Editor's note: This week's Page Turner reader interview is with Rebecca Cameron, who works at Lincoln Financial Group and writes a newsletter.
“Somehow I seem to have stumbled into reading memoirs. The latest is 'Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler,' by Wade Rouse. The author worked for a prestigious school with moneyed people sending their children — and they really hoped to run the school. He writes a lot of stories about things he was forced to do.
“His writing is on the order of David Sedaris': He writes sarcastic commentary on various viewpoints. He grew up in the Ozarks, and he writes about old money versus new. I have read another of his books; if I like an author, I will look for more of his or her writing. This one is a very bright pink book!
“Books are my life, so talking about them is like asking a mouse to talk about cheese. Reading can be like having a conversation with a very, very funny person. My reading time is limited, so I pick what I know I'll enjoy.
“I read a Laurie Notaro book early in her writing career — a book about The Idiot Girl Club, so I picked up her 'It Looked Different on the Model: Epic Tales of Impending Shame and Infamy.' Her style is very self-deprecatory, and I like her kind of humor: She writes to entertain. I write a blog; I love writing news letters and have a love for a sarcastic kind of writer.
“When I finish a book, I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one. When I was a teenager, I went through a phase reading Danielle Steele, but in my early 20s, I found another author. She's Elizabeth Berg. There's always a hitch in her books — a divorce and starting over or a husband getting hit by a huge sheet of ice and waiting for him to wake up. She was here in Fort Wayne. She came to Little Professor (what a wonderful bookstore it was!) and instructed how to find your true voice in writing. Then I moved into memoirs.
“I read a smattering of classics as a girl but preferred Flannery O'Connor's writing. And, of course, I read 'Rebecca,' by Daphne du Maurier. We shared a name! The story was haunting, as was the movie.
I have a rule: I must read the book before seeing the film. I read Katherine Stockett's book, 'The Help,” and pictured it as I read it, but I still haven't seen the movie.
“I love the look and feel of real books. So far I prefer holding the actual book in my hands.”
