So many books, so little time. And no time for blogs. Hmmm where do I start?
Crime. Jonathan Kellerman "Therapy". He is definitely writing well in this book, after one or two earlier dips (unlike Cornwell who seems to go from bad to worse - what on earth is this first person/present tense rubbish?)
Anyway, "Therapy" was a great read and I was glad to get away from the romancey stuff that had blighted the storylines in previous novels.
Also read "The Torment of Others" (Val McDermid) this week. It's been a long time since I stayed up really late to finish a book but this time I did. Another terrific read. I hesitate to buy Michael Connolly's latest now - don't want to be disappointed!
Have also read a lot of YA from the library. "After" by Francine Prose. Hmmm. A novel about a high school shooting and afterwards a nearby school goes into total crackdown with rules to excess, leading to brainwashing and apathy etc.
Don't know what it was but it just didn't click with me. Felt predictable somehow.
Thoroughly enjoyed "Born Confused" - an Indian girl as the main character living in New Jersey (sub continent Indian, not American). It felt a bit wordy at first but once you get used to the voice, it's a lot of fun with some serious stuff underneath about families and loyalty and tradition and also appropriation.
Had a long discussion with a teacher/poet friend K about the effect teaching has on your own writing. She said what wew've all said but we have been gently stepping around it - the problem is not with teaching writing, it's with teaching writing to dull students and having to read and mark a lot of really bad writing.
I have been feeling so discouraged over the low standards in my class, and also feeling like I'm pushing s**t uphill with a teaspoon trying to get through to them.
Maybe there is no getting through. Maybe this also needs to be a topic for discussion at the teachers' day.
My writing stutters and stops. Feel as if I keep losing the strong thread of the pirate novel, purely from lack of application.
Perseverance, I tell myself. Yes. Yes. Yes.