Tag Archives: Jennifer Niven

‘Friends’ Theme In 2025 Reading List

by Woody

Woody’s award-winning novel “The Butterfly Tree” is available at Amazon (click here), other online retailers, and orderable at all bookshops.

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To commemorate Emily Dickinson’s 195th birthday on December 10, after having visited her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, earlier this year, I recently read – and now recommend – “The Essential Emily Dickinson Poems: selected and with an introduction by Joyce Carol Oates.”

Fredrik Backman’s storytelling borders on poetry, and his newest novel “My Friends” is no exception. My friends is actually a minor theme running through my 2025 list of books read that, if I finish three more volumes, will reach my annual goal of 52. Below are the rest of my top recommendations…

To begin, three varied-but-terrific books written by author friends of mine: “Trigger Warning,” a heavyhearted and powerful novel of literary fiction that had me lingering over countless sentences and passages in order to savor Jacinda Townsend’s beautiful wordsmith skills; “When We Were Monsters,” a thriller/mystery taking place in an elite boarding school, by YA superstar Jennifer Niven; and “A Letter A Week During The School Year: Unplug. Reach Out. Discover the Power of the Handwritten Letter” – the title says it all! – by Julie Merrick.

By the way, “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans, about a letter-writer over the course of her life, is a lovely novel I highly recommended to Julie – and now to you.

It is a rare year I do not read (or reread) something by Brian Doyle, my favorite under-known writer who feels like a friend because his essays are so personal. This year it was, for the first time, “Children and Other Wild Animals.”

Another lesser-know writer I enjoy greatly, and consistently, is Willy Vlautin. This year I could not put down two of his gritty novels, both featuring flawed and down-and-out characters one cannot help but root for: “Lean on Pete” and “The Night Always Comes.”

“The Names” by Florence Knapp has an intriguing premise, accomplished well, of three wildly divergent storylines for a baby boy (and his family) depending on three different names he is given at birth.

Two more page-turning novels, each featuring two separate timelines, are “Fun for the Whole Family” by Jennifer E. Smith and “Typewriter Beach” by Meg Waite Clayton.

From the nonfiction shelves, as someone who barely knows which end of a hammer to hold, I thoroughly enjoyed “Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman” by Patrick Hutchinson; “Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller” by Oliver Darkshire; and, despite having no musical talent myself, I was captivated by “A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano” by Katie Hafner – which pairs nicely with the fictional “The Instrumentalist” by Harriet Constable about a violin prodigy.

A handful of short novellas long on enjoyment and intrigue: “Cold Enough For Snow” (95 pages) by Jessica Au; “the all of it” (145 pages) by Jeannette Haien; and “Who Will Run The Frog Hospital” (148 pages) by Lorrie Moore that is as wonderfully peculiar as its title.

The shortest novella I read, “The English Understand Wool” by Helen DeWitt, at just 70 pages is my runner-up for favorite book of any length all year. It is an odd little gem, quirky and quiet, slow and funny, and impossible to summarize. While not for everyone, some will absolutely adore it.

And – drum roll, please – my co-favorite offerings from my 2025 reading list are children’s books: “Kid Scientists at the Beach” by my daughter, Dallas Woodburn; and by another of my friends, Drew Daywalt, “Freddie Two Pants” that makes my three granddaughters laugh their heads off every time I read it to them and my giggles always explode too!

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Essay copyrights Woody Woodburn

Woody’s new novel “The Butterfly Tree” is now available in paperback and eBook at Amazon (click here), other online bookstores, and is orderable at all bookshops.

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Woody writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn.

Top-shelf Books from 2015

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s new book STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter is available for Pre-Order HERE NOW! In time for the holidays!

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Turning the Pages Through 2015

Good things, sometimes, must come to an end. After doing an annual column for the past six years recommending some of my favorite books, I was of the mind to end the tradition – or at least take a hiatus.

The short reason was that my reading list was too short on this trip around the sun. My yearly goal is to read 52 books, but I fell far shy of averaging one a week in 2015. My tally to date, in fact, is only 29. Writing a new book, it seems, interferes greatly with reading them.

Catching up with Drew Daywalt, author of "The Day the Crayons Quit" and "The Day the Crayons Came Home."

Catching up with Drew Daywalt, author of “The Day the Crayons Quit” and “The Day the Crayons Came Home.”

But I changed my mind the other day when I was in a bookstore picking up a copy of “The Day the Crayons Came Home” as a gift. A woman recognized me – and also said I was much taller in person than my column picture suggests, although I have no idea how a tiny mug shot can suggest height one way or the other – and asked when I was going to share my annual book recommendations.

When I answered I was passing on the book column this year, she begged me to reconsider. I did. Here goes.

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 I will begin with none other than “The Day the Crayons Came Home” by my friend and Oak Park resident, Drew Daywalt. (Which means I am also recommending Drew’s debut children’s book, “The Day the Crayons Quit.”)

As with the best of children’s literature, one need not be a kid to enjoy these two mega-award winners – the first is even being made into a big-budget movie. So pick up a copy of each for a child you know – but read them yourself first!

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Another surprise recommendation is a YA – Young Adult – novel.

“All the Bright Places” is also written by a friend of mine, Jennifer Niven, and has won a wheelbarrow full of 2015 honors – and is also being made into a movie, starring Elle Flanning.

Despite being YA, “All the Bright Places” is dark and gritty and mysterious enough to captivate OA – Older Adult – readers.

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After reading John L. Parker’s newest novel, “Racing the Rain,” I felt compelled to re-read the other two books in the trilogy about Quenton Cassidy: “Once a Runner” and “Again To Carthage.”

“Racing the Rain” is the prequel to “Once a Runner,” which was originally published in paperback in 1978 in such limited numbers that its cult following caused tattered copies to sell for $200 and higher on eBay until it was finally reprinted in hardcover in 2010.

Reading the entire story in chronological order – “Again to Carthage” was the second to come out, but is the finale – enriched all three.

By the way, one need not be a runner to enjoy Parker’s storytelling because Cassidy’s running quest is a metaphor for the journey of life.

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“The Yosemite” by John Muir. Enough said.

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David McCullough again makes my top shelf, as the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner does pretty much any year he comes out with a new historical gem, this time with “The Wright Brothers.”

The most obvious, accurate and shortest blurb to describe this latest effort is: “ ‘The Wright Brothers’ soars!”

My enjoyment of this text was enriched by seeing McCullough give a talk in Santa Barbara about the Wright Brothers.

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Similarly, I read “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” after seeing the Nobel Peace Prize’s youngest-ever winner – at age 17 – speak at the Arlington Theatre this summer.

Rest assured, her story is equally inspiring on the written page as over a microphone.

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After beginning this column with a couple friends, it seems fitting to end with one more.

Recommended to me by my pal Clint Garman, who as a pastor and owner of Garman’s Restaurant & Irish Pub in Santa Paula is an expert on both topics covered in the pages, “The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World” by Stephen Mansfield was as enjoyably rich in education as a pint of “the good stuff” is rich in flavor.

Cheers! And happy reading in 2016.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden&Me_cover_PRCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

Thoughts on This and That

by Woody

STRAW_CoverWoody’s new book STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter is available for Pre-Order HERE NOW!

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This and That on a Lovely Morning

A smorgasbord served up in 700 words . . .

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Jennifer Niven, author of the award-winning Young Adult novel “All The Bright Places,” believes “lovely” is a much-underused word.

I agree with my lovely friend.

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In exchange for sharing some stories about John Wooden, which is always my great pleasure, I was recently treated to lunch by the Ventura MC Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a service group that helps young women further their educations.

What made the afternoon especially lovely was the sisterhood itself, including three of my charming and vibrant tablemates who are ages 90, 92 and 93 – and make being a nonagenarian look like the new octogenarian.

All three still have their drivers licenses – one proudly shared she got a 100-percent on her most recent test – and can drive, although only the 92-year-old actually still does.

The very kind Aryls Tuttle

The very kind Aryls Tuttle

Arlys Tuttle, matriarch of the community treasure Tuttle family, gave me as kind an introduction as I think I have ever received, the loveliest part being when she said she saves my column each Saturday morning as her “breakfast dessert.”

I hope seeing her name here this morning is a lovely dollop of whipped cream for Arlys.

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Speaking of Coach Wooden, his “7-Point Creed” is always worthy of sharing:

Be true to yourself.

Make each day your masterpiece.

Help others.

Drink deeply from good books.

Make friendship a fine art.

Build a shelter against a rainy day.

Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

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I saw a post on Facebook that I think merits adding as an eighth point, echoing “Be true to yourself”:

“Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman – then always be Batman!”

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Why do crunchy foods go stale and become soft while soft foods get stale and become crunchy?

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Oh, boy, did I get out-haggled at a local farmers market the other day buying a bouquet of gorgeous sunflowers for my lovely wife.

1sunflowersI gave the lady, who I get flowers from fairly often, a $20-bill and she gave me back $15. However, I really did not think five bucks was a very fair price . . .

. . . so I handed her a $5-bill back. She looked confused. I smiled and said, “Keep it.”

She shook her head no: “They only cost five dollars.”

“Yes, but they’re so beautiful I want you to keep it,” I explained.

“That’s too much,” she replied and pushed the $5-bill back at me.

“OK,” I finally relented, but requested five singles as change.

This she did and I handed four of them back to her.

She smiled, kept one, and gave three of them back to me.

I gave her two back and tried to leave, but she forced one more back. And then, for my meager $2 tip total, she gave me a $10 hug.

Thinking about it as I write this, even after those sunflowers have lost their bloom, still brings a smile to my face.

I vow to redouble my haggling efforts with her next time!

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This recently occurred to me: A good friend surprises you with a nice deed. A great and lovely friend does a nice deed that surprises you – until you think for a moment and realize you are not really surprised at all.

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Like John Wooden’s “7-Point Creed,” this masterpiece quote from Albert Einstein seems worthy of sharing any day:

“Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others . . . for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

E=MC2 has been called elegant, but this wisdom is lovely.

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