Archive: Favourite finds from Winter 2021

📚 FAVOURITE BOOKS OF WINTER 2021 📚

FICTION

The Outsider by Stephen King

In November 2020, I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the first time (see my blog post here). I had never written fiction before (as an adult) and decided my first novel would be a paranormal thriller based on a real-life criminal case my mother and I worked on in 2017. When I looked for advice on writing fiction, the universal message from many famous authors was to read extensively in the genre you want to write.

Stephen King’s The Outsider had been sitting on my “to be read” pile for almost a year, and November was the perfect time to dive into it. I wanted to read it from a writer’s perspective, with particular attention to how King used point of view, tense and how he developed memorable characters.

After reading only the first fifty pages of The Outsider, King struck me with how quickly he drew me in with intriguing characters. I noted how King used point of view, or POV, to connect the reader with the character. The Outsider is written in the third person, omniscient POV, which means the reader knows the characters inner thoughts. Each section of the book may have multiple main characters in the scene, but the point of view rotates to one central character, and you always know who takes the reins with the primary POV. 

The key ingredient was HOW King writes as he shifts the POV from character to character. Many of his sentences are written with the language and style of the character. King weaves expressions the characters may say in the book’s dialogue into the section’s central narrative as if told from their perspective.

One example is the character Holly Gibney; a private investigator introduced midway into the book. It's immediately apparent that Holly's personality is distinct and unusual from the other characters. She's brilliant, and through her actions in the novel, King shows the reader she is affected by OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) or perhaps lives on the autism spectrum. Holly could be continually checking her Fitbit to regulate her heart rate or meticulously planning her travel routes to optimize efficiency. There was always something revealing about her character. 

Holly was also very particular, and unlike her colleagues in the book, rarely swears. King’s narrative adapts to reflect this. In one section, Holly is after some information from a hospital worker who is reluctant to talk to her, suspecting she was a reporter. King writes:

“This was interesting. It might not have anything to do with the matter she had come here to investigate, but maybe it did. The woman hadn’t gone all poopy, after all, until Holly mentioned Peter Maitland’s name.”

We aren’t reading Holly’s thoughts here, yet King uses her mannerisms in his narrative, by repeating words (“poopy”) and phrases she says, or might say, in conversation. King maintains this subtle technique for all of the main characters. 

As I begin writing my novel, I hope to incorporate this element of King’s style to make my characters come alive for the reader.

Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.

NONFICTION

Deep Work and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

This seasons selection is an amalgamation of a podcast and two books by the same author, Cal Newport. Working from home during the lockdown phases of the pandemic presented challenges I’d never faced before. It’s easy to say “I’ll work between 9 and 5,” but the reality is that line quickly becomes blurred, and on many days I struggled to remain focused and motivated. I sought out productivity advice online and came across the podcast Deep Questions hosted by Cal Newport, who like me, is an academic and author. 

The podcast episodes then lead me to Newport’s books. Deep Work outlines a workflow philosophy based on assigning time blocks for in-depth focus on projects rather than reacting to a task list or email inbox. I am currently reading his most recent book Digital Minimalism, and while I can’t dump social media apps entirely, his advice resonated. I found that disabling notifications, blocking social media apps during the workday, and not reviewing email until after 11 am an incredible boost to my work attention span. The trick is to find what works for you, and I highly recommend these three resources to get you on the road to mental clarity and anxiety-free workflows.

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🎥 Favourite media of winter 2021 📺

🧠 brain candy 🍬

Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)

After finishing Younger (last season’s top pick), I went in search of another mood-boosting comedy to help keep my spirits up as the COVID-19 pandemic second wave took hold in Toronto. I figured Darren Star knocked it out of the park with Younger, so why not give his new Netflix series Emily in Paris a try. It was okay. Just okay. I remembered seeing at least two people on Facebook recommend Ted Lasso, so I gave it a try even though I’m generally not a fan of shows revolving around sports.

In the show, Ted Lasso (played by showrunner Jason Sudeikis) is a lovable, perpetually optimistic American football coach recruited from his small-town coaching career to lead a struggling national soccer team in the UK.

To become a passionate advocate of a comedy series, I need a show to pull me in and hold on tight, and there is one formula guaranteed to do this: laughter through tears. If a show can tap into my heart and make it swell with endearing emotion, I know it has great potential. I especially know the show is a winner when I find myself smiling or laughing with pooling, wet eyes.  Almost every episode of Ted Lasso hits the mark.

Watch the series trailer here.

🧠 brain food 🥕

The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

“Are you jumping on the Queen’s Gambit bandwagon too?” asked a colleague at work when I told him I was getting a fancy chess set for Christmas.

I replied with an enthusiastic, whole-hearted, resounding “Yes!”

The limited series centres around Beth Harmon, a child chess prodigy orphaned at a young age. Her chess career ignites when the orphanage caretaker takes her under his wing and introduces her to the game. For the rest of the series’ episodes, we watch the socially awkward Beth grow and mature into a vibrant, intelligent woman and world chess champion. The series is based upon a book written by Walter Tevis from almost forty years ago. After the series’ debut, Tevis’ book became an instant New York Times bestseller despite its age.

The book’s renewed success and the bandwagon my colleague described is known as the “Queen’s Gambit effect.” Sales and interest in chess skyrocketed after the show’s October debut. Bloomberg reported that the number of online chess games doubled in November and one game retailer quantified the chess set sales spike at 1100% over the previous year.

I couldn’t imagine a better result, both for the author and for the chess community. I learned chess from my father when I was young, but it took my renewed interest as an adult to truly appreciate the skill, strategy and focus the game requires. I had no idea that the number of legal chess positions amounted to 10^40 and that the estimated number of possible games was 10^120.   Chess.com, the site I chose to join, goes as far as to state “there are more possible chess games than the number of atoms in the universe.” 

For me, picking up chess was calming, helped me unplug from the attention scattering technological distractions (see Cal Newport’s pick of the season above) and retrained my attention span to focus on one activity. If others, especially young adults preoccupied with their phones, can achieve this attention-building boost, our society benefits.  

If you haven’t watched it yet, what are you waiting for!?

Watch the series trailer here.

Archive: Favourite Finds from Fall 2020

📚 FAVOURITE BOOKS OF FALL 2020 📚

FICTION

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I started this book before the pandemic hit and I put it aside as work intensified. When everyone in Toronto went into self isolation, I was able to finish this beautiful book. It turns out it was the perfect lockdown read, given the premise of the book.

The story takes place just after the Bolshevik revolution where the aristocratic protagonist, Count Rostov, is placed under house arrest inside a top hotel in Moscow.

I initially thought the book would be a snooze-fest. I mean, what could possibly be interesting about a man who spends his life stuck inside a hotel? The book completely surprised me, particularly the author’s superb use of imagery and wit.

A quote that resonated: “That sense of loss is exactly what we must anticipate, prepare for, and cherish to the last of our days; for it is only our heartbreak that finally refutes all that is ephemeral in love.”

Widely available now: Indigo, Amazon, and a host of independent booksellers that deliver.

NONFICTION

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens

Without question, this book is a must-read for every nonfiction writer and academic. Every day we are inundated with information consisting of books, videos, articles, podcasts and even tweet-storms. Without a method to capture and process this information for use by our future-selves, a ton of time is wasted when we sit down to write.

In a nutshell, this book describes techniques to capture relevant information in a format that quickly resurfaces later when we need it.

Limited availability in hardcopy, so digital may be the way to go: Indigo, Amazon, or order through a host of independent bookseller options who deliver.

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🎥 FAVOURITE MEDIa OF FALL 2020 📺

🧠 BRAIN CANDY 🍬

Younger (TV Land; Amazon Prime)

I am a little late to the party on this one. With six seasons already under its belt, Younger is the perfect fun, hilarious, make-you-feel-good series I needed during the worst of the pandemic lockdown.

The magic comes from its stellar cast and visionary creator Darren Star, who also created Sex and the City.

The good news is you can binge watch all six seasons on Amazon Prime, and rumour has it, a seventh season is on the way.

🧠 BRAIN FOOD 🥕

I May Destroy you (HBO)

Set in London, England, the series follows a group of close friends as they navigate the Millennial social scene. The main character Arabella, played by the magnificent Michaela Coel, is a writer under pressure to finish her sophomore book.

One night at the pub, Arabella’s drink is spiked, and as her memory flickers in her consciousness, she wrestles with the realization that she may have been raped.

The series explores multiple levels of personal violation, from the subtle to the egregious, and explores friendship and forgiveness.

Coel is the creative genius behind the show, which fictionalizes her own experience of sexual assault while writing for the British comedy Chewing Gum (Netflix). In addition to writing and staring in each episode, Coel also directs a bulk of the episodes.

The full season is available to stream on Crave(HBO) in Canada.