Leave it to Brad to point his almost Ph. D educated brain at me (like Glennon Melton's famous avocado--if you are a monkey who reads Momastery). So I am going to do with this question what I used to do in college when a professor threw a question like this at me, and I thought, "Oh my goodness! I have never, ever pondered such a thing. I wonder if there are in sausage biscuits left at Uncle Dave's store." I'm going to bob and weave and mold the topic to fit who I am-- a pretty smart person, who thinks deeply about some things, just not this.
So the question I am going to respond to is. . .
What do you hope/want the future of the publishing industry to be? What books would you like to see on the shelves? What do you hope is the next stage in the literary world?
As a semi-voracious reader and a educator of middle school aged children, I have been yearning for awhile for certain types of books.
For my semi-voracious reader self, I would like to see more actual real-life women in non-literary realistic fiction. I would like female protagonists that do more than just seek perfect pairs of shoes, the perfect rolls in the hay, perfect wedding rings, imperfect vampires that they have to rescue, or perfect missionary experiences saving children in underprivileged nations. Even though I love a good Janet Evanovich, Sophie Kinsella, or Barbara Kingsolver novel (I don't like Twilight novels--sorry), I believe that we could have more complex, fun female protagonists. True, rich, FUN female main characters seem to be lacking--especially in series and mass market fiction. I would like to see an author tackle what it is like to be a modern women in a world that is often times still set back in the 1950s--a world that is full of mixed messages. I'd like smart novels that are fun to read, but have female protagonists that seem real--not just caricatures of real women. I yearn for strong female protagonists that are not super-heroes or too silly to be real. And I don't want to have to cry in order to read a good book about a woman. Where are the present day Emmas? Or maybe mystery, suspense thrillers like Rebecca? Where are the modern Bronte sister novels?
I adore the strong females shown in dystopia young adult lit like Katniss, Tris, Cinder, or Cassia, and non-dystopian young adult literature has produced some fabulous female characters--Alaska, Melinda Sordino, Liesel, Stargirl, etc, but adult fiction marketed to women is lacking fun, complicated female protagonists. So that is what I would like-- fun books about real women tackling fairly real issues. Or unreal issues in a real way.
As a teacher of middle schoolers, I would like some books that take themselves a little less seriously. I mean, really, do we have to cry ALL THE TIME. I love a good tear-jerker, and I believe in life-changing books that make us into better people (Hello, my favorite book is Grapes of Wrath and I teach Great Expectations to 8th graders), but sometimes my kiddos just want to have fun. Most of the time they just want to have fun. I would like transition books from Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Where are the Ramona Quimbys for middle school students? We hook them with Junie B. Jones, and then we leave them. . . to read books with very complicated themes and ideas that they might not yet be ready for, or that they might not want to read all the time. My students want to laugh sometimes, cry sometimes, go on adventures sometimes, and escape sometimes. So in short, I would like some sidesplittingly funny books that are clever and have more sophisticated plots than a Junie B. Jones book or a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. And could my anthology have some fun short stories too? That'd be great.
So as a reader and a teacher, that is what I want on the bookshelves of local libraries and book stores (and I admit that these books might be out there; I just haven't found them yet).
Now on to think of a silly topic for our next installment :-).
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