Stephanie Vanderslice

Author, Professor, Blogger, and Huffington Post writer

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2011 The Year in Reading Part Deux: The Actual Books

January 26, 2012 by Stephanie Vanderslice Filed Under: Uncategorized

Without further adieu, here they are, in reading order (more or less):

1. Great House by Nicole Krauss

2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

4. The Boys of My Youth by Joann Beard

5. City of Thieves by David Benioff

6. Tinkers by Paul Harding

7. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Vergese

8. Flashlight Memories Ed. Ginny Greene

9. Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

11. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

12. Carry Me Across the Water by Ethan Canin

13. Quiet Americans by Erica Dreifus

14. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal

15. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure

16. Composing Ourselves as Writer Teacher Writers: Starting With Wendy Bishop ed. Pat Bizarro, Alys Culhane, Devan Cook

17.Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Allison Bechdel

18. Alligators, Old Mink and New Money:  One Woman’s Adventures in Vintage Clothing Allison Houtte

19. Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

20. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

21. The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

22. Last Will and Testament by Jim Tinker

23. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

24. The Architect of Flowers by William Lychack

25. One Nation Under Goods by James J. Farrell

26. Dispatches from the Classroom: Graduate Students on Creative Writing Pedagogy ed. Chris Drew, David Yost, Joseph Rein

Lots of really great reads in there, despite the brevity of the list.  Wordamour will forever remember 2011 as the year she discovered Nicole Krauss (where was Wordamour living? under a rock?); Great House was mesmerizing. The Architect of Flowers and Quiet Americans, two more riveting, and in the former case, luminously iconoclastic, reads also got the kudos they deserved in other end of year lists.  Wonderstruck started slowly but ultimately transported the reader to late 1970’s New York City (one of Wordamour’s favorite times/places) as all the story strands came together as if stitched by an invisble hand. Composing Ourselves as Writer-Teacher-Writers, about Wendy Bishop, was the only “festschriften” of sorts Wordamour has ever read that frequently brought tears.

But as my friend and colleague Graeme Harper likes to say, Onward!

What’s on deck for 2012?

You’ll find out in the The First Book of 2012, coming soon!

Bye y’all,

SV

Looking Ahead: AWP in DC

January 29, 2011 by Stephanie Vanderslice Filed Under: Uncategorized

So Wordamour and husband are headed to DC this week for the Associated Writing Programs Conference with lots to look forward to.  So much, in fact, that we are going to have to pace ourselves.  And we’re at a hotel that’s a whole metro ride away from the conference so there will be very little going back to the room between events to de-stress by lying on a hotel bed staring at mindless tv (my de-stressing MO, if you haven’t guessed).

I’m on two panels which I’m very much looking forward to.  Fiction Writer’s Review gave me a shout out as a contributor when they listed contributor’s panels here.  I love Fiction Writer’s Review–if you’re at the Book Fair, check them out.  Better yet, subscribe to their blog.

Besides the panels:  Focus group on creative writing books for Bedford St. Martin’s with a free lunch and a stipend, dinner at Meskerem (a fondly remembered Ethiopian restaurant from my salad days in DC) with Anna Leahy and Cathy Day and friends, dinner with grad school pals Kelly Stern and Deb Moore, dinner with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in from Maryland one night as well.

A publication party for Erika Dreifus’ Quiet Americans, which my husband reviewed here.

A whole group of students is going from UCA this year (and I know they will behave themselves so others can follow in future years.  Right? Right.).  Colleagues Mark Spitzer and Garry Powell. Former student, current Roosevelt MFA Heather Cox.

The Toad Suck Review will make its debut!

Glimpses of my British friends, Graeme Harper and Paul Munden among them (and the annual payment of my NAWE dues).

And the bookfair.  And more panels.  And somewhere in there, my birthday!

Good Lord!

I’ll be blogging about it all!

Bye y’all!

SV

PS A shout out to my mother, who is making all this possible by staying with my kiddos!  Thanks, Mom!

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STEPHANIE VANDERSLICE

Author, Professor, Blogger, and Huffington Post writer. Stephanie Vanderslice aims to write what she likes to read: fiction and nonfiction that spins a web to lure the reader in. Read More…

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