Scribbling Women

"Scribbling Women": True Tales from Astonishing Lives Marthe Jocelyn

Scribbling Women takes a look at a selection of female writers and why their words were important, and why they remain important. What I most love about this book is how Jocelyn defines "writers." While there are a few novelists discussed, this book tends to look at women whose words made a mark in something other than fiction.

Margaret Catchpole was a horse thief sentenced to Australian transport. Her letters back to England are the major primary source of life in the early days of the Australian colony.

Mary Kingsey was an adventurer who explored Africa-- all while wearing her proper Victorian dress. (All those petticoats saved her when she fell into a tiger trap!)

Isabella Beeton wrote the first housekeeping manual and popularized a recipe format we now think as standard (ingredients first, then steps, time to complete and how many people it will serve.)

Ada Blackjack was the only survivor of a failed Arctic expedition. Her journal tells us what happened.

Many more women are discussed and represented here, making for a fascinating read. They come from all over the world and all points in time. Some of the chapters are a little weaker than others but I appreciated Jocelyn introducing me to these women’s voices and their lives. It might require a bit of a hard hand-sell to get teens to read it, but once they start, I think they’ll find it interesting.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Hanging out in your blindspot

You know, today started off great. I finished the book I'm about to review. I went to the grocery store and the bank. I got ready for work and I was looking alright and my hair, for once, wasn't being weird...

And then, on the way to work, a dump truck merged into me on the highway. I am ok, but my car is pretty messed up. Messed up to the point where we have a rental car. A rental car with NO CD PLAYER. So I'm stuck with no CD player during NPR pledge week. Really, facing down a week of Diane Reihm telling me about how awesome the WAMU travel mug is, that's the worst part of this whole thing.

ANYWAY! The book I finished reading and want to tell you about!

Are y'all gearing up for National Novel Writing Month? (aka NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo) Have you even heard of NaNo?

Basic premise is that the biggest barrier to writing your novel is spitting out that first draft, and given that all first drafts are shit anyway, it's just about getting it out. So, in November, tens of thousands of people try to write a 50,000 word book. In one month.

It's pretty intense and pretty fun. I have yet to "win" (I usually peter out around 20-25,000) but it is lots and lots of fun.

And, if you're reading to belly up to the challenge this year, you first must read

No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days Chris Baty

Baty is the founder and head of NaNo and this book is less a "how to write a really good book" type book and more of a "how to write 50,000 words in one month book."

You don't *have* to read this if you want to NaNo, but I think you should. (It's chock full of stuff I wish I had known the other years I participated.)

The first half of the book explains the premise and ways to succeed. The second half has a chapter for every week with pep talks, ideas, and common stumbling blocks for that week. It's silly and irreverent, much like the NaNo experience itself.

NaNo is a lot of fun, and I know a lot of teachers actually have their entire class participate. I highly recommend it, and if you're thinking about it, be sure to check out this book to pump you up and help you out.

Is it November yet? I'm ready to go!!!

Nonfiction Monday Round up at Picture Book of the Day.

Opposite of Fate Recap

Currently Reading Longitude Dava Sobel

Ok, I finished up Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan yesterday. I liked it. It's a bunch of essays by Amy Tan, not all of them new. She's fairly neurotic and it's a bunch of essays about herself so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

If you've ever wanted an (auto)biography of Tan, then you'll like it. If you like Amy Tan and want to seperate fact from fiction (for instance, her mom's life story plays out in Joy Luck Club and Kitchen God's Wife fairly heavily) then, hey read this book. If you want to feel better about your relationship with your mother, read it, because to say Tan and her mom have issues is putting it mildly.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if it is, it's pretty good.

I've moved onto Longitude. I'm not that far into it, but so far, so good, except for one glaring omission. How can you write a book about the history of LONGITUDE for chrissakes and not include a map. I mean really. These navigation stories would be a lot more interesting if I could remember my Age-of-the-Explorers geography. Which I can't, because I'm no longer in 8th grade.