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lubellwoo's reviews
71 reviews
The Tree by John Fowles
5.0
The Tree is a sprawling text exploring Fowles’s thoughts on huamnkind’s relationship to nature. The early part of the narrative contrasts Fowles’s affection for untamed spaces with his father’s nigh-Linnaean orchard, but it was the last third of the book that really brought it home for me. His final chapter is pure pleasure, hinting at something vast and wonderful. The text also highlights the absolute best of Fowles’s prodigious vocabulary (tor, wisht, tachist, clitter, Laocoön, polypodies, bulbul, brassards, fumitory, and lucubration, to name a few), while ranging across natural history, personal narrative, and scientific musing.
Part Wild: A Writer's Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance by Deb Norton
5.0
I had the pleasure of being in one of Deb's writing groups as a teenager, and we'd often lament the lack of a "Pocket Deb" to carry with us once our meetings were done. It's no surprise, then, that I was delighted to delve into this book and find all the hard-won wisdom from those electric group sessions expanded upon and deepened into a text full of kindness, inspiration, and practical knowledge. Deb's coaching is something I return to every time I sit down to create, whether as a writer or an artist. Her approach to tackling resistance as a natural part of the creative process is a far more helpful and nuanced tack than the standard model of using willpower to run over "writer's block" like it doesn't exist. From quick prompts and exercises to get your pen moving, to meditations on where the meat of our creative practice truly lies, I love every part of this book. A must-have for creators of all types—I know I'll be giving it to everyone I know for years to come.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
5.0
Vivid, lyrical, and deeply unsettling. I tore through this after cracking it open on Tuesday. Station Eleven came highly recommended from friends, but nobody really mentioned how plausibly distressing it would be. The winding blend of storylines and timelines created a very specific sensation of remembering events that had actually happened to me. Mandel is a master of contrast, and does a beautiful job of throwing a horrifying reality into contrast with all the beauty remaining in the world.