Charlene Smith 

I love best book lists - even though my home is already filled with books. I regularly trek up to my library with bags of books to donate. Here are the books I most enjoyed, so far, in 2023, I hope you find something that you like. I have included some disappointments, these are widely hyped books that I bought, relying on the judgment of book critics (a sadly dying breed, but one that I also think needs more rigor than fawning adulation of already famous folk). I found these books lacking - and when I consulted with fellow authors, journalists, and critics, I found that they too, were underwhelmed, so because life is too short to waste on an unsatisfactory book I include disappointments. 

Fiction
W. G. Sebald is probably my favorite author and his Rings Around Saturn is a book I return to.
I loved Robin Jenkins gentle, The Cone Gatherers.
I enjoy the calm of Norwegian writers, Roy Jacobssen and ihs Barroy Chronicles; and Per Petersson's beautiful, Out Stealing Horses.
Mick Herron's spy novels (his others aren't worth it)

Richard Osman's endearing, The Thursday Murder Club
I am re-reading Ulysses by James Joyce after listening to an interview with Colm Toibin on the London Review of Books podcast; and with it I am reading, Ulysses Unbound: A Reader's Companion to James Joyce's Ulysses by Terence Killeen.
Dispatches by Michael Herr: the best book on the Vietnam war (aside from Stanley Karnow's large, academic, Vietnam). I reread Dispatches this year and was again blown away by the writing and content.
 
Non-Fiction
I loved David Scheel's book on octopi, Many Things Under a Rock
Amy Liptrot's memoir, The Outrun.
If In Doubt Wash Your Hair by Anya Hindmarsh.
Europe Transformed: 1878-1919 by Norman Stone
From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature by Malcolm Bradbury and Richard Ruland.
A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams and Geoffrey Harpham
The Cloud-Spotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Tolstoy: A Russian Life by R. Bartlett
The Flower Hunter by Lucy Hunter (floristry, gardening, dye-ing cloth using natural dyes, flower-pressing, I love this book).
 
Best books for young readers
This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda
Bomb by Steve Sheinkin
Watership Down by Kenneth Grahame
Front Desk by Kelly Yang

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, always worth rereading.
 
Cookbooks
Turnip's Edible Almanac by Fred Foster
Cooking: Simply and Well by Jeremy Lee (easy, delicious recipes, with exceptional desserts)
Meat Free Vibrant Vegetarian Mexican Recipes by Thomasina Miers (the best, and easiest, Mexican cookbook I've ever owned)
 
Art
Renaissance Secrets: A Lifetime Working with Wall Paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Others at the Vatican by Maurizio De Luca, an extraordinary work by the former chief restorer at the Vatican.
Giorgio Vasari's classic, The Lives of the Artists.
Chronorama: Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century from the Conde Nast archive
The Landscape by Don McCullin, exceptional photography around his England home by a famous war photographer

Disappointments:
After reading good reviews about Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood I bought it and from the beginning struggled with the writing, which seemed naive and a bit amateurish (strange for someone who won accolades with her first book), the structure and credibility. I thought it might be me and posted on my Facebook page, which is filled with other authors, book critics, and journalists: none of them liked this book. The question then is: do book critics actually read the books they are given, or do many blindly follow what others have written? Her book could have benefited from more thoughtful editing.
The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks; as a South African political journalist I read this because it was well-reviewed in the Financial Times… what a disappointment, filled with factual errors and I found the tone patronizing. I ditched it.
Fortnum and Mason's The Cookbook by Tom Bowles – I love F&M and always dash to their small stand at Terminal 5 Heathrow for tea and either Welsh Rarebit or scones with clotted cream, how disappointing then that this cookbook should be so meh.
Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well by Tim Spector. The book starts well, but then you realise that you're rereading a lot of the same old dietary information you've read before. The book is based on a diet app, Noom, that Spector and others have created – and use as much of the basis for their research – I used the app and found that it didn't work for me (regular Pilates does).

February 2, 2017

This is a letter of recommendation for my writing instructor and coach, Charlene Smith. Besides being an awarding winning author of multiple non-fiction titles, political journalist, and authorized biographer of Nelson Mandela, Charlene has been a superb writing coach and mentor for me. I recommend her highly as a teacher for both novice and experienced writers who are serious about their writing and getting their work published.

I first met Charlene in a memoir writing class that she gave at the Cambridge Adult Education Center in Fall 2014 and when she left the Center to teach private classes, I, as most of her other students, followed her wherever she taught. Her lectures were always interesting and animated, her writing exercises were creative and brought out the best in her students, and her handouts were so helpful that I still refer to them from time to time. She also gave excellent advice and encouragement about marketing ourselves and investing time in social media. Most of all she was incredibly kind and dedicated to her students, whether they showed talent or not, and made students feel as though they were exceptional in some way, whether in their writing or as people. She has the empathy and capacity to make everyone feel that they had something valid to relate to the world. Her wit, her boundless enthusiasm, her ability to add perceptive comments to her students’ work are her most exceptional traits. She never skimped on time or energy for her students.

Though I am now launched into my writing project and no longer attend classes, we still keep in touch and I value her opinions. She made me into a better and more insightful writer. Most of all I am grateful for the support and advice she gave me in the first couple of years of working on my project. I recommend Charlene highly for any teaching situation.

With best regards,
Sarah Swartz
Writer, Editor & Communications Consultant

Letter from a senior faculty member at an Ivy League College: "Dear Charlene,

"Thank you for the detailed critiques of my work and for the encouragement. I enjoyed the class and appreciate the time and effort you put into advancing the quality of our work. I was impressed by the level of expertise and instruction we received. You should also know I struggled to leave out several adverbs and exclamation points in those three prior sentences.

"Before taking your class, I had fallen out of the habit of writing, despite the fact that I get great pleasure from the practice. Your class reenergized me to carve out the time to make writing a priority. I just need to keep plugging away. " MC 2016

From a 2016 student, who is a senior faculty member at an Ivy League College and who I coached with a book, until she obtained a position in a new town: "As I deal with mixed feelings about my departure, I must tell you that the one experience I will not be able to replicate back home is working with you. You have been so inspiring. Your wonderful and consistent high standards, your insight, your support and encouragement have been fuel for me. And you came along at just the time when I needed to grow in my writing and my commitment to the craft. I have so valued your opinion and your edits. I have flourished in your praise and prodding, not only writing more but especially liking what I write.

"Once I get settled in my "new life" I'll be in touch. Technology could offer ways for us to continue working together. At least I hope we can work that out. " T.L.

Testimonial from Mercedes Westbrook, Fire Horse Media, Cape Town, April 2015: "I have just completed a six week Inspirational Writing Course with Charlene Smith. What is essential to impart, is that we must never allow ourselves to become stagnant or comfortable with the mediocre. We need to keep learning and striving for new goals that challenge and excite us. It has been a privilege to have had such a wonderful mentor."

Testimonial from Novelist, Sherry Alpert

"I had been working on my novel LAST DANCE for 20 years, with more than 100 revisions and input from literary agents and fellow fiction writers. While they found the story compelling, relevant and well written, many agents told me that they couldn’t “fall in love with the characters.”

"The novel is about a happily married father who develops Lou Gehrig’s disease and wants an assisted suicide at home, with a loved one turning off his ventilator.

"Charlene was able make the characters sympathetic while flawed. She also identified a subplot that needed trimming, as it was competing with the main story. Furthermore, she enabled me to invest my main character with more purpose as his disease advances, while enhancing the credibility of his limited ability to communicate. Finally, she gave the novel a far better title, TAKE MY BREATH AWAY.

"Charlene Smith’s book editing skills are superb on every level, and I am grateful to have engaged her services."

Sherry Alpert, Canton, MA