I heart NY

Blue Blood by Edward Conlon


Edward Conlon: This guy can write.

He’s the guy who wrote the amazing novel Red on Red last year, and now I’ve gone back and read his 2004 memoir. 

And guys, he’s got the goods. He’s written Blue Blood in his own wonderfully distinctive voice, and it’s fabulous. It’s a memoir of his first decade or so with the New York Police Department, and the guy’s got stories. And he’s good at telling them.

The stuff I really love is the detail he provides about what it’s really like being a cop: the grittiness, the cold and the drudgery, and the adrenaline.

And in both his memoir and his novel, he’s captured the camaraderie of the police. “Partners in a squad car could almost seem married, in their devotions and divisions, in the conversations they could pick up from months before, as if they had never stopped talking.” (p. 152)

And this: “We didn’t develop a herd mentality as much as a hive mentality, instantly known to each other by temperament and task, but a droning, indistinguishable whole to an outside observer. That’s probably what it sounded like, too, if you heard us argue over which diner to go to for breakfast.” (p. 184)

So that stuff is lighter in tone, but there are also some scenes that make a person catch her breath, and others that make her blink her eyes really fast to avoid tearing up. 


Example: Conlon was part of a team assigned to sift through the debris from Ground Zero, which had been brought to a landfill. They would find personal effects and bones and sections of the airplanes. He writes, “Firemen arrived, with vanloads of hot food—pizza, lasagna, sandwiches—and we looked at each other with gratitude and pity: they were sorry for us, because we had to dig, and we were sorry for them, because of what we dug out. The firemen laid out the food for us and left the tent with their gear, tenderly cradling recovered boots and helmets as if they were infants.” (p. 508)

[blinking fast here]

I’m a sucker for workplace memoirs (also for workplace TV shows: Mary Tyler Moore, The West Wing, Sports Night, The Office), and this is one of the best.

It also fits into a reading/viewing pattern a friend recently identified in me: I like books about the good guy/hero types.

One more thing. I recently read that Conlon's retired from the police force to write full-time. This, my friends, is good news for the reading public.

"Suddenly, all hell broke loose!"

Yesterday by chance I caught a bit of an interview with Elmore Leonard. 

And apparently I've been librarianing with my eyes closed, because I was completely unaware that the great man had published a book in 2007 called Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing. (I ask you: How do these things get by me?! Of course, I only discovered his greatness in 2009, when I listened to his amazing Western/mystery The Hot Kid. Better late than never, eh?)

During the interview, they alluded to a couple of Leonard's rules, including, "Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.' This rule doesn't require an explanation."

There are various sites out there on the interwebs that list his rules, and this one is the one I like best. 

So, yeah, I've placed a hold on that 96-page book of his, because I adore that man's writing style. 

Under the cover of darkness...

...this is what happens in libraries and bookstores.

Amish memoir

Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler

What a fine book.

Ira Wagler was born Amish, and Amish he remained, off and on, for years upon years. Even though, from his teen years on, he’d escape to the other world (the one the rest of us live in) to get some breathing room. And then he’d return to his roots.

It’s utterly interesting to hear about his not feeling like he fit in either world completely, and the way his family and his Amish origins tugged him back, even though he knew it wasn’t the right fit for him.

From the start of the book, we know that he’s left the Amish, but I tell you, there were moments in his life when I didn’t know how he could have gotten from there to here. He just seemed so torn.

And that’s the kind of story that, in the hands of a gifted writer (and he is one), is more riveting than one would expect.

And there are some wonderful lines, such as this:

“My father was a man of many gifts and skills. Farming was not one of them.” (p. 43)

OK, so that’s pretty funny (or maybe not so funny, if you were him), especially when farming’s the big thing they were supposed to be doing.

Turns out, his father was a writer, and a good one, who was widely known among the Amish nationwide. So, if this was next statement was true, I’m willing to give the man a pass: “We didn’t realize it then, but our farm was just plain trashy.”  (p. 43) That made me smile. 

But the overall tone of the book is actually somber, since it’s largely about the author's feelings of not-belonging-here-or-there. There's a lot of heart-wrenching stuff here. 

The fellow has a blog, and you can see examples of his fine writing there. 

Also, during his youth, he lived in southern Iowa for a time, so that thrilled me to no end. Small-town Iowa’s a rare thing to find in a book, and it’s almost pathetic how excited I get when I discover it there.

If you’re a fan of memoirs about ordinary lives told beautifully well, or if you like subculture memoirs, this is a very fine example of both of those things. 

One of the most reliable mystery series on the planet

Umpteen books into this series  (she’s on “V” now, however many books that is), Sue Grafton’s still got it. I marvel at her with each new book that emerges, because usually, in my experience, authors go kind of flat somewhere around book 11.

But not Sue Grafton. No, she’s just getting better.

Dang.

How’s she do it?

Well, whatever magic she’s working, it’s all happening in this book.

One thing I love about this series is that the author has stuck with the original timeframe to keep the chronology true. So this book is set in 1988. (Retro, baby.)

And there’s a loveliness to that.

The other thing that really works in this series is that Kinsey Millhone is likeable yet a bit ornery, and that makes her very real.

And I love the affection she has for her landlord Henry, the retired baker. In this book, he’s out of town due to a family emergency, and she misses him.

And one other thing, and it’s small but significant. Kinsey Millhone cleans her home and office, and that stuff’s included in the book. For some reason, I really like this. I guess because in so many books, it seems like people are living in a bubble that doesn’t include housecleaning.

Anyway.

This story is one of those classic PI situations, in which someone hires the detective to look into something, then changes his mind—but the PI is too far in to let it go, so she keeps investigating on her own time (and her own dime). And havoc ensues.

Oh, it’s just all too good.

If we believe the alphabet, there’re only 4 more of these puppies coming down the line. The only consolation is that at least this series is re-readable. 

Nerds of the world: Unite!

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: My Life on the Dork Side by Julie Halpern

A friend who’s a middle school librarian told me about this book, and I’m so glad she did.

It’s the story of a girl who falls from Popularhood to Geekdom. (Hello, and welcome to my world!*)

Jessie’s a high school sophomore, and she’s always hung out with a couple of friends who are on the verge of being popular. And now, it’s all going to crap. Her best friend has stolen the boy Jessie’s got a wild crush on, and both of her friends have gone punk.

Meanwhile, here’s Jessie: “It’s funny how some of Barrett’s friends think I’m his punky kid sister, when really I’m just some mathlete who’d rather be sewing Thanksgiving skirts in her bedroom while listening to an audiobook.” (p. 6)

Everyone out there, raise your hand if Jessie’s part of your tribe.

Yeah, she practically is me, and also my friend who recommended the book. We used to spend weekend nights in college watching movies in our dorm room and cross-stitching. Those were some crazy times!

(Really—could it get any better than that? I don’t think so, either.)

Anyway, Jessie’s sewn a skirt for each day of the school year, and she’s even planned some theme weeks: movie week, sports week, that kind of thing. We’re talking novelty fabrics here.

So it’s really no wonder when she falls in with a new crowd that lives on D&D and Renaissance-Fair-esque events. They are her people. And there’s even a cute boy in that “nerd herd” (as Jessie’s brother so sweetly terms them).

Meanwhile, her old best friend is going way too far with Jessie’s old crush; Jessie’s brother has morphed from punk to preppy and gotten himself a new girlfriend; and Jessie continues to earn non-stop A’s.

Jessie’s engagingly nerdy-yet-not, and her very believable high-school-girl voice is darn charming.

Recommended for any former/current nerds. Highly recommended for any crafty former/current nerds. This book’s about us, and that is a rare and lovely thing.

* I planned to illustrate this post with a terrifyingly dorky photo of myself at that age, but it appears that I successfully destroyed all such evidence in my possession.