Book review

Book Report: Favorite Novels of 2023—And More.

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December 7, 2023

First, One more Book From November: History of Rain by Niall Williams

I was thrilled to find this earlier book (published in 2014) by Niall Williams at Northwind Books in Spooner, WI. I loved his most recent book, This Is Happiness (2019), and also an earlier book (1997) Four Letters of Love. And, no surprise, I loved this book, too.

As in his other books, The History of Rain is set in rural Ireland. I have never been there, unfortunately, but this book transported me there without a passport. Nineteen-year-old Ruth Swain relates her strange family history, even as her own story of being confined to bed with an unidentified and debilitating blood disorder is strange as well. What is not strange is the writing–always lyrical and poetic, sometimes comedic –I laughed outloud at times–but always warm, even as it teases. I shed a few tears along the way, too.

Ruth’s father was a poet, and she inherited all 3,958 of his books crammed into her bedroom where she sleeps in a bed shaped like a boat. I loved the bookishness of the narration, noting when a book is mentioned its specifics in the collection. “The Brothers Karamazov (Book 1,777, Penguin Classics, London)” or “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Book 1,980, Penguin Classics, London). Books by Dickens are mentioned so often that I have decided to re-read this month one of my all-time favorites, Great Expectations.

A review in The Guardian says the book is “pure eccentric entertainment,” and that feels right. Some may get irritated by the wanderings, but I loved the quirkiness of it all. Yes, it is about life in County Clare and about her family. (Her mother doesn’t fall in love when she first meets the man she will marry, but she “falls in Curiosity, which is less deep but more common.” p. 176.) But it is also about fishing for salmon and about the rain that falls without end. And about stories.

We tell stories. We tell stories to pass the time, to leave the world for a while, or go more deeply into it. We tell stories to heal the pain of living.

p. 176

I underlined so many passages in this book. Don’t get me started. Instead, read the book and decide for yourself what to underline.

Second: December’s Plan

My plan this month is to re-read some favorites. The only exceptions will be if a book I have requested from the library becomes available. After all, let’s not be rigid when it comes to our reading!

I started the month re-reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for the ____ time. I have lost count, but never lose interest or delight. Now I want to re-watch the various film versions of this classic. Re-reading P&P may become my new Advent tradition.

Now I am re-reading Fresh Water for Flowers by French novelist Valerie Perrin. How could a book set in a cemetery be so charming? Well, take my word for it, it is! And it is moving and revealing about the many ways we love.

I intend to re-read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and also Possession by A.S. Byatt this month, but who knows what book distractions I will encounter as the month progresses.

Third: Favorite Novels of 2023

I read a lot of fiction. Out of the 99 novels I read in 2023, here are my top 25. However, if I sat down and listed my top favorites on another day, the list might look different, for I read very few books I didn’t like. I think I have mentioned this before, but I quickly discard a book if it doesn’t hold my attention in the first few pages or if I don’t think it is written well–or if I am not in the mood. Therefore, what I read I generally like.

For descriptions/summaries/evaluations of my favorites, I’m afraid you, dear reader, will need to do some of your own work. I have listed my favorites in the order in which I read them and I have written about them in my Thursday Book Report posts.

Now for the list. May I have a drumroll, please?

  • The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
  • Our Missing Hearts by Celeste NG
  • Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle Williams
  • The Woman in the Library by Susan Gentill
  • The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
  • What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
  • The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear
  • Still True by Maggie Ginsberg
  • I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makai
  • Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
  • Astrid and Veronica by Linda Olsson
  • My Antonia by Willa Cather (for the 3rd time)
  • The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
  • Homecoming by Kate Morton
  • Horse by Geraldine Brooks
  • The Postcard by Anne Berest
  • The Half-Moon by Mary Beth Keane
  • The Housekeeper and the Professorbby Yoko Ogawa
  • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
  • The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip WIlliams
  • The Bookbinder by Pip Williams
  • Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Perhaps my TOP FAVORITE)
  • The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
  • So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
  • History of the Rain by Niall Williams

What’s missing? Well, there aren’t many books by men. Also The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, even though it is a major favorite of many, is a book I liked, but didn’t love. Lessons in Chemistry is not on the list because I haven’t read it yet, but at some point, I will. There is no new Louise Penny listed because there was not a new LP in 2023! Boo! And I am embarrassed to say there aren’t many books written by people of color on the list–I read more than the list indicates, but, alas, they aren’t among my very favorites.

So that’s it!

An Invitation

What were your favorite books of 2023? I would love to know.

NOTE:

I will list my favorite 2023 nonfiction books in my Book Report post on Thursday, December 14.

Book Report: November Summary

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November 30, 2023

One can read more when not fixing Thanksgiving dinner. (My husband and I enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner at a favorite restaurant while our St Paul family was traveling. We even had some leftovers to bring home.) I must be honest, however, about the number of books I read this last month.

Several books I read this month were less than 200 pages. I didn’t set out to read short books, but several rose to the top of the pile.

Short Books

  • Andy Catlett, Early Travels by Wendell Berry (fiction) 141 pages. See my review in my November 16th post.
  • Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati (nonfiction) 193 pages. Also in my November 16 post.
  • The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt (fiction) 69 pages. Ann Patchett is wildly enthusiastic about this book, so how could I resist, and I did love it–and even read it twice. This book is part of New Directions publishers’ Storybook ND series, which publishes books that offer “the pleasure of reading a great book from cover to cover in an afternoon.” Love that! The book (story?) is described as a “modern morality drama” about a seventeen year old girl raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father. The predominant theme in her life, as emphasized by the woman she knows as her mother, is to avoid mauvais ton or “bad taste.” The truth of her life is revealed, and she is confronted by the “publishing sharks of New York city.” Read it!
  • So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan (fiction) 118 pages. I love each book I have read by Irish writer Keegan (Foster and Small Things Like These). She writes with such clarity that one is almost fooled, thinking each story is simple. But oh there is so much going on below the surface, in the internal lives of her characters. So Late in the Day is the title story in this book of three short stories. The other two are The Long and Painful Death and Antartica. The book is small and would fit easily in a favorite reader’s Christmas stocking.

What Else Did I Read?

Fiction

  • The English Teacher by Lily King. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this book by the end or what I wanted the ending to be. The English teacher is Vida Avery, who is a stellar teacher–until she isn’t. She teaches at a private school and has a quiet, private life with her teenage son, Peter. Unexpectedly, she marries, a recent widower with three children, and this new status opens her to an earlier trauma in her life.
  • Two books in the Lane Winslow mystery series by Iona Whishaw. #3, An Old, Cold Grave and #4, It Begins in Betrayal. Set in Canada, post WWII, Winslow is happy to be away from her life as a British spy, but at the same time she becomes involved as an unofficial detective when murder occurs in her small village. The 4th in the series takes place mainly in London, however, when her romantic interest, Canadian Inspector Darling, is accused of a war crime. I will definitely continue reading this series.
  • The Door-to-Door Bookshop by Carsten Henn. See my review in my November 23 post.
  • Day by Michael Cunningham. I loved Cunningham’s earlier book, The Hours–loved the movie, too–but I must say I liked this book, but didn’t love it. I did like the structure of the book. One family, the same day of the year in three different years –2019, 2020, 2021–and how their lives change during the pandemic. There is no question that Cunningham writes beautifully, and I often stopped to re-read a sentence or paragraph, simply to enjoy the flow of the words, but I tired of the characters: Isabel, married to Dan, who is an old wannabe rock star hoping for a comeback, and Isabel’s gay brother Robbie, who lives with them, until they need the room for the two growing children in the family.
  • A Likely Story by Leigh McMillan Abramson. A good read. Ward Manning is a famous novelist, but seems to be losing his touch. Claire his wife dies suddenly and their daughter Isabelle discovers a novel written by her mother. Isabelle edits and finishes the novel, presenting it as her own, and the novel Underpainting, becomes a bestseller. Dysfunctional family!

Ward Manning has given his daughter the legacy of being his. Having him as a father was a biographical sparkler bright enough to light up the rest of her life. Even if she did nothing.

p. 76.
  • The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende. In many ways this reads like a nonfiction book–about immigration into this country, but Allende’s narration kept me going. There were two main threads in this book that eventually were woven together. Samuel, an Austrian Jew, is separated from his family in 1938 and sent to England where he lived in a series of homes. He becomes a famous violinist who settles in California. The other strain involves a child, Anita, who is separated from her El Salvadoran mother. Serena, a social worker, and Frank, a lawyer take on her case –and you will have to read it to discover how it all comes together.

I just noticed the theme of Isabel (Isabelle) in this month’s reading!

Nonfiction

Except for The Diary of a Tuscan Bookseller, the other three nonfiction books I read this month are all books I have read before.

  • The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L’Engle. This book is #2 in L’Engle’s Crosswicks Journal series, which includes #1, A Circle of Quiet and #3, The Irrational Season. I read #2 again because it deals with dementia, which at the point of history in which this book was written is referred to as senility, a term we no longer use. A number of people in our lives are suffering from forms of dementia, and I knew L’Engle would write honestly and compassionately about this disease. She refers to the Greek word, ousia, which means the “essence of being” — a helpful reminder as dementia is a disease of so much loss. After the death of the great-grandmother dies, L’Engle writes,

My memory of my mother, which is the fullest memory of anybody living, is only fragmentary. I would like to believe that the creator I call God still remembers all of my mother, knows and cares for the ousia of her, and is still teaching her and helping her to grow into the self he created her to be, her integrated, whole, redeemed self.

  • Wintering, The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Kathering May. I underlined more than the first time i read it, but that is often the case when re-reading a book. A couple quotes reveal what is true for me and my wintering times.

Everybody winters at one time or another; some winter over and over again.

p. 10

We may never choose to winter, but we can choose how. Some winters are big, some small.”

p. 13
  • Wayfaring, A Gospel Journey into Life by Margaret Silf. I read this book slowly throughout the whole month, usually only half a chapter during each of my morning meditation times. Silf invites the reader to use the imagination to meet the truths in the Gospel, but from the world of one’s daily life; to join Jesus in the Gospel stories and become part of those stories. She calls this “imaginative prayer.” One of the Gospel stories I continue to explore is the story of Martha and Mary when they invite Jesus to their home for a meal. I have seen myself as both Martha and Mary at different times, but this time as I read this story I was led to explore Jesus’s need for a “bolt hole,” from the world’s demands on him. Enlightening –and opened me to yet more dimensions. I expect I will use much of this material in the coming months in the contemplative writing group I facilitate.

December’s Plan

My intention in the coming month is to re-read old favorites, but that can change depending on which of the library books I have requested become available. Another issue is deciding which of my favorites I choose to read. Stay tuned.

An Invitation

What books did you give thanks for in the last month? I would love to know.

Book Report: The Door-To-Door Bookshop by Carsten Henn

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November 223, 2023

While everyone else is watching football or snoozing after eating too much turkey and all the sides, treat yourself to this gentle and charming book, The Door-to-Door Bookshop by Carsten Henn, translated from the German by Melody Shaw. However, since independent bookstores are not open today, stop at your favorite bookstore during the wild Friday shopping to buy this book as a Christmas treat for yourself.

Carl’s favorite task at the bookshop where he works is to pick out just the right books and deliver them to housebound readers. A young girl, Schaschas, begins to join him on his rounds, calling him a BookWalker. She is wise beyond her years and has opinions about the kinds of books his customers need, in order to make their lives better. Of course, there are villains along the way, especially the bookshop’s daughter who inherits the store and does not think delivering books is necessary. Clearly, she is not a book person.

Instead of describing some of the customers, here are few representative quotes about books.

Books with green covers were not to be trusted.

p. 16

Even when an extraordinary book ends at precisely the right point, with precisely the right words, and anything further would only destroy that perfection, it still leaves us wanting more pages. That is the paradox of reading.

p. 135

Then he read his favorite novel, The Uncommon Reader, a slim volume by a renowned author; he allowed himself to read it only once a year, looking forward to it each time like a connoisseur anticipating the first asparagus of the season.

p. 71

At various points in the book Henn compares readers to certain animals: hares who race through a book, fish who allow a book to carry them along their current, lapwings who jumped ahead to the ending, and tortoises who fall asleep often after a single page and take months to finish a book.

I think I’m a combination hare and fish.

Gentle and charming.

An Invitation

What books would you describe as gentle and charming? I would love to know.

Note: A Thanksgiving Prayer and Note

Before sending today’s post I moved into the snug for my morning meditation time. This morning I re-read a section about the Thanksgiving holiday from Diana Butler Bass’s book, Grateful, The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks. She quotes from this prayer by Adam Lee:

May this sharing of food foster peace and understanding among us, may it bring us to the recognition that we depend on each other for all the good we can ever hope to receive, and that all the good we can hope to accomplish rests in helping others in turn.

May it remind us that as we reach out to others to brighten their lives, so are our lives brightened in turn.

p. 131

May today, however you choose to be in it, be a day of awareness of the blessings that abound in your life, but also a day of intention to increase the blessings for those who experience scarcity or fear or pain.

Thank you for reading my posts. I am grateful.

Two Book Covers I Love

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November 16, 2023

Of course, what is inside the book is most important, but unless I am looking for a specific title or author, the book cover is what first engages me. These two are winners.

  • Andy Catlett, Early Travels by Wendell Berry. I bought this book at Ann Patchett’s book store, Parnassus Books. It wasn’t on my TBR list, but I have read and loved other books by Kentucky author Berry, including Hannah Coulter and Jayber Crow. This cover reminded me, as does some of the descriptions in the book, of our Sweetwater Farm in Ohio.

The book, which is part of Berry’s Port William series, is set in 1943 and young Andy Catlett takes the bus by himself to visit both sets of grandparents. Although much of the book has a nostalgic feel Berry also reflects on the role of racism in the community and among the people he loves. “Dick,” a Black man was a “hired hand,” and Andy reflects,” Whereas my grandfather’s life had been shaped by the effort to keep what he had, Dick’s had been shaped by the effort implied in not having.” pp. 24-25.

Also.

It was a circumstance that was mostly taken for granted. It was inexcusable, and yet we had the formidable excuse of being used to it. It was an injustice both accommodated and varyingly obscured not only by daily custom, but also the exigencies and preoccupations of daily life. We left the issue alone, not exactly by ignoring it, but by observing an elaborate etiquette that permitted us to ignore it…What is hardest to get used to maybe, once you are aware, is the range of things humans are able to get used to. I was more used to this once than I am now.

pp. 75-76

Much of what Berry describes reminds me of my Grandma and Grandpa Hansen’s farm in southern Minnesota and life in the early 50’s when I was growing up. Like a button box.

No worn out garment then was simply thrown away. When it was worn past wearing and patching, all its buttons were snipped off and put into the button box. And then when something old needed a new button, the button box provided. Grandma’s was an old shoe box better than half full of buttons of all sorts. it was a pleasure just to run your fingers through like running your fingers through a bucket of shelled corn.

p. 62

The book is short–only 140 pages–but so rich with descriptions of time and place and people. As I read it, I paused often to re-read passages–wanting to fully absorb the beauty of the writing. This is a book where plot is not the focus, but I didn’t miss it. Not at all.

  • Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati. A friend gave me this nonfiction book, which she bought on a trip to the UK. What could be lovelier than to be remembered by a friend when she is traveling. If I had seen this book in a bookstore, no doubt, I would have bought it, for the cover is so pleasing. I want to spend time in that setting. Donati is a poet, and she opens a small bookstore in a small Italian town, Lucignana, which would have been enough of a challenge, but she opens it during the pandemic. The book is written in a series of diary entries, and I think it would have been better, if written in more of a narrative style. In a diary one tends to reference lots of information relevant only to the writer. I did love, however, the list of the day’s book orders at the end of each entry. Both Italian and English. An example:

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, L’istante largo by Sara Bruner, White Fang by Jack London, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, Learning to Talk to Plants by Marta Orriols.

p. 69

I would love to know about the readers of those books. Why then? And how did they learn about them?

Right now I am reading #4 in the Lane Winslow mystery series by Iona Whishaw, and the covers in these editions remind me so much of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.

An Invitation

Have you been influenced to read or buy a book based on its cover? I would love to know.

Book Report: Wintering by Katherine May

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November 8, 2023

I don’t have much in common with Katherine May, the author of Wintering, The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. She is much younger than I am and has a young son. She lives in the UK. She was diagnosed with Aspergers as an adult. But I identify with much of what she writes in this book.

The title alone spoke to me, for the idea of “wintering” totally seduces me. I am a winter person.

I bought and read this book when it was first published in 2020, but recently I felt tugged to re-read it. Actually, re-reading favorite books right now interests me more than reading books new to me, but that will be the topic of another post. Stay tuned.

Yes, she writes about the season of winter. The structure of the book follows the movement of the season beginning with September’s coming of winter to the almost spring of March.

For example she writes, “Winter opens up time,” and then shares her reading habit during the winter months.

In the high summer, we want to be outside and active; in winter, we are called inside, and here we attend to all the detritus of the summer months, when we are too busy to take the necessary care. Winter is when I reorganize my bookshelves and read all the books I acquired in the previous year and failed to actually read. It is also the time when I reread beloved novels, for the pleasure of reacquainting myself with old friends. In summer, I want big splashy ideas and trashy page-turners, devoured while lounging in a garden chair or perching on one of the breakwaters on the beach. In winter I want concepts to chew over in a pool of lamplight–slow, spiritual reading, a reinforcement of the soul. Winter is a time for libraries, the muffled quiet of book stacks and the scent of old pages and dust. In winter, I can spend hours in silent pursuit of a half-understood concept or a detail of history. There is nowhere else to be, after all.

p. 210

Excuse me while I take a time-out to rearrange my bookshelves.

I’m back.

“Wintering also refers to the emotions of being in a winter season of our lives. May writes, “Everybody winters at one time or another; some winter over and over again.” (p. 10) and “We may never choose to winter, but we can choose how.” (p. 13) She adds that some winters are big and some small.

This passage seems especially fitting when I think about the winter stage of my life, these elder years:

…you’ll find wisdom in your winter, and once it’s over, it’s your responsibility to pass it on. And, in return, it’s our responsibility to listen to those who have wintered before us. It’s an exchange of gifts in which nobody loses out. …Watching winter and really listening to its messages, we learn that effect is often disproportionate to cause; that tiny mistakes can lead to huge disasters; that life is often bloody unfair, but it carries on happening with or without our consent. We learn to look more kindly on other people’s crises, because they are so often portents of our own future.

pp. 122-123

I enjoyed the sections about wolves, wild swimming, saunas, the Sami people and reindeer, Santa Lucia, and the winter solstice. Winter is a rich season, indeed.

May is also author of Enchantment, Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age (2023) and The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman’s Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home (2018). Her podcast is How We Live Now and her newsletter is The Clearing. https://katherinemay.substack.com

An Invitation

How do you respond to the concept of “wintering”? I would love to know.

Book Report: October Summary

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November 2, 2023

Three Nonfiction

Ten Fiction

Two Authors’ Backlists

Four books under 200 pages

One Book Re-read

One book set in Maine

Uncounted hours of Contented Reading

Categories and Titles

Three Nonfiction

  • Fox and I, An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven. A fox started showing up at Raven’s remote cottage in Montana. Raven, who is a biologist, begins reading aloud The Little Prince to him, and they develop a friendship. Friendship has been rare in Raven’s solitary life, and she contemplates what it means to have an “unboxed animal” as a friend. The writing is lyrical, but also true to her scientific background. (Sometimes more detailed than I needed.)

Fox was easier to understand than people because he couldn’t use words to deceive me. p. 257

When you spend time with your pet, they become more like you. When I spent time with Fox, I became more like him. p. 283

  • Winter Grace, Spirituality and Aging by Kathleen Fischer. I think I first read this book around the time I turned 50. No surprise–this book now holds much more meaning for my 75 year-old self. The chapter on older women as well as the chapter on loss were especially good. I am planning a session on spirituality and aging for an upcoming conversation group I facilitate for the Third Chapter, Spirituality as We Age group at our church, and I will use some of Fischer’s material.
  • You Could Make This Place Beautiful , A Memoir by Maggie Smith. First, it is important to know that this is the OTHER Maggie Smith–not the dowager from Downton Abbey! Smith is a well-known and highly praised poet, especially known for her poem “Good Bones.” The memoir is about the demise of her marriage, as well as her life as a mother and a writer. The format of the book is short entries, each with a headline, such as “A Friend Says Every Book Begins With an Unanswerable Question,” which she poses and repeats for herself, “Then what is mine?” One of her responses is “Where did it go?” Of course, she examines her marriage, but more than that or perhaps because of that she reflects on the nature of forgiveness, of moving forward, and about being whole, instead of a half. I loved this book.

Ten Fiction

  • I wrote about The Love Song of Queen Hennessy and also Maureen, both by Rachel Joyce in my October 12 post. Also, see the October 19 post for a review of Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro and the October 26 post to read about The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams. I enjoyed all of these books.
  • My favorite novel read in October was William Kent Krueger’s The River We Remember. Perhaps you have read Krueger’s mystery series set in Minnesota featuring Cork O’Connor, but he has also written three stand-alone novels, Ordinary Grace, This Tender Land, and now The River We Remember. Krueger writes with such clarity and also with deep compassion for his main characters, creating the same compassion in me when a character is about to do something that clearly is not a good choice. I want to warn them, and I ache for the choices they make. That happens when a book is as well-written, as this one is. The story is set in southern Minnesota in a small town named Jewel. A man unliked in the community is found dead in the river. Accident? Suicide? Murder? Sheriff Brody does not want it to be murder knowing Noah Bluestone, a Native American will be accused.

Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent remembering. p. 417

  • My least favorite book this month was Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satashi Yagisawa. Just ok, and if it had been longer, I probably would not have finished it.

Two Authors’ Backlists

  • I already mentioned the Rachel Joyce books. So satisfying!
  • Books by Linda Olsson. In April I read Astrid and Veronica and so loved it that I wanted to read Olsson’s other books: Sonata for Miriam, The Memory of Love, and A Sister in My House. Of those three my favorite was The Memory of Love, even though there were holes in the story–missing pieces and unanswered questions. Still I was enthralled with Marion, a physician in New Zealand who had a tragic childhood, and also a young boy, Ika, who becomes central to her solitary life. I had a right to my happiness, as well as my life. p. 170

Four Books Under Two Hundred Pages

For some reason several slim books were in the queue this month.

  • Maureen by Rachel Joyce
  • The Memory of Love by Linda Olsson
  • Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagasawa
  • Winter Grace, Spirituality and Aging by Kathleen Fischer

One Book Re-Read

Winter Grace by Kathleen Fischer. I think I was far too young when I read this the first time!

One Book Set in Maine

Margreete’s Harbor by Eleanor Morse. I think I fell in love a bit with these characters. Margreete has dementia, and her daughter Liddie and her family decide to move from Michigan to live with Margreete in the family home in Maine. They all live together for years and manage amazingly well. I was surprised there was not more initially about that transition and sometimes I thought there were too many gaps in the plot, but I truly liked these characters–foibles and all. Also, I appreciated the time period, 1955-1968, my growing up years, and the references to the big events of those years, including the assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr, and the Vietnam War.

She recalled her mother as a young woman, hanging laundry on the line, burning dinner, running the vacuum to bagpipe music. She was Rubenesque, with arms big enough for everyone, her laugh like an explosion. She blew into a room like wind, hooked rugs with large splashy flowers, turning the wool in her plump hands. That brave, outspoken, mischief-loving, no-nonsense mother had become an ant in high wind, her mind clinging to a straw. p. 18

It’s like watching a picture in a darkroom going backward in a developing tray–every picture is blurry, less contrast, heading towards blank. p 94.

Uncounted Hours of Contented Reading

And I am so grateful.

An Invitation

Did you experience hours of contented reading this month? I would love to know.

Book Report: The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams

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October 26, 2023

Thanks to an unexpected allergic reaction to the flu shot I received Friday morning, I didn’t do much of anything for most of the weekend. Instead, I read and dozed, dozed and read. Repeat.

The Golden Hour by Beatriz Willams was my companion on those days of not feeling at the top of my game. Williams is a prolific writer of historical fiction, which is not my favorite genre, but earlier in the year I bought as a Wild Card selection one of her other books, Our Woman in Moscow, and I enjoyed it. A good hot weather read, I noted in my book journal when I read it in July. The Golden Hour, which I bought at Ann Patchett’s bookstore, Parnassus Books, one of my Wild Card selections, was a good “not feeling well” read, although I must admit I became weary of the far too frequent and drawn out sex scenes. The main characters, apparently, didn’t talk to each other very much!

The book is set in two time periods–around the 1900s and then in the early 1940s, and the narrative shifts back and forth between those time periods. Is it my imagination or are more and more books using this technique? I wonder what it would have been like if the book had been written with a more chronological structure. It takes great skill to manage an alternating time line, and Williams does it well.

The more interesting story for me–and the one with more of a historical connection–was set primarily in the Bahamas when the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are in residence. He has been given the post of governor. Leonora Randolph, known as Lulu, is a journalist, and she locates to the Bahamas to write a gossip column about the Windsors. She becomes connected to them, and therein is part of the intrigue. Lulu falls in love with Benedict Thorpe, a botanist, but in that time of war, is, of course, more than that.

Thorpe is the son of Elfriede and Wilfred Thorpe, and their story is set in the 1900s. First married to a German baron, Elfriede suffers from post part depression, after the birth of her son, and is sent to an asylum. It is there she meets and falls in love with Wilfred who is there recovering from pneumonia. You can imagine the complications that follow.

As I write this, it sounds quite melodramatic, but the realities of war and conflict and the changing roles of women are well presented. I anticipated more of a historical connection than there was. It felt more like historical inspiration. As I said, however, this was a good “not feeling well” book, and now I will put it in our Free Library basket–for someone else to enjoy.

An Invitation

Can you recall a book you read when you weren’t feeling well? I would love to know.

Book Report: Savor AND Devour

/ nagneberg48 / 12 Comments

October 19, 2023

In my Thursday, October 12, 2023 post, I set myself a goal to slow down when I read. To savor, rather than devour.

Now, after reading Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro, I’ve decided I can savor and devour at the same time.

I loved Shapiro’s memoirs, Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage (2017) and Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love (2019) in part because she says a lot in a short number of pages. No 500 page tome for her. In fact, Signal Fires is only 219 pages long.

The length of a book is not enough to recommend it, however. No, it is what is written on those pages. How well do we, the readers, get to know the characters? Is the plot engaging? What about the setting and the structure? Now I am sounding like a writing teacher, and guess what, Shapiro teaches and writes about writing, too.

Back to the novel. Family ties. Family secrets. Two families and their lives over a span of time. In a less capable writer, the stories in this book would overflow into a much longer tale, but Shapiro reveals just enough, never wasting a word, and does that as she moves back and forth in time.

Some basics: Ben, a physician, and Mimi have two children, Theo and Sarah. The Shenkmans have one son, Waldo, a genius who is obsessed with the constellations in the sky, much to the irritation of his father who wants Waldo to be a “normal” kid. Two events influence the life of these families. One is a tragic car accident when Theo and Sarah are teens, and the other is the emergency delivery of Waldo by Ben in the Shenkman’s kitchen. I don’t want to say more, but here are two favorite quotes. The first is a reference to moving into a new house.

She doesn’t believe in ghosts, but ghosts are all around them…She has to believe that they’re all here. That they’ve made an indelible mark. That all their joys and sorrows, their triumphs and mistakes and hopes and despair are still as alive as they ever were. That no one ever completely leaves.

p. 37

…Ben Wilf has come to believe that we live in loops rather than one straight line, that the air itself is made not only of molecules but of memory; that these loops form an invisible pattern; that our lives intersect for fractions of seconds that are years, centuries, millennia; that nothing ever vanishes.

p. 126

I admit I devoured this book, but sitting this past weekend in the coziness of our house all decked for fall, I also savored it.

A Word About Shapiro’s Writing Book

I am currently working on an essay about a recent discovery about myself as a writer. Actually, I am struggling with this essay. Perhaps I need to step away and re-read Still Writing, The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life. (2013) or at least what I have underlined.

About meditation and writing:

When I sit down to meditate, I feel much the same way I do when I sit down to write: resistant, fidgety, anxious, eager, cranky, despairing, hopeful, my mind jammed so full of ideas, my heart so full of feelings that it seems impossible to contain them. And yet…if I do just sit there without checking the clock, without answering the ringing phone, without jumping up to make a note of an all-important task, then slowly the random thoughts pinging around my mind begin to settle. If I allow myself, I begin to see more clearly what’s going on. Like a snow globe, that flurry of white floats down.

p. 11

It never gets easier. It shouldn’t get easier. Word after word, sentence after sentence, we build our writing lives. We hope not to repeat ourselves. We hope to evolve as interpreters and witnesses of the world around us. We feel our way through darkness, pause, consider, breathe in, breathe out, begin again. And again, and again.

p. 110

Yup, I need to both savor and devour this book.

One Last Quote

“She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” Annie Dillard

An Invitation

Any books you have savored or devoured lately? I would love to know.

Book Report: The Need to Savor, Not Devour Books

/ nagneberg48 / 10 Comments

October 12, 2023

If you’ve read Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, you must also read the companion book, The Love Song of Miss Queen Hennessy, and then the story of Harold’s wife, Maureen. I had read and loved the Harold Fry book when it was first published in 2012, but until I read a post in Joanne’s Reading Blog, I didn’t know about the other two books. Each book is tender and human and highlights the ways we are each vulnerable in our loves and our losses. Just as these characters became my companions, thanks to Joyce’s good writing, I felt myself becoming a companion to these characters, too.

What they experience is not my story, not in any factual way, but aren’t we each on a pilgrimage and don’t we each need others to guide and support us on that pilgrimage?

But here’s something else that happened as I neared the end of Maureen. This book is short–only 132 pages and after an evening of reading in the snug, I only had 15 pages left to read. How easily I could have read those last pages in bed before turning off the light, but, instead, I decided to read them the next day. To not rush to the end. I was tired and knew I could not fully appreciate the end of the journey–just for the sake of finishing the book. I wanted to savor the experience.

I am a fast reader, but sometimes–often–that means I don’t get the full impact. I miss some important details. I don’t live fully with the characters, the story, or the setting. What would happen if I challenged myself to slow down?

Well, most likely I wouldn’t read as many books on my TBR. I might not be able to read my 100+ books a year. Last year I read 150 books, and I know, unconsciously at least, I want to beat my own record and at least read 151 books this year. Really? What does that matter?

Recently, writing an article, “How Do I Keep Track?” for BookWomen about keeping lists of what I want to read and what I have read (Thanks to all of you who contributed your methods and ideas about book journals and To Be Read lists.) made me re-evaluate this passion for reading as many books as I can. Soon after submitting the article, I read or heard somewhere (can’t recall where) that TBR lists can be treated as a menu, rather than a To Do list. Suggestions. Possibilities. Not something to be completed and conquered. Who eats everything on a menu! What a concept!

Two Other Reminders to Savor

  1. Recently, I re-read Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (See my October 5, 2023 review.) and I wondered, as I immersed myself in this excellent book, how much I had missed when I read it the first time. I have this urge to re-read many favorite books, but perhaps that desire reflects a need to slow down and savor, as well.
  2. While fixing the first batch of applesauce this season, I watched a long interview with Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone and his latest book, The Covenant of Water. I loved the first book, but only liked, rather than loved the more recent book. (See my June 29, 2023 post.) I now want to re-read the new book, for I think I read it too fast. I want to savor it.

Inspiration

I like what novelist Yiyun Li says.

I once asked some students how fast they could read, and one of them said she could cover 100 pages in an hour, so I decided to use Housekeeping (Marilynne Robinson) to teach the students how to do slow reading…they read word by word, sentence by sentence, and they ponder over an unfamiliar word choice, a fleeting gesture, the shadow of an image, and the ripple of a sentence seen in the following sentence…It’s a testament to the art of reading with not only five senses but also with memory and imagination. And I hope it’s the most important thing I can teach my students: not merely the crafts of writing but the importance of paying attention, to the world in a book and to the world beyond a book.

“By the Book,” New York Times Book Review, September 10, 2023

Here’s my new challenge to myself: Read to savor, rather than to devour.

Stay tuned.

An Invitation

Do you have a reading challenge? I would love to know.

NOTES:

Joanne’s Reading Blog: https://joannesreadingblog.wordpress.com

BookWomen: http://bookwomen.net

Abraham Verghese Interview: Talking Volumes Abraham Verghese on http://Youtube.com

I also recommend watching Talking Volumes Ann Patchett on http://Youtube.com

Book Report: September Summary and Visit to Ann Patchett’s Bookstore

/ nagneberg48 / 6 Comments

October 5, 2023

Part One: September Summary

From the looks of my book calendar, I could be accused of not doing much else other than reading during September. I assure you that is not the case, but I don’t deny this was a good reading month.

We traveled the last week of September. Traveling sometimes means there is not as much time devoted to reading, but on the other hand, we watched no television during our hotel evenings. After early dinners, we retired to our room and read. Plus four of the books I read that last week were either quite short or fast reads. Three of them were books I purchased at Parnassus Books. (See Part Two.)

Here’s what I read while on our road trip:

  • Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. This is the first book in the Shetland series. Perhaps you have watched the BBC series, Shetland. Cleeves also wrote the Vera series. Although I enjoyed this book, I probably won’t continue reading the series, but rather continue reading the Lane Winslow series by Iona Whishaw, which I mentioned in the September 21st post. (I read the first two titles in this series this month: A Killer in King’s Cove and Death in a Darkening Mist.)However, I do love books set in the Shetland Islands, and Cleeves knows how to tell a tale.
  • What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated from the Japanese by Alison Watts. This book got me at the title. A sweet, gentle book in which each chapter features one character who is dissatisfied with his or her life–a man who has recently retired, a new mother whose job has been downsized, a young man who loves to draw but has never found the right job match, and others. They each are directed to the library in the neighborhood community center where the reference librarian instinctively seems to know what books –books that on the surface make no sense–will change their lives and give them confidence or a new perspective. No violence. No sex. No objectionable words. Instead, an uplifting and encouraging book.
  • Barbara Isn’t Dying by Alina Brodsky, translated from the German by Tim Mohr. I chuckled as I read the first few pages, but although the sarcastic and ironic tone continues, it becomes more serious. Barbara, who clearly has run her home efficiently and without assistance from husband Walter says she is tired and retires to her bed, leaving a puzzled Walter in charge. He has no idea how to make coffee, let alone anything else, and grocery shopping is a whole new world, but he does his best and develops new skills. In the meantime their children take Barbara to their doctor, and the news, which is never shared and which Walter ignores, is not good. An exercise in classic denial. The book is well-written, insightful, and often tender.
  • Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book got lots of attention when it was released in 2021 because Indian-American writer Lahiri wrote it in Italian, not her native language, and then she translated it into English. The book is a series of vignettes told in first person by a woman, an academic, who lives in Italy. However, no names or people or places are ever given. We know few facts about the the narrator, but we learn much about her inner life, and we receive the gift of her observations. Lovely writing in short chapters.
  • Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. I finished reading–actually, re-reading–this book at the beginning of the vacation. It was neither short (461 pages) nor was it a fast read, but never mind, for Kingsolver’s books are a reminder of what it means to read such good writing, and her books are always engrossing and interesting and out-of the ordinary. Reading a Kingsolver book means immersing oneself in the best. There are two story lines in this book, but both are set in the same place–a crumbling, tumbledown mansion in New Jersey, and the stories relate and overlap. One story line is set in contemporary times: Willa is a writer/editor whose magazine position has ended and her husband Iano is a college professor who keeps moving in search of tenure. Money problems and family dysfunction dominate. The other story focuses on Thatcher Greenwood, a science teacher, and his family who live in the same house, although much earlier. Mary Beech, a botanist, who corresponds with Darwin, lives next door. She is based on a real historical figure, by the way. So much more could be said, but better to read Kingsolver’s book than my review. After reading and loving Demon Copperhead, I feel compelled to re-read her earlier books.

Before leaving on our road trip I read two nonfiction books. In the September 21 post I wrote about re-reading Things Seen and Unseen, A Year Lived in Faith by Nora Gallagher, and I decided to re-read the sequel Practicing Resurrection, A Memoir of Work, Doubt, Discernment, and Moments of Grace. In this book she writes about her discernment process about becoming an Episcopalian priest. She examines writing as a call, as well, and there are lovely passages about sandhill cranes, spiritual direction, and marriage. A favorite line: “Perhaps God doesn’t know all the parts either, but cranes her neck toward us listening.” p. 163. Both of these books are leading me to re-read some favorites from my own extensive library of books about spirituality and theology.

What else haven’t I mentioned?

  • The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin. See the September 14 post.
  • Three more books in the Simon Serailler mystery series by Susan Hill: The Comforts of Home (#9), The Benefits of Hindsight (#10), and A Change of Circumstance (#11). The next one in the series, #12, will be released this month.
  • Flatlands by Sue Hubbard. This book was one of my “wild cards” from a trip to a mystery bookstore in Madison, WI, but it isn’t a mystery. Rather it is a tale of unlikely friendship between a young girl who is an evacuee from London and an artist and conscientious objector during WWII. The landscape of the wild wetlands of the English fens is almost another character.
  • Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley. Another excellent “wild card” book. Two married couples are the main characters and when one of the husbands dies, the dynamics change. I appreciated the careful “not too much” writing–deep and yet not navel gazing.

Part Two: Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN, owned by Ann Patchett

Most people go to Nashville for the music, but not me. Parnassus Books, owned by brilliant bestselling author, Ann Patchett was on my Bookstore Bucket List, and it didn’t disappoint.

Fortified by a delicious lunch at True Food and armed with a list of titles on my TBR list, I took a deep breath and opened the door. My husband who also loves to read, but is more casual, I would say, about what he reads, assured me I could take all the time I wanted.

My strategy was to first check the shelves for all the books on my list and then to take another deep breath and open myself to other possibilities–books I call my Wild Cards. Bruce periodically checked in with me, asking if he had read this book or that or if we owned it. I often replied that I had read the book in question, but couldn’t remember if we still owned it or if we had passed it on to a Little Free Library. That’s one reason I keep a list of what I want to read– remembering all the titles in my reading life is impossible!

One of the pleasures of browsing in a bookstore is encountering so many good books from my reading past. A kind of life review. As I moved slowly along the fiction shelves, I kept saying to myself, “Oh, I loved that book” or “What a good book that is” or “I want to re-read that book.

In my mind a good bookstore is one that doesn’t only have the latest and greatest or maybe latest, but not so greatest, but also is intentional about stocking good books from the past, earlier books written by a current author. Parnassus passed that test.

Another mark of a good bookstore is knowledgeable and engaged staff. Another star for Parnassus Books. As I browsed I could hear conversations between staff and customers. Not only did the staff KNOW books, but when a customer asked about a book unfamiliar to them, they were eager to know more. When it came time for me to purchase my pile, the bookseller clearly was selling books and not socks or computer paper or laundry detergent. She looked at each book, sometimes commenting on a title, and as I handed her my credit card, she said, “You’ve got a great pile here.” She seemed totally sincere.

I always feel a sense of camaraderie in a good bookstore–chatting with other customers seems possible, and, in fact, often happens. In this case, two young women were wondering about reading Emily St James Mandel’s book, Sea of Tranquility, which I read this summer. I interjected myself into the conversation, asking if they had read Station Eleven. They didn’t seem bothered by this old lady reader eavesdropping, and I noticed they bought the most recent Mandel book. Somehow I don’t think I would have asserted myself in that way if I had been in Barnes and Noble.

The only way Parnassus Books failed me is that they were out of their bookmarks. Darn! Oh, and I have a wish list for bookstores in general: better religion and spirituality sections. More and more I have to order a title I am interested in sight unseen. Lately, I have been looking for You Are Here: Keywords for Life’s Explorers by David Stenidl-Rast and The Eloquence of Silence by Thomas Moore, but no such luck yet.

Acquired Books

From My TBR List: (All Fiction);

  • The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
  • Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • Barbara Isn’t Dying by Alina Bronsky
  • What You Are Looking for Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama
  • Maureen by Rachel Joyce

Wild Card Selections:

  • The English Teacher by Lily King
  • The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams
  • Andy Catlett by Wendell Berry
  • Fox and I, An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven (memoir)

Oh, and I bought two Ann Patchett books bags. How could I resist! What a good day!

An Invitation

What defines in your mind a good bookstore? I would love to know.