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What Do Writers Read?
My usual answer being, “I’m don’t; I’m writing a book.”
I have taken on a new project: post the book I am (on the off-chance) reading and the teacup most used during the reading of it.
I undertook the memoir Home is Where the Heart Is as part of researching Cambodia in the early 1990s for the novel I’m writing, Crazy Medicine. Home is as sappy as the title indicates. It pubbed in 2000; it is a relief to see how far we have come in our expectations of representing another’s culture.
The author, though clearly well-intended in her portrayal of child survivors of Cambodia’s horrific trauma, almost goes so far as to call them, “such a happy people.” Unless you are writing a book set in Cambodia in the early 90s, skip this one.
NEXT UP: I’m hoping it won’t be a lemon … taking your bets on which book I’m reading now.
