Mesmerizationalism

I'm super jazzed about my new stack of "mindsatwork" (as one of my favorite bookstore managers puts it) and I just wanna toss the list out to the universe. Yesterday I acquired Here's Your Hat What's Your Hurry? by Elizabeth McCracken, The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (!!!!!), Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett (again, my loan-out never came home), Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor (cute trade paper to keep company the cloth), Death Comes for the Arch Bishop by Willa Cather (heavy, pretty trade paper), The Painted House by John Grisham (figure if I'm gonna read Grisham I'll start here; trying to branch out), My Father's Tears and Other Stories by John Updike (!!!), Welcome to the Departure Lounge by Meg Federico, The Handyman by Carolyn See and 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-Comics by Adrian Tomine.

Amy Hempel has me mesmerized. If you're not reading her you're missing mastery. Too, I want to recommend the graphic novel memoir (yes, that's its category) Blankets by Craig Thompson: layered, heartwrenching. Perfect place to start if you're considering dipping into the graphic novel genre, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite forms of art/literature. Please read the Publisher's Weekly review of it; ditto that. It is a masterpiece. Steel yourself and ready some thread to sew back up your broken-open heart.

Short story is kicking right along. I'm doing deep character exploration and experimenting with point-of-view. The legal-pads-full-of-character-stuff thing from Anne Tyler inspired me to try actually filling actual yellow legal pads (I'm usually writing on the compy) with character background and detail. Sheer delight to be alive! The story is beginning to tell itself because of what I'm learning about this guy. And, I love scratchy pencil on yellow paper.

Again, Blankets by Craig Thompson and Amy Hempel stories. You gotta.