Tuesday, June 1, 2021

What Hank's Writing: An Article about...Guess What?



HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What I’m writing? FORGET ABOUT IT. I am writing the worst book on the planet. Fifteen thousand words in, and I am NOT happy.


But. And yet. I know I felt this way about Her Perfect Life, which comes out September 14 and which I now adore. So I am persevering. I have faith in the process. It's part of the journey, and I am well and truly on it.  And so honored that you are here with me.

(And if you want to be one of my Super-Readers, with access to a free advance copy (with an eye to a review on Netgalley, Goodreads, Amazon, Bookbub or wherever else your heart desires), click here. LOVE to have your kind approval!)

But what am I writing? One of my delights is to create other kinds of work, essays and listicles and conversations, for other publications. (I’m working on a short story, too, and so far have a glimmer of an idea and zero words. More on that another day.)

But I was assigned by the amazing BookTrib to write a listicle: books about graduation. Books about graduation? It seemed like a good idea at the time. But then I couldn't think of any.

So I thought about what graduation meant. And who we are when we get there. And that’s when my article took shape. Here’s a little peek at part of it. And then at the end, Reds and readers, I want your suggestions.



THE BOOKS OF OUR LIVES


Hank and Eli 18 years ago!

I remember when my grandson was born--I showered him with books. Yes, he was maybe two hours old, but there were books I needed him to have. A Hole is to Dig, and the Edward Eager mysteries. Winnie the Pooh, and the Narnia residents, and A Snowy Day. The Dot and The Line. Many Moons. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. (My husband chuckled at me, and then said "Make sure you add Horatio Hornblower.")

But I remember feeling it was my responsibility to make sure that whenever he was ready for them, those books would be there. Those necessary books. Or maybe, more honestly, my necessary books.

And now he has graduated high school, and is going off to college, a reality so full of emotion that I am not sure there’s a word for it.

But my instinct, again, is to load him up with books, to make sure that when he is ready for them they will be there. (I know, the last thing he needs going off to college is books. But maybe…he does.)

I started listing them, and each one seemed so obvious to me. I will admit I didn’t wanna overthink, I wanted to put myself in a cosmic bookstore, so any book I wanted could appear.

During this chaotic and unprecedented and brave new graduation season, when so many students are opening new doors. What do they need to read that they don’t even know they need to read? What can we offer them? The books that changed our lives.

So I asked some pals. (and you'll have to read the whole article here to find out what they said. Amazing, Because not one of the people I asked mentioned any of the same books.)

Remember, these are not being listed as the best books of all times that everyone must read. It’s simply…the books we’d offer. (Shakespeare doesn’t count. That’s a basic.)

Here are mine.


Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig: because attention to detail and mindfulness will help you in every part of your life.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: because we are all fish out of water, entering a new and mysterious world. And people are not what they seem.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie: because life is a mystery, and you’re never quite sure what the end of every story will be. And you may be surprised.

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens: because perseverance and humor and relationships--and good storytelling--are timeless.


Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe: because it’s okay to be nostalgic and sentimental and lush and gorgeous.

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: Identity and truth and perspective. Who are we to ourselves—and to each other? I read this maybe fifty years ago. I still think of it.

Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton: because some may call it selfish power-mad ambition, and others may call it--ambition. Undine Spragg. There’s no one like her. Maybe.


Dreyer‘s English by Benjamin Dreyer: Because you need to know everything in this book in order to be a civilized human being.

On Writing by Stephen King: because inspiration comes from places you must explore on your own, and our imaginations and creativity are astonishingly powerful. And writing is difficult and wonderful.

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk: because times were different and the same, and everyone is fighting a difficult battle.

Winters Tale by Mark Helprin: because love and joy and journalism and truth and a crazy wild tale that makes no sense and all the sense in the world is a good thing to read.

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer or How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman: Because you need to know the basics of cooking, for gosh sake. This book only comes to life after its pages are splotched with soy sauce and tomato paste and wine.


There’s more to the article, and again, I hope you’ll read it. What other authors chose is truly through-provoking.

But what would you choose, reds and readers?

 


83 comments:

  1. This is so interesting . . . and there are so many books to put on the list. And it’s hard because everyone has their own unique ideas about what books have been important to them and might be important to the graduate.
    I’d add “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “1984,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and the “Foundation” trilogy . . . .

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    1. Oh my goodness, perfect. Yes, I so agree! Absolutely perfect. And yes, the fascinating part is how personal this is.

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  2. I would add "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." If you haven't read the book (ignore all movie versions, they absolutely ruin it), you really should. It's set up as a bit of a mystery - what is going on with Dr. Jekyll? That part is obviously ruined since we know that part of things. But it is an amazing allegory when we get into the second half. Powerful stuff. (Even with the changes it makes, I feel like the musical captures the moral of the book more than any movie version I've seen so far.)

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    1. What a fascinating selection! And yes, brilliant, a much bigger story than we think as kids..

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  3. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one of those "big" books for me as a young college student. Another one was the Dancing WuLi Masters. Also, the Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin (even more than the Left Hand of Darkness). Somehow a lot of this dovetailed with my accidental China stay in '79. I am still not sure to what extent the books changed the way I thought or somehow managed to express things I'd experienced or felt and didn't really have the words for.

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    1. YOu know, I have never read Ursula Le Guin. Thank you. I wonder how that happened...

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  4. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. It's the journey that leads to what his life it meant to be.

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    1. That book meant a lot to me when I read it, Dru. Now I can't remember a thing.

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    2. That definitely had its place, Dru. Yes yes, thank you for reminding me! Have you looked at it recently?

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    3. Oh, yes, Siddhartha, and Strange in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

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    4. Oh, YES Stranger in Strange Land--HOW could I forget!!! Rats. I want to go back and fix my article.

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  5. Such a heavy topic, Hank. Such a challenge! To which I am not up at the moment, getting a late start on my work day (and a book to type The End on at the end of the day, fingers crossed). But I'll check back later and see if I have any to add.

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  6. Mila 18 by Leon Uris. The characters are fictional but the struggle was real. Reading it gave me the courage to try something that I wouldn't have done otherwise.

    I think I'd say that The Hunt for Red October is also a story so specific to its time frame that it gives a very good picture of the fears we lived with then. And it is exciting with terrific characters.

    Lastly, 1776 by McCullough. At this time, when people are questioning beginnings and rights, I think it shows the gumption of the people who began it all for us. I may read it again.

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    1. Judy, these are brilliant choices. Very revealing, and so powerful. I completely remember being engrossed in RedOctober--and thinking about it now, I might have put FailSafe on my list. Same kind of fear.

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  7. Wonderful choices--many would be on my own list. I'd add One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey--sometimes you've got to risk it all--and sometimes it's not even for you. And books of poetry--any collection--something you can just dip into at any time and find wisdom and beauty and something to lift your spirits and keep you going. Stories That Could Be True is a personal favorite--a collection of a single author, William Stafford. But I love collections of many authors--a way to sample the work of many voices and send you off seeking more.

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    1. Poetry, yes! And Cuckoo. I love how these are such revealing choices..there's a difference between what's essential generally, and what was essential to US as an evolving individual.

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  8. All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - the book, not just the essay - by Robert Fulghum. Actually, all his books of essays are good.

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  9. Apropos of this, there was a terrific essay by Salman Rushdie in the weekend's NY Times - "Ask Yourself Which Books You Truly Love" https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/24/opinion/sunday/salman-rushdie-world-literature.html (sorry, you might need an account to access...) Among many other things, he says "I believe that the books and stories we fall in love with make us who we are, or, not to claim too much, the beloved tale becomes a part of the way in which we understand things and make judgments and choices in our daily lives." The first mystery novel I ever loved so much it made me want to write them was P. D. James's AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN with protagonist Cordelia Gray.

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    1. Oh, I will look that right up. (He probably got the idea from my BookTrib article, don't you think?)

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    2. Hallie, I think you and I are the only two who loved the Cordelia Gray books. I always waited for a third. Alas, never happened.

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    3. No, I loved them, too! More than the Dalgliesh books. I always hoped she'd write another one.

      And, Hallie, I read that Salman Rushdie essay, too, and loved it.

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    4. I read P.D.James’ Cordelia Gray mysteries as a young teenager. It started me on a reading quest for good female protagonists in mystery fiction. I really enjoyed the Cordelia Gray books. They led me next to the Sue Grafon mysteries.

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    5. I'm a Cordelia Gray fan. Gatsby, The Group, Catcher in the Rye, Goodbye Columbus, and the Chris McCandless book, Into the Wild.

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  10. My goodness! Seems like everyone's brain is on fire and I can't think of much of anything. I want to say a fun book but the only one I can think of offhand is Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid", hoping it would mean as much to a young person as it did to me. Everyone needs tears of laughter.

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    1. I've read several Bill Bryson books, but not that one. I'm going to look for it in the library!

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    2. Oh, I don’t know that book! Thank you!

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  11. What a great list, Hank. Did you ever find any books about graduation, by the way?

    I would add Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad, to keep us always humble. And to inspire wanderlust, which should be a vital part of life, in my opinion. Understanding other peoples, cultures, and how geography affects both makes us all so much more open to our fellow humans.

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    1. Not really! I thought of The Group , I suppose, but graduation wasn’t really the point, nor was it for Love Story or Goodbye Columbus. There must be some books set in academia that focus on it, but I could not think of or find any. Do you know?

      Mark Twain! So many possibilities…

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    2. No, I couldn't think of any, either.

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    3. OK. So graduation is a new trope (?) waiting to be explored. Interesting that reunions have been frequently explored.

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    4. Well, that's fascinating, Eric! Yes, hmm...never thought of it that way. Hmm.

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  12. Whoa, what wondrous choice! I agree that every book is list -worthy. I'd add LILA by Robert Pirsig, the "other" book he wrote. And don't laugh, but please give him WAR AND PEACE. And a good translation of Proust.

    If you haven't already, dedicate a book to him. It's a gift of love. Trust me. xo

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    1. HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain
      BEARTOWN, Fredrick Backman
      THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, John Irving

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    2. You know, after I sent in the article, I remembered Garp. I still think about The Undertoad.

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    3. You know, as good as Garp was, I personally was even more affected by his lesser known The Hotel New Hampshire. That is a book I still think of today. (As I drafted this note, though, I Googled it and was saddened to see that there is a 1984 movie version of it I had been blissfully unaware of until now. I am highly dubious about them capturing its essence.)

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    4. I gave Steve The World According to Garp when we were dating and he was on his way to the Arctic for three weeks. He sent me a postcard that had this postscript: "Gorp is great!" I'd forgotten that I'd given him THAT book, and puzzled for days about why he was raving about gorp. LOL

      Anything by Irving. His The Cider House Rules should also be on this list.

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    5. Great story! And yes, my sister feels that way about Owen Meany.

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    6. With all the talk about John Irving, I have to mention my favorite Irving book, A Widow for One Year.

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    7. Susan, yes to The Hotel New Hampshire. “Sorrow floats”. And keep passing open windows.

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  13. Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan, is a novel whose title has become emblematic of Canada's most troubling legacy of the relations between English and French Canadians. This book had a big impact on me when I read it in junior high school English class.

    And George Orwell's 1984 because the Big Brother scenario may happen in 2024.

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    1. Oh, I don't know that book, Grace!

      As for 1984--yes, that may already be underway...

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    2. HANK: Two Solitudes was written in 1945 but was timely when I read it in 1980 since that was the year that Quebec held its first referendum to separate from Canada. They lost and tried again in 1995 and it helped me better understand the tensions between the English & French in Quebec.

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    3. Oh, I will look for that! What a moment in time..

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  14. I love this! I'm adding my books before I read the other comments so I my duplicate:

    Desiderata by Max Ehrmann - because everyone needs the validation the poem contains from time to time
    The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - because what is real is only that which is seen with the heart
    Nobel House by James Clavell - because the definition of perfection is falling by the wayside and needs to be resurrected.

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    1. And isn't it amazing? No one else picked those..and yet they seem so logical! (Although I never read Noble House.)

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  15. Such an interesting topic, Hank, that's really relevant to what I'm working on. During the pandemic, I decided to travel by reliving my own travels and writing a non-fiction travel memoir. One of the main themes that surfaced early as I wrote is that I'm a traveler because so many books influenced me, especially in my early years. I reference many of them in the manuscript. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway is one. I think I was drawn to Robert Jordan's sense of adventure and dedication to a cause. Mary Stewart's books like The Moonspinners is another. I couldn't rest until I'd finally visited the Greek islands. Great post.

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    1. Oh, that's so touching--and what a lovely way to look back and look forward at the same time.

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  16. All these suggestions are good. Now I want to reread the ones I read and look into the ones I never got around to reading. My addition to the list would be Victor’s Hugo’s Les Miserables, for the ripple effects of one act of kindness.

    DebRo

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    1. You know, Jonathan and I listened to that on an audio book (cassettes!) on a long car trip, and sat in the driveway when we got home so we could hear the end. I was crying and crying.

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    2. It’s my all-time favorite book, and yes, it did make me cry in a good way!

      DebRo

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  17. How lucky he is to have you as his book maven! Oh, there are so many that are critical! But the one that springs to mind for me that I love is called Happiness is a Choice by Barry Neil Kaufman. It has helped me through many an anxiety filled time!

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  18. The book that I always look for in used book stores. I used to put one in friend's hands insisting they read it. i may start doing it again.
    Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn

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    1. Oh, I have not heard about that in SO long. Have I ever read it? Hmmmm.. Sometimes we get the book we need exactly when we need it..

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  19. Hard question. I always found A Tale of Two Cities very affecting. And my husband has reread Joseph Hellerman's Catch-22 numerous times.

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  20. P.S. Hank! Thanks to NetGalley I was able to read Her Perfect Life over the weekend. And it is PERFECT! I loved every page. Honey, have I mentioned in the past week or so how very proud you make me?

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    1. Oh, that is...heartstoppingly wonderful. THANK YOU!! The early buzz is so incredibly important, and oh, thank you! We have been together from the start, and I am SO grateful!

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  21. Wow, so many good choices, and so many I haven't read! I'd add The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Yes, it's a story about a boy who grows up to be King Arthur, but so much more. Love and duty, leadership and sacrifice--it is still a touchstone for me. Lord of the Rings. And to throw an American into the mix, maybe Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.

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    1. Oh, I am SO annoyed at myself. OF COURSE! I still think about that EVERY day. Once and Future King. Truly. Rats, I am so bummed. But thank you, Debs, you are SO right. Humans make the geographical boundaries, they are not really there. xx

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  22. HANK,

    Many questions here!!!

    1). Can you please explain by "the worst novel"? Do you mean that you did not like the story that you were writing?

    2). You look so young and I cannot believe that your grandson is now 18! Except for the haircut, you look like the photo taken years ago. Regarding books, I thought of the Dr. Seuss book "OH, PLACES YOU WILL GO"


    3) There are many wonderful novels. Off the top of my head, the Charlie Mackeay ? book THE BOY, THE HORSE, AND THE MOLE ? And I loved THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig.

    Diana

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    1. Oh, Diana, sometimes it's a battle to stay in love with the book I'm writing. Today, we ware not pals. Tomorrow will be better.

      And aw, thank you, Eli is a stepgrandson, but I am 71 so, plenty old enough! :-)

      And yes, wow, The Midnight Library was so thought-provoking! And really encourages you to love what you have and see it for all its possibilities--and bottom line, not to regret, right? ANd I will look up the mole book!

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    2. Oh, Hank, thank you for sharing. Agree about appreciating what we have and to not regret too. I loved the Mole book too.

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  23. How about The Mystery of Edwin Drood- the ultimate mystery, as it was never finished due to Dickens' death.

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    1. Oh, it is--so many Dickens possibilities! And an unfinished mystery is very meta :-) when it comes to life itself!

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  24. So many great books already recommended here. My choices would be Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi, Whirligig by Paul Fleischman, The Good German by Joseph Kanon, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, The Sleeping Dictionary by Sujata Massey, Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow, The Loop by Nicholas Evans, The Girls by Lori Lansens, Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens, Molokai or Palisade's Park by Allen Brennert, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, Hold Fast by Blue Balliett, Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, and more. I'm going to stop there.

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    1. WOW, that's a list! But which were you FORMATIVE ones? (I mean Spoon River, always makes me cry.)

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    2. Well, if we're only talking about formative when I was a young adult, it would be Spoon River Anthology, The Scarlet Letter, Fahrenheit 451, and Invisible Man.

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  25. I love your list, and you've just reminded me of running into a former student, who told me that after reading (and complaining about) SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE in my class, he'd gone on to read all the Vonnegut he could find.
    I used to give students Seuss's THE PLACES YOU'LL GO, but maybe should have given them WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE. ;-)

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  26. So many good recs here! Nothing to add, but I'm sure your next book will be great, Hank!

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    1. Oh, my dear pal. Thank you. You cannot know how grateful I am. oxxoxo

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  27. JOY OF COOKING was a brilliant addition! I can still remember consulting my copy to learn how to bake a potato. . .
    I can’t wait to read HER PERFECT LIFE. I pre-ordered it. I love doing that with books because I can never remember their release dates so I receive surprise gifts from myself :-)

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  28. Did anyone mention Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet? It's my go-to gift for graduates.

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    1. See? It's SO fascinating! You are the first--isn't that interesting?

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