{"id":1982,"date":"2022-04-22T02:13:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T10:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2022-04-21T10:19:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T18:19:51","slug":"the-joy-of-a-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2022\/04\/22\/the-joy-of-a-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of a New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Spear\"<\/a>There are lots of ways to pick a book to read. Subject matter. Genre and sub-genre. A great cover. Reviews. Blurbs. Reading the first page and getting hooked.<\/p>\n

But one of the best ways to choose a book is because you\u2019ve read other work by the author that knocked your socks off. This works with both fiction and non-fiction.<\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t matter if the story is about something you didn\u2019t think you were particularly interested in, because in the hands of a master writer, you will find yourself entranced.<\/p>\n

Case in point: Spear<\/i>, by Nicola Griffith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It happens that Nicola is one of those writers whose books I always read. I have read all of her novels and a lot of her short fiction. She brings something unique in everything she writes, regardless of the genre.<\/p>\n

For example, I don\u2019t read a lot historical fiction, but Hild<\/i> is one of the best books I\u2019ve ever read. I recently re-read it in anticipation of the sequel, Menewood<\/i>, which will be out a year from now.<\/p>\n

So all I needed to know to pre-order Spear<\/i> was that Nicola wrote it. Other than that, all I knew was that it was fantasy set in early medieval Britain and that the main character was a woman. <\/p>\n

Now it happens that Spear<\/i> is an Arthurian story. And, in truth, if you\u2019d asked me if I was interested in another tale about King Arthur and all the characters of Camelot, I\u2019d probably have said no. I\u2019ve read my share of such stories, but I have no great passion for them in general.<\/p>\n

But in the hands of the right storyteller, any story can be mesmerizing. I wrote a few weeks back about reading Karen Joy Fowler\u2019s latest book Booth<\/i><\/a> even though I don\u2019t have any particular interest in John Wilkes Booth or his family. In Karen\u2019s hands, that story was riveting. I sat up late to finish it even though I knew how it ended, how it had to end.<\/p>\n

Spear<\/i> is a much shorter book, so I didn\u2019t have to stay up late to finish it, but I was equally compelled by the story. It reads like the myths and histories in which it is rooted; the language, like the story, is magical.<\/p>\n

It starts with a girl who doesn\u2019t know her name. She lives hidden deep in the forest with her mother and is fascinated by the world and absolutely fearless.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s really all you need to know. I wouldn\u2019t want to spoil the pleasure of reading the story to discover who this girl is and who she becomes. Or, for that matter, of Nicola\u2019s take on characters you might have met in other reading.<\/p>\n

I had the good fortune of being in Seattle when the book came out, so I ordered it from a bookshop there and picked it up while Nicola was in the shop signing copies.<\/p>\n

In these complicated times, it was such a joy to help someone celebrate a book release and to see other friends who\u2019d come out for the same reason.<\/p>\n

I was going to save it for my train ride home next week, but instead I read it all the day after I got it.<\/p>\n

I mean, it was a book by Nicola Griffith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are lots of ways to pick a book to read. Subject matter. Genre and sub-genre. A great cover. Reviews. Blurbs. Reading the first page and getting hooked. But one of the best ways to choose a book is because you\u2019ve read other work by the author that knocked your socks off. This works with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,8,6,10],"tags":[482,483],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","category-fantasy","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-nicola-griffith","tag-spear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}