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Caroline Bock-BEFORE MY EYES
BOCKPOSTS BOOK REVIEWS
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Caroline Bock BEFORE MY EYES: Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2016 10:27 AM
It's a fast read, only about 750 words, about a woman of a certain age: Lydia. I love Lydia, and I think I will be coming back to her someday. Read on!!
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Posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 3:01 PM
I ’ve been reading a lot of work this past month by Elizabeth
Strout, known most famously for her novel-in-stories Olive Kitteridge. The three works
I’ve read seem to blend into one book. In the last that I read, My Name Is Lucy Barton, her new novel,
one of the characters, a writing teacher tells her, “We all only have one story
to tell,” and she goes on to say that we tell it, in many different, over and
over and that’s okay. I felt this way with her recent work. It was all one
story. I began this journey without a plan; picking up the O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 collection
and discovering her short story, “Snow Blind.”
A rural, small town. A tightly knit family, the Applebys, and a terrible family
secret. One of the children, Annie, ultimately does leave the small town,
almost miraculously, becomes a star of screen and stage, but even she cannot totally
leave behind her small town family and her history. I found a link to the story
here: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/stefg/article1509841.ece
I learned soon after reading this masterful short story that
her novel, The Burgess Boys, was
being made into a HBO mini-series, and realized I hadn’t read this book. It’s
the story of two brothers, both lawyers, one more successful than the other in
New York City. Along with their
sister, who never left their small town in Maine, they harbor a deeply-held
family secret. When the nephew does something stupid and terrible in the
hometown, all breaks loose between the siblings. However, ultimately, (no
spoilers here), the ties of the siblings to one another and to their history in
that Maine village bind them to one another more than to anyone or anything
else.
I then thought: I must read her new novel. In My Name Is Lucy Barton, the main
character, nicknamed ‘Wizzle’ by her mother is very ill. She’s in a New York
City Hospital (what I take to be Cornell Presbyterian, though it’s never named.
There is a view of the famously art deco Chrysler Building and having spent a
lot of time there in recent years, I can imagine the view of the building,
glistening, in my mind’s eye). Her mother on her first visit to New York City,
and the first visit between them in years. Staying at her sick bed for several
days, the mother tells story after story, of people from their Illinois farm town
and their impoverished life together. In many ways, My Name is Lucy Barton is a story about how stories heal us.
But at the end of my reading I thought: Can we never move
far away enough to leave our family, our hometown, our dark family secrets, no
matter how we try to re-make ourselves? The answer for the characters in these
Strout stories is: no. We are bound to our family, our siblings, our towns. This
is the essential story that gets told again and again in these works by Strout.
Have you ever spent time with an author and felt you knew
their story?
PS you can always spend time with my newest young adult novel: BEFORE MY EYES! |
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Caroline Bock: Posted on Friday, May 22, 2015 12:14 PM
Dear Bill Gates:
I’m concerned about your summer reading list, heavy on
nonfiction titles, lacking in fiction, classics, poetry, which reflect the
common core of what I believe every educated American should read (of course, I
will readily admit that this is totally subjective, and I want to stress that I
am happy that you are reading at all, something I stress to my own children).
So, I have some alternative titles to your summer reading
list for you to consider:
-The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson, short poems, easy to
read at the beach, or choose any other poetry collection.
-1984 by George Orwell. I am amazed at how often George
Orwell’s 1984 is quoted, especially in relations to politics and to technology.
I plan to re-read this summer, and I think you should too. “He who controls the
past controls the future. He who controls the presents controls the past.”
-The “Battle Royal” section of Invisible
Man by Ralph Ellison to understand the history of racism and pain in America.
The entire the book is moving too, but it’s that chapter you have to
read.
-Hilary Mantel’s Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories, or Lydia Davis’ Collected Stories, or George
Pellecanos’ Martini Shot, if you’d like some terrific genre short fiction— one
nice thing about short story collections is you can feel free to skip a story
or two and still say you read the book. I’ve been reading a lot of short
fiction lately—short fiction focuses the mind, and these stories all present
character, image, conflict in the most concise way.
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman
Alexie, my son just read this in 9 grade – talks about being the
‘outsider’ and ‘other’ here in America better than any young adult novel. One
other thought: Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, winner of this year’s
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, written in verse. I have it
on my TBR list and so should you.
-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, the Broadway show is a big hit,
but the graphic novel is a deep and moving tale of a father and daughter— and
coming out. And it’s always cool to say you read graphic novels.
I’d just urge you to go farther and wider and be more open
and curious in your reading, and if you do, to share it with us all.
Read on, Bill! Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!
Caroline Bock
*Full disclosure: I am the author of two critically
acclaimed young adult novels: Before My Eyes (St. Martin’s Press, 2014) and LIE
(St. Martin’s Press, 2011). You can also always read these book:)! More at
www.carolinebock.com
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Caroline Bock: Posted on Saturday, May 02, 2015 2:51 PM
From Girl on a Train to Robert Frost...I recently wrote a few haiku reviews... a great exercise in writing. Some are reactions to what I read, others are refractions of characters (i.e. the pool cleaner in Gatsby is in my imagination, not the novel's pages). Here goes...
For The Girl on a Train…
WOMAN ON A METRO
On a metro car: See or hear nothing, feel less. Days of driving rain.
For The Buried Giant… FOREVER TODAY
No past, no future— misted memories, but all connect, remember?
For The Great Gatsby…
THE POOL CLEANER
I cleaned the swim pool— after cops fished Gatsby out— more work, no more pay.
For The Collected Poems of Robert Frost…
A LOST WRITER
I don’t know these woods— what crossroad to travel now— lead me there, poet.
Have you ever tried a haiku review?
—Caroline Bock is the author of the critically acclaimed
young adult novels: BEFORE MY EYES (St. Martin’s Press, 2014) and LIE (St.
Martin’s Press, 2011). |
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Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2014 4:49 PM
"The best summer books blend elements of typical beach reads (romance,
adventure, mystery, etc.) with reflective themes that explore
friendship, loss, self-discovery, family, and more. The awesome
plotlines of these titles will have readers tearing through pages, but
the original and complex characters will leave them feeling that these
tales, like the season itself, were over far too quickly.
The lives of three young people — Max, the unhappy son of a state
senator, Claire, a poet who feels responsible for her sister ever since
their mother had a stroke, and Barkley, a troubled 21-year-old who hears
a voice in his head — become joyfully and tragically intertwined one
Long Island Labor Day Weekend."
Read the ENTIRE LIST of thought-provoking, complex, new young adult books at the Boston Globe website... and don't be embarrassed if you are an adult reading these young adult novels!!
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Caroline Bock - Before My Eyes: Posted on Friday, January 31, 2014 2:48 PM
Tales From A Hungry Life: A Memoir with Recipes made me laugh out loud -- and cry.
It's the story of Maria and her six brothers; a stray dog or two; a garage
band; an Italian father and a Puerto Rican mother, and a raucous, high-spirited
extended family -- that turns from
a rollicking tale to a heartfelt one of loss and remembrances (no spoilers here
- you must, must read this memoir).
The setting is a character too -- Queens,
New York, with all its diversity, comes alive with this writer's deft hand. The
short, vividly written chapters all culminate with delicious recipes and spot
on funny advice for any family. I loved the opening, a tragically-comedic
chapter about the author's family home being struck by lighting, which ends
with a recipe for blackened chicken.
I come from a large Italian-American
family on my mother's side, and I could relate to the food, to the chaos, to
the comedy in tragedy, which this author captures so well. This is a memoir to
share!
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CAROLINE BOCK: Posted on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 4:02 PM
 This is the time of year to look back, a writer’s dilemma.
It seems like I am always mulling on memories, lingering over
scenes half-remembered, reconstructed as fiction. But as 2013 ends, this is a
happy look back at my literary highlights of the year, as I prepare to pop the champagne and get ready to
sing “Auld Lange Synge" (does anyone on the planet know all the words to this song?!):
Cheers! to My Literary Crush of the Year: Alice McDermott from That Night to Charming Billy and now on
to Someone. I’ve read everyone of her novels and I think Someone is one of her
best – it travels down some of the same streets as the one before – Brooklyn,
Long Island’s South Shore, a young girl looking into her neighbor’s world and
then into her own, an Irish-American girl trying to make sense of the
ordinariness of life. I loved Someone.
Cheers! To Best Literary Find in My New City – The District of
Columbia: I met my literary crush Alice McDermott here hand selling
books on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I also attended readings by Edwidge
Danticat and Elizabeth Wein 9also author of the best YOUNG ADULT novels that I read this year CODE NAME VERITY and its sequel: ROSE UNDER FIRE). Best of all, I found a new home to buy books, discuss books, breathe books.
And cheers to: The Best Books I read with my book club:
Best Poetry Find: I took an amazing class with her: Grand Theft Poetry and
realized that poetry can be found, stolen, nourished in many places.
Best Self-Published Book:
Best Indie Book:
Favorite “classic” book re-read:
The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten – read for research, with
naches for the language, which as a kid my father sprinkled around our dining room table. Oy!
Best Movie Based on a Novel: CATCHING FIRE based on Suzanne Collins Hunger Games series, as if you didn't know. But best new addition to the cast: Phillip Seymour Hoffman. This December, the movie just crossed 700 million in box office world wide. May the odds be forever in their favor!
Best Television Series Based On a Novel: House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey and awesome Robin Wright - is based on the novel by same name by Michael Dobbs (interesting a British writer and politician). I am currently binge-watching for the holidays on Netflix!
...For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne... |
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Posted on Friday, October 04, 2013 7:44 PM
Great Group Reads 2013! Great Groups Reads 2013are carefully vetted books by book lovers for book clubs everywhere via the wonderful Women's National Book Association. Last year, I was part of the selection committee; this year, I am was not able to join in the fun of reading and selecting these books, but I am thrilled to share this list: Americanah by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie (Knopf) A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
by Anthony Marra (Hogarth) David by Ray Robertson
(Biblioasis) The House Girl by Tara
Conklin (William Morrow) How It All Began by Penelope
Lively (Penguin Books) Is This Tomorrow by Caroline
Leavitt (Algonquin Books) Life After Life by Kate
Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books) Margot by Jillian Cantor
(Riverhead Books) Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
(Blue Rider Press) The Middlesteins by Jami
Attenberg (Grand Central Publishing) Nowhere Is a Place by
Bernice L. McFadden (Akashic Books) The One-Way Bridge by Cathie
Pelletier (Sourcebooks Landmark) Ordinary Grace by William
Kent Krueger (Atria Books) The Other Typist by Suzanne
Rindell (Amy Einhorn Books) The Round House by Louise
Erdrich (Harper Perennial) Schroder by Amity Gaige
(Twelve) Sparta by Roxana Robinson
(Sarah Crichton Books) Wash by Margaret Wrinkle
(Atlantic Monthly Press) The Yellow Birds by Kevin
Powers (Back Bay Books)
*Even though I wasn’t part of the official ‘ Great Group
Reads 2013’ review committee this year, I have read these two novels and highly
recommend them for book clubs. I look forward to reading more on this list with my book club.
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Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2013 4:41 PM
Ever read a book you wish you had written? That’s Jess
Walter’s sumptuous Beautiful Ruins for me. A meld of settings – from present
day to 1962, from a small fishing village on the coast of Italy to Los Angeles and
ultimately to Idaho – a mix of fictional devices from narrative fiction to faux
memoir to screenplay pitches – acts of plays-- Beautiful Ruins is layer on
layer of interwoven stories surrounding the life of Dee Moray, a beautiful
starlet on the edge of fame.
From a writer’s perspective lines like this…
On selling a screenplay pitch:
“And now she knows where she recognizes that look from. It’s
a look she sees every day, the look of someone doing the math, of someone
seeing the angles.”
On age and celebrity:
“…two kinds of people always lie about their ages: actresses
and Latin American pitchers.“
One refrain:
“We want what we want….”
runs through the novel and sets up the middle aged and older
characters on a path of wanting the wrong thing: money and fame. But we want
what we want so we go on destroying ourselves, and almost, almost destroy others
in the process.
The last chapter begins with a heart-rending quote from the
writer Milan Kundera:
“There would be nothing more obvious, More tangible, than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact.”
Ultimately, Beautiful Ruins is a story about seizing the
moment, about being happy with what is real and near and true. It’s also a love
story -- a triumph of love, a reaffirmation of what is real in this
celebrity-driven culture.
Is there a novel that has
ruined you recently?
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Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2012 2:56 PM
 Are you looking for a book club selection? Did you know that October is officially National Reading Group Month (did you ever wonder who is in charge of assigning what events to what day or month?) I had a terrific opportunity through the WNBA (not the women's basketball association -- but the Women's National BOOK Association) to read a slew of books this summer and participate in the selection of their 2012 Great Group Reads. Here's the final list, which was just announced this week:
Great Group Reads National Reading Group Month Selects Great Group Reads
2012 Selections
The Absolutist by John Boyne* An Age of Madness by David Maine* The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan‐Philipp Sendker* Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall Boleto by Alyson Hagy The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman* Equal of the Sun by Anita Amirrezvani Faith by Jennifer Haigh A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner The O'Briens by Peter Behrens The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin* The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward* The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson I didn't read all these books -- we were divded into reading groups --but the books I starred* I did read and wholeheartedly recommend for a thought-provoking book club selection. More about all the selections, including reading guides for book clubs can be found at www.nationalreadinggroupmonth.org Happy reading!!
Truly, Caroline
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