Little Syllables: The Blog
Review - The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton
I received an advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Beth Kempton’s The Way of the Fearless Writer weaves together her knowledge of Japanese language and culture with the process of writing. She offers a mindful approach to writing that is based on Buddhism.
This book was inspiring.
I have been an aspiring writer all my life, but I am often held back by fear of what others will think of me and my writing. So I don’t share. This is exactly the problem that Kempton addresses in this book. She offers guidance for a fearful writer to embrace the process of creativity and to know when it’s time to share the writing.
I found this book and its author to be insightful, wise, and realistic. She provides writing prompts throughout and I found myself highlighting prompts that I wanted to come back to. This would be an excellent book to read slowly and work through the exercises as they are introduced. But it is also an excellent book to read straight through.
I especially appreciated how the author shares her own creative process. I think that writers often don’t know what the initial process looks like for others. Classes and workshops teach the end of the process, the refining, the editing, and the polishing. But Kempton spends a good portion of this book discussing how to get started, how to piece together a larger work, and how to be patient as the ideas form.
I heartily recommend this book for any writer, but especially for a writer looking to be more mindful and less fearful.
The Way of the Fearless Writer is now available.
Review - Everything All At Once by Steph Catudal
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I specifically sought out an advanced copy of Steph Catudal’s new memoir, Everything All At Once. Ever since I started using iFit on my treadmill, I’ve been a fan of Tommy Rivs, so I began following him on Instagram. Then I started seeing his wife’s writing when he’d share it, so I started following her as well. Now, she’s written a book about her life and her experience through her husband’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This book is heavy, but it is very well written. Catudal’s writing is beautiful and lyrical and honest and very emotional. She tells of her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis and his death when she was still very young. She details how that trauma, combined with her religious upbringing, led her into a pretty intense rebellion. I liked reading Steph’s descriptions of what it was like to deconstruct from her religious (Mormon) upbringing because I could connect with that on a personal level.
Steph intertwines this history with the more recent past, detailing Rivs’s diagnosis and hospitalization in 2020. This intertwining of timelines works very well in this book, and eventually the timelines meet as we near the present. These dual timelines also help the reader see Steph’s arc from rebellious and headstrong teenager to loving and devoted wife and mother. And where the story of her past involves her loss of faith, the story of the more recent past involves her rebuilding of a new kind of faith.
One unusual thing about this book is its structure. While Rivs was in the hospital, Steph took to social media to share her thoughts. The final portion of this book is made up of those social media posts, most of which has been described earlier in the book. I thought this was an interesting choice to place these together at the end instead of interspersed throughout the narrative. But I still think it works.
I’ll admit, I was emotionally invested in this story before I even got my hands on a copy. I had already heard the story from Rivs on iFit, but it was incredible to read Steph’s perspective as well. I read it in a single day, and I cried. I highly recommend it for those who enjoy memoir and who are not averse to reading about intense medical treatment and the emotional impact on the patient’s family.
Sensitive readers should be aware that this book contains adult language, drug and alcohol use, sex, and terminal illness and hospitalization. It’s heavy, but in my opinion, it’s worth it.
Review - You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
I received a free review copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Summing It Up
Poet Maggie Smith’s memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is an emotional and powerful look at marriage, divorce, and parenting. She tries to make sense of her life using what she knows best: writing craft. She looks at her life story as a plot, even while urging readers not to do the same. She examines the story structure of her life. She even envisions it as a stage play.
All these devices help the reader see more deeply into the author’s struggle to reconcile her expectations versus her reality, to make sense of the major changes that come with the ending of a marriage and the beginning of something new.
While this book is not a straightforward narrative, it leads readers from one point to the next in an artful way. Rather than a story, it is a series of essays pieced together like fragmented thoughts. And just like the author, the reader is left with questions. That is the point, after all – we never get all the answers to life’s biggest questions. I especially appreciated the author’s conclusion that she could move on despite uncertainty.
I was intrigued by her efforts to write her own truth while protecting those she wrote about. She never names her ex-husband. She discusses her children, but explicitly tells readers when she won’t be showing certain parts of their lives. I have never read a memoir that dealt with hard issues while maintaining this level of privacy before. But it works and it feels even more personal as the author tells us what she’s not going to tell us.
Even as this is a book about the author’s own divorce, the effort she makes to see her own responsibility is obvious. It doesn’t feel like she’s blaming or vindictive. I felt that her description of what it is to be a wife is very apt. She was a woman who loved someone and worked and sacrificed to try to make it work. Then, she was left a single parent, working to provide for herself and her children, while learning to embrace her own power.
I loved it. I already plan to read it again.
Read It
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith is set for release on April 11, 2023.
Review - Keeping Family Secrets by Margaret K. Nelson
I received a free review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Keeping Family Secrets: Shame and Silence in Memoirs from the 1950s is a nonfiction book that felt more like a summary of more extensive data. Nelson takes several big issues around the theme of shame and silence in the 1950s and then pulls details from a variety of memoirs to explain each issue. She addresses the institutionalization of children with disabilities, same-sex attraction among boys, unwed pregnancies, Communism, adoption, and Jewish ancestry.
This book was an interesting glimpse into the 1950s in the US. Nelson did a great job explaining why each of these issues led to shame and silence throughout the country.
Americans were after the “ideal” family, and all of these issues were perceived as detracting from that goal.
Nelson looks at individual memoirs to pull stories for each chapter of her book. It is interesting to note that most of the memoirs were written by people who grew up with these secrets in their families—and decided as adults to expose the secrets.
I felt that this book gives the reader good information. But it felt very sterile and unemotional to me. Perhaps that was the author’s intent. It also felt like a fairly dry summary of other people’s work.
I suppose my impressions of this book are tainted by my expectations. I began this book looking for a deep dive into some of these issues, seeing the emotions involved, and feeling some sort of redemption for the people who lived through these things and reclaimed their power later in life by exposing these secrets. Instead, I left with more general overview of these six issues and why they were taboos in the 1950s. I was left wanting more depth.
Keeping Family Secrets was released yesterday and is available now.
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Review - The Six-Minute Memoir by Mary Helen Stefaniak
I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The Six-Minute Memoir: Fifty-Five Short Essays on Life was a fun read. It’s a series of short memoirs that can be read in 6 minutes or less. This is a great book to read when you’re on the go because it’s readable in little snippets.
I’m very interested in memoir as a genre, and I think Stefaniak’s concept of the six-minute memoir could be a great way to start writing my own. She even provides prompts at the end of the book to help writers get started! Even if you’re not looking to publish memoirs, a six-minute memoir is a reasonable goal for a person who wants to write their personal history and doesn’t know where to start.
I enjoyed reading Stefaniak’s observations on the people and situations around her, as well as her descriptions of place. She does a great job with setting in each of these memoirs. She also makes great connections between seemingly disparate ideas. She is alternately funny and heartfelt, and always interesting.
The Six-Minute Memoir is new this week!
I heartily recommend it for fans of the genre and for others looking for inspiration on writing about their own lives.
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Review - Choose Possibility by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
Thanks to Mariner Books for the gifted copy!
Choose Possibility: Take Risks and Thrive (Even When You Fail) was a pleasant surprise for me. It’s a book about careers, written by a business leader who has started companies, worked for giants like Google, and has been very successful. I, on the other hand, am someone who discovered her career in her mid 30s and works as a part-time freelancer. I expected this book to be dry, uninspiring, and filled with business jargon. I thought it would have very little to offer me.
I am happy to admit, I was wrong. I loved this book. I found it informative, motivating, and applicable to my life.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy tells us her story of hard work and success. But mostly, she tells us about the risks she took throughout her professional life to get to where she is. Maybe it’s the “solidly in adulthood existential crisis” phase I am in right now that made this book appeal to me so much. Because even though I am not in a position to be choosing to be a CEO or start my own tech company like the author, I am still in a position to assess risks in my personal and professional life and learn how to take smarter risks.
That is what this book is about. The author gives great advice on how to seek new opportunities, how to keep your options open, and how to accept and learn from failures. And those are things all humans need to do, regardless of their career aspirations.
So while this is a business-oriented book, it is not only applicable to business. I found the author’s style easy to read and her stories accessible and relevant.
Choose Possibility is available now and I highly recommend it.
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Review - The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore
I received a free NetGalley of this book, but my opinions are all my own.
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear is historical non-fiction, telling the story of Elizabeth Packard and her fight for women’s rights in the 19th century. The author uses Packard’s own writings, as well as the writings of others, to tell this in-depth story of the problems facing married women in the Civil War era.
Elizabeth Packard was sent to an insane asylum by her husband Theophilus. He forcibly removed her from her home, her six children, and her life, labelling her as “insane” and locking her up to protect himself from criticism for her opinions. Elizabeth was a force to be reckoned with, and not only did she survive the insane asylum, but she went on to change laws throughout the country so that the same thing would not continue happening to other married women.
The book is extremely detailed. I enjoyed reading it and learned much that I didn’t know about the Civil War era and women’s rights. The author really brings the reader into Elizabeth’s experience. We experience the frustrating feeling of being trapped right along with her. We experience the confusion as it is difficult to know who is trustworthy. We experience the heartbreak of her life as a mother.
Overall, I recommend this book. It is well-researched, well-written, and still relevant to the struggles of our day. At times it does move slowly and I feel that the story could have been told just as effectively in fewer pages. But ultimately, the author has done an incredible job with a difficult and complicated subject.
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Review - Things I Learned From Falling by Claire Nelson
I received a free NetGalley of this book, but my opinions are all my own.
Things I Learned From Falling tells the true story of the author’s hiking accident in Joshua Tree National Park in 2018. Nelson weaves the story of the accident and its aftermath with stories of her past, illustrating the lessons she learned from her fall.
Nelson’s account is introspective and honest. I love that she doesn’t shy away from the nitty-gritty details of mental illness, physical injuries, and logistics of surviving in a terrible situation. I found myself amazed by her determination to survive seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Her descriptions made it easy for me to put myself in her shoes and imagine how I would act in a similar situation.
Overall, I felt this book was very well written and nicely woven together. I especially loved that the book includes safety tips for hikers. I hope the published version will also include photos!
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Review - Everything is Fine by Vince Granata
I received a free NetGalley of this book, but my opinions are all my own.
Everything is Fine tells the true story of the author’s family, his brother’s struggle with mental illness, and the tragic result. Granata is honest about his experience and what he sees as his failures. That honesty adds to the power of this book.
I love the vivid descriptions of the Granata family and their relationships. I love the complexity the author shows—nothing is simple, even in tragedy. He doesn’t try to excuse anyone’s actions or reactions, but seems determined to show the depth and complexity of his family and their story. While this book centers around an extremely violent act, I felt the true themes presented are mental illness and relationships.
The book is well written, well researched, emotional, and thought provoking. I highly recommend it.
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Review - Why She Wrote by Hannah K. Chapman & Lauren Burke
I received a free e-galley of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers was written by Hannah K. Chapman & Lauren Burke and illustrated by Kaley Bales.
Chapman and Burke explore the lives of eighteen classic women writers in this graphic novel. Each chapter highlights key incidents in the lives of three of these women, describing their struggles and triumphs. This book is a tribute to the contributions of these women and how each of them helped change the world in which they lived. Each of these women challenged how women were treated, both as authors and as people.
This book is unlike anything I have ever read before. Each section begins with a narrative portion that is followed by graphic elements representing each author’s life. Each chapter highlights a central theme and introduces three women writers. The themes describe the ways these women influenced their world and paved the way for greater equality. I enjoyed learning about the lives and impact of these women. I found some of the graphic sections to be lacking in detail that could make them clearer. However, I thought the graphics added interest to each section and helped bring each writer to life.
This book could serve as a great introduction to classic women authors for anyone looking to learn more about the influence of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are some more mature thematic elements that make this book most appropriate for teens and adults, those some mature older children could also enjoy it.
Why She Wrote by Hannah K. Chapman & Lauren Burke and illustrated by Kaley Bales will be released on April 21, 2021.