"The Back to School Book of the Century"
In which I ask you to please buy my book
Today is the day! Our rock pal Rick the Rock of Room 214 is out in the world. It made the PW list of New and Noteworthy books and was also called "The Back to School Book of the Century" in the amazing intro to a fun Q&A I did for PW's Shelf Talker.
If you read Rick and like it, maybe leave a review online somewhere. Just "this books rocks! five stars!" is plenty. It does help. When a book reaches a certain number of reviews, a little star pops up on Jeff Bezos's smart watch to let him know it's time to move the book into the Preferred Algorithm category. None of us like this system, but it's the system we live in, alas. I would prefer everyone find out about books from overhearing someone talk enthusiastically at the bookstore.
If you're near Southern Maine, please come to Print: A Bookstore tonight at 7 to see me and Alexandra Penfold talk about our new picture books. I'm bringing Make Your Own Rick starter packs!
Shards
I wasn't going to write an essay for this week's newsletter (Rick!) but I am thinking about one thing. Twice in the past week, one of my kids has said, "Oh, this is where that's from?" about some old media that lives in an extremely abbreviated form on today's internet. Once was the rapping in Blondie's "Rapture," and once was the Carl Weathers/Arnold Schwarzenegger arm wrestling handshake closeup (above) in the 1987 movie Predator.Â
Life is too short to demand that everyone be aware of all cultural references and become familiar with the entire piece. I have no desire to do the sort of reference shaming that says, "Oh, you didn't know that 'the man from Mars stopped eating cars' is from 1980's 'Rapture,' by Blondie, which was the first rap video ever shown on MTV?" But I did remember that one of the reasons I get antsy if I spend too long on the internet is because it's made of shards. Sure, there are many whole works on the internet, but much of what's out there are pieces and parts. Shards. (Cue "Walking on Broken Glass.") As a writer, my inspiration is more likely to come from a whole work of art, and understanding how that shard fits in. An out-of-context shard is useful for a meme, a gif response, but not particularly useful (at least not to me) for inspiration.Â
If you're feeling antsy online, it's time to step away and read a book, listen to an album all the way through, or watch a movie without interruption.
Thoughts and Links
So excited for Chelsea Conaboy's book, Mother Brain: How Neuroscience Is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood. Here's an excerpt in the New York Times. I'm lucky enough to live in the same town as Chelsea, so we did a Mother Brain/Rick the Rock book exchange, and her book is next on my to-read pile.
From Freedom, some tips on building your brain's ability to focus and think: mix up your routine, sleep more, meditate, exercise, play an instrument, stay off social media, allow yourself to be bored (to name a few of the tips).
