Books that Rocked My World

With the Newsweek issue What to Read Now. And Why and some other recommended reads, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon. I’m a bibliovore (an eater of books) and a logovore (a devourer of words) - I read everything from cereal boxes to bus ads to lengthy tomes on Chinese politicians’ wives (which was a sure cure for insomnia). But some titles really shook me up in some way. Herewith, (after the first entry) in no particular order, are books that really rocked my world.

The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is the first book that ever made me cry (followed shortly in that regard by Charlotte’s Web). The themes of death and the personal consequences of decisions kept me awake for many nights. And I’m still terrified by the whole idea of a hat-shaped snake! This was the first book that made me feel emotions from outside of my experience. I used to stare at the book for hours, wondering how it had that kind of power over me.

Dune
Frank Herbert

The moment I finished this, I started in again. The interwoven themes, complex character plotting,  and study that went into creating this masterpiece still put me in awe. Especially since I read all the other sci-fi Herbert wrote and, IMHO, find them to be dreck. This is one of the first books I ever read that made me say as a writer, “You can DO that?”

100 Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I found this “curious book” in the sci-fi section of my local bookseller back in 1973. I asked the clerk if he knew anything about it. “It’s too complicated to explain,” he said to 14-year-old me. I still think that’s a fair assessment. How do you describe to anyone what kind of journey they will take when they begin this book? It was unlike anything in my neck of the woods. I gulped down the magical narrative like a parched child. It fed some un-met need in my budding writer’s soul. I re-read it every few years, and still take away new thoughts on what I’ve read and how it was accomplished.

The Eighth Day
Thornton Wilder

Possibly the most daring book in literature, in terms of the main character: he dies midway through the novel. Wilder was fascinated by the cyclical nature of our lives along with nature, and the way our lives echo through to others’. Without getting into spirituality, this is a deeply spiritual book, examining how a moral person, so wronged, could continue in that manner, and what the consequences were to his family. One of those books that makes a writer think: “I’m not sure I’ll ever write anything that wonderful. But it might be interesting to try!”

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

I read this when I went back to college in my 30s. A friend was passing me in the hall and she said, “You must be reading Their Eyes. I smile like that whenever I read it, too.” After slogging through the first few pages when the dialect seems torturous, I realized suddenly I could hear the characters plainly in my mind. Zora Neale Hurston creates that perfect alchemy between reader and writer’s imagination. A stunning and heartbreaking book.

The Handmaid’s Tale 
Margaret Atwood

I am a proud feminist. I well-recall the pre-Roe days when women had to go to backdoor butchers to get abortions. But nothing prepared me for this imaginative narrative that creates a future based on the far Right/Fundie Christians and their lunatic views. Gently written, but a powerful message (and don’t skip the Epilog!). I’d really like to make it a law for anyone who spouts anti-women rhetoric to read this. But then, how would I be different than the “everything is compulsory” crowd?

The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie

I admit I picked up this book only because of the fatwa against the author – it seemed like the supportive thing to do. It never occurred to me that this would be one of the most laugh-out-loud funny books I’d ever read. It changed my perspective on Muslims entrely (which I admit was of the ”= terrorist” variety). This is great writing. And it got me to read Midnight’s Children, which is as awe-inspiringly lyrical as The Satanic Verses is funny.

An Instance at the Fingerpost 
Iain Pearson

I love this one as a writer foremost. You have to read all four narratives to understand what happened – and decide for yourself who was telling the truth. It’s a big book, and the narratives are very different. I KNOW I couldn’t have pulled this off. It’s sort of a tale written about a donut hole, told by the sprinkles on the rim. Seriously tricksy and enjoyable writing.

A Prayer for Owen Meany 
John Irving

I’ve always like John Irving, but this book just stunned me. It was all I could think about for a month. My mother-in-law, an English professor, was also taken with it. We talked about Owen Meany at length over many dinners – which was the first time we’d had substantive literary discussions.

 
Interview with a Vampire 
Anne Rice

SEXY VAMPIRES! Wow, what a change from Bela Lagosi! This ground-breaking piece of fiction invented paranormal romance and revived the whole paranormal fiction genre. Deftly written in that sly way Rice has when she’s not just churning them out (the only other Rice book I can bear is The Vampire Lestat), this book showed us that vampires weren’t just for ghost stories any more – and gave the undead a depth that had never existed before. Very exciting from a reader’s and a writer’s point of view.

Breakfast of Champions 
Kurt Vonnegut

I hadn’t yet encountered post-modernism or any of its offshoots when I read this entirely mad book in 1978. It was the most creatively crazy book I’d ever seen, with its ditsy doodles and random characters and the author himself getting caught up as a character. A real mind-trip. Recently, I re-read this – since Vonnegut wrote it to celebrate his 50th birthday, and I turned 50 this year myself (I first read it when I was 19). I finally get the middle-aged angst.

Women Who Run with the Wolves  Clarissa Pinkola-Estes

This terrific book on empowerment hit me at the perfect time. I had tentatively decided to self-publish my book, Captain Mary, Buccaneer and was wondering, what comes after that? Because of Women Who Run with the Wolves, I became a publisher.

As a small press owner, fellow publishers give me their books, as I do ours. But one book has stood head and shoulders over the rest.

Buddha Wept: A Novel of Terror and Transcendence
Rocco Lo Bosco
GreyCore Press

I don’t like to cry. I loathe to cry in public. This book had me SOBBING on a plane from NYC. But I didn’t mind, because Buddha Wept is that good. I knew a little about the Cambodian holocaust before I read the book, but this puts you right in the middle of that Little Shop of Horrors. Yet that’s not what made me cry. It was how the main character rebuilt her life afterwards. Like The Satanic Verses, Buddha Wept changed my perspective on an entire culture. I’m sorry this didn’t get a lot of play. I think it’s a wonderful piece of writing.

Because publishers are first and foremost readers, we fall in love with narratives or projects. That’s why we get into this crazy biz! The two below are books that I loved at first sight.

Gudrun’s Tapestry
Joan Schweighardt

When the author queried me, I was a little lukewarm on the subject. “Based on the Poetic Eddas”? Ish. That’s gonna be a bore, I thought. Whoo-boy, was I wrong. I asked for 3 chapters and planned on reading about 5 pages. After 20 pages, I walked out of my office and went to see my husband/partner. “We HAVE to have this book!” The author (now a dear friend) captures this moment between myth and real-life… and the decision to make real life a myth. Beautifully told. Still love it. Others did, too. It won a ForeWord Book of the Year and an IPPY Book Awards, and we sold rights to Russia (hysterically over-the-top cover) and Italy.

Women in Shadow and Light: Journeys from Abuse to Healing
Jan Goff-LaFontaine

Buddha wrote about “right action.” I call this one “right publishing.” When Jan approached us with this project, I was totally in love with the idea, but wondered if she could pull it off: art photos of women clothed only in their dignity (no bruises or broken bones), along with descriptions, in their own words, of how they suffered abuse and were able to heal. It is elegant, moving… and challenging to the return-to-the-Fifties era we’ve just been in. Despite that, it won a gold in the IPPY Book Awards. Jim Barnes said it was one of the bravest books he’d ever seen. I’m damned proud of this one.