I have almost the same history with Bread as you! I still own The Best of Bread record, and indeed it was my first album. I still feel like “AM radio soft rock” is a better description than yacht rock which doesn’t really jive with my formative memories. But it’s definitely the ultimate nostalgia music of my childhood.
Luckily, Demon Copperhead has been selected for my book club so I will be reading it later this year. Interesting history on Adam Johnson! The Orphan Masters Son is an all time book for me.
I completely agree about encouraging creativity within some parameters because I've also seen how students respond to prompts that lead them to their area of expertise. Among the best writings I have seen from high school freshmen came as an introduction to reading "The Odyssey," letting them choose among 76 possible Ulysses-inspired first lines (from master storyteller Odds Bodkin). All begin with "I remember when I was..." and the prompts include: the exhausted fighter, the reluctant one, the one who warns, far from where I knew I should be, trapped and helpless, ill-treated by fate, trapped between two terrors, rowing endlessly, completely on my own, broken in spirit, saved by a miracle, forced to hide my identity, the returning hero. These, and your list of songs from the year you were born, make me want to start writing right now! --Vicky E.
Reading 43 is impressive...I think I've read 32. Some of the early ones don't look that tempting to read. It seems like they often used to give writers the Pulitzer for their lesser books--just look at Faulkner's two wins for his lesser-known titles, kind of the way Oscars seem to be given out for a body of work. Now it seems like they are better at zeroing in on a writer's masterwork. These writers are still working, so we can't say for certain, but it does seem like Kavalier and Clay, Gilead, Nickel Boys/Underground Railroad, and The Known World were awarded for these authors' very best work.
That number of reads is hugely skewed by my post 1992 dedication. There's some on there that I probably should have read that I haven't, e.g., Gone with the Wind. I understand the significance of that book, but I have very little interest in actually reading it.
That stat about having read books by winning authors, but not the winning books is rooted in exactly what you've observed here. Some of them you look at the author and think, "Huh? That one?"
It's interesting to see some of the finalist books, the near misses. I also like to see for which years I would've voted for a different finalist. No offense to Richard Russo, and Empire Falls is a book I like, but I'd put both of the other finalist books John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead and Franzen's The Corrections ahead of it.
I have almost the same history with Bread as you! I still own The Best of Bread record, and indeed it was my first album. I still feel like “AM radio soft rock” is a better description than yacht rock which doesn’t really jive with my formative memories. But it’s definitely the ultimate nostalgia music of my childhood.
Luckily, Demon Copperhead has been selected for my book club so I will be reading it later this year. Interesting history on Adam Johnson! The Orphan Masters Son is an all time book for me.
Soft rock is a better description that proto-yacht rock. There was a lot of it in the early 70's, judging from the Top 40 lists, anyway.
I completely agree about encouraging creativity within some parameters because I've also seen how students respond to prompts that lead them to their area of expertise. Among the best writings I have seen from high school freshmen came as an introduction to reading "The Odyssey," letting them choose among 76 possible Ulysses-inspired first lines (from master storyteller Odds Bodkin). All begin with "I remember when I was..." and the prompts include: the exhausted fighter, the reluctant one, the one who warns, far from where I knew I should be, trapped and helpless, ill-treated by fate, trapped between two terrors, rowing endlessly, completely on my own, broken in spirit, saved by a miracle, forced to hide my identity, the returning hero. These, and your list of songs from the year you were born, make me want to start writing right now! --Vicky E.
That's great stuff. The initiation of a piece of writing is the hardest part, but that helps the writer leap write into the fray.
Reading 43 is impressive...I think I've read 32. Some of the early ones don't look that tempting to read. It seems like they often used to give writers the Pulitzer for their lesser books--just look at Faulkner's two wins for his lesser-known titles, kind of the way Oscars seem to be given out for a body of work. Now it seems like they are better at zeroing in on a writer's masterwork. These writers are still working, so we can't say for certain, but it does seem like Kavalier and Clay, Gilead, Nickel Boys/Underground Railroad, and The Known World were awarded for these authors' very best work.
That number of reads is hugely skewed by my post 1992 dedication. There's some on there that I probably should have read that I haven't, e.g., Gone with the Wind. I understand the significance of that book, but I have very little interest in actually reading it.
That stat about having read books by winning authors, but not the winning books is rooted in exactly what you've observed here. Some of them you look at the author and think, "Huh? That one?"
This was such a wonderful conversation.
Yeesh, Alice McDermott. 3 times nominated and never won. Now I feel I owe it to her to read her work.
It's interesting to see some of the finalist books, the near misses. I also like to see for which years I would've voted for a different finalist. No offense to Richard Russo, and Empire Falls is a book I like, but I'd put both of the other finalist books John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead and Franzen's The Corrections ahead of it.