An Arrow to the Moon - Emily X.R. Pan (YA). (I actually meant to pick up Pan’s first book, The Astonishing Color of After, which I saw on TIME magazine’s “The 100 Best YA Books of All Time.”)
Funny Farm: My Unexpected Life with 600 Rescue Animals - Laurie Zaleski. Nonfiction. Memoir about growing up in poverty under the guidance of a strong mother who loved animals. Zaleski originally started Funny Farm (located in New Jersey) for her mother. Each chapter ends with a short profile of an animal on Funny Farm - picture included. One of the pleasures of this book has been the love within the family despite the poverty and abuse by the father who can’t leave them alone despite their “escape.” Easy read overall.
All the above are somewhere within an “I like it” range. However, I just finished The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas. Evil haunted house, strong heroine, hot priest (i.e., forbidden love), Mexico shortly after independence from Spain, life on a hacienda under cruel landowners. So, horror, romance, history. Really really liked the book and a solid thumbs up on the audio also.
I thought it might help pull me out of the Pit of Despair I’ve been in as a result of global and domestic events. The reviewer observes that Ms. Quinn writes “like an angel, with poetry and humor and a bone-deep understanding of the way love and grief walk hand in hand through the world together, twinned.” She adds, “It is a book about love and gratitude and making every day an opportunity to love, a chance to decide, again and again, to keep on loving for as long as we draw breath.”
And all of that is true; it’s a good book. But I open the morning paper and I still don’t feel any better.
As for what I am reading. I’m reading the third book in the Expanse series - Abaddon’s Gate. There are ten books, which is daunting, but so far they are just getting better. I’m also reading New Horizons: The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction which was in our library’s new books section. It’s a mixed bag. The worlds worst academic intro, a strange mix of terrible 19th c sci fi (just one thankfully!), poems, things that verge on fantasy, and a few compelling ideas that fizzle out. Most of the stories are very short, so it’s easy to pick up, read one and put it down for something better!
I’m reading “Drunk Tank Pink,” after reading Pardon’s “ “Run Rose Run.” Both books are different from my usual fare but interesting. The former is similar in ways to Freakonomics. The latter has me wondering how much is autobiographical.
I retired in August 2020 and then in 2021 (with Covid continuing on) read 28 books. A Gentleman in Moscow was my favorite… and it would be on my list of all time favorites.
This month I did something different and read The Power of Positive Thinking.. My parents met at Marble Collegiate church in NYC, where the famous 1950s author Norman Vincent Peale (also associated with Guidepost magazine) preached. My father was involved in leadership of the young adult group and knew Dr Peale. So it’s been on my bucket list to read this book someday. It was a bit long and repetitive, but I’m glad I read it. One surprising take away was how many personal challenges from 70 years ago sound familiar today.
I read The Lincoln Highway a few months ago and look forward to discussing with the group! I’m a Towles fan for sure.
Recent reading:
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (finally). One of the best books I’ve read. (There’s an interview with her at the end of my Kindle version, in which she says she didn’t know much about opera before researching for this book. Amazing.)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (who wrote the famous short story “The Lottery.”) Creepy story, great storytelling.
My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song. Interesting but too long, should have been an essay not a book.
Who Is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews. Debut novel, grippy thriller.
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller. A distressing story (had to keep reassuring myself it was fiction) but worth reading.
I’m not reading lately, but saw that Geraldine Brooks has a new book called Horse.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred, Lexington, who became America’s greatest stud sire, Horse is a gripping, multi-layered reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America
I’m still waiting to get some books that I had mentioned in April. The library system often has just one copy of some books and enough people waiting that it will take weeks.
I finished West with Giraffes and Olga Dies Dreaming. Enjoyed the first and was very meh about the second.
I read The lost Man last year and liked it. I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Jane Harper.
I finally got The Lincoln Highway last week after waiting 4 months. I started reading it and it captured me immediately. I love Amor Towles’ writing so anticipate this to be an enjoyable book.
I’m going to take a break this summer and reread some of my favorites unless I find a new fantasy series that to binge read.
Have read the books The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift both by Gavin de Becker.
The Gift of Fear I feel was the best book for survival I have ever read. It is an absolute necessity for life skills. I read it years ago and relayed the info to both of my D’s who were young at the time. Even if it never makes the bookclub list, it is worth the time.
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: an African childhood was written by Alexandra Fuller, not Claire Fuller. I’ve wanted to read it but again so many books …
For fantasy, I really enjoyed A. J. Lancaster’s Stariel series. Sort of Downton Abby if the land were sentient with faeries. My DIL gave me the first book and I was hooked!
