What’s Lena Scholman Reading?
For a long time, I had a quotation on my wall that read “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.” I knew a writer named Ursula K. Le Guin wrote it, but I didn’t know anything about her, and had never read any of her books. I just really liked the quote because I am a romantic. I am now remedying my ignorance and have begun “Conversations on Writing”. It feels as though I’ve inherited a long lost, very wise, California grandmother.
Also, for the first time in my life, I have multiple books on the go at once. I attribute this to the need for unperturbed sleep. In order to raise teenagers, I need a full night’s rest every night, so I
fall asleep to old Hercule Poirot mysteries. I’m unattached to the victims and fully trusting Poirot to get to the bottom of things. I highly recommend Agatha Christie as a sleep aid though some nefarious characters occasionally creep into my dreams.
On the topic of teenagers, and the world we live in, I read a lot of non-fiction. Although these two thick tomes took me awhile, I enjoyed Gabor Maté’s thought-provoking “The Myth of Normal” and David Brooks “The Second Mountain.” I enjoy broad perspectives parsing over the troubles of our times, though I rarely think it’s possible to diagnose malaise precisely when one is in the middle of it, prophets exempt.
And as for prophets, my three feminine fiction favourites are Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Patchett and Elizabeth Strout. (I loved “Demon Copperhead”, “These Precious Days”/ “Tom Lake” and
“Oh William!”) But, let me slow down for a moment on Ms. Kingsolver in particular.
Though “The Poisonwood Bible” was written in the 90’s, I just recently picked it up again after abandoning it years ago. I remember thinking at the time “I don’t want to read another book where the Christians ruin everything.” (I stopped when the antagonist pastor throws dynamite in the river, killing all the fish in a village with no refrigeration) I am so glad I picked it up again. I keep it close at hand these days, almost like a textbook for how to shift a POV character into the background and let the conflict of a scene unfold. It’s magical.
Finally, I just finished “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese, though I will confess that I half read, half listened to the audiobook version, something that I find myself doing with
increased frequency, as my desire to read and the need to move my body are now in midlife competition.
When I was writing my first novel, I almost abandoned the project due to sheer envy of Verghese’s prose in “Cutting for Stone.” I soon realized it was fruitless to become paralyzed by
jealousy by every gorgeous scene, and so I photocopied the best of the best and put them in a binder titled “The Jealousy Files.” And then I went on to complete my manuscript.
Lena Scholman is a writer, storytelling coach and educator. Her first novel, “Between Silk and Wool”, was released in 2022. She has been published in The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and The Hamilton Spectator. She lives with her family in Hamilton, Ontario.
www.lenascholman.com
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