Oh dear, it’s Friday again and I forgot to post yesterday.  My excuse this week is that I have 3 grandchildren visiting and I have taken off my writer hat and am in granny mode. 

A few weeks ago I heard Gail Caldwell read at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH.  I’ve said it before, but RiverRun is amazing- the way bookstores should all be!  Let’s Take the Long Way Home is a memoir, the story of Caldwell’s friendship with Caroline Knapp who wrote Drinking, A Love Story, another memoir that I also loved.  Knapp died of lung cancer at the age of 41 and Caldwell writes about grief, friendship, and the alcoholism which affected both of them. Sometimes memoirs are self indulgent, or the voice becomes tiring.   This memoir is not one of those.  It’s a brilliant, affecting story of grief.  I’m still thinking about this book and I’m sure I will for a long time.

I read Christina Baker Kline’s novel, Bird in Hand, a year ago after discovering her wonderful blog on writing.  This novel came out in paperback this summer and I highly recommend it!  On the surface one might categorize the book as domestic fiction –the story of two couples, a life long friendship, and one dramatic event that fractures the delicate bonds that hold these people together.  Yet, the complexity and depth of Kline’s characters, along with the difficult situation they face, make this novel a truly rewarding reading experience.  What do we do for happiness?  Can we have it all, and if so, what’s at stake? Christina Baker Kline writes clean, elegant prose and I am eagerly awaiting her next book.

Last week I also had the fun of reading with Christina at the Bass Harbor Library on Mt. Dessert Island in Maine.  While there, I bought one of her earlier novels, The Way Life Should Be, a wonderful love story that takes place in Maine.  This novel is lighter than Bird in Hand but it is pure pleasure from start to finish.  There is a cooking element in the book, and I actually plan to use some of the recipes.  It’s a terrific summer read.

I am posting this a day early as I’m about to drive up to Southwest Harbor, Maine to read with with Christina Baker Kline. (See events page on my website)  Her novel, Bird in Hand, came out in paperback earlier this summer.  Christina is a wonderful writer –more on that next week.  Yesterday, was the official birthday of A Slender Thread, my new novel.  Today, I want to write about Lee Smith.  I’ve loved her work for years and I studied with her at a seminar in Key West, Florida a number of years ago.  She’s a great teacher and she has been very helpful to me along the way.

Lee  is a master storyteller and I was thrilled to learn that she has this new collection out this summer.  Reading these stories is like opening a box of chocolates -those rich chocolate truffles that come from Switzerland, the kind that silence you for a moment when you bite in and the creamy interior melts on your tongue.  I finish reading one of Lee Smith’s stories, and like the chcolates, I have to have another!  Most of her characters, strong southern women, are survivors.  But, they are also richly complex, and like the rest of us, not perfect.  My favorite in the collection is called Toastmasters.  I first read it in Narrative, an excellent online literary publication.   The main character is a young boy who is out to dinner with his mother and one of her friends in Key West, Florida.  During this truly “laugh out loud” long, sort of zaney evening, the boy discovers something in himself that will remain with him all his life.  This story is one I will read over and over.  Lee Smith’s stories are both wonderfully entertaining, and in big moments and small, offer great wisdom.

Last  week I went to hear Paul Harding read from his novel, Tinkers, at RiverRun Bookstore in Porstmouth, NH. (RiverRun is a fabulous independent bookstore and worth a stop if you are ever in the area) Paul Harding won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction this year.  Quite a coup as it’s a first novel and from a small literary press! Paul read beautifully and he was also a wonderful, charming, and funny man.  I read this book early in June and after hearing him read, I want to read it again.  Like poetry, I suggest reading this novel slowly in a quiet place.  It’s not a page turner, no cliff hangers, no murders, car chases etc.  Instead, it is a deeply moving, very interior, sort of book.  If you have read Marilyn Robinson (Gilead, Housekeeping) you may feel a similarity and in fact Harding has studied with Robinson and admires her greatly.  If any of you have already read this, let me know what you think.