Over thirteen years ago, I began writing a bi-monthly column about books for the Norfolk Daily News out of Norfolk, Nebraska. Honestly, I didn’t think it would last more than a year or two, but here I am still writing it all these years later. I’ve written over 300 pieces for that column called “Novel Thoughts.” The column is meant to inspire the average reader to pick up older, worthy pieces of literature (or newer books after the hype has worn off) and read them as well as to ignite interest in other aspects of literature, so I address one book and one book-related topic each month.
In January of this year, I managed to convince the editor of the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol, TN/VA, to run it also. He originally shot me down via email, but I finagled an in-person meeting with him, and then he changed his mind and gave me a chance. It’s gone over fairly well there, and I hope he’ll continue to run it for a few years.
Most editors I approach either don’t reply at all or they reply with polite rejections because most newspapers are struggling to stay alive, but I’m determined to get my column into more papers. I have an appointment next week with a newspaper editor who is in charge of four Nebraska newspapers. She has agreed to meet with me in person, so I am hoping that she will agree to run the column in at least one of those papers — all four would be fabulous, but I will be happy with one.
I may start running it on this platform and see if I can get more subscribers that way. We’ll see. For now, I would prefer to keep it a newspaper thing, but I’m open to running it on Substack. I would like your opinion about that, and if you know any newspaper editor, I would appreciate you telling him or her about this column.
I’m going to share here the last few pieces I wrote that have already been published in those two papers. If you think me sharing other past columns as well as new ones after they appear in the papers would be something you’d like to see more of here, let me know. If reading these doesn’t appeal to you, let me know that, too.
Thanks.
Here are some of my most recent column pieces:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie “Novel Thoughts” column for September 21, 2022 Tammy Marshall
Muriel Spark was a Scottish writer who became a Dame in 1993. She was born in Edinburgh where she set her most famous novel, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” The story takes place in the 1930s, but the book was published in 1961, adapted to the stage in 1966 by Jay Presson Allen, and then adapted from that play for the screen in 1969. The cinematic role of Miss Jean Brodie was played by Maggie Smith. For that role, she won an Oscar for best actress as well as many other nominations and awards. Additionally, Maggie Smith was bestowed the title of Dame in 1990 by Queen Elizabeth II. In selecting a novel for my September read, I wanted to showcase an older book where the protagonist was a teacher in honor of another school year even though I’m no longer teaching. It’s safe to say that Miss Jean Brodie is like no other teacher I’ve ever known, yet she also embodies the passion that many teachers bring to their profession. Hers, though, has an intensity that eventually gets her in trouble. Miss Jean Brodie is a woman in her prime, and Maggie Smith was an actress fully in her prime at the time in which she played this part. While the novel makes for a great story with compelling characters, the movie is phenomenal because of Maggie Smith. The novel is told in third person, but it’s told from the perspective of Sandy Stranger, one of six girls who comprise the Brodie Set at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls where Miss Brodie teaches. In the movie version, this part is played to perfection by Pamela Franklin. Franklin retired from acting in the 1980s, but her husband and son own a well-known bookstore called Mystery Pier Books in West Hollywood (check out the store’s Facebook page for a neat tribute to Queen Elizabeth). Fortunately, Maggie Smith chose not to retire from acting. She went on to play another extremely well-known and beloved teacher in the film adaptations of the “Harry Potter” books. That’s where I first became aware of her acting prowess under the guise of Professor Minerva McGonagall. Since then, I’ve also fallen under her acting spell as the matriarch of “Downton Abbey.” In the novel, as well as in the movie version, Miss Jean Brodie is dedicated to her girls – a bit too much, but dedicated, nevertheless. She often says, “Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life.” She is committed to inculcating a love of the arts and culture into them rather than the staunch curriculum expected by the school. “Goodness, truth, and beauty come first,” she says. In one argument with her nemesis, the headmistress, Miss Brodie explains the etymology of the word “education.” “The word education comes from the root e from ex, out, and duco, I lead. It means a leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.” While I don’t agree with some of her methods, the linguist and teacher in me does appreciate and agree with this sentiment. Ultimately, one of Miss Brodie’s girls betrays her, and this betrayal leads to her dismissal. There are fewer girls in her set in the movie version and important details about some have changed, but the same girl is responsible for her downfall in both. Frankly, I recommend reading the novel and then watching the movie. They are both excellent.
Traveling Bookstore “Novel Thoughts” column for October 5, 2022 Tammy Marshall
I love to read, and I love to travel. Every time I travel to a new town, I look to see if there is a bookstore that I can visit. Imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled upon something wonderful that combines those two loves! St. Rita’s Amazing Traveling Bookstore and Textual Apothecary is a bookstore in a van, and Rita Collins is the book seller who crisscrosses the country in her van, selling used books everywhere she goes. She also sells t-shirts that sport the name of her traveling store – I’m wearing mine as I write this column. I stumbled upon this magical van via a story that “Today” did about the traveling bookstore in May. That story was shared on one of the book-related Facebook pages I follow, and I happened to read it. In that story, I read that Collins had traveled to more than 30 states as of May, but she had a couple new ones on the horizon. One of those was Nebraska, so I checked her schedule to see when she was going to be in my home state and learned that it would be in September. She was spending only three days in Nebraska as she made her way to South Dakota for that state’s Festival of Books. I marked the dates in my calendar and made plans to drive to Lincoln to see her van in person. Like me, Collins is a retired teacher. She currently lives in Eureka, Montana, a small town that is only a few miles from the Canadian border and that is quite near Glacier National Park. As a teacher, she spent a few years teaching overseas, the bulk of that was done in the Czech Republic. When she travels with her bookstore, she finds places that will allow her to set up near their businesses, and she locates people who will put her up for a night or two. While in Lincoln, she stayed with a Czech family she knew from her time teaching overseas. The interior of the van is a compact bookstore with specially designed slanted shelves on all four sides of the interior. Those shelves house about 600 used books, and Collins estimates that she sells about 30 books each day she’s open. She replenishes her stock in a variety of ways. Some books are donated by people who come to see her store on wheels, and some books come to her in strange, fortuitous ways. Occasionally, she must go shopping for books to replace what she’s sold. Her store’s shelves are well organized, and you can find books in a range of categories – biographies, travel books, children's books, literature, westerns, poetry, and even books in foreign languages. I bought three books from her store and a t-shirt. She and I had a lovely chat, and I hope our paths cross again someday. After all, I do like to travel, so maybe my travels will take me to one of her stops in a state neither of us has yet visited. Check out her website at saintritasbooks.com for a few photos and to read the blog that Collins writes about her journeys. Feel free to follow her, as I do, on Facebook, too.
“Never Heard of You” “Novel Thoughts” column for September 7, 2022 Tammy Marshall I recently spent four days at a large vendor event in which I was promoting a statewide writing group as well as my own novels. Getting passersby to stop for a moment to discuss writing and reading was hard enough, but getting them to look at my books was even more difficult. This was mostly due to the fact that the bulk of the passersby weren’t readers. In fact, whenever I asked, “Are you a reader?” they tended to answer with a shake of their heads, a scoffing sound, or an abrupt excuse as to how they don’t have time to read. Fortunately, though, some people did stop to chat, and I even convinced a few of them to take a chance on me and buy my books. One elderly guy, though, stopped only long enough to peer at my name on my books and ask if that was me. I told him it was. He then eyed me with distrust and grunted, “Never heard of you.” Before I could even reply, he turned and trudged away. I chuckled and shrugged it off, but his comment was silly. Does he truly spend his life only reading things by authors he’s heard of? Only listening to the music of bands or singers he’s heard of? Only sampling the food of restaurants he’s heard of? Only enjoying any type of show that contains performers he’s heard of? That seems like a boring way to live one’s life. As it pertains to literature, I cannot fathom a world in which I would only select books to read that were written by authors I’d previously heard of. After all, how have I heard of these authors? Am I to pose all my reading choices solely upon the recommendations of others? Am I to rely solely upon reviews in national papers or in online reading forums? If I didn’t read books written by authors I’d never previously heard of, then I never would have read “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish, or “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society” by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. I hadn’t heard of these ladies at all prior to stumbling upon their books, but now these two books are among my favorite reads ever, and I’ve written about them in this column. I own and read many books by authors who were unknown to me prior to reading their books. I don’t read a book because I’ve heard of its author. I read a book because the story sounds like something I’d enjoy. Even the best-known authors aren’t known to all readers. If you don’t read romance, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Danielle Steel, and if you aren’t into crime fiction, then David Baldacci wouldn’t be on your reading radar. All well-known authors were once complete unknowns because that’s where every author starts. There are so many authors out there vying for the attention of readers. There’s no way you can have heard of even a fraction of them, but if you ever get the chance to talk to one at any type of event, at least pause long enough to get to know that writer a little bit. After all, that’s how an author eventually becomes known, and you’ll make that writer very happy.
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius “Novel Thoughts” column for August 17, 2022 Tammy Marshall
Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from March 7, 161, until his death on March 17, 180. He lived and died over 2,000 years ago, but his legacy lives on in “Mediations,” a series of twelve notebooks in which he recorded his thoughts as he practiced the art of constant self-examination. He may have been the master of a vast empire during his lifetime, but he’s remembered and revered as an amateur philosopher whose literary musings are as relevant today as they were two millennia ago. I’ve long admired the classics of literature because of the universal truths, lessons, and themes that withstand the test of time, and that’s why they should be read and taught on a regular basis. The four central themes to his notebooks are death, how we should manage our anger, the way we treat others, and how fame is an utterly meaningless thing. Think about those four concepts and about how much of our everyday lives are spent fixating and worrying about them to the extent that we have an epidemic of anxiety and mental illness on our hands right now. Even though he was the head of an empire whose language was Latin, Marcus Aurelius composed his notebooks in Greek, and since I don’t read that language, I must rely on one of the many translations that exist. I own a copy that is translated and heavily annotated by Robin Waterfield, but there is a wonderful (and free) translation on Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) that is available for anyone who wants to read it. I enjoyed the notes that Waterfield included in the copy I own. Many of them only serve to further explain or illustrate the text, but he also added some pop-cultural references. One was to a favorite movie of mine, “Dead Poets Society,” and how the teacher, played by Robin Williams, illustrates to the boys that everything in life is transient – we all (no matter how great we are in life) become “food for worms.” Another note points to a rap song by Akira the Don. I looked him up and listened to the song that’s referenced in my book, but if you have the time and the inclination, there is also one by Akira the Don that is over forty minutes long and includes the entire first volume. Why would a modern-day British musician use words written over 2,000 years ago in not one, but many, songs? Because they are words of deep truth and wisdom that we need more of today. That’s why the classics matter. So, we can see that the things we fret about aren’t anything new, and that if we stop and think for a minute, we might just see that it’s all going to be okay because nothing lasts forever, including ourselves, and that in the grand scheme of the entire universe, we (and or so-called problems) are insignificant. I like this quote from Notebook 4.3: “There’s no retreat more peaceful and untroubled than a man’s own mind, and this is especially true of a man who has inner resources which are such that he has only to dip into them to be entirely untroubled.” This is from Waterfield’s translation; the one on Project Gutenberg reads quite differently because that’s how translation works, but the essence is the same. Throughout his notebooks and reflections, Aurelius often compares life and reality to a river that is constantly changing, flowing, reviving itself, growing, and forever moving forward and never backwards. Here’s my pop-culture reference – be like that vessel in Garth Brooks famous song, “The River.”
Reading Multiple Books “Novel Thoughts” column for July 6, 2022 Tammy Marshall
This is my three-hundredth column. Can you believe it? I can’t. It’s been a real joy writing for you and hearing from so many of you over the years. Whether you’ve been with me from the start, discovered me a few years ago, or are a first-time reader, thanks for being here. I follow a few book groups on social media, and one of the questions that comes up over and over is this: “How can you read more than one book at a time?” That question isn’t directed to me specifically, but I have answered it often. I liken it to being able to watch more than one TV show at a time. If you can watch a variety of evening dramas and sit-coms, a plethora of reality shows and/or daytime soap operas, a myriad of talk shows and game shows, news programs, and anything else you can consume on a TV screen, all while managing to keep those story lines straight in your head along with all the different hosts, characters, and TV personalities, then you can easily read more than one book at a time. This doesn’t mean that you are literally reading more than one book at once. That is rather impossible. It means that you read part of one book and then start another book before you’ve finished the first one. Typically, I’m reading five or more books at the same time. I manage this because the books are different enough from each other that I don’t confuse them. I’ll take you through what I’m currently reading. By my writing area is a stack of books that are about writing. I dip into them from time to time for inspiration. Currently, I’m reading “The Right to Write” by Julia Cameron and “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody. On my coffee table is another stack of books that I want to read. Since I’m addressing “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman in my next column, that one is on top, and when I take my afternoon writing break to read for a while, that is the one I’m reading while lying on the couch with my dog. In the mornings while I do my yoga stretches, I pull up whatever audio library book I’ve checked out via the Libby app. Listening to a book is a completely different experience for me than reading it myself, so it’s easy to keep the audiobook separate in my mind. I also listen to audiobooks when I’m driving long distances. On the headboard of my bed, there is a shelf that contains a stack of books, too. The one I’m reading is “How to Raise an Elephant” by Alexander McCall Smith because it is the latest in his series, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.” I find those books to be very calming and great for helping me fall asleep. I also tend to be reading a classic piece of literature that I pick up whenever I have a long chunk of uninterrupted reading time, and I’m part of a local book club, so I read whatever book has been selected for that each month. By doing this, I can be reading five, six, or even seven different books. If you’ve ever wondered how anyone can read more than one book at a time, I hope I’ve answered that question for you.
I hope you enjoyed those five column pieces. Again, let me know if you enjoyed them enough that you’d like to see more here and if you know any newspaper editor I should contact. Wish me luck with my upcoming meeting.
Tammy Marshall