LitLovers Blog

English—what a great language to have fun with!  Here’s a silly little grammatical conundrum for which I have no explanation . . . except that it’s idiomatic.  Nonetheless, rules are rules—and rules must be obeyed.

Don’t You Just ♥ Words?

You can say
Leave the bad parts out.  —or—  Leave out the bad parts.
And you can say
Leave them out. —but not— Leave out them.
______________________

You can say
Butter Mom up.  —or—  Butter up Mom.
And you can say
Butter her up. —but not— Butter up her.
______________________

You can say
Take the project on.  —or—  Take on the project.
And you can say
Take it on. —but not— Take on it.  

Verbs and prepositional adverbs—that’s what they’re called. You would think they would be like infinitive verbs—to be or not to be—you’re to never split one of those.  I mean “you’re never to split one.”

But prep-adverbs are different from infinitives.  If you use a pronoun, you have to split them up” . . . not  ”split up them.”  Strange.

Isn’t a wonder anyone ever learns English?

Tags: Just ♥ Words // 1 Comment »

Reading Olive Kitteridge  made me think about point of view—who gets to tell the story. Elizabeth Strout’s book shifts from character to character, a narrative technique that lends her work its depth and beauty. 

We see Olive, not only as she sees herself, but as she’s seen by the community.  The pay-off is a richer, far more complicated portrait of Olive than if she alone—or any single narrator—had told us the story.

Point of view, or perspective, is one of the most important decisions an author has to make.  Whoever tells the story shapes the story.

A little game:  take a couple of novels, change the narrators…and see what happens. Try this as a book club activity. Here are some ideas to get started:

• Remains of the Day:  what if Miss Kenton tells the story rather than the butler Stevens?  We’d miss the rich irony of a hopelessly naive narrator.  In fact, if we weren’t inside Stevens’s head, he would seem a pitiless monster of a being.
• Gilead: if we see the story through shifty, unreliable Jack Boughton, the story’s prodigal son, we would never experience our own sense shame as we, along with Reverend Ames, willfully passed judgment on a misunderstood character. 

More on point of view at a later date.  In the meantime take our free LitCourse on Point of View.  It’s fun…quick…and informative.

Tags: Learn a Little Lit // 1 Comment »

Crime novels can be dangerous.  I go on binges, devouring one after another, reading into the wee, wee hours….  Then suddenly it’s cold turkey, and I don’t touch them for months…even years. 

So for my monthly LitPicks, I decided  it was time to do a little round-up of detective stories. They’re completely addictive.

Perhaps their addiction has to do with the notion that the world is ultimately knowable.  Clues get uncovered, answers found—and, most of all, order gets restored.  There’s comfort in that.  And comfort’s addictive…like mashed potatoes and gravy.

Tags: Blogging & Musing // Add Comment »

Some pretty interesting emails show up in my inbox, many having to do with problems common to a lot of book clubs.  Here’s a recent query I received.

QUESTION:  How do you handle a member who tends to dominate the conversation?

ANSWER: 
1.  Use a special token.  Pass an object—a  branch, painted stone, or small pillow, say—around the room.  ONLY the member who holds the token may talk.  Those who aren’t holding the token cannot interrupt or interject even a brief  comment. You might consider limiting the number of times a person gets to hold the token. (I personally don’t like the token method, but groups who use it insist it works.)

2.  Limit comment time.  Use an egg- or kitchen-timer to time members’ comments.  No one should talk more than two (2) minutes for openers—and certainly no more than one (1) minute to comment on someone else’s ideas.  The goal for all is to learn to talk succinctly so that there’s time for everyone to voice an opinion.

3.  Take charge of the discussion.  The leader can interject with comments like, “Great, Bill. Thanks. But let’s give others a chance”  or  “Can we hear from someone else?”  or  “What do the rest of you think”  or  “Mary, you haven’t said anything.”  It takes an active, fairly skilled, leader to move the discussion from one person to another, without letting a single individual dominate.  It’s not easy.

4.  When all else fails…be direct.

• Someone may have to initiate a one-on-one conversation with the person — a face-to-face, or perhaps a phone call, but never, never an email.  Be frank but kind.  Choose someone who has diplomatic skill…or who is a close friend of the person. What to say?  Say that some members feel they don’t get to have their ideas heard…or that the group appreciates the person’s insights, but there’s a tendency to over-do.  Simply ask that the person give others a chance…or not to interject so frequently…or to limit the length of his/her comments.
•  The worst case scenario is to ask the offending member to leave the group.  This is painful, but for the sake of the overall group it may be necessary.  If the problem isn’t resolved, members may start dropping out and finding other groups.  Using a face-to-face conversation or a phone call (never email), suggest—kindly—that the member move on.

Is this a problem in your club?  Any suggestions?

Tags: Book Club Blues // 2 Comments »

Were you like me, wondering what the World’s Fair looked like in Erik Larson’s book?  The book’s photos didn’t help much. Take heart:  Below is a photo that appeared in today’s New York Times, front page of the “Week in Review” section.  Now we can see what all the fuss was about!

Tags: Blogging & Musing // Add Comment »

I get some interesting emails—many are about problems a lot of book clubs face.  Here’s one I got recently: 

PROBLEM—What do you do with members who haven’t read the book…but still love to talk and talk? 

SOLUTION—Set some guidelines at the outset
At the beginning of every book discussion, the host or discussion leader should ask if all members can agree to the following propositions:

•  It is realistic—not everyone can read every book; we all have busy lives.  Therefore, non-readers should always feel welcome to attend.
•  As a matter of fairness—those who have read the book should get first dibs on talking about it.
•  As a matter of courtesy—it’s incumbent on non-readers to LISTEN and comment briefly or rarely.

Any other ideas?  Here’s the spot to share them.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Tags: Book Club Blues // 4 Comments »

Oooooh….!  Halloween’s coming up.  A reader asked me to come up with ideas for spooky mystery novels.  The writer herself suggested Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale.  Good one!

Here are some I came up with—mostly older works:

• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, 1938  (an all-time favorite)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 1847  (the mad women in the attic)
• The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, 1859-60 (scrumptious)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle, 1091-02 (the great Sherlock and Watson)
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, 2003 (the first of her vampire series)
• Anything by Stephen King… Any particular suggestions from anyone?

If anyone has some other ideas, let us know.  We’d love to hear from you.

Tags: Blogging & Musing // 2 Comments »

Ah, poor me….just returned from Italy.  Life is so hard.

So…I was reading Sarah Dunant’s The Birth of Venus—which I’d just happend to pick off the bookshelf at the house  (scusami…”the villa”) where I was staying.  And here’s what happened…

Dumb me. I left my purse on the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour bus, which takes you around the city of Florence.  Had to sprint—shoes off—through a piazza to head it off at the next stop.  No mean feet, so to speak (not so young…nor so thin).  But happy ending.  Got the bus, got the purse.
 
Here’s the cool part:  the piazza I cut through was in front of the Basilica di Santa Croce—the very place where Savanarola preached and where Alessandra, the Birth of Venus heroine, hears him ban women from public life  (i.e., those running barefoot around town).  And I’d just read that chapter of the book the night before.  Ah literature…ah, life! 

Anyway, my trip was slightly different from Liz Gilbert’s…my version was Eat, Run, Eat.  Just as much fun…but no book, no movie.

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Short update—I’ve just received a terrific invitation to be a guest on a local NPR station in Hampton, Virginia.  We’ll be discussing book club issues—the how-tos of starting and running a club, and handling difficult issues. 

The show is HearSay with Cathy Lewis.  Maureen Corrigan will also be on, as well as Susan Coleman who is leading Virginia’s Big Read!  Call letters are WHRV 89.5 FM. 

Most of you won’t be within reach, but for those in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina…tune in on Thursday, September 3, from 12 noon to 1pm.

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Here’s an idea:  treat yourself to an evening out and head to your local library.  After a rat-race kind of day, the peace and quiet a library offers is refreshing. 

Take a leisurely stroll through the stacks … or browse through the periodicals … just spend some time exploring all the resources.  And if your library is like the one in my center city, there’s a cool cafe with terrific snacks, pastries, and sandwiches.

If you’re a book club, go as a group.  If you’re a couple, go on a date—it’s an inexpensive night out.  If you’re a parent, take the kids.  If you’re single, where could you find a cozier spot to just hang-out?

I always come home feeling refreshed…and regenerated with new ideas for books and things to write about–like this blog post!

Oh, that’s one of the libraries I use pictured at the top—Pittsburgh’s Main Carnegie Library (Andrew was a Pittsburgh boy, just so you know).

Tags: Blogging & Musing // 4 Comments »