#ReadWomen2014: Zadie Smith

Because I posted about White Teeth earlier in the week, I figured it was a great time to recommend Zadie Smith for #ReadWomen2014, despite my own admitted ambivalence about her.  Maybe ‘ambivalence’ is too strong a term-- I really have enjoyed White Teeth quite a lot, but there have certainly been passages that have dragged along, despite the deftness and wit of the prose. I think what I struggled with in both White Teeth and NW was an inconsistency in my response- I was gripped so much more by certain characters and their passages than others.  If White Teeth had been entirely from Irie’s perspective, for example, or NW from Natalie’s, I think I would have engaged with them more fully. Even so, I would strongly recommend either title, and have every intention of reading On Beauty soon. Part of the reason I recommend her so strongly is that I don’t think it’s possible to be a literate young woman in the US today without having read Zadie Smith. She is so ubiquitous and serves as a cultural touchstone -- she gets brief shout-outs on HBO’s ‘Girls’ and ‘Bored to Death,’ two comedy series about writers in NYC. Her essays deserve as much attention as her novels, and any fan of her would do well to subscribe to the New Yorker to enjoy a fuller breadth of her work.

Books for TV Lovers: Orange is the New Black

Season 2 of Orange is the New Black premieres on Netflix at midnight on June 6, so in honor of this auspicious occasion, I've assembled some reading lists inspired by the show and its characters. If you're anything like me, you'll have Season 2 wrapped up by Monday morning, so you'll have plenty of free time for reading while you wait for Season 3.

As always, the New York Public Library has you covered with a really excellently curated reading list for the show. This includes all titles that characters are seen reading, or are explicitly referenced in the show. As a librarian, Tastyee has to be my favorite character, as she works in the prison library, and her thoughts on Ulysses ("Ain't nobody got time for that") is a highlight of Season 1.

Books of Orange is the New Black ("Because Piper Chapman is the new Rory Gilmore") is a nice Tumblr of books referenced on the show. It veers into fan site territory, but it's truly impressive how many people have taken the time to pause an episode in order to inventory the books on Alex's shelves. This is probably the best site for those specifically interested in the books adjacent to the lesbian characters and relationships on the show. If you don't love Alex, then there really isn't much here for you.

BuzzFeed has a very sloppy and GIF-heavy round-up of "All of the Books Referenced on 'Orange is the New Black'." Definitely the place to go if you want visual evidence of the books mentioned on the other sites, but it is BuzzFeed, so consider yourself warned.

It's not available yet, but an official 'Orange is the New Black' cookbook will be released in the fall of 2014 by Abrams Books.  That sounds disgusting, but when I read Piper Kerman's memoir, I was really curious about all of the bizarre recipes she mentions (prison cheesecake?), especially because everything had to be prepared in a microwave.

Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

By Piper Kerman

Finally, I can't write a post on the series 'Orange is the New Black' without recommending Piper Kerman's memoir by the same name that inspired the show. The series is only very loosely based on the real story, and if anything Piper has just become an audience stand-in to get us into the world occupied by significantly more compelling and diverse characters, which the real Piper Kerman has admitted was always the plan. That doesn't mean the her memoir isn't interesting and compelling, but just don't expect it to perfectly align with the series. It's a quick and easy read, and would make for a good vacation book this summer.

Shelf Hues: Orange (is the new black)

This week, in honor of the June 6 premiere of Season 2 of Netflix's 'Orange is the New Black,' I put together some of my orange reading material.

What I'm Reading: 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith

I broke my own rule regarding an author’s chronology by reading NW by Zadie Smith immediately upon its release, instead of backtracking to White Teeth and On Beauty. Afterward, many Zadie Smith fans told me I had made a mistake, and shouldn’t let NW dictate my impressions of her.  Although it received very mixed reviews, I enjoyed NW; it didn’t make an enormous impression on me, but there were certain elements of it that I absolutely loved, and most importantly, and whetted my appetite for more Zadie Smith fiction.  And as a New Yorker devotee, I have always loved her essays, and am looking forward to finally reading some of her published essay collections in the coming months.

Much like NW, White Teeth explores the intertwining lives of Londoners, particularly in regard to their immigrant experiences.  I found that the chapters devoted to Irie, the daughter of a British father and Jamaican mother, really came alive most for me, and I wonder if this has anything to do with the obvious similarities between Irie and Zadie Smith herself.  Even so, I’m still finding myself in this weird Zadie Smith limbo; I like her writing, but I’m not losing my mind over her, which seems to be the most popular reaction among women my age.  She certainly has incredible style and charisma, and she’s one of those enviable young female writers who is heaped with praise at a very young age (see also: Tea Obrecht, Karen Russell, Chimamanda Ngzogi Adichie and a few dozen more; come to think of it, this might warrant its own post).  Objectively, I can tell it’s good writing, and I certainly want to keep reading more of her work, but I’m just not as overwhelmed by her as so many others seem to be.  Am I missing something, or are there others out there?

This Week in Books: Amazon v. Hachette, Maya Angelou

The conflict between Amazon and the publisher Hachette has been brewing for some time now; I've only kept up with it peripherally, so I really appreciated this break-down from the Atlantic that projects how the issue could affect the publishing industry long-term. Most importantly, they address why you can't pre-order J.K. Rowling's new book from Amazon.

Since I posted on My Life in Middlemarch this week, here's a nice summary of the Twitter interview between author Rebecca Mead and the Atlantic's 1book140 (the Atlantic's Twitter-based book club).

The cover was released for Amy Poehler's upcoming book Yes, Please. It's not coming out until October, so you can binge on Parks and Rec episodes until then.

#ReadWomen2014: Toni Morrison

My relationship with Toni Morrison started young and was very deeply forged. I was blessed with a terrific and highly influential English teacher in 11th grade, who assigned The Bluest Eye, Morrison's first novel. I gulped down the entire thing in a day, and then immediately started re-reading it, this time with a pencil in hand to make notes in the margins. I still have that copy, and there is not a single page in it without my underlines, denoting the most sublime moments of her prose.

Beloved is where most folks start with Toni Morrison, and for good reason.  It's brilliant and is often tossed around in discussions about the Great American Novel.  I spend a good deal of time examining reading lists, and spend even more time reading in order to cross titles off the lists. When I was a younger reader I understood these lists to be sacred, but the more I read the more skeptical I become in many cases, but Beloved deserves every accolade it has received. I'm very curious if it's still taught in high schools as much as it was, but I'm disappointed that I managed to make it through high school and college without having read it.  

I read Song of Solomon a few years ago after reading that it was one of President Obama's favorite books.  Presidential endorsements don't usually influence my reading habits, but Barack Obama is a talented writer himself, and Harold Bloom admires Toni Morrison as well so it's okay.  I was initially disappointed because I knew it took place in Detroit and wanted very deeply to have a stronger personal connection to it as a result, which wasn't the case.  That said, it was truly excellent and really exemplifies everything Morrison does best.

Morrison is an author to be read and read again, and as excited as I am to recommend her to anyone, I'm equally as excited to continue discovering her other novels.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

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Maya Angelou was one of the loveliest poets in American history. There are no shortage of remembrances of her life and work, but my absolute favorite is this interview with NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross from 1986. I heard highlights from an old episode on poets, and was lucky enough to catch the re-airing that played this afternoon. Please take a moment to listen, and appreciate the incredible musicality of Angelou in her own words.

Books on Books: 'My Life in Middlemarch' by Rebecca Mead

My favorite thing about this book was the way in which I received it; while I was cooking dinner one weeknight, my husband said he was running out for some beer. He was gone longer than usual, but I didn’t think much of it. When he arrived home, he had a six-pack of beer, along with the beautiful pink hardcover of My Life in Middlemarch, which had just been released that day.  It was such a nice surprise, and felt like such an indulgent treat- a book about one of my favorite books. I was particularly impressed that he had remembered my reading Middlemarch last fall; in fact he had heard an interview with Rebecca Mead on NPR that morning and resolved to go pick up the book for me, knowing it was right up my alley. He was very correct.

Books about books and reading are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I can never get enough of reading about and talking about and hearing about literature. The kind of reflection exercised by Rebecca Mead in My Life in Middlemarch is the same hyper self-aware readership that inspired me to blog about literature in the first place, and so I found her connection to George Eliot’s masterpiece very relatable. I haven’t read Middlemarch enough times to experience Mead’s evolving connection to a novel, but my most similar experience would by the evolution of Jane Austen heroines in my life.  {Editor’s Note: it was at this point I started writing a description of Jane Austen heroines and how my perceptions of them have shifted over time. This went on for a good 3000+ word count before I realized what I was doing. I feel closer to Rebecca Mead more than ever}. I was a teenage Elizabeth Bennet, a young adult Emma Woodhouse, and now an older (well, almost 30 anyway) and wiser Anne Elliott.

Like Mead, I found immediate kinship with Dorothea, the heroine of Middlemarch, but in all honesty I related to Fred Vincy more than any other character. I really appreciated her exploration of the central marriages in the novel, and her personal experiences never felt indulgent or self-important. I was surprised by Mead’s depth of exploration and her academician’s approach to the life of George Eliot. For those who love and admire Eliot’s work, My Life in Middlemarch is a nice alternative to the meaty biographies out there. The literary memoir is troublesome genre, and as Joyce Carol Oates points out in her stellar review of My Life in Middlemarch, Rebecca Mead manages to combine analysis with historicism and personal reflection with an unexpected level of sophistication.

A final caveat- My Life in Middlemarch is not going to be enjoyed by anyone who hasn't read Middlemarch, and a recent reading would certainly enhance the experience. There is a decent miniseries on Netflix that adheres very closely to the text, and is a recommended crash course in Middlemarch (if ten hours counts as a crash?). Mead discusses several other George Eliot novels and spoils their endings, so if you're desperate to avoid The Mill on the Floss spoilers, save My Life in Middlemarch for a later date.

What I'm Reading: 'How Should a Person Be?' by Sheila Heti

How Should a Person Be? made such a splash when it was published, and I certainly had every intention of reading it, but as the Heti hysteria died down I sort of forgot about it until it was suggested by a girlfriend for our Book Club selection. I’m really glad I got the reminder, because I’ve just devoured it.  I hadn’t read anything else by Heti before I got my hands on How Should a Person Be?, and I don’t know that I will necessarily scramble to get any of her future books, only because I loved this so much and don’t expect her future work to resemble it; it is too unique and idiosyncratic and personal for anything else to come close.  A part of me wishes that she wouldn’t even try, which is a very cynical viewpoint, I suppose, but I think everyone has had that feeling, of reading a truly, singularly excellent novel, and then avoiding anything else by the same author in order to preserve that impression and experience.  

How Should a Person Be? is something of an indescribable novel-memoir-play, but if I had to pin it down, I think I would focus on its core relationship, between Sheila and her closest friend, the painter Margaux Williams (in this case, the lines between fiction and reality are very deliberately blurred).  There aren’t enough great books about female friendship, and so many elements of the core relationship felt very authentic to me and forced me to reflect on my own friendships.  There is a pervading self-awareness to the novel, which some readers will probably hate; and the constant tension between sincerity and irony feels very millenial generation-esque, and a blurb from Lena Dunham on the back of my paperback copy does not help.  (Full disclosure-- I could not be more ambivalent about Lena Dunham; she says something intelligent in an interview, and I think Good for You, Lena Dunahm! and then she inevitably disappoints me by walking around NYC barefoot following the Met Gala. Girl, no.  That said, when her forthcoming book finally drops, this should be your only destination for long and hopefully fruitful discussions of it).  I would advise you not to get discouraged by its youthfulness; after all, James Wood loved it, and he was born in 1965.

Books for TV Lovers: Mad Men

This Sunday Mad Men Season 7 will culminate in its (mid-season?) finale.  I had originally planned on putting together a reading list of books referenced on the show from memory, but Billy Parrott at the New York Public Library has already done so, far above and beyond what mine would have been.  Not only does he include every book that appears on the show, he also gives recommendations for additional background reading and historical context. His list is thorough and sophisticated, and beautifully and simply designed (as if I couldn’t already tell it was made by a librarian).  Browse his list, read some titles, and tweet about it with #MadMenReading.  Tune in to AMC on Sunday May 25 at 10 pm for the finale.

#ReadWomen2014: Karen Russell

Embarrassing as it is to admit now, I was a short story skeptic for the better part of my literate life. I am not an English teacher and really have no proposal for improvement, but I think my hatred stemmed from the way short stories were incorporated into English curriculum (i.e., poorly).  As an adult, I finally dipped my toes in the short story water with George Saunders, and shortly thereafter, Karen Russell.  She makes for a good liaison in that she has published both short story collections as well as a novel and an e-book novella; whatever your fancy, she will help convert you.  I started with Vampires in the Lemon Grove, her most recent story collection that was picked for our book club. It yielded one of our best discussions, and surprisingly everyone had a different favorite.  I have yet to dig in to her other work, but I have a copy of her first story collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves in my stack, and I’m anxious to get my hands on the much-lauded Swamplandia.  I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to read her e-book, as I’m a book fetishist and a total luddite when it comes to e-readers, but I love her writing enough to figure it out. So then Karen Russell will have converted me into a lover of short stories AND a user of e-readers, two impressive feats.  Did I mention she is young, beautiful, a prolific writer (4 books in 6 years)  and now a MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ recipient?

#ReadWomen2014 Non-Fiction: 'Redefining Realness' by Janet Mock

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LGBTQ activist Janet Mock gained national attention when a profile of her experience, ‘I Was Born a Boy' was published in Marie Claire magazine in 2011. I didn’t become aware of her until the press tour for her new book Redefining Realness, when Mock gained notoriety for her very bad-ass takedowns of Piers Morgan and Katie Couric, whose misunderstanding of trans issues was utterly embarrassing.

I was really anxious to read her book, purely for its educational value. Trans culture is deeply complex and demands so much understanding and sensitivity. In my own efforts to be respectful I am often too scared to say or think anything about it, assuming that I cannot, and will never, understand trans experience. So I really appreciated the opportunity to gain her perspective from a memoir that is so deeply personal. 

While I wanted and expected lots of didacticism, I was really blown away by its sheer literary merits; that sounds like a backhanded compliment, which is not my intention. Good writers are few and far between, and Mock happens to be an excellent writer and a great trans activist.

Not only that, her own literary experiences are woven throughout and comprise major components in her personal development. I could read literary memoirs all day long, so it was a nice surprise to find that her memoir about gender and identity happened to also veer in that direction. And most importantly, she read and loved many books that I also loved at the same age, and cites Zadie Smith as her number one author crush.  

Her tone establishes a kind of intimacy between author and reader that is so hard to form and maintain, and yet it never impedes her authority as a trans woman. More generalized information about trans culture is incorporated into her own experiences so organically that it manages to be both enlightening and simultaneously pleasurable.  

My only criticism is that I dearly wish the publisher had gone with a different cover; in many ways this looks like a generic memoir, which it isn’t.  It will probably look dated ten years from now, and such a landmark book in LGBTQ culture deserves better.

This Week in Books: Possible Screen Adaptations of 'The Flamethrowers' and 'Wolf Hall' Series

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In adaptation news, Jame Campion is currently working on a deal to adapt Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers, one of 2013 biggest novels, and one I really enjoyed last summer. I can't really think of a better director to take the helm on this project, especially after I gulped down Campion's 'Top of the Lake' in a matter of days.  The Flamethrowers was unique in that I kept thinking as I read it, "I cannot wait for the movie of this to come out." Now they need to announce the casting of Elizabeth Moss as the protagonist, and all will be right in the world.

Another adaptation I am greatly anticipating is the BBC production of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall series. The cast was recently announced, and includes 'Homeland' star Damian Lewis as famous ginger Henry VIII. Mark Rylance will play Thomas Cromwell, and seems well-suited in that he has already played Hamlet, Richard II, Thomas Boleyn, and Henry V.

This week novelist Adele Waldman appeared on HuffPost Live to discuss her debut novel The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P (which I will admit I haven't gotten around to yet). I haven't decided yet if this interview makes me want to read it more or less, but it has been one of the most widely recommended books of the past year.

In promotion of her most recent short story collection Bark, Lorrie Moore visited  Los Angeles Public Library's ALOUD to do a reading and answer some questions. There is a nice write-up by Los Angeles Magazine, and ALOUD will be making a podcast available soon.

You love Zadie Smith, don't you? Who doesn't. And you've probably seen a bit of Roxane Gay lately, as she's everywhere promoting her new book An Untamed State (I need this book). How about Roxane Gay's thoughts on Smith's NW? Enjoy!

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Editor's Note: This Week In Books is a weekly roundup of the goings on about the world of literary fiction. 

Shelf Hues: Blush

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Editor's Note: Shelf Hues is a recurring visual post of books I'm enjoying, arranged by color. I can't organize my library this way, but it looks pretty.

Welcome to Bookhive

Bookhive is a blog about literary culture, readership, and books. Although I’m technically a librarian, my writing will be focused on my personal connections to literature, especially in weekly posts reflecting my current reads.

My writing will be focused on my personal connections to literature.

The creation of the blog was largely inspired by #ReadWomen2014, and much of the content will reflect that, including a weekly recommendation of female authors from the world of literary fiction, as well as regular posts on my favorite female-oriented non-fiction. I’m more interested in writing about contemporary literature, but you can also expect the occasional post on “the classics” as well as a regular round-up of my favorite think-pieces, interviews, and blog posts on literary fiction from around the web.

Although reading itself is a very solitary activity, my enjoyment of literature has always been enhanced by lively discussion with others about the books I love and hate, so I encourage you to please share your own literary viewpoints, recommendations, and experiences in the comments section.