What is Susan Woodring reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Susan Woodring, author of Goliath.

Her entry begins:

I am almost finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy and am completely obsessed! I first heard of these books a few years ago, when the first book came out. A friend recommended it, but I was reluctant to dive in. The premise was interesting to me, but not interesting enough. I read for character rather than plot. Don't get me wrong--I love a good story--but what really makes me feel invested in a novel or a story is being able to identify with the characters, at least on some level. To really enjoy a book, I need to feel like I, as the reader, am getting to see something really spectacular or horrifying or heartbreaking about the characters. And, so, I was at first skeptical about a book that seemed, at first glance, to be so much about what happens instead of who it happens to.

When I finally did pick up The Hunger Games, I...[read on]

About Goliath, from the publisher:

When Percy Harding, Goliath’s most important citizen, is discovered dead by the railroad tracks outside town one perfect autumn afternoon, no one can quite believe it’s really happened. Percy, the president of the town’s world-renowned furniture company, had seemed invincible. Only Rosamond Rogers, Percy’s secretary, may have had a glimpse of how and why this great man has fallen, and that glimpse tugs at her, urges her to find out more.

Percy isn’t the first person to leave Rosamond: everybody seems to, from her husband, Hatley, who walked out on her years ago; to her complicated daughter Agnes, whose girlhood bedroom was papered with maps of the places she wanted to escape to. The town itself is Rosamond’s anchor, but it is beginning to quiver with the possibility of change. The high school girls are writing suicide poetry. The town’s young, lumbering sidewalk preacher is courting Rosamond’s daughter. A troubled teenaged boy plans to burn Main Street to the ground. And the furniture factory itself—the very soul of Goliath—threatens to close.

In the wake of the town’s undoing, Rosamond seeks to reunite the grief-shaken community. Goliath, a story of loss and love, of forgiveness and letting go, is a lyrical swoon of a novel by an exceptionally talented newcomer.

Learn more about the book and author at Susan Woodring's website.

The Page 69 Test: Goliath.

Writers Read: Susan Woodring.

--Marshal Zeringue