Teaser Tuesdays: The Help

This post is for Teaser Tuesdays, a weekly event from the blog Should Be Reading.

The Help has been languishing on my nightstand for over a month. Now that my classes are finished and I have a little more time I've decided to pick it up.

Most of you have probably already read it, so this won't be much of a "teaser" but for those of you who haven't, here it is:

"Baby Girl, she looking at the door her daddy slammed, she looking at her mama frowning down at her. My baby, she swallowing it back, like she trying real hard not to cry. I rush past Miss Leefolt, pick Baby Girl up."

 This is the section that's in Aibileene's point of view. I love the relationship between Aibileene and the baby, Mae Mobley. So far I'm about six chapters in and really enjoying the book.

And hey! I'm studying for the US History II CLEP right now, which covers 1865 to the present. So since The Help is set in the 1960's, reading it counts as studying, right?

Have you read The Help? Do you have a book that's been languishing on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?

C is for Currently Reading

It's a challenge within a challenge!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly event from the blog Should Be Reading where bloggers (or even just readers) share two random sentences from their current read.

The book: Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing by Larry Brooks

I absolutely love the cover of this book. I think I might buy it just because it would look so good on my shelf.

My random teaser sentences: (page 52)

If you can't come up with a succinct "what if?" question that defines your concept, consider that your story is not yet ready to write. It may be too complex, too vague and undefined, or at the other end of the spectrum, it may be lacking in dramatic potential.

I think I need to work on this. Right now my novel is taking more than two sentences to describe, so I've been trying to find the root and theme of the story. It's not helping that my main character is being boring and refusing to cooperate.

So far, Story Engineering is proving to be a really good book that's given me inspiration and insight into what I'm doing wrong.

I'm reading it slowly and taking lots of notes to make sure I don't miss anything - partly because it's a good book, and partly because the copy I have right now is a library book, and I have to give it back in about a week.

Have you read Story Engineering? If not, does this teaser make you want to read more?

What are you currently reading?

If you'd like to see (or enter) more of Should Be Reading's weekly events, click here.

So I'm Reading the CLEP Guide to American Lit...

...and the first sentence I come across in the section on the Realist and Naturalist writers is this:

"I am making a slight change to the dates that the College Board (creators of the CLEP tests) states in its literature."

Um, Dr. Stratman? I appreciate your emphasis on correctness in regards to dates, but I really would like to pass this CLEP test.

He then goes on to say:

"Some scholars believe that realism as a literary movement began closer to 1870, but many more scholars point to the beginning of the Civil War as the beginning of American literary realism."

Okay, that's great, but which date do I need to know for the test?

Guess it's time to do some research.

I couldn't help but laugh after I read the plot summary of Ethan Frome by the naturalist Edith Wharton. Basically, this guy named Ethan has this crippled wife named Zeena who's not very nice. She has a cousin named Mattie whom Ethan (of course) secretly loves. At the end of the novel, Zeena sends Mattie away. But, on Ethan and Mattie's way to the train station:

"Mattie convinces Ethan to run their sled into a tree so they may spend their last moments on earth embraced."

What???

"Unfortunately for them, they survive."

This is where I burst out laughing.

"The end of the novel shows Ethan entering the home, twenty years later, and quickly attending to two aging, crippled women."

Wow. Not Romeo and Juliet, that's for sure.

Below is one of my favorite quotes from the book. Picture taken (and edited in Snapseed) by yours truly. Which explains the blurriness. The poem is by Stephen Crane.

So I'm Reading Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief...

...because I thought I should read it, since it is (or was) so popular. Gotta keep an eye on the competition, right?

I have to admit, I'm a little prejudiced against it because it sounds like a Harry Potter knock-off. Plus, I've already seen the movie (which wasn't very memorable).

But in the first few pages I came across this passage. Percy Jackson is the narrator:

Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school -- the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. 

"Detention?" Grover asked. 

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner [the history teacher]. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean -- I'm not a genius." 

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?" 

I was totally not expecting that. In fact, I was waiting for the deep philosophical comment too.

It's nice to be surprised like that.

Read my review here.

So I'm Reading This Book...

...called Characters in Action by Marsh Cassady. It's mostly about plays and stage, so some parts are a little irrelevant (to me, at least). But the author occasionally does this hilarious thing where instead of explaining something himself he'll write a dialogue section where the characters explain it for him. Here's an excerpt (don't you just love the word "excerpt"?) on collaboration:

The vision you have as a playwright will differ from what is produced on the stage. This is because once you finish the script, it is no longer completely yours. You are only one collaborator among many.

 

Playwright: Hey, you call this collaboration. Well, I don't think so, you know. I mean this isn't how I saw things at all. This isn't what I wanted.

Director: What you wanted! What's that got to do with anything? It's my baby now, and what I say goes.

Then later, after the playwright and the director squabble with the set designer, lighting designer, and costume designer...