The Constant Princess

Book #17 of this year is The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory.

I've read lots of novels about the Tudors, and Katherine of Aragon is a familiar figure to me. However, this book put her in a whole new light. That's what I've enjoyed most about these Philippa Gregory books - she takes a story you thought you knew all about, and then shows you something you never considered before.

For example, of course everyone knows Katherine of Aragon was from Spain. I've read before about the intrigue with her ambassadors, the messages smuggled out of England, the upright Catholicism which guided her every action. But I'd never really thought about what some of the influences on her must have been. Gregory calls her "Catalina" - see, doesn't that make a difference already in the way you see her? She tells about her childhood growing up as the daughter of the warrior queen, Isabella of Spain, and her husband Ferdinand. She even brings in the Moorish influence which must have been part of her childhood, since she was quite young when her parents conquered the legendary stronghold of Islam, Granada. In Gregory's version, the Moors themselves are thrown out of Spain, but the royal family benefits from many of their inventions, such as running water (and, thus, frequent bathing). There's even a scene where Catalina sings a Moorish song she learned from a servant. I don't know if this ever happened, of course (and to some it may smack of political correctness), but I find the thought absolutely delicious.

In most versions of Katherine's story, her marriage to Arthur, Henry VIII's older brother, is glossed over quickly. After all, Arthur died just a couple of months after the wedding, and Henry is the husband that history remembers. But Gregory turns Catalina and Arthur's marriage into a love story, giving a fascinating interpretation to the historical controversy that follows - was the young couple truly married? Whether they were or not was important because of getting a dispensation for Henry to marry his brother's wife, and again became very important when Henry wanted to divorce his first wife to marry Anne Boleyn.

I'm tempted to go on and on, but I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it yet. I enjoyed this book the most of the three Philippa Gregory books I've read so far.

Here's some of what Gregory has to say about the background of this novel.

What I Read in 2007

Here's what I read this year. Not much, compared with some years. I didn't count most of the readings and re-readings to my children, and I didn't count everything I read to my students, either. Totally failed on the War and Peace goal. But I also read some great stuff in 2007.

1. The Trumpet Major, by Thomas Hardy
2. The Art of Keeping Cool, by Janet Taylor Lisle
3. Anacaona: Golden Flower, by Edwige Danticat
4. Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers
5. A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews
6. A Breath of Fresh Air, by Amulya Malladi
7. My Brother Sam is Dead, by James and Chris Collier
8. Uglies, by Scott Westerfield
9. Pretties, by Scott Westerfield
10. Waiting, by Ha Jin
11. The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory
12. Love that Dog, by Sharon Creech
13. The Seville Communion, by Arturo Perez-Reverte
14. The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory
15. Specials by Scott Westerfield (I see I never did post about these books, in spite of saying several times that I was going to.)
16. Heh. I called this one #17 but it looks like it was really #16, meaning I read one fewer than I've been claiming. The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory
17. The Third Secret, by Steve Berry (possibly the worst book I finished this year)
18. The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander
19. Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko
20. The Arraignment, by Steve Martini
21. Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen
22. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
23. The Boleyn Inheritance, by Philippa Gregory
24. Devices and Desires, by P.D. James
25. The Mission Song, by John Le Carre
26. The Landscape of Love, by Sally Beauman
27. The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri
28. The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, by Barbara Vine
29. Monday Mourning, by Kathy Reichs
30. The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers (this was one of my favorites of the year)
31. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
32. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
33. Hitler's Daughter, by Jackie French
34. Troy: Shield of Thunder, by David Gemmell
35. A Certain Justice, by P.D. James
36. Playing for the Ashes, by Elizabeth George
37. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, by Ann Brashares
38. The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth
39. The Town on Beaver Creek: The Story of a Lost Kentucky Community, by Michelle Slatalla
40. a book in French by the father of one of my students
41. Retrovirus, by T.L. Higley
42. The Teacher's Guide to Big Blocks Grades 4-8
43. Gossip Girl, by Cecily Von Ziegesar (yuk, I hated this book)
44. Day One and Beyond, by Rick Wormeli
45. Living and Teaching the Writing Workshop, by Kristen Painter
46. Words, Words, Words:Teaching Vocabulary in Grades 4-12, by Janet Allen
47. Managing Your Classroom with Heart: A Guide for Nurturing Adolescent Learners, by Katy Ridnouer
48. The Reading Zone, by Nancie Atwell (I love, love, love Nancie Atwell)
49. Second Honeymoon, by Joanna Trollope
50. The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian
51. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
52. Portrait of an Unknown Woman, by Vanora Bennett
53. Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine
54. Dreamland, by Sarah Dessen
55. This Lullaby, by Sarah Dessen
56. Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer
57. Boy Writers: Reclaiming their Voices, by Ralph Fletcher
58. The 9 Rights of Every Writer, by Vicki Spandel
59. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
60. All American Girl, by Meg Cabot
61. In the Presence of the Enemy, by Elizabeth George
62. For the Sake of Elena, by Elizabeth George
63. Keeping the Moon, by Sarah Dessen
64. Foreign to Familiar, by Sarah Lanier
65. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
66. Guests, by Michael Dorris
67. The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They're All Hard Parts), by Katie Wood Ray
68. The Flame Trees of Thika, by Elspeth Huxley
69. The Mottled Lizard, by Elspeth Huxley
70. Listening for Lions, by Gloria Whelan
71. Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer
72. Double Identity, by Margaret Peterson Haddix
73. The Last Book in the Universe, by Rodman Philbrick
74. Code Orange, by Caroline Cooney
75. Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo
76. All the Little Live Things, by Wallace Stegner
77. And today I'll finish Voices of the Faithful, ed. by Beth Moore

Whew. I can't believe I just typed all that in. I'm such a nerd. It was fun to revisit all the titles briefly, though. The links are all to my reviews or, in many cases, brief mentions, on my blog. Almost all the original posts have Amazon links if you want more information about the book.

The Virgin's Lover

Book #11 of the year is The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory. It's the story of Elizabeth I of England and Robert Dudley.

The challenge of a book like this is to make suspenseful something that is part of historical record. I've read several versions of the story - it's really irresistible to a novelist, since the characters are so vivid and the plot twists more exciting than anything you can make up - so I know exactly how it's going to turn out.

Yet this book held my interest right until the last page. Yes, it still happened the way history tells us it did, but Gregory is fabulous at showing us all the quirks and mixed-up motivations of the three-dimensional people she writes about, so that you feel for every single one. Elizabeth and Dudley are stars, of course, but Amy (Robert's neglected wife) is unbearably poignant as well. Gregory has her own version of the mystery - what happened to Amy - and explains in an afterword that she did research in contemporary sources to come to her conclusion.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Philippa Gregory.

Reading Update

Book 6 of the year was Love Well: Living Life Unrehearsed and Unstuck, by Jamie George.  "God does not delete your story - " writes George, "He redeems it!"  He shares his own experiences with God redeeming his life story.

Book 7 was News of the World, by Paulette Jiles.  It's 1870.  Johanna was abducted from her family when she was six, and now that she is ten, she's been ransomed and she's on her way "home."  Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is a man who travels around and reads newspapers to audiences who pay a dime each to hear the "news of the world."  He's agreed to take Johanna back to her original family, whether or not she wants to go.  I loved this book, with its intricately detailed portrayal of Johanna and Captain Kidd, and the way they grow in importance to one another.  Highly recommended.

Book 8 was Ann Patchett's latest book, Commonwealth.  It took me a while to figure out what was going on here, because there were lots of characters whom I couldn't keep straight very well.  But when, about halfway through, I figured it out, I was glad I hadn't given up.  The book explores issues about childhood, siblings, and how much of our story belongs to us.

Book 9 was The Girl with All the Gifts, by M. R. Carey.  If I had known what this book was about, I wouldn't have picked it up, and that would have been a shame.  I know that is no help at all for you if you're trying to decide whether to read it, but I think it's best read without knowing too much about it, since you're supposed to realize the situation gradually.

Book 10 was The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country, by Helen Russell.  I hadn't read any of the current spate of Denmark books, and knew very little about the country.  I learned a lot reading this book, written by a British woman whose husband got a job at Lego, sending the couple to Denmark for a year.  It's a mixture of very personal memoir and investigative journalism, and great fun.

Book 11 was Three Sisters, Three Queens, by Philippa Gregory.  I have been waiting for this to become available for download from my library ever since it came out.  The three queens of the title are Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, and her two sisters-in-law, Mary and Margaret.  I'm quite familiar with Katherine and Mary, but Margaret's story is much less known, and while it's pretty harrowing - like all the Tudors and anybody who came near them, particularly women, Margaret had a rough time of it - it also makes for exciting and entertaining reading.  I think I've read all Philippa Gregory's novels about the Plantagenets and Tudors, and now I'm ready for the next one!

Book 12 was A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving.  I've wanted to read this ever since a good friend mentioned years ago that it was her favorite book.  I read it aloud to my husband, and since it's over 600 pages long, it took us a while.  This was only my second Irving book, and my husband's first.  Owen Meany is an unforgettable character, and I loved the leisurely manner in which the story is told.  At times hilarious, at times reverent, at times shocking and profane (language and content alerts for days), always vivid, this is the story of John and Owen's friendship against the backdrop of the late sixties and the beginning of the Vietnam War.  John Irving is a simply brilliant writer, and it's a pleasure watching this story unfold.  As John is trying to figure out how he will handle the threat of the draft, he tells Owen that he wants to go on reading, as a student and a teacher: "I'm just a reader."  Owen tells him that's nothing to be ashamed of, because reading is a gift.  It certainly is, when there are books like this to be read.

This post is linked to the March 4th Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon.

It's also linked to Modern Mrs. Darcy's "What I'm Reading Lately" post for March.

Reading Update

Book #42 of this year was Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfeld. I'd read two books by this author before; one was a retelling of Pride and Prejudice that I liked (I wrote a bit about it here). The other was Prep, which I wrote about here. I really disliked that one; I used the word "excruciating." My daughter asked me why on earth I had chosen to read alternative reality fan-fiction about Hillary Clinton by an author I hadn't really loved in the past. I'm not sure why. And while it's fascinating to consider, as the author does, what might have happened to Hillary if she hadn't married Bill Clinton, it felt a little uncomfortable to read about all these real people (who are still alive) doing fictional things. Especially when you're not quite sure where the fiction begins and ends. If you're a public person, does that mean authors can just write whatever they want about what you might have done in a different situation? (Sort of the same kind of argument you could make about the TV series "The Crown.") I don't know - all I can say is I kept reading to the end. 

Book #43 was The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare, which I was teaching to my sixth graders. I read this book when I was their age, and I still like it now. 

Book #44 was Dark Tides, by Philippa Gregory, the second book in the Fairmile Series (I wrote about the first one here). Gregory has written, about this series, "I wanted to write a different sort of historical fiction: actually a series of books tracing the rise of a family from obscurity to prosperity." This one was fascinating and fun to read. I especially enjoyed the character who had left England and gone to the New World. With a lot of Gregory's books, I was reading about history I know well (in the case of the Tudor stories). The Plantagenet history was less well-known to me, but still, since I was reading about real characters, there was a certain inevitability about what was going to happen to them. With these fictional characters, though, absolutely anything could happen. I can't wait to read the next book; Gregory gives some idea in an interview at the end of the book about what might be coming. And it sounds like this series is going to be one of those endless sagas - yay!

 

Book #45 was a book of poetry, Alive Together, by Lisel Mueller. I got it for my birthday back in February, and managed to stretch it out this long by reading just a couple of poems at a time. Wonderful stuff! Now I get to go back and read it again.

 

Book #46 was In Broken Places, by Michèle Phoenix. This is the story of Shelby, who grew up with her brother Trey in an unstable, violent home. After suddenly becoming a single mom, she decides to move to Germany to teach at a school for missionaries' children. I enjoyed reading this, and watching Shelby start to find healing for her past. My favorite part was her relationship with Trey.

Reading Update

Book #9 of 2020 was Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos. I enjoyed this book and will read more by this author. I love reading about friendships and how they develop over time.

Book #10 was Tidelands, by Philippa Gregory. This is the first in a projected long series. Here's what Gregory says in her Author's Note: "A few years ago I realized that, though I still loved my fictionalized biographies of well-known and lesser-known women, I wanted to write a different sort of historical fiction: actually a series of books tracing the rise of a family from obscurity to prosperity. ...So many of us are exploring our family histories these days because we want to know who our ancestors were and what they did....What is interesting to me as a historian is how the fortunes of every family reflect in their small way the fortunes of the nation." If that sounds as interesting to you as it does to me, you'll like this book. It's set in the English Civil War, and explores what life is like for Alinor, a young woman whose sailor husband has disappeared, leaving her with two children to provide for, and a reputation to live down. As the book opens, she's meeting a handsome stranger. At first it appeared that Gregory had taken to writing romance novels, but no, there is something much darker and more realistic going on in this book. (There's nothing wrong with a romance novel with a happy ending, but it's just not what I've come to expect from Gregory.) I really hope the next novel comes out soon, because I am all in for this series.

Book #11 was Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this book. I liked parts of it, like the descriptions of the Outer Banks and its birds and wildlife. The story seemed pretty far-fetched to me, though. I didn't quite buy Kya basically growing up alone after being abandoned at a very young age by everyone who was supposed to take care of her. There were other aspects of the plot that seemed unbelievable, too.

Book #12 was The Map of Salt and Stars, by Zeyn Joukhadar. I loved this story of Syrian refugees.  "'A person can be two things at the same time,' Itto says. 'The land where your parents were born will always be in you. Words survive. Borders are nothing to words and blood.'"

Book #13 was a re-read, Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen. This has become one of my touchstone texts. I wrote about that a little bit here.

Book #14 was The Queen of Nothing, by Holly Black. This book was a good argument for waiting until a series has all been written before you start reading it. I know I would have enjoyed this book more if I had had a clearer memory of the first two. I just checked when I read them and I'm embarrassed to report that it was as recently as May 2019, so I should remember them better. I wrote about both of them here.

What I Read this Summer, part 2

Book #33 of 2009 was Missing Persons, by Stephen White. I like these books about psychologist Alan Gregory.

Book #34, Innocent Traitor, by Alison Weir, was about Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days in 1554. Weir is an historian, and her portrayal of Grey is vivid and believable. Plus, I'm a sucker for books about the Tudor period.

Throne of Jade, book #35, and Black Powder War, book #37, were books two and three of the Temeraire series, by Naomi Novik (the first one in the series was the third book I read this year). I found my interest flagging a little during the third book. It's a fascinating premise - a retelling of the Napoleonic Wars, but with dragons.

Book #36 was The Senator's Wife, by Sue Miller. This author is great at writing about situations that are full of ambiguity, situations that make the reader feel uncomfortable. I guess her books are the opposite of escapist fiction. (The Good Mother is the prime example of this.) This one is about a couple who move in next door to the wife of a senator. We learn much more about both marriages as we see life from the perspectives of Meri, the young bride who has recently moved in, and Delia, the "Senator's Wife" of the title. All the characters are vividly drawn, and all are deeply flawed. Even though I knew something dreadful was ahead, I couldn't stop reading.

And as long as we're doing harrowing, book #38 was The Happy Room, by Catherine Palmer. This is the story of three siblings who face crisis as they attempt to come to terms with their upbringing as missionary kids. While my brain told me the ending was way over the top, my emotions cooperated fully with the author as I sobbed my way to the last page. It was brave of her to write this book, clearly based at least partly on her own experience.

This next book, #39, was probably the most intriguing one I've read so far this year. I hadn't quite finished reading it when we left my parents' state, so I took it with me, devoured the last couple of hundred pages in the car, and mailed it back. It was The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, by Mohja Kahf, the story of another missionary kid, but this one is a Muslim. Khadra's Syrian parents move to Indiana to open the Dawah Center, whose goal is to provide support for Muslims living in the United States. I can't tell you how much I learned from this book: specifics about training Muslims receive in the faith, fascinating glimpses at the wide variety of American Muslims, details about the pros and cons of wearing hijab, and why someone would choose to do so. Yet in spite of the huge amount of new, mind-opening information, I can also relate to Khadra like a sister: the way she journeys through various aspects of her faith until she decides what she believes on her own, the way she navigates the expectations on her, the way she struggles with her identity as an adolescent growing up between two cultures. Her mother saves aluminum foil, just like Mrs. Mossman in The Happy Room; I think the Mossman siblings and Khadra would have a lot to talk about. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand more about Islam in America by getting to know Khadra.

Book #40 was The Passion of Mary-Margaret, by Lisa Samson. Mary-Margaret is a religious sister with an unusual path. This is an unusual novel and I couldn't quite decide what I thought of it. It certainly kept me reading.

Book #41 was another Philippa Gregory book, The Other Queen. I have read many of hers in the past couple of years (here are the references to her so far in my blog). This one is about Mary, Queen of Scots. Once again, Gregory takes a familiar story (at least to me - see above) and puts a new twist on it. We see Mary Queen of Scots in her years of captivity and watch her enjoy the intrigue and plotting. We also see Elizabeth I as an insecure, frightened monarch. And we are introduced to Bess, a surprisingly modern woman who clings to Protestantism for her own reasons which are not all spiritual.

And to finish up my summer reading, since school starts on Tuesday and I doubt I will finish anything else before then, book #42, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros. This book keeps coming up lately: quotes from it, recommendations of it on my Amazon account, references to it in professional reading. Frankly, it was a bit of a disappointment. The book is beautifully written, of course, and there are memorable images in it - the homesickness of immigrants is always something I find compelling in books. However, I know it would not hold my students' attention, since it is far too lyrical for most of them and not at all plot-driven. I'm glad I read this one but I don't think I'll be reading it again.

Reading Update

Book #106 of the year was Boleyn Traitor, by Philippa Gregory. I have been reading novels about Henry VIII and his wives since I was a teenager, so this story was familiar to me. It's about Jane Boleyn, who was married to Anne Boleyn's brother George. She survived her much more famous sister-in-law and lived to be a lady-in-waiting to several of Henry VIII's later queens. I always enjoy Gregory's books, and this terrible, tragic tale was no exception. 

 

Book #107 was a book group pick, the "fluffy" book I teased at the end of my November Reading Update. It was my first Karen Kingsbury novel, The Christmas Ring. I can't say I'm eager to read more Kingsbury, but the book was fun to read and discuss with my lovely book group. We even got together for pizza and Christmas cookies to watch the movie!

 

Book #108 was Hazel Says No, by Jessica Berger Gross. I enjoyed this one. In the first chapter, Hazel is propositioned by an adult who should know better. The rest of the book deals with the fallout of Hazel saying no, on her family, her dad's new job, her senior year of high school, and Hazel herself. 

 

Book #109 was The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World, by John Mark Comer. Comer gives lots of practical suggestions for how to be more focused on what matters and less addicted to what doesn't. I found it worth reading.

 

Book #110 was a reread, The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. I still found it brilliantly written. And it brought back the circumstances of when I last read it, which I wrote about here. 

 

Book #111 was The Heart of Winter, by Jonathan Evison. It's the story of a long marriage and all its ups and downs, starting with a difficult diagnosis of one of the partners and flashing back to moments all through their life together. I couldn't stop reading it. 

 

Book #112 was Audition, by Katie Kitamura. This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and lots of people loved it. I hated it and wished I hadn't kept reading. I kept thinking it was going to start being worthwhile. It did not.

 

Book #113 was another family saga like #111, The Bright Years, by Sarah Damoff. The first part of the book was just OK. I almost stopped reading because it seemed predictable. But I was very glad I hadn't. It ended up being a beautiful and satisfying story about a family that struggled, but eventually found ways for love to break through.

Reading Update

Book #20 was The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory. I enjoyed this first book in a proposed trilogy about the Wars of the Roses. I still think my favorite Gregory book so far is The Constant Princess (the link is to my review).

Book #21 was We Need to Talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. I heard Shriver on the BBC's program, World Book Club and wanted to read this book as a result. Even though you know very early on in the book that Kevin is incarcerated because of his role in murdering several people at his school, Shriver manages to fill the story with tension and suspense. Kevin's mother, Eva, narrates the story in a series of letters to Kevin's father, Franklin. While Shriver does a masterful job, I was not completely convinced by Franklin's refusal to believe anything was wrong with Kevin's behavior. I felt Eva's frustration and powerlessness but didn't buy that this was really the way the events would have played out. This is a horrible story and parts of it are very difficult to read. Shriver doesn't have any children and doesn't want to, and you can't blame her if this is her idea of what parenthood is like.

After that one, I needed something lighter, and this next book, #22, Writing Jane Austen, by Elizabeth Aston, was so light that I felt I had to hold on to it firmly, lest it float away. Georgina Jackson has written a literary novel which got critical acclaim but didn't sell at all. Now she is working on her second book, and things aren't going well. Her money is running out and she doesn't know if she will be able to stay in England (she's American). Then she gets an offer to finish a Jane Austen fragment that has been discovered. But shock! Horror! Georgina has never read Jane Austen! She is supposed to be an intelligent author with a PhD (though I didn't believe it for a moment), and yet she begins by reading about Austen's life, traveling to sites connected with her, and speaking at a Jane Austen Society meeting (huh?). Why doesn't she just read the books, already? There are only six of them. I found myself feeling very stressed out for her. Finally she reads them and is, of course, converted to love for Jane Austen. All sorts of nonsensical events take place and there's a happy ending. Aston has written several Austen-related books including Mr. Darcy's Daughters, but I don't think I will be reading any of them. I did enjoy the portrayal of Jane Austen fans who travel around visiting the places where the movies were filmed, Austen's birthplace, and anywhere she ever set foot.

Here's today's Saturday Review of Books.

Reading Update

Book #14 of the year: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I enjoyed it but I recommend it a bit more hesitantly than The Virgin's Lover because it is considerably more bawdy. (Surprisingly, given the titles of the two books.) The Other Boleyn Girl is about Mary Boleyn, who was Henry VIII's mistress before her sister, Anne Boleyn, who became Henry's second wife. Today I started The Constant Princess, about Katherine of Aragon, which I'm enjoying hugely. I'll post about it when I'm finished. And yes, I'm reading them in reverse chronological order. That wasn't planned that way!

Book #15: Specials. I'm planning a post about the whole trilogy, so for now I'll just say I liked this one the least of the three.

To see what others are reading and reviewing, take a look at today's Saturday Review of Books.

Reading Update

Book #56 of 2023 was The Queen of Hearts, by Kimmery Martin. I saw this recommended somewhere and was intrigued by its floral cover. It was readable and entertaining.

Books #57, 58, and 59 were all re-readings of the Narnia books, Prince Caspian, The Magician's Nephew, and The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis. As always, I enjoyed them all, and no doubt will return to them again.

Book #60 was by a Ugandan author, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. The book was Kintu, the story of an ancient curse on a Ganda patriarch and how it plays out in the lives of his descendants throughout the centuries. I particularly enjoyed the ending, when a family reunion brings many of the characters together. 

Book #61 was a reread, Turn My Mourning Into Dancing, by Henri Nouwen. I've read this book several times since I first bought it in 2019. Here's a post I wrote about it earlier this year.

 

Book #62 was The Illegal Gardener, by Sara Alexi. This had been on my Kindle for a while, I guess bought when it was on a deep discount, but I hadn't read it yet. I understand it's the first in a long series. I found it a little difficult to believe in spots, but I did like the way it ended (I was afraid it was going in another direction).

 

Book #63 was Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free, by Tullian Tchividjian.  I've read a lot on this topic and I felt this was a worthy addition to the library of books written to try to explain why God allows suffering in the world.

Book #64 was China Court, by Rumer Godden. The title refers to a house, and as the book begins, someone has just died in the house. The story of the house, all in the present tense as though all the generations of occupants exist in the current moment, is readable and compelling. I think Godden is an amazing stylist, and I've never read anyone who writes quite like she does. I read this book once before, a long time ago.

Book #65 was Dawnlands, by Philippa Gregory, the third in her Fairmile series. The series is billed as stories of ordinary women in history, but this one does introduce some royal characters. I liked the Caribbean setting of parts of the story. I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment of this series. 

 

Book #66 was All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. I read this back in 2015, but I was astonished by how little of it I remembered, as I read it again. This book is so vividly written that I can't believe I retained it so poorly. However, I was glad to get to read it as though for the first time as I discussed it with my book group. Now we're all looking forward to watching the series on Netflix.

Reading Update

Book #46 of 2015 was All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Book #47 was Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
Book #48 was Listen, Slowly, by Thanhha Lai
Book #49 was As Soon as I Fell: A Memoir, by Kay Bruner
Book #50 was Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, by Kathleen Norris
Book #51 was Feeling Sorry for Celia, by Jaclyn Moriarty
Book #52 was The Taming of the Queen, by Philippa Gregory
Book #53 was The Ghosts of Ashbury High, by Jaclyn Moriarty
Book #54 was Euphoria, by Lily King
Book #55 was Untwine, by Edwidge Danticat
Book #56 was In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers who Tried to Build a Perfect Language, by Arika Okrent
Book #57 was Orbiting Jupiter, by Gary D. Schmidt
Book #58 was Holy the Firm, by Annie Dillard
Book #59 was The Longing for Home: Reflections at Midlife, by Frederick Buechner
Book #60 was The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Book #61 was Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
Book #62 was Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

Books I Read This Year

I only read 40 books this year. That's not even one a week. I hope to make it to at least 52 next year. The links in the list below are to my reviews. (I messed up the numbering in my posts; I think the list below is accurate.)

1. Crazy Love, by Francis Chan
2. Night Over Water, by Ken Follett
3. The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway
4. Fire, by Kristin Cashore
5. Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way, by Shauna Niequist
6. The Dreamer, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
7. Confusion, by Elizabeth Jane Howard
8. Casting Off, by Elizabeth Jane Howard
9. Someone Like You, by Sarah Dessen
10. Walking, by Henry David Thoreau
11. Fire From Heaven, by Mary Renault
12. The Persian Boy, by Mary Renault
13. Funeral Games, by Mary Renault
14. My daughter's 2010 NaNoWriMo novel
15. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
16. Scat, by Carl Hiaasen
17. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
18. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
19. Flies on the Butter, by Denise Hildreth
20. Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernières
21. Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer
22. The Red Queen, by Philippa Gregory
23. The Last Time They Met, by Anita Shreve
24. Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School, by Randy Bomer
25. Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt
26. Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai
27. Red Kayak, by Priscilla Cummings
28. Truth and Consequences, by Alison Lurie
29. Leo and the Lesser Lion, by Sandra Forrester
30. Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, by Lizzie Skurnick
31. The Glorious Ones, by Francine Prose
32. Private Practices, by Stephen White
33. A Theory of Relativity, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
34. The True History of Paradise, by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
35. Mothers and Other Liars, by Amy Bourret
36. Surviving the Applewhites, by Stephanie S. Tolan
37. The Nine Rights of Every Writer, by Vicki Spandel
38. Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, by Edwidge Danticat
39. Love, by Marie Vieux-Chauvet
40. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, by Rob Bell

As always, it was fun for me to go through this list and remember what was going on at the time when I read each of these books, as well as how each of the books affected me. But really, this was a bit of a lackluster reading year. Here's to more literary delight in 2012!

Summer Reading

I didn't read as much this summer as I usually do, but I did finish some books. Here they are:

Book #24 was Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer. My brother-in-law loaned me this book with high recommendations. I found it difficult to plow through, not because it isn't well-written and well-researched, but because of the violence and the abuse that it explores. It's a story of people who kill because they believe God wants them to, of the juxtaposition between violence and fundamentalism. I haven't read anything else by Jon Krakauer except his expose of Greg Mortenson's stretching of the truth in Three Cups of Tea, but I would like to read more of his work.

Book #25 was The Red Queen, by Philippa Gregory, a sequel to The White Queen, which I read back in May. I'm not very familiar with this period of British history, the Wars of the Roses, and so many of the people have the same names, so sometimes it's hard going to keep track of the complications. But I'll definitely read the next one in the trilogy.

Book #26 was an Anita Shreve title, The Last Time They Met. The characters kept me reading, and there was a huge surprise on the very last page that I totally did not see coming and that made me want to start again and reread the whole book.

Book #27 was professional reading, Time for Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School, by Randy Bomer. The book had great things to say about using notebooks with writing students, but I think the very best section was on teaching as craft. That chapter merits a post of its own, and I'll write one when I have the book in front of me. (I can't find it at the moment; I'm thinking it might have been one of the books that we mailed from Florida at the last minute when it became obvious that our luggage was not going to contain all the book bounty we had acquired during the summer.)

Book #28 was Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt. This is a sequel to The Wednesday Wars, about which I raved here. It's the story of Doug Swieteck, a character from the first book, who has now moved with his troubled family. I didn't like it as much as The Wednesday Wars but it was definitely worth reading. I love the way Schmidt uses names in his books, and this one is no exception; the character we knew only as "Doug Swieteck's brother," a complete troublemaker so over the top as to be a joke, here becomes someone we can have compassion for, and whose name we learn. I think Gary Schmidt is a great writer and I am hoping he will get the Newbery one of these days.

This post is linked to the August 13th Saturday Review of Books.

Reading Update

Book #1 of the year was The Kingmaker's Daughter, by Philippa Gregory.  I don't get into these Wars of the Roses books as much as I do the Tudor ones, mostly because I am far more familiar with the Tudor history.  But this was worth reading.

Book #2 was a book I've been wanting to read ever since I saw that it had come out: Amy Wilentz's Farewell, Fred Voodoo.  I enjoy Wilentz's writing about Haiti; she loves this country, and her writing style is colorful and evocative, full of telling details.  Her most famous book is The Rainy Season, which came out in 1990.  I read it before I came to Haiti for the first time.  She has written countless articles on this country.  Her blog is always worth reading.  In this book she is less confident; she seems to be floundering, trying, like all of us, to come up with ways to live with the fact of the earthquake and its aftermath.  She questions everyone's motives (her own too, in powerful passages), and sometimes this got to be too much for me.  I found myself alternately sad, angry, and defensive.  She spends a lot of time trying to figure out what draws outsiders to Haiti and what holds them here.  I think all of us foreigners who live here do the same.  I can't argue with lots of her conclusions, but I couldn't stomach her suggestion that aid workers were gleeful to find out about cholera, because they could stay longer in their fancy Port-au-Prince digs: "it sounded breathless, almost eager: beyond the sadness of 'tragedy upon tragedy' is the possibility of more funding for aid organizations, more jobs, longer stays in this fascinating, troubled place - in nice new apartments, driving those big, air-conditioned Land Rovers.  It's not as if humanitarian workers are in the business for the big cars and nice apartments, but the sweet stuff comes with the territory, and the crisis caravan is used to it."  She seems obsessed with Sean Penn, and keeps coming back to him and what he's actually doing in Haiti.  She admits (rather grudgingly) that he has achieved a lot.  It's typical for journalists to be critical of those they write about, but I kept wondering, as she almost mockingly described one effort after another: what are they supposed to do, then?  (She doesn't know, she admits in a couple of places.  And honestly, nobody does.)  She says that people who complain about the corruption of the Haitian government are at least partly motivated by racism, but then in the next breath, gives examples of the corruption.  She is absolutely right that change has to come from within, not imposed by outsiders.  I found this book pretty painful to read, but probably much of that was the state I am in rather than anything wrong with the book itself.  The fourth anniversary of the quake rolled around last week, and I am less capable than ever of summing it all up, figuring it all out.  Wilentz feels the same, to a certain degree, and I think the best writing in this book is in the sections where she admits just how overwhelming it all is. 

Reading Update

I'm way behind on reviewing the books I'm reading, though there have been a couple recent ones that I'm intending to write more about at some point. Here's an update:

Book #17: The Kingdom by the Sea, by Robert Westall
Book #18: Interred with their Bones, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Book #19: The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory
Book #20: The Zombie Curse: A Doctor's 25-Year Journey into the Heart of the AIDS Epidemic in Haiti, by Arthur M. Fournier, with Daniel Herlihy

Fortunately, others have been reviewing the books they've been reading, and you can see some of those at today's Saturday Review of Books.

Quote

"I took them to the empty fireplace and crumpled up the wrapping paper, ready to burn them, my hands shaking in my haste. I rubbed at the tinderbox for long minutes before it caught, my fear rising at every moment. Then the flint sparked, and lit the tinder, and I could light a candle and take the flame to the paper in the grate. I held it under the corner of the wrapping paper and watched the flame lick it until it was blazing bright yellow.

I took up the books, planning to tear out a handful of pages at a time and burn each one. The first book, the one written in Latin, fluttered open in my hand. I took a fat handful of soft paper pages. They yielded to my fingers as if they had no power, as if they were not the most dangerous thing in the world. I tried to tear them from the fragile spine, but then I hesitated.

I could not do it. I would not do it. I sat back on my heels with the book in my hand with the light of the fire flickering and dying down and realized that not even when I was in mortal danger could I bring myself to burn a book.

It went against the grain of me. I had seen my father carry some of these books across Christendom, strapped to his heart, knowing that the secrets they contained were newly named as heretical. I had seen him buy books and sell books and, more than that, lend and borrow them just for the joy of seeing their learning go onward, spread outward. I had seen his delight in finding a missing volume, I had seen him welcome a lost folio back to his shelves as if it were the son he had never had. Books were my brothers and sisters; I could not turn against them now. I could not become one of those that see something they cannot understand, and destroy it."

from The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory

Reading Update

Book #35 was Handle with Care and #36 was Plain Truth, both by Jodi Picoult.  These aren't great literature, but they are absorbing stories with courtroom dramas at the heart of them.

Book #37 was Flora, by Gail Godwin, a story set at the end of World War Two and involving regret and remorse.

Book #38 was The King's Curse, by Philippa Gregory.  This is the unremittingly awful story of Margaret Pole, who lived in the time of Henry VIII and managed, like so many others, to fall afoul of him.  Pole was from the Plantagenet family, rivals to the Tudors.  She spent years as the governess of Henry's daughter Mary (later called Bloody Mary). 

After these four rather dark books, I really need to find something more cheerful to read!

Poetry Friday: A Poetry Swap, and Pushing Statues into the Water

I recently received several beautiful poems from Kat Apel as part of the Summer Poetry Swap (organized by Tabatha Yeatts - thanks, Tabatha!). Here they are:

The Lord himself goes before you and with you;

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged.

He will never leave you nor forsake you;

He numbers the hairs on your head

and preserves your every tear.

Do not be afraid,

for the Lord your God will be with you;

Sleep in sweet peace.

Do not be discouraged,

but let God's unfailing love

comfort you.

That poem is a trimeric, which I confess I had to look up. Here's a nice clear definition of how it works.  Its words couldn't be more appropriate for this time of my life. Thanks so much, Kat!

I love that Kat knows I am a bird-lover.  The two other poems she sent are both bird-related.

Carolling Australian Magpies

Cracticus tibicen / Family Artamidae

Dawn-breakers

worm-takers

tune-makers

morn-wakers.

Striking

black and white

minstrels;

warbling magpies

sip,

      tip,

           drip;

gargle sweet notes

into a new 

                dawn chorus.

Abound in hope,

believing there is

life brighter than the

noonday. Wait with patience for the thing

you cannot see. Face suffering with

rejoicing - shelter under the feathers

of His wings. Like the mustard seed that

matures for birds to find perches 

in its branches, grow in

faith as you put your hope in the

Lord. Seek him with all your heart and soul.

This is a golden shovel poem, and I bolded the last word of each line so you can see the quote Kat used; it's Emily Dickinson's line: "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul." Perfect!

Thank you, Kat, for all three of these wonderful poems!

This week I read a poem written by the City Poet of Bristol, England, Vanessa Kisuule, on the occasion of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston getting pushed into the harbor in Bristol by Black Lives Matter protestors. It begins:

You came down easy in the end
The righteous wrench of two ropes in a grand plié.

Read the rest, right up until the devastating last line, here. Better yet, listen to her read it herself - wow, it packs a punch! (Edited in 2021 to add this link, where you can still find the poem.)

Here are videos of the statue going into the water and then being retrieved - I read that it's going to end up in a museum. (Look at how easily it is handled - especially notable after reading/listening to the poem! It is not heavy at all.)

In the city where I live, a statue was pushed into the ocean in 1986. That was before I moved to Haiti, so I looked up a newspaper article about it (unfortunately, that was pre-YouTube) here. The Chicago Tribune found the choice of Columbus' statue as a target of protestors' ire to be "whimsical." I don't know if some of the places they destroyed were chosen whimsically, but I'm pretty sure Columbus wasn't, because even back then, he was definitely associated with bad things in people's minds here. For the first couple of years we lived in Haiti, we still had a holiday for Discovery Day, December 5th, when Columbus got to Hispaniola (he's the one that named the island that, Little Spain). Then one year (I can't remember exactly when), we had school that day. My husband asked a Haitian friend why the change, and his dry response was, "Can you say genocide?" I found this photo of the statue in situ (notice the title the website has given it), and this one of where it lives now (bonus at that link: a Twitter thread suggesting what is to be done with these statues that are being taken down all over the place). I read a provocative essay on Facebook by author Philippa Gregory last week with her own suggestion: statue gardens where these disgraced statues lie flat on their backs.

It all went so wrong,
Christophe Colombe!
Your boat sank here, off the shore of Haiti,
and then almost 500 years later, you did, too.
Now you live in the Bureau of Ethnology
Where you have taken a knee.

Ruth, from thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com

P.S. Happy Juneteenth!

Tricia, at The Miss Rumphius Effect, is hosting today's roundup.