Something old, something new

Usually I end these things with a book recommendation, but I honestly couldn’t wait, so this time I’m starting there. Last week I reread Slaughterhouse Five for the first time since high school. I remembered not a single thing about it except having loved it, so essentially it was brand new to me but with a soupçon more promise. Even if I had remembered it, what I imagine I loved about it at fifteen was not what I loved about it last week. But my friends, Slaughterhouse Five blew my mind.

For one thing, it is a masterclass in weird for a reason. Weird for the sake of weird is, at best, a peeve¹. But weird because your entire point is the pointlessness of war² and the insufficiency of narrative to make sense of it? That’s earned weird, and I’m here for it. This novel is meta as smart rather than navel-gaze-y. It’s funny as a measure of distance. The structure is the sort of thing you could learn so much from if anyone other than Kurt Vonnegut had a hope of pulling it off. I finished it and turned right back to the beginning to read it again. So there’s my recommendation: Read Slaughterhouse Five.

But it’s not my whole recommendation. My whole recommendation is to reread books you loved long ago.

Lots of people don’t reread books. In fact, lots of people don’t reread books as a matter of principle. And I get that. Life is short and there’s lots to read. But I’m also going to argue that your former self did a lot of heavy lifting and kissed a lot of frogs, and now you get to pay that off and make out with some beloved princes from your youth, beloved princes from your youth who, however, are different than they were then because as you’ve gotten older, they have too. Now they’re all crinkle-eyed with mellow smiles and wisdom that’s a little sad but mostly sweet.

This metaphor is wandering. The point is you change and so your tastes change. What you’re looking for in a book changes. Your experiences and perspectives change and multiply, and so what you encounter on the page will ring differently than it did. And mostly, your memory probably isn’t crystalline. Which means locked in there is a list of beloved books you’ve never, for all intents and purposes, read.

All to say, if you don’t reread books, you’re missing out AND short-shrifting your former self. When you can’t find something good to read, seek your own shelves.

HOWEVER, far be it from me to dissuade you from buying new books. When you do, I get to eat! So I’m very grateful.

My publisher is too. To sweeten that particular pot, they are TODAY kicking off a preorder campaign for my soon-to-be novel, Enormous Wings.

Here’s how it works: You preorder the book and, as a thank you, I sign and personalize a bookplate and make it out to you, and my publisher sends it your way along with a very cool sticker (I have seen it, and truly it is stunning and clever and exactly what your water bottle needs) as well as a deluxe reading guide full of extras for your bookclub. All that plus my undying gratitude, and in case that last sounds snarky or sarcastic, it is not. Preorders mean so much for books and to authors, and grateful-in-spades is exactly what I am. (Click the image or this link to claim said excellent prizes. Special shoutout to the Bookshop option which will allow you to support me, the book, my publisher, AND the indie bookstore of your choice, which really is win win win win win.)

Thank you — deeply, truly — and let me know in the comments what book from your past you’re rereading while you wait for Enormous Wings to release and also how you like Slaughterhouse Five. (Actually, only let me know how you like Slaughterhouse Five if the answer is “So much!” I am at that phase of book crush where if you don’t, it will actually hurt my feelings.)

1. At worst, it makes me enraged.

2. Someday this will not be timely. Today, alas, is not that day.