More One Sentence Book Reviews

Plus a few opportunities to gather & learn

Hello & happy Friday, friends! Today we have more One Sentence Book Reviews (capped because you liked the first batch so much), but first a few announcements!

Craft talk on dialogue March 11

Join me for Writing Great Dialogue, a craft talk that will dive deep on one of my favorite elements of writing. If you can’t make the live event (7pm), you’ll still get the recording! Register now.

Next Story Jam is March 13

Story-curious? Story Jams are a casual, fun way to practice storytelling, make new friends, and hear great stories. The next one is March 13th, at Peel Gallery in Carrboro.

Hang out on April 6 with a scratch of writers*

Writing at home in your sweatpants is fun, but have you heard of leaving the house? Have you heard of talking to other people who write words? About what you’re reading and what you’re not writing?

A scratch of writers is a casual hangout with free books, lots of seltzer, and great conversation with other writers. And you don’t have to be a Capital W Writer—storytellers, yarn spinners, and book lovers also welcome! We’ll meet up at Wilson Park, 1:30-3:30pm.

*A school of fish, a bevy of quail, a scratch of writers—that’s what we decided at the very first one a group of writers is called!

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One Sentence Book Reviews

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Read this book if you want to be transported to 1989 in Danvers, Massachusetts (next to Salem!), when a high school field hockey team uses witchy energy to transform their losing streak; come for the nostalgia references (Reebok, Jordache, hairsprayed bangs referred to as The Claw), stay for a well-written novel with clever, fist-pumping ways these characters liberate themselves from the various constraints and expectations teenage girls face no matter the century.

Additional thoughts for writers: Barry does something very clever with point of view, using the first-person we deftly and also going deep into each player’s POV chapter by chapter. This book is strutting around like a fluffy throwback, but it is immensely skilled AND hugely enjoyable. 500 stars.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Read this book if: you want to be transported to WWII NYC, meet moody men who do secretive, illegal things for money, learn about shipyards and deep-sea diving, and root for Anna, our plucky heroine determined to don the 200+ pound diving suit and plumb the depths.

Additional thoughts for writers: Many will argue this is not Egan’s finest; I won’t protest. But her language is elegant, her plots skillful. She did a lot of research for this book (read the acknowledgments!) and you can feel this successful and established writer enjoy the freedom to write exactly what she wants. It may not please everyone, but it pleases her.

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

Read this book if: you want to know why it’s hard for you to focus and have the stomach to learn about the insidious system that has been created (by rich guys!) to distract us, monetize our time and attention, and keep us from doing all the things that are meaningful to us and make us feel happy and fulfilled.

Additional thoughts for writers: This book has a very intriguing opening: Hari heads to Provincetown to spend three months without a cell phone or internet connection, which allows him to read, think creatively, and rest. I’ve never spent that long off the grid, but I try to get away one week per year to a writing retreat that allows that kind of focus. And for the other 51 weeks of the year, I use an internet blocker and a lot of boundaries on email, phone, and social media¹ to preserve my writing time. When those boundaries weaken, I immediately can feel my brain change. If you want to write a book, I suggest you read this one.

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad

Read this book if: you want to hear a searingly honest account of what it’s like to get leukemia at 22, experience the agony of living in a persistently sick body, and face big questions about living well and mortality long before an adult identity has fully formed, all in lush, unflinching prose.

Additional thoughts for writers: At the center of this book is a romantic relationship between Jaouad and a partner who sees her through much of her treatment though ultimately they break up. She pulls off two things that many memoir writers struggle with: first, she is honest about the hurtful, childish things she does in the relationship—she looks back on her earlier self and represents her choices honestly, without omission or judgment. She also portrays the partner rather fairly² —she shares some of his own hurtful choices, but she doesn’t criticize him; instead, she empathically explores what it must’ve felt like to be in his shoes. Often it is said that memoir is not a means to settle a score; Jaouad successfully walks a fine line, telling us what happened, good and bad, but not scolding or shaming anyone for their humanness.

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Read this book if: you want to touch into the things that persist across centuries—North Woods travels through time by keeping its gaze fixed on the same piece of land and detailing the people and structures who occupy it over hundreds of years; the story and characters are vivid and real but ultimately the centerpiece is the ground beneath our feet, a device that invites readers to occupy a very different perspective than our usual.

Additional thoughts for writers: There’s so much that’s clever about this book, but the two aspects I most admired were that each self-contained section had its own driving plot—I always wanted to find out what happened next—and the prose was tasty—the sentences are smooth and well-crafted but not showy. This book has something in common with The Overstory I think, using land to look through the lens of time, though while Richard Powers does it in a maximal way, Mason’s is minimal—an interesting contrast.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Read this book if: …I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure you should read this novel, at least not right now. It’s about democracy collapsing in Ireland, which becomes a police state, and follows a woman trying to keep her family together as sinister forces slowly erode their normal life, turning it into a traumatic nightmare.³

Additional thoughts for writers: When I read a book I can’t stomach or find boring, I spend extra energy looking at the craft of it, which is what I did here. There are two rather striking stylistic choices that kept me slightly distracted from the absolute horror of the book. The first was the long sentences, clause after clause after clause, creating a breathlessness not unlike a person trying to keep their shit together as things fall apart. By the end, it felt like this was the only way such a horrific story could be told.

The other thing that’s interesting is the book contains so much telling. There is some scene, but so much of the story is in the protagonist’s head (a working mother of four children, including a 6 month old). Like the long sentences, this emphasis on interior telling mimics the story itself, taking the reader through all the calculations she is doing in her head to maintain “normal” even as normal slips away and she detachs more and more from the gruesome reality.

1. Inevitably, I don’t always enforce these boundaries, which usually leads to me become frazzled and fantasize about throwing my phone into the sea and moving into a mushroom house.

2. I have to admit this is a guess.

3. I mean, just don’t. I can’t get it out of my head, and not in a good way. Read We Ride Upon Sticks instead!