{"id":13500,"date":"2013-04-06T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=13500"},"modified":"2013-04-06T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-06T07:01:07","slug":"seven-books-i-never-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/seven-books-i-never-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Books I Haven’t Really Read: Anna Quindlen, Stephen Prothero, David Talbot and a Book About French Love . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Patricia<\/a>
And Patricia Bracewell’s book makes eight. I resisted purchasing her tantalizing historical novel, Shadow on the Crown,<\/em> at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA, earlier this week. So it’s not on my gotta-read list — yet. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven books I never read. Make that five, because I did actually skim through two of the seven intriguing books currently languishing on my bookshelf, crying out to be read. (Is skimming reading?). One of the two is by Anne LaMott, the other by Lauren Winner. More about those books tomorrow.<\/p>\n

That leaves five books I\u2019ve dearly wanted to spend quality time with in the past year, but haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s because I\u2019m writing a book <\/a>myself. Specifically, I\u2019m writing a book in 2013, when authors of books, if they hope to have anything but a miniscule readership of long-suffering family and friends, must also act as their own publicists.<\/p>\n

\"Anne<\/a>
Anne LaMott signed books and greeted fans at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, CA, after reading from “Help, Thanks, Wow” last November. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patricia Bracewell<\/a>, author of the newly released book, Shadow on the Crown<\/em>, clarified this point Monday night at a meeting of the Left Coast Writers<\/a>, a bustling writers salon that meets monthly at the Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, CA.<\/p>\n

Patricia is one of those enviable authors who actually scored a contract with a major publisher, Viking\/Penguin. Her book has gotten the full treatment \u2013 a hardcover first edition, in-house editors, copy editors, designers, distributors, and an actual publicist who does things like organize book tours and send out review copies.<\/p>\n

Patricia\u2019s book looks like a great read. It\u2019s historical fiction that takes place in 11th<\/sup> century England. But I didn\u2019t buy her book the other night. Why? Because I knew I wouldn\u2019t have time to read it.<\/p>\n

To her audience of forty or so aspiring poets, memoirists and fiction writers, Patricia confessed to having the same problem \u2013 not enough time to read.<\/p>\n

There are so many potential authors out there today, self-published and otherwise, she said, all of them blogging and tweeting and Facebooking like mad, that in order to keep up she\u2019s had to put in many hours a week on social media \u2013 despite the serious back-up she already has from her big-bucks publisher.<\/p>\n

All those hours of online networking, fun as they are, leave Patricia (and authors like me) little time for reading other people\u2019s books, even the delicious-looking ones \u2013 like the five I\u2019ve listed here today and the two I\u2019ll talk about tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"dust<\/a>Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir<\/em><\/strong>, by Anna Quindlen, Random House, 2012, $26 hardcover. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A writer who works at home, whose children no longer live there but whose bedrooms are \u201cpreserved as shrines, complete with old posters and artwork and high school course notes crammed in the desk drawers,\u201d Anna Quindlen<\/a> is a woman after my own heart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And I love the title of her book. It\u2019s my idea of how to be a woman of years.<\/p>\n

Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love<\/em><\/strong>, by David Talbot, Free Press, 2012, $28 hardcover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m dying to read this 453-page book. David Talbot sat in my living room for a couple of hours interviewing my husband Jon about the role Jon\u2019s father, one-time San Francisco Chronicle editor Scott Newhall, played in the city\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Talbot\u2019s book has kind words for my maverick father-in-law. I should read it.<\/p>\n

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers<\/em><\/strong>, by Anne LaMott, Riverhead Books, 2012, $17.975 hardcover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

LaMott gets a little preachy in this book \u2013 that\u2019s the trouble with structuring your book around an idea (prayer) rather than a narrative as LaMott does so well in her memoir Some Assembly Required<\/em>, which I\u2019ll be talking about tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m feeling a little ripped off: Eighteen bucks for 101 skinny, airy pages?<\/p>\n

Still, I like the excruciatingly honest way LaMott talks to God. Toward the end of the book she finds herself hollering, \u201cHelp me not be such an ass.\u201d Which she promptly realizes is a fourth great way to pray \u2013 and fodder for another book. Let\u2019s hope it\u2019s not a skinny one.<\/p>\n

\"Marilyn
Marilyn Yalom talked about her book, How the French Invented Love<\/em>, at Mrs. Dalloway’s bookstore in Berkeley, CA. And, yes, that’s lipstick on her right cheek. She got kissed by one of the francophiles in the audience. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How the French Invented Love: Nine Hundred Years of Passion and Romance<\/em><\/strong>, by Marilyn Yalom, Harper Perennial, 2012, $15.99 trade paper original.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtly love, gallant love, romantic love, existential love and more \u2013 all bound up in a sensuous, deckle-edged paperback with French flaps.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to know more about the varieties of human love in la belle France<\/em> as Marilyn Yalom, a scholar with a mischievous take on history, has studied \u2013 and experienced? \u2013 them. But apparently not enough to tear myself away from my Facebook page.<\/p>\n

The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation<\/em><\/strong>, by Stephen Prothero, HarperOne, 2012, $29.99 hardcover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Prothero<\/a> asserts that \u201cthe United States isn\u2019t just a country; it is also a religion of sorts. In the hearts and minds of the faithful . . . the stories we tell about our nation are sacred stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, says Prothero, the American religion has scripture \u2013 the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, King\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, Roe v. Wade, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial are just a few of the texts reproduced here.<\/p>\n

This 533-page tome is fascinating. I could read it in bits and pieces. Maybe if I leave it on the breakfast table for a few weeks I\u2019ll work my way through it over time.<\/p>\n

Or not.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow: Two books I did read<\/a>. You might also enjoy reading about a book called “Beyond Forgiveness.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Portrait<\/a><\/p>\n

There are seven intriguing books currently languishing on my bookshelf, crying out to be read. Books I\u2019ve dearly wanted to spend quality time with in the past year, but haven\u2019t. And that’s because I\u2019m writing — and promoting — a book myself. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,50],"tags":[946,525,947,34,367,948,736,55,949,91,950,488,951],"class_list":["post-13500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-openers","category-on-writing-reading","tag-anna-quindlen","tag-anne-lamott","tag-david-talbot","tag-dont-miss","tag-lauren-winner","tag-marilyn-yalom","tag-memoir-books","tag-family-stories","tag-patricia-bracewell","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-stephen-prothero","tag-the-writing-life","tag-women-authors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}