Berkshire Reads

This magazine focuses on places to go and things to do, and we feel that curling up with a good book satisfies both those requirements. Just think of the places you can go as you venture forth into the pages of a good book.

We are especially blessed in the Berkshires with a large community of very good writers. The five we present here represent different genres: a romance novel, a compilation of poems, a children’s book, short stories from a mature writer, and a YA (Young Adult) novel. We hope you will discover enticing literary adventures among them.

We asked each author (actually, one is an illustrator) to answer six questions that, together, would give you a sense of what and why they write, and some behind-thescenes secrets of their creative process. Here, on these pages, we give you only short introductions and excerpts from their interviews. The full interviews can be read in our online Magazine at BerkshiresCalendarMagazine.com. There you will also find an earlier installment of this “Berkshire Reads” feature with six more writers.

First, let us introduce you to Leslie Noyes, a true right- and left-brain talent who lives at the north end of the Berkshires in Bennington, Vt. Not only is she a successful graphic designer (and the creative director of both The Berkshire Edge and this magazine), but she can write, too. Willing is her first novel.

Why did Leslie write Willing? Because, she says, “popular fiction for and about women who are over forty is an underserved market. As we age we are tempered by life, which makes us more complicated than ingenues, the usual protagonists of women’s fiction and romance. Entertaining novels about “older” heroines who aren’t mired in tragedy of some form, and have happy endings, are hard to find. So I wrote the novel I wanted to read.” Although Liz Silver, the protagonist of Willing, is a wedding photographer, she has given up on love for herself. As the novel opens, Liz’s creative fire is burning out and she can’t figure out why. She tries to distract herself with short-term affairs. The men she sleeps with have enough “fatal flaws” not to tempt her into love. But when she does meet a man who interests her, the mystery of her creative slump and her issues with love intersect, forcing Liz to decide whether risking her heart is the only way to reclaim her joyful creative life—and maybe love, too.

We have a second Leslie—Leslie Klein—who is also an artist as well as a writer. A well-known sculptor who is founder and director of Clay Form Studios in West Stockbridge, Mass., this multi-talented Leslie offers Driving Through Paintings, a compilation of poems, written over many years, that she wanted to share. It is part memoir (“Within these pages/the pulse of my life resides.”) and part ode to the natural world (“I believe in magic/I see it everywhere”) and part road trip through life experiences and landscapes that have inspired her (“Driving Through Paintings/of ribbon roads/and jasper fields.”) She is surprised by how prolific she is: “ . . . the realization of just how many poems I have written, touching on all aspects of life, was a surprise. I also didn’t expect to feel such depth of emotion from my words.”

by Leslie Noyes Blender Publisher 477 pp. $14.95

Driving through Paintings

by Leslie Klein Shanti Arts 82 pp. $12.95

We Love Fishing!

By Ariel Bernstein Illustrated by Marc Rosenthal Simon & Schuster 48 pp. $17.99

by Christopher Lukas Texas A&M University Press 160 pp. $18

Hardly Easy

by Kimberley Jochl Wilfred Lee Books 216 pp. $15.99

We have included in our list Marc Rosenthal, based in Great Barrington, who is not an author but rather a New York Times best-selling illustrator of children’s books. Marc’s work gives us a chance to look at storytelling from the visual perspective. His latest book is We Love Fishing!, written by Ariel Bernstein. Perfect for the 4 to 8 year olds in your life, this book has been praised every bit as much for its illustrations as for its story which explores what it feels to be “odd man out.” Marc tells us in his interview that “it was challenging to have to illustrate a book that was almost entirely dialogue. I didn’t want it to look like a comic book.”

Christopher “Kit” Lukas is not technically a Berkshirite, but he spent formative years here (he sang in the chorus at Tanglewood and studied conducting under Bernstein and Hugo Ross) and visits often enough to feel it’s like a second home. Kit started writing fiction in his 60s when, after a career as a television writer-director, he realized he would not be able to hold up a heavy video camera forever. Now at the age of 86, he offers a collection of 25 short stories in Carrying A Torch. Three sections, “Lust and Love,” “Love and Loss,” and “At Close of Day,” suggest a progression. We lust for what we wish to have, and, in the process discover love. And, having found love, we find also loss. The separation from love, both tragic and heroic, prepares us for our own “close of day.” “The stories are all diverse,” says Kit, “but they all have one thing in common: the characters in these stories are all born from my life and my personality. It has been a fascinating journey.”

Another author on a fascinating journey is Kimberley Jochl, a Berkshire County native (Lee, Mass.) who grew up in the 1970s and 80s racing down the ski slopes of Otis Ridge, Bousquet, Butternut and Jiminy Peak. Then, she and her twin sister spent nearly a decade (1980s and 90s) competing on the United States Alpine Ski team. Somewhere in this period, she also became an aviatrix and turned her love of flying into two non-fiction narratives called The Aviatrix: Fly Like a Girl and Fly Baby: The Story of an American Girl.

Now this Berkshire-born and –bred adventurer has written an equally adventurous Young Adult novel, Hardly Easy, about a young girl who aspires to fly on and off carriers. As Kim says, “Hardly Easy is a story about inspiring and empowering teenagers to follow their dreams, especially when stepping outside their comfort zone might feel like stepping off a cliff. It tackles current YA social issues in a delicate and respectful manner while still indulging the YA audience (though many have said it’s not just for YA).”