Book News
The New York Times reported on the fight to remove and ban books from school libraries in Florida. You can join the fight against book bans at Unite Against Book Bans.
Over at Publisher’s Weekly, they had two articles on salaries—starting salaries at big publishers grow and then a survey on self-published author income. While income increased, the median income for a self-published author was $12k in 2021. Both remind me of the adage I learned early on in the book industry, “No one gets in this business because they want to make a lot of money.”
Netflix is premiering All The Light We Cannot See on November 2nd. I cannot wait to see what they do with Anthony Doerr’s WWII novel.
Another adaptation hitting the big screen this month is Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and the New York Times has an essay on why it still matters. It mattered to me at one time, and every other girl in my fifth and sixth-grade class in 1978.
Seattle Independent Bookstore Day
Moira Macdonald has all the info and a map in the Seattle Times for the Seattle Independent Bookstore Day, April 29- May 8th. Check out my friend Annie Carl and The Neverending Bookshop in Edmonds is featured! Annie is one of the most fearless folks I know and is one of the most knowledgeable booksellers.
I was also excited to learn there is a new bookstore, Saltwater Bookshop, opening here in Kingston. I can’t wait to pop in and check it out and become their number-one customer in Kingston.
What a Way to Go…
Poor Thomas Hardy’s cat. The Caustic Critic posted a list of horrible ways authors have died.
Book Lists
The Los Angeles Times asked L.A. writers to weigh in with their favorite books about Los Angeles. The list was culled down from 500 (500!) to 110.
I was so glad to see Lisa See call out books by her mother Carolyn See. Carolyn See’s work deserves a second look.
“My two favorites were written by my mother, Carolyn See. ‘Golden Days’ still feels like a snapshot of our lives together in Topanga. My mother was terrified of nuclear war. We even moved to Mexico after the Cuban Missile Crisis because she thought we’d somehow be safe there. ... I know that’s her most well-known and popular book, but my personal favorite is ‘The Handyman.’ On the surface it looks like it’s about a young man at loose ends who becomes a handyman to earn a little money, but really it’s about how a person becomes an artist. The main character, Bob Hampton, travels from neighborhood to neighborhood — and all the places my mother lived in Los Angeles from the time she was born until the day she died. He’s not a very good handyman, but he’s good at fixing people’s lives.”
Here is my list of favorite books by both mother and daughter.
My Favorite Books by Carolyn See and Lisa See
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese American Family by Lisa See.
Golden Days by Carolyn See.
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.
The Handyman by Carolyn See.
China Dolls by Lisa See.
Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers by Carolyn See.
Help me support Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum by purchasing books through the FolioSeattle Bookshop.org site.
Review of Adam Bede by George Eliot
Spoiler Alert!
This book took a turn I did not expect. It wrecked me the evening I finished it. After making my way through Middlemarch and enjoying it, I decided to go for more Eliot. I have read The Mill on the Floss in the past, so I chose Adam Bede, which Alexander Dumas called “the masterpiece of the century.”
The story focuses on everyman Adam Bede. Adam loves Hetty Sorrel the local beauty and he believes she loves him, but Hetty has designs on the Squire’s grandson, Captain Arthur Dommithorne. Dommithorne is attracted to Hetty and can’t keep away from her. This being a 19th-century novel, there will be a price to be paid for romance across class lines. And it truly has something to say to those of us in the 21st century. Donnithorne dallies with Hetty, and Adam finds out and breaks social rank to tell Donnithorne just where he can shove it (which incidentally is Adam Bede’s fist). When I read “murder” on the back cover, I assumed that Bede would murder Donnithorne but THAT is not the murder. Hetty runs away and is then arrested for infanticide. Yes, infanticide. I was quite shocked by this turn of events. Eliot based Hetty’s story on a real-life story told her by an Aunt. There is much more to the story than this, but Hetty’s story, her desperation, and the results are heartbreaking. Bede, the good man that he is, stands behind her the whole way, and Eliot makes sure that Donnithorne has a chance to make some things right.
Some aspects of Hetty and Donnithorne’s story reminded me of Tolstoy’s Resurrection which I also highly recommend. In that book, a young man carelessly ruins a young woman and later sits on a jury that is sending her to Siberia for murder. Seeing what his actions wrought, Dmitri spends the rest of the novel attempting to redeem himself and make it up to the Katyusha.
Both community and religion play a part in this novel as they did in Middlemarch. There is a colorful cast of community characters full of wise women, astute farmers, charming pets, and even a toddler who tries to steal every scene she is in. Eliot contrasts the local easy-going rector with the more fiery young Methodist “lady preacher” Dinah. Note that Eliot later points out that this book takes place before the Methodist convention shot down the idea of female ministers and sent them all back home.
If I were to rank this one against Middlemarch, I liked Adam Bede a bit more. I think it may have to do with the smaller cast and a more intense storyline. There is a lot of dialect in the book making it a bit of a slow start, but if you stick with it you will get the hang of the language fairly quickly.
This book would make an excellent choice for a book club today. The discussion around women’s rights, autonomy over our bodies, and possible outcomes of not having a say would make for good discussion.
Next up is Silas Marner!
Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum Events
I was at Folio last week for a board meeting, and things are heating up post-pandemic—we had three events going on at one time! Board meeting, poetry and wine-tasting, and a translator’s meeting. Here are some upcoming Folio events that I’m excited about.
The Folio Fiction Group will be discussing The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin on May 10th.
On May 17th, Mort Kondracke will be moderating an in-person panel on A World of Trouble. Joining Mort on the panel are the University of Washington Prof. Resat Kasaba, former President of The US-China Business Council Dr. Robert Kapp, former senior international affairs writer for the LA Times Carol J. Williams, and former U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus John Koenig.
NOTIS is having its 4th Annual Translation Slam on May 18th.
Brad Holden will be hosting an event on May 19th called Drinks, Drugs & Debauchery: A History of Seattle's Prohibition Era.
And an event that isn’t at Folio—Colson Whitehead will be at Town Hall on July 28th to discuss his new book Crook Manifesto. I’m hoping to meet up with some folks who have been a part of Folio’s group reading and discussing all of Whitehead’s works. We completed The Nickel Boys this past week.