Oh, the things we do for love.... Today's guest blogger, HUMMINGBIRD author Joshua Gaylord, reminisces about an adolescent crush and the impact of his affections more than 2 decades later.

In the ninth grade, I was in love with my English teacher. Her name was Carol Mooney, and what made her so irresistible was her belief that I was extraordinary --- a delusion which, when I discover it in people around me, never fails to raise them in my estimation. It was one of those classic student-teacher romances. I found reasons to hang out in her classroom before school, after school, during lunch. I offered to help her hang posters of the Transcendentalists on her walls. I made pathetic romantic overtures in my awkward fifteen-year-old way, and she tolerated them with grace and politesse. Far from trying to avoid the label of teacher’s pet among my peers, I flew that flag as though I had battled nations to win it --- and the result was that everyone eventually acquiesced to my right to the title, including Carol Mooney herself.

When Christmas came, she gave me a gift. It wasn’t wrapped, but it was contained in a brown paper bag, the kind I used to bring my lunch to school. Inside I discovered a book, a mass-market paperback copy of William Faulkner’s THE SOUND AND THE FURY. She had inscribed it to me:

for the gothic in you, J. Alden

J. Alden Gaylord was how I liked to think of myself at that age. It was the moniker of a portentous writer, someone who had so many names of such gravity that one of them had to be elided, and I was glad that she was able to appreciate the direction my future would take. I had not known before that I had any gothic in me at all, nor did I quite know what this meant, but I was pleased to discover that I could add this to the gradually accumulating list of things that made up my identity.

“It’s one of my favorite books,” she said, while I turned it over in my hands.

“How come we don’t read it in class?” I asked, suspicious.

“Most ninth-graders aren’t ready for it,” she said.

I took this as a winking acknowledgment that I was better than everyone else in my class, and I winked back. I understood. It would be our secret. We were like secret agents in the service of my awesomeness.

I brought the book home and immediately fell to studying it as though it were the Rosetta Stone of the adult literary world. If I could decipher it, it would be my key to untold poetic wisdom.

The cover showed a mansion on a hill, one of those neoclassical Southern-style homes with six columns in front and a porch balcony on the second story. There was a leafless tree reaching down its claw-like branches over the roof of the mansion, and a sky filled with black clouds that looked like a flight of vengeful specters. The whole picture had a distorted fish-eye quality that I would later come to associate with Thomas Hart Benton. Very sinister all around.

The cover also declared that this version of THE SOUND AND THE FURY was “The Corrected Text,” which made me feel like an aficionado, someone who could appreciate this particular brand of academic-sounding nuance. And the back cover claimed that this was the first “indisputable masterpiece” of this “central figure in twentieth-century literature.”

Surely, what Carol Mooney had given me was not simply a book, but Greatness itself.

The problem was that I could not read it.

What were “curling flower spaces”? What was a “flower tree”? Who were “they,” and what were they hitting? Was Luster really the name of someone? What was going on here?

But this book was meant for me. The inscription by Carol Mooney proved it. So I read it --- in the sense that I put my eyes on every word of every page in that book. I did not understand more than ten percent of it, but I read it in three days and closed it and went around declaring it a masterpiece.

Now, over twenty years later, when I read THE SOUND AND THE FURY, I can proclaim its beauty with a respectable amount of authority, with conviction based upon actual comprehension. But back then what I remember most is believing in the beauty of the book before I had even opened it. It was the gift of Greatness given to me by a person of Greatness, and if I was going to be Great as well, I had better damn well see the beauty in that book. I didn’t actually see it, but I said that I did --- and that was enough to hold me over for a while, until the next time I read it. In my second reading, about a year later, I did actually see a bit more of the beauty, and my blind belief in the book became a little less blind. The next time I saw a little more, and the time after that a little more. And now, twenty years later, I make pilgrimages to Oxford, Mississippi, to visit Faulkner’s grave.

It’s true: I would have taught myself to adore any book Carol Mooney gave me, so I’m grateful she gave me William Faulkner rather than Anthony Trollope. Nonetheless, I sometimes wish I could go back there, wish that Carol Mooney could give me more books, wish that I could read a book with the same religious faith in its greatness that I once did. Not all authors write in the service of their readers’ instant gratification; there are some whose books require a certain blind trust to get you through. Frequently these are the greatest authors, and what may be required is that you pick up the book and hold it to your lips even before you open it, incanting it with your whispered devotion: This book is meant for me, for me. For me.

-- Joshua Gaylord


Check back tomorrow as Edward Falco shares some fond memories of a large, rowdy Christmas, and Wendy Smith gives reflects on what a gift can truly mean to someone.

Labels: holiday-blogs-2009, Hummingbirds, Joshua Gaylord

Kicking off this year's Bookreporter.com Holiday Blog is Beverly Barton, whose latest novel, SILENT KILLER, was recently spotlighted in our Romantic Suspense feature. Below, she discusses one of her most favorite childhood stories and shares how she came to own two equally beloved copies of the timeless fairy tale.


I’m one of those lucky (or depending on your point of view, unlucky) people born at Christmastime, so over the years, many birthday and Christmas presents have been combined into one gift. The year that I turned six, my paternal grandfather gave me an illustrated copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and I honestly don’t remember if the book was one of my birthday presents or one of my Christmas presents. But I do know that this fairy tale about the power of love to transform a beast into a prince became my all-time favorite story, and it opened the world of romance to my young heart and impressionable mind.

Born into a family of storytellers who had the ability to enhance the most mundane aspects of life and turn them into high drama, I quiet easily adopted the theme of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as my romantic mantra. Unconditional love for another person having the ability to perform a miracle seemed like the perfect romantic formula. From childhood, I have believed that there is no power greater than the power of love --- all types of love, from parental love to wedded bliss, from loving friendships to love of God and country. And when I began writing romance novels, this fairy tale from my childhood formed the basis for many of my bad boy/good girl stories that ended with that essential happily ever after.

Although slightly tattered from much use and the pages yellow with age, that treasured copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST given to me so many years ago is still in my possession. It resides in a place of honor on a corner bookcase in my home office, alongside another copy of the book, printed and released the same year as the copy my grandfather gave me. And the interesting tale of how I came to own a second copy is a story of a son’s and daughter’s love for their mother and a son’s determined search for “the perfect gift.” Everyone close to me knows about my favorite fairy tale, knows how much I treasure that book, and knows about the very special relationship I shared with my grandfather. My children have delighted me, surprised me, and brought me to happy tears with numerous thoughtful gifts over the years, but none as absolutely perfect as the second copy of my beloved fairy tale. Two identical Christmas gifts, given decades apart, the first given to a granddaughter, the second given to a mother.

Both copies of this book are important to me, each a gift of love. One from a grandfather I adored and the other from the son and daughter I love unconditionally. The love my grandfather gave me --- which included a book about the power of love --- I gave to my children and they returned that love to me and passed it to their own children, continuing the never-ending circle of love within our family.

-- Beverly Barton


Check back tomorrow as Joshua Gaylord reminisces about how an adolescent crush taught him the importance of having blind trust in unreadable masterpieces.

Labels: Beverly Barton, holiday-blogs-2009, Silent Killer

Last weekend as I was sitting at a panel at the Miami Book Fair, I had this moment where I realized how deeply my life has been enriched by the many authors and readers whom I have met over the last 13 plus years. Sitting with a group of readers in a room listening to an author share her story, there was something really lovely --- and satisfying --- about acknowledging that. It was a revelation of something pretty simple, but I have been thinking about it all week.

Through the years, I have been lucky enough to be able to count so many authors as friends. We have shared anecdotes about our lives, our children and our families. There have been moments of joy and times of loss all shared at readings and conferences, on airplanes, phone calls, and endless emails. We’ve talked knitting, decorating, haircuts, sports and our children’s special moments as much as we have about the stories that they have written.

And when I am in a city that is not home, it’s been wonderful to meet readers. Their suggestions about things to see, places to shop, and things I just cannot miss have given me a very different lens on so many of the places where I have touched down or driven to. Readers’ recommendations of books I “must” read and authors I “need” to explore have expanded my horizons in more ways than I can count. From their suggestions, I have become much more well-read.

There’s this generosity of spirit that I do not take for granted, as I realize it’s pretty special.

As the holidays approach, I am thrilled to share that --- as we did last year --- we will once again be bringing you holiday stories from authors on this blog starting tomorrow that will run right through Christmas Day. There will be pieces about gift giving and getting, bookish tales of the stories that have enhanced their lives and the traditions that they share. I have read some pieces and teared up, laughed and smiled as I read them. I am thrilled that so many authors want to be part of this special celebration of the holiday with us. For me, though they will not be at my holiday table, it will be a chance to spend time with them and celebrate.

Since we cannot all be together, I am glad that you will be able to escape with me and enjoy these moments in the days and weeks ahead. We’ll start tomorrow with Beverly Barton, as she describes two very treasured copies of of the classic fairy tale, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. In the weeks to come, more than 50 authors will be joining us. I hope you end up both discovering an author's work you want to read --- and ideas for bookish giving and getting.

-- Carol Fitzgerald

Labels: holiday-blogs-2009

Week of November 2nd

Next Monday, Oprah.com, CNN.com and Facebook will present a live Oprah's Book Club webcast for the current selection, SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM by Uwem Akpan. During the 90-minute event, readers will be able to submit questions for the author and may be featured during the live discussion. The proceedings will be streamed live simultaneously from CNN.com's video player on Oprah.com. The webcast will be on November 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.

The New York Times says Anne C. Heller’s biography of Ayn Rand, AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE, conveys the conviction and odd charisma of Rand, whose individualist message is still resonant for American conservatives.

Bookreporter.com posted The New York Times Best Seller Hardcover Fiction List and Paperback Trade Fiction List.

Simon & Schuster has started to sell individual e-chapters to its bestselling You series of titles written by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz.

There was a terrific piece in the NYT on the book that Carol is calling The Book of the Year for 2009: THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett.

A group of Santas hit Grand Central, the Flatiron, and Union Square on Monday to promote Augusten Burroughs’s new memoir, YOU BETTER NOT CRY: STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS. The Santas handed out thousands of postcards, danced, took pictures, and appropriately flashed their message to onlookers everywhere. Burroughs then did a signing at the B&N in Union Square at 7 pm.

A link to an excerpt from KINDRED IN DEATH by J.D. Robb was posted.

Penguin's INVICTUS movie adaptation is already getting the buzz from the LA Times.

On Wednesday, NPR's Morning Edition talked to Sapphire, author of PUSH: A Novel about her technique of teaching illiterate students. The movie Precious, based on the book, opens in select theaters tomorrow.

Labels: Facebook-Roundups