Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s first book first essays, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, was published shortly after she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (Click Link to Poem) at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration.

The book presents several short essays, some autobiographical, along with two poems. The subjects vary in length and include fashion, entertainment, sensuality, pregnancy, racism, and death. The poems were about her mother Vivian Baxter and an untitled poem about the similarities between all people, despite their racial and cultural differences.

Angelou used the essays to tell her own story using the stories to bring out something that allowed her to just add in her own humor and moral advice in a light-handed way.

An example this is shown in the “Power of the Word,” which was about Angelou’s experience with her grandmother in Stamps Arkansas during the Great Depression. She wrote about the colorful clothing that she loved but also own troubles as a single mother.

In the essay n “Extending Boundaries,” Angelou’s wrote of her early days as a writer in New York City and some of the mistakes she made.

Her writing style was simple, direct and even her essays had a poetic tone to them. When you read her poetry or essays you wanted to spend some time pondering what she meant. Her advice holds true for proper living advice today.

The book may leave you looking back at your own life journey and see the value of the struggles.

Quotes

“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.”

“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.” 

“Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.” 

See Literary Favorite Section for more about Maya Angelou and links to her other books reviewed on this site………..click here

See Poem………… “On the Pulse of The Morning by Maya Angelou” click here to link

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, A Novel, by Hank Green

Hank Green’s first novel, AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING, is itself remarkable. What seems at first to be a book pointed at a young internet obsessed generation turns out to be a close look at fame, where it leads and finding what is important.

Reading the Author’s Note section in the book, strategically placed as the last section of the book, will open your eyes to what the book is about. Is it better to read this last and find yourself saying “so that’s why he wrote it” or to read it first?  All I can say is I read it last.

In this section Hank Green starts out with his first sentence telling us: “Hi… I’m famous on the internet.” In the second paragraph he says: “But let’s go back to that first sentence again….Like, what does “famous” even mean, and how is “famous on the internet” any different.” This book story seems to answer these questions

April lives in Manhattan starting out just making podcasts on YouTube, just like Hank. She lives with her roommate, and perhaps girlfriend, Maya. Andy is another friend, Miranda is a scientist, and her assistant Robin are all under twenty-five and the core of April’s team.

On her way home from work late one night finds that a tall statue has appeared, hovering just over the ground, by the building where she lives. The figure looks like a person, but nothing will move it. She senses that it must be an alien from some other world and her first thought is to phone her friend Andy to come and film her introducing the alien that she has named Carl. See immediately sees herself as a first contact for this alien.

Hank told us in the Author’s Note section about the first time a stranger approached him in a grocery store having recognized him from the internet and how that made him feel but also how it led eventually to writing this book. April will soon have the same experience when she has Andy post the interview of her talking about Carl. April becomes famous.

Other Carl’s appear in major cities all over the world, but April was the first contact and she becomes the advocate of the Carl’s being here for good reasons and she is number one on the internet. She offers ideas about unlocking the mystery and has the world helping her find the password to something in a dream.

A professional hater, Peter Petrawicki, sees April’s internet success and by becoming the Anti-April he gains many followers and they push that the Carl’s are a threat, rather than potential friends. Peter’s success is from taking the opposite point of view for all that April believes in.

Green is clearly interested in how social media moves the needle on our culture, and he uses April’s fame, choices, and moral quandaries to reflect on the social fabric. The book and April leave little doubt about a sequel

Quotes

“The power that each of us has over complete strangers to make them feel terrible and and frightened and weak is amazing.” 

“Even on this most terrible days, even when the worst of us are all we can think of, I am proud to be a human.” 

“Basically, do your best to mock and deride their connection to and appreciation of you because, deep down, you dislike yourself enough that you cannot imagine anyone worthwhile actually wanting to be with you. I mean, if they like you, there must be something wrong with them, right?” 

“Just because you can't imagine something doesn't mean you can't do it.” 

Read Hank Green’s 2nd Book

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

The Affair, a Jack Reacher novel, by Lee Child

See Literary Favorite Section for more on Lee Child and links to his other books reviewed here

The Affair is the sixteenth book in Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, a prequel set six months before his first novel in the series, the Killing Floor.

Maj. Jack Reacher is sent to the small town of Carter's Crossing, Mississippi where a woman has been found murdered, her throat slit, with signs of rape. Maj. Duncan Munro is sent to the nearby base, Fort Kelham, and both are told to investigate.  The base commander, Captain Reed Riley, is a powerful Senators son and has a reputation as a lady’s man.  It seems clear that the army wants the military and Riley cleared and someone in the town found guilty.

Reacher arrives posing as a drifter, checks into the local inn and meets the local sheriff and previous Marine, Elizabeth Deveraux. She figures out who Reacher is, they work together and have sex at the Inn.

It turns out that there are other dead women, the most recent one, Chapman, was a white woman, and two prior ones were from the poorer African American part of the small town.

When Reacher finds that Riley did in fact have something to do with Chapman's death and possibly the other two murders he is ordered to cover up the evidence he's found thus far, which he ignores the request.

Others are killed in the cover up and an independent militia from Tennessee is assigned by someone inside the chain of command to destroy evidence of the murders.

The senator and his son believe that the crimes have been pinned on Elizabeth Deveraux and meet on the base and then in town to celebrate.

Just getting to this part of the plot is complicated and like all of Lee Child’s stories the plot is compelling.  Reacher’s ability to see through to the truth is of course amazing.  Another Child book you won’t want to put down.

See Lee Child Literary Favorite Section for more on this author and links to his other books reviewed here.

Quotes

• “He had fallen out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch.” ...

• “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” ...

• “The third guy was different. ...

• “The first day of the rest of my life.” ...

• “No one expects a head butt. ...

• “The best fights are the ones you don't have,”

THE POWER OF SMALL by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval

The Power of Small, Why Little Things Make All the Difference, by Linda Kaplan Thaler, and Robin Koval

Our smallest actions and gestures often have the most impact on our biggest goals. Bigger isn’t always better and taking baby steps can be a competitive advantage. Steps like holding an elevator for a stranger make a difference in our lives and shape how we approach other things.  The book’s message is that if we can’t take care of the small details, how can we be counted on to deliver when it really matters?   

Bigger isn’t always better and the real secret to getting ahead is to refocus our attention on the small details. Thaler and Koval show how to get more of what you want with less.

Thaler says: “we often find our best clues to what a client may like or dislike during the small talk before we sit down to a formal meeting… Our point: Small talk is anything but idle chatter. In fact, it’s the glue that cements so many relationships. Yet when we make small talk, too many of us tend to turn the subject of the conversation quickly back to ourselves, a subject infinitely less interesting to the other person.”

The authors comment on what others have written about the delusion of multitasking saying:  “We may be the first generation to find that more information is actually making us dumber, and less productive.” The increased use of digital devices “thwarts our best intentions to focus on and complete the job at hand—much less overdeliver… By not fully paying attention to the other person and his or her needs, we deny ourselves the opportunity to create empathy and an emotional attachment with the other person.”

The book sums up the thoughts presented saying, “that little thing you do that is special and shows what makes you different, what sets you apart from somebody else. It is often the small act that shows you care, that proves the project or other person matters to you. It affords you a chance to show off your initiative. This can be especially important when you’re meeting someone for the first time.”

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck is a sequel to Cannery Row and set in the years after the end of World War II. Steinbeck said that, "Sweet Thursday" is the day between Lousy Wednesday and Waiting Friday.

Cannery Row changes during the war. Doc is a key character based on a friend of Steinbeck and he returns to a failed Western Biological Laboratories after serving in the army during World War II to a changed Cannery Row.

The Palace Flophouse is still there as is the general store, but it has been sold. The local brothel, the Bear Flag, is still there but with a new owner, Fauna.  

Suzy works for Fauna but is not cut out for the work, so she plots to push her into the unsuspecting arms of Doc. The plan fails, and Suzy just moves out and takes a job at the local diner.

Hazel is living in the Palace Flophouse and has been told by Fauna that because of a astrological reading he is going to become President of the United States.  Hazel is concerned about his destiny but plots to help get Doc and Suzy together.  The plan eventually works.

See Literary Favorite Section for more on John Steinbeck and links to books of his reviewed on this site

Quotes

“You've seen the sun flatten and take strange shapes just before it sinks in the ocean. Do you have to tell yourself every time that it's an illusion caused by atmospheric dust and light distorted by the sea, or do you simply enjoy the beauty of it?” 

“Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.”

The Forbidden Door, A Jane Hawk Novel, by Dean Koontz

Dean Ray Koontz writes suspense thrillers where he uses the genre of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and satire.

His new book, The Forbidden Door, is another Jane Hawk novel, telling of her one-woman fight against a full-blown government mind-control conspiracy that lead to the death of her husband turning her into the #1 fugitive in the country.  

She was framed and disgraced by the FBI where she had been an agent and they are closing in on her young son, Travis, who has been hidden with friends. Jane has been untouchable by the collection of agencies that are conspiring to find her and they think finding her son will force her into the open Jane will do whatever it takes to save him.

The government forces chasing her are called Techno Arcadians and they plan to remake and control the world by injecting their enemies and with nanoconstructs, turning them into mindless robots.  Egon Gottfrey leads the group chasing her. He thinks that their group is being directed by an out of this world Unknown Playwright.  

Some exciting scenes come from some of some of Jane’s support groups also targeted by the Arcadians. In one group twelve-year-old Laurie survives the pursuit of a sadistic, brain-altered female FBI agent and the plan fails.

In the end some of the bad guys are killed and Jane moves on.

Click here to see review of “The Crooked Staircase” The prior novel in the series and the one that takes you to where this one starts.

Hondo by Louis L'Amour

Louis L'Amour said; "I think of myself in the oral tradition-as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of the campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered- as a storyteller. A good storyteller."

Some critical of L’Amour say they find the stories unrealistic, but those that like this author it is the very deep understanding of the land and the way of life that make his stories resonate. L’Amour is not a contemporary author bringing interest to his plot with fictional villains and methods, instead his plots are true to life for the time they take place.

Hondo Lane, on behalf of the government, is scouting the Arizona dessert looking for Apache braves. He winds up at a small ranch in the heart of the Indian territory and meets Angie and her young son Johnny. She has been abandoned by her husband, is alone, and in a very dangerous place.

​Hondo does some work helping at the ranch, buys a horse from her and then leaves to go to the fort in the area. Along the way he finds the remains of a viscous Apache on a small group of solders. He decides to go back to help Angie and the boy as soon as he gets to the fort to let them know what happened.

While Hondo is away Angie and Johnny are attacked by by Apaches and when one of the braves gets close the boy takes a gun and stands up for his mother stopping the brave.  Chief Vittoro is impressed and touched by the young boy. He makes him a blood brother and the relationship leads to some safety for Johnny and Angie for a short time.

Hondo returns to the ranch. Angie’s husband follows him. The relationship with the Apaches changes. The plot has mystery, romance and as John Wayne was quoted as saying, it was the “finest western” he had ever read.

See other Books by L’Amour Reviews and see more on this Author in Literary Favorites Section Click here

Quotes

“There was a curious affinity between man and dog. Both were untamed, both were creatures born and bred to fight, honed and tempered fine by hot winds and long desert stretches, untrusting, dangerous, yet good companions in a hard land.”

 “But a long time ago I made me a rule: I let people do what they want to do.”

“The Apache don't have a word for love," he said. 
"Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?"
"Tell me."
"Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.”

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Earnest Hemmingway often was critical of his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald for wasting his talent and for pompous musing.  The Roaring Twenties presented in The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America that seems overly grand and self-important. The story takes place in the fictional towns of West Egg and East Egg on Long Island in the summer of 1922.

Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and veteran, narrates the story and lives in West Egg on Long Island next door to Jay Gatsby’ mansion. He is aware of the lavish parties next door but doesn’t attend.  He often eats dinner at his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan and her husband Tom, who lives in East Egg.  Tom has a mistress, Myrtle, and even keeps a special apartment in New York to meet her and others and have wild parties.

Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties and attends learning that they both had been in the war together. He also learns that Gatsby had by chance meet Daisy Buchanan a few years back, is in love her, and has been hoping she would show up at his lavish parties, so she could see him in his wealth and grandeur.

Gatsby uses Nick to meet again with Daisy. Gatsby and that leads to an affair over the summer.  When her adulterer husband Tom learns of her interest and involvement with Gatsby he is upset. He confronts Gatsby and tells his wife that Gatsby is a criminal having made his money bootlegging.

The story has more surprising twists and turns and whether it is an important social history story or just drama you will have to decide.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” 

“Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away.” 

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.” “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.” 

“You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.” 

Echo Burning, A Jack Reacher Thriller, by Lee Child

Echo Burning is the fifth novel in the Jack Reacher series and begins in a Lubbock Texas saloon where Jack pushes back against a drunk bully. He breaks his nose and finger and then leaves, but the next morning he sees the bully, a local policeman, with three others, coming his way obviously planning to arrest him.

He avoids capture and escapes, walking out of town hitchhiking. Carmen Greer, a good looking Mexican lady in a fancy car, stops to give him a ride.

Carmen has her reasons for stopping: she wants Jack to kill her abusive husband, Sloop, who is going to be released from jail in a few days. Jack Reacher is a character who never hesitates to get involved in the troubles of those he meets.  He refuses to help her kill Sloop but agrees to help protect her and goes with her to their ranch in Echo County, Texas just outside of Pecos.  

Soon after Sloop is released he is found dead and Carmen is arrested. The facts make it look like she did it and she even confesses.  Jack doesn’t believe the assumed facts or that she is guilty and starts looking into both Carmen and Sloop’s past.  Carmen’s daughter Ellie is taken away for adoption, but it turns out that she was really kidnapped.  

Jack involves Alice Amanda Aaron, the pro bono attorney, in the case and they meet with Hack Walker, the Pecos County district attorney and an old friend of Sloop's who seems to want to help them.

What starts out as a what seems to be a silly old-fashioned plot takes some very surprising twists and turns and by the time Jack Reacher has saved the day and moved on you will wind up realizing you have read a very well thought out story.

Quotes

“I know I'm smarter than an armadillo” 

“Short of a shotgun, a pool cue is the best barroom weapon ever invented. Short enough to be handy, long enough to be useful, made out of fine hardwood and nicely weighted with lead.” 

“Reacher smiled. Bad luck and trouble, been my only friends.” 

What starts out as a what seems to be a silly old-fashioned plot takes some very surprising twists and turns and by the time Jack Reacher has saved the day and moved on you will wind up realizing you have read a very well thought out story.

Junis Maltby, by John Steinbeck

The first question to ask is why is it Steinbeck made this a separate short story in his book, “The Pastures of Heaven” and also in, “The Red Pony”?  If you know this up front it makes it even more surprising to find out the main character, Janius Maltby, loves to read fiction, and this fact seems to be connected to the fact that he is a lazy bounder. He especially likes to read Robert Louis Stevenson, but is that something that were told and is redemptive?

All this leads to another question: why is Steinbeck connecting reading fiction to this guys failed life?

Maltby works as an accountant in San Francisco, but his doctor tells him drier weather may help his respiratory illness. He moves South and lives with a widow on her ranch, eventually marrying her and having a son. The widow lets her hired help go but gets no help from Maltby, who just reads and enjoys his life of ease. The ranch goes to pot and the family is broke, with not enough food or even clothes. The widow and her children get sick from their poor diet and die of disease.

Maltby and his only son, Robbie, survive living with little food and ragged clothes.  His poor son goes to school barefoot and in rags while he lays around, reads and has fancy discussions with whomever will listen. Robbie is exposed to all this discussion and develops his own vivid imagination. In spite of appearance, being dressed in rags, Robbie becomes a natural leader at school with the other children and they even start dressing like he does, even tearing holes in their clothes.

The boy’s teacher seems to like Maltby romantically and doesn’t press the boy to change but the school board steps in and gives the boy some new shoes, clothes and their insight into what he should be doing. This only leads to the boy seeing himself, for the first time as someone who is poor and who should be ashamed.

Eventually from the influence of the teacher, Maltby and his son start to dress better and get cleaned up but the influence leads them to decide to go back to San Francisco.  Maltby will in the future spend his life in boring work with poor health but he will to do the best he can for Robbie.

So why did they go back to San Francisco? Maltby and Robbie are very different characters. Maltby ignored what society wanted and Robbie was a leader despite his poverty. Both lives were impacted by poverty, one innocent of what it meant and the other blind to the effects. Robbie will likely do well in the future.

The Red Pony, by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony contains four related stories. The best-known story is “The Gift” where young Jody Tiflin is given a red pony by his rancher father which he names Gabilian. Billy Buck is a ranch hand who teaches Jody to care and train the horse. Gabilian eventually catches a cold and his head and neck fill with puss and the only way to save him is to poke a stick in the horse’s neck to open it up so the horse can bring saving him but then only to have him escapes the ranch corral  one night and be found dead.

In another story Billy Buck and Jody’s father decide he should raise a colt from birth. A mare named Nellie is chosen and Jody takes her to be bred. When the colt is born something goes wrong and it becomes necessary to kill Nellie and cut the colt out of her stomach.

This isn’t a cute little book about a boy and his horse, it is about some hard reality of life and death on a ranch.

Eventually Jody’s grandfather comes to the ranch for a visit. Jody is interested in knowing more about his grandfather’s life and how he crossed the plains and came west. Instead of the expected inspiring story he is told that his grandfather wonders whether it was all worth it.

Even with the many struggles Jody aspires to grow up and be a leader. This seems a little surprising considering that the stories this book tells are about hard slices of life.

Quotes

“Why, a trick horse is kind of like an actor—no dignity, no character of his own.” 

“No matter how good a man is, there's always some horse can pitch him.” 

“It would be a dreadful thing to tell anyone about it, for it would destroy some fragile structure of truth. It was truth that might be shattered by division

“I take a pleasure in inquiring into things. I’ve never been content to pass a stone without looking under it. And it is a black disappointment to me that I can never see the far side of the moon.”  (this quote from East of Eden)

Jack Reacher Novel, Die Trying, by Lee Child

Jack Reacher is an innocent bystander just pausing for a minute to help a very good looking lady, with a injured leg, with her dry cleaning near her Chicago office. The bad guys come up and force them both into a car at gunpoint. The lady is an FBI agent, daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and more, Reacher is. of course. Lee Child’s tall, strong and talented hero in a whole series of stories.

The search begins with the security camera footage making it look like Reacher is one of the bad guys to McGrath, the FBI office leader, and the other agent.

Reacher and Holly finally are taken to the Montana home of a radical military sect wishing to secede from the US. The leader, Beau Borken , plans to use Holly as leverage to make her father agree to his demand.

Borken executes Loder, the leader of the kidnappers, for multiple failures, and Reacher is shown around the camp with the intent of sending him back with information on the militia's credibility. Before long  Borken  doesn’t trust Reacher and puts him on trial.

The FBI figures out where the militia is, but fearing political fallout from a bloodbath, they refuse to authorize an attack, McGrath and his men go rogue, setting up camp near the rogue military community.

McGrath and his men are captured but are then saved by Reacher, therefore proving his own innocence. It becomes obvious that at least one of McGrath’s agents, Brogan and Milosevic, are moles working for Borken for money.

Eventually the FBI make it to the camp after Reacher has saved Holly and McGrath. They realize that Borken had a diversion in mind using Holly and a truck filled with dynamite is on its way to be blown up in a large crowd celebrating the 4th of July in a major city.

Reacher eventually saves the day, proves to be a masterful marksman and is the hero of yet another well written interesting Lee Child action novel.

Picture of Lee Child and a picture of “Rock” Dwayne Johnson who is not Jack Reacher in the movie, but should have been……………..Anyone but Tom Cruise!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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George Milton and Lennie Small share a dream of one day settling down on their own land but they are facing the Great Depression, jobless and looking for work. George is a small dark man who is intelligent but lacks education and sees himself as Lennie’s protector. Lennie is the opposite of George, a giant of a man with a shapeless face, mentally impaired and with a habit of getting in trouble, being such a big strong individual. He loves animals, especially rabbits, and loves to pet them but in touching and petting them he always kills them. He carries a dead mouse in his pocket who he had accidently killed by stroking it.  

They find work on a farm but must deal with the owner’s son, Curley, who is a small man who dislikes Lennie because of his large size. Curley’s wife is attractive and flirts with Lennie leading to more problems.

Lennie and George become friends with Candy, an older ranch hand, who has some money saved and offers to go in with them to buy a farm of their own. Another ranch hand learns of Lennie’s fondness for petting rabbits and since his dog recently had puppies he gives one to Lennie.

George goes into town leaving Lennie on the ranch. Lennie spends time with the other ranch hands but before long Curley’s wife finds them and flirts with all of them, especially Lennie. Later she meets him again telling him how lonely she is and about her desires to be a movie star. As they talk she learns of Lennie’s desires to pet rabbits and animals and offers to let him stroke her hair. With his enormous strength pressing on her scalp she screams scaring Lennie and he breaks her neck killing her.

When George returns Lennie has run away to a secret place. George finds him and they talk of their dreams and plans, now shattered forever: after talking for a while George takes out a gun and kills Lennie.

The story is published in 1937 during the Great Depression and moving from place to place to find work and associating with a variety of ranch hands was common.

Inspired by Poem“To A Mouse by Robert Burns See Full Poem click here

“But Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!…………………..”

https://connectedeventsmatter.com/literary-favorites/2018/10/14/john-ernst-steinbeck-jr

Quotes

“I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's
why.” 

“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.” 

“A guy needs somebody―to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an' he gets sick.” 

“Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.” 

“His ear heard more than what was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.” 
“Trouble with mice is you always kill 'em. ” 

”Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.” 

“We know what we got, and we don't care whether you know it or not.

see review of Travels with Charley click here

Journal of a Novel, by John Steinbeck

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As John Steinbeck wrote his first draft of “East of Eden” he also, each day, wrote daily letters  to his editor, Pascal Covic. Often the letters were notes he wrote on the left-hand side of his actual writings for the novel. The letters were comments on family relationships, concerns about the day’s writings, comments about his own writing skills and a variety of subjects. These notes, or letters, took place over 10 months beginning the first of February 1951.

Writers in our current day often speak about their daily writing habits sometimes called “daily pages” or “morning pages”, sometimes in longhand and sometimes just typed out and referred to as a stream of consciousness writing.   Like a good athlete, the process is a way of warming up and Steinbeck referred to it as “getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game.”

Steinbeck’s warm ups were part autobiography, personal detail in his life for that day, comments about his kids, feelings about his second wife Elaine, his moods, and even how he feels about his pencils.

We see the book unfolding along with the comments and we see his discipline and focus. He commented about this his daily letters process, comparing it to how he saw his own approach differently when wrote The Grapes of Wrath, explaining that approach as being “headlong” where he stayed tightly focused on a cast of characters that he carefully crafted.

Quotes

“I intended to make it sound guileless and rather sweet but you will see in it the little blades of social criticism without which no book is worth a fart in hell.” 

“The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness.” 

“All this is a preface to the fear and uncertainties which clamber over a man so that in his silly work he thinks he must be crazy because he is so alone.” 

“There is one thing I don’t think any one has ever set down although it is true—to a monster, everyone else is a monster.” 

“I can tell all I want about them now because they are all dead and they won’t resent the truth about themselves.” 

“But I do feel strange-almost unearthly. I'll never get used to being alive. It's a mystery. Always startled to find I've survived.” 

“I think perhaps I am one of those lucky mortals whose work and whose life are the same thing.” 

Even the Stars Look Lonesome, by Maya Angelou

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Even the Stars Look Lonesome is Maya Angelou's second book, a collection of 20 short mostly autobiographical essays. Along with her first book, “Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now,” it is referred to as a book of homilies or “wisdom books.”

In one essay Angelou's friend Oprah Winfrey is the subject of one of the essays where she compares her to "the desperate traveler who teaches us the most profound lesson and affords us the most exquisite skills" She also defends her support of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice. In her final essay, Angelou uses the story of the prodigal son to emphasize the value of solitude: "In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves to ourselves, and we may even hear the voice of God.”

She said of the book: “I have written of the black American experience, which I know intimately. I am always talking about the human condition in general and about society in particular. What it is like to be human, and American, what makes us weep, what makes us fall and stumble and somehow rise and go on.”

Angelou speaks with a strong voice about her own sensuality, marriage, and a lifetime of racism and violence. She finds resonance and meaning in the richness of Africa and its culture and art. Her own art is in sharing with us the perceptions she has gained in her life journey.

See Maya Angelou in Literary Favorite section click here

Quotes by Maya Angelou

“My mother raised me, and then freed me,” 

“Be wary when a naked person offers you his shirt.” 

“The trouble for the thief is not how to steal the chief's bugle, but where to blow it,”

 “She was born poor and powerless in a land where power is money and money is adored. Born black in a land where might is white and white is adored.
Born female in a land where decisions are masculine and masculinity controls.” 

“If it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, isn't it also true a society is only as healthy as its sickest citizen and only as wealthy as its most deprived