The Reading Pile

What’s on your list? I always have several things on the go and more on the to be read pile. I thought I’d share a few that have grabbed my attention. Some are new, others are a little older and have taken time to get to.

Hot Milk

I read and loved Levy’s book, Swimming Home, and I have high hopes for this one.

Short listed for the Man Booker Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize in 2016, this is a hypnotic tale of female sexuality. Two women arrive in a village on the Spanish coast. Rose is suffering from a strange illness andher doctors are mystified. Her daughter Sofia has brought her here to find a cure with the infamous and controversial Dr Gomez – a man of questionable methods and motives. Intoxicated by thick heat and the seductive people who move through it, both women begin to see their lives clearly for the first time in years.

Through the opposing figures of mother and daughter, Deborah Levy explores the strange and monstrous nature of womanhood. Dreamlike and utterly compulsive, Hot Milk is a delirious fairy tale of feminine potency, a story both modern and timeless.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

I picked this one up because of the hype surrounding it (marketing really does work, folks!) and the awards it has received. Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2017, Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018 and the Desmond Elliott Prize, this successful debut novel is about to be turned into a major film produced by Reese Witherspoon. 

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live. She leads a simple life, wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. She is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Much like Levy’s Hot Milk, I picked this up because I loved the author’s previous work, The God of Small Things. Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018 and the Man Booker Prize 2017, this is, “a sprawling kaleidoscopic fable,” according to The Guardian. 

‘At magic hour; when the sun has gone but the light has not, armies of flying foxes unhinge themselves from the Banyan trees in the old graveyard and drift across the city like smoke . . .’

So begins The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy’s incredible follow-up to The God of Small Things. We meet Anjum, who used to be Aftab, who runs a guesthouse in an Old Delhi graveyard and gathers around her the lost, the broken and the cast out. We meet Tilo, an architect, who, although she is loved by three men, lives in a ‘country of her own skin’. When Tilo claims an abandoned baby as her own, her destiny and that of Anjum become entangled as a tale that sweeps across the years and a teeming continent takes flight . . .

Dare to Lead

I really enjoy Brene Brown’s work and, having read Braving the Wilderness and Rising Strong, I have been anticipating the release of this gem. This is a work of non-fiction and is based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put ideas from her previous work into practice so we can step up and lead. 

Many of us lead in different spheres of influence. This is a book for everyone who is ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference and lead. 

When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it and work to align authority and accountability. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into the vulnerability that’s necessary to do good work.

But daring leadership in a culture that’s defined by scarcity, fear and uncertainty requires building courage skills, which are uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the same time we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection and courage to start.Dare to Lead answers these questions and gives us actionable strategies and real examples from her new research-based, courage-building programme. 

Short story publications

Stories published in online journals

Short stories are the heartbeat of many writers. I intersperse writing short stories with writing and editing novels. My second novel is now complete and edited. Below is a list of my recent publications and some links to other stories I have enjoyed reading.

Is He?, Mojave Heart Journal, February 2019

Lavender, Synaeresis Issue 5, January 2019

You Listen to the Sound of Gulls, EllipsisZine, December 2018

Your House is too Small, Spillwords, November 2018

Classic Short Stories for Fiction Writers

writersedit.com

Stories I Have Enjoyed Reading in Recent Publications

I Eat the Flowers on Your Grave by Barbara Lovric, Anti-Heroin Chic

Bullseye by Meg Pogkrass, Fictive Dream

Sanctus Spiritus, 1512 by Sarah Arantza Amador, Cheap Pop Lit

Against the Grain by Tara Isabel Zambrano, Wigleaf

The Mightiest Mammal, Singing by Kate Finegan, Pigeonholes

Senna by Steve Campbell, FlashBack Fiction

Screaming Story by Deve Murphy, Jellyfish Review

In November 2017 by S.L. Bailey, SmokeLong Quarterly

And if you’d like to read more….

Best Microfiction List

  • Sarah Arantza Amador, “Sanctus Spiritus, 1512” (Cheap Pop)
  • Anita Arlov, “He She It They” (National Flash Fiction Day NZ)
  • Jessica Barksdale, “Knock Knock” (Matchbook)
  • Roberta Beary, “Swimming in Circles” (KYSO Flash)
  • Matt Bell, “The Hungerer” (Wigleaf)
  • Dick Bentley, “Health Care” (Serving House Journal)
  • Gregory Brown, “Birdhouse” (PRISM International)
  • Cavin Bryce, “Fragments of Evolution” (Cheap Pop)
  • Tetman Callis, “Candlelight and Flowers” (NY Tyrant)
  • Mike Chin, “Training” (Passages North)
  • Myfanwy Collins, “Euthanasia” (Jellyfish Review)
  • Tim Craig, “Northern Lights” (Bath Flash Fiction Award)
  • Tommy Dean, “You’ve Stopped” (Pithead Chapel)
  • Olga Dermott Bond, “Mr Rochester and I” (Bath Flash Fiction v3)
  • Leonora Desar, “Fire, Ocean” (TSS)
  • Leonora Desar, “My Father’s Girlfriend” (Matchbook Lit)
  • Leonora Desar, “The Monkey” (Reflex Fiction)
  • Will Finlayson, “The Strip Club” (Southampton Review)
  • Valerie Fox, “Even the Christmas Tree was Nicer That Year” (Across the Margins)
  • Sarah Freligh, “Any Body” (Cincinatti Review)
  • Frances Gapper, “Plum Jam” (Flashback Fiction)
  • Jo Gatford, “Things Left And Found By The Side Of The Road” (Bath Flash Fiction Award)
  • Christopher Gaumer, “He Died We Left Him Til Morning” (The Citron Review)
  • Beth Gilstrap, “Becky” (Pithead Chapel)
  • Beth Gilstrap, “Bone Words” (Longleaf Review)
  • Melissa Goode, “Empire of Light” (Gone Lawn)
  • Melissa Goode, “I Wanna Be Adored ” (Cheap Pop)
  • Melissa Goode, “Tonight, We Are Awake” (Wigleaf)
  • Anita Goveas, “Frau Roentgen’s Left Hand” (Flashback Fiction)
  • Anita Goveas, “Let’s Sing All the Swear Words We Know ” (Lost Balloons)
  • Tina May Hall, “The Extinction Museum: Exhibit #28 (incandescent bulb, unlit)The Collagist” (The Collagist)
  • Toni Halleen, “Not the Whole Story” (Wigleaf)
  • Steven John, “A Brief History of Time in Our House” (Ad Hoc Fiction)
  • Peter Krumbach, “11.37” (The Adroit Journal)
  • Meghan Lamb, “Missing” (Passages North)
  • Raven Leilani, “Kanekalon” (Split Lip)
  • Page Leland, “Self Portrait with Early December” (Former Cactus)
  • Robert Lopez, “A Warm Motherly Look” (Wigleaf)
  • Paul Luikart, “Breathless” (Brilliant Flash Fiction)
  • Fiona Mackintosh, “Siren” (Bath Flash Fiction Award)
  • Fiona Mackintosh, “The Chemistry of Living Things” (Fish Publishing)
  • Lutivini Majanja, “Am Inheritance” (Flash Frontier)
  • Prosper Makara, “Lessons from my Mother” (Afreada– Africa’s Literary Magazine)
  • Dan Malakoff, “Loop-the-Loop” (Wigleaf)
  • Michael Martone, “Boom” (Always Crashing)
  • Michael Martone, “Klaus Weber, Curb House Numberer” (The Collagist)
  • Kathleen McGookey, “You Can Find Joy in Doing Laundry” (KYSO)
  • Adam McOmber, “A Roman Road” (Atticus Review)
  • Heather McQuillan, “A post-traumatic god” (Menicus)
  • KC Mead-Brewer, “It’s Shaped like a Grin, They Say” (Cheap Pop)
  • Jose Enrique Medina, “Niňos de La Tierra” (Burnside Review)
  • Tracy Lynne Oliver, “This Weekend” (Fanzine)
  • Dominica Phetteplace, “After the Flood Waters Came” (Wigleaf)
  • Meghan Phillips, “Abstinence Only” (Passages North)
  • Megan Phillips, “Final Girl Slumber Party” (Barrelhouse)
  • Kristen Ploetz, “LifeColor Indoor Latex Paints® — Whites and Reds (R)” (JMWW)
  • Claire Polders, “Breathlessness” (Moonpark Review)
  • Dina Relles, “And Sometimes We Meet” (Matchbook)
  • Belinda Rimmer, “Domestic” (Anti-Heroin Chic)
  • Nicole Rivas, “Crumbs” (The Cincinnati Review)
  • Becky Robison, “Baby Dolls” (Pank)
  • Brad Rose, “Desert Motel” (Pithead Chapel)
  • Sarah Salway, “Not Sorry” (Cincinnati Review)
  • Kim Samsin, “World’s Finest” (Matchbook)
  • Noa Sivan, “The End of the World” (Synaesthesia Magazine)
  • Rachel Smith, “What I Now Know” (Flash Frontier)
  • Rachel Smith, “Glossectomy” (Menicus)
  • Joe Squance, “The Seeds of Things” (Cease, Cows)
  • Elizabeth Stix, “Tsunami” (Southampton Review)
  • Paul Strohm, “Masculinities” (West Marin Review)
  • Xenia Taiga, “Princesses” (Synaesthesia Magazine)
  • Kaj Tanaka, “The Hair Child” (Bending Genres)
  • Sharon Telfer, “My Father Comforts Me in the Form of Birds” (Reflex Fiction Magazine)
  • Jamie Thunder, “The Central Line Has Severe Delays” (Spelk)
  • Cathy Ulrich, “The Delicate Art of Ikebana” (Barren Magazine)
  • TM Upchurch, “There Will Be No Lace” (Flashback Fiction)
  • Zach VandeZande, “Making an Illegal U Turn on 15th near Union” (Monkeybicycle)
  • Elisabeth Ingram Wallace, “Satin Nightwear for Women Irregular” (Bath Flash Fiction Award)
  • Clare Weze, “Helping” (Reflex Fiction)
  • Charmaine Wilkerson, “The Laundry Room Comes First” (Fiction Southeast)
  • Benjamin Woodard, “Half Tank” (Atticus Review)
  • Luke Wortley, “Reverse Field Trip” (Longleaf)
  • Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Feeding Time” (Okay Donkey)
  • Tara Isabel Zambrano, “New Old” (The Southampton Review)
  • Tara Isabel Zambrano, “Snowstorm” (Atticus Review)
  • C Pam Zhang, “Braindrain” (Paper Darts)

microfiction.com

Short Story Highly Commended in TSS Publishing Competition

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I’m thrilled to share the news that my story, I Wonder about the Gun, has won HIGHLY COMMENDED in The Short Story microfiction competition by TSS Publishing, home to the Cambridge Short Story Prize. Squeals of delight this end. I discovered when I received congratulations from fellow authors on Twitter.

The story hasn’t been published on the site but you can read it by signing up to the mailing list.

Below is the Judge’s Report:

In other news, there is a fabulous new Literary Magazine, Barren Magazine, which has just published it’s third issue. The stories are deep, rich, often painful. In Vain, by Aaron Housholder, Editor’s pic in Essays, is one of the single most powerful stories I have ever read.

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TBR – The To Be Read Pile

I was chatting to another author earlier about the books that I want to read. I thought I would share with you what’s on my list, and maybe you can share your wish list. I like reading blog book reviews, sometimes feeling disappointed, on other occasions I am pleasantly surprised. As ever, books remain entirely subjective.

Some of these are more recently published than others. As much as I try not to judge a book by it’s cover – these are beautiful – it’s difficult for the aesthetics not to enter into the equation.

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death

I have actually started O’Farrell’s, I Am I Am I Am, and it’s had quite an impact already, so I shall be blogging a review when I have finished. I suspect it won’t be long. Autobiographical in nature, it is an entirely different creature to her novels, delving into a string of near death experiences that will startle the reader and induce a sense of gratitude for what we have, and who we have in our lives. I have only delved into the first few chapters, but this book is promising.

Putney

This book came to my attention through an editor and an author on Twitter, both of whom I respect. In other words, if they liked the book, I think I may enjoy it. Set in the 1970s, the book tells the story of an up-and-coming composer, Ralph, who is visiting a composer at his home in Putney to discuss a collaboration. There, he meets nine year old Daphne and he becomes determined to be with her. Ralph, is an adult and their blooming relationship must be kept hidden. It is pitched as a ‘bold, thought-provoking novel about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the memories that play themselves out again and again, like snatches of song.’

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Arundhati Roy’s writing is descriptive and lyrical. Having enjoyed The God of Small Things, I want to read this book, described by The Guardian as a, ‘sprawling kaleidoscopic fable.’ A follow-up to her previous book, this story explores the life of Old Delhi guesthouse owner, Anjum. She gathers the lost and the outcasts and crosses paths with an architect, Tilo, who claims an abandoned baby as hers. The tale covers the years and a continent. From the reviews, this looks to be as good as I would expect from a writer I really enjoy.

Imagine: How Creativity Works

I watched neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer’s, video on how new research is deepening our understanding of the human imagination and considers how this new science can make us happier. It piqued my interest and led me to his book about creativity. As a writer, I’m fascinated by the creative process. He talks about the ‘grit’ needed to keep going and succeed.

The book asks the did you know questions: ‘Did you know that the most creative companies have centralised bathrooms? That brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea? That the color blue can help you double your creative output?’ Here, Lehrer looks at the new science of creativity. He crushes the myth of muses, higher powers, even creative “types,” suggesting that creativity is learned, rather than a natural gift (although I’m not sure that I will entirely agree with his theory).

He endorses daydreaming and travel, and explains why criticism is essential, illustrating ways in which we can make neighbourhoods more vibrant, companies more productive, and schools more effective. The book discusses Bob Dylan’’s writing habits and the drug addictions of poets. It explores why Elizabethan England experienced a creative explosion, and how Pixar’’s office space is designed to boost creativity.

I look forward to reading this! Let me know in the comments what’s on your TBR pile. It’s good to hear what people are reading.