Book #59 of the year was a re-read, In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden. You can see what I wrote the last time I read it here.
Book #60 was The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature, by Jonathan Rosen. This book is full of many things of which I cannot get enough: birds, poetry, philosophy, theology, ecology, history. Some good quotes follow. "The library world and the wild, nonverbal world meet in the middle when you are birdwatching." "Knowing the giant numbers of geography, and knowing the names of things, and having a system for putting what we know in its proper place, takes the chill edge off the presence of unfathomable things, which is perhaps a fancy way of saying death." "Backyard birds are in fact birds of paradise. It just depends on your definition of backyard - and paradise." I will definitely read this one again.
Book #61 was The Dearly Beloved, by Cara Wall. I absolutely loved this book, the story of two married couples and their friendships. These characters are so real and beautifully drawn, and their lives are complex and difficult, but also hopeful and lovely.
Book #62 was the long-awaited Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, by Susan Cain. First I waited for a long time for it to be published, and then I waited a long time to get it from the library. This all can't have been very long, though, because the book only came out in April. I liked it very much, and found it thought-provoking just like her previous best-seller, Quiet, which I wrote about here.
Book #63 was Five Wives, by Joan Thomas. This is a retelling of the (to me) extremely well-known story about the five missionaries martyred in 1959 in Ecuador. I resisted reading this because I had a feeling it would be a cynical take on the events, but ultimately I couldn't overcome the temptation to read it. I have such mixed feelings about it. It was beautifully written and if these weren't real people I would have found it entirely successful as a novel. But knowing so much about the facts, and knowing that these people's families are still living, I really wished I knew more about why the author had interpreted things the way she did. Did she have access to source material I haven't seen? (I've read many of the books published on this.) Or was she just using her imagination? And if so, is that really OK? I've read historical fiction my whole life, so I don't have a problem with people re-imagining real events, but this author made up fictional grandchildren for these real people, and that seemed to be going too far. I'm sure the story is more complicated than the hagiography the evangelical world has produced - it's bound to be. But this made me quite uncomfortable in ways I can't fully articulate. Someone else read it so we can talk about it!
Book #64 was Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan. I read this because it's on the French A-level syllabus and I'm going to teach it. I found it quite overwrought but still entertaining. Sagan published it in 1954 when she was nineteen.
Book #65 was Un Secret, by Philippe Grimbert. I read this one, like #64, in order to teach it. This is a harrowing story, but I couldn't put it down. It's been fun to read novels in French again, since mostly what I've read in French in recent years has been news articles - all bad news, naturally.
Book #66 was The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai. This is the story of a group of friends in 1985 and 2015. It's about friendship, love, art, and illness, specifically the AIDS epidemic in its early years. It's set in the gay community of 1980s Chicago and the art world of 2015 Paris.
Book #67 was Gentlemen and Players, by Joanne Harris. This is a mystery set in an exclusive school, with lots of twists and turns.
Book #68 was The Ink Black Heart, by Robert Galbraith. This is the latest installment of the story of Cormoran Strike and his business partner and friend Robin Ellacott. This is enormously long but I zipped through it. As with the others in the series, I like the way the author describes the day to day work of a private detective agency. The main story is extremely dramatic, but we also see the mundane tasks that go on, and as always I am most interested in the character development. Trigger warnings galore for violence, language, content.
1 comment:
Ruth, what fun to get a peek into your writing life. I just listened to the Susan Cain interview with Brene Brown on Spotify and was tempted to get her book Bittersweet. I haven't yet because I don't necessarily want a "self-help" book. But, the interview with Brown was really good and it led me to at least one epiphany in my life. Soooo...maybe I will pick it up to listen to. I just don't have time for sitting these days. But, I'm on the go a lot and books help! Thanks for all the recs. Reading in French? Good for you! It's great for the brain if anything else.
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