{"id":16937,"date":"2019-01-07T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=16937"},"modified":"2019-01-02T14:47:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T22:47:23","slug":"new-book-too-scribbled-to-have-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/01\/07\/new-book-too-scribbled-to-have-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"New book too scribbled to have impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Shoelaces are Hard: And Other Thoughtful Scribbles<\/em> is a book of anecdotes written by CTV News investigative reporter Mike McCardell. It\u2019s a heartfelt collection of stories written during McCardell\u2019s search for his favourite kind of reportage: human-interest stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the clothesline of a woman named Linda to a young autistic boy who believes that anything can be done if you stick to your guns, McCardell has found stories in every corner of life. These stories are told with such compassion and thoughtfulness, it\u2019s difficult to criticize them. However, it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the heart with which the stories are told, they read as being unedited. This may be due to the story format\u2014the title describes the stories as being \u201cthoughtful scribbles,\u201d after all\u2014but, as a writer, it\u2019s not easy to connect with half-edited work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unedited feel of the \u201cscribbles\u201d comes mainly from word choice. Sentences that could have easily been cut or edited seem to go on and on and on\u2014sort of like this sentence\u2014with words shoved in here and there to mimic the way that people speak without ever actually saying anything more than what could have been said in just a few short lines (phew!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the difficulty with which I waded through the sentences, I did find kernels of wisdom that struck me as honest and important. Unfortunately, none of them stuck with me. Due to the unpolished nature of the sentences, I was too busy analyzing the book\u2019s technical faults to fully absorb the nuanced wisdom that McCardell wants to share. This is a disappointing aspect of the work, as there is quite a lot of worthwhile material inside Shoelaces<\/em>. Regrettably, the writing won\u2019t get out of its own way and as a result the material doesn\u2019t shine.
\nAlthough I enjoyed many of the quirky and touching anecdotes that Shoelaces <\/em>has to offer, I wouldn\u2019t recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the technical aspects of writing; McCardell\u2019s writing style is simply too distracting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking for a heartfelt read, you\u2019re better off picking up a book that is polished and cohesive. Unfortunately, Shoelaces <\/em>is not that book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shoelaces are Hard: And Other Thoughtful Scribbles is a book of anecdotes written by CTV News investigative reporter Mike McCardell. It\u2019s a heartfelt collection of stories written during McCardell\u2019s search for his favourite kind of reportage: human-interest stories. From the clothesline of a woman named Linda to a young autistic boy who believes that anything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-january-7-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16939,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16937\/revisions\/16939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}