Ruth Anne Latta

The Great Stork Derby , by Ann S. Epstein, Vine Leaves Press, 2021 is set in 1976, with flashbacks to the 1920s and ‘30s. Although it's an historical novel in that it  originates from an historical event, and shows life in the 20th century, it's really about an uninvolved father who, in his old age,  finally gets to know his children.  The fictional father in the story, who was born in 1901, is Emm Benbow, a retired salesman who swears by Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.  In 1926, Emm convinced his wife, Izora, to get involved in a competition that might make their fortune.  That year,  a wealthy Toronto real estate investor and lawyer, died, leaving a will that provided $100,000 to be paid to the Toronto woman who gave birth to the greatest number of children (registered births and living children) in the decade between 1926 and 1936.  This was a fabulous amount of money in those days.  The benefactor, a single, childless...

 I am halfway through a clever, engaging novel by an American writer named Rebecca Makkai.  "The Borrower"  (not "The BorrowerS") was published in 2011 and is a thoughtful, witty comedy about a road trip (some would say "kidnapping"). The title is both an echo of "The Borrowers", a work of literature for children about a miniature family surviving in a full s-zed world, and the term "borrower" as used by librarians.  Lucy Hull, a newly-fledged children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, has one particularly enthusiastic reader among the kids she serves. A ten year old boy named Ian reads well above his age-level and, in consulting Lucy about books to read, is a librarian's dream-child. His mother disapproves of many of the books in the children's collection; she doesn't want Ian reading anything to do with magic, Hallowe'en, etc. Lucy checks out books on her own account and gives them to Ian to read. When Ian asks he...

 Among the things I received for my birthday last month was a set of DVDs from The Great Courses on "Banned Books." The lecturer was Maureen Corrigan, a professor of literature at Georgetown University, a book critic on U.S. public radio, and a columnist for the Washington Post. The course examined the reasons for various book suppressions throughout history, from bowdlerizing Shakespeare to banning of famous novels like James Joyce's "Ulysses" and D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover."  She also discussed current pressures from right-wing people and groups to have certain books pulled from the schools.   After completing the course, I wanted to hear more from Maureen Corrigan, and from the public library got a copy of her 2005 non-fiction book, "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading."  Reading it is like having a conversation with a warm and witty friend. In it, she shares her life experiences and how they were influenced by the books ...

 I Will Return by Pablo Neruda Some other time, man or woman, traveler, later, when I am not alive, look here, look for me between stone and ocean, in the light storming through the foam. Look here, look for me, for here I will return, without saying a thing, without voice, without mouth, pure, here I will return to be the churning of the water, of its unbroken heart, here, I will be discovered and lost: here, I will, perhaps, be stone and silence.   See: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda , edited by Ilan Stavans (NY, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2003)

My quote of the day about writing:       "What really knocks me out is a book that, when  you're all done reading it, you wish the author who wrote it was a terrific friend of  yours and  you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."     (The fictional Holden Caulfield says this in J.D. Salinger's, The Catcher in the Rye. )

Tidying up today, I came upon one of my notebooks where I'd jotted down some things I wanted to remember from "Walking in this World: the practical art of creativity,"  by Julia Cameron.   This book was published in 2002 by Penguin. Its ISBN is 1-58542-183-9) Cameron says that writers, like anyone who tries to create something, must be like the farmer in " Field of Dreams" and must trust enough to build it, whatever "it" is, and trust that "they will come."  She warns against being "miniaturized" by our friends, who know only one small part of us, as in the poem, "The Blind Man and the Elephant."  She writes: "Friends tend to reinforce the you that they see. They want to hold onto a you that doesn't threaten them and that gives them a comfortable sense of their own size and importance." She warns that we may have to "shed" the friends who won't let us grow. She adds: "Nelson Mandela has rem...

                           A writer friend of mine emailed to say that she is presenting my novel, A Girl Should Be , to her book club.                           She added, "I find your books not only informative about parts of our history, but engaging stories.  I like the comfort they offer even when there are situations that are not necessarily comforting. It is your manner of writing."                          This is just what I need to hear as I go over the proofs of my new Canadian historical novel, A Striking Woman .  Thank you, L!