Brief Hiatus

 TBR should return in February!

Best Books (I Read) in 2025

A random assortment of some
of the books on my list(s)

Presenting my annual “best books” list, along with the accompanying list of caveats: these are, simply put, the best books I read over the course of the year. I try to narrow things down to 10ish books, which is awfully hard. I definitely read (and ADORE!) books by my writer friends, but I keep those books off this list. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: ALL lists are subjective. In my personal definition of “best,” I mean some magical alchemy of this book at this time that hit me this way. The order is chronological, so don’t spend time parsing out why one book is first, another last. Also, I had to eliminate some VERY EXCELLENT books to keep my list tidy, and YES, I feel terrible about doing so. You’ll see that I cheat a little at the end, but all’s fair in love and books.

 

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

I always nod kindly and knowingly when people mention Barbara Kingsolver, but I’ll confess that this is the first book by her I’ve read, and what a doozy! I was all in from the very first paragraph, though I often resist reading loooong books (you’ll see what an outlier this year was on that matter as my list progresses!). This novel about Appalachia and opioid addiction and resilience moves fast, is smart, and offers a political point of view without turning preachy or predictable. The first-person voice is extraordinary and convincing. Yeah, maybe it’s cheating to rely on a genius like Charles Dickens and swipe the plot of David Copperfield…or maybe that tack is its own genius. I must have recommended this book a zillion times.

 

WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys

I read this novel back in college and retained only vague memories, which just shows I was assigned way too many books back then because I should have a better memory of this artful book about Rochester’s “madwoman” wife in the attic (definite red flag, Jane Eyre!). Deeply-evoked characters and perfectly evoked landscapes ranging from the Caribbean to that awful attic in England, meant that the minute I finished the last page, I immediately wanted to know everything about Rhys, wanted to reread Jane Eyre, and wanted to study Caribbean history. A hard-eyed look (wrapped in lush writing) at class, money, race, history, gender, and it has to be repeated: money.

 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS: MEMOIRS by John Updike

Because I was lucky enough to be selected by the John Updike Society for a writing residency in Updike’s Tucson, AZ, casita, I thought I should study up. I read a fair number of his books in college (though then he went on to write many, many more over the years and I failed to keep up), so I sort of thought I knew what he was “about.” But these autobiographical essays gave me a fresh view, seeing how his life intertwined with his fiction (not that he called his fiction “autobiographical”) and seeing how he viewed his own career and life. Immense honesty in these pages about his insecurities, his painful and debilitating battle with psoriasis, the chip on his shoulder, his recognition of his failures as a parent. For a writer with such an absolutely dazzling writing style (those sentences! oh, sigh!) and with such a charmed career, he’s as messed up as the rest of us! I’ll confess that I didn’t read the entire book because the last two essays felt indulgent and probably should have been excluded. Does a writing style of such precision, bordering on ornateness translate to our world of TikTok videos? I can’t say—but I can say that when I was focusing on his words, I was transported.

 

OPEN: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Andre Agassi

You ever buy a cheap, used paperback you plan to read quickly and leave behind on the plane? You ever put that book on your “best books list”? For me, now, YES, and YES. What an exciting surprise this book was! It’s not that I care about tennis or Andre Agassi, but I do like an artful, honest memoir, and I’m always fascinated by what celebrity means. Ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, OPEN is beautifully written and well-structured (covering 40ish years) and even suspenseful. The voice is consistent and feels authentic and natural (I mean, of course I don’t know for a fact if this is Andre’s voice, but by the end, I was eager to hang out with him). Apparently, Andre hated playing tennis for most of his life yet he kept playing, and at the highest level. What is ambition? What drives us to success? What is enough? Who are we without that which has defined us for decades? These are the questions that kept Shakespeare awake…here in a tennis book.

 

THE LONELY CITY: ADVENTURES IN THE ART OF BEING ALONE by Olivia Laing

I absolutely loved everything about this book: its smarts, its bleakness, its bold and honest exploration of what loneliness is and does to a mind. While we get the author’s personal experiences, this is also a book of thoughtful research, as loneliness is examined through a series of visual artists (i.e. Hopper, Warhol, Wojnarowicz) who coped with their outsiderness and loneliness in a variety of (often unhealthy) methods…all the while continuing to create art. This book pushed deep—and uncomfortably—into my brain. While the book reflected New York City, my favorite place, we see here that unsettling aspect of New York City that tourists don’t always witness: the way one might feel utterly, helplessly alone while surrounded by an ocean of people. (Wait, that’s not exclusive to New York….)  

 

HELP WANTED by Adelle Waldman

Who’d guess a novel about an early morning crew of warehouse workers unloading deliveries at a Target-like store would be artful, compelling, funny, and infuriating? I liked how the author melded a strongly narrative story based on seemingly low stakes (which employee will get the promotion!?) with understated (yet biting) political commentary on how American capitalism uses/abuses the working poor. The large cast of characters and mix of POVs worried me a bit, but I adapted quickly and ultimately had no problem keeping people straight. I also liked that this was no sad-sack story: these workers maintained dignity and connection despite the odds perpetually stacked against them by forces beyond their control.

 

*NINTH STREET WOMEN: LEE KRASNER, ELAINE DE KOONING, GRACE HARTIGAN, JOAN MITCHELL, AND HELEN FRANKENTHALER: FIVE PAINTERS AND THE MOVEMENT THAT CHANGED MODERN ART by Mary Gabriel

Longest title and longest book, at 926 pages(!!), including notes. I think I spent about a month immersed in this book, and what a glorious month it was. Every year I’ve got at least one “girl comes to New York City” book on my list, so this one’s that, but also so much more. I’m a fan of abstract expressionism, but museums mostly show the men (Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, etc.), so what a joy to learn about these fierce, independent, brainy, dedicated female painters, forced to wrestle both the muse and misogyny. I’m also a fan of reading about subcultures of artists, and hearing firsthand from denizens of the Cedar Bar was intoxicating (speaking of intoxicating, oh lordy, those artists PARTIED!).  And I’m a HUGE fan of reading about New York City, especially the 1950s, so no surprise that all these elements coming together made this my most favorite book of the year. If you read this book (and I insist you do), have your phone handy so you can look up the paintings under discussion. I was lucky enough to get to MoMA shortly after finishing this book, and I about cried to see a real, live painting by Joan Mitchell right there on the wall—as if that’s where it was destined to land all along. *My favorite book of the year

 

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

I first read this novel back in the days of yore, probably when I was too young to appreciate it. I remember being bored by the detours into reproducing Garp’s short story and novel chapters, but this time I absolutely adored every detour Irving took us on, admiring how each tangent reverberated eventually. A book ahead of its time, as the reader is presented with questions about women’s rights, sexual assault, and a transgender character who is (IMHO) the most interesting and memorable character in the book (and the movie). (Reminder: this book was first published in 1978.) By making Garp a writer, I felt Irving was showcasing his own theories and strategies on writing and creativity, which was a bonus for me. In the end, the highest praise I have is that this book absolutely is like no other.

 

THE GALES OF NOVEMBER: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD by John U. Bacon

I grew up in Iowa, with relatives in Michigan, and went to college in Chicago, so the Great Lakes stretch through my early days. Yet I knew nothing about the ships navigating these bodies of water and little about the underpinnings of the manufacturing economy that made the industrial north (now Rust Belt) the envy of the world. Yes, yes, there’s a (truly) devastating shipwreck in these pages, but the bigger revelation for me was the compelling and comprehensive examination of the culture of Lake Superior and sailors, iron ore mining and manufacturing, ship-building and captaining a laker. The relentless push of capitalism to get the goods delivered. The vagaries of weather. Luck, good and bad. Finding the way to a mournful hit song that might seem to trade on the misfortune of others. I liked reported facts and research balanced here with the personal recollections and reflections of family members of the dead men, and sailors who worked the Fitz back in its glory days, and other experts and observers. Clear and compelling narrative nonfiction with the emotional pull of a great novel. Plus, excellent maps!

 ***

 Here’s where I’m going to cheat a bit and add some extra material—just like the narrative nonfiction books do!

 

SOME SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS I ADMIRED:

 

Goodbye Columbus & Five Short Stories by Philip Roth (OMG! Impossible this is his debut book!)

 

The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake (desperate men clawing through Appalachia)

 

Are You Happy? by Lori Ostlund (complicated contemporary lives evoked with flair)

 

The Continental Divide by Bob Johnson (dark & artful midwestern violence)

 

SOME BOOKS BY FRIENDS THAT I READ & LOVED:

 

Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop by Paula Whyman (memoir; funny & an education about native plants without being “teacherly”)

 

King of Broadway by Dan Elish (novel; charming and insider-y take on writing for Broadway)

 

Stay Here With Me: A Memoir by Robert Olmstead (memoir; lyrical & retrospective)

 

We by Sarah Freligh (short fiction; compact & powerful)

 

The Body Is A Temporary Gathering Place by Andrew Bertaina (essays; brainy & dreamy & Proustian)

 

Pink Lady by Denise Duhamel (poetry; the sorrow and disorientation as an elderly mother declines)

 

One Last Ride by Dan Elish (YA; boy at camp & I bet you’ll cry)

 

POETRY!

At my free-writing dates on Thursday afternoons, I start each session by reading poetry and copying down resonant lines. Here are the books that kept me company in 2025 (to be transparent, I know many of these poets IRL). If you’re looking to add more poetry in your life, I suggest you start here.

 

Bodies of Light by Susan Tekulve

In Which by Denise Duhamel

Sky Mall by Eric Kocher

Everyone at this Party Has Two Names by Brad Aaron Modlin

Late Summer Ode by Olena Kalytaik Davis

The Place That Is Coming to Us by J.D. Smith

The Odds by Suzanne Cleary

TBR: Woman : Plant : Language by Agata Maslowska

 Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

The poems in the collection explore my main areas of interest which include ecopoetry, migrant literatures, translation, and experimental writing, among others. I think through the parallels between botany and migration and look at migrant experience through the lenses of the natural world and ecology. I like to interrogate language(s) to see what is possible and how words can point beyond their ascribed meanings to create multi-dimensional, polyphonic connections.

 

Which poem/s did you most enjoy writing? Why? And which poem/s gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

I most enjoy writing poems when I am guided by language, when I give myself into the music of language without control or an agenda. I feel that this is how I come up with my freest poems. An example of such a poem is a sequence “Sounding Soil” where I give up using words altogether and focus on sounds to create a soundscape which hopefully resonates beyond the sounds themselves. I also enjoy writing poems in conversation with other poets, artists, and writers. There is a sense of dialogue and being connected to something larger than myself. An example of such a poem is “A Bird in Flight” written after Jane Hirshfield’s poem “A Chair in Snow.” The poems that gave me most trouble are the poems where I attempt to tackle specific topics that are difficult and emotional for me, for example, the poem “Women’s Hell” where I look at the total abortion ban in Poland. I wrote six or seven versions of this poem before I was somewhat satisfied with it. It still feels like it only scratches the surface.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

Most of the poems in the collection have been written in the last five years. I started immersing myself in poetry during the Covid pandemic as I could only read and write poetry at the time. I got hooked and have been obsessively writing poems since then. A few years ago, I saw that one of my favourite poets was judging a poetry manuscript competition. While I didn’t expect to win it, I really wanted him to read my poems. I put the manuscript together and sent it. I didn’t win of course, but I had a manuscript ready to submit for publication. I submitted it to Bad Betty Press who accepted it. It was totally unexpected and the opposite experience to submitting my novel manuscript for publication which was rejected so many times I lost count. Working with Amy Acre, my editor, has been one of the most nourishing experiences. I feel Amy understands my poems even better than I do and has helped me make the poems stronger. I’ve been very lucky to have been selected by Bad Betty Press.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Read, read, read. Read as much as you can, particularly writers and poets from other countries.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

What surprised me about writing these poems is how indispensable writing poetry has become in my life. My perception and sensitivity to the world around me has changed completely since I started writing poems regularly. I have fallen in love with it. I still occasionally write prose, but it is influenced by my poetry writing practice.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I was initially trying to find a phrase in any of the poems, but nothing seemed suitable. I then thought of distilling the main themes of my book and this is how I came up with Woman : Plant : Language. The colons represent the interconnectedness of these themes in my collection. I also like to view the title as an image rather than a string or a sequence of words.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

One of my poems, “Herbiporous,” talks about how I became vegetarian. Here’s one of my favourite veggie recipes: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/butternut-squash-sage-risotto

 

***

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://agatamaslowska.co.uk

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: https://badbettypress.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/woman-plant-language/agata-maslowska/9781913268763

  

READ TWO POEMS FROM THIS COLLECTION:

“Sounding Soil,”  https://www.propelmagazine.co.uk/agata-maslowska-sounding-soil & “A Bird in Flight,” https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/a-bird-in-flight/

 

 

 

 

 

TBR: Burner and Other Stories by Katrina Denza

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

The stories in BURNER explore technology’s influence on the way we communicate with each other for better or worse. Some also touch on the ways in which women are compelled to inhabit their own power in a patriarchal society.

  

Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And which story gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

Burner was so fun to write. Having worked in restaurants in my twenties, I know the environment and the family-like relationships that can develop. I had a great time imagining how my character might try to seduce a man who’s clearly not interested in her, and especially not intellectually. There’s No Danger Here was probably revised the most drastically. In its earliest drafts the story was over six thousand words. I chipped away at it until the narrator’s understanding of what she really wanted revealed itself.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I sent the manuscript out to about six or seven agents and received some positive responses, but the prevailing message was that story collections are difficult to sell. At the same time, I entered the collection into contests and submitted directly to a few smaller presses. Burner was a semi-finalist in a 2023 Autumn House Press contest for fiction and longlisted for Dzanc’s 2023 contest for short story collections. A few months later, Cornerstone Press accepted it for publication. 

  

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

My favorite piece of advice is from Richard Bausch, and I’m paraphrasing here, but essentially to ground the reader in the story with details. And I also like the more general advice: write the things you’d want to read.

  

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

My surprises show up in revision. The way I revise is probably the least efficient, which is to rewrite the story from start to finish every time, but this method tends to yield the most surprises.

  

How did you find the title of your book?

 

Burner seemed to capture the disposable nature of communication that technology encourages or allows.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

The chef in Burner makes a delicious coq au vin, but unfortunately, he’s as tightlipped about how he makes it as he is about himself.

 

***

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://www.katrinadenza.com/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK: https://bookshop.org/p/books/burner-and-other-stories/c1fe6bc8563b1165?ean=9781968148126&next=t

  

READ A STORY FROM THIS BOOK, “In These Dark Woods”:  https://newworldwriting.net/katrina-denza-in-these-dark-woods/

 

 

TBR: Peacocks on the Streets by Michele Wolf

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

Peacocks on the Streets explores what is wild and unpredictable in our lives — both what slams us and what uplifts us — and how we find the resolve to triumph after trauma. The poems’ subjects range from pandemic bereavement, hate crimes, and terrorism, to falling in love at midlife, adopting a child, and caring for a parent stolen by dementia. With grit and compassion, Peacocks on the Streets offers an acute sense of the privilege of being alive.

 

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this book? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

I broke personal boundaries in that I began to write about some previously self-censored subjects, such as the emotional pain of my infertility and my often fraught relationship with my mother, a tension that peaked in my teens and 20s but always lingered under the surface. This loss got magnified once my mother plunged into dementia. The courage came from the grief I experienced even before my mother’s passing, as I watched her deteriorate cognitively and physically. My mother’s death released me to claim my truths and to see situations, whether real or conjured, with more clarity and a fuller appreciation of multiple points of view. This has led to an even deeper authenticity, strength, and warmth in my work, which I find people relate to.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I spent a bunch of years sending a version of Peacocks to competitions offering a book-publication prize, and I received several finalist or semifinalist notifications. I steadily continued to publish pieces in literary journals and anthologies, and I didn’t give up trying to place the manuscript. I had previously published two full-length books and a chapbook, and I had confidence in the work. My breakthrough came when I began investigating and submitting to independent presses that offered book publication and royalties but not a prize. First I was offered a yes from an independent press whose seven-page contract did not seem author-friendly. Like the vast majority of poets, I don’t work with an agent — there’s not enough of a financial return on most poetry books to be of interest to an agent. So, I joined the Authors Guild and had my contract reviewed by an attorney on the staff. After that consultation, I sent an email to the publisher, requesting several changes to the contract. Via email, they withdrew their publishing offer, saying we were too far apart. That was not my happiest day.

 

But soon Broadstone Books offered me another yes. That was a hallelujah day. I’ve had a great experience with Broadstone.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

My favorite writing advice comes from a one-day master class I had with the late U.S. poet laureate W.S. Merwin. “We don’t write poems,” he maintained. “We listen for them.” Wow. I found that approach to be powerful — that the writing process is not so much that we will a poem into being, but instead that we get ourselves to a quiet place and listen for the words.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

This is something that surprised me after I had written the book. It didn’t occur to me until two people mentioned it that Peacocks on the Streets is rife with animals — five kinds of birds, a coyote, mountain goats, pandas, a hamster, manatees, deer, tadpoles, zebras, a beagle, fish, corals, seals, dolphins, whales, a ladybug, and more — and that I was making a statement about the wisdom and supremacy of animals. Okay, I suppose that makes sense. But it was never my conscious intent to suggest this! 

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

The book’s title, which is also the title of the poem “Peacocks on the Streets,” comes from that time during the pandemic when we were in quarantine and the streets were so empty that, worldwide, wildlife ventured out to residential and commercial areas. “Peacocks on the Streets” was always the title of the poem, and I knew, even before the poem was complete, that it would be the unifying, flagship piece and title that spoke for the entire book.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book?

 

In the poem “Peacocks on the Streets,” my persona buys a rotisserie chicken. Here is my completely subjective ranking — from “Bleh” to “Meh” to “Scrumptious” — of supermarket rotisserie chickens available in the D.C. area.

5. Costco

4. Whole Foods

3. A tie: Safeway and Harris Teeter

2. Giant

1. Wegman’s—the best!

 

*****

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://michelewolf.com/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK (THE 20% OFF DISCOUNT CODE IS POETS24): https://www.broadstonebooks.com/shop/p/peacocks-on-the-streets-poetry-by-michele-wolf

 

READ SEVERAL POEMS FROM THIS BOOK: https://michelewolf.com/poems.html

 

 

 

 

TBR: What Haunts Me by Bernadette Geyer

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

We don’t expect an elevator pitch from a poet, but can you tell us about your work in 2-3 sentences?

 

The poems in What Haunts Me examine what is passed down through families and societies – what is inherited, what we take with us as we age, and what we leave behind. How do we process and come to terms with the centuries that have preceded us? The collection interrogates how ancestries and beliefs serve as sparring partners within us as we forge and discover our individual roles in shaping our own lives.

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this book? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

I broke the mental boundary of believing that my writing path would be linear: I would work on one book, then move on to the next book, then move on to the next book, and so on. Most of the poems in this collection were actually written before the poems that appeared in my first collection, The Scabbard of Her Throat, which was published in 2013. Some of the poems in What Haunts Me are more than 20 years old. I think this change in perspective helped me to allow myself to work on more than one project simultaneously.

 

I don’t know if I’d call it courage, but more of an acceptance of reality. I don’t put off working on a new project idea simply because I am in the middle of something else. In fact, I use this to my advantage – when I’m stalled in one project, I switch to a different project. That way, I am at least making progress with something.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

When I first started sending the manuscript out in its earliest form as The Inheritance back in 2003, it was a finalist and semi-finalist for several book contests. However, as the years went on and I tinkered with it – adding new poems, removing others, and changing the title multiple times – I think the manuscript lost its way.

 

Following the birth of my daughter in 2005, I had started writing poems linked by a more cohesive theme that really came together over the course of a few years, and I started sending out that manuscript (The Scabbard of Her Throat) in 2009. It was then that I gave up pitching the first manuscript and set it aside.

 

Following the publication of The Scabbard of Her Throat in 2013, I moved with my family to Germany. My writing expanded into travel articles, essays, and short fiction. I translated several business books, as well as poems by German poets. I didn’t really look back at my first poetry manuscript until about 2022, when I really reworked it and settled on a new title. I began submitting it in earnest in 2023 – and only to publishers who offered a free open reading period. April Gloaming Publishing was one of the indie presses I sent an excerpt to that year. They requested the full manuscript for What Haunts Me in February 2024 and made me an offer four months later.

 

The whole experience taught me that there was something the original manuscript had been lacking, and that I needed the long break to really find the order and structure – and title – that the book had been seeking all along.

 

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

My favorite piece of writing advice is actually the last two stanzas of the poem “Berryman,” by W.S. Merwin.

 

I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can’t

 

you can’t you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don’t write

 

It’s a little bit depressing, but also freeing at the same time. And so I keep writing.

 

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I honestly did not realize how many ghosts and spirits would show up in it! As I was reading through the final editing rounds with my publisher, I was also struck by how many of the poems were inspired by photographs and how prominently those images imprinted themselves in my mind.

 

 

How do you approach revision?

 

I love the editing process and am always surprised by how many writers believe that if it doesn’t come out perfect the first time, they need to throw it out and start over. I love trying out different word combinations to see what kind of vibe or nuance they bring to the poem. I also love researching word origins and alternate meanings to see how a single word can serve to emphasize a theme or hint at a subversive undercurrent. I also love writing an ending over and over and over dozens of different ways – it seems to break down the inner censor and help me find a totally unexpected image or turn.

 

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

This book is fortified with pierogies, turkey neck soup, and pickled beets. The only thing I remember the recipe for is the turkey neck soup, because it was so simple: put the turkey neck and giblets in a pot with about 2 liters of water, 1 large carrot (sliced), 1 onion (diced), 1 stalk of celery (diced), a couple of sprigs of parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook all morning (from about 8am until early afternoon) as you are preparing Thanksgiving dinner and have it at lunch to tide you over until the big meal.

 

***

 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://bernadettegeyer.com/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:  https://aprilgloaming.com/shop/what-haunts-me/

 

READ A POEM FROM THIS BOOK, “A Failed Romanticism”:   https://electricliterature.com/after-vacation-id-like-to-come-home-to-ruin/

SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@bernadettegeyer

 

 

 

TBR: Momma May Be Mad: a memoir by Kerry Neville

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

Momma May Be Mad: A Memoir is an inventive and striking memoir about motherhood, madness, and the grace of second and third chances. Kerry Neville shares the story of how she was caught in the perfect storm of bipolar disorder, anorexia, and alcoholism when her children were young and her marriage failing and how she found her way back to joy and hope. Electric shock therapy, hospitalizations, and even an exorcism were desperate, if failed, lifelines. But even in that dark chaos, she held fast to an abiding belief in love and fought to regain her own life and her life with her children.

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this memoir? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

The easiest way to answer this question is to quote the opening of the memoir:

 

“How do you write a memoir when you can’t remember? And how then do you honor and unravel that tangle of time?...Electric Shock Treatments erased years of my linear memory. What remains? Unreliable chaotic approximation. Incomplete jerry-rigged record. Splinters and fragments: a fat file of doctors’ shorthand notes and coded diagnoses, Social Security Disability Insurance legalities, journal entries composed in situ, email correspondence with therapist, and friends who fill in the blanks.

 

“External documentation functions with the specious authority of a third-person limited narrator. Even my journals, though read as if extemporaneous synchronous records, are always belated after-accounts. We don’t live in time’s flow but in time’s lag. Our brains create a coherent understanding of the world from stimuli that travel at different times and speeds. Auditory processing is faster than visual processing. Starter pistol rather than flash of light. The brain waits for the slowest information to arrive before “making sense” of “now.” An eighty-millisecond lag between what is happening and what we understand is happening.

 

“When I read my medical records and journals, scroll through photos, and listen to my friends recount who I was and what I was doing and saying and how I was lying and dying and trying and not trying to get myself into sensible order? That “I” stands in strange, estranged proximity. I cast forwards and backwards through lost and found time, never able to catch up. My unruly IIIIIIIIII’s arrive at different times and speeds to these pages.

 

“I’ve tried and tried to write this happened and then this happened and then this happened and now it’s done, but each attempt was a failed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of my corpse on the dissection table, so I ditched linear plot-forward-in-time.”

 

Additionally, the memoir is divided into three sections according to St. Augustine’s understanding of time as he outlines in Confessions: “present of things past, memory; present of things present, sight; present of things future, expectation.”

 

Courage: There was no other way to write this story—except to find a way to represent how I—we—construct ourselves as changing selves every day, how we revise and rerevise our stories of how we have arrived in this moment now. The memoir is an attempt at simultaneity: becoming and unbecoming at the same time. So, linear plot can’t do that on the page with its neat, progressive timeline. 

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

My agent sent the manuscript out to the big presses, and I received positive feedback but…ultimately, no, no, no, no. I knew the structure would be a difficult sell—but memoirs are, anyway. My agent persevered because she believed the book would find a home, the right editor, at the right time. I know how fortunate I am to have an agent willing to keep on keeping on with the manuscript. Eventually, Kim Davis and her editorial team at Madville Publishing responded with a quick (!) and enthusiastic yes. The right home, the right editor, the right time!

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Write from your me-ness”—you don’t have to be decorous, polite, modest, or measured. Write out of your fierceness, unruliness, and daring. Disturb the universe. (Fyi: it took me far too long to realize writing, at least early draft writing, is ferocious and feral. Late draft revision is meticulous and exacting.)

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

What surprised me was how much I learned about what is beyond me—that is, research that brought the world and all its complicated wonders inside my understanding of self-as-world-on-the-page. Biology, neuroscience, anatomy, philosophy, botany, history, geology, religion, mythology!

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

The title is the title of a long-retired blog I kept when I was in my dark, desperate times. Writing that blog about my mental health complications helped me to understand that I wasn’t the only momma, the only human being going through the really effing hard stuff—I heard from many readers who connected to my story (if not to exact facts, then to the ebb and flow of despair and joy). I had a running list of possible titles for the memoir but I kept coming back to Momma May Be Mad—there’s the sound of the M’s, but, too, there’s the uncertainty. Not “maybe” but “may be”—or may not be. And maybe it’s all of is: motherhood, madness, hysteria, wandering wombs, one body creating another body, body-at-hand and body-of-work. We are shapeshifters, phoenixes rising again and again from the ash. What are the forces at work on the inside and on the outside that contribute to despair, give rise to joy, and allow us to redeem ourselves?

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

My story includes recovering from an eating disorder, anorexia, so for the first third of the book, my relationship with food and eating was dark, complicated—I was doing everything I could not to eat. But then, the rest of the book is about finding joy and pleasure again in eating well and good: yes, healthy, balanced eating, but also the lascivious pleasure in what tastes good!

 

No recipe, but I’ll note two moments from the memoir that blaze white hot:

 

Evening, and I am on the roof of my riad in Marrakech eating the last tawny, rosy cheeked apricot that I’d bought from the fruit vendor. The call to prayer rises around me. My teeth split the fuzzy skin and my mouth is lit up by the warm, sweet flesh.

 

Evening, and I am in a small cottage on the top of a mountain in Ireland sitting beside a lovely man who has just brought us tea and KitKat bars. The world is growing dark outside and we are in happy, desiring companionship. We sit quietly by the fire, dunking the chocolate bars into the tea. We know what comes next! And we are happy to wait for it.

 

***

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.kerry-neville.com

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: https://madvillepublishing.com/product/momma-may-be-mad/

 

 ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:

https://www.amazon.com/Momma-May-Mad-Kerry-Neville/dp/1963695410/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JYeasQyAVWKYts7hBTRMHMT1gys6klANEL9X6WjTv7HEfW-YsNsX1wg22Y2JAUvd4kT9rJtROJdQkXhR6i4kTm8Tt-h7bgtZp_kDyu6Lx5yLyUfTR3LvBh2joyFWNnq9w3jsHswl4rHnjQH-nh_jK0wHyB3oE-Tta530Xnx8AtYpr-Z4FezTGXOsNC-aKCJTYeWWL_1vxwUUpbKsdeDBYw.2icBBVomFuUKZvdzBlLh-Jw1OM4sC8ZfijYMrFQJZVQ&dib_tag=se&qid=1754768006&refinements=p_27%3AKerry+Neville&s=books&sr=1-3

 

 READ AN EXCERPT FROM THIS BOOK, “Inis: Water Meadow”:  https://panoramajournal.org/issues/issue-6-war-and-peace/war-peace-inis-water-meadow/?srsltid=AfmBOopAxBZozmVidQzo99xOR9mmFmFcZw1IoV2oacsBsEUL1kT0Gswi