graphic: giving a vivid picture with explicit details,
or rocks having a surface texture resembling cuneiform writing
It was a book I came across in a discount store for a dollar. it was worth more than a dollar. Graphic the Valley by Peter Hoffmeister is a rarity that somehow flew under the radar. In short, it’s the story of Samson loosely retold as the story of a modern American Indian young man living in Yosemite Valley.
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The following are selected passages from An Authentic Derivative, my debut novel. These select passages are provided courtesy of the author, for your convenience. Mine them for what you wish, but only the novel can give you the full experience of the story as told by narrator Neil Oberlin.
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1o Reasons to Read An Authentic Derivative, A Novel By Caleb Coy:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
-Cassius, in Julius Caesar
This was my first cancer book. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, came out a year ago. Hazel Grace is a 16-year-old cancer patient who comes to terms with her terminal illness in a unique way when she meets fellow cancer patient and amputee Augustus Waters. This is neither a cancer book or a romance or a comedy. But it will behave like all of those. Green’s novel gives us tragicomedy in a way only greats like Shakespeare knew how.
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I had not heard of Cloud Atlas until the trailer for the film. I immediately looked up the book and was interested. When a friend told me she had begun reading it, I quickly followed along.
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is what some describe as a Russian doll of a novel, epic in scope and universal in theme. The story is broken into six different stories that weave together in connection. In terms of history, it’s a tale of “There and Back Again,” with fictional characters telling their story in layers unawares, from historical journal to epistolary romance to political thriller to farcical biopic pitch to digital recording to oral history.
Kid President needs help writing a letter to Santa, so he enlists the help of award-winning author Nick Hornby.
Recently I read the new juvenile fiction novel Wonder by R.J. Palacio, about a boy born with a facial disfigurement who is about to enter public school for the first time.
I was on a team with two others, Paige Horst and Katie Estes, cohorts of a graduate class in teaching young adult literature. Our goal was to create a book trailer for Wonder. We focused on the motif of space and the universe in the novel.
I recommend Wonder for adults and children. It’s a great message about kindness.
CALEB COY 