It's Friday!!!
This weekend is going to be a lot of fun for me! I'm joining my first read-a-thon of the year, it's a 24hour all you can read book fest and I'm here for it!!
And then on Monday, this gal is going back to work full-time!! I'll be working-from-home and I'm so excited to get back to work while staying safe. Being immunocompromised is tough, not going to lie, especially for someone who is used to getting out and about. The most important thing though, I'm safe and I'm still alive. So thankful for that!
Enough about me! It's time to review the three wonderful reads that were gifted to me by Bellevue Literary Press - and if you missed it, please check out the publisher appreciation post for Bellevue!!
Uncommon Measure :
On sale 3.22.22
Also by Natalie Hodges: Club Sandwich
Synopsis - How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform our experience of time?
Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert solo violinist. Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined - one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.
Review - As a former musician, high school but still, I understand that music carries a language all on its own. It is within that language that I find peace, even listening to my writing playlist which features piano solos as I type this. I never imagined taking science and adding music to study neuroscience, but it works. Each page in this book makes you want more, and at the end - I want more of Hodges writing. She is creating her own language within these pages and it's a wonderful journey to have experienced and been apart of. I cannot recommended this book enough.
Talking Back, Talking Black
Available now.
Also by John McWhorter: The Atlantic - Articles
Synopsis - It has now been almost fifty years since linguistic experts began studying Black English as a legitimate speech variety, arguing to the public that it is different from Standard English, not a degradation of it. Yet false assumptions and controversies still swirl around what it means to speak and sound "black."
In his first book devoted solely to the form, structure, and development of Black English, John McWhorter clearly explains its fundamentals and rich history while carefully examining the cultural, educational, and political issues that have undermined recognition of this transformative, empowering dialect. Talking Back, Talking Black takes us on a fascinating tour of a nuanced and complex language that has moved beyond America's borders to become a dynamic force for today's youth culture around the world.
Review - All college students, heck even high school students, need to read this book. I would have welcomed this book while sitting in my linguistics class during undergrad. McWhorter is teaching you and the genius of his writing, you do not know you're being taught. Full disclosure here, I am a white-40ish-woman but I appreciate this book for the celebration and most importantly why it matters that we ALL understand that Black English is not Standard English. We need to reexamine that word, "standard" because let's face it - it no longer applies. We are all different; how we look, the color of our skin, who we love, and yes - how we speak. I appreciate this book for educating me and doing so in a way that makes sense, maybe McWhorter needs a podcast? I would sign up for that in a heartbeat! Buy this book, you will not regret it. Share this book, with everyone - you'll thank me later.
A Solemn Pleasure
Available now.
Also by Melissa Pritchard: Author Profile - Bellevue Literary Press
Synopsis - In A Solemn Pleasure, Melissa Pritchard presents an undeniable case for both the power of language and the nurturing constancy of the writing life. This is nonfiction vividly engaged with the world, encompassing the author's journeys into the deeply interior imaginative life required to write fiction, her search for the lost legacy of American literature as embodied by Walt Whitman, her reports from Afghanistan while embedded with a young female GI, her tales of travel with Ethiopian tribes, and the heartrending story of her informally adopted son William, a former Sudanese child slave. Through these magnificent essays, Pritchard shares her passion for writing and storytelling that educates, honors, and inspires.
Review- From the list of awards this book has won, it should sell itself on that alone! But until reaching out to my contact with Bellevue Literary Press, I had not heard of Pritchard before. I love to write, read, and overall consider myself a nerd in all the best ways! So why had I not heard of this author before? I remain clueless, and also blame my undergrad creative writing professor a bit, sorry Professor Holbrook but it's true!, for not introducing us sooner! I laughed, cried, and had all the feelings and emotions I never expected when first starting this book! Pritchard is someone you all need to know. Someone you all need to read. And if you walk away from this one not wanting to sit down and start writing immediately, well, go back and read it again because you clearly missed the point! Start with Spirit and Vision you will not be sorry, I knew this essay would easily be a favorite when I saw one of my favorite Walt Whitman quotes at the top of the page:
I celebrate myself, I sing myself, And what I assume, you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
-Walt Whitman "Song of Myself" 1855
I believe that quote sums up all three of these books completely. These are all a celebration and just as they belong to the author, they belong to us as well.
