#30Authors Presents Claire Fuller on The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

#30Authors is an event started by The Book Wheel that connects readers, bloggers, and authors. In it, 30 authors review their favorite recent reads on 30 blogs in 30 days. It takes place annually during the month of September and has been met with incredible support from and success in the literary community. It has also been turned into an anthology, which is currently available on Amazon and all author proceeds go to charity. Previous #30Authors contributors include Celeste Ng, Cynthia Bond, Brian Panowich, and M.O. Walsh. To see this year’s full line-up, visit www.thebookwheelblog.com/30authors or follow along on Twitter @30Authors.

Without further ado, Claire Fuller's review of The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon:

The Pier Falls is a collection of nine short stories by Mark Haddon, most famous for his 2003 novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Every story in this book is outstanding. The eponymous tale is about a pier and the lives and deaths of the people on it as it collapses and falls into the sea. Each individual’s action is written from a distance as if Haddon realises that to be closer to the tragedy would be unbearable. Instead he gives us snippets of the future for some of the survivors; the pathos highlighting those who don’t make it out alive:

                “He swims steadily towards the beach where he is cheered ashore, 

                  wrapped in a red blanket and led to an ambulance. His wife will 

                  spend three hours thinking he is dead and will not forgive him for a 

                  long time.”

The stories are about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. In Wodwo an English family gather together for Christmas when they are interrupted by an unusual intruder who changes all of their lives over the course of the coming year, until Christmas and the story comes around again, full-circle. The Woodpecker and the Wolf is about six people on board a space station, waiting to be relieved by a second crew who never arrive. Things just get worse from there on. Many actions are described in minute detail, emphasising not only the way the astronauts have to live, but also the type of person who would sign up for such a job. The story spins out of control, even while it is clear that Haddon has a firm grip on what he is intending, until reaching an ambiguous conclusion. I have never so desperately wanted to talk to someone about an ending as I did when I finished this story.

The writing across all the pieces is peculiarly unemotional, as if Haddon is giving us, the readers, the space to find our own emotions between the words. And if these stories sound bleak, that’s because they are. Don’t dip into The Pier Falls expecting a sunny ride, but if you’re looking for limpid writing, and top story-telling then this is your book.

ABOUT CLAIRE FULLER

Claire Fuller trained as a sculptor before working in marketing for many years. In 2013 she completed an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Winchester, and wrote her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days. It has been published in the UK by Fig Tree (Penguin), in the US by Tin House, in Canada by House of Anansi and in Israel, Taiwan, Italy, The Netherlands, France and Turkey. It will be published in a further four countries. Our Endless Numbered Days won the 2015 Desmond Elliott prize.

Claire's second novel, Swimming Lessons will be published in early 2017.

Website: https://clairefuller.co.uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClaireFuller2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clairefullerwriter

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Our-Endless-Numbered-Days-Novel/dp/1941040012

ABOUT THE PIER FALLS

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pier-Falls-Other-Stories/dp/0385540752

Website: http://www.markhaddon.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mark_haddon

Insanity - Only Two Weeks In

My books this semester, for two classes.

Not bad you say? This doesn't include the 20+ books 

and articles I need to read for writing my seminar papers.

As the title of this post suggests, I am either insane or will be so shortly. And, as promised, I am documenting every insane second through journals and this blog. Two weeks into this PhD thing and I have quit at least once every day, sometimes more, but decided I can do this by the end of each day. Since I'm still in it, I guess we can say the "I can do this" side is currently winning.

I decided already to literally take each piece of my classes one step at a time. Even if told to make sure I'm looking ahead to another step, I think I have to focus on and finish off things according to due dates. If I can get to class each week knowing that what I need done is done and done to the best of my ability, well, at this point I can't ask for much more.

First week of classes overwhelmed me with a tidal wave of details. The assignments aren't a single step, but there are so many details and steps for each activity and assignment, I took an entire day to work on an eleven question library research project and I only had one question answered at the end of six hours. The rest of the questions required finding and reading articles and book chapters from various journals and online periodicals. Granted, learning the system hindered me a bit, but by the end of the day, I hadn't even collected all of the materials needed to begin reading to answer the other ten questions.

The reading for just one of my current classes has hit between 200 - 300 pages a week. The reading proves helpful and informative so far, but definitely not the same as reading a good book just for the story. The other class assigns smaller selections, but on material I have little background knowledge of, so I go searching and reading additional resources.

I enjoy the classroom experience itself, as always. If I had applied for a PhD in Education, I could complete everything online, but I noticed of all my options for an English PhD, none were offered online and for good reason. Good literature thrives on intricate discussion. Intricate discussion works best in person. Driving an hour up and an hour back from main campus twice a week hasn't been too bad, although I'm not looking forward to it come snowy weather, but the drive gives me time to transition from my school-as-teacher day to my school-as-student day and the same as I head home at night.

Probably the biggest challenge I've learned the past two weeks is time management. I thrive on organizing and prioritizing and I'm a do it all person - well, do it all according to what I think is important. I've never really had to scale back on my calendar. I've fit in people, responsibilities, hobbies, etc. any time I wanted. This is absolutely not the case now. Teaching takes at least 40 hours a week, more if current activities require working at home. In the past week I've spent every hour between working on one of my two PhD classes - no exaggeration. And in order to function fully from morning to night in all this work, I moved my bedtime back by an hour and a half (which doesn't always happen). I've been forced to draw boundaries around my job and classwork times, making them a shared first priority with my family...and even family takes the back-burner at times. For someone who treasures her friends and hobbies, it's a difficult position to already say "maybe" and "no" to activities I'd gladly attend, but I'm determined to make it through this.

See, "I can do it" is winning today. We'll see where I stand after spending the entire day at the library tomorrow! Watch out reference librarians, here I come.

Begin the Week with Words

You know you need to pay attention when you hear or read the same thing a bunch of times in a day or two. The first is a scripture verse I read more extensively on in the book Play with Fire, which I reviewed Thursday. It showed up on three different, unrelated people's Instagram posts the next day. In the same two days I read or heard the following three quotes on destiny. So I'm paying attention - they do seem to apply to my road ahead. 

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

"Destiny is revealed in seasons of confrontation rather than seasons of comfort." Lisa Bevere, Without Rival (book)

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." Jean de La Fontaine

"They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is." Mos Def, 16 Blocks (movie)

Play with Fire

Source:Family Christian Book Store

Play with Fire: Discovering Fierce Faith, Unquenchable Passion, and a Life-Giving God, by Bianca Olthoff
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication date: August 30,2016
Category: Motivational, Christian
Source: I received this galley from NetGalley for consideration of a review.


As I've worked my way through a series of motivational titles this summer, I feel lucky that so many wonderful authors decided to share their experiences and wisdom through publication in the past so many months. Among these titles I found Play with Fire, which I requested mostly because of the author, Bianca Olthoff. I was not familiar with Ms. Olthoff at all up to this point, but she is one of a few big names in the field of female Christian authorship scheduled to appear at the Propel Women event I am attending in September. Hearing authors speak is always a good time, but how much better when I'm familiar with their thoughts and words? It's akin to rereading the book, which is always good, but I have little time for typically.

Wanting to be familiar with Ms. Olthoff, I went in search of any books to her name and came across Play with Fire on Amazon. Seeing it wasn't yet published, I headed over to NetGalley. What a good idea that was! What makes me especially like Olthoff's book is the fact that although I couldn't identify with much of her life experience growing up, her ability to state her thoughts, emotions, and spiritual situation hit me, and those I could relate to. That's talent.

Play with Fire takes readers through a set of years where Olthoff found her life falling apart. Her mother's worsening fight with cancer, her father and siblings at wit's end, making bad choices for herself financially, emotionally, and relationally, she likens the experience to the Israelites wandering the desert for 40 years. She spent years looking every which way for anything that would ease the pain of wandering lonely and afraid, only to find nothing helped, and in fact she felt worse. As Olthoff's story unfolds, so does the evidence of God's grace. With hindsight, Olthoff is able to trace the places where God had been by her side in her personal desert all along, waiting for her to reach the point of crying out and truly longing to be set free from her turmoil. Although pushing through was not easy, and she found herself stalled at times, Olthoff's story is heartfelt and encouraging to anyone finding themselves stuck in a hard place.

I always assume that part of what makes a book good is the timing in which it is read. Olthoff's book came in amazing timing for me. I am floored. I am speechless and inspired and ready to take on the place I find myself most fearful to enter. I know the current path was set before me for a purpose, so to walk through it, my faith bigger than my fear, is the only way through. Sounds simple, but we all know it isn't. I thank God for the wonderful men and women of God publishing their lives and God's message for all to read this past year. Their words do not fall on deaf ears.

The Journey Begins

A trip I made to explore campus prior to orientation and classes.

My journey into my PhD program has barely begun (orientation was this past week and classes start next week) and I already see two things coming for My Life in Books as a blog. One, unfortunately, more possible stretches of silence. I've been so crazy busy pulling life together with our renovating and moving and the start of a new school year, that I haven't even always remembered to post my weekly quotes on Sundays! From what I heard at orientation this week, I can expect much of the same crazy busy between family, work, and school. Second, posts will become grad school oriented. My studies are literature based, so it definitely will still be about books and reading, but I already know that I will have some experience based posts brewing as well...like this one!

I am excited though to have an established blog from which to share the experience. This past Tuesday was graduate orientation at Kent State. It was much bigger than I thought it would be, but it included masters and doctorate students from every department/major of the University. The afternoon was spent selecting sessions we thought would be most beneficial. I attended two that were extremely informative, although they also made me a little more frenzied.

Two down, one to go. Can't wait for
the day when the Kent sticker
reads Alumni under it as well.

The first informative session was titled Conferences and Publishing. The speakers are current PhD students who have attended numerous conferences and have even presented at them. They gave great pointers, like ask professors and current students the best conferences to attend in your subject. The list of do's and don'ts for conference attendance were both practical and specific. And, the best part, they made us aware of the Graduate Student Senate, where you can easily apply for the college to pay your travel expenses to both national and international conferences if you are presenting. Presenting at a conference remains a mystery to me for now...I'm not sure I understand how you go about making that happen and how a topic is chosen, etc., but, at least I know it's something I should do. More than I knew before.

The second part was a little scary, but also part of my dream: publication. They are typically talking publication of your papers to journals and such, but there was also talk of books. For example, one of the speakers has a professor who is writing a book and she asked if she can write a chapter. He said yes. Her name will be in the credits of that book and she can put it on her CV (No, not a resume. What is a CV? Click here). PhD students are expected to have published three or four times by graduation, a process that will take papers way beyond the time and grade restrictions of a class semester.

This session led me to the discovery that the field of academia depends upon networking. The more people you meet, the better. The more exposure you have among peers, the better. The more you can do, the better. And that's why they tell students to attend conferences at every turn. We were even told to get student business cards especially for the purpose of meeting people, making connections, and being remembered. Weird to hear at first, but the more they spoke, the more I came to understand why. The world of higher education is vast. In my little piece of nowhere Ohio alone, I had the choice of three major colleges I could commute to for the PhD program I wanted. If you're expected to publish material and work together on topics, then you have to be in the know within your field. And one of the best ways to do that is through who you know. You never know who will be doing what in the future and if they remember a discussion with you on that topic and have a way to contact you, well you could end up with a project heading toward publication, among other opportunities.

The second session gave access to a panel of current Kent professors. We asked them anything we had on our minds and they all answered honestly. There were a lot of good questions asked and I was particularly excited about their confidence in us. Two questions asked that pertain to me in particular concerned working students; those who have worked between degrees, as opposed to going straight through, and those who are working full time jobs alongside the degree process. Both of these apply to me and the professors' responses were encouraging. They said work experience between degrees benefits students greatly because it prepares their minds to look at the workload and their image in a different way than someone who has always been a student. Seeing all of the work and experience needed beyond the classroom I asked if they had any more or different advice for people working at the same time...mentioning that I also commute an hour and have three kids. They said to plan ahead for the things you know you have to do and those that are most important to attend and accomplish and say no to the rest. And one professor of English added in that working students are among the best he ever has! So, I feel better about it now.

Well, that was just part of my orientation day. My classes start Monday and I am on edge to get this started after a year of discussion about it. Wish me luck!

Rooted

Rooted: the Hidden Places Where God Develops You, by Banning Liebscher
Publisher: WaterBrook (sold by Random House LLC)
Publication date: May 3, 2016
Category: Christianity, nonfiction
Source: I received this galley from NetGalley for consideration of review.


"God is not interested in developing your vision first. He is interested in developing you." The basis of Rooted lies here - we need a foundation to accomplish anything with true success. Professional athletes do not just show up on a field and play, authors do not publish the first draft of their books, teachers do not just waltz into classrooms from the streets randomly, builders do not just throw up walls on a patch of dirt when building any structure, and a seed cannot skip straight to the fruit bearing stage. They all lay a foundation first. A schedule, routine of practice, and/or work that hones their ability, secures the task at hand, and gives them the experience needed to perform their best when the time comes. Likewise, God does not first throw us into the highest level of our calling. He lays a foundation in our lives that we must have for His calling on us to succeed.

What is the purpose of a foundation? It supports something else. In order to effectively support something, the foundation has to be built up, be bigger. A foundation makes ready the object and the object's purpose. Author Banning Liebscher focuses throughout the whole book on how and why God spends so much time laying foundations in our lives and how our ultimate calling will fail without the proper foundation. Liebscher also makes it clear that we complicate the process with distractions and fighting what God is trying to do.

To give you a taste of the wisdom I gleaned, Liebscher points out that foundations often go unseen. Common sense, yes, but something I never actually thought about. I can watch a football game, read a published book, witness a teacher in action, enjoy living in my house, and pull an apple right from my fridge, but only because someone spent time in the background laying the foundation from which these things sprung in the first place. Foundations happen in the "secret place," where no one necessarily knows or sees what you are learning, practicing, realizing. It is there the real work is done and it is there that your ultimate calling will find its support.

What I love about Rooted is it's clarity and practicality. All of Liebscher's discussion was easy to understand and well supported with facts and examples. As he spoke about loving where God has you in the moment, even if it's hard, because it's what will lead you on to bigger things, I could feel it. Being in a tough spot of transitions and new journeys over this past year (crazy that so much happens in a year's time), this was huge. But to get a sense that the crazy emotion, day-to-day life, and physical and mental work of my current life is working toward something great and meaningful yet to be revealed? How could I not feel excitement?!

I highly recommend Rooted for anyone wondering why they may be where they are at this point in their lives...knowing God has a bigger purpose for your life is one thing, but knowing why He gets you there the way He does is valuable insight.

Begin the Week with Words: Thanks Mom and Dad!

Verse my mom gave us as we went into the final
week of last minute fixes and moving in.

This weekend we moved into the house we started to buy in January. I have to thank my parents - give credit where credit is due. I will admit the complete renovation of our new house was more crazy than fun. The end results were well worth it, but still tons of stress for such a good thing. With our type of loan there was a lot of potential for setbacks time wise, and being out of our realm of experience and comfort there was a lot of potential for breakdowns. It took tons of robbing Peter to pay Paul while waiting for funds, putting our hands to the work at hand for hours on end physically, and remedying and preventing meltdowns. Two people who never let us down through the whole thing were my parents, Ray and Georgia.

They deserve every ounce of credit any of us can give them. Our specific loan works through pay out of pocket and be reimbursed when the work is satisfactory, which is difficult for a smaller construction outfit, not to mention us. My parents lent us funds after ours were depleted and waited for the bank (and sale of our house) on all counts as we did to be paid back. Without that help, we would still be waiting on the bank to order and complete pieces of the house and weeks away from moving in.

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, they kept me anchored. For Brandon too, but I personally fell into upsets and rants more than I'd like to admit throughout the process. At first my mom would help remedy an upset, but soon able to see where the main potential for stress in the process was, she would come to me with prayer or a scripture verse to prevent upset. My dad would come immediately to remedy things within the house that gave us trouble or we couldn't do - hanging chandeliers, building closet shelves, mudding holes in walls, painting, fixing issues the crew didn't quite get right. My dad (and Brandon) dedicated almost two weeks to laying tile and hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor and upstairs bathroom. He and my mom helped us paint the entire 2300 sq ft from start to finish.

They've simply been amazing. They put in so many hours of work at and for the house. For us. God truly used them to make our dream come true and we couldn't be more thankful. We celebrated our first night in the house with hibachi, which they'd never done before! A great end before our new beginning.