the girl Nao—which are vivid and strong and utterly intriguing.

The world of the book explores much of Zen Buddhism, physics, and other areas of philosophical thought that you can delve into or ignore as little or much as you like. They don’t interrupt the flow of the story (except perhaps a little at the end, but that’s a quibble) and they give it a timeless quality that makes an interesting juxtaposition to the urgent day-to-day actions and anxieties of Ruth and Nao.

I won’t say any more except that Michael and I both loved this book as something refreshing and unique. And we both fell in love with Nao’s grandmother, the 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun named Jiko.

Go meet her.

Angle of Repose

I had begun Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose about ten years ago and I think I wasn't ready to read something so subtle. I hadn't matured enough yet. A friend told me several months ago that she'd had a similar experience of reading it many years apart and finding it a completely different book. She encouraged me to give it another try. 

While recuperating from a surgery this summer I had more time than usual to read and decided it was just the book to keep me company. This may not have been such a hot idea because the main narrator of the story is a man suffering from a debilitating illness that has him in pain much of the time and, as I was feeling much the same at the moment--and not so eager to read about more of it--I read those sections with one eye closed. But despite that I greatly enjoyed the book on many levels.

I think you do have to be a certain age or mind-frame to savor a book that moves at a modulated pace and spends ample time on descriptions of both the outer world of the setting and the inner world of the characters as they grow and change. Both Lyman Ward, mentioned above, and his grandmother Susan Burling Ward, the other primary force, are complex nuanced people who struggle to rectify the many ugly indignities of their real-time lives with the longing for beauty in art and culture that governs their inner worlds. Shifting between Lyman Ward living as a near-recluse in 1970 and the vivid life of his grandparents as they came west to make their fortunes in the 1870's, the novel swings between one stagnant setting and one fast-moving setting. Yet the stagnant setting is resonant with Lyman's voice as he struggles to keep working on his grandmother's biography amidst the pain and humiliation of his debilitating disease. His voice rings clear and true and poignant. 

The more swashbuckling setting of the artist Susan Burling Ward and her husband Oliver moving from mining camp to mining camp as he takes on various engineering jobs is lush with color and motion, packed with dozens of interesting minor characters from many cultures. As many people have noted, it's a magnificent portrait of the early west. Susan Ward's struggle to hold onto the world of art and letters she left behind in New York as the the daily circumstances of her life continue to deteriorate create a tension that nearly vibrates off the page. Her intense love for her husband and children spars with her deep wish of escaping back to the world she loves--and craves--nearly, but not quite, as much.

In the end I was left with two overriding emotions. First was a powerful sadness for both Lyman and Susan, both of whom struggled to find the courage to endure their many disappointments. There was a great beauty in their endurance. The second was a warm glow of appreciation for the fine writing that brought their world to life and allowed me to spend time there. I felt like I'd visited much of the early west and could nearly shake the parched dirt from my shoes. (If I'd been able to reach my shoes at the time. . .)

In the end, then, I recommend this book to anyone who feels they are ready for it. It's a magnificent treat when you can savor it like you would anything slow and deep and finely-wrought.

The Writing Life June 2014

I think this is the best time ever. Period.  It took ten years but I finally got my first book out into the world and now people are beginning to read it and tell me what they think. It's all I ever wished for. I can't hope that everyone will love it, but I think I can hope that some people will love it and others will at least like it.And what's to hate about a fast, fun read?

But what I can secretly hope for is that somehow over time there will be people who will go back and read it more slowly. Take time to lift the flaps and look into the nooks and crannies, to notice the goodies I put there for people to find.  Or not. Perhaps it will only ever be me who lifts the flaps, smiles a little, and lets them back down. That would be all right too.

Northern Borders

If you haven't read anything by Howard Frank Mosher, don't wait too much longer. He's written a mix of novels and memoirs and they're all whimsical and wonderful in their own way. My favorites are the novels set in and around his own town up here in the northern woods of Vermont. In his books our own Northeast Kingdom becomes "Kingdom County" and names are changed in various ways, however the smoky do-it-my-own-way-or-be-damned flavor of the place and people is perfectly preserved. Maybe it takes a transplanted flatlander (someone not from Vermont) like Howard or like me to savor how different this place is from so much of the rest of our country, but year after year I continue to marvel at the way people do things up here. Reading about these people in Howard Mosher's books holds the pure delight of diving into the world of people who, viewed from a distance, inhabit a world of mystery and intrigue I will never fully understand. 

I chose Northern Borders to highlight here because I think it's my favorite of his books and it hasn't received the attention that some of his others have received. Several of them - including Where the Rivers Flow North and Disappearances - have been made into movies. Northern Borders, though, to me captures the essence of the place more deftly than any others. It's set largely on a dairy farm in the 50's, where a young boy goes to live with his grandparents and joins their life of ridiculously hard work blended with numerous small joys and deep pleasures. The story follows Austin Kittredge through his young adulthood as it simultaneously follows a tiny Vermont town that belatedly joins the mechanized world of modern America. (Though always at least a decade behind, as Vermonters have to be pried away from anything they're used to.)

And like any good story, it holds a central mystery that comes at you sideways and makes the whole story resonate with hidden meaning.  This is a fine sweet read that is worth savoring.