This Is My Secret: The Blog and Website of Writer Kristin Cashore

This No Blogging thing is intensely peaceful, but I thought I'd break in with a few things that've been piling up.

First, the Horn Book Magazine asked me what's the strangest children's book I've ever read... so I wrote them a little piece about Moomins. If you can't get your hands on the current (March/April 2013) issue but want to read my words, follow the link.

Next, the recent This American Life episode "Reruns" -- about people stuck in a particular moment -- was all-around great, but I especially adored the final act, in which Sarah Vowell discusses people who inappropriately equate themselves with Rosa Parks. Vowell is so dry and funny and CORRECT. Follow the link to listen.

Finally, underwater photojournalist Brian Skerry's TED talk contains some spectacular photos, and also some hope for our oceans.  Press play.

I'm proud to report that Bitterblue is a New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Book of the Year, along with Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (for fiction), Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (for nonfiction), I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Bryan Collier (for picture book), and Wonder by R. J. Palacio (for middle readers). I'll be at the NAIBA Awards Banquet on September 29, as will artist Ian Schoenherr, who did the beautiful maps and illustrations.
With apologies for throwing this in with other things -- I wanted to be sure to blog the link, but am too depressed to say much -- writer David Rakoff died way too young on August 9. I'm going to miss his voice on This American Life so, so much. The show put together a beautiful episode in his honor. It aired last week. Warning: it's really sad.Laurie Halse Anderson is doing Write Five Minutes a Day this month -- with frequent (exc…

Sometime in January, This American Life broadcast a show called "Mr Daisey and the Apple Factory," about what Mike Daisey, creator of the theatrical piece "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," claimed to have seen while visiting a factory in China that made iPhones and iPads. It was a hugely popular show, and Daisey's work has led to a closer examination of Apple's practices -- which is a good thing. Then, this past weekend, This American Life put together a fascinating show called "Retraction," in which they retracted the previous show -- because it turns out that Mike Daisey lied to This American Life about a lot of the things he said he saw.

In the original show, Mike Daisey talked about meeting underage workers who were 12, 13, 14; a man whose hands shook from the toxins Apple compelled him to work with in the factory; factory guards armed with guns; etc. It turns out that many of the things Daisey talked about seeing first-hand, he never…

I liked This American Life's approach to the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Instead of focusing on the day itself, they interviewed people affected in different ways by 9/11 who've appeared on the show at various points in the past ten years, and talked to them about how the world has changed, and where we are now.

I have enormous gratitude to This American Life for understanding and allowing me my complicated, messy, self-critical understanding of what it means to be American in the world. The folks there understand that being deeply ashamed of your country and furious with your government never precludes loving your country fiercely, or grieving for those whose lives have been torn apart. They get the difference between governments and individuals, between armies and soldiers. And they get that there are many different ways of being heartbroken.

I guess I'm trying to say that I love this radio show because it allows things to be confusing, contradictory, and inexpressible. It…

I cannot recommend last weekend's This American Life, called "DIY," strongly enough. Here's the description from the website: "After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself. He becomes a do-it-yourself investigator. He learns to read court records, he tracks down hard-to-find witnesses, he gets the real murderer to come forward with his story. In the end, he's able to accomplish all sorts of things the police and the professionals can't." Sounds dry, right? IT SO ISN'T. It's an unbelievable story (and the closest I've ever seen TAL get to the warm fuzzies) and what blew me away were the people -- you will not believe these people. You can listen to it here.

If you've ever built IKEA furniture (or looked at the instructions), I bet these instructions for building Stonehenge will make you laugh. :o) Thanks, R.

After finishing Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, I wandered aro…

My subject heading is from my most favorite This American Life ever. It's spoken by John Hodgman (who is, among other things, that wonderful man who plays the PC in the Mac ads) in a piece he did about the strange phenomenon of fame. The episode is called "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and I strongly recommend you listen to the entire thing, if you ever have 60 minutes to do so. If you have less minutes than that, then Hodgman's piece, which is my favorite in an episode of favorites, lives in the first 20 minutes.

I've always been fascinated by the phenomenon of stardom. The phenomenon just gets more bizarre, too, as social networking grows. If, by following the actor Shah Rukh Khan on twitter, we know that he just ate sushi and also he's nervous because he's base jumping off buildings, does that mean that Shah Rukh Khan and we are friends? Of course not. Shah Rukh Khan has not the foggiest notion who we are, nor could he even begin to get to know all…

I'm still on my blog break, but some things need to be shared. Have you ever read any Alice Munro? I'm not usually a short story reader, but Munro is one of those writers whose collections I can't put down. I just finished The View from Castle Rock, which was as good as a book can get. If you start it and find it's not the thing for you (too memoiry in feel?), try any of her other collections.

Also, the weekend's This American Life contained two segments that pretty much embodied everything I love about this radio show. The episode is called "Return to the Scene of the Crime," and the two segments were Mike Birbiglia's and Dan Savage's.

Follow this link to read more and to listen, but beware: This American Life is habit-forming!

And now, I will back away from the blog.

Today I'm starting with a thank you to my readers. THANK YOU for making Graceling a bestseller in Germany, and THANK YOU for putting the American paperback of Graceling on next week's (Sep 27) New York Timesbestseller list! I am overwhelmed. I am staring blankly like a slow loris. And giggling.

*flops*

So, how much time do you have?
If you have 12 minutes today, listen to the story "In Search Of," which was chosen as the very first podcast for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and which was written by my buddy Will Ludwigsen. It's read by actor and playwright Daniel John Kelley, and it's super.If you have an hour today, listen to last week's This American Life, on the subject of frenemies. Here's the description from the website: "This week we bring you stories about friends. Or wait, enemies? How about both? Tales of estranged sisters, BFFs breaking up and making up and breaking up, and how reality stars walk the fine line between making …

I guest-posted at Magical Musings on the topic of originality a few days ago. For my post today, I'm referring you to what I wrote over there.
In case that bores you, this weekend's This American Life explained the banking crisis in a simple and understandable way that was funny, kind, and only slightly COMPLETELY FRAKKING TERRIFYING. It's here if you're interested. I'm pretty sure their link to listen to the whole episode free online will be up by the time this posts, but if not, check back with them. They always put it up soon after the weekend ends.
And in case that frightens you, remember that there's no point freaking out about things we can't control, recall that the sun will explode in five billion years anyway, and comfort yourself with last Friday's gorgeous Astronomy Picture of the Day. Earthshine is one of my favorite sights -- but I never knew what to call it until I saw this photo!

Happy Monday, everyone :o)

Do you listen to the NPR show This American Life? It's my favorite radio show ever. I turn down invitations if they cut into my weekend routine of drinking a cup of tea and listening to This American Life. It's hard to describe the show -- the people at the show themselves admit this -- but they do a pretty good job here. And some popular episodes are available for your listening pleasure here.
A few weekends ago, the episode was about numbers being used in places where numbers maybe shouldn't be used. For example, some folks tried to quantify what makes likable songs likable, and what makes unlikable songs unlikable, by taking a survey of what instruments, voices, and genres of songs people like and dislike most. Then, they combined all the most-liked sounds to create a song everyone should like, and all the least-liked sounds to create a song no one should like. The "good" song turned out to be rather bland and unlistenable. The BAD song, on the other ha…