Terry McMillan Book Tour Review

Town Hall Seattle
Elliot Bay Books (Sponsor)

Short version: An entertaining reading by a poignant sometimes-controversial author. She was funny, direct and to my surprise a superior orator reader.

I stand in line to buy tickets to see Terry McMillan at Seattle's legendary Town Hall. Her latest novel "Getting to Happy” is a sequel from the now legendary "Waiting to Exhale." Fifteen years later, the author revisits the fearless Phoenix foursome of Savannah, Robin, Gloria and Bernadine, as they ride again: post hysterectomy and pre-menopause.

This is a brave thing by Ms. McMillan, as she makes the brave attempt at a sequel to her most famous work. It's exciting, standing in line, I am the only male. I am the only person under forty-five and I am the only non African American. This is the land of the angry woman. They look at me as if I climbed off on the wrong bus. Terry McMillan is their author and their voice. She galvanized a whole generation of women that shared in the commonality of an experience I will never understand. Terri McMillan lived it and wrote about it and no I don't understand. I do know Ms. McMillan is an important author and one of the great narrative voices of the last twenty years.

The Reading.

I grind my teeth because of course the 7:30 reading didn't start until 7:56pm. Sponsored by the Central District Forum for the Arts (CDFA) and Elliot Bay Books. Ms. McMillan gets not one but three introductions, which is two more than any author (or the Pope) deserves. Even Ms. McMillan appeared overwhelmed by the pomp and circumstance. She had been on Oprah recently, so maybe the CDFA wanted to try and top the mighty O.

McMillan looks radiant on stage and I had to double check to make sure her true age. The reading is long. She reads the first chapter prefacing it by saying "I’m sick to death of Savannah. I'll be honest." I thought the thing would suck with such a negative beginning but then McMillan took off during her reading. Changing speeds as she went along. Talking fast when describing men and slowing her words down to near crawl when it came to Savannah’s own reflection about her life.It was as if I were watching a great actor. Half way through the reading McMillan the author disappeared and Savannah emerged. Maybe they are the same person but I believe a writer of McMillan’s skill has the ability to channel the characters she’s created. So few authors have these moments of clarity where the writer and entertainer mix.

Even as an audience member refused to leave the reading as her three-year-old son acted out during McMillan’s performance, (RUDE) the author carried through never allowing the child's antics to break her concentration. It was impressive.

What is not impressive is the bitterness of her life and divorce that come through during the question and answer period. Ms. McMillan can say she is not the bitter person she once was and she can show up on Oprah with her ex husband and say all is forgiven, but the body language and the tone come through like an martini made from alum."I think men are the cause of most of women's problems. Not all of them but most of them." I looked around the room at the nodding heads of her fans and left.

Mishna Wolff Book Tour Review

Mishna Wolff Elliot Bay Books 6-28-10

The short review: Why did this author bother to show up?

It's taken me awhile to write about this one. Though I try to find something good there are some readings that are not worth attending.

Mishna Wolff is a tall comedian/comic writer, ex-model whose memoir "I'm Down" is a comic look at a white girl whose white father thought he was black.

Ms. Wolff now lives in New York but she arrived to the place of her birth (Seattle) to sign and read from a bestselling memoir. Raised in the Seattle's Central District attending black functions with a black step mom and a father who epitomized what Norman Mailer wrote about his famous 1957 essay "The White Negro".

Her book is funny in a rare way that frees the barriers of race and allows people to examine, without malice, the differences in American culture. Race, however, is a delicate issue in the world of comedy. It tends to fall into a special category of acceptability if performed by those who are in the minority and often a bad idea performed by members of the establishment unless you are Mel Brooks.
Maybe that it is the subject of race that caused Ms. Wolff to be so uncomfortable on this night. Maybe she has gotten sensitive to some of the response to her book. I could have been because the books main subject (her father) was sitting in the audience. Either way, Mishna Wolff didn't care about reading tonight.

The dungeon of Elliot Bay's reading room is packed. More chairs are added, and then all the folding chairs are opened up and filled. It's standing room only. This is her home town and friends’ family and fans are pouring in. The book has been out for a time and this is the launch of the soft cover. This is a book sellers dream evening.

The reading should start at 7:00pm. In the back of the room, Mishna drinks her coffee and waits making small talk with the Elliot Bay Employee as if this reading were a Court order Community Service. Its 7:19 when the New York transplant decides to start the show. (DAMN IT) For a comic she was in no hurry to take the stage.

Unlike novels, Memoirs are one of the few acceptable times when an author can read from any part of a book. Her selection is great. She explains about her background as a comic writer and stand up performer but she wants off the stage. The audience is with her still. They want more,

She reads more. It is funny and yet respectful of her past and her family.

In the Q&A session Ms.Wolff is not funny, she is defensive about everything. Audience questions of race are deflected; questions of her family are minimized to the point where her constant side to side swaying motion on stage and her agitated playing with her hair became a distraction. Admirably, Ms. Wolff tells the audience she wants control of the television pilot so that someone else does not reduce the material down to a stereotype.

She offers to read more but comments that she is sure the audience is sick of her reading by now.
Talk about the inability to read the room. They are here to see her and listen and laugh and buy books and Ms. Wolff looks as if she has just had oral surgery. It was sad to see the success so many authors crave go to waste on someone who didn’t want to be here.

Craig Johnson Book Tour Review

Bellevue Public Library (University Books Sponsor ) 7-10-10

The short version: Author Craig Johnson is a must see on the Book Tour circuit.

The real life cowboy/author/ volunteer deputy sheriff, from a town in Wyoming so small only twenty five people reside there came to the big city Seattle and knocked the socks off the modest audience while promoting his newest mystery “Junkyard Dogs.”

There were so many reasons why this reading was fantastic.
I arrive half an hour early as my usual habit, to find someone sitting ON the authors table talking to four fans.

After years of watching out of town authors delay readings hoping more people arrive or show up late after hiding in green rooms, here was an author who intentionally came early to informally meet readers "so they don’t get bored waiting around for the thing to start." I dare you to not buy a book from someone like this.

Mr. Johnson's only requirement from Library staff was confirmation his motorcycle was parked in the right place. That’s right, this cowboy mystery writer goes on his tours from town to town riding a Steel horse and showed up in the land of Bill Gates
complete with Cowboy hat (removed like a gentleman off his head when inside a building) motorcycle boots and the Western style shirt. For a moment I wasn’t sure if he was going to read from his new book or feed cattle.

The author is funny and polite with a delightful laugh and never once interrupted an audience question or concerns. The Librarian tries to set up a microphone. “Don’t bother with that thing. I’ll just use what my daddy called my ‘field voice’”

It's a rare sunny Saturday in Bellevue. A smaller crowd attends but it matters little to the cowboy. Mr. Johnson reached out to people as if he were hosting a family reunion at his Wyoming ranch. “Hey how you doin? Come on in.” If this behavior might not seem like a big deal you have never been to an author reading.

The veteran Bellevue Librarian, accustomed to the pomp many authors treat as a birthright, comes to the front of the room to begin the obligatory, ego massaging, intro speech. She evaluates the cozy environment created by the author, then she actually giggles before saying “Okay I guess we started” It was perfect.

The Reading.

Mr. Johnson writes a mystery series with the protagonist Sheriff Walt Longmire, modern day law enforcement man of letters who deals with the characters and times of the modern Western United States.

As all good reading should, Mr. Johnson reads from the beginning of the novel. Every good reading should be this way. There is nothing worse than having to listen to an author prep an audience before reading. The work should speak for itself and then the audience decides if they want to buy.

Oh, by the way, when did you ever see a Western Crime novel open with a poem from Robert Browning? No wonder Walt Longmire is in development for a television series.

The opening of "Junkyard Dogs" is funny, but Mr. Johnson, who has a passing resemblance to comedic actor Blake Clark, reads hysterically funny. Only one other author I ever saw, the actor Marc Acito, ever read a multiple character chapter using distinct voices and body language as if the pages were a one man play.

In fact Mr. Johnson doesn't read so much as he launches the scene off the pages and into the audience.

On Writing

“I always wanted to write novels. The fact is that I ran out of excuses not to write.”

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. That is just being lazy.”

-He never planned on writing a series. First novel was a stand-alone until President of Penguin/Viking Press asked for more.
-Mr. Johnson praises Penguin/Viking for the freedom they allow him.
-Refuses to write the same novel over and over again so not all recurring characters appear with the same amount of page time and removes the formula from the series.
-He always outlines. This can take as long as six months or longer. He writes one novel a year while doing research for next novel.

This man is a book seller's dream.

Sloane Crosley Book Tour Review

,
University Book Store 6-23-10

Sloane Crosley

I don't care for books with collections of essays. Erma Bombeck, Andy Rooney Charles Osgood all have a place in the heart of American culture but really the entertainment value and cultural contribution is lost on me. Kind of like "Sex and the City" or "Real Wives XXX" is lost on me so perhaps I have a blind spot. Hmm?

It still didn't stop me from listening to Sloane Crosley.

A few back her book “I Was Told There'd Be Cake" was found in the hands of co-eds on college campuses and coffee shops all around the country and tonight she came to Seattle with her second book "How Did You Get This Number"

I read most of her first book (“Oh you just have to read this” a friend said) and was not overly impressed. This is not a book reiview, however, it is a review of the author reading.

University Book Store was packed with the exact demographic the witty Ms Crosley finds herself; young post graduate, struggling women in the wake of a 2nd generation post feminist era. I was one of the few males in the room not in attendance with a female companion and defiantly one of only three people born before 1970.

The woman is funny as I listened I realized that when Ms. Sloane's read's aloud the humor comes alive. She is extremely pleasant both on stage and one on one during the signing with her multitude of fans. When Andy Rooney dies, because he won’t retire, CBS could do worse than Ms Crosley as a replacement.


She read one of her essays. A LONG essay which ate up most of the time, then jump right to the Q&A portion to her young fans.

After a few empty, softball, audience questions lacking poignancy. "Sloan what do you like to read? Sloane what side of your family do you get your humor?” (DAMN IT.)

I hit her with a solid right and found out that Sloan Crosley’s wit and charm is as effective a counter punch as Roberto Duran.

Me: "As an essayist, how do you balance being honest in your writing with the fact that it might alienate the people you write about?"

SC: (Smiling and sharp) "Oooh, I like how those are the only two options that you give me to work with?"

It was funny and the crowd laughed with me.

Still she answered the tough question. Ms. Crosley spoke of once having written some unkind things about a girlfriend's man. Of course they went on to get married and as Sloane said "I didn't anticipate that friendship ending that way."
You could see it was honest if not a tender spot. She also said that she believed the responsibility was on the reader (no elaboration on that statement) and never reveals personal details of the individuals she writes about.

Actually the burden sits directly on the essayist: to be honest about family or friends, bosses, or yourself means to reveal to the world, leaving the author vulnerable to pay the private cost.

For the most part, Ms. Sloane’s essays were innocuous and respectful the same way she came across, making for an entertaining evening.

Colston Whitehead Book Tour Review

Third Place Books 6-20-10


I wish I could be as cool as Colston Whitehead. Cool like Miles Davis when he stopped a live Grammy’s appearance to tune his trumpet. Or cool like that sweaty bald Commander in “Top Gun” whose voice never cracks while Iceman and Maverick are under attack.

Colston Whitehead is cool like that. I know cause I saw it.

The self described the “fashionable, skinny, black, guy with fine hands and small wrists,” is compares himself to another famous Harvard alum now in the White House. Mr. Whitehead worked for the coolest newspaper in the land, the Village Voice. His work in the last twelve years allowed him to place his finger on a new era of the African American conscience.

Tonight he delivered a reading to remember.
Mr. Whitehead is not the first author I have seen use props or music during an author reading nor is the first to have music for accompaniment. He is, however, the first I have seen to use an IPAD and to play music (Donna Summer?) to prove a point.

The author is polished, calm, intelligent and well rehearsed: all the things I consider necessary for a successful author reading. Personally I found his routine funny and captivating but as any comedian will tell you, if the audience is flat then even Robin Williams will bomb. Mr. Whitehead’s humor and effort was wasted on an audience so flat, you could have used their affect as an ironing board.

UNTIL…

Imagine how the cool sheen would fall off of President Obama if his teleprompter failed in the middle of a speech. Here in the middle of his reading, the author stumbled and stalled and panicked upon discovery that half his speech was missing.

Third Place employees run to look in the green room, is emptying his bag in frantic frustration. The flat perfunctory crowd waited as silent, hell there was hardly a nervous giggle while Mr. Whitehead looked for his notes. Then, Mr. Whitehead did something I had never seen at any kind: he stopped and ran out to his car.
I hoped he would return though there are some authors I wish to God would leave in the middle of the reading and in the future just might suggest that but Mr. Whitehead bravely returned. (Then again Third Place can sell any books unless he signs them)

When he did return without his notes, I witnessed a man, embarrassed and apologetic finish his commentary with grace and dignity from memory. After all the show must go on, but there was no need for apologies because afterward the crowd warmed up and this is what makes author readings and Mr. Whitehead so cool.

ON HIS READING: have a suspicion that Mr. Whitehead takes steps to read his work out loud before committing to publication. When author’s do this, I find the readings do not sound like writing but a story meant for the eyes and ears. Elmore Leonard says that if it sounds like writing he get rid of it and when following that rule it makes the reading portion of the presentation a pleasure to hear.

ON THE ART OF WRITING

One interesting tidbit I find worth of mention was Mr. Whitehead found difficulty writing the first third of a book. Many times authors complain about the difficulty of middle and the end. When pressed as to why, Mr. Whitehead used the analogy of a car trip. “When I start out I know where I am going right?”

For Mr. Whitehead the first person or third person or narrative structure of the book is the hard part. He claims he writes in various forms trying and failing until the correct style emerges to match his tale. He averages about six to eight pages a day and can only work in the mornings taking as long as six months to establish the first outline/draft. The way the words flow out from the page through his mouth indicating a man who works hard, really hard at his art.

Lee Kravitz Book Tour Review

6-15-10 University Book Store

I am telling you more action can happen at one author reading than any crappy 3D vampire romance movie. Two things happened that I had yet to see before. More on that later

So fresh off an appearance on the "Today Show" comes the very nice and charming author Lee Kravitz, who wrote the very nice and charming book "Unfinished Business" which is his personal story of purging out all the personal demons of his life.

After running a high-powered high stress job as the executive editor of Parade Magazine, Kravitz made the mistake of allowing his career define him. (Think of the old Harry Chapin song "Cats in the Cradle") Hell, the man didn't even find time to attend his beloved Grandma's funeral.

The sand slips under he feet; the tide goes out and Mr. Kravitz is unceremoniously fired flat on his ass. (Think of "Up in the Air") The culture he once found himself so apart of has vanished into the evening of ex-coworkers no longer available for companionship and he finds himself taking into account all that he has abandoned and undo what went wrong.

On his journey, Kravitz pays money owed from over 30 years ago, he visits his aunt who has been isolated from his family, faces down his grade school bully, taking us all on the kind of personal journey that people can relate. Now he is out to encourage others not to make the same mistake/

It's "Ivan Illyich" meets "My name is Earl" with a little "Eat Pray Love” I got it.

I liked his reading style as Mr. Kravitz reads from his book in a nice loud voice but drops to living room conversation during his talk with the audience.

Then the first strange thing happened,

Mr. Kravitz is a communicator happy with the intimacy of the audience. He makes people comfortable. This author reading turns into a focus group. Intelligent, well-meaning conversation taking place among strangers as they express concerns of today's work place and world problems while Mr. Kravitz moderates with pleasure. For a moment it was really nice,

UNTIL....

Remember this is the University district. Cutting edge, academic and post avant-garde grunge. We are four block from where "Alice and Chains" singer Layne Staley died of a heroin overdose. It’s colorful here.

Two guys arrive late. Street corner poets, freelance writer, jailhouse lawyer types who scratch out a vice by getting petitions signed and working the car washes.

One sounds like Mickey Rourke in the beginning of "Johnny Handsome" (go ahead You Tube it) and he is there promoting his buddy who has "an interesting story” So the "interesting man" begins to describe his life story to Lee Kravitz at the expense o of the audience. The crowd dynamic changes and people begin to shift in their chairs as this guy begins to take over.

To his credit, Mr. Kravitz handles the questions with class and tries to move the subject but the "interesting man" contributes more after the next question, and I really hate when I ask the speaker a question and one of the audience members feels they need to answer. DAMN IT.

Then Johnny Handsome breaks in on about another story by the "interesting man" and the crowd is now standing up to leave as if they have suddenly contracted a rectal cyst. Mr. Kravitz is calm but tries to step away from the podium announcing its time to sign books. The "interesting man" and his promoter move to his signing desk and continues to pitch Kravitz ideas of his book as the store closes.

If this were J.K. Rowling her security detail would have put these guys in Lake Washington but Mr. Kravitz handles it with aplomb, obviously not wishing to create another situation he may have to atone for in his next book.

I hope Lee Kravitz sells 100,000 copies and inspires the world to change. I wonder if he will ever come back.

Hilary Thayer Hamann's Book Tour Review

Hilary Thayer Hamann 6-12-10 Elliot Bay Books


Big Author reading night in Seattle. Jonathan Alter from Newsweek is reading to standing room only the Downtown Library while Jeffrey "The Bone Collector" Deaver is up at Third Place Books scaring the hell out of everyone, so where do I spend my evening? Listening to Chic Lit of course. Give the new gal a chance I say. Wow what an eye opener.

The spacious basement of the new Elliot Bay Books is quiet. I am one of eleven souls. No surprise. I only found out about Hilary Thayer Hamann’s reading from her debut novel “Anthology of an American Girl while surfing the web site Rat Reader.
I Google her.

The book has been getting nice press. Her personal story of getting her novel to print is compelling. She is one of the great self publishing stories in the modern era having self promoted her novel forcing the publishing world to notice her talent. Sounds good so far.

I read the first two chapters. It is a coming of age tale about a girl growing up in same time as the author her relationships, and explores the points in which she “shuts down” as the author later described in her talk. The writing is stream of conscious style with flowing poetic vocabulary deserving of the kudos she has gotten in the press. Her descriptions are rich and vivid and I am looking forward to this reading.

Ms. Hamann arrives and greets an obvious old friend with warmth that does not translate to the icy profile photo in the book jacket. Maybe the photographer needs fired I think. As she looks over the small crowd I overhear Ms. Hamann ask the lady from Elliot Bay Books, “Did you guys promote this event?”

OH SNAP! Did she just insult one of the best known book stores on the West Coast? The Elliot Bay employee was polite, said that they had promoted her appearance and apologized. Then Ms. Hamann suggested they wait ten minutes in hopes that three hundred people will walk in at the last minute.

On to her reading. Ms. Hamann is a decent presence but for someone who trained in theater she looked uncomfortable on stage. Granted she had just flown in to the city this afternoon but still show some heart.

Her novel is more of a tome going nearly six hundred pages for a first time author. Her reading selection continued the full elegant descriptions from the chapters I read, as she uses every word in the dictionary. She does write beautiful yet blind spots occur when an author falls in love with their own prose.

The question and answer session was revealing. She answered questions the way she writes, never missing the opportunity to use the plethora of polysyllabic words from her prodigious vocabulary as she transitioned into the tangents she required to express herself. So imagine my surprise when Ms. Hamann answered a question and used the word “retarded” in its political incorrect form.

Blind spot. Ms. Hamann made the comment that she didn’t understand why her novel didn’t translate over to more men. I asked her if she thought that the title had anything to do with being a barrier to attracting the wider male audience she desired. Her answer was defensive going on about how she loves men and that yes there is a pink cover of the book but there were “enough novels out there with fishnet stockings and stiletto’s on the cover and if they (the male reader) can’t get past that then I don’t think they will get the novel.”

At the end Ms. Hamann complimented the audience and the city of Seattle. by saying that she has only been here this afternoon but informed the audience that she was “surprised” by her first visit that Seattle had so much going on.

“You got Amazon and Starbucks and Microsoft and… and what else big is here?”

“Uh, Boeing?” says a man in front of me.

It was embarressing admission. Someone please tell her that the that there is life beyond the Hamptons and Manhattan.

Should have seen Jeffrey Deaver.