6 minute read
The Freedom of Reading
FEATURE
BY ALYSE MGRDICHIAN
Reading, as an activity, offers a sense of freedom. You can learn a thousand things, live a thousand lives, and see a thousand places through books. This experience is not only one of escape, but is also one of adventure and growth. When you read, whether it be fiction or nonfiction, you learn, explore, and stretch your mind in new ways, with different genres being able to offer different experiences. This, to me, is what makes summer reading so enjoyable. Although I’m a bit new to the “no summer break” aspect of adult life, there’s still something rejuvenating about being able to choose how I spend my off-time.
We’re often forced to learn things (especially while in school), and, if the things we’re learning aren’t even things we enjoy, then the idea of reading for fun may feel a bit foreign. In light of this, it may seem counterintuitive to think of reading nonfiction as a freeing and pleasant experience—these sorts of labels are typically attributed to fiction. However, if we find a topic that we are excited to learn about, either for enjoyment or betterment (or both), then we won’t drag our feet when we read it. Learning takes on a new form here, because it is borne of desire rather than necessity. Preferences can also become a little more niche, since there are so many sub-genres and fields of study that can be covered by nonfiction. For example, some of my favorite nonfiction books have to do with neuroscience, folklore, and social commentary. On the other hand, I personally know of a lot of people who exclusively buy business and self-help books, or only read memoirs and travel journals.
With nonfiction, we learn through the research or life experiences of others, gaining practical knowledge and, to some extent, developing empathy. What about fiction, though? It’s clear how imagined worlds and situations can provide a sense of freedom and escape from our everyday lives, but how can they teach us anything real? The answer comes in the form of hypotheticals and vicarious learning. Fiction, no matter how whimsical, allows us to identify with the experiences of the story’s characters by making imagined conflict applicable, to some degree, to real life. Even while we’re being gloriously entertained by things like dragons and space ships, we’re simultaneously learning about topics such as abuse of power, reconciliation, courage, social responsibility, and more. Instead of providing heavy-handed moral lessons, fiction has the power to help us learn vicariously through the truth that is slipped into fantastical situations.
In this way, we’re able to learn from stories while getting the sense of escape that we crave, whether it be through fiction or nonfiction, since the ability and opportunity to read is one of the highest forms of freedom.
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COMIC NOVEL
BY JOSH HICKMAN
After inheriting his malt vinegar baron father’s fortune, young Beardsley Bancroft Luney makes the pursuit of naughtiness his righteous and unavoidable calling. Forming arcane magical sects and seducing all strata of eccentrics, Luney is both privately and publicly castigated for his socially rebellious naughty behavior by various illustrious members of the starchy Victorian/Edwardian British society. Collecting lifelong nemeses, Luney eventually finds himself in an existential race to find a legendary Elixir of Life high in the Himalayas. Through seances conjuring his naughty ancestors and deep searches of his politically incorrect soul, Luney battles against staid late 19th century and early 20th century norms via saucy periodicals, poetry, a history of practical jokes, and endless naughty adventures. Where to Buy: Amazon
Josh Hickman spent much of his youth and early adulthood in various parts of Texas, the son of a Navy officer. He began drawing and making amateur films at an early age, eventually studying art at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas and the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Radio/ Television/Film degree in the screenwriting program. Having spent 14 years in Los Angeles, Hickman has worked as an artist, musician, actor, journalist, critic, private investigator, filmmaker, and film festival organizer and judge. Returning to the Dallas area in 2019, he garnered an artist residency at Arts Mission Oak Cliff, where he produced three solo exhibitions of new work. His past writing includes the acclaimed novels Through Tick & Tinn: The True Story of the Greatest Unknown Comedy Team Ever Known, Ambergris, Five Slices of Fear: A Connoisseur’s Hoagie of Horror, and The Kinfolk: Cult of Sex & Cheese. His new comic novel I Am Luney: The Untold Story of the World’s Naughtiest Man will be followed by an upcoming collection of short stories titled Songs In The Key of ‘H.’
YOUNG ADULT/COMING OF AGE
HOW THE DEER MOON HUNGERS
BY SUSAN WINGATE
Winner Best Fiction In The 2020 Pacific Book Award
Mackenzie Fraser witnesses a drunk driver mow down her seven-year-old sister and her mother blames her. Then she ends up in juvie on a trumped-up drug charge. Now she’s in the fight of her life. And she’s losing. How the Deer Moon Hungers is a coming of age story about loss, grief, and the power of love.
“Adult and new adult readers will fall headlong into it. No one who picks up this heartrending story will emerge from it unchanged or unmoved. Great for fans of Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, Lois Lowry’s A Summer to Die.” –BookLife Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Where to Buy: Amazon | B&N
Susan Wingate a #1 Amazon bestseller and award-winning author who writes unputdownable, surprising and twisty stories with crackling dialogue that exhibit a rare deftness in style offering up stories that are riveting, original and with a humanity rarely seen in contemporary fiction.
FICTION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE TALKING DRUM
BY LISA BRAXTON
It is 1971. The fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying factory town into a thriving economic center. This planned transformation has a profound effect on the residents who live in Bellport as their own personal transformations take place. Sydney Stallworth steps away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to support husband Malachi's dream of opening a business in the heart of the black community of his hometown, Bellport. For Omar Bassari, an immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming career and the launching pad from which he will spread African culture across the world, while trying to hold onto his marriage. Della Tolliver has built a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself, boyfriend Kwamé Rodriguez, and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and outbursts. Tensions rise as the demolition date moves closer, plans for gentrification are laid out, and the pace of suspicious fires picks up. The residents find themselves at odds with a political system manipulating their lives and question the future of their relationships.
Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University, her Master of Science in Journalism Broadcasting from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media from Hampton University. Her debut novel, The Talking Drum, was published by Inanna Publications in May 2020.
