Juv Nonfiction: Book, My Autobiography "transcribed" by John Agard, illustrated by Neil Packer

Book: My Autobiography
John Agard, illustrated (b&w) by Neil Packer
ISBN: 9780763672362
Read March 7, 2016
Cute conceit of a thin book covering the history of the recorded word in print from the perspective of a book, looking back at the transformations of the past and present.

Lots of short chapters break up the history of the development of the written word.  We begin with oral storytelling and cave paintings, then move through the earliest surviving examples of physically-recorded information from several cultures.  Then we're into the developments of types of materials: rock walls to clay tablets to papyrus to parchment to paper pulp (a Chinese invention, which I did not know) and finally to modern e-books.  Then we look at styles of writing: cuneiform, hieroglyphics, the Phoenician, then Greek, then Latin alphabets (this section was sadly lacking in Eastern information), along with the writing process: wedge-shaped stylus to quills (with discussion of the various bird species and what their quills were considered good for) to the first block printing and then movable type and then again e-books with hyperlinks.

The "voice" of Book is wry and self-deprecatory and winking, passing information along as if it is just the coolest history in the world (which I personally agree with) and making even ancient history like the switch from papyrus to parchment seem relevant (caused, fyi, by a squabble over intellectual property (papyrus) which was barred from export out to a rival country).

The language is rich and varied and the presentation is quite adult - I had to check the CIP to see that it really was a juvenile nonfiction.  There are pull-out and pop quotes from authors and poets and influential people highlighted in almost every chapter that are relevant to the section, or are generally thought-provoking.  This would be an excellent "trial" biography for a young voracious nonfiction or micro-history reader - I can easily see them successfully reading through this and feeling empowered to move on to the very similar adult nonfiction or biographies.

A fun, quick, information-packed read, with a great narrative flow and a lovely narrative voice, with just enough black and white illustration and pop quotes to break up the many many many small chapters.    

Nonfiction: Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Edited by Laurie Lamson

Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Speculative Genre Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers
Edited by Laurie Lamson
ISBN: 9780399165559
Read June 2015

Collects exercises and encouragement from:
Steven Saus
Jule Selbo
Glenn M. Benest
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Kate Bernheimer
Vincent M. Wales
Lisa Renee Jones
Piers Anthony
Aimee Bender
Kim Dower
Brian James Freeman
Brittany Winner
Vonda N. McIntyre
Kealan Patrick Burke
Sabrina Benulis
Elliot Laurence
Steven Barnes
Diego Valenzuela
Danika Dinsmore
Xaque Gruber
Sequoia Hamilton
James Wanless
Michael Reaves
Raymond Obstfeld
Lois Gresh
Michael Dillon Scott
William E. Nolan
Christine Conradt
Derrick D. Pete
Todd Klick
Sara B. Cooper
Ben Thompson
Edward DeGeorge
Lisa Morton
Jan Kozlowski
E.E. King
David Anthony Durham
Mark Sebanc
Melissa Scott
L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Janice Hardy
Kij Johnson
Chris Howard
Nancy Kress
Harlan Ellison
Pen Densham
Douglas Mcgowan
Marc Scott Zicree
Richard Bleiler
Brianna Winner
Devorah Cutler-Rubenstein
Wendy Mewes
Eric Stener Carlson
Diana Peterfreund
Karen McCoy
Eric Edson
Bruce McAllister
Jeffrey A. Carver
Derek Taylor Kent
Jessica Page Morrell
Stacey Graham
Mark Sevi
Brad Schreiber
Reggie Oliver
James G. Anderson
Gabrielle Moss
Vanessa Vaughn
Maria Acevedo
Jack Ketchum
Rainbow Reed
J. Michelle Newman
Lillian Stewart Carl
Jody Lynn Nye
Scott Rubenstein
Lance Mazmanian
Simon Clark
John Skipp
Ramsey Campbell
David Brin
John Shirley
Jay Lake
Nicholas Royle
Jeremy Wagner
Dana Fredsti
Peter Briggs
Sharon Scott
Joe R. Lansdale

Whew!

All of those lovely authors and writers and industry-persons took time from their schedules to offer advice and exercises and encouragement.  Lots of them didn't mesh with my writing style, some of them were weird, some of them were self-congratulatory (very few of those) and some of them were like little golden nuts to squirrel away into my writer's file to pull out when I need a boost.

A fun resource, and a great summer read.

Nonfiction: The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth

The Elements of Eloquence
Mark Forsyth
ISBN: 9780425276181 (imported from England)
Read January 23, 2015
Author goes through various rhetorical figures and how they are used.

Lots of Shakespeare in this book, and a decent smattering of classic English lit, some nursery rhymes and political speechifying, and even a few pop standards.

Very useful for a literature/writing craft resource.  I agree heartily with the author that this sort of thing should be consciously taught to anyone who is planning on verbal expression as a large part of their life or profession.

Writing Resource: Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor, Russell Freedman

Working on (probably will always be working on) a possible novel, and this is a great collection of Lewis Hine's stunning and heartbreaking photographs of child laborers across the country, in a softbound 9x12 horizontal-orientation book.  Most useful to me for the photos and info on mill and textile workers, and of cannery workers and cotton pickers.

Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade against Child Labor
Russell Freedman, photographs by Lewis Hine
ISBN: 9780395797266
Goodwill Find, November 5, 2014

Nonfiction: Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Eats, Shoots & Leaves; the zero tolerance approach to punctuation
Lynne Truss
ISBN: 0592400876
Finished Sept 9, 2014

Very funny, very very British.  Loved the enormous section on commas.  Would have actually enjoyed a bit more of the history of the punctuation marks - the little bits that were included were neat and much more chronologically and culturally varied than I had expected.

This edition (or perhaps even the original) even did a good job including the "American English" versions of names, but I was surprised that while she mentioned the "en dash" by proper name, she didn't go into the various (and peculiar) differences in usage between the en dash (the short one) and the em dash (the longer one, sometimes called a "horizontal bar").  Small quibbles compared to the fun of dealing with whether the punctuation should be inside or outside of the parentheses, er, brackets.  :)  (she's not really fond of emoticons either - I wonder what she thinks of emoji?)

Have to say I felt sorry for all the poor grocers who got totally pilloried in the course of the book, especially as concerns the use of the ' to indicate posession not plurality, as is the apparently widespread misconception.

Lighthearted self-deprecatory fussiness over correct behavior in the best way.