Marian of Classics Considered has tagged me in a meme, the rules of which are:

The Outline 

1. Link back to who tagged you 
2. Share the Graphic on your blog 
3. Share the Outline on your post 
4. Share a detail you love about the season of summer into fall 
5. List at least 7 random/ specific things YOU love to read about in books, big or small 
6. Tag 7 people who would enjoy taking part/whose answers you are curious to read!

One is done, ditto two and three. Four is funny because Alabama does not have a transition from summer into fall. We don’t even have a fall, really, there’s just this season where it’s still hot, but  the leaves are dying and we are subject to both tornadoes and hurricanes.  That lasts until January-February when it’s cold and rainy, and then we go back into Tornado and Flower season, also known as spring.    One of these days I should go to Vermont or something in September to see what all the fuss is about autumn.   I’m sure it’s lovely. 

1. Curmudgeons. I love stories with curmudgeons, especially when  they’re forced out of their comfort zone and get involved in the human race again. This particular devotion began with A Christmas Carol, but I’ve explored it in numerous books like A Man Called Ove, Fred and Red, etc.   It’s a trope that comes up – slightly – in the short stories series I’m reading, because one principal character has serious curmudgeon tendencies but has never been able to surrender to them in full. 

2. Stories where places matter.  I like stories where places, and particularly buildings, are strong presences in the story – almost characters themselves.  Russell Kirk’s Ancestral Shadows had a lot of this, and again it’s a heavy feature in the short stories I’m playing around with

3. Getting weird insight into other professions. This has been true since I began reading John Grisham and found I really enjoyed the under-the-hood look into law and even journalism – the latter, in the case of The Last Juror.   Even weird stuff like cops scribbling down notes on the back of interview cards (stuff that’s context-useful but doesn’t fall into ‘official’ evidence) and then filing them away. (Yes, I’m reading a Connelly cop novel at the moment, how could you tell?)

4. I like authors who know strange and archaic words, and who – when  they use them – do so with panache. Bill Kauffman is quite good at this:  “fossicking about in tramontane sinkholes” is one memorable phrase.    Bill (he told me to call him Bill, and no, I’m not kidding) has a gift for wordplay. To quote my review of Ain’t My America: The History of Antiwar Conservatism: 

After recounting the life of a Congressional solon named Hoar, who a contemporary thought would be celebrated in statuary for standing against imperialism, Kauffman notes “Alas, the statues are all dedicated to Hoar’s homonyms.”

5. Characters that pop. I would venture to say that character drama is the heart and soul of my fiction enjoyment, across mediums: the movies I love are character dramas (Groundhog Day, A Man Called Ove), the books I love are character dramas (Jayber Crow, The Awakening of Miss Prim), and  it’s not an accident that I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 nonstop since its release 7+ years ago.  And sure, its graphics and ability to hog-tie people who have poor manners is part of its charm, but I spend most of my time re-experiencing the story, the people and passions inside it.  So, I like strong characters and their interplay, especially when two compelling characters are moving in different directions and creating a story purely through chasing their passions  – but I’m especially fond of characters who are truly unique and even weird in their thinking, their speaking, and so on. 

6.  Small-town dramas of varying kind; this is kinda linked to my love of place, but two series that come to mind are Mitford and the Rabbi Small mysteries. I like the intimacy of these stories, and the ability to start seeing the characters as 3D people as they’re encountered more and more. Again, this is something I am trying to replicate.

7.  I like the way some books can say different things to us as we re-visit them, either because we’re at a different stage of our life and our mind has continued to simmer and change, or because we simply didn’t spot the entries before.