summer reading

Dear Subscriber…

/ nagneberg48 / 42 Comments

September 18, 2024

For several years my Monday routine has included writing my Tuesday post and often the one for Thursday as well, but this summer I discovered technical issues. You, as a subscriber or someone on my email lists, received my posts as usual, but the posts did not appear on the blog website. That meant others, who were not subscribers, did not have access to a new post.

After initially trying to figure out the problem myself, contacting WordPress and also researching YouTube for possible solutions, I decided it was time for a Summer Sabbatical. I adopted Scarlet O’Hara’s philosophy of “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

Eventually, however, I got serious and hired professional help, but, even with the best efforts, the problem remained.

Now what?

I moved into a time of discernment, and I discovered a number of things about myself and this stage of my life.

  • I enjoyed the new spaciousness of my days. Writing the posts takes a good chunk of time. I have enjoyed over the years using my time in this way, but now I was aware of how much space the blog has been taking in my head and at the keyboard. I realized how I was always on the alert: what to write about; what images could accompany my words; and even as I took my morning walk I rehearsed how to write about an idea.
  • I missed being visible. One of the things that happens as one ages in our culture is that we tend to become invisible to others. The blog at least gave me the illusion that I had not disappeared, and my ego loved that (loves that!). I wonder what the invitation is here.
  • I have become aware of the need to pace myself more. Quite simply, I am not able to do as much in a day as I once did and that means paying more attention to my energy and my priorities. What exactly are those priorities? I asked myself.
  • I realized my reading life had become an obsession. My Thursday posts were devoted to books –my recommendations and news about books. Was I reading in order to write an interesting post? Well, not entirely, but maybe, just a bit. And being known as someone who reads A LOT and is in the know fed that ego of mine!

The Spiritual Practice of Aging

Someone asked me recently “What are you up to these days?” and I sort of stumbled an answer, just like I am vague when someone asks me if I have any travel plans. With further reflection, however, I realized that what I am up to these days is aging, being an elder, inhabiting this stage of my life.

And what does that look like? What do I hope that looks like? What does it include? And how do I live that, practice that?

I think it involves a certain degree of surrender. Real surrender, it seems to me, involves letting go before one is really prepared to do so, before one is ready. And the issues with my blog seems to be one of those times. Would I choose to stop writing a blog if I didn’t have these technical problems? Probably not, but perhaps, just perhaps, this is one of those God moments. Renita Weems in her book Listening for God calls it “Gotta be God,” as in this must be God whispering in my ear.

My life is deliciously full, and I am so grateful for the ways I am able to use what I think are my gifts. Planning and facilitating the weekly writing group at church brings me such joy. Sitting with my directees in spiritual direction is an ongoing privilege. Being able to respond to other invitations, including writing opportunities, introduces surprise into my life and often challenges me to stretch and to deepen.

At the same time I want and need to be more available to friends and family, especially as many are facing the challenges of aging.

I apologize. I have taken too long to say that it is time for me to let go of my blog, Living on Life’s Labyrinth. The site will stay available for past posts and who knows maybe someday a solution to the technical issue will magically be solved or perhaps I will decide to start a new blog. But this is my decision for right now. This is what feels right and possible at this moment.

I am so grateful to all of you have read me faithfully, have made comments along the way, offered kind words, and shared my posts with others. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My Parting Gift: Summer Reading Summary

Much of my summer reading has been for an article I am writing for BookWomen, A Readers Community for Those Who Love Women’s Words www.bookwomen.net about spiritual memoirs written by women, but, of course, I read some wonderful fiction, too. Here’s my list of favorites from June, July, and August.

  • Long Island by Colm Toibin (2024)
  • The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez (2024)
  • Family, Family by Laurie Frankel (2024)
  • Lucky by Jane Smiley (2024)
  • The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (2024)
  • The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister (2013)
  • Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin (2015 in France, translated, 2023)
  • We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange (2021)
  • Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024)
  • How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (2024)
  • You Are Here by David Nicholls (2024)
  • Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland (2023)
  • In My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor (2023)
  • The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (2023)
  • Loved and Missed by Susan Boyt (2021)
  • Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin (1982)
  • The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (2003)
  • The Measure by Nikki Erlick (2022)

An Invitation

This is normally the spot where I pose a question for your reflection and invite your comments. Today I invite you to consider how you might adopt the spiritual practice of aging. I can still read any comments, if you care to send them, but the question–a big one–is more for your own contemplation.

Again, thank you for reading. I have loved having you along on this adventure. May your days living on life’s labyrinth be blessed.

Book Report: June Summary

/ nagneberg48 / Leave a comment

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.


Summer Reading Plan

/ nagneberg48 / 7 Comments

June 20, 2024

Here’s the plan:

  • Finish reading the books I’ve requested from the library.
  • Request no books from the library till fall.
  • Focus on books on my own bookshelves waiting to be read.
  • Choose one shelf at the library and read any of the books that appeal to me.

It is now three weeks into June. How am I doing so far?

Library Holds

It has taken me most of this month to complete my library “hold” list. I wrote in an earlier post https://wordpress.com/post/livingonlifeslabyrinth.com/3634 about three of those books, Long Island by Colm Toibin, The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez and Family Family by Laurie Frankel. All three are winners. The last book on the “hold” list was Lucky by Jane Smiley, and I liked that very much, too. I will write about that in my June Summary post on July 4th.

So far I am sticking to my intentions and have not added any titles to my library hold list. This is NOT easy for me, especially as I read about new releases like This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud, Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley and….

I know when I begin to create a hold list in the fall, there will be a long waiting list for each of these books. Sigh. And I know my TBR list will continue to grow, as well, but I tend to be obsessed with reading what is new–perhaps that relates to working in an independent bookstore decades ago–and I think it is time to lighten up! Now that being said, I am not opposed to adding new titles to my own bookshelf. After all, summer includes visiting some favorite bookstores, and purchases will be made! Top of my list, by the way, is Sandwich by Catherine Newman.

My Bookshelves

So far this month I have read just one of my own books: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson, and I will write about it in my June Summary. Simonson is the author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by the way, which I own and liked very much. I can imagine reading it again, but first there are other delights awaiting me. I am going to start with the latest (and, alas, last) Maisie Dobbs mystery by Jacqueline Winspear, The Comfort of Ghosts and then I will read Forgotten Sunday by Valerie Perrin who wrote one of my all-time favorite books, Fresh Water for Flowers.

Trust me, I have more than enough books both in the snug and the garret, let alone the living room and the lower level, to keep me happy and engaged for a long time. And did I mention there will be trips this summer to bookstores where it will be impossible not to add to my collection?

A Wild Card Library Bookshelf

How fondly I remember browsing the library shelves when I was a child. There was the thrill of discovering an author or a title unfamiliar to me. I didn’t have a TBR list, but rather was simply open to possibilities, bringing home piles of books. Library trips were a kind of pilgrimage, leading me on new paths and introducing me to new companions.

I realized I rarely browse in the library these days. I go to the library to pick up a requested book when it is available, and I usually check the Lucky Day shelf, but that’s it.

I admit I fear going down the deep rabbit hole of library stacks these day, so instead decided to adopt one shelf; a shelf I will browse in this summer. I decided to focus on Fiction Shelf #14 (I was born on April 14). My intention is not to read all the books on that shelf nor is it to start at the beginning of the shelf and move towards the end. Instead, I will read whatever I want to on the chosen shelf, and if I exhaust what I want to read on that shelf, I will select another one.

My only rule for the Wild Card Shelf is that I will check out only one book at a time.

On #14 are several titles and authors totally unfamiliar to me, including several books by Sebastian Barry. And there is an old book I read many years ago that I think I will enjoy reading again, Love for Lydia by H.E. Bates (1952). But I was most delighted to see three books by Erica Bauermeister. In April I read a nonfiction book by her, which I loved, House Lessons, Renovating a Life (2020) and in 2023 I read one of the novels on this shelf, No Two Persons, another enjoyable read. I decided to start with one of the Bauermeister books.

Wild Card Shelf, Book #1: The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister

The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister (2013) is engaging and insightful, a perfect kind of summer reading experience, whether the day is rainy or too hot and steamy for movement. The book introduces us to a variety of characters who in some way are connected to Lillian, a restaurant owner. Al is the accountant who has a surprising avocation; Chloe, a budding chef lives with Isabelle, who is slipping into dementia. Finnegan is tall and steady as a tree, but almost unseen. And others, each examples of shadow and light in their characters and their lives. A few quotes, and trust me, I could include many others:

Lillian was a woman in love with a kitchen. It was not the love of an architect, the deep satisfaction in a lay-out of counters and cabinets designed to make the act of cooking effortless. Nor was it the love of a grown-up  for the kitchen of her childhood, nostalgia soaked into every surface. Lillian's love for her kitchen was the radiant gratitude of an artist for a space where imagination moves without obstacles, the small quiet happiness of finding a home, even if the other people in it are passing through--maybe even a bit because of that. p 68

Isabelle was used to surprises these days, to playing hide-and-seek with the world. She didn't even need to count before words and ideas, faces and memories would scatter off into corners where she couldn't find them. Sometimes they came back; other times they were simply gone. Isabelle liked to think that perhaps some of them had found each other, had struck up friendships and gone out for coffee, or were hidden behind the couch making love. It was better than thinking they were never coming back. p. 132

It was intriguing how people came at their stories, Finnegan thought as he listened to Isabelle. He had learned to watch the gap between question and answer, having realized that the less obvious the connection the more interesting the material left unsaid. Diving into the gap yourself was rarely productive, but if allowed to talk uninterrupted, the storyteller would eventually build bridges across it, bridges made of memories that felt safe and familiar, anecdotes that had turned solid and durable with the retelling. After a while, you could go fishing. p. 241.

An Invitation

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

NOTE: Garage Sale This Weekend

Many of you have shopped my husband’s annual garage sale in the past and know what magic he creates by painting old unwanted furniture. He transforms chairs and dressers and tables and whatever gets in his way!!! (See pictures on Tuesday’s post.) This year’s sale is Friday and Saturday, June 21-22 from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. 2025 Wellesley Ave, St Paul.

All proceeds go to benefit Lutheran Social Services programs for youth experiencing homelessness.

Access to the sale is through the alley only (between Wellesley and Stanford).

Book Report: Summer Reading in the Garden

/ nagneberg48 / 11 Comments

June 13, 2024

Summer reading deserves lovely summer settings, and on perfect summer days, this is where I like to read–our own patio and garden. Now I hasten to add, I have done nothing to make this space so perfect. All credit goes to my husband the genius and hardworking gardener. We have lived in this house for ten years, and he has created a private paradise.

My self-proclaimed job in the garden is to read so I can recommend books to you. Here’s three to put on your TBR list.

  1. Long Island by Colm Toibin (2024), 294 pages. If you have read Brooklyn (2009), you will already be familiar with the main character, Eilis Lacey, an Irish immigrant. The plot of this book begins when a stranger shows up on her doorstep to inform her that his wife is pregnant by Eilis’s Italian-American husband Tony, and the minute that baby is born, he plans to leave it on her doorstep. She wants nothing to do with this baby, but doesn’t confront Tony with his infidelity. Her mother-in-law, who, trust me, is a piece of work, has a plan. Eilis comes up with her own plan: go to Ireland to visit her mother who is turning 80–and, again, trust me, she is another piece of work. Eilis reconnects with a man from her younger years who has never married, but he’s secretly engaged to Nancy. These are complicated characters, each one of them, richly drawn, even if they are at times frustrating. The ending makes me wonder if this book will be #2 of a trilogy. An excellent summer read.
  2. The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez (2024), 237 pages. This book did not disappoint. Alma Cruz is a writer, a successful writer, born in the Dominican Republic and one of several sisters, who frankly, I couldn’t keep straight. It doesn’t matter. When their father dies, Alma inherits a piece of land in the Dominican Republic, and she decides that is where she wants to bury her untold/unfinished stories. She commissions an artist to make the monuments and hires a groundskeeper, Filomena. Of course, the stories are not content to be buried, and the characters in the stories talk to each other and to Filomena and to us, the readers. In many ways the stories and characters are connected and related and that is part of the fun, the intrigue, and the richness in this book by a masterful storyteller. I love that Alvarez quotes this piece of scripture from the Gospel of Thomas, “If you bring forth what is inside you, what is inside you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is inside you, what is inside you will destroy you.”
  3. Family Family by Laurie Frankel (2024), 380 pages. India is pregnant the last year of high school and decides to have the baby placed for adoption. She always insists on the word “place,” rather than “give up.” She goes on to attend a prestigious acting school, her dream, and has great success. But guess what? She gets pregnant again in her senior year and places that baby up for adoption. She becomes a famous actress on Broadway, but also in Hollywood where the work is more regular and allows her to maintain a more stable life with her two children –not the two children who were adopted as babies. After she makes a movie with adoption as a theme, she expresses what turns out to be controversial ideas about adoption–that it isn’t always a trauma for the birth mother or the children or the adoptive parents–and she becomes a social media target. The result? I’m not telling. I especially appreciated the author’s skill with dialogue. Each character has his/her own voice. My daughter listened to this book and thoroughly enjoyed it too. One favorite quote:
It seemed to her that women did this all the time, weathered things that were hard and heartbreaking, but also chosen and even strived for. It seemed to her they often made tough decisions to let go, to lay down, in order to pick up something else because they knew--maybe in their bones, maybe having learned it again and again--that having all the things you wanted all at the same time was rarely on the table. It seemed to her that the people who had decided all birth mothers were regretful and unhappy and had been forced to do something they didn't want to do were probably men. p. 238

What I’m Reading Now

I am almost done with Lucky by Jane Smiley and like it very much. Stay tuned for a review. This book is the last of the books I had on my library hold list, and I’m forcing myself not to reserve others. Instead, I plan to read books on my personal hold list, including the newest (and last) Maisie Dobbs book by Jacqueline Winspear, The Comfort of Ghosts; Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin; The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson; and two more books in the Lane Winslow mystery series by Iona Whishaw.

This doesn’t mean I haven’t been adding to my TBR list, however. Here are a few of those titles:

  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
  • Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
  • Real Americans by Rachel Khong
  • Sandwich by Catherine Newman
  • You Are Here by David Nichols
  • This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
  • Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
  • All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whittaker
  • How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
  • Safekeep by Yale var der Wouden
  • This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

And even some nonfiction:

  • Life After Doom, Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart by Brian McLaren
  • Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice and Observations by Peter Miller
  • Any Person is the Only Self (essays) by Elisa Gabbert
  • The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America by Sara B. Franklin.

An Invitation

Where do you most enjoy reading in the summer? I would love to know.

Book Report: Two Novels — One I Loved and One I Appreciated.

/ nagneberg48 / 4 Comments

May 30, 2024

The Book I Loved: Leaving by Roxana Robinson

Love found. Love lost. Love found again. Love –well, that would be a spoiler wouldn’t it?

Sarah and Warren meet and fall in love in college and move towards getting married, but when Warren proposes embarking on what Sarah considers a dangerous and unwise trip, she has second thoughts about who he is. They go their separate ways and marry other people. Decades later they recognize each other at an opera and soon begin an affair. Sarah is divorced and Warren’s marriage, he realizes, is unfulfilling. As Warren begins divorce proceedings, he faces not only deep distress from his wife, but also the wrath of his daughter who threatens to cut him out of her life completely. Both Sarah and Warren confront the moral responsibilities of their love for and history with their families and each other.

This book is an example of much of what I love in a book: complex, but believable characters. Characters who struggle to learn about themselves and one another and grow. The ending doesn’t need to be happily ever after, but it must make sense. Along with being well-written–a must–I want to learn something about myself on the pages. In this case I thought about all the different lives possible within us with just a slight change of direction or a different decision.

And this book is not just well-written, but beautifully written. One example is early in the book as Sarah and Warren become reacquainted:

“I wanted to hear about your life,” she says. ” You go along from year to year and you think you’re part of the lives of everyone you’ve known. You sort of feel you own them, even if you don’t see them, because they live inside your mind. Then you’re sixty, and you realize the people you knew have been leading their lives apart from yours. Remember in To The Lighthouse, when someone tells Mrs. Ramsay about friends she hasn’t seen in years? They’ve built a conservatory. Mrs. Ramsay remembers the time they went on the river together, and she was so cold. She can’t believe that they’re the sort of people who would build a conservatory. She’s shocked to realize that they have been carrying on their lives without her.” She smiles at him. “I wanted to know what happened to you. If you’d built a conservatory.” p. 42

It doesn’t hurt that they are the kind of people who read and loved Virginia Woolf, but more than that I love the intelligent and sensitive and deep conversations and interactions. I must say, however, I found both Sarah’s and Warren’s adult children annoying and not as well drawn.

Robinson has written other novels and short stories and a biography of Georgia O’Keefe, which I think I may have read. More for the TBR?

The Book I Appreciated: Trust by Hernan Diaz

What stands out for me in this book is the intriguing construction.

The book is divided into four sections, beginning with a novel within the novel: Bonds about 1930’s Wall Street tycoon Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen. The next section, My Life, is notes for another book, similar to Bonds. Andrew Bevel narrates his life in finance and his philanthropic wife Mildred. The reader wonders, “What is going on here?” The third section introduces Ida Partenza, the daughter of an Italian immigrant who is hired by Bevel as his secretary and ghostwriter. Bevel’s intention is to refute the version told of his life in Bonds. He wants to set the record straight. And the 4th section, well, it’s Bevel’s wife’s Mildred turn to share her version. Huh? Really?

I supposed I should not have been surprised that a book titled Trust invites the reader to question everything. What is fact? What is fiction? Whom and what should I trust?

Trust is a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner, along with Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver–a book I loved. I admire Trust as a mastery of manipulation and I, like many reviewers thought about Edith Wharton and Henry James as I read this book. And also The Great Gatsby and even the song about money from the musical Cabaret. I am glad I read it and I encourage you to read it, too, but it felt more like an intellectual exercise than a companion.

Additions to My TBR

I just learned, thanks to Anne Bogel’s Summer Reading Guide https://members.modernmrsdarcy.com/product/2024-summer-reading-guide/ that French author Valerie Perrin’s first novel, Forgotten Sunday, will be released here in June. Her book Fresh Water for Flowers is one of my all-time favorite novels, and I will set aside anything I am reading for this work by her.

Thanks to Anne, I have added a number of other books to my TBR:

  • Real Americans by Rachel Khong
  • Sandwich by Catherine Newman
  • You Are Here by David Nicholls
  • All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
  • How To Read A Book by Monica Wood
  • Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice and Observations by Peter Miller

Both Parnassus Books (Ann Patchett’s book store in Nashville) and Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI have forced me to add these books to my TBR.

  • The Rachel Incident by Emma O” Donoghue (now in paperback)
  • Safekeep by Yale van den Wooden
  • Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

Next Thursday, June 6, I will post the summary of my May reading and also my intentions for summer reading. Stay tuned and happy reading!

An Invitation

Have you added anything to your TBR recently? I would love to know.

Book Report: So Many Choices

/ nagneberg48 / 4 Comments

May, 16, 2024

EEEK! My bookshelf of current to be read books overfloweth. My challenge is to accept that as a good problem to have –and not a time-limited contest or a requirement for completion. However, the piles of seductive choices are hard to ignore, and I am greedy. Perhaps it is time to declare some cabin time for myself–stay here at home but pretend I have gone off grid for a few days with books as my only companion. I’ll let you know how that goes!

Here are the books that are currently enticing me.

Library Books

  • The House of Doors by Tan Tan Eng. Set in 1921 in Penang, Malaysia with the writer Somerset Maugham as one of the main characters.
  • Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Partake. A historical novel featuring not only Fuller, who becomes a role model to Louisa May Alcott, but Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglas, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and so many more.
  • Anita De Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez. I so enjoyed Olga Dies Dreaming by this author and am eager for her second novel, which is the story of an artist who died in 1985, but in the late 1990s is rediscovered by a young art student.
  • Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Maura. Waiting for me at the library. The author says, “I wanted to write the story of a woman who sometimes wasn’t even the main character of her own life.”
  • An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I am almost done reading this excellent book that documents Goodwin and her husband Richard Goodwin sorting through his archives. He was a speech writer and more for John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy. Fascinating.

Gifts

For Mother’s Day I received The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl and The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson. Both are so tempting I can hardly finish writing this sentence. In the Reichl book, Stella receives an unusual inheritance–a one-way plane ticket and a note saying, “Go to Paris.” Helen Simonson wrote Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, which I remember loving. Did I miss her The Summer Before the War? I need to look up that book. This new novel focuses on the changes for women at the end of WWI in England–the freedoms women gained are being revoked as men return home.

I also received a bookstore gift card–that’s like gold in my hands, but I am restraining myself at the moment.

Also on the shelf are the books I received for my birthday, which I mentioned in an earlier post. but have yet to read: Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald, Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge, and Rogue Justice by Stacy Abrams. Perfect for cabin days!

Books for my Morning Meditation Time

  • Zero At the Bone, Fifty Entries Again Despair by Christian Wiman. I am not a person who often, if ever, feels despair, but I so respect Wiman’s insights and reflective voice, so I will read this, but maybe wait till winter.
  • How To Walk into a Room, The Art of Knowing When To Stay and When to Walk Away by Emily P. Freeman. Freeman is a podcaster and spiritual director who offers guidance during times of uncertainty. I have encountered this title in a variety of places—a sign!
  • Being Here, Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love by Padraig O’ Team. Poet. Theologian. Host of Poetry Unbound. Obviously, I couldn’t resist.
  • Somehow, Thoughts on Love by Anne Lamott. I am almost done with Lamott’s latest book and am enjoying it more that her last couple books. Those felt repetitive to me–same books with different titles, but I love this one. I will write more about it in an upcoming post.

Books I Couldn’t Resist

  • Books #8 and #9 in the Lane Winslow Mystery series by Iona Whishaw, Lethal Lesson and Framed in Fire are waiting for me. How restrained I am that I have not ordered #10, To Track a Traitor and #11, Lightning Strikes the Silence.
  • A Little Free Library find: Four mysteries by Marcia Muller. Has anyone read these? The copyright for the first in the Sharon McCone Mystery Series is 1977, Edwin of the Iron Shoes. McCone is a private eye In San Francisco. Oh for a rainy day!
  • Still awaiting my attention are four other bookstore finds: Wild Atlantic Women, Walking Ireland’s West Coast by Grain Lyons. The Fall of Light by Niall Williams. I am slowly reading all of his books. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune, which has often been recommended to me, but somehow I have not yet read. It is time. The Mystery Writer by Solari Gentill because I enjoyed her earlier book, The Woman in the Library. These are stand-alone mysteries, but alas, I recently discovered she has written a series, The Rowland Sinclair Series set in Australia in the 1930s and there are ten of them.

And guess what? Anne Bogel of “Modern Mrs Darcy” and her podcast “What Should I Read Next?” is releasing her summer reading recommendations list this week, which is sure to add to my TBR and my bookshelf. Sigh!

Alice Munro

I can’t close without paying homage to short story writer Alice Munro, who died this week. I remember at some point in my life immersing myself in her books of short stories. Such a fine writer.

A story is not like a road to follow…it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for awhile, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from those windows. Alice Munro, 1931-2024

Happy reading everyone!

An Invitation

What’s waiting on your shelf? I would love to know.

Book Report: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

/ nagneberg48 / 21 Comments

August 24, 2023

Sunday afternoon, a cool and pleasant day before the cover of heat returned once again, I sat outside and finished reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I wanted to finish it, but that doesn’t mean I wanted it to end. The NYT review by Alexandra Jacobs felt understated and even at times a bit snarky calling Patchett, “Aunt Patchett,” “as always slyly needlepointing her own pillowcase mottos,” but I LOVED THIS BOOK.

I waited to read Tom Lake until I had conquered a couple major deadlines. In fact, I didn’t dare have it in the house until the retreat I facilitated was completed, and the article I had been asked to write was sent off to the editor. My weekend was spacious, and the time belonged to Patchett.

Have I said how much I LOVED THIS BOOK?

Tom Lake, by the way, is not a person, but the name of a lake in Michigan.

The story has two narratives. One narrative begins when the main character, high school student Lara, is cast as Emily in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and then follows her acting career, which includes a movie in Hollywood. More importantly, Lara plays Emily again in a summer stock production of Our Town. During that summer she has an affair with another actor, Peter Duke.

The other narrative is set during the pandemic. Lara is married with three grown daughters, Emily, Maisie, and Nell, who return to their parents’ cherry farm in Michigan, and as they pick cherries, the women ask Lara to share the stories of her earlier life. She has much to tell, but chooses not to tell everything.

Sometimes following two time periods is confusing, but anyone who has read Patchett knows how expert she is at bringing the reader along with her, wherever she decides to go.

In an interview on PBS News Hour (Thursday, August 17) Patchett said the idea for the book grew from the play, Our Town, not with a character, and in the opening pages she refers to the feelings people in New Hampshire, which is where Our Town is set, have about the play.

We felt about the play the way other Americans felt about the Constitution or the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

p. 1

Rumor had it certain women wanted to play Emily forever. They criss-crossed New Hampshire town to town, year after year, trying to land the part.

p. 11

Many have said that Our Town is America’s most important play ever written, and it is always being performed somewhere. This spring our granddaughter Maren was in a senior thesis abbreviated production of the play at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR.

And this summer Bruce and I saw a production at the American Players Theater, Spring Green, WI.

Is there something about Our Town that we need right now? Wait a minute, am I reviewing Our Town or Tom Lake? Perhaps the two will always be linked in my heart and mind from now on.

Back to the book. Each character is so clear, so well-defined, but with their own obscurities. Each one of the daughters could become a book on their own, and yet they belong together–something the pandemic gave them another chance to experience.

They stack their dishes in the sink and head out the door together, Maisie holding the end of Emily’s braid the way one elephant will use its trunk to hold another elephant’s tail. Nell slips her finger through Maisie’s belt loop. Joe and I used to say that if lightning struck one of these girls all three would go up in flames.”

p. 91

This book would have been good, very good, without the context of the pandemic. No doubt Patchett would have found a way for her daughters to return to the farm for a chunk of time and no doubt there would have been reasons for such ongoing storytelling, but the pandemic becomes the open hands of the story.

I stay behind to make the lunch, which I should have been working on while I was talking all this time. The past need not be so all-encompassing that it renders us incapable of making egg salad. The past, were I to type it up, would look like a disaster, but regardless of how it ended we all had many good days. In that sense the past is much like the present because the present–this unparalleled disaster–is the happiest time of my life: Joe and I here on this farm, our three girls grown and gone and then returned, all of us working together to take the cherries off the trees. Ask that girl who left Tom Lake what she wanted out of life and she would never in a million years have said the Nelson farm in Traverse City, Michigan, but as it turned out, it was all she wanted.

p. 253.

The story continues to unfold to the last page, but it doesn’t feel like a great reveal–only the way life happens. Day by day. Year by year.

There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go. Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievable, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.

p. 116

One more thing: I made a crucial decision as I started reading the book. I decided not to underline sentences and paragraphs I loved, for I knew immediately, there would be so many. Instead I marked passages with a subtle light blue x in the margin, keeping the book a bit more pristine and fresh, like the daisies on the cover. (I didn’t understand the cover design choice, by the way until almost the end. Why weren’t there cherry trees on the cover I wondered. Trust me, there is a reason.)

May these days, as we move from late summer into fall, find you engrossed in just the right book.

An Invitation

Are you an Ann Patchett reader? What’s your favorite?

NOTE:

I enjoyed reading this interview with Patchett. https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a44654107/tom-lake-is-a-meditation-on-a-love-that-could-never-be-family-and-the-quiet-beauty-of-our-town/

Book Report: July Round-Up

/ nagneberg48 / 8 Comments

August 3, 2023

Special Request:

Before I share the highlights of my July books, I have a request. I am writing an article for BookWomen about keeping a book journal and TBR (To Be Read) lists. I would love to hear from you about the ways you keep track of what you read or want to read. OR if you don’t record your reading life, why not? Do you use Good Reads or another online method? Do you have a physical book dedicated to book lists? What else do you keep track of in your reading life? Number of pages read? A summary of each book read? Do you give books stars to evaluate what you’ve read? I would love to learn it all. Send me an email at nagneberg48@gmail.com and do it soon, please. I have an August 20th deadline, so I am working on this now. Thanks–and I hope to hear from you.

Now For the Summary.

The shortest summary is to say –Lots of hot days created lots of reading time!

As noted in my post on July 13, I entered the month taking a time -out from other activities to read, read, read. The reading pace slowed down a bit the rest of the month, but I can easily report another good book month.

Beyond the books mentioned previously in my July posts, can I pick a favorite book of the month? Tough one. Here are two in contention:

  • The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer. I was surprised I had not read this book in the past, for it is just my kind of book–strong female characters coming into their own. Faith Frank is an influential feminist and Greer hears her speak when she is in college, eventually going to work for Frank’s foundation. The side stories–Greer’s high school/college boyfriend Cory and her best friend, Lee–are all engrossing as well. A favorite line, although there were many.

You know, I sometimes think the most effective people in the world are introverts who taught themselves how to be extroverts.

p. 45
  • The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. This intriguing novel is based on the true story about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary in the early 20th century against the background of women’s suffrage in the UK and also WWI. The main character is Esme, whose father is a lexicographer, and she is present with him in the scriptorium from a very early age. She falls in love with words, especially the words discarded by the dictionary men. Those are the words used by women and by other classes. Esme goes on to create a dictionary of those lost words. I loved her personal story, too–how she surmounts a sad chapter in her life and is supported by women, including the servant Lizzy.

We can’t always make the choices we’d like, but we can try to make the best of what we must settle for. Take care not to dwell.

p. 200

By the time you read this, I will have finished a new book by Pip Williams, The Bookbinder. Set in the same time period and at the Oxford Press, it includes some of the characters from The Dictionary of Lost Words. I love this book, too.

I also loved Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson, which I think pairs well with Maud Martha (See the July 27 post.). Each chapter is short with short, almost stand-alone paragraphs. One character is the focus of each chapter and is written in third person, but in such a way that it felt like first person. The story evolves from the birth of a child to a 16 year old couple, Iris and Aubrey. The three live with Iris’s parents until Iris leaves Brooklyn and goes to Oberlin College in Ohio. Set in contemporary times, but there is also reference to the Tulsa Massacre in 1921. I almost started re-reading this book when I finished the last page, for it was so beautifully written, and I would take more care reading it a second time with the readers’ guide questions in mind.

One of my purchases at Once Upon A Crime bookstore was the first book in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves, The Crow Trap. (I like the Vera tv series.) I enjoyed the book, despite the fact that Vera doesn’t even appear until page 125, but the story is interesting and the ending, surprising. I may read more in the series eventually, but right now I am more intrigued with the Simon Serailler series by Susan Hill. I read #2, The Pure in Heart and #3, The Rock of Darkness and #4 and #5 are waiting for me on my TBR shelf.

What’s Ahead in August?

Our car could be labelled a “bookmobile.” This past weekend we visited two favorite bookstore: Arcadia Books in Spring Green, WI, and Mystery to Me in Madison, WI. I found several books on my TBR list:

  • A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill
  • The Bookbinder by Pip WIlliams
  • The Prodigal Women by Nancy Hale (Arcadia recently did a review of the re-issue of this book published in the 40’s)
  • Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (A book I have been wanting to re-read.)
  • French Exit by Patrick DeWitt
  • The One Hundred Years of Lenin and Margot by Marianne Cronin
  • A Life of One’s Own, 9 Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs

When I visit a destination bookstore, I also like to buy something not on my TBR list–a wild card. This time I bought Flatlands by Sue Hubbard and Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley.

Bruce did well, too, as you can see from the pile in the trunk.

An Invitation

Any wild cards in your reading life? I would love to know.

Book Report: Summer Reading

/ nagneberg48 / 4 Comments

May 25, 2023

This is the time of year when lists of books for summer reading appear. Often summer reading is lighter. Beach reads. Vacation reading. Summer reading often appeals to people who don’t feel they have enough time to read during other months

Well, I am a voracious reader all year round and always have been, so what I read or if I read is not dictated by the time of the year. What changes for me is where I read. Not only do I continue to read in the snug or in bed, but during the summer I also read on the patio and in our side garden, “Paris.” However, I am still attracted to those summer reading lists, and one of my favorite summer reading lists is Anne Bogel’s guide. I listen to her podcast, “What Should I Read Next” and get her “Modern Mrs Darcy” newsletter/blog. https://modernmrsdarcy.com I have browsed the new guide and know I will spend more time with it, weighing which titles to add to my TBR lists.

In the meantime I have a number of books waiting for summer reading time on my shelves.

  • For Mother’s Day I received two books: The Postcard by French author Anne Berest is getting lots of attention, even though it is long and some have called it “weighty,” but compelling. The other book is The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Indigenous author, Debra Magpie Earling. Both books are appealing, and my daughter was delighted she selected books I have not already read or purchased myself.
  • The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Through some great luck I was at the top of the library hold list. I loved Verghese’s earlier novel Cutting for Stone and based on the reviews I know I will love this new one. It is a long book–over 700 pages–which is not a problem for me, but I want to savor it and not worry about returning it on time. Plus, I am quite sure my husband will want to read it and perhaps others in the family, so I returned the library copy and bought my own.
  • At the same time I bought the Verghase book I bought The Midnight Library by Matthew Haig. This book has just been released in paperback after a long life on bestseller lists as a hardcover. Here’s an intriguing sentence from the back cover: “We all have regrets–choices we could have made differently, paths we didn’t take, other lives we might have led. But what if you were given a chance to fix your past? Enter The Midnight Library.”
  • At that same trip to a favorite bookstore, I bought two other books from my TBR lists: Lost and Found, Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness by Kathryn Schulz; Indiana, Indiana by Laird Hunt (I loved his National Book Award finalist title Zorrie. The character Zorrie is introduced in this book.); and a title I had not heard about but it just appealed, and was my Wild Card purchase of the day, Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams. She has a long backlist, so this could be a great discovery!
  • Earlier this spring I bought one of the titles in the British Library Women Writers series, Father by Elizabeth von Arnim This is a case of being attracted to the look of a book. Pretty. The whole series appeals to me because of the focus–female authors who enjoyed broad appeal in their day. The fictional heroines in these books experienced life at a time when the role of women changed radically. Von Arnim (1866-1941) is perhaps best known for her book, The Enchanted April.

If I have a goal for my summer reading it is to finish the books on my 2022 TBR lists. I have only four more novels to read, and I am currently reading one of them, Private Way by Ladette Randolph and another is waiting for me at the library, Flight by Lynn Steger Strong. And I have three titles left on the nonfiction TBR. One of those is Lost and Found, mentioned earlier.

I have no doubt I will veer from this pile of proposed books for summer, but shouldn’t summer be all about fun and discovery and being open to what presents itself. Needless to say, I will keep you updated on my June, July, and August reading.

An Invitation

Do you have any reading plans for summer. I would love to know.

Book Report: August Round-Up

/ nagneberg48 / 6 Comments

September 8, 2022

Along with continuing to read the Ruth Galloway Mystery series by Elly Griffiths (5 more this month), I read some stellar fiction, checking off several titles on my TBR list. I also read more nonfiction than in the last couple months–4 titles. So here’s the report.

Fiction

  • Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead (2014). I have now completed Shipstead’s back list and I have enjoyed each one for their originality and freshness of plot and her development of characters. This novel, her second, is set in the world of ballet. The main character is a dancer in her young years, later becoming a ballet teacher whose son is a talented dancer. An important part of the story is her relationship with a Russian ballet dancer.
  • Honor by Thrity Umrigar (2022). I have enjoyed earlier books by the author, such as The Space Between Us and The Weight of Heaven, and was so pleased when this new novel was ready for me at the library. The main character, Smita, is an American journalist born in India. She is in India to cover a story about a Hindu woman who marries a Muslim man and suffers tragic consequences for that love. As Smita becomes involved with this woman, she is forced to confront her own background and to make life-changing decisions. At one point another character says to Smita, “You know what your problem is, Smita? You focus on the cat hair. Try focusing on the cat.” (p. 319)
  • Recitatif by Toni Morrison. (1983, but in a 2022 edition) This is the only short story Morrison wrote and the introduction by Zadie Smith is longer than the story itself. The story focuses on two women, one black and one white, but the reader does not know which is which. Clearly, the story is meant to highlight our own racism and adoption of stereotypes.
  • Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (2022). I loved this book and so admire the deft way the author (This is her debut novel.) kept all the twists and turns and number of characters and the changes in their lives clear for the reader. The book is based first on an island, perhaps Jamaica, but also England and the U.S and the “black cake” of the title is a family tradition and also figures in the plot of the book, as does long-distance swimming and surfing. How’s that for an interesting combination? I don’t want to say more, at the risk of giving too much away. I repeat, I loved this book.
  • I also read The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford (2016), and it was a so-so read. Agatha Christie was the main character, so that was promising, but by the end I wondered what the point was. Can’t win them all.

Nonfiction

I wrote in two previous posts about two of the books I read in August. Things to Look Forward To, 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Everyday by Sophie Blackall (2022) in the August 11 post and Exit, the Ending that Sets Us Free by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot in the August 25th post. I read two other nonfiction titles.

  • I Came All This Way to Meet You, Writing Myself Home by Jamie Attenberg (2022). This was a plus-minus book for me. There was much in the book I didn’t enjoy and couldn’t relate to–drugs, drinking, uncommitted sex– and I am not sure I would like the author if I met her nor am I planning to read her novels. However, I copied two pages of quotes about books and writing in my book journal, and I appreciated much of what she says about solitude and about issues with her body. So plus-minus.
  • Unbinding, The Grace Beyond Self by Kathleen Dowling Singh (2017). I read this book over a long period of time, savoring and reflecting. Before this book I read and loved two others by Singh, The Grace in Aging, Awaken as You Grow Older (2014) and The Grace in Living, Recognize It, Trust It, Abide In It (2016). Unbinding, alas, was her last book before her death in 2017. I think I could read this book over and over again and not begin to receive all that is offered. Three chapters stand out for me, “Becoming,” “Aging and Death,” and “The Sacrament of Surrender.”

We are already into September and summer reading is behind us. Most of the books I read this summer were ones I got from the library, but in the meantime I acquired a number of books for my own library. I am planning to focus on those this month. We’ll see how that goes! Happy reading!

An Invitation

What do you recommend from your summer reading? Any reading plans for the fall? I would love to know.