Every Day I Read

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books 

by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (really 3.5)

From the subtitle I was expecting this to be a "tips-and-tricks" book with ideas for enriching your reading life. Had I read the blurb I would have known better. It is actually a collection of very short essays each of which considers a specific aspect of the author's reading life. She talks about the joys and challenges in her reading life and in most essays discusses specific books that she has read that connect for her to the topic being addressed. 

The author is a young Korean woman and a voracious reader. I was charmed and fascinated by this intimate glimpse into her daily life and her views on the books she has read. I was also challenged to consider my own views on the various topics she covers. Reading multiple books at a time; reading "difficult" books; not finishing a book you started; and visiting the library were some of my favorite of her topics.

She is a collector of quotes--I was also when I was young but have fallen out of the habit. Her expanation of what she gets out of the collecting habit has inspired me to go back to it myself. I was also inspired to add quite a few titles to my TBR list.

Here are some of the quotes that spoke to me:

• "...reading isn't about remembrance but the change that can come from reading a book." (p. 23)
• "And when I see a particularly insightful quote, I sigh in relief. If I hadn't come across this nugget of wisdom, life might have turned out to be completely different." (p. 78)
• "I imagine a line of writers holding hands across time and space, If we can understand how the books are connected, we can read with greater depth." (p. 113)
• "When reading difficult books, have trust in the process and keep going. You'll come to realize no book is too difficult." (p. 197)

This book wasn't what I expected it to be, but it was a fascinating look into the mind and life of a woman living in Korea and finding meaning and guidance in her reading.

The Barn at the End of the World.

The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd 

by Mary Rose O'Reilley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came across this book when I was working on a readers' advisory project at work several years ago and added it to my list of books I wanted to read to expand my familiarity with various kinds of books. 

This book felt very similar to a number of other books I have read in recent years and really liked: All Fishermen are Liars, Uncommon Carriers, the novel Search, and pretty much all the essays of Anne Lamott. 

Mary Rose O'Reilley was raised as a Catholic, started down the path of becoming a nun, and by the time she is writing this memoir she is in her 50s and is a Quaker practicing Buddhism and learning how to farm sheep. She is a complex woman. She is also very down-to-earth and imperfect which made her story something I could identify with and was happy to follow along with her as she tried to figure stuff out about how best to live her life. The book was full of thoughts and observations that I want to remember. These jumped out in particular:

"One of the dicey things about teaching English or lamb haltering is that, in order to focus a student's attention, you have to hammer away at a few central principles which, to the conscientious learner, begin to have the force of law. But they are merely transitional truths, and when you see them start to harden in the learner's mind, you have to gently nudge him or her out of security and inculcate what is always the final lesson: there are, in fact, many ways to reach a goal--several of which are logically opposed to each other. Much of what we call 'knowledge' is merely a temporary frame around chaos." [p. 279] 

"We all see the world so clearly and crisply through our own glasses that it's a difficult imaginative leap to believe another person sees a different scene, logically incompatible with yours." [p.104]

O'Reilly also quotes numerous other people in the course of her explorations:

"'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it,' Flannery O'Connor said, speaking of the Eucharist, but perhaps she was joking."

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about." -- the Sufi mystic Jelalludin Rumi

And this, which made me think about my father's approach to childrearing:

"As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift, but generosity and indifference to money; not caution but courage and contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know." -- Natalia Ginsberg, in her essay "The Little Virtues"

I now know WAY more than I ever wanted to about sheep, but I am very glad I read this book.

Three Men in a Boat To Say Nothing of the Dog

Three Men in a Boat 

by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book very funny. It is the thoughts of one man, J. who embarks on a boat trip on the Thames with two friends and a dog named Montmorency. The events of their journey are described and various other stories are told (like the signing of the Magna Carta) when something on the trip reminds J. of them. There is also life advice sprinkled throughout the story.

"Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need--a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing." 

This novel was first published in 1899, the same year as Dom Casmurro and 2 years after Dracula. It felt more modern than that--the tone was very similar to P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) or John Mortimer (1923-2009).  It had summary notes at the head of each chapter--in the style of Henry Fielding--which I find entertaining. 

This book is from my Classics Club list and was my spin title. 

Georgia

Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe 

by Dawn Tripp
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dawn Tripp was at the NH Book Festival (which was awesome) talking about her new book on Jackie Kennedy. That one sounded really good, but this one was on the shelf at the public library so I decided to read it first. I am so glad I did because it was fabulous! I have had Laurie Lisle's biography of O'Keeffe on my owned-but-not-read shelf for years (maybe decades) and will definitely need to dig it out. 

When I saw her speak Tripp talked about how important it is to her to stick to the historic record in writing her fiction which made this novel even more interesting to me. 

Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz are the center of this story which begins when they met and takes us beyond his death. Along the way we discover how the artists felt about their own work, each other's work, and each other. I couldn't put this book down and I learned a lot. I am anxious to go back and revisit O'Keeffe's paintings now that I know more about why she painted what she did.

This is a novel full of great lines too. I'm not sure if they are Tripp's or O'Keeffe's, but either way they are memorable.

"A life is built of lies and magic, illusions bedded down with dreams. And in the end what haunts us most is the recollection of what we failed to see." (p. 15)

"There are those moments, always, looking back on a life when you can see the points--fully lit in hindsight, real or imagined--where the path split, where you could have made a different choice and the cost of the choice you made." (p. 173)

I am counting this book toward the Historical Fiction Reading challenge.

I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening)

I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations 

by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book to be thought provoking and filled with useful questions to consider about how my actions and beliefs affect the conversations I have about politics. 

One of the things the authors talk about here is the importance of bringing your whole self--beliefs, experiences, values--to your political conversations and allowing others to do the same. We are not talking to "political positions" but to actual complex people. I was struck by the fact that my experience of reading this book was an opportunity to exercise this skill. The authors are both Christian women whose faith is a big part of who they are. This is very much a part of the way they view the world and how they approach conversations. At first I was a bit put off by all the faith-based parts of the book, but as I read I came to see that they brought value and nuance to the points being made. I had been reassured that these were women I wanted to hear from early on (page 18 to be exact) when the phrase "Because you cannot have too much Abigail Adams..." was used.

Another part that really resonated for me was the chapter 'Find Your Why' where Simon Sinek is quoted:

"For values or guiding principles to be truly effective they have to be verbs. It's not 'integrity,' it's 'always do the right thing.' It's not 'innovation,' it's 'look at the problem from a different angle.' Articulating our values as verbs gives us a clear idea--we have a clear idea of how to act in any situation."

The divisiveness that has infected our country is a huge problem that cannot be solved with a single book. I recommend this book, however, as an excellent way to consider how you are personally contributing to the divisions or helping to bridge them.

January 2024 Book Report

January 2024, Manchester, NH

I finished 11 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

"I still live by the Southern Lady code: If you don't have something nice to say, say something not so nice in a nice way. For example: 'Your Instagram is beautifully curated' is Southern Lady Code for 'Your real life must be a hotter mess than spaghetti and meatballs in a clothes dryer.' But I would never write such a message in your comments. My thoughts on your business are not the world's business." --Helen Ellis, Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 2 were from my owned-but-not-read shelf  (currently at 137 books)
• 0 counted toward the 17th Canadian Reading Challenge 
• 1 counted toward the 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• 1 counted toward the 2024 What's in a Name Challenge
• 0 were from my Readers' Advisory Reading List 
• 3 were from my #NonFicNov TBR 
• 1 was from my Classics Club List 

 Here are the books I finished in January 2024: 

1. An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear (4-stars)
2. Death in Print by G. M. Malliet  (4-stars)
3. Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy (3-stars)
4. Congratulations, The Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas (audiobook, 4-stars)
5. Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge by Helen Ellis (4-stars)
6. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld (3-stars)
7. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (4-stars)
8. No Good Tea Goes Unpunished by Bree Baker (audiobook, 3-stars)
9. Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier (4-stars)
10. The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel (3-stars)
11. Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant (5-stars)

A good start to my reading year -- a nice mix of books and several 4-star reads!

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone 

edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been on a bit of an essay binge lately and this title (which was added to my TBR as part of NonFicNov) fit right in. There wasn't a dud in this collection of essays by various writers on the theme of dining/cooking alone. 

My favorites were:

•  'Wild Chili' by Dan Chaon which begins in his childhood home in Nebraska where his Mom makes a chili much like the one my Mom made in my childhood home in Nebraska. I have also made my Mom's chili my own over the years, but in a very different direction than Chaon went.
• The short story 'The Year of Spaghetti' by Haruki Murakami. He is one of my favorite writers and this short piece was very typical of his work.
• 'The Legend of the Salsa Rosa' by Ben Karlin which was a multi-part story, complete with footnotes, and was very funny. Also, the recipe sounds delicious. 
• 'Potatoes and Love: Some Reflections' by Nora Ephron. It was full of lines I want to remember--possibly all of them. I will share just one quote:

"Nothing like mashed potatoes when you're feeling blue. ... The problem with mashed potatoes, though, is that they require almost as much hard work as crisp potatoes, and when you're feeling blue the last thing you feel like is hard work. Of course, you can always get someone to make the mashed potatoes for you, but let's face it: the reason you're blue is that there isn't anyone to make them for you. As a result, most people do not have nearly enough mashed potatoes in their lives, and when they do, it's almost always at the wrong time." -- N. Ephron, 'Potatoes and Love'

The River We Remember

The River We Remember 

by William Kent Krueger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a wonderful book. It is a mystery, it begins with the discovery of a dead body and centers on the Sheriff who investigates the death, but that is really just the framework upon which Krueger hangs his tale of memories, guilt, resilience, and home. The setting is Jewel, Minnesota--a farming community on the banks of the Alabaster River--in 1958.

"On quiet nights when the moon is full or nearly so and the surface of the Alabaster is mirror-still and glows pure white in the dark bottomland, to stand on a hillside and look down at this river is to fall in love." 

What really set this novel apart for me what the characters. The point-of-view is a third person omniscient narrator and we see the events through the eyes (and thoughts) of numerous people. All of them are complex, well-drawn characters and Krueger takes us deep into their lives with small telling details. 

This book reminded me of Gilead and Virgil Wander, not because the stories are at all similar, but because the tone is. I will definitely seek out more novels by this Minnesota author. 

Joan

Joan 

by Katherine J. Chen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"This must be what happens when you leave your home, travel, and see the world. Little by little, you begin to change, even if you are not aware of it. What was once alien becomes familiar: foreign tongues, the music of strange instruments, the vagaries of the sea. Slowly you alter until the very stars that spin in the heavens are as familiar to you as the lines of your own hand. But first you must step out your front door. You must be willing to love every inch of yourself, for the next time you look into a stream or a mirror, which may be weeks, years, or half a lifetime from now, you will not recognize your reflection." (p. 79)

This was a fabulous book. It tells the tale of the Hundred Years' War from the point of view of Joan D'Arc, beginning when she is just a little girl. How does a girl from a poor village in France become a heroic sainted warrior? In the hands of Katherine Chen it is a meandering path in which each separate step makes sense and where these steps cumulate into an incredible adventure. 

I am counting this book toward the Historical Fiction Challenge.

Islam: A Short History

Islam: A Short History

by Karen Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Religion, like any other human activity, is often abused, but at its best it helps human beings to cultivate a sense of the sacred inviolability of each individual, and thus to mitigate the murderous violence to which our species is tragically prone. Religion has committed atrocities in the past, but in its brief history secularism has proved that it can be just as violent. As we have seen, secular agression and persecution have often led to a heightening of religious intolerence and hatred." (p. 180)

The history of Islam, which is very tightly linked with the political history of numerous tribes and countries, is very complicated. Armstrong does an excellent job of sorting everything out into a clear narrative. The book also includes an extensive bibliography, a list of key people in Islamic history, and both definitions and pronunciation guides for Arabic words. 

This book was on my classics club list and my TBR pile challenge list.

Pardonable Lies

Pardonable Lies 

by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in the 19-teens this series provides a window into the lives of the people who served their countries in the Great War. This particular volume takes place in England and France and pulls Maisie into her own past as she investigates what happened to two different soldiers. The characters in this series are well drawn and the investigations are complex, but not outrageous. 

"Her mother pressed two fingers against the center of Maisie's forehead. 'Your gran was right; she saw that crinkle the day you were born and she told me, 'she'll be a worrier, that one.'"

This is one of the mystery series I wanted to make progress on this year. It also counts toward both the Historical Fiction challenge and the TBR pile challenge. 

The Virginian

The Virginian 

by Owen Wister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Published in 1902 this story is set in Wyoming between1874 and 1890. It was the novel that inspired the westerns of Zane Grey and of Hollywood. It is told in both the first and the third person (so skillfully that you don't even notice the switches as you read) largely by a narrator who is never named. It is a romance, it is a character study, it is a social commentary, it is an adventure, and a bit of a mystery story all rolled into one.

“Has any botanist set down what the seed of love is? Has it anywhere been set down in how many ways this seed may be sown? In what various vessels of gossamer it can float across wide spaces? Or upon what different soils it can fall, and live unknown, and bide its time for blooming?”

This book counts toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, the TBR pile challenge, and it fills in a hole in my Century of Books project.

Out of Africa

Out of Africa 

by Isak Dinesen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a memoir of Dinesen's time living on her coffee farm in Kenya between 1914 and 1931. It struck me as being a very outward-focused memoir as it is much more about the people and events around her than it is about her inner life. I enjoyed the book very much. The writing was lyrical, but not over the top. 

“Between the river in the mellow English landscape and the African mountain ridge, ran the path of this life. ... The bowstring was released on the bridge at Eton, the arrow described its orbit, and hit the obelisk in the Ngong Hills.”

I loved meeting all the different people on the farm. These character sketches, which were integrated into the stories,  were thoughtfully drawn and the landscape was brought to life beautifully. I also appreciated the many philosophical observations.

“Perhaps he knew, as I did not, that the Earth was made round so that we would not see too far down the road.”

This book is on my Classics Club list and I am counting it as a "Nonfiction Classic" for the Back to the Classics Challenge. 

Biography: Fiction, Fact & Form

Biography: Fiction, Fact & Form 

by Ira B. Nadel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This volume is essentially a collection of six essays on various aspects of biography as a literary form. I found it thought-provoking and in sections very interesting. The tone of the writing is very academic which made it rather slow going. One of the essays looks at the various approaches biographers have taken in writing lives of George Eliot which was a good way to really see the choices that are being made by the authors of biography.

"Nonetheless, when a biographer recognizes that the life he writes is in itself and aesthetic construct involving fictions, imagery, style and narration, parallel to the inner life of his subject, itself a fiction, the result may be a biography that is at the same time literary and truthful. It will also reflect the ambiguous, self-contradictory, illogical individual that is its subject." (p. 118)

When he wrote this book Ira B. Nadel was a professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.  He is the author of multiple biographies in addition to this study of the form. I am counting this book toward the Canadian Reading Challenge.

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude 

by Ross Gay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This collection of poetry was darker and more complex than the title had led me to expect. These verses find the beautiful in the darkness of life in a way that is both beautiful and real. The poet is talking to the reader from within the poems in a way that I had not come across before (though I don't read enough poetry to know if it is actually unique).

I swore when I got into this poem I would convert
this sorrow into some kind of honey with the little musics

I can sometimes make with these scribbled artifacts
of our desolation. I can't even make a metaphor

of my reflection upside down and barely visible
in the spoon. I wish one single thing made sense.

To which I say: Oh get over yourself.
That's not the point.

     --from "spoon"

My favorites in this collection were "burial" and "ode to the puritan in me". Gay has published two previous collections of verse which I look forward to reading.

August Book Report

August 2022, Hampton Beach, NH

I finished 8 books last month.

A quote from this month's reading:

“We both know you can’t tell your own story without exposing someone else’s.”
― Nina de Gramont, The Christie Affair

Here is my progress toward various goals and challenges:

• 1 was non-fiction (toward my goal of 25 non-fiction books this year) and it will  count toward the NonFiction Reader Challenge once I blog about it
• none were books I own but hadn't read before (inspired by The Unread Shelf project)
• none was poetry (toward my goal of reading 4 poetry books this year)
• 1 counted toward the the 16th Canadian Reading Challenge which began 7/1/2022. 
• none were from my Classics Club List but 1 counted toward Back to the Classics

• 3 counted toward the Cruisin' Through the Cozies challenge 
• 2 counted toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 
• 1 counted toward the Turtle Recall Challenge
• 0 counted toward the TBR Pile Challenge
• 0 was a book for my Century of Books project
• 6 were from my 20 Books of Summer list 

 Here are the books I finished in August 2022: 

1. Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett (3-stars)
2. Small Ceremonies by Carol Shields  (4-stars)
3. The Lazy Genius Kitchen by Kendra Adachi (4-stars)
4. The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (5-stars)
5. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (3-stars)
6. Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs (3-stars)
7. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (5-stars)
8. Bran New Death by Victoria Hamilton (3-stars)

I completed my 20 Books of Summer reading list this month, though it ended up being quite different from the list I started with as 6 of the original books got crossed off in favor of other titles.

Burning Questions

Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021 

by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This volume is a collection of essays, speeches, and book introductions written by Atwood in the beginning of the 21st century. Quite a few of the pieces are about nature, politics, and environmental issues; in Atwood's capable hands these are clear statements of her positions, but they don't feel like diatribes. I most enjoyed the pieces where she is talking about how other of her own works came into being. One of these is "The Writing of the Testaments" which was a fascinating glimpse into her mind regarding this sequel to The Handmaids' Tale. 

"As Thomas King has remarked, history isn't what happened--it's the stories we tell about what happened. How we interpret and present what happened. And that interpretation and presentation is always taking place in the now of the speaker or interpreter because where else can it take place? Therefore the past as we know it is always changing. Some parts of it are buried, but then dug up again. Some are spun positively, and then spun negatively. Statues are erected to admired or important figures, then they are pulled down."

This book is one of my 20 Books of Summer, and it also counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge.

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven 

by Nathaniel Ian Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The captivating story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything." --jacket copy

This fictional memoir takes place between 1916 and 1946, mostly on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. On my own I would not have picked up this book, but I had to read it for a project at work and I am extremely glad I did because it was a beautiful book. The writing is elegant and the frozen world of the Arctic is stunningly described. This is a story filled with the details of wilderness adventures (polar bears, mining accidents, murder, and a lot of animal carcasses come into it). Despite that, it is a quiet book with a lot of philosophy mixed in and a wonderful cast of characters.  

"Fate is empty. Any Arctic explorer or common sailor can tell you this. So you must make the best choices you can, knowing they may lead you astray, but proceeding boldly lest your life become one long monotonous drift between death and your last interesting choice." (p. 170)

This book counts toward the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. 

Quotes - Advice on Life

The Top Ten Tuesday this week is Book Quote Freebie (Share your favorite book quotes that fit a theme of your choosing!) I have selected some of my favorite quotes offering advice about how to live (in no particular order).

1. "If they give you lined paper, write the other way." --William Carlos Williams
   
   
2. "Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." --Bernard Baruch
   
   
3. “Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it.”― Jennifer Weiner
   
   
4. “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.” ― Willa Cather, O Pioneers!
   
   
5. “The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
   
   
6. There are no rules you can follow. You have to go by instinct and you have to be brave.” ― Whitney Otto, How to Make an American Quilt
   
   
7. “Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink.” ― Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels
   
   
8. “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” ― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
   
   
9. “The quality of any advice anybody has to offer has to be judged against the quality of life they actually lead.” ― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
   
   
10. “Some people's blameless lives are to blame for a good deal.” ― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

Sea of Tranquility

Sea of Tranquility 

by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“I’ve been thinking a great deal about time and motion lately, about being a still point in the ceaseless rush.”

I hesitated to start this novel because I thought it might be too science-fictiony for me. I should not have doubted Mandel. Once again she has crafted a thoughtful story full of interesting people struggling to figure out their interconnected worlds. There are characters in this book that we met in The Glass Hotel . I love it when authors do that. This is a story about (among other things) global pandemic and I felt like it was handled very well in the context of the larger story.

I thought this was such a true observation:

"My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”

This book counts toward the Canadian Reading Challenge because the author is from Canada and parts of the book are set in Canada.