WW: #Readathon Weekend in Pictures

This week is a "Wild Card" Wordless Wednesday, so we get to post photos of whatever we like! I like that I was able to participate in this past weekend's 24-Hour Readathon--I got in close to 10 hours of reading altogether, plus tweeting and updating. I summarized my Readathon activity in a Storified Sunday Salon post; here, it's condensed even more, in pictures.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Book Talk: CLEVER GIRL, by Tessa Hadley

Clever Girl: A Novel
Tessa Hadley
Harper (March 2014), Hardcover (ISBN 0062270397 / 9780062270399)
Fiction, 272 pages
Source: Publisher, for TLC Book Tours

I was scheduled as the last stop on the TLC Book Tour for Clever Girl earlier this month, but hadn’t finished reading it at the time I was due to post. I apologize for missing my deadline, but I have a few thoughts on the book to share now.

Given some of the turns that the life of Tessa Hadley’s titular character, Stella, takes, the “cleverness” of our Clever Girl Isn’t always obvious. What is apparent is her resourcefulness, resolve, and ability to pick herself back up when the world knocks her down. Her edges are a little rough–although less than they seem to be at first–but she has a tough resilience at her core.

Stella is formed by the times she lives through, most notably the cultural changes occurring during her young adulthood in the 1960s and ’70s, and shaped by circumstances; raised by a single mother, perhaps it’s not so surprising that she becomes one herself, twice over.

Stella’s narrative voice is reflective, conversational, and very matter-of-fact, and the structure of Clever Girl is chronological, yet episodic. This is fiction that feels rather like memoir, and that seems appropriate to this recounting of what’s essentially a pretty ordinary, quiet life story–although I wouldn’t describe Stella’s life as “uneventful,” this novel felt primarily like an extended, highly-developed character study to me. It’s a credit to Hadley’s writing that Stella is a character worth reading about.

Rating: 3.75 of 5

Book description, from the publisher’s website:

Clever Girl is an indelible story of one woman’s life, unfolded in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Britain’s leading literary lights—Tessa Hadley—the author of the New York Times Notable Books Married Love and The London Train. 

Clever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and class in modern life, witnessed through the experiences of an English woman named Stella. Unfolding in a series of snapshots, Tessa Hadley’s moving novel follows Stella from the shallows of childhood, growing up with a single mother in a Bristol bedsit in the 1960s, into the murky waters of middle age. 

Clever Girl is a story vivid in its immediacy and rich in drama—violent deaths, failed affairs, broken dreams, missed chances. Yet it is Hadley’s observations of everyday life, her keen skill at capturing the ways men and women think and feel and relate to one another, that dazzles.

Opening Lines:

“My mother and I lived alone. My father was supposed to be dead, and I only found out years later that he’d left, walked out when I was eighteen months old. I should have guessed this–should have seen the signs, or the absence of them. Why hadn’t we kept any of his things to treasure? Why whenever he came up in conversation, which was hardly ever, did my mother’s face tighten, not in grief or regret but in disapproval–the same expression she had if she tasted food or drink she didn’t like (she was fussy, we were both fussy, fussy together)?”

  

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Sunday Salon: Readathon Wrap-up

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Mid-Event Readathon Meme

Mid-Event Survey

1.What are you reading right now?

Just finished Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley

2.How many books have you read so far?

I’ve finished two. My plan was to try to finish books I’d previously started.

3.What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?

I’m hoping to finish The Book Thief, which I’ve had to pick up and put down multiple times this year.

4.Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day?

I would have…so I didn’t. I’m just doing what I can!

5.Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?

I planned for them, really–as I said in my previous answer, I didn’t actually clear the decks for this.

6.What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?

I’ve finished two books before it’s half over, and I’ve only been able to read for about half of that time!

7.Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

I think it’s working great–Andi and Heather have GOT this!

8.What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year?

I’d like to try clearing the day and committing fully–it’s been a couple of years since I last did that.

9.Are you getting tired yet?

I was, but I think I’ve bounced back. However, my non-reading husband took a nap! I need to wake him, and then I foresee a dinner break.

10.Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered?

The “finish books I already started” actually seems to be going better than reserving books just for Readathon Day. I’m kind is surprised!

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Spring Readathon--The Opening Bell

It’s 5 AM in Southern California. I just got out of bed and went straight to my reading chair in the loft, where I’ll be starting out my Readathon day with Kaui Hart Hemmings’ The Possibilities, joined in progress (I’m on Chapter 13).

All of my books today will be “joined in progress,” actually. My goal for the day is to finish books–I’m aiming for two, possibly three–or at least make further headway with books I’ve previously started.

I don’t expect to get in more than a couple of hours reading this morning, since I have several normal Saturday tasks and errands to get done, but hopefully I’ll be back at the books–maybe this one, maybe the next–by noon. Most updates after this one will probably be on Twitter rather than here, unless I do a mini-challenge.

Rah, Rah, Readathon, and happy reading to all!

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Booked Up on Saturday: It's #Readathon Time!

I held off on committing for the longest time, but this is my official Declaration of Intent to participate in the Spring 2014 edition of Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon this Saturday, April 26.

My participation will be fairly casual because I didn't clear my calendar for the day, but here's my general plan:

• Get up and read for a couple of hours (my local start time is 5 AM), posting brief updates here and on Twitter at the beginning and end.
• Break for a few hours to take care of weekend errands.
• Return to reading after I get home and spend most of the afternoon with the books. I will post brief updates here and on Twitter when I start and end, with possible interim check-ins on Twitter only.
• Break for dinner and some evening time with my very patient husband.
• Return to reading later in the evening for as long as I can stay awake. Any updates during the late reading session will be posted only on Twitter.

In keeping with keeping it casual, I don't have any books set aside for the Readathon. What I do have are several books in progress that I've had to set aside for one reason or another at some point this year, and what I'd like to do this weekend is finish a couple of those.

Since I waited so long to sign up for the Readathon, I missed the cutoff to be assigned to a cheerleader squad, so if you see one of my updates and want to respond with some encouragement, I'd really appreciate you!

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Introducing "Tell-a-story Thursday": Prompt It, Read It, Write It!

Here's how the publisher suggests using Jason Sacher's The Amazing Story Generator:

The Amazing Story Generator creates thousands of different story prompts! This flipbook for writers and other creative types allows users to randomly combine three different elements to generate a unique story idea. With hundreds of settings, characters, and plots to mix and match, the possibilities are just about endless. Packed with colorful, wacky, and engaging prompts, this is the perfect tool for jump-starting fresh new short stories, novels, scripts, screenplays, and improv sessions.

Nicole Rivera of Story Dam demonstrates:


When I came across a copy of this curious little binder-book for sale at the Chronicle Books booth during the LA Times Festival of Books earlier this month, I snatched it up with the thought that it could inspire some blogging creativity. This is what it's led me to:

inspired by The Amazing Story Generator

Here's what I have in mind:

On Thursdays (when I'm not posting a Throwback post or a book review), I will put up a photo of a prompt from the ASG. Based on that prompt, I'll write:

• the catalog/jacket description for the book that would tell that story (as suggested by Kim)

or

• the first paragraph of that story

or

• a description of the principal character in the story

or

• a blurb from a review of the book telling that story

or whatever comes to mind inspired by that prompt. It could be anything, silly  or serious or in-between (but it probably will not be poetry--at least not if I'm writing it). And that leads me to one more thing:

If the prompt inspires you, please join me! 

If enough people are into this I'll create an official linky. In the meantime, you may either respond to the prompt directly in the comments here, or leave a link to your own post that uses it. If you choose to tell the story on your own blog, please copy and paste the prompt into it...and help yourself to that "Tell-a-story Thursday" badge, too! Also, Thursday is the day that I will post prompts here--if you respond in your own space, it can go up any day you like.

And with all of that out of the way...

Tell-a-Story Thursday: prompt for April 24, 2014

--Publisher catalog copy, The Mail Drop (Winter 2015):

Jason Jacobs might be able to get arrested in this town. In fact, it might be all he can get, especially once word of that last catastrophic audition gets around. The one-time tween favorite has had more than his share of growing pains in the years since his popular kid-com was cancelled--but this one could have been a tryout for Murphy's Law. 

Jason's got to get Hollywood behind him in a hurry, and the last thing he's thinking about is that promise he made to send off that letter his neighbor gave him. He hasn't even got time to figure out where the post office is. (And anyway, doesn't that woman know we have e-mail now?) 

But that forgotten envelope could do a lot worse than burn a hole in Jason's pocket, and looks like he's taking his troubles along for the ride.

So, that's my story of a story. If you want to tell one, I want to read it!

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WW: A Tree Finds Purpose

In honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day, this week's Wordless Wednesday prompt is "Tree." I'd like to celebrate the most noble sacrifice a tree can make.

Happy World Book Night!

An InLinkz Link-up

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(Audio)Book Talk: THE HEADMASTER'S WIFE, by Thomas Christopher Greene

The Headmaster's Wife

Thomas Christopher Greene (Facebook)

Audiobook read by Kevin T. Collins, Tavia Gilbert, and Stephen Hoye

Thomas Dunne Books (February 2014), Hardcover (ISBN 1250038944 / 9781250038944)

Fiction, 288 pages

Source: Purchased audiobook (Audible Studios, February 2014; ASIN B00IMNIZK4)

I decided to read Thomas Christopher Greene's The Headmaster's Wife because of solid recommendations from trusted bloggers and a lifelong weakness for boarding-school stories with New England settings, despite some misgivings that it might have some elements that cut a little too close for my taste. I chose it on audio because that would allow me to get to it sooner, and because after spending the better part of a month listening to the history of nearly everything, I wanted a book that would go quickly. This novel definitely met that last qualification; I finished listening to it in under a week, during a week when I wasn't making my daily eighty-mile round-trip commute.

Several reviews have suggested that this is a book that is best read without too much advance knowledge of the story, and so I will try not to tell much more than what's revealed in the publisher's description quoted below. However, I'll share a few bullet-point observations:

• The novel's structure is critical to its effect and its effectiveness (which are not precisely the same thing). It's divided into four sections--long, short, long, short,with each section taking a different narrative voice. The first of the short sections confirms something that the reader may have come to suspect during the first long one. The third section reimagines and reshapes the first.
• I was increasingly uncomfortable with the depiction of events in the first section until I decided that I was dealing with an unreliable narrator...and at that point, I actually became more invested in the story.
• Greene's strength as a writer here seems to lie in evoking atmosphere: in the vividly described New England settings; in the turbulent, wracked emotional lives of his characters; and in the tension that quickly sets in and propels the reader through the narrative. The Headmaster's Wife could be classified as mystery, but that's more due to the way it unfolds than strictly on the basis of plot.

I was taken aback at first to realize that the audiobook version of The Headmaster's Wife has three readers--none of whom I've encountered before--but as the novel's structure emerges, the reason for this becomes clear, and while I'm still not sure it was entirelynecessary, it definitely works.

It sounds contradictory, but nearly everything I read about The Headmaster's Wife before I read the book itself had me prepared to be surprised. And I was--perhaps not so much by the story itself, but by the way it was told and the effect it had on me. I'll join the chorus on this one and suggest that you let it surprise you, too.

Rating: Book, 4 of 5; Audio, 3.75 of 5

Book description, from the publisher's website:

Inspired by a personal loss, Thomas Christopher Greene explores the way that tragedy and time assail one man’s memories of his life and loves. 

Like his father before him, Arthur Winthrop is the Headmaster of Vermont’s elite Lancaster School. It is the place he feels has given him his life, but is also the site of his undoing as events spiral out of his control. Found wandering naked in Central Park, he begins to tell his story to the police, but his memories collide into one another, and the true nature of things, a narrative of love, of marriage, of family and of a tragedy Arthur does not know how to address emerges. Luminous and atmospheric, bringing to life the tight-knit enclave of a quintessential New England boarding school, the novel is part mystery, part love story and an exploration of the ties of place and family. Beautifully written and compulsively readable, The Headmaster’s Wife stands as a moving elegy to the power of love as an antidote to grief.

Opening Lines:

"He arrives at the park by walking down Central Park West and then entering through the opening at West Seventy-seventh Street. This is in the winter. It is early morning, and the sun is little more than an orangey haze behind heavy clouds in the east. Light snow flurries fill the air. There are not many people out, a few runners and women bundled against the cold pushing strollers. 

"He walks down the asphalt drive and when he reaches a path with a small wooden footbridge he stops for a moment, and it is there somewhere, a snatch of memory, but he cannot reach it. An elderly couple comes toward him, out for their morning walk. The man gives him a hearty good morning but he looks right through him. What is it he remembers? It is something beautiful, he is sure of it, but it eludes him like so many things seem to do nowadays. 

"If he could access it, what he would see was a day twenty years earlier, in this same spot."

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What's What in the (Easter) Sunday Salon

Happy Easter, and my apologies for being a missing person here last week! However, I had a very good excuse–Kim will back me up, and I will provide additional evidence in this week’s Gratuitous Photo.

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

I’ve been trying to be more proactive this year in making specific requests from the monthly lists Shelf Awareness sends to reviewers, and it seems to be paying off–some of my best reading this year has come along that route. That’s new to me, and I like it. I’m also liking the book I’ll be reviewing there in May, The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of the novel that was the basis for the movie The Descendants.

• on audio

I finished The Headmaster’s Wife last week and am catching up on podcasts while I ponder what to listen to next. Any suggestions or recommendations? Comment, please!


What I’m watching

Sticking with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be bearing some fruit, at long last. But Arrow is still doing comic-book TV better.


What I’m writing

I’m hoping to get a couple of reviews written today–we don’t have a big day planned, so time may permit. However, I expect that blogging will continue at a poky pace for another few weeks, so I hope you will lower any of your own expectations accordingly.


What caught my eye this week (or maybe the week before)

Just a couple of shares, since the reading side of blogging has been almost as poky as the writing side:

“10 Reasons I Still Blog” at Ann’s Rants

"1. A conversation with an audience. I don’t write only because I love to write. I specifically love to write because I love interacting with an audience—whether online, on paper, or in real life.
“5. An antidote for perfectionism. Forcing publish is how I get through writer’s block, THE END. As Cheryl Strayed said “Surrender to your own mediocrity.” This is the special sauce on my pickles-onions on a sesame seed bun. I keep surrendering–letting good enough stand in for great. I keep creating, and cool things keep happening.”

“Secrets of Success: How Reading Gives You an Edge”, via Alli Worthington (we probably suspected this, but validation is nice)

“4. Reading gives you a psychological boost. There’s nothing like diving into the story of a person who lived life well to remind us that life is more than the (sometime depressing) images and messages we see on TV, life is beautiful and full of opportunity to live it well. Studies show that reading self-help books can also help lessen depression.”

What Else is New?

I haven’t signed up officially for next weekend’s 24-Hour Readathon, but it looks like I may actually be able to participate for at least a fraction of it this time. Even if it ends up being unofficial, I’ll be glad to join in at all–I’ve missed the last few!

I found The Amazing Story Generator at the Chronicle Books booth at #bookfest last weekend. I’m thinking about using it as the basis for a new participatory blog feature (let’s not call it a “meme”), but I’m still kicking around just how it might work, so watch this space…

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

Signing lines and stages--scenes from the LA Times Festival of Books, 2014

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Book Talk: EXODUS, by Deborah Feldman

Exodus: A Memoir
Deborah Feldman
Blue Rider Press (2014), Hardcover (March 25, 2014), ISBN 0399162771 / 9780399162770
Memoir, 304 pages

A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (4/8/2014). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted.

In her 2012 memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots, Deborah Feldman chronicled her upbringing in the insular, fundamentalist Satmar sect of Orthodox Judaism and her flight from its practices with her young son. Twenty-three years old at the time she left her Brooklyn community, Feldman had a long new life ahead of her–and very little idea of what it would look like, or who she would be within it. In Exodus, she explores where the first few years of that journey have taken her, and the perspective she has acquired since it began.

While no longer considering herself Orthodox–and some responses to her earlier book suggest that the “rejection” is reciprocated–Feldman continues to identify herself as Jewish. However, she must work out what that will look like for her as she moves forward, and she decides that moving backward needs to be part of that process. Much of Exodus follows Feldman as she travels through Europe along the path of her Hungarian-born grandmother, a survivor of the concentration camps, working at coming to terms with the ways in which she herself could be called a survivor.

Exodus is a companion piece to Unorthodox, and while it’s not necessary to read both memoirs in chronological order, those who have read one will likely want to read the other, as they clearly inform each other. Exodus has the feel of a coming-of-age story, tracing the protagonist’s steps toward self-discovery. It meanders at times and feels somewhat unresolved in the end, leaving the reader with a sense that Feldman is still at the beginning of things, still searching and sorting out…but she’s not yet thirty, and that seems right.

Book description, via the publisher’s website:

In 2009, at the age of twenty-three, Deborah Feldman packed up her young son and their few possessions and walked away from her insular Hasidic roots. She was determined to forge a better life for herself, away from the rampant oppression, abuse, and isolation of her Satmar upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Out of her experience came the incendiary, bestselling memoir Unorthodox and now, just a few years later, Feldman has embarked on a triumphant journey of self-discovery—a journey in which she begins life anew as a single mother, an independent woman, and a religious refugee.

In her travels, and at home, Feldman redefines her sense of identity—no longer Orthodox, she comes to terms with her Jewishness by discovering a world of like-minded outcasts and misfits committed to self-acceptance and healing. Inwardly, Feldman has navigated remarkable experiences: raising her son in the “real” world, finding solace and solitude in a writing career, and searching for love. Culminating in an unforgettable trip across Europe to retrace her grandmother’s life during the Holocaust, Exodus is a deeply moving exploration of the mysterious bonds that tie us to family and religion, the bonds we must sometimes break to find our true selves.

From Chapter One:

"There she is, just across the street, sulking on the stoop. Seven years old, skin pale almost to the point of translucence, lips pursed into a sullen pout. She stares gloomily at the silver Mary Janes on her feet, the tips of which catch the last rays of sunlight quickly fading behind the three-story brownstone. 

"She has been scrubbed and primped in preparation for Passover, soon to arrive. Her hair hurts where it’s been pulled too tight into a bun at the top of her head. She feels each strand stretching from its inflamed follicle, especially at the nape of her neck, where an early-spring breeze raises goose bumps on the exposed skin. Her hands are folded into the lap of her brand-new purple dress, with peonies and violets splashed wildly on the fabric, smocking at the chest, and a sash tied around the waist. There are new white tights stretched over her thin legs. 

“This little side street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, usually bustling with black-clad men carrying prayer books, is momentarily silent and empty, its residents indoors making preparations for the evening.”

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WW: Penguin Feeds Readers

I promise this is not completely off topic for this week's Wordless Wednesday theme, "Eggs." The Penguin Book Truck was at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this past weekend. It's based on a food truck. Eggs are food. And penguins lay eggs. Works for me!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Book Talk: GOING OVER, by Beth Kephart

Going Over
Beth Kephart (Twitter)
Chronicle Books (Aoril 2014), Hardcover (ISBN 1452124574 / 9781452124575)
Fiction (YA), 264 pages
Source: ARC from publisher, for blog tour tied to launch

Someday, I may stop saying that each new Beth Kephart book I read is the best yet, but in order for that to happen, she’ll have to stop outdoing herself. She hasn’t reached that point yet. Going Over, Kephart’s latest work of young-adult fiction, is as ambitious and daring as the young characters, Ada and Stefan, she has placed at the center of it.

The Berlin Wall is vague history for most of Going Over’s target readership, but it’s only been gone for 25 years, which is less than the amount of time it divided a city politically, culturally, and personally. On the west side of the Wall, Ada lives among squatters with her mother and grandmother, caring for immigrant children by day and depicting daring escapes from the other side in graffiti, on the Wall itself, by night. Her art is her message and effort to inspire Stefan, stuck in the East: come across and be with me, like they did. But Stefan has already lost half of his family to escape attempts, and he knows the potential price of failure.

This is the primary plot thread of Going Over, and I have to admit that it made me a little nervous–young love thwarted by feuding, with opposing political systems standing in for families? But I trust Beth Kephart as a storyteller; she hasn’t let me down yet, and she gives readers much more than that. The threats to Ada and Stefan’s future together are real, and really dangerous, and that’s never less than clear. What’s also clear is that their relationship doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Stefan delays his response to Ada out of his sense of responsibility to the grandmother he would be leaving behind; while she waits (with decreasing patience) for him, Ada becomes entangled with another endangered family on her own side of the Wall.

Kephart succeeds in creating two narrative voices, switching chapters between Ada and Stefan, without losing the distinctive flow and effective, evocative word choice that are trademarks of her writing. However, this time she’s applied those gifts to a story that is more than engaging–it’s genuinely gripping, and the last chapters had me racing along too fast to savor the writing as much as it deserves savoring. Building your novel up to an attempt to an escape from East Berlin makes it inherently suspenseful, I suppose, but it’s not just the plot that’s gripping–it’s the emotional stakes for the characters that Kephart’s language brings to life.

Going Over is young-adult literature for adults of all ages from an author who keeps setting the bar for herself ever higher. If you haven’t read Beth Kephart yet, start here, and start now.

Rating: 4.25 / 5

Book description, from the publisher’s website:

It is February 1983, and Berlin is a divided city with a miles-long barricade separating east from west. But the city isn’t the only thing that is divided. Ada lives among the rebels, punkers, and immigrants of Kreuzberg in West Berlin. Stefan lives in East Berlin, in a faceless apartment bunker of Friedrichshain. Bound by love and separated by circumstance, their only chance for a life together lies in a high-risk escape. But will Stefan find the courage to leap? Or will forces beyond his control stand in his way? National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart presents a story of daring and sacrifice, and love that will not wait.

Opening Lines:

"We live with ghosts. We live with thugs, dodgers, punkers, needle ladies, pork knuckle. We live where there’s no place else to go. We live with birds—a pair of magpies in the old hospi-tal turrets, a fat yellow-beaked grebe in the thick sticks of the plane trees. A man named Sebastien has moved into the Kiez from France. My mother’s got an eye on him. 

“’You’ve had enough trouble, Jana,’ Omi warns her. Mutti shakes her head, mutters under her breath. Calls her own mother Ilse, like they are sisters, or friends. Like two decades and a war don’t divide them. Like sleeping, dreaming, waking, breathing so close has quieted the one to the other. 

“We live in a forest of box gardens and a city of tile. We live with brick and bullet holes.”

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WW: (Going Over) The Wall

Beth Kephart's new YA novel, Going Over, takes place in Berlin during the decade before the Wall came down, and is coming out in time to commemorate that event's 25th anniversary. This is a suitably graffiti-covered piece of the Wall at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

An InLinkz Link-up

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GOING OVER Q's & A's with Beth Kephart (Blog Tour + Giveaway)

I rarely do blog tours these days, and I’m not sure I’ve ever done an author interview in seven years of blogging here, but when I was invited to participate in Chronicle Books’ blog tour for Beth Kephart’s newest YA novel, Going Over, I wasn’t about to say no. And because Beth and I have grown to be friends over the last few years, I felt pretty comfortable about engaging in a little Q&A with her. (Question number 4 is something I was especially curious about, since the reference in question is to one of my all-time favorite songs.)

• You’ve referred to Going Over as “the Berlin novel” for years. How is the city significant to you? Which came first–the desire to set a story there, or a story that couldn’t be told in any other setting?

Well, first, may I say that I just love all your questions. You know me so well, dear Florinda, my honorary publicist.

I have always called this the Berlin novel. I still do. I think I’ve begun to refer to my overseas stories by their geographies—Seville, Berlin, Florence—because, when writing or speaking of them, I return to those places in my mind.

But Going Over is a story that could be told in many places, even today. There are walls everywhere. A wall between Palestine and Israel. A wall between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. New trenches and anti-tank barriers between east Ukraine and Russia. A wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Walls have an impact, they create tension, drama, story, shadow worlds. I chose to write about Berlin because I fell in love with that city, because the graffiti spoke to me, and because this year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s fall. Proof that sometimes divisions can be knocked down.

• The target readership for Going Over was born years after the Berlin Wall came down. How do you think they’ll connect with the novel, and what do you hope they’ll learn from it?

How many of us have been separated from the thing we love, the people we need to see, our own dreams and ambitions? All of us, in some way or another. Going Over takes place in a particular time, a particular city. But its themes transcend. Its themes are right now and always. The questions are: What risks will we take to move closer to our dreams, our hopes? And what are the consequences of desire?

• What elements does Going Over share with some of your previous YA fiction? What does it do differently? And do those similarities and differences correspond at all to the experience of writing it?

I really try to approach each book as a brand-new something. To not repeat myself. To try something new. This can get me into trouble. This isn’t always the smartest move commercially. But I don’t want to bore myself, don’t want to bore my readers. So Going Over is written by me, and I write in my funny Beth way, and there’s no getting around that. It celebrates a foreign place, which I tend to do. It is written in two voices, like You Are My Only, but one of those voices is second person, which I’ve never done before. Place is a character here (place is always character for me). And I have, as I always do, written not just of teens but of families and communities.

• Going Over had a different title earlier in its life, one that referenced David Bowie’s song “Heroes.” Coincidence or connection? On a related note, what do you think of the Going Over playlist that Chronicle Books has compiled (and which includes that song), and did you contribute to it?

Yup. Going Over was going to be called We Could Be Heroes, and the book began with the Bowie lyrics (“Heroes” had been written while Bowie was in Kreuzberg, a few years before my story begins). Then I began, shall we call it, a legal process with David Bowie’s folks. The first several people I talked to were really nice and very open and said that it would be no problem at all to use that title. Then I talked with another individual who said, emphatically, that using the words would be a problem. Now the book has a new title. I actually like this one much more. It’s mine. It hasn’t been used before (indeed, later I learned that the “Heroes” lyrics were being used all over the place for various things) And it has two meanings—the graffiti meaning and the literary one.
The very fine Chronicle folks did put together that playlist, but I added some songs to it and I’ve actually written about the music of that time in a blog post for Chronicle—the music that affected me as I wrote.

• What is the one thing you most want people to know about Going Over?

I want people to know that this is more than a simple love/adventure story. It is also a story about a very important group of Turkish people who were deeply affected by the building of the Wall. It is, in other words, also about a frightening reality that permeated Kreuzberg, which is to say that an important character here is named Savas.

"It is February 1983, and Berlin is a divided city with a miles-long barricade separating east from west. But the city isn’t the only thing that is divided. Ada lives among the rebels, punkers, and immigrants of Kreuzberg in West Berlin. Stefan lives in East Berlin, in a faceless apartment bunker of Friedrichshain. Bound by love and separated by circumstance, their only chance for a life together lies in a high-risk escape. But will Stefan find the courage to leap? Or will forces beyond his control stand in his way? National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart presents a story of daring and sacrifice, and love that will not wait."

Watch the book trailer

Thanks to Beth for taking my questions, and to Chronicle for arranging this tour to support Going Over! You can read an excerpt on Scribd, find the playlist on Rdio, and check out the official teachers' discussion guide (which would be just as useful for discussions in book groups as in classrooms).

All hosts on the Chronicle Books Blog Tour for Going Over are authorized to offer a signed copy of the novel and the audiobook to one lucky reader! Enter the giveaway here (US/Canada only, please). The winner will be chosen at random no later than April 20, 2014.

(This is my official stop on the blog tour, but I have a special related Wordless Wednesday post going up tomorrow and a review to post later this week, so please check back for those!)

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What's What: Sunday Salon 4-6-2014 (Pre-FoB edition)

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

It felt like most of what I read last week was spreadsheets! I’m in my work’s annual storm cycle, when things converge so that I’m closing the accounting records on a month and a year at the same time, and trying to juggle demands from both the external auditors and internal management. I’ve been short on time for reading books or blogs, and while I did make my blog-tour date last Monday, I missed Thursday’s (I’ll make it up next week).

If all goes as it’s supposed to, I’ll be out from under most of this in six weeks or so…

• on audio

I should have finished A Short History of Nearly Everything last week, but there were a couple of days when my brain was too fried to focus on it and I listened to podcasts on the commute instead. I think I have less than two hours of it left, though, so it won’t be much longer.


What I’m watching

I know I talk about Doctor Who and Sherlock a fair amount around here, but my biggest TV obsession is probably Mad Men, and next week it returns for the beginning of the end. AMC is prolonging the final season by splitting it across two years–the same thing they did with Breaking Bad–so we’ll get less of it each year, but we’ll get to have it around longer.


What I’m writing/blogging

This blog is the official stop for the blog tour of Beth Kephart’s Going Over on Tuesday, but I’ll be unofficially extending its stay with related content through Thursday, and you’re welcome to linger for that.


What caught my eye this week (a surprising amount considering how little time I've had for blogging, really!)

"And the main reason I don’t miss wedding planning? Because I really love being married...
The wedding was just the beautiful beginning.
All the great stuff comes after."

--"Why I Don't Miss Wedding Planning" (Write Meg!)

"Observation #5: The audience will forgive you anything — as long as it’s funny.
"This was something Johnny told the writers, and I think it’s still true, despite observation #3. But because funny is in the eye of the beholder and we’ve become a much more fragmented culture, I don’t think we’ll have many more comedians like Johnny Carson, who appealed to such a wide swath of Americans. My nephew thinks Comedy Central’s Tosh is a riot, while I think he’s simply obnoxious."

--"Comedy Is Hard" (Donna Schwartz Mills, SoCal Mom)

"This is the day the embattled field of book criticism has long feared… the day it’ll be taken over by swarms of opinionated amateurs with an international platform and no need for a paycheck. Kids, we’re talking about. BiblioNasium, the book-focused social network for children, has added a new feature in response to user demand. Children will now be able to post reviews..."

--"'Goodreads for kids' to spawn terrifying legions of underage book reviewers" (MobyLives)

• I've actually been intending to share this for a few weeks, as I've been fascinated by Julie's series on for-profit schools, based on her five years as an employee at one. However, the post I'm linking here includes links to all of the prior ones, so I think it's finally covered. The entire thing will open your eyes and/or confirm your suspicions about this particular segment of the higher-education industry.

• Write it once, use it twice (or more)--Buffer's Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Content is the Blogger's #PSAoftheWeek 

What Else is New?

I may not be posting here next Sunday, because I’ll be doing something even more bookish all next weekend–it’s time again for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books! Anastasia posted a great user’s guide to LATFoB on Saturday, and tickets for the panel discussions and conversations are available as of this morning. I’m glad to be going back after missing it last year, and even more excited because I get to host Kim on her escape to a bookish weekend somewhere warm!

And so, this week's Gratutious Photo--a collage from the 2012 FoB--is a little less gratuitous than usual.

How's your weekend?

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WW: Shades of Pink

Prolonging Birthday Week just a little longer, with a last glimpse of a surprise gift from my husband.

An InLinkz Link-up

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