Gotta Read It!: Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch that Sells by Libbie Hawker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This short book is about pitches. The story kind, not the baseball kind. I got it as part of a book bundle and I love short books, so I dove in.
And it’s fine. Hawker provides plenty of her own pitches as examples and while it may seem ego-driven at a glance, it’s nice in that there is an authenticity to the pitches. She’s not “writing to the crowd”, she’s providing examples of work she has relied on directly to help sell her novels.
The writing style is light and the book can be finished in an afternoon, all the better to apply the lessons therein. I don’t foresee myself making use of it much with my own writing, but for those who may need to work on and use pitches, this is a concise and worthy resource.
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advice
Book review: You Are Awesome
You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life by Neil Pasricha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the bio for You Are Awesome it’s mentioned that Neil Pasricha gives 50 speeches a year–nearly one a week. I saw one of these speeches, back in December 2019 (what a simpler time that was) and he is a fantastic, engaging speaker. He could probably give 150 speeches a year (post-pandemic, of course) if he could clone himself. You get some of that same zest and enthusiasm in his books, but while You Are Awesome doesn’t get the blood pumping like his oration, it does a pretty good job of outlining his philosophy on taking on life and, in particular, accepting and moving past adversity.
He breaks things down into nine “secrets”, or steps to follow and the book is a quick, breezy read, full of anecdotes that Pasricha always makes interesting, his tone so dang friendly and relatable.
The advice ranges from simple and sensible (“Be resilient. Keep going.”) to what has worked well for him (“Be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.”) to somewhat less conventional things. When he talks of shifting the spotlight, for example, he refers to the belief many have that everyone is watching them, when for the most part everyone else is too absorbed in themselves to be paying much attention to every little thing you do. Accepting this means letting go of your ego. Pasricha is basically saying get over yourself.
My favorite piece of advice is to carve out time strictly for yourself–no interruptions tolerated! This may be more difficult for some, depending on their work or home life, but I really like the idea of shutting out this noisy world of social media and the relentless drive to catch and keep our attention (“Engagement!”) so I’m fully on board with this.
Overall, I think someone–especially someone young, though it’s never too late, as they say–following the advice in this book may not necessarily end up awesome, but they will probably be a happier, more content, and more successful person.
Recommended.
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Book review: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
First, I want to express my relief that the trend of every other novel in the last five years having “girl” in the title has not merged with the newer trend of every non-fiction book having “f*ck” in the title.
Mark Manson is a guy with a potty mouth who found himself, started a blog and now has a few books like this one detailing his philosophy for living a better life. At its simplest level, it boils down to (with cursing) letting go of all the things that hold you back, because a) we’re all going to die and b) better to trey something and maybe find what you really want than to not try and muddle along, vaguely unhappy.
It’s not a bad philosophy.
He frames happiness–or rather, the misguided pursuit of what we think will make us happy–as a central problem in our lives. Don’t try to be like a celebrity, don’t just aim to make a lot of money doing whatever, think about what you enjoy, then pursue it as best you can. He uses his own misguided youth as an example of what not to do, and how the sobering, unexpected death of a friend woke him up and put him on a new path. Don’t worry, his advice does not rely on the sobering, unexpected death of a friend to work. Or at least I assume not. A lot of what Manson talks about is not particularly new–he advises against holding “shitty” values, and “rock star problems” (basically not appreciating what you have by unrealistically comparing yourself to levels of success that may be rare or unattainable to most). What makes The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck unique is Manson’s voice. As I said, he has a potty mouth, and there are passages in this book that made me chuckle or even laugh aloud. It helps the presentation a lot–if you’re into a somewhat blue version of getting what is essentially timeless advice on living.
F*cking recommended if you’re not averse to a little salty language mixed in with sensible advice.