5 Stars | Lost in a Good Book

Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman

13 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General Tags: five stars, neil gaiman, non fiction, tim minchin

Published: May 14th 2013
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 80
Format: Book
Genre: Non Fiction/Inspirational
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

This book is for anybody looking around and thinking, now what?

In May 2012, bestselling author Neil Gaiman stood at a podium at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts to deliver the commencement address. For the next nineteen minutes he shared his thoughts about creativity, bravery, and strength: he encouraged the students before him to break rule and think outside the box. Most of all, he encouraged the fledgling painters, musicians, writers, and dreamers to make good art.

Make Good Art is a book representation of the commencement address Neil Gaiman made in 2012. It is his advice and experience in a short book that he gave to the students at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. There is so much I love in this book, the message for certain, but I also love the way it is presented. The design and layout of this book is done by Chip Kidd, a graphic designer and writer, and while it may be unconventional, I believe it is just the right way to express the message Gaiman is trying to put across in his speech.

People talk about it being a pain and how it makes this book lose its message a bit, but I think how Kidd has converted this is wonderful. I understand the early pages can be hard as the words move about the page, but this settles down as you progress, while maintaining the colour and design. The way this book is presented I think only adds to the message Gaiman is making. All art is Art. His words are reinforced by how Kidd has presented them and shows there are no rules in getting your message out.

I know some people may feel that there are enough motivational speakers and people should just know what to do or do what they want, but having someone reinforce your own ideas and desires, especially someone you admire and idolise reaffirming and assuring you it is going to be ok is sometimes the right thing a person needs to hear. And when they are discussing something you’re passionate about is much better, everyone offers something new and different based on their own experiences and history.

Gaiman talks in his speech about his own journey and his own learned lessons in his career. He talks about how the world is changing, about how art is art regardless, and how there should always be a time for making art, whether your cat has exploded or not. There are so many lessons and inspiring messages that can be taken from this speech, one I think that will benefit even those who are not involved in creating art. Anything you strive to do, anything you dream about doing Gaiman tells you you can make it happen if you want it, you just need to find the right way of doing it.

I will never tire of hearing commencement speeches. I adored the two I was able to hear at my own graduations, as well as at friends graduations, not to mention the ones other people have done like Tim Minchin, and now Neil Gaiman. I watched the video of this speech when it was first released and the effect it had on me then was the same one evoked from reading the words. You can still watch the video here if you have 19 minutes 54 seconds to spare, you won’t regret it. There is something wonderful though about also reading the speech, there are many wonderful snippets that can be great inspirational quotes just when you need them to reassure you or to motivate you. It is a quick read, but it manages to capture to feeling of his speech so well.

One message is that “People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They’ll forgive the lateness of work if it’s good, and they like you. And you don’t always have to be as good as the others if you’re on time and it’s always a pleasure to hear from you.” This does not apply to art alone, and while it is directed and focused on the arts, it is a great speech about succeeding in life as well. And there are so many others to inspire people to create and find their place and voice in the world, no matter what format.

What is certain that the message you are left with when you finish is to leave the world more interesting for your being here.

The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O’Neill

12 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Short Stories Tags: five stars, ryan o'neill, short story

Published: May 1st 2012
Publisher: Black Inc.
Pages: 238
Format: Book
Genre: Short Stories
Weight: 242 grams
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, this collection turns the rules of storytelling on their head.

A series of graphs illustrates the disintegration of a marriage, step by excruciating step.
A literary stoush – and an affair – play out in the book review section of a national newspaper.
The heartbreaking story of a Rwandan boy is hidden within his English exam paper.
A young girl learns of her mother’s disturbing secrets through the broken key on a typewriter.

Ranging from Australia to Africa to China and back again, The Weight of a Human Heart heralds a fresh new voice in Australian Literature.

I fell in love with Ryan O’Neill at the 2013 Newcastle Writer’s Festival, partly because of the sessions I sat in on where he spoke, and partly because of his Scottish accent I’m not gonna lie. I had looked at this book in the shop beforehand but after hearing him speak I snagged a copy at first chance and got it signed. I am still annoyed it has taken me this long to get around to reading his book. It has been sitting patiently beside my bed for months, not forgotten but continuously bumped back.

In this collection of short stories O’Neill “redefines the boundaries of what is possible” to quote Patrick Cullen’s quote on the front cover. And it is completely true. I saw things in this book I did not even know was allowed in writing until now, and the fact that they are has changed the way I think about what books are capable of.

The beauty of all of O’Neill’s stories is that they seem to start so innocently, and in the space of a few pages can change your mood completely, whether to sadness, joy, amazement, or just pure admiration for his impressive skill in storytelling.

His stories show the power and impression parents have on their children, as well as the impact of an adult’s reflection on these impressions. There is also a diversity which I love about all of them, no two are alike but there are common themes running through each of them if you know where to look. There is also a poignant and bittersweet emotion that you develop as you read which consumes you, making you want to take a moments reprieve but you find yourself unable to let go of the book. You have to keep going even as you feel it pulling at all your emotional strings.

One of the real joys though of reading each of these stories is the chance I got to learn something. In Four Letter Words I learnt about a range of word origins, in The Cockroach and Africa Was Children Crying I learned about just some of the traumatic events in Rwanda, in The Examination I learnt about the English language and in The Eunuch in the Harem I saw something seemingly impossible work brilliantly.

Even away from the gorgeous stories, you have to admire O’Neill’s ideas and his creativity. Not to mention the obvious work and effort that has gone into writing some of them. The different styles and formats that are mixed through this book are so unique, and certainly nothing I have seen before. I know John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines used graphs through it, but what O’Neill has done is far beyond simple graphs. Each story is something different and that is just part of the charm, after awhile you just don’t know what to expect from the next story but you welcome the surprise.

The way O’Neill plays with ideas within a story is also brilliant. It shows not just the types and ranges he is capable of in presentation, but in doing so he still manages to tell a complete and understandable story. It just works so well, something you may not believe upon a first glance, especially for a few of these stories but by the end you are so caught up in the narrative that you almost look pass the unique presentation, but still revere it in the back of your mind and see how it is flawlessly used to aid the storytelling.

After I had read the first story, I remarked on Twitter that even after only being one story in I already felt that my life had changed just that little bit. Now, having finished the book I stand by this statement. I did not know what to expect from these stories but I could not have asked for anything better.

I implore you to read this book, find these stories and read them yourselves. The stories will move you and educate you about so many things, about life, family, the English language, the ranges and impacts of the printed word, and the variety of people that exist in this world: good, bad, ignorant, and indifferent. You become involved in these short, complicated snippets of these people and their lives and it shows you that stories do not need to be long to capture an entire lifetime and bring about emotion. It can also show you that there are so many other ways to tell a story besides the basic formatting we’re so used to in stories. Even if these stories were not as wonderful as they are, you cannot fault O’Neill on his pure imagination and creativity about how some of these stories have been presented and told.

One of the things I loved about O’Neill at the festival last year was the way he spoke about characters. He said it was easier, or at least more fun, to write stories with miserable characters rather than happy ones. There are some miserable characters in this book, but the best part is that every character does not have the same level of unhappiness, nor are all kinds of unhappiness the same. There are levels of unhappiness O’Neill plays with and the depth, nature, and cause of this unhappiness differs for each character and each story.

He also said that if you have an interesting storyline then that can create an interesting character, and his characters are definitely all interesting. For a short story you manage to understand them completely, in simple actions or words you can see who they are as people and I feel that is a real skill O’Neill manages wonderfully.

From the 21 stories in this book A Short Story and Seventeen Rules for Writing a Short Story have to be my favourites, though A Story in Writing is also up there. Though I really could start just start listing the contents in its entirety because in their own way I loved, adored, and admired every single one.

I assure you, the next Ryan O’Neill book I get my hands on will not be sitting on a shelf until I have gone from cover to cover. I am still trying to find all the words in the word search.

You can purchase The Weight of a Human Heart via the following

eBook

Paperback

Penguin Books Australia

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss

02 Mar 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Birthdays, General Tags: birthday, children's picture book, dr suess, five stars

A very happy birthday to the delightful Dr Seuss today. Today is Seuss’ 110th birthday, and at the time of this posting I am very disappointed there is still no sign of a Google Doodle commemorating this. The man who is most commonly known as Dr Seuss was actually born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904 and was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist. Son to Theodor Robert and Henrietta (Seuss) Geisel, he was also the grandson of German immigrants. Geisel lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, where his father ran a brewery and it was a street in this town that Geisel used as an inspiration for his first book as Dr Seuss, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Geisel is mainly known for his children’s books written under his pen name Dr Seuss, though this was not the only pen name he used, in college he had written under Dr. Theophrastus Seuss and later used Theo LeSieg as well as Rosetta Stone. Through his life Geisel published a total of 46 children’s books, his most celebrated being The Cat and the Hat, as well as Horton Hears A Who!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Lorax, as well as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish plus many others. Seuss’ works are known for their imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of anapestic metre. His works have been adapted into many forms, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series. As a cartoonist and illustrator, Geisel published works in advertising campaigns, and also worked as a political cartoonist in New York. In World War ll he put his skills to work in the animation department of the United States Army, and later won an Academy Award in 1947 for his film, Design for Death. It is hard to think of Geisel as anyone other than Dr Seuss, he has flooded out culture in so many ways as Seuss it is hard to see him as anyone else. He was an interesting guy though, and he contributed a lot more than just his work as Dr Seuss, but there is not doubt the impact those books have had on children as well as society as a whole. The term Grinch has become infiltrated into our culture, and many of his books and characters are as loved today as they were when they were first released. You can read more about Geisel here, and if you’re feeling particularly jovial and adventurous, check out Seussville.

Published: August 12, 1960
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 62
Format: Book
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

When people think of Dr Seuss I think the one book that immediately comes to mind is The Cat in the Hat. I was never a huge fan of The Cat in the Hat, I liked many of his others though, I did always like Green Eggs and Ham. I like Green Eggs and Ham because it is not only a great book and very clever, but also because it has one of the best stories behind its creation, one of those great trivia stories about the origin of songs and books and all those things. The story of Green Eggs and Ham involved Seuss and his publisher Bennet Cerf, who after receiving a book of Suess’ of 225 words, made a bet he could not complete one containing only 50. The result is Green Eggs and Ham and it goes to show that you do not need a lot of words to make a story. It is a great idea; there is also an excellent Hank Green song that is similar where he sings a minute and a half song using only the same ten words. It isn’t the same as a story I grant you, but it very cool all the same. Green Eggs and Ham is a conversation between the unnamed narrator and a man known only as Sam-I-Am. Sam-I-Am continually pesters the narrator to sample the dish known as green eggs and ham, following him to various locations and asking him once more. It is a very simplistic story, but one that offers a range of great catchphrases and a joy in the fact the premise is so simple and jovial. The best part was that this simple story, containing only fifty different words, managed to get on the Banned Book list in People’s Republic of China. Much like The Lorax that people thought it was against loggers of some such nonsense, in 1965 Green Eggs and Ham was deemed to be considered a “portrayal of early Marxism”. This banning lasted until 1991 where it was lifted after the death of Seuss. Another fun fact, apparently in September 2013 it was read aloud in the US Senate as part of a Texas Senator’s 21 hour long speech advocating defunding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare). I won’t ruin the ending for you, and as engaging as the story is there isn’t a lot of character development though. We don’t get the typical back story about who Sam-I-Am is nor our mysterious narrator, but there is a suspense about the book which only adds to the enjoyment. It is a wonderful book, and I think everyone should read it, and other Seuss books, find their own favourites and read them regardless of who you are.

I wish Theodor Geisel a very happy birthday, and I hope Dr Seuss, no matter where you are whether here or Katroo, that the Birthday Bird throws an amazing party for you.

Oh, also, for those who are not sure how to pronounce Seuss, here is a rhyme to help.

“I’m sad to report, I’m sorry to say That Seuss is not pronounced at all in that way.
You choose to rhyme Seuss with goose juice and and moose juice
But that is not a pronunciation Seuss himself would choose
If he was here today and still had a voice
You would clearly hear him say “My name is Dr SOICE!”

And finally, just a quick note to say, do you know how weird it is to keep writing “I like Green Eggs and Ham” when that goes against everything you have heard!? It messes with you a small bit, it really does.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

06 Feb 2014 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Junior Fiction Tags: fantasy, five stars, junior fiction, m is for magic, neil gaiman, the graveyard book

Published: September 30th 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 289
Format: Book
Genre: Junior Fiction/Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts.

There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod’s family.

Sometimes there are five star books that change your world and make you cry and move you so much you think nothing could ever be compared to it. Then there are other five star books like this that are just so so well written, not always complicated or deep, but just with such beauty and honesty and with characters that are so amazing and sincere and complicated that you fall in love with them immediately. You get absorbed into their story and their life and while there aren’t life changing moments or anything too grand that makes you get overly excited, you just get attached in the beauty of the basics and a good, proper, well written story. And if that experience is going to happen to you then it is definitely going to happen with one of Neil Gaiman’s. This type of reaction isn’t limited to Gaiman or The Graveyard Book, there have been many books that have such complex simplicities that they are just wonderful reads without needing to be grand, but it is especially wonderful when it is compacted into a supposedly simple “children’s book”.

The Graveyard Book opens with a few different perspectives given; including a very clever second person point of view from the baby which blends back into third person seamlessly, and it is also a rather dark start but one that doesn’t address or dwell too much on the darker elements. We start almost in the middle of a scene with the man Jack, one we get almost no explanation for and as story unfolds we are thrust into this strange set of circumstances and we are introduced to the graveyard and a few residents through the events that unfold.

While the beginning is slightly dark and strange and…not confusing but with a few omissions that make you feel like you’re missing something, it actually fills in nicely as it starts to fall into place. What was great about this story is that we are shown not told in many instances and scenes and characters are brought to life (no pun intended) allowing you to capture each character and who they are not just from how their described, but how they are portrayed in their actions. Gaiman tells us a lot about his characters through their actions and how others see them which in turn reflect how they are seen by us.

Adopted baby Bod’s life in the graveyard is aided by his new ghost parents Mr and Mrs Owens as well as Bod’s guardian, Silas, who looks out for Bod and provides for him where the other ghosts cannot. Bod loves his parents certainly, but Silas is someone he looks up to and reveres. The admiration small children can have for an adult is truly wonderful and Gaiman captures it well. Silas is someone who Bod admires for his skills, his knowledge, his secrets, and he is someone in Bod’s life that he never wants to let down or disappoint. Their relationship is one of the highlights in the story, and while Bod’s view shifts as he gets older, it never strays far from the wonder and admiration he had a child.

So much of Bod’s story is written beautifully, not just the events he experiences but as a person. As a character he is very confident, he speaks his mind, and he speaks wisdom far above his age. He is a smart kid considering how he has been raised, he has a great manner and he deals with people and conflict well. He offers lessons to readers as well as those around him, and he isn’t afraid to stand up for what he feels is right or what he wants.

Bod grows up through the chapters and often as they change we have moved forward in time. The story does move away from Bod’s life on occasion and we’re shown other events away from the graveyard. These extras allow for story progression and occasionally provide additional information but we mainly follow Bod through his life. You see his life in the graveyard and you see the adventurous and amazing experiences he has there as well as watching him learn about the world around him and the ways of the graveyard. You also see his occasional struggle as he desires to escape and venture into the world beyond the graveyard gates. These moments are when we see the great character in Bod and how even when things are not going well, his emotions and nature shines through excellently.

As a human he does well in his constricted world. There is a point at the start where you think there shall be limitations but Gaiman works it through wonderfully. We do not get the full history of Bod’s circumstances straight away but that isn’t a problem. As you read you get involved in what is happening that you forget that there is a reason Bod is living in the graveyard, you get caught up in his little life and you forget that someone is hunting him.

In terms of the “threat” I have read some criticism about the man Jack and his reason for hunting Bod, and without giving anything away I think that the reasoning suits the story and intended audience well, it is actually rather clever and very well done. When it is revealed, Gaiman writes about it and surrounding events brilliantly, it is clever and mysterious and you have no idea what is going to happen and it is a great moment of suspense to read. That is not the problem though, the issue I think people see is the overall reason why it happened, whether they feel it is too basic, perhaps, but given the intended audience it is ample. Besides a lot is implied through other aspects to warrant the reader to figure out what the man Jack is part of and who he is. But what I take from this is that we are not there to necessarily follow the man Jack, we are there for Bod and Bod’s life. Yes his life is as a result of the man Jack and it is an ongoing problem, but we aren’t pulled along by the mystery of the man Jack, we are pulled along by Bod and really it is all you need. I think that even if we knew the reason from the first page I believe we could have the same story and it would be just as exquisite.

It took me a couple of chapters to realise that Bod has appeared before. Last year I read M is for Magic by Gaiman and it was an excellent book, ten short stories that were all wonderful and sad and haunting. As I read The Graveyard Book and I realises that our dear Bod is none other than the delightful Bod who appeared in one of those short stories. I remember how much that short story unsettled me and was just so sweet but eerie, and now that it has been turned into a complete book made the whole experience better and it is a truly amazing story. The ending alone is wonderful, and probably works so well because it has been built up brilliantly beforehand with each of the characters and their lives.

The way Gaiman ends this story is wonderful, absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful and just perfect, it was the right way to finish the story I think. There are different avenues Gaiman could have taken but he didn’t, and there is an excellent feeling as you finish the book of sadness and happiness and hope. In a way it is almost a sense of ambivalence, but it is also rather bittersweet and it stays with you even after you’ve finished. All the excellent things books should make you feel.

The Tenth Hero by Barry Klemm

26 Jan 2014 1 Comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, General, Young Adult Tags: barry klemm, five stars, the tenth hero, young adult

Published: 7 September 1997
Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman
Pages: 204
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

“An ordinary kid, an extraordinary adventure…”

Lee Parsons has been dumped at Finchley, a stuffy boarding school in England, by his arrogant TV star dad, Trevor. Back home in Melbourne, Australia, all hell is breaking loose – his mum is falling apart and his best friend Scottie is struggling to cope. There’s only one thing for a guy to do.

Get on your bike, Lee!

So what if it means riding halfway around the world, getting rained on, shot at and arrested. And with Trevor in hot pursuit. Lee is on a mission, and nothing and no one is going to stop him…

I adore this book. Nothing else to it. Even though I read it a dozen times or more in high school and know how it plays out I adore it. I still get so nervous and excited and angry and involved, it is rather astonishing. Granted it has been a fair few years since I last read it until now (since it is so bloody hard to track down!) but that isn’t the point.

This book, this little book, packs so much into it, so much sadness and tension and excitement and wondrous storytelling. It is amazing. The story itself is very straightforward and not too glamourous or deep exactly, it is the story of a 14 year old Australian boy who has been forced to move to England with his father and enrolled in a boarding school he hates. When a letter from his best friend back home in Melbourne arrives it sparks the beginning of a daring feat and a mission that will see Lee attempt to leave England behind him and set his sights on returning to Australia by any means necessary. I have seen this classed somewhere between JF and YA but based on the content it is definitely teen/YA, though possibly a bit different than the YA novels of today.

The journey Lee takes is adventurous and exciting, he gets help from a range of people and gets caught up in dangerous and exciting situations with pure determination to keep him going. The characters are also something that makes this story what it is, away from the ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’ notion there is a lot of heart and emotion and struggle that Klemm captures without it being overpowering or distracting. The complex simplicity of the issues involved in this novel are beautifully played out, the perspective of both Lee and Scottie are what keeps the serious nature of some elements as serious, but with a youthful perspective.

Trevor as a character was someone I always found it very hard to deal with. What Klemm offers us is not just Lee’s opinion of him, we see his character for who he is and how others notice his arrogance and behaviour as well. This creates wonderful emotion as you read because you can get so infuriated and a tad disgusted at him and it wills on your support for Lee, giving us a villain in disguise. This noticeable dislike and off-putting side of Trevor is one of the key reasons this book works, spoiling nothing but I believe a lot of it would not have worked if Trevor had been portrayed differently. Having said that, it’s also wonderful that Klemm did not fall into the trap of showing Trevor as the perfect father around others and then reveal his true self when he was alone with Lee. I thought this was clever, and it really plays into the fact Trevor was arrogant as a whole and this reveals the bad father more than any conscious deception would.

Truly this book should be made into a movie, I would watch the crap out of this if it was a movie, but with the risk of a movie ruining what we love we’d best leave it alone. The book provides plenty to fill you with joy and images and descriptive storytelling, and even manages to offer great action without actually having a lot of real action.

The description and the places described are amazing and the contrast of it being viewed through a young boy’s eyes is incredible without the story focusing on that alone. Klemm’s writing manages to describe everything exceptionally, we do not get descriptions of random or unnecessary things, we follow Lee and we see what Lee sees and how it affects him. Lee has a mission and he sees what he sees and we get it all from him. The journey itself is incredible but the people who help him are incredible as well. If you think about it now, the events described in this book would never be possible today whatsoever. Maybe not even a couple of years after it was published.

The perspective does not solely follow Lee however; one thing I always love was that Klemm alternates between third person and second person point of view throughout. This second person point of view is where we see Scottie’s side of things, Scottie becomes us as Lee goes on his journey and we gain a lot of Lee’s history through Scottie and his experience and memories. The ‘You’ Klemm uses makes it feel like someone is retelling Scottie’s own story to himself, narrating it to him as he lives it, or making us become Scottie as we read. It allows us access not just to Lee’s history, but another side of what is happening while Lee is away by giving an emotional connection, something that third person possibly couldn’t achieve to the same level, and where it does occur concerning Trevor, the emotion required is achieved adequately through dialogue and actions alone. This three point system works extremely well because each style gives us what we need depending on which character it concerns and which person the story is focusing on.

Every time I read this book the ending still pisses me off slightly, not the ending itself which was fairly cool but leading up to it. The whole thing infuriated me but that is perhaps the point, the result of this chase and the suspense and this notion of what did it really achieve while possibly achieving a lot. It is amazing, Klemm doesn’t really resolve anything concretely as there is not really a looming thing to resolve, but he does at the same time. You are left making up your own ending while still having one provided for you; it is extremely clever.

Note: Unfortunately if you want to read this book you are going to need an awful lot of luck. The book is no longer in print but you may find it at a second hand bookshop, most likely one online (anything outside Australia I have my doubts). Other than that if you have an awesome library they may have it as well. I spent about eight years tracking this book down and I finally found a copy (which is now never leaving my sight) only a couple of weeks ago from an online secondhand bookshop, so good luck!