Category Archives: reading

Emails I Always Open

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Email IconMy inbox has gotten quite cluttered with messages from various organizations and companies who seem to take the more is better approach. So, in the interest of my own less is better approach for 2020, I have been busy unsubscribing.

I find it annoying, in this digital age, that I have to wait ten days for some of them to process. After all, they were able to sign me up without a waiting period. I understand that they schedule emails ahead, but there should be some process for removing emails globally at the moment the request is made.

There are three emails, however, that I usually open right away:

  1. Austin Kleon’s weekly email covers books, music, poetry, and creativity. Browse the archives and then subscribe. 
  2. Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings newsletter brings her incredible writing to my inbox. Her best of 2019 offers seemingly a lifetime of reading as she weaves her observations around the words and ideas of so many others. And, in the interest of transparency, I am a sustaining supporter.
  3. Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets features contemporary and classic poets.

I would love to hear what others feel is important enough to actually receive as an email?

Update: I went back to cleaning out email and there was Lady Carnarvon’s blog post reminder. She is the current mistress of Highclere Castle, otherwise known as Downton Abbey. It is a fun glimpse into a different world.

Reading Round Up

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I have five books completed for the year so far. Here are my reviews. I am determined to write a review of every book I read this year, posting them to LibraryThing and this blog.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
Philip Pullman

I have been digging into Daemon Voices, a collection of Philip Pullman’s essays on storytelling. In the essay on The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, he suggested that, while he usually doesn’t explain his books, this particular book required some background. Written for a series called Myths, Pullman created his own version of the story of Jesus by imagining that twins were born on that fateful night. He stuck close to the Gospels but took each event and gave it a little twist. And, in the end, he concluded that “the imaginary figure of Christ was of much greater use to the church than the historical person of Jesus.” The religion that grew around the historical personage is, according to Pullman, of human construction.

I feel like this is a book that should be read like the scripture. One chapter at a time with reflection about how Pullman re-interprets that familiar story. It is worth a read and I can also recommend the essays. I had checked the book of essays out from the library but knew I needed to own a copy. His prose is just thick and wonderful and I want to be able to reread at leisure and browse without feeling like I have to finish it at a pre-determined time.

Beekeeper’s Apprentice
Laurie R. King

Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King begins with fifteen-year-old Mary Russell stumbling over her neighbor Sherlock Holmes who has retired to the Sussex Downs to take up beekeeping. From that chance meeting between two similarly brilliant minds, the novel unfolds wonderfully, following the friendship as it becomes a partnership. All the familiar Holmes’ characters from Mrs. Hudson to Watson to Mycroft appear as well. I loved this book in so many ways not least of which was the gorgeous, overflowing prose. For now, it is listed as a stand alone novel on the author’s website but I would love a sequel.

Nightwoods: A Novel
Charles Frazier

It has been a very long time since I read Cold Mountain but remember Frazier’s prose, the way that natural world played its role in his story. And, I remember having a pretty knock down drag out argument over the ending.

I think the ending of Nightwoods is a little more definitive but Frazier isn’t one for making it completely clear. What he does do well is spin a tale full of suspense and fear and past violence coming full force into the presence. He reveals details on his own timeline, just at the moment when they will, he knows, hit you the hardest, wrapped up as you are in the story.

Luce lives as a hermit in the old Lodge on the lake, seemingly contented with the “reimbursements” she receives for her life of solitude. These are mostly a deep connection with and gratitude towards the natural world. But she opens that solitary life to her niece and nephew after her sister dies. The children have been deeply wounded but Luce, with her patience and lack of expectations, works with them gently. Eventually, the world finds them and Frazier’s tale spins fast and sometimes shockingly towards its end.

Among Flowers: A Walk Among the Himalaya
Jamaica Kincaid

I am sorry I didn’t like this book more. I found the prose choppy and as the story moved along, also too inward focused. I wanted more travel and flowers and less Kincaid. Finding that balance in this kind of book (and recipe blog posts on the Internet) is a challenge, I think. The opening chapter, as she prepares for this journey, includes observations about leaving Vermont and how she knew that world would never be the same. She drew me in with these moments of clarity.

But the journey ends before she comes home and only in the last paragraph or so do we get any larger lessons. Ultimately, while her view of Vermont may have changed, she didn’t seem to record any real change in herself. She admitted to whining and swings from appreciation of the sherpas to annoyance when they don’t seem to be meeting her every need. (At some point, I think she does recognize that they are basically keeping her group alive on this adventure.) There is honesty in the account: she could have left out her annoyance and whining, I suppose.

I am toying with a rating scale as I have benchmarks for five-star books having read at least two so far this year. I think, for me, this was a 3.5. As a gardener, the idea of seed gathering in the Himalaya was of interest and her observations about making gardens resonated with me but the author herself got in the way.

One Good Deed
David Baldacci

It is 1949, and Aloysius Archer has just been released after a wrongful prison sentence and bussed to Poca City where he is determined to get a clean start. Despite those plans, he quickly gets pulled into a murder mystery. Baldacci’s novel has all the elements of a classic crime novel, with gritty realism and snappy dialog. Archer is a compelling character who discovers his army scout training can come in handy when you are the prime suspect in a murder. I am hoping it might be the beginning of a series but for now, it is listed as a stand alone novel on Baldacci’s website.

 

Filling Out My Bingo Card

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I spent an enjoyable afternoon considering my reading for 2020 through the lens of the Bingo card challenge at LibraryThing. This challenge is a collection of 25 reading prompts from “a book with a red cover” to “a book by a non US/UK female” and everything in between. I only had one square left on my card last year and found that the challenge had me think about books in different ways.

Participants in the challenge share their reading in a wiki. It’s always interesting to see which books people choose as there is rarely a particular genre attached to the prompt. That book with the red cover could be nonfiction, fiction or poetry.

I try to find a balance each year between planning my reading and finding space for serendipity. Part of the fun of the Bingo card is seeing how books fit even when you didn’t realize it.

Rainy Days Are Meant for Reading

books, reading

Painting of woman readingI have always loved to read, tucked in a chair, sprawled on the bed or the floor, backed up against a tree, floating in the pool. Here at the farm I have the choice of several porches, indoor and outdoor, equipped with rocking chairs and small tables whatever cuppa I have carried along with me.

But, the older I’ve gotten, the less focus I seem to have for longer periods of time, a weakened ability to dive into a book, leaving the world behind. It’s not a surprise: adult life is much more complicated kid life when someone else was doing most of the things that I do now: I helped a bit with laundry and cooking, but I had specific chores rather than wide responsibilities. And then there’s work, of course, that boxes in the number of hours available in general.

Honestly, part of the reason I managed a reading workshop when I taught middle school and fully supported the school’s “drop everything and read” program was that it meant my students AND me sometimes had 50 minutes of reading in a day. Teachers were encouraged to be good role models, and I was happy to oblige.

I am determined to get back to those days of reading for hours on end, immersed in a book, in a story, to the point where the world fades away. I can turn off that grown up voice suggesting that I could be doing much more productive kinds of things than “just” reading. Just, indeed.

And, there is nothing like a rainy day to curl up and read.

I have given myself over to One Good Deed, David Baldacci’s new book, which I hope is going to become a series. It is 1949, and Aloysius Archer has just been released after a wrongful prison sentence and bussed to Poca City where he is determined to get a clean start. Despite those plans, he quickly gets pulled into a murder mystery. Baldacci’s novel has all the elements of a classic crime novel, with gritty realism and snappy dialog. Archer is a compelling character who discovers his army scout training can come in handy when you are the prime suspect in a murder.

I’m also in the midst of two other non-fiction books but for now, you can find me curled up by the fire with Baldacci.

 

Best Books of 2019

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Best Read: One of my last and best reads of the year. Devoured it and now want to read it more leisurely to see how Madeline Miller takes this minor mention from the Odyssey and creates a rich, complex character.

Circe

Authentic Voices: Fierce young writers who are writing about their lives and also showing how social media can be a force for good. I follow them all on Instagram and am excited to be able to follow their careers from the beginning.

On The Come Up
With the Fire On High
Dear Martin
Dumplin’
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Good Reads: Engaging, thoughtful, funny

The Last Witchfinder
The Barrytown Trilogy
Where the Crawdads Sing (read it in one night!)

And for #10, one of those books that finds you when you need it:

When the Heart Waits