2025 WRITING LESSONS
Here are a few notes on what I learned from the books I read throughout the year. Some books moved me and changed how I see the world. Others gave me a crash course in points of view, character development, style, and pacing. The joy of reading as a writer, beyond escapism, lies in the potential for knowledge, new understanding, and personal growth.
Written for--and dedicated to--people who love literature. Dealing with writers such as Nabokov, Barth, Coover, Pynchon, Borges, García Márquez, Beckett, and Calvino, Annie Dillard shows why fiction matters and how it can reveal more of the modern world and modern thinking than all the academic sciences combined.
Writing Lesson
The importance of reading and how the practice/pastime instills new ideas and inspiration.
John Williams's luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.
Writing Lesson
Passive characters are difficult to write and even harder to sympathize with. Also, I prefer to write more hopeful stories.
“Goldstone is a master juggler. She tells a good story, always with a delightfully light touch. In the process, extraordinary women are given the attention they deserve.”
—The Times of London
Books Read: The Rival Queens, The Lady Queen, The Four Queens, Daughters of the Winter Queen, The Maid and the Queen, and In the Shadow of an Empress
WRITING LESSON
The joy of reading history focused on the endeavors, struggles, and triumphs of women whose stories are often overlooked.
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
Writing Lesson
Multiple points of view can add suspense to the story, and flashbacks are tricky.
The story is about a young deer named Bambi and his experiences growing up in the forest. He learns from his mother how to explore the forest safely and meets other animals. One day, his mother is killed by a hunter, leaving Bambi alone to survive in the forest on his own.
Writing Lesson
Even a simple children’s book can be enjoyable
A touch of a moral lesson can still be incredibly profound
The book is a collection of essays about a year in her life, focusing on her observations of nature and her personal transformation as she learns to live and thrive alone on her farm. The title comes from a quote by Rainer Maria Rilke, which emphasizes learning to be patient with life's unresolved questions.
Writing Lesson
A reminder to slow down, enjoy each season, and write about simple things.
The story follows thirty-something Emily Fox-Seton, who lives alone, humbly and happily, in a tiny apartment and on a meager income. She is the one that everyone counts on, but no one goes out of their way to accommodate. Her fortune changes, however, and the second half chronicles her adaptation to her new life and the dangers that arise from those who stand to lose most from her new circumstances.
Writing Lesson
Cinderella stories are more believable when the heroine is not passive. Also, if in doubt, a gothic twist can liven things up.
A classic study of how American attitudes toward nature have shifted from viewing wilderness as an obstacle to be conquered to seeing it as a valuable resource to be conserved
Writing Lesson
The importance of understanding history and context. Recognizing the power of reading and how a book can change one’s life.
Nonfiction book that chronicles the 19th-century expeditions to find the source of the Nile, focusing on the rivalry between explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke. The book details their perilous journeys, the role of their guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, and the intense competition between European powers to claim the region.
Writing Lesson
Excellent narration can make a non-fiction book exciting, and learning about history exhilarating.
Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.
Writing Lesson
A book about purpose and calling does not need to come off as preachy, but wonderfully in tune with human need.
An intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart.
Writing Lesson
Knowing when to break the rules and when to follow them (no chapters).
Professor Godfrey St. Peter finds himself in the shabby study of his former home. Surrounded by the comforting, familiar sights of his past, he surveys his life and the people he has loved — his wife Lillian, his daughters, and Tom Outland, his most outstanding student and once, his son-in-law to be.
Writing Lesson
If the payoff of the story is meaningful and impactful, it can be okay to write a slower-paced story.
The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.
Writing Lesson
The brilliance of putting together incredible short stories to create a new and magnificent longer book.