Diane and Ann Hood at Larkinville in Buffalo, NY Oct. 5, 2016. Ann Hood is signing The Book That Matters Most.
Patti Abbott recently reviewed Ann Hood’s Morningstar: Growing Up with Books (2017) (you can read Patti’s review here). I love books where writers discuss the books that affected them the most so I immediately ordered Morningstar.
“In 1967, when I was ten years old, our town finally got a library. I went there twice a week, walking past the children’s section and heading right for adult fiction.
I can still remember craning my neck to look at all those beautiful books. I whispered the writers’ names: Evan Hunter, Victor Hugo, Harold Robbins, Herman Wouk, Fred Mustard Stewart, Dashiell Hammett, Edith Barton, Dorothy Parker. So many books! At random I pulled one from the shelf. And then another. I fill my arms with books.
And then I read.” (p. 31)
Here is someone who really loves books! Sadly, Ann Hood did not get a lot of support or encouragement from her hardworking parents, especially her mother. “She [Hood’s mother] had dreamed of a beauty-queen daughter, a cheerleader, a popular girl. Instead she got me, a pageant dropout after just two trophies, too clumsy to be a cheerleader or playground star…” (p. 20)
Other than a Third Grade teacher who allowed Ann Hood to stay inside during Recess and read, teachers pretty much ignored her and her passion for reading. “When my ninth-grade guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do with my Life, I told him I wanted to be a writer. Mr. Stone, in his brown corduroy suit and tinted aviator glasses, shook his head sadly, ‘Ann,’ he said, ‘people don’t do that.’
My eyes drifted to the shelves against the wall. ‘Then how do we get all these books?’ I asked.
Mr. Stone placed at the books for a moment, then told me, ‘All those writers are dead.'” (p. 51)
Despite little support or encouragement for her writing aspirations, Ann Hood–powered by all the books she was reading–managed to succeed with the advice of John Steinbeck and Grace Haley. Her first novel was published in 1987 and she’s been writing ever since.
Morningstar, chapter by chapter, shows how the writers Ann Hood read shaped her dreams and aspirations. Hood’s mother called her “weird” but Ann showed her and all the doubters she was something more…a lot more. Don’t miss this inspiring book! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: Growing Up with Books 13
Lesson 1 How to Dream: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk — 33
Lesson 2 How to Become a Writer: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath — 45
Lesson 3 How to Ask Why: Johny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo — 64
Lesson 4 How to Buy Books: Love Story by Erich Segal — 80
Lesson 5 How to Write a Book: The Grapes of Wrath — 91
Lesson 6 How to Fall in Love with Language: Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows by Rod McKuen — 107
Lesson 7 How to Be Curious: A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins — 121
Lesson 8 How to Have Sex: The Harrod Experiment by Robert H. Rimmer — 139
Lesson 9 How to See the World: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak — 157
Lesson 10 How to Run Away: Rabbit Run by John Updike — 172
Acknowledgments — 185
Boris Pasternak, John Updike, Ro McKuen, and Erich Segal? That’s some gumbo. I wonder how many people even remember the once-sensationally popular McKuen and Segal? I suspect most writers pursue their dream without much outside encouragement. At least I had parents who valued reading and education
A few years ago, you could hardly swing a cat in a used bookstore without hitting a Rod McKuen book. He was to poetry what Erich Segal was to literature. For all his fauilts, I believe he was the one who wrote the lines, ‘I know a man who married a dump truck; he had a hard time out on the dance floor.”
Few people remember McKuen today. I fear few people also remember his contemporary, Richard Brautigan, who at least was able to imbue much of his work with some cleverness.
Jerry, I found a Richard Brautigan book last week. I had read it back in the 1960s and had no urge to reread it. When I gave it to my bookstore owner friend, he was enthusiastic. “People come in all the time asking for Richard Brautigan books,” he told me. I agree with you, Brautigan could be clever.
Fred, my parents encouraged my reading, too. Ann Hood did not. Her parents wanted her to stop reading and go out and play.
Yes, after Patti’s review, I read it this week too. I loved it as much as you did. Great stuff. Another vote for Harold Robbins, who Jackie also read (THE CARPETBAGGERS taught her what a proxy was!), as did Bill Crider.
Jeff, you and I both enjoyed Ann Hood’s trip down Book Memory Lane! It’s amazing she became a writer despite the lack of encouragement.
I never read Rod McKuen, but I did read (it took about an hour) LOVE STORY.
My mother was always a big reader and I got started reading her Erle Stanley Gardners and Readers Digest Condensed Books.
When she moved to Arizona, she was on a first name basis with her local librarians, who called her
when a book.by one of her favorite authors came in.
Jeff, I’m on a first name basis with the Librarians here, too. I did read LOVE STORY (and saw the movie) way back when. It was as big as HARRY POTTER in those days!
My Mom had a note on file with the librarians at our branch library, stating that I could read/check out anything (anything underlined) from the adult section.
One librarian always tried to steer me back to the kids’ section (note to self: browse when the library is busy) but the other librarian was fine with it, even making suggestions.
Jerry, I remember Rod McKuen but not fondly. And I think Love Story paved the way for the “disease of the month” books that pre-teen girls seem to thrive on, after they’ve read all the Flowers in the Attic offerings.
Beth, I followed your strategy as kid and went to our local public Library during busy hours when I was able to take out books from the Adult Section without a hassle. Once I graduated from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (around 4th Grade) I was in the Adult Section for the most part. My Library sometimes put Science Fiction books I wanted to read in the Children’s Section, but I was reading grown-up books for the most part.
I remember well the day my childhood librarian took me the adult section and said, “You’re ready for these books now.” We had one small bookcase in my home, but as an older woman, my mother read more. My father never did.
Patti, my parents were both big readers. We had a dozen magazines–LIFE, SATURDAY EVENING POST, TIME, NEWSWEEK, READERS DIGEST, etc.–arriving every week. My parents would take my three sisters, my brother, and me to the Library every week. Our house was always full of books.
When we moved to Brooklyn when I was 9, we were two blocks from the library, a huge building with two floors, the second of which was the children’s section. I never had a problem getting stuff from the adult section. My best library experience was in college, however, where the librarian thanked me for “keeping their circulation rates up.” I was constantly giving them book slips for things I wanted to take out, first for papers. But when I took several theater courses, I was getting ALL the plays of Noel Coward and Eugene O’Neill, quite the contrast! Hunter College was always accommodating.
My mother always read a lot, but until he retired, my father always seemed to be working at home. Later, he was very into spy stories, as well as other kinds of mysteries, plus biographies.