Welcome back, my fellow creatives! Winter is the perfect time to curl up in a blanket with a pile of books, and I can think of no better place to find those books than at the local library.
It’s all too easy to just meander over to my favorite sections, though, and 2022 is the year to try new things! So, for this series on Story Cuppings, I am only going to pick books from my library’s New Release shelf by the entrance. Those books could be of any genre, fiction or nonfiction. If it’s on that shelf, it’s game for a podcast!
Today I plucked from the New Release shelf:
Bough Cutter: A Northern Lakes Mystery by Jeff Nania
What does a reader experience in those opening pages, and what lessons can a writer take away in studying but a few paragraphs? Let’s find out!
If you do not see the audio player above, you can access the podcast here.
Not going to lie, folks…this one was hard. Yet this book’s got a ton of happy reviews! Clearly I’m on the odd one out with my thoughts about this book. Ever put a book in the “Did Not Finish” pile that everyone else loved except you? Let me know!
Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!
Jean Lee's World 
I have plenty of books in the did-not-finish pile. Life is too short to keep going on one’s that don’t grab us.
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Exactly! While I’m sure starting at Book 3 doesn’t help, that opening chapter was just a slog. Noooo thank you.
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Booker of Bookers, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children has been languishing on the end of my bookshelf for almost a year, three-quarters finished. Everyone else appears to have loved it. Not I. It started off really well, then, *whispers* a bit self-indulgent, dare I say…?
Yep, life’s too short.
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Yes, exactly! That’s another reason why I like focusing on first chapters for reviewing. We’re always told as writers that we have to grip the audience right away, Welp, I’m applying that lesson to what’s published, and if that author didn’t follow it, I ain’t readin’ it. 🙂
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I was heartened to see that Gary (below) had the same reaction to Mr Rushdie’s much-lauded offering!
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A book I finally did finish but it was an effort. People raved about this book and I just found it confusing, too long and over indulgent. 250 pages would have been perfect but over a 1000 on a badly dressed clown……. Am I the only one who struggled with Kings ‘IT’ . So many fantastic books, they need my attention.
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Oh good heavens, you are NOT alone on that one! It’s one of those books that makes me wonder if King is really paid by the word like Dickens was. There is no other reason for King to have written THAT much. It ain’t the Count of Monte Cristo!
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Same with the unabridged version of The Stand.
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