Mya Bell's
Reading List & Stories About Books She's Enjoyed

Welcome to Mya's chronicle of her journey into the world of literature. Here she tells stories about the books she's read and how she came across them, along with books that are similar in style that readers might enjoy. Most are mainstream or literary fiction, but the list also includes some biographies and historical fiction.

Welcome to my reading list. These descriptions are a little different from reviews in that they describe just the books I've especially enjoyed, and are written in such a way that, hopefully, they don't give away the surprises and endings (don't you hate reviewers who give away everything?). My schedule is always busy, especially when publication deadlines draw near, but I will try to add a couple of new descriptions each month. ---Mya

The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen
As a child, I was very fond of nature stories. By the age of 12, I had read Call of the Wild by Jack London, the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley, and Never Cry Wolf (one of my favorites). Then, for a number of years, my reading drifted toward nonfiction as I made my way through university and a string of minimum-wage jobs that helped (barely) to put food on the table. During those years, I can't remember reading any nature books. In fact, I was so fatigued from going to school full-time and working three part-time jobs that I often didn't read at all. Then one day a friend of mine who likes to hike said, "You should read the Snow Leopard. It's one of my favorites." and I said, "Sure."
Well, it's one thing to decide to read a book and sometimes quite another to find a copy. My friend's enthusiasm about the Snow Leopard motivated me to buy a copy, rather than loaning it from the library, but the local bookstore was out of them and even my favorite second-hand stores were all out of stock.
So I forgot about the Snow Leopard for a while and read other books, including The Agony and the Ecstacy, The Name of the Rose, and several Mozart biographies.
Then, on a professional trip to Portland, I was browsing Powell's Books (what a great bookstore) and remembered about the Snow Leopard. Powell's books is huge. It's a multilevel store that often stocks dozens of copies of popular books. So, naturally, I expected them to have numerous copies of the Snow Leopard. I was wrong. At the time, there was only one copy, a first edition, and it was priced higher than I anticipated. I hummed and hawed and looked at the dozen books in my arms that I had already decided to buy and figured I would get the Snow Leopard another time.
It took two years before I bought a copy of the Snow Leopard. I had never read anything else by Peter Matthiessen, and knew nothing about his background or writing style when I curled up to enjoy this book.
The wait was worth it. The book unfolds like a seed pushing its way into the world--not knowing whether it will ever break the surface and see the sun. The style is contemplative, spare, I'd almost say lyrical, and the journey is one I think many of us wish we could travel, into the mysterious, majestic mountains of the Himalayas.
Matthiessen brings his pilgrammage to life and shares insights into his thoughts as he seeks out a rare and magnificent animal that is seldom seen and which inhabits one of the most unlikely of habitats, a region where frostbite and hypothermia are realities, not romantic notions.
I enjoyed this book. I'll probably read it again some day. I felt like I shared a warm and safe berth inside Matthiessen's backpack as he made his trip and I appreciated his candor as he spoke of personal experiences from his past.
After reading the Snow Leopard, I bought several of Matthiessen's books, including At Play in the Fields of the Lord, and some of his short stories.

At Play in the Fields of the Lord - Peter Matthiessen
I would probably never have heard of this book if I hadn't read the Snow Leopard by the same author. I'm sure I would have passed right by the long, religious-oriented title if I had seen it in the bookstore. But after reading the Snow Leopard, I was intrigued enough by Matthiessen's adventures to give it a try.
Unlike The Snow Leopard, which is a chronicle of some of Matthiessen's real-life adventures, At Play is mainstream fiction/adventure in which Matthiessen emphasizes the story line and character depictions. Since Matthiessen is known for several nonfiction books, I was wondering if his novel would hold my interest. It did.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is aptly titled. The main characters are on a mission in an untamed wilderness, an environment where human contact is sparse and people's values are repeatedly tested by isolation and the sheer difficulty of survival in a wild environment.
The story carried me along and the characterizations were strong and interesting. It's not surprising that this was made into a movie (which I discovered by accident in a video rental store). Assuming it had a normal theater run, I'm surprised I never heard about the movie coming to town, since it had several well-known stars, including Tom Berenger and Daryl Hannah. The book, of course, has more depth and background than can be fit into a movie format, but all-in-all, the movie follows quite closely from the book. I enjoyed this book. Matthiessen is clearly as good at developing fictional characters as he is at recounting his personal experiences.

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
I read this book many years ago. It was assigned to me in one of my English classes. In some ways I was too young to appreciate its historic and political messages, but it none-the-less made an impression on me, one that lasts to this day. I remember it as raw, fast-paced, and insightful with themes that are still relevant. When I find time, I plan to read it again. Now that I understand war and political drama better than I did as a teenager, I suspect I'll get more out of the book on a second read.

Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
Oscar and Lucinda was the first book I ever read by Peter Carey. I ran to the bookstore to buy it after seeing the movie of the same name. I really enjoyed the movie. I loved the actors, the poignant dialog, the storyline, and the settings. The book was even better. Rich in descriptive passages, long and intriguing, I read it slowly, savoring it, worried that I might finish it too soon, despite its considerable length.
It's hard to relate this book to other books. Carey has a unique descriptive sensibility and insight into human frailty that are rare in mainstream fiction. The only other book that comes to mind that might be considered somewhat similar in the level of detail would be Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose. Oscar and Lucinda gave me one of those rare reading experiences where I found myself 'lost in the book.' I kept thinking about it during work, waiting for the free moment when I could get back to it and follow its quirky characters on their bumpy journeys toward vindication and their stumbling progress toward intimacy.
I was inspired by this book to buy all of Peter Carey's other books but, like Matthiessen's books, they can be hard to find. It's taken three years to find five of his books in local bookstores. I purchased Bliss, Illywhacker, The Big Bazoohley (juvenile fiction), The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith, and The Tax Collector.
Of these, I particularly enjoyed The Tax Collector (although I felt it was a bit short, not just in length, but as if the last third had somehow been compressed) and The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith (an extraordinary book, but not necessarily an easy read). The others were good too, but somehow didn't stick as strongly in my memory.
Peter Carey's themes and writing style are quite wide-ranging. What the books have in common is Carey's gift for description and carefully crafted characters that not only tug at us emotionally, but which also have layers of symbolic meaning for those who enjoy reading books on more than one level.

The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve
This book is a bit difficult to describe. It made Oprah's Book Club list and, after reading it, I understand why, because it deals with women's themes from a woman's point of view as the main character.
The book is very readable. So much so, I could hardly put it down and I finished it in only two days. Yet, it's not a completely satisfying read, because there are themes and circumstances mentioned near the end that really should have been woven into the fabric of the story from the beginning to add depth, not just tacked on to conveniently explain preceding events. Nevertheless, if you are the kind of person who reads practically everything and is always looking for the next book, you may enjoy this as a quick easy read. Despite its flaws, I'm glad I read it, because I often appreciate a light, but engaging page-turner in between meatier books.
Would I read another book by the same author? Yes. I've heard people say her other books are better, so I'll try one more and if it holds my attention, I'll probably continue to look for Shreve's books.

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
I loved this book. It clawed at my heart and was written with a level of emotional integrity that's rare in mainstream fiction. I hesitate to call it mainstream as it has many literary virtues while still remaining in the realm of popular books with commercial value.
Guterson has achieved a difficult balance. The book covers the lives of an ensemble of characters from different ethnic backgrounds and there's no easy way to shine a light into the dark recesses of people's hearts without making them into good guys and bad guys. Despite the difficulty of this task, Guterson succeeds well and has, I believe, written a book of consequence. It is not just a good story, it is an important story, and the kind of book that I would recommend not just for entertainment value but for historical/educational value as well. After reading it, I hurried to the library and checked out The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind (a collection of short stories I read in a day), and East of the Mountains, Guterson's novel about a retired doctor who takes a journey of self-discovery into the apple orchards of eastern Washington.

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption - Stephen King
Would you believe this is the first book I've ever read by Stephen King? I read it today (21 May 2004). Even I find that hard to believe, given his enormous popularity and my omnivorous taste in books, but it's true. No wait. I may have lied. About 10 years ago I read Girl on a Swing and I didn't pay attention to who the author was at the time. It was in a bag of books I bought at a sale, a book club edition. Since his name wasn't emblazoned on the cover and the subject wasn't horror, as King was mostly known for at the time, it didn't stand out in my mind as a King book. In fact, give me a second, I'd better check online and see if he actually wrote it... Ah no. Girl in a Swing is by Richard Adams, so more on that later. Thus, Shawshank Redemption is my first King book. It's hard for me to judge it on literary merits, since I've seen the movie (Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman) three times and my perception of the book is very much colored by having seen the film. King's story is actually a novella, just over 100 pages, and part of a compendium called "Different Seasons."
I like the use of the first person narrative in this story. It personalizes the story-telling and the narrator is interesting in his own right. The rough, raw use of description and language suits the subject matter, which is a nasty prison environment in the mid-1900s. The movie closely follows the book, with a few changes in plot that make logical sense but, in general, King's vision comes through on the screen. The idea of attempting to escape the bonds of prison both physically and spiritually is a theme almost anyone, inside or outside, can relate to, and thus has a timeless quality. I'll have to read more of King's books to get a better feel for the breadth and depth of his works. It's hard to do that on the basis of a single novella. For now, I can say that Shawshank was interesting enough to put King on my list of good storytellers. He managed to give a short story an epic quality, which is unusual in such a small amount of space. I'll have to explore his books further to see how I feel about him as a writer in a broader literary sense.

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