July 4, 2024

June was a month of mainly reading new novels.

• Long Island by Colm Toibin
• The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
• Family Family by Laurie Frankl
• Lucky by Jane Smiley
• The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson
• The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline WInspear
• Forgotten Sunday by Valerie Perrin

I wrote about each of these books in my June posts. https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3698 https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3666 https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3634

Summer Reading Plan Check-in and Update

It was also a month to begin my summer reading plan. My intention was to choose one shelf in the library and read whatever appealed to me on that shelf. I chose shelf #14, Barry to Bausch. Often when I go to a bookstore I add at least one Wild Card book to my purchases–books not on my TBR list and even books I may never have heard of. Well, Shelf #14 was my Wild Card Shelf.

Notice I said “was.” This past month I did read two books from that shelf, both by Erica Bauermeister. One was The Lost Art of Mixing (2013) https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3666 and the other was The Scent Keeper (2019). I probably would not have read this book based on a review, for the story of a young girl who lives on an island with her eccentric father who “saves” scents seemed too quirky, too fairy tale-ish for my taste. But Bauermeister is such a good storyteller, often so insightful, and I allowed myself to live in that world.

Grief makes a tunnel of our lives, and it is all too easy to lose sight of the other people in the darkness with us--to wish they weren't there, so their loss would stop rubbing up against ours. My father and I desperately needed open space, clean air for our pain to move into. But all we could do was wait." p. 45

There was one other Bauermeister book on my Wild Card Shelf, No Two Persons, but I had read that already, so my next step was to choose the next Wild Card Book. One by one I read the inside flap of each book, along with the first few pages. And none of them appealed to me. I almost checked out another one, urging myself to take a chance, and then I remembered that I made the rules (guidelines) for my Summer Reading Plan, and if I wanted to change them, ignore them, or even pretend they never existed, I can do that. I have agency in my reading life!

My next step was to see if there were any of my TBR list books on one of the shelves in my library of choice–books I would not have to request–and I found We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange (2021). One of my favorite genres is domestic novels, which always seem to involve family secrets. There were more than one in this book to keep the plot moving. Sunday, the daughter in the Brennan family is in a car accident and charged with drunk driving, and her brother Denny brings her back home to NY from California to recover and because he needs her help. He has gotten himself into a tangled financial mess. Why she moved away from the family has always been a mystery. I must say I was right with the author until the last page or two. I won’t say more, because you might feel differently about the ending.

13 Books: 11 Novels and 2 Nonfiction

The other fiction book I read in June was on my own shelf; one of the books my husband gave me for my spring birthday. Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge (2023) is a fun, light read set in Paris. Tabitha, an American, lives with her French grandfather and becomes good friends with Julia Child, who just happens to live across the road. After a late night party in the Child residence a woman is found dead, and the murder weapon is one of Julia’s chef knives, and there is a note in the woman’s pocket written in Tabitha’s handwriting. Oh dear!

This was not a month of reading much nonfiction. Truth told, I don’t read much nonfiction, but I do always have a meditation, spiritual book as a companion during my prayer time. In June I read Padraig O’ Tuama’s Being Here, Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love (2024. Along with devotions for each day, additional prayers and short reflections were included. A gem of a book, which I have referred to in some of my June posts, and I know I will turn to it again.

Turning to the day
and to each other
     We open ourselves to the day
     and each other.
This is the day that the Lord has made ,
and a day we'll have to make our way through...

I also read Wild Atlantic Women, Walking Ireland’s West Coast by Grainne Lyons (2023). I bought this book at an excellent independent book store in Door County when we were there in April. It was a Wild Card selection. The author who has an Irish heritage, but lives in London decided to undertake a kind of pilgrimage–to walk in the steps of eleven pioneering Irish women and in the process reflect on her own identity. The only woman somewhat familiar to me is the writer Edna O’Brien who is perhaps best known for her novel The Country Girls, which I have not read, but own. (Is it time to read it?) The other women include a scientist, a storyteller, an activist, a lacemaker, a knitter, a “pirate queen,” and a figure of Irish legends, Queen Maeve, and along the way the reader is immersed in the coastal landscape.

What’s Next?

It is only July 4th, but I have read one novel this month and am almost done with another, but you will have to read my post next week to learn the titles. (See what I did there?)

I don’t know if I will select another Wild Card shelf at the library. Maybe I will do some random browsing, but at this point I think I will focus on what’s on my own shelf. My husband and I recently visited a bookstore new to us, only a year old, Big Hill Books in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis, and we came home with a nice pile. Stay tuned to learn more. https://www.bighillbooks.com

Also, I have accepted a writing assignment from the publication BookWomen to write an article about spirituality books written by and for young women of diverse traditions. That means I will be researching and reading books that aren’t even known to me yet. I have a list of possibilities for books with a progressive Christian perspective, but I welcome your suggestions for books in the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Indigenous etc. traditions.

As always, happy reading!

An Invitation

Did your reading this past month include a Wild Card? I would love to know.