It’s that time of year. Time to think about your holiday gifts. We asked our Master Instructors and Whale Rock Staff to share their top book picks from 2021 in three categories. For the next three weeks, we’ll introduce a new category for you to explore. Here are their recommendations for books to share with a fellow writer. Happy Reading!
INSTRUCTOR PICKS
Jeff Tweedy’s How To Write One Song is a perfect book for a writer because it is not specifically about writing!
At face value, this book is about songwriting, but really Tweedy examines the entire creative journey from anxiety to discipline to process.
Hannah Barnaby has worked as a children’s book editor, independent bookseller, and book reviewer. She is the author of multiple young adult novels, chapter books and picture books, including Monster and Boy and Home is….
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders is my recommendation for writers.
The stories themselves, all Russian, are powerful and true examples of the finest writing. They are perfect stories in themselves and novels in miniature. Saunders follows with essays that are directed not at the reader, but the writer. A don't miss!
Patricia Lee “Patti” Gauch, author, teacher, former Editorial Director of Philomel Books.
The book I would buy as a gift for another writer this year would be My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson.
The language is exquisite. Reading any one of these short stories—profound in content—will make you want to up your game when it comes to clever, sharp, loaded prose.
Kathy Erskine’s latest books are Lily’s Promise and All of Us.
The book I would buy as a gift for another writer this year would be The Plot.
It's a novel about a writer with an insufferable student who happens to be writing a brilliant, potentially bestselling story. When the student dies unexpectedly, the writer steals the plot and decides to write it himself. All is well, until he starts receiving threatening emails... It's a fun, writer-centered psychological thriller with shades of Patricia Highsmith.
Lisa Papademetriou is a former editor, the author of over 20 novels, and the founder of Bookflow, a platform that helps writers stay organized and motivated.
I chose Wishes by Mượn Thị Văn, illustrated by Victo Ngai because in seventy-five words, the author and illustrator have created a story that moves me every time I read it. It’s a perfect example of elegant simplicity, relevance, and heart.
Phyllis Root is the author of, most recently, Begin With A Bee in collaboration with Liza Ketchum and Jackie Briggs Martin.
I Talk Like a River, written by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith is an astonishing picture book, a perfect collaboration of text and illustration, as a father gives his son, who struggles with a stutter, the metaphor he needs to begin to deal with the disability. The central illustration, which opens into a four-page spread, is a brilliant entry into the unconsciousness of the speaker, who is suddenly empowered by his new understanding.
Gary D. Schmidt is the author, most recently, of the novel Just Like That and the picture book, One Smart Sheep.
I chose The Greats book because it subverts so many writerly “rules." In Guyana, a giant prehistoric sloth comes to life. Meanwhile, a teenaged boy decides to kill himself after he is jailed as a young offender, and his grandfathers, all of whom died by suicide, return as ghosts to pull him back from the brink. This book “appropriates” voice, race, genre and setting and dares to turn a story about poverty, addiction, mental illness, suicide and grief into a celebration of life and nature. I hope it encourages every writer to reconsider the rules and embrace their inner weird.
Shelley Tanaka is the longtime fiction editor at Groundwood Books, where she has edited more than a dozen Governor General’s Award-winning titles. She is the author of thirty books for young readers.
WHALE ROCK STAFF PICKS
I chose The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab because the story idea is wonderfully original. Every detail in the book is important and comes back to connect to the storyline in beautiful and meaningful ways. The build of tension and the pacing of the novel is one to be studied and admired.
Sarah Cassell
Whale Rock Workshops, Social Media Manager
I chose On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, a heartbreaking letter from a son to his mother, exploring the depths of their relationship and the immigrant experience.
Written in a poetic style, both the language and the story will completely blow you away.
Emelia G.
Whale Rock Workshops, Summer 2021 Intern
