Reading - Karen A. Chase

Reading in Isolation for Perspective, Part Two

June 9, 2020 By Karen A. Chase

As I wrote in Part One, with a list of fiction titles, reading about others coping with their own isolation and restrictions can help us gain perspective. Through books read in my lifetime or with my book club, today I provide four nonfiction options.

The books are not new releases so you might get them used on ABEBooks or as e-book rentals from libraries. Links to purchase the recommendations are also here on my BookShop list, Karen’s Reads & Book Club Picks.

Karen’s Four Nonfiction Reads

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

I know this seems like an odd title to include when we’re not talking to strangers much these days, but Gladwell is a nonfiction genius and always worth reading. I loved his startling look at how often we encounter new people, label them as good or bad, and we get it totally wrong. Using cases of Cuban CIA operatives, television sitcom faces, Amanda Knox, Sandra Bland, Sylvia Plath, and more, the data in this book will help you rexamine your interactions with strangers as truly strange indeed. …Buy the book.

The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

I read this years ago, but his story has long stuck with me because it is told in his own words, and Mandela has an unforgettably indomitable and resilient spirit. I am saddened that the long walk for so many people is still uphill, but words from Mandela give me hope for humanity. “I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.” …Buy the book.

Educated by Tara Westover

One of the finest examples of how education can release a person from the prison imposed upon their mind by those who are supposed to love them the most. Through a quest for knowledge, Westover writes a memoir so in-the-moment that we feel trapped in her survivalist family with her. I felt equally nervous and naïve when she stepped into the classroom for the first time at age seventeen. She makes an education seem within reach to all—even those with nothing but a desire for something other than the oppressive life into which they are born …Buy the Book .

Bossypants by Tina Fey

I love this woman and her comedy is indeed whip-smart. Why is her book on this list? First, we need to laugh and, without doubt, my other recommendations do not really include many chuckles. But it’s also because Tina was a woman who rose through a world of comedy that was too-long deemed “male only.” Saturday Night Live had never had a female head writer until Tina Fey. (Hence the hairy man-arms on a book cover that makes her look at ease for breaking into a boys club.) Her way of looking at the world is not too dissimilar to the way many of us see it now. Odd and absurd but still worth navigating. …Buy the book.

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Reader Insights: So many nonfiction American Revolution titles were a part of the research to help me build Carrying Independence. For a list of some of those titles check out my Pinterest Carrying Independence Research page or visit my Chasing Histories Bookstore Page. Carrying Independence is available as an ebook and in print.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

Reading in Isolation for Perspective, Part One

April 4, 2020 By Karen A. Chase

So many of us are reading books during this time of isolation and concern, many of which allow us to escape. Sometimes, however, reading about others coping with their own imposed isolation can help us gain perspective. This is especially true when either the character’s situation might be more perilous, or their outlook in spite of that situation is insightful. This affords us a chance to more deeply develop our own character.

Here are few options based on books read in my home or through my book club. If you’re living with someone, reading aloud will take longer and allow you to discuss the book as you go. The books are not new releases so you might get them used on ABEBooks or as e-book rentals from libraries. Links to purchase all of the recommendations are also here on my BookShop list, Karen’s Reads & Book Club Picks.

Karen’s Four Fiction Reads

A Gentlemen in Moscow by Amor Towles

In this historical novel, Count Rostov has been sentenced to live his life in the Metropol Hotel in Russia, post-Bolshevik Revolution. The writing is beyond lovely, and the ingenuity and grace with which the main character chooses to live is superb. These days, I find myself asking, “What would Count Rostov do?” The author’s gorgeous website is worth getting lost in. …Buy the book.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

You’ll face the realities of a dystopian future (or what might feel like your present) head on in this science fiction work that’s become a cult classic. Living inside a virtual world, Wade has to learn to rely on himself, but ultimately discovers what is best about the world. People coming together. Great for kids, but Gen X-ers like me who lived the 80s will love it. (There’s a movie, too.) …Buy the book.

The Chef’s Apprentice by Elle Newmark

“In a world of violence and intrigue, who guards the truth?” What if your isolation was because of what you knew, and that knowledge was what everyone wanted? Here, that knowledge is the alchemy for long life. I loved this book not just for the writing and the young protagonist, who is assistant to the chef for the Doge of Venice, but for the delightful food. You’ll never cut an onion without awe again, and you’ll make cheesecake as if for the first time. …Buy the Book.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Never mind being stuck at home, imagine being trapped in one parallel universe after another. It’ll take so much brain power to wrap your head around how dark matter works or doesn’t (plus you’ll watch a Schrödinger’s Cat video about quantum mechanics), that the hours will fly. My dreams were WILD while Jason navigated a world that was not his own while traversing other parallel worlds literally of his own making. Mind blowing. …Buy the book.

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Reader Insights: I enjoy giving my characters books to read, too. My protagonist, Nathaniel, is gifted a copy of Gulliver’s Travels, which was published 50 years before he receives it in 1776. Nathaniel reads the book aloud with Captain Blythe in the scene right before this excerpt on my website. Nathaniel alone carries the sole copy of the Declaration of Independence in Carrying Independence, available as an ebook and in print.

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For more history nerd posts like these, subscribe to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

A Case for Fiction

November 15, 2018 By Karen A. Chase

This blog post first appeared in November of 2016, just after the presidential election. No matter your feelings for how that election or the recent mid-terms turned out, you might be needing a reboot. A way to cope. Or a means to find compassion—for those coming in and those left out.

In a Publisher’s Weekly article on Monday, Jonathan Kurtz, publisher of Prometheus Books, said they were selling their fiction list to Start Publishing, to return to being a primarily nonfiction press. He cited that in our current world, “intelligent nonfiction is again of urgent value.” I agree 100% with raising the discourse, and do hope that future nonfiction books will aim to lift, rather than to debase, the consciousness of our country.

However, I absolutely do not believe that nonfiction alone can raise us up. So, I once again give you… a case for why….

We need more fiction!

Especially thoughtful, deep, well-researched and so-worth-pondering fiction. We need it more than ever for three reasons:

To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_(1962)_trailer_2 — Gregory Peck (left) & James Anderson in *To Kill a Mockingbird*––the number one book in the Great American Read.(Image: A Public Domain clip from the trailer by Universal Studios.)

Escape. Sometimes the world seems topsy-turvy. Either we’re getting what we want, and no one else seems happy, or what we’ve lost makes us rethink everything we thought was true. Fiction can give us a break––a means to flee to another time in history, or to a utopian or more dystopian future. Inside of that “other” place we’re able to find something else.

Empathy. No matter when or where fiction is set, all great fiction is focused on the characters. Some we will love. Some, not so much. And yet all of them, if well-drawn, illustrate how humanity is complex. People are flawed. And yet, by seeing intimately into someone else’s life, even the worst antagonist might elicit compassion from us. Sometimes pity. Either way, the result is something greater.

Enlightenment. It sounds incongruent, but the goal of great fiction writers is to write the truth. The truth, however dark, beautiful, crushing, sad, joyful, odd, funny, or head-spinning. Do we weave in opinions? Of course, but how can we obtain enlightenment without them? It is only in the absence of listening to and attempting to understand a dissenting opinion that we recede into darkness.

So please, regardless of where you are these days, take a deep breath. Go to your favorite bookstore or library. Read fiction. Write fiction. And by all means, share fiction. Through a thoughtful exchange of words, perhaps we can all heal together.

How to Select Your Next Fiction Read

Pick a book, any book, from this list of 100 books compiled by PBS for the Great American Read. And by all means, pick up number one, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee from your favorite librarian.

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Thanks for sharing in the spirit of learning about our collective American History by subscribing to the blog. Guest posts are welcomed and encouraged. Contact me for details.

For Karen-related author research tidbits, book news and events, subscribe to my e-publication, CHASING HISTORIES.

Reading Slowly in 2015

January 9, 2015 By Karen A. Chase

Hello again. It’s been a while since I’ve been in here, as I’ve been revising my manuscript. While I’ll still be wearing my editing coat, I’ve missed all you. So, my readers, I’m weaving back in.

This week, let’s stitch together all three of my blog’s topics–reading, writing and research. Like many of you, I have a pile of books I want to read.

My first instinct is to cut to it and rip through them. You’ve done it, too, I bet. Our society is now used to tweets and blog posts. Short. Fast. Sometimes we bolt through a book and proudly declare to our friends, “It was so good I read it in one day.”

Yes, but what did you miss?

I recently began a book called Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. (Yes, that’s her real name.) She discusses the importance of reading carefully. Thoughtfully. Close.

Given how much care writers give to finding the right word, wouldn’t it be nice to take equal time to read them? (Note my use of give and take.) If done well, this selectiveness adds texture. Layers. Warmth. If you read back in this blog post for instance, you’ll find I chose many words relating to fabric. That’s intentional. Books are woven together like a fine cloth.

If you’re reading too quickly, you might be missing a subtly that will provide a more enjoyable, more meaningful read. As this article on slow reading in the Washington Post states, “it’s about pleasure more than efficiency.” I think I’ll try that on this year.

On my reading list this year (delightfully) are friends whose books deserve attention:

Mary Chris Escobar’s How to Be Alive
Jon Sealy’s The Whiskey Barron
Beth Macy’s Factory Man
Ann Westrick’s Brotherhood

What are you reading?

Sign up for my blog on the right, and watch for changes and more author news soon. Happy New Year.