Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter

 When I first encountered Luis Alberto Urrea, I read his novel House of Broken Angels, and was particularly fascinated with how well he wrote from women's points of view. The book was a modern family tale complicated in the way families are. I went on this year to read Goodnight Irene,  the story influenced by his mother's experience as one of the Red Cross "Donut Dollies" during WWII.

I stumbled across The Hummingbird's Daughter and started listening to the audiobook, unaware when the book was written. Only after I finished did I learn that it had been awarded the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Prize in 2006--not a new book after all. But this one is another sprawling tale, this time set in Mexico in the late 19th century. Teresita, the main character, was born to a poor 14-year-old Indian girl and abandoned with her abusive aunt before Huila, the local healer--considered by many a witch--takes her in as her apprentice

Eventually, she comes to the attention of Don Tomás Urrea, the wealthy rancher. The relationships between the different social classes is complicated since Urrea, a philanderer, is the apparent father not only of Teresita but other children as well. The book is reminiscent of the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When she is fatally attacked but returns to life before her burial, the attention draws swarms of pilgrims hoping for healing. 

Urrea worked almost twenty years on the novel, based on historical characters to whom he may share kinship. He explains in the afterword that in some areas Teresita is still revered as Saint of Cabora. The writing is particularly strong, with well-drawn, layered characters and details both powerful, painful, and at times, humorous. 

Before I was halfway through the book, I was thinking of friends to whom I needed to recommend it. That's the ultimate reading experience--one I want to share.

Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter

A Favorite from the End of 2023: Ken Follett's The Armor of Light

 

My first encounter with the writing of Ken Follett was his first sprawling tale Pillars of the Earth, published in 1989, which I read at least twenty years ago. While some books I read just months ago have escaped my memory, this one remains firmly planted. He begins in Kingsbridge, a fictional English village, during the Middle Ages, introducing Jack the Builder, who aspires to build a great cathedral. 

Follett not only brought the actual construction to life, but he created some of the best-drawn memorable characters. His protagonists, even when flawed, are endearing. His villains are despicable, even though he often builds the back story that explains why they act the way they do. The story is steeped in history, presenting the conflict for the British throne, and leads up to the murder of Thomas Becket in Winchester Cathedral.

More than twenty years passed before Follett published World Without End, the next in the series, followed by Column of Fire. In the meantime, he has written thrillers, as well as another series, the Century Trilogy. The Armor of Light is the fourth in the Pillows of the Earth series picking up in the same area in the late 1700s, focusing on the weaving industry and the impact of the Industrial Revolution, as well as the Napoleonic Wars.

Again, I learned a lot about a part of history that was less familiar to me, while meeting a cast of characters I loved and hated. Sal Clitheroe, a spinner, loses her husband through an accident for which his employer Will Riddick is responsible. A survivor, she ends up being forced to leave the village with her son Kit, because of Riddick. Amos Barrowfield is a forward-thinking cloth merchant who champions the cause of his spinners. David Shoveller (known as Spade) is a clothier, whose life is intertwined with the characters as well. Alderman Hornbeam is the major antagonist of the novel, with his brand of justice never allowing for even a glimmer of mercy.

Follett has a knack for developing suspense. Only the most optimistic reader would not anticipate some of the heartbreaking events of the story, but Follett shines a light on some of those who use their intellect to overcome, not only for themselves but others.

Follett's books are always weighty tomes that would serve well as doorstops, but I never grow tired of them whenever I visit this part of world history.

A Favorite from the End of 2023: Ken Follett's The Armor of Light

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

 Whenever I finish a book by Kate Atkinson, I realize I need to read all of them. Shrines of Gaiety was no exception. I was first introduced to Atkinson with Life after Life (published the same year as Jill McCorkle's wonderful novel of the same title). In that book, Atkinson was able to pull off her stunning plot twists--or splits--without coming across as gimmicky at all. The sequel Gods in Ruins, with the brother of the protagonist of Life after Life in focus, was just as cleverly plotted but in a fresh way.

I also found Transcription worth reading. I realize that while some books I read don't take root, hers stick with me, even small details. Her latest, Shrines of Gaiety, is set in post-WWI London. It opens with the release of Nellie Coker from prison on liquor license charges, returning like a celebrity to continue running her businesses--bars and restaurants servingas fronts for her other illegal endeavors. No motherly figure, Coker nonetheless has produced a number of offspring--two sons and four daughters--whom she is putting into position to run her shady empire, to mixed results.

Into her world, Atkinson introduces two runaway girls from York--Freda, an aspiring but mediocre actress, and her best friend  Florence, who comes from a better family but lacks street smarts. Atkinson introduces two other important characters--Gwendolyn Kelling, a nurse during the war now working as a librarian, and Frobisher, the London detective to whom she turns to help find Freda, the half-sister of her friend. 

Some have compared Atkinson's development of the novel's setting as Dickensian. She weaves small historical details through the story in an intriguing way. After King Tut's tomb was disturbed, for example, all things Egyptian are the rage, while much of London fears the curse unleashed in the process. She depicts the debauchery of young revelers, regularly throwing costume parties as an excuse to disguise themselves as Pierrot or as adult-sized babies, the disappearance of disposable young women caught up in Nellie's seedy business, and the levels of corruption of law officers.

What I enjoyed most, though, was Atkinson's ability to write one great sentence after another. She makes me want to underline in my hardcovers or call someone to read aloud. She makes me want to read something else she has written. 

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

My Reading Statistics

 Okay, so the title is a ruse. I was trying to figure the best way to introduce my constant dilemma this summer, since I am taking Quantitative Research Methods, a six-hour statistics course. I have to decide whether to read for pleasure or to read for homework. I've learned to tackle a statistics assignment and then reward myself by reading something fun. The motivation and the payoff work for me.

TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea was a recommendation from a reading friend. The protagonist Linus Baker, an employee of the Department In Charge of Magical Youth, lives an ordinary life--if you can call it that--as a caseworker, inspecting orphanages that provide housing for quite extraordinary children. Then he receives an assignment that takes him to an island by the sea--which he has never seen before. His first glimpse at the children's files is enough to make him faint. While there, he learns to champion others who don't quite fit the norm--from a garden gnome to a phoenix. 

When Linus decides to take the children on a field trip to the mainland, where he knows to expect resistance, I was reminded of Pat Conroy, in The Water Is Wide, taking the children he taught to trick or treat and then to visit D.C. I also recalled the second Harry Potter book when Dumbledore explained to Harry that one doesn't have to carry around the weight of the "sins of the father." Klune's tale also shows that how we become family doesn't always follow the expected path.

                                                                                                                                Having read Euphoria and Writers & Lovers, I knew I would want to read Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King's latest book. This one is a collection of short stories that really deliver. From the first story, I couldn't stop reading. The first story drew me in. The second, the title story, set in a small bookstore, was a particular favorite. Many of the protagonists are young people  --or adults reflecting on events that happened when they were younger. Sometimes, the point of view shifts a little--and always in a satisfying way. The writing is clever, and the literary references are never gratuitous. I suspect I will be thinking about some of King's characters for a long time.

Hernan Diaz's novel Trust is one of those rare reads that had me recommending it to others  before I was even finished because I knew I would want to talk about it. Diaz starts with a beautifully written story, but then he shifts to what at first seems a disconnected narrative--until it doesn't. The shift from one perspective to another, from one writing style to another, completes a story, leaving the reader with the challenge of figuring out what is true. 

The center of the narrative is the stock market crash of 1929 and those who may have manipulated trading. This is the story of a marriage or more than one story of what may be the same marriage. It is also the story of a woman charged with ghost-writing the tale, leading her to search for the full story. 

The narrative structure feels less like a gimmick and more like a puzzle, as the reader follows the threads toward the truth.

Anne Tyler's novel French Braid follows three generations (at least) of a Baltimore family. Beginning with an encounter in a train station between Serena and her cousin Nicholas, Tyler tells most of the story as a flashback. She begins in the 1950s with a family trip to a lake cabin, where readers get to know the three children of Robin and Mercy, who will go on to make up the bulk of the story. As I read, I kept wondering about Tyler's title. Although the reference is brief, its significance is a powerful observation of the way our families are always a part of us. 

The characters that populate the novel are quirky and believable. As Tyler lets them grow older, then old, they become more of themselves. The  conflicts of the novel are subtle--sibling rivalry, imperfect marriages, awkward parent-child relationships--and always mitigated by love.

I think the likelihood of my continuing to read for pleasure this summer (and all year long) is statistically significant. 

My Reading Statistics

My 2020 Reading List

I'm not sure how many years now I have been sharing the list of books I read. I have kept up methodically since 1997. That may be the year I read that Art Garfunkel has kept his list since he was 16.  As I finish books, I list them on my kitchen calendar (a gift from my son John each year). At year's end, I transfer to my Book-Woman notebook. 

The pandemic may have given me more time to read for pleasure, even though starting a doctoral program in August added to my non-discretionary reading. (By the way, I only listed one or two of those books, since a chapter or two may have gone unassigned). Still, I am pleased with the list--the numbers but the variety too. 

I did take on a "2020 Reading Challenge" from the Modern Mrs. Darcy website, which included a debut novel, a book by a local author, three books by the same author, and more. I've already written about several of these books over the past year, so I'll just include a blurb for each.

Without further ado, here's the list. Posts on a few specific books will follow in the next few days:

1. Ted Kooser, Poetry Home Repair Manual. I had read this wonderful volume by the former poet laureate before. I was reminded just how useful and practical it is for any kind of writer. I had hoped to see Kooser again in the summer's Christian Scholars Conference, but his health caused him to cancel even before the pandemic hit.

2. Anissa Gray, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. Gray appeared in a panel at 2019's Southern Book Festival, but it took me awhile to get to this story of a mother and her daughters from their different perspectives.

3. Jon Clinch, Marley. This alternative tale of the Christmas Carol story nudges me to go back and read Finn, his dark (I hear) tale of Huck's father.

4. Anne Bogel, Reading People. I enjoy Bogel's Modern Mrs. Darcy's emails and blog posts, as well as her books, usually book-related. This book gives a taste of a number of inventories of personality and temperament from Myers-Briggs to the Love Languages and the Enneagram. 

5. Kent Haruff, Where You Once Belonged. I discovered Haruff via his Plainsong and Eventide, which I accidentally read out of order. His subtle books with engaging characters stick with me. 

6. Yangsze Choo, The Night Tiger. This book recommendation came from my daughter-in-law, also a voracious reader. It follows a mysterious death, apparently by a tiger, through the eyes of a girl working at a dance hall, a secret she keeps from her mother.

7. Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger. While this book is not at all like The Book Thief, Zusak demonstrates that he can tell more than one kind of story. A young man without much of a future receives a message informing him of responsibilities that change his life.

8. Jeanine Cummins, American Dirt. Cummins appeared at Parnassus to read from her novel within about a day of the pushback about whether or not she had the right to tell the story of a Mexican mother and child attempting to migrate to the United States. (Dead authors were probably spinning in their graves, awaiting the verdict on their on appropriation.) Personally, I felt she presented multiple perspectives in a way that should open up more dialogue and encourage readers to seek to understand.

9. Joshilyn Jackson, Almost Sisters. I've been reading Jackson's unquestionably Southern novels since Gods in Alabama. This year, I read three (as part of my reading challenge). This one had a hilarious scene when the narrator's grandmother, suffering from Lewy body dementia, lets loose with the truth at a church covered dish dinner. As usual in her books, the mood moves easily between funny and serious. 

10. Jojo Moyes, The Giver of the Stars. I read this book about the Kentucky pack librarians before I read The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek. I think Moyes' attempt to flesh out the Southern women was a weakness of the book. I have also heard a lot of suggestions that she borrowed some plot devices from the other book.

11. Tommy Tomlinson, The Elephant in the Room. I have loved Tomlinson's writing since he worked as a columnist for the Charlotte Observer. The piece that ran on his wedding day (which he includes in this book) is a valued part of my permanent files of great writing. The overarching idea of the book is Tomlinson's lifelong struggle with weight (which he is addressing sensibly and gradually), giving the book  title its double meaning. This is also a love story, in my humble opinion.

12. Mike James, The Journeyman's Suitcase. James was one of the featured readers in our Black Dog Open Mic Poetry series (before the pandemic pushed us to Zoom). I was pleasantly surprised that we had lived in NC at the same time and shared many poetry friends. I hope to read more of his poetry.

13. Malaika Albrecht, Lessons in Forgetting. I re-read Malaika's poems the follow her mother's Alzheimer's. I have given copies of this book to other friends who are navigating this same difficult path, this tender burden.

14. Robert Galbraith, Lethal White. When I read these novels by J. K. Rowling, under her pseudonym, I honestly forget she is the author. While the books bear no resemblance to the Harry Potter story, her writing, her characterization are just as strong. I love Cormoran Strike and his protégée Robin. 

15. Karen Thompson Walker, The Dreamers. When I heard Walker at the Southern Book Festival on the same panel as Anissa Gray, I had read her debut novel The Age of Miracles. I read this book in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and found eerie the parallels between the sleeping virus in her novel and the virus we were beginning to face. 

16. Kory Well, Sugar Fix. Murfreesboro poet Kory Wells read for the Black Dog open mic. I love her voice, when comes through in her poems on the page as well as they do when she reads them (so well). The cover on the book is a bonus too.

17. Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age. Reid appeared at Parnassus Books (back when that was still happening live) to discuss her debut novel with Ann Patchett. The racial currents of the book are only a part of the tensions of this well-told story.

18. Dave Clayton, Jesus Next Door. One of the bright spots of the beginning of 2020 was Awaken Nashville, a season of prayer and fasting focusing on those who live around us. I believe this was great preparation for what hit us in March, when suddenly neighbors came out of doors for fresh air and met each other. This little book led us through the month. I'll read it again this year.

19. Kory Wells, Heaven Was the Moon. See #16. Reading one book of Wells' poems led to another.

20. Lily King, Writers and Lovers. My book club had read and enjoyed Euphoria, also by King. This story of a young aspiring writer, dealing with mounting college debt while waiting tables was completely different and completely engaging. 

21. Ken Follett, Notre Dame. Follett, whose novels have drawn attention to centuries of European cathedrals, wrote this slim volume after the terrible fire. I believe the proceeds are going to the repairs.

22. Michael McCreary, Funny, You Don't Look Autistic. This library "all read" is a young man's memoirs (nervy, he admits--writing a memoir in his early 20s). He manages to dispel stereotypes about autism in a humorous, human way. 

23. Kim Michele Richardson The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek. See #10. Another story of the packhorse libraries of Kentucky during FDR's administration, this also had me Googling the "blue people" of that region. Yes, they're real.

24. Charlene May, Roberta. Charlene May and her husband ran the guest house in Port-au-Prince when I traveled there with Healing Hands International a few years ago. She has written the story of Roberta Edwards, the amazing woman who kept all our efforts there coordinated as she ran a children's home for more than 20 children--before her senseless murder about six years ago. 

25. Elizabeth Spencer, Starting Over (Stories). This year, I made an effort to pick up the still-unread books on my shelf. This collection was one of my Lemuria Books First Editions Club selections.

26. Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward. I loved Napolitano's book A Good Hard Look (in which Flannery O'Connor appears as a secondary character). This is the story of a young boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash in which his entire family died. He is dealing with his own survivor's guilt as his mother's sister's family tries to help him build a new life.

27. Jim Defede, The Day the World Came to Town. I have been fascinated by the story of the people of Gander, Newfoundland, who welcomed the passengers on planes diverted from the U.S. after the incidents of 9/11. Defede gives glimpses of the locals who showed hospitality above and beyond expectations and put faces on the passengers and crew whose lives were put on hold.

28. Daniel Woodrell, The Maid's Version. This is another of my Lemuria books I hadn't read yet.

29. Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits. This was a re-read as part of my book club. It had been long enough since I first read this novel that it was like a fresh reading. I was also pleasantly surprised to find Allende's phone number--written in her hand--from when my friend Kim and I talked to her when she read in Hickory, NC, several years ago. I know some people don't like magical realism--but I do. She does it well.

30. Paulette Jiles, Simon the Fiddler. I loved News of the World (and look forward to seeing the movie), so I couldn't resist this novel the picks up with the story of a minor character from that novel. Set in Texas at the end of the Civil War, this one also produces a great old-time play list. 

31. Monica Wood, The One-in-a-Million Boy. I think I loved this book as much as anything I read this year. I'm a huge proponent of collection of oral history, which is one small part of this tender story of what begins as a relationship between a centenarian and a young Boy Scout but that touches his family as well.

32. Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle. I don't know that I'd ever read anything by Olsen but her much anthologized short story "I Stand Here Ironing." Sometimes I forget how much I love a well-written short story.

33. Sally Rooney, Normal People. Maybe "normal" is an overstatement, Sally. But the relationships between the characters in this novel certainly pulled me in. Isn't this a series?

34. Ben Lerner, Topeka School. This book goes a lot of different directions with the recurring theme of unintelligible speech, but the portray of high school cross-x debate competition is so spot on. Having spent at least five years of my life driving a van full of debaters around the country, I suspect Lerner has been on similar road trips.

35. Deborah Wiles, Kent State. This is one of the Parnassus Next selections of young adult fiction. Told in different voices, she presents the many sides to the story known to many mainly through the song by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. 

36. Kari Gunter-Seymour, A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen. Kari has participated in our Black Dog open mics, so I was glad to discover her work. Now the Ohio poet laureate, she seeks out voices of Appalachian women poets.

37. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work. Kleon's little books are among my frequent recommendations. They can be read in a sitting and they just make good sense--in such a clever way.

38. Eleanor Estes, One Hundred Dresses. This Caldecott Medal picture/storybook is a good example of a children's book that speaks to adults on a different level.

39. Joshilyn Jackson, Never Have I Ever. This book by Jackson is the nightmare of a book club gone wrong. Anybody in one knows how one person with an agenda can hijack the process. This story is the extreme that might happen when a new neighbor decides to expose long-hidden secrets.

40. Shannon Riggs, Thrive Online. This book was one of the summer book clubs selections for Lipscomb faculty intent on making the best of our new reality--teaching with technology. Riggs' point is that online education doesn't have to be a second-best alternative but can actually be used to teach well. 

41. Annie T. Downs, Remember God. This book was "assigned" by a dear friend to a small circle of us who have tried to keep connections during the pandemic. Our assignment--by the end of the year to give a word to each other for 2021. Heaven knows we need a new one.

42. Allison Pataki, The Accidental Empress. This work of historical fiction tells the story of a second daughter who married the heir apparent to the Austro Hungarian empire. She found herself manipulated by her mother-in-law, who took control of her children. Further reading about the real Elisabeth (known as Sisi), considered the Austrian Cinderella, led to some very surprising facts about this woman's life.

43. Jane Gardam, Crusoe's Daughter. I had received copies of some of Gardam's novels a while back and finally read Old Filth, which I found a fascinating read. This story was also a great read, with setting a major part of the story for me.

44. Elizabeth Berg, The Art of Mending. This is another story of a family uncovering secrets during an annual family visit during the state fair. The protagonist works as a quilter, which provides a nice metaphor throughout the novel.

45. Linda Holmes, Evvie Drake Starts Over. Evvie, the main character of this story, is ready to make a change in her life, when circumstances are taken out of her hands. Through a friend, she is introduced to a baseball player who washed up, thanks to the "yips." Their relationship and her platonic relationship with the friend who introduced them are strained as they develop under the watchful eye of the local residents and family.

46. Truman Capote Breakfast at Tiffany's. I confess that I had never watched the iconic film based on Capote's novella that makes up part of this collection (which also includes my all-time favorite holiday story "A Christmas Memory.") I was surprised. I forgot to listen for strains of "Moon River."

47. Ruta Sepetys, The Fountains of Silence. Another of Parnassus Books' YA selections, this novel by Nashville author Sepetys easily crosses over into adult reading. Set in Franco's Spain, the story follows a young American with his diplomatic family as his interest in photography gets him caught up with a local woman who works as a maid, after her family loses status during political upheaval.

48. Mark Mills, Amagansett. This book had been recommended by teaching colleague years ago. The story takes place between two worlds--the local New England fishermen and the wealthy summer residents. The plot begins with a body caught in a fishing net and follows the policeman investigating and the fisherman who recovered the body.

49. Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel. From the author of post-apocalyptic Station Eleven, this novel follows a young woman who takes on a new identity through her relationship with a man who becomes caught up in a Madoff-type scheme.

50. Clare Clark, In the Full Light of the Sun. I love a novel that delves into the art world. This one focuses on paintings that may or may not have been painted by Van Gogh, through the lives of artists, collectors, and other art world personalities in Berlin during the Nazi rise to power.

51. Lisa See, The Island of the Sea Women. See's novels always feel a little bit like travel--or time travel. This story of the women of the remote Korean Island of Jeju who have been physically conditioned to dive for sea creatures in even the coldest conditions during Japanese occupation. 

52. Flower Darby, Small Teaching Online. This is the second book our faculty book club read to prepare for the inevitable online component of our teaching in the fall. I need to give a shout-out to our Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) staff, who were ready to offer the support we needed.

53. Ron Rash, In the Valley. If Ron Rash writes it, I'm going to read it--fiction or poetry. This collection has short stories set in Western North Carolina, along with the title novella, a sequel to his novel Serena. He does not disappoint.

54. Marybeth Whalen, The Guest Book. This is the epitome of a beach read, the story of a young woman returning to the beach house her family used to visit annually--until her father's death. Trying to look beyond the relationship with the father of her daughter, she hopes to find the identity of the young man with whom she had exchanged messages and drawings in the beach house guest book. 

55. Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine. As I mentioned in my post about the one, Dandelion Wine is a perfect summer read--nostalgia, a little touch of magical realism, a coming of age story.

56. Sarah Clarkson, Book Girl. This book's title is deceptive. There is a depth to this literary memoir by Clarkson who studied at Oxford, a dream that began with her fascination with C. S. Lewis. I could probably spend a year reading through the book lists she provides.

57. Tim Mason, The Darwin Affair. I read this library city read on recommendation from my book friend George. It's a mystery that has Victoria and Albert, Charles Darwin, and Dickens in the background.

58. M. O. Walsh, The Big Door Prize. Walsh was part of the "big reveal" held online for this year's Souther Festival of Books. The book is dedicated to John Prine (one of this year's great losses). The title is, of course, a reference to Prine and Iris Dement's "In Spite of Ourselves." The chapter titles and even some minor characters are a great scavenger hunt for Prine fans in what is essentially a clever Southern story about a high school teacher and his wife who consider their dreams and question their life's potential. 

59. Camron Wright, The Rent Collector. This was another of my favorites this year an incredibly uplifting story set in a trash dump in Cambodia. Among other things, it's a story of redemption and second chances and an homage to the power of literature.

60. Andrew Cartmel, The Vinyl Collector #1. In what is evidently the first of a series, this is the story of a young man who seeks and sells rare vinyl records who is hired to find a particular album, leading him on a path of romance, danger, and intrigue.

61. Ron Rash, Raising the Dead. (poems) Reading Rash's story collection sent me to my poetry shelf to revisit this collection of poems. I recall his suggesting that he wrote novels so his publishers would let him release volumes of poetry. I'm glad they do.

62. Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman. I don't think I've met an Erdrich novel I didn't like. The characters in this book live up to the standard she has set. I recall teaching "The Red Convertible" to high school seniors and learning that one of the students and her mother went on to read other Erdrich stories and novels together.

63. Tim Peeler, The Birdhouse. (illustrated by Clayton Joe Young) Peeler is a friend and an excellent poet whose poems come from all kinds of inspirations--his love for baseball, his former job as a hotel desk clerk, and in this slim volume, his experience working in the community college. The speaker/narrator is a young woman going to college and rethinking her relationship with her husband. Most of the narrative and interior monologue take place during the time it takes for him to mow their property. Young's photographs are an ideal complement.

64. William Kent Krueger, This Tender Land. This story is told by a young man who has landed with his brother in a school for orphaned Native American boys after losing his parents. The cruelty of those charged with caring for the boys and the loss of a potential mother figure sends the boys, with a young orphaned girl and a friend left mute on an Mark Twain style adventure, bringing them into the circle of a traveling tent revival crew.

65. Louise Penny, All the Devils Are Here. The worst thing about finishing a Louise Penny is knowing I have to wait for her to finish writing and to publish the next in her Inspector Gamache series. As I have oft repeated, I tend to avoid mysteries and series, but these are the most literate stories with characters I have come to know. A friend told me, "I rarely cry over a book but this one made me week--with joy." Enough said.

66. Megha Majumber. A Burning. This disturbing narrative is set in Indian as a young girl by coincidence is accused of assisting in a terrorist train bombing and sentenced. All the people in her life who might help her avoid unjust punishment are self-motivated to do otherwise. 

67. Brene Brown, Dare to Lead. Since I've been studying leadership this semester, this book by Brown was a good companion read. I've often used her TED Talk "The Power of Vulnerability" in my composition class. I like her common sense approach and her self-awareness too.

68. Ann Mah, The Last Vintage. This book shifts back and forth between the present and the WWII past when a daughter is a party to her father's hiding of the family's special wine vintage. In the modern part of the story, a young woman related to the family spends time on the family's Burgundy  estate as she prepares to take the Master off Wine exam. She and the college friend married to her cousin find writings that convinces them a relative acted ignobly during the war.

69. Yaa Gyasi, Transcendent Kingdom. Gyasi has drawn from her own story to create Gifty, the protagonist of this novel about a young woman whose parents immigrated to Huntsville, Alabama, from Ghana. She loses her brother to addiction, following from a sports injury, and goes on to do her post-doctoral work on the brain, spending her days observing and manipulating her lab mice and caring for her mother who suffers from depression.

70. Camron Wright, The Orphan Keeper. After reading The Rent Collector, my mother went on to read this other novel by Wright, also based on a true story. In this one, a young Indian boy is kidnapped by people running an orphanage that supplies children for adoption to Americans. The parents who adopt this boy are unaware for years that he had living parents. His marriage, a love match that has to overcome his wife's parents' desire for an arranged marriage, gives him the opportunity to search for his real story.

71. Wendy Cope, Two Cures for Love. (poems) When my cousin asked for British poets whose poems weren't so dark, I got this suggestion from another colleague. I'm glad I did. The poems are almost in conversation with other works of literature, sometimes playful, sometimes serious. Cope may draw from another poem's form or allude to other elements. While I wanted to pick apart the references myself, she provides explanations and elaborations in the appendix to the volume. Fun.

72. Richard Powers, The Overstory. This book kept coming up in other people's reading lists. It's hard to describe the book to others without just saying that it's a group of inter-related stories, all in some way about trees. It was one of the more powerful books I read this year.

73. Leman and Pentak, The Way of the Shepherd. This is one of the books I was assigned in my classes this semester. This book is presented as a secondhand telling of lessons in leadership, with the idea of passing along the lessons learned. The original "shepherd" is a mentor who shares his leadership secrets with illustrations from his avocation, raising sheep.

74. C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew. I had long ago read Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and and Wardrobe, but decided to work through the Narnia series in chronological order. Even the guy who checked me out at Krogers said he had given away several of his own sets.

75. Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. From the author of Daisy Jones and the Six, this is a story with a similar journalistic mode. A young journalist is given the opportunity to interview an aging Hollywood star who has kept private the truth of her real love life.

76. Lisa Wingate, The Book of Lost Friends. I checked out the audio of this book from the library, only to have it snatched off my devices after 14 days. I had to wait weeks to finish it, but I'm glad I did. It's another of those stories set in two times--1987 and immediate post-Civil War. In one story, a former slave is seeking her lost family, as are so many others. In the modern story, a beginning teacher finally engages her reluctant students by inspiring them to uncover their own family stories.

77. Lee Smith, Blue Marlin. I'd say the only thing better than reading Lee Smith's fiction is hearing her read it. However, on the page, it's so easy to hear her voice. I especially love that after the end of the story, she has an epilogue in which she distinguishes between the events in her fictional plot and those in her own childhood. That part is excellent instruction for any aspiring memoirist.

78. I.C. Robledo, Practical Memory. This book offers lots of tips for enhancing one's memory for day-to-day activities (as opposed to memory competition found in Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein.)

79. Will Shorr, The Science of Storytelling. Part writing advice, part literature study, part brain-based, Shorr draws from literary and cinematic examples for a compelling book I expect to read again. And again.

80. Carol Burnett, In Such Good Company. It's hard not to love Carol Burnett. As she revisits the years of her television show, she has such gracious remembrances of her co-stars and guests. To prepare for the memoir, she watched all the episodes of all the years of the Carol Burnett Show. I couldn't help thinking how fun it might be to watch them with her. This came close.

81. Howard Gardner, Five Minds for the Future. Known for his "multiple intelligences," Gardner focuses in this book on the "five minds" that should be developed--the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind. Between the lines, Gardner answers the recurring student question: Why do I need to know this?

82. Taylor Mali, What Teachers Make. Poet and former teacher Mali gained fame through his piece "What Teachers Make," a somewhat angry response to someone's snarky comment about why anyone would teach who could be making more money doing something else. He has set a goal to inspire young people to choose to teach. This book is affirming for all of us who have stayed in a career more for love than money.

83. Grady Hendrix, The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires. If I were grouping books, this one might pair with Jackson's Never Have I Ever, a look at all the ways a book club could go wrong. This one suggests not so much that one shouldn't invite a man to her book club--at least without learning it with the other members--but at least make sure he's not a vampire. 

84. Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War. This book shared a slice of history with which I was unfamiliar, the printing and publication of American Service Editions, pocket-sized books sent to servicemen overseas during WWII. This is another great tribute to the power of literature.

85. Larry W. Phillips, Ernest Hemingway on Writing. Phillips has compiled all Hemingway had to say about writing from his novels, short stories, and letters to produce a unified little volume.

86. Billy Collins, Whale Day and Other Poems. How I enjoy spending a little time looking at life through Collins' unique perspective. I love his attention to detail, her quirky observations as he allows readers to peek over his shoulder.

87. Dani Shapiro, Inheritance. Maybe Ancestry.com and 23 and Me need to come with a warning: You might find out more than you expect. We've all heard the stories if we haven't lived them ourselves, people who find surprise siblings or more branches on the family tree. Shapiro took the "spit test" on a whim and had to face a completely different family history.

88. Jon Meacham, The Hope of Glory. Historian Meacham put together a series of homilies he delivered from the final words spoken by Jesus on the cross. 

89. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  See #74. Working my way through the Narnia series. Another reason to avoid Turkish delight.

90. Douglas, Stuart, Shuggie Bain. This is a dark and moving story of a young boy who tries not only to survive but to save his alcoholic mother from herself. 

91. John Struloeff, The Man I Was Supposed to Be. (poems) Struloeff teaches creative writing at Pepperdine and was named poet laureate of Malibu. These poems portray a life different from that of the academic and with subtle strokes sketches a picture of a father-son relationship.

92. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights. My book club selects a classic each year, and this is our 2021 choice. I'm not sure if I've read it since the ninth grade (when I fell in love with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff in the movie.) I wonder how many freshmen still read this dense, dark novel. I loved it again.

93. Joshilyn Jackson, Someone Else's Love Story. My third read by Jackson this year, this book opens with characters' encounters during a failed convenience story robbery that turns into a hostage situation. The characters all end up facing some truths in their own stories.

94. Fredrik Backman, Anxious People. From the author of A Man Called Ove, this is another story of a failed robbery turned hostage situation (see #93). The two stories could not be any more different. Full of surprises, Backman traces the stories of the would-be bank robber, the hostages, a psychiatrist, and the father-son policemen trying to tear up the details of the apparent crime. Backman has a way of taking quirky, unlikable characters and making readers aware how much we all have in common.

95. Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet. I have a fondness for books that explore what little we know about William Shakespeare. In this book, subtitled "A Novel of the Plague," O'Farrell builds on what is known about the bard and his family. Readers are given background on Anne Hathaway (known as Agnes in this novel, as her father's will referred to her), portraying her as a country girl with a kind of second sight and knowledge of nature and cures. William meets her when he is hired to tutor her brothers in Latin and marries her when she is pregnant with their daughter Susannah, displeasing his father the glove maker John. The narrative moves between their courtship and early marriage to the year when their son Hamnet, twin to Judith, is lost to the pestilence. People have long speculated about his long absences, living and working in London while his family remains in Stratford. The answers O'Farrell imagines are satisfying, as is her interpretation of the significance of the "second best bed" left by Shakespeare to his Wie in his will.

96. Sara Clayton, Walking on Unknown Roads. (poems) Needing to finish the year with a dose of poetry, I selected Clayton's collection, in three parts, with poems that come together to weave the stories of a woman's life and loves.

 

My 2020 Reading List

Celebrating Summer Reading: Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel

One mark of a good writer is the capacity to follow one engaging novel with another without reusing the same patterns or retelling the same tale. Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven was both engrossing and haunting, following a troupe of actors in a post-apocalyptic world.

Her newest novel The Glass Hotel is set firmly in this world, but it grabs readers early and doesn't let go. Mandel begins the book with three minimal glimpses of events from later in the story. They are vague enough not to reveal the characters involved, but specific enough in their imagery to remain like a bookmark for the reader.

The narrative first follows Paul, back at his father's home after his step-sister Vincent's mother disappears while boating alone, and then as he becomes infatuated with a female singer at a bar before giving her and her colleagues what end up being tainted drugs to one of her band members. Needing to get away to avoid any responsibility, he takes a menial job at the hotel to which the title refers, where Vincent works as bartender. An elaborate hotel on an island near Vancouver, it accommodates wealthy guests who want all the comforts and pleasures, while completely isolated from the world.

The focus moves away from Paul to his sister Vincent, when she meets one of the wealthy guests who actually owns the hotel, Jonathan Alkaitas, recently widowed. She next appears in tabloids as his wife--a fiction the two create to allow her to play a needed role in his life, while letting her to live as she pleases, with her new persona, shopping and dining without concert for credit limits.

The story takes a sharp turn when Alkaitas' business collapses, revealed as a Ponzi scheme, landing him in prison, from which a portion of the narrative is told.

Mandel introduces minor characters, then weaves together the cast of characters and their storylines, using what at first seem to be minor details--messages etched on windows, Vincent's habit of filming five-minute videos. The details come together to produce a story that is fresh and suspenseful. Not once did the story recall Station Eleven. Anyone who reads both novels will be tempted to look for her earlier works until her next novel is published.

Celebrating Summer Reading: Emily St. John Mandel's The Glass Hotel

Lethal White: Discovering Another Series

After living in the world of Harry Potter for so long, I was curious to see what kind of writing J. K. Rowling would produce once she left that hugely successful run. I read A Casual Vacancy and found it rather dark (which doesn't necessarily scare me away.)

I began the first in her Cormoran Strike novel The Cuckoo's Calling, not knowing it was a going to be a series, and I found her two protagonists, Strike and his protege Robin Ellacot, completely engaging. Strike is a private detective who lost a leg in Afghanistan. The first novel opens when Robin responds to an ad for a temp receptionists. She's young, attractive, and engaged to be married. She has also harbored an interest in police work for years. Rowling, writing as Robert Galbraith, develops the camaraderie and even the spark between the two, as their partnership and friendship grows.

The fact that Robin's fiance Matthew isn't keen on her working with Strike adds some delicious tension to the stories, as Robin uses her wits to help Strike solve the crimes that land on his desk. This month, I finished the fourth in the series Lethal White, in which Strike is drawn to investigate the veracity of a story brought to his office by an unbalanced young man about having witnessed the burial of a small child.

As the story opens Robin, who has been let go by Strike after an assignment led to injury and near death, has just married Matthew, after prior delays in their wedding. She makes discoveries about her husband's deception that cast a shadow not only on the wedding but the marriage, particularly when Strike asks her to return as his partner in the business. Robin goes undercover working with a member of parliament being blackmailed. This story is set in London as the city prepares to host the Summer Olympics. Meanwhile, a socialist organization that opposes the Olympics seems to have more that just disruption in their plans.

This story brings Cormoran and Robin to government offices and to the shabby country homes of the horsey set, landing them in the midst of at least one murder investigation.

While the audience for these novels is quite different from the Harry Potter fans, the author balances her expertise at character development with her suspenseful plot structure, delivering another satisfying reading experience. Best of all, she has the next installment in the series ready for a 2020 publication.

Lethal White: Discovering Another Series

Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again: Reproducing the Special Magic

When I first picked up Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout's novel's 2008 book of interwoven short stories that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, I had never heard of the book. It just caught my attention. I not only enjoyed reading about Olive; I believe I know her. She reminds me so much of a former colleague who intimidated me before I was able to see past the crusty facade to the tender heart and the wicked sense of humor underneath.

This new book follows the successful pattern of the first: a series of short stories set in the same small town of Crosby, Maine, with road trips to nearby towns. Olive Kitteridge is the thread that ties the stories together, even though in some she appears only as a minor character. Two women in one story, for example, cross paths with her in an art gallery. Sometimes the characters have been students in her classroom before she retired.

In this collection, Olive's curious romance with Jack Kennison picks up from the first book, following the death of her first husband. Her son and his complicated family make more of an appearance in this novel, which covers a longer span of time than the first.

Some of the stories may make readers squirm a little. Sometimes Olive's quirky behavior makes me wish I could give her some tips on social skills. But in the end, I found her the same believable, sympathetic character who had grown on me the first go around. Olive faces old age, first in the friends she sees making their way to the nursing home she finds so distasteful. She has to deal with the realization that she no longer needs to drive--and Olive is not a woman to give up her independence easily.

I'm realistic enough to know Strout probably won't be able to give readers another book about Olive, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on her life just a little longer. I'm eager to see which character Strout brings to life next.

Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again: Reproducing the Special Magic

New Year Tradition: My 2017 Reading List

I've been keeping a list of the books I read for years now. I have heard that Art Garfunkel has kept a similar list since he was sixteen, and I am envious that I didn't think to do this sooner. I record my finished books on my kitchen calendar and then transfer the list to my Book Woman notebook (and share here) at year's end.

In the coming days, I want to give some "best of" details--novels, poetry, and nonfiction, but for now, I'll share my list. I hope some of my reading friends will reciprocate.

1. Wally Lamb, I'll Take You There
2. Jessie Burton, The Muse
3. Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing
4. Regina Calcaterra, Etched in Sand
5. Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
6. Ruth Ware, The Woman in Cabin 10
7. John Lewis, et al., The March (Book 1)
8. Lauren Wolk, Wolf Hollow
9. Julia Glass, And the Dark Sacred Night
10. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
11. Paulette Jiles, News of the World
12. Ruth Reichel, Delicious
13. Kelly Demaegd, Wish and Spit (poetry)
14. Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star
15. Marie Semple, Today Will Be Different
16. E. L. Doctorow, Andrew's Brain
17. Susan Perabo, The Fall of Lisa Bellow
18. Lauren Dave, Hello, Sunshine
19. Camron Wright, The Orphan Keeper
20. Nancy Peacock, The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson
21. Archibald MacLeish, JB
22. J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
23. Zadie Smith, Swing Time
24. Peter Cooper, Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride
25. Amy Greene, Long Man
26. Marie Howe, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (poetry)
27. Tiana Clark, Equilibrium (poetry)
28. Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things
29. Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper's Wife
30. Frank Conroy, Body and Soul
31. Bill Browder, Red Notice
32. Lisa See, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
33. Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Unaccountable Weather (poetry)
34. Cathy Smith Bower, The Candle I Hold up to See You (poetry)
35. Noah Hawley, Before the Fall
36. Lily King, Euphoria
37. John Grisham, Camino Island
38. William Kuhn, Mrs. Queen Takes the Train
39. Ron Rash, Eureka Mill (poetry)
40. Hanna Tintt, The Twelve Live of Samuel Hawley
41. Elizabeth Strout, Anything Is Possible
42. Kathleen Rooney, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
43. Graeme Simsion, The Best of Adam Sharpe
44. Carl Hiassen, Razon Girl
45. Nicole Yoon, Everything, Everything
46. Christine Baker Kline, A Piece of the World
47. Colum McCann, Letter to a Young Writer
48. Stephanie Powell Watts, No One Is Coming to Save Us
49. Joy Jordan-Lake, Tangled Mercy
50. Gin Phillips, Fierce Kingdom
51. Taylor Mali, The Whetting Stone (poetry)
52. Linda Sue Park, A Long Walk to Water
53. R.J. Palacio, Wonder
54. Beth Ann Fennelly, Heating and Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs
55. Thomas Mullen, Last Town on Earth
56. Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
57. Anne LaMott, Hallelujah Anyway
58. Natalia Burian, Welcome to the Slipstream
59. Brian Selznick, Wonder Struck
60. Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior
61. Ann Hood, The Book That Mattered Most
62. Ben Winters, Underground Airlines
63. Gabriel Zevon, Young Jane Young
64. Greg Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart
65. Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere
66. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
67. Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach
68. Joseph Bathanti, Restoring Sacred Art

Some of the books were unforgettable, while others like Chinese food didn't stick. I took the time to re-read a few I love, and I picked up a couple of older books I had been waiting to read, and I was so glad I did. Many of the choices were dictated by my book groups. As a result, I discovered some thought-provoking books I might have missed otherwise.

As the year ended, I've been reading Walter Isaacson's biography Leonardo da Vinci with only about 400 page to go), and I'm listening to Ken Follett's Column of Fire, the third in the series that started many years ago with Pillars of the Earth, on my all-time favorites list. My to-read list is long, almost overwhelming, but I'm comforted to know I could be iced in and not lack for something good to read.

May 2018 bring many good books your way.

New Year Tradition: My 2017 Reading List

My 2015 Reading List

For years now, I've kept a record of the books I read, writing the author and title on my wall calendar and then tallying just before New Years Day. When I record them, I am often surprise by the ones that have left my memory completely--and the ones that will be stuck in my head forever. I've written about many of the books here on this blog through the year, but I still have some I want to share. I may have to add annotation to the list once it's complete.

While I lean toward literary fiction, my list includes a lot of poetry (and I feel certain there are other collections and chapbooks I've read that didn't get written down. I always keep a little poetry handy wherever I go.) Many of the books are written by North Carolina writers; many were written by authors I consider friends.

I love to see others' lists as well. I can check it against mine and then add title to my "to read" list. While I may have one more to add before midnight rolls around on Thursday, here's the list so far:

Books I Read in 2015

Shari Smith, I Am a Town

Jessie Burton, The Miniaturist

Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Kennedy

Alan Bradley, The Chimney Sweeper Comes to Dust

Katie Crouch, Girls in Trucks

David Nichols, Us

Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Effect

N. T. Wright, Simply Good News

Maggie Shipstead, Astonish Me

Jay Erskine Leutze, Stand up That Mountain

Terri Kirby Erickson, A Lake of Light and Clouds (poetry)

Beth Ann Fennelly, Tender Hooks (poetry)

Jane Smiley, Some Luck.

Katherine Howe, The House of Velvet and Glass

Paula Hawkins, The Girl on a Train

Beth Henley, The Jacksonian (play)

M. O. Walsh, My Sunshine Away

Tony Earley, Mr. Tall

Michael Beadle, Invitation (poetry)

Maureen Corrigan, So We Read On

Dorianne Laux, Facts about the Moon (poetry)

Jeffrey Slayton, This Side of the River

Liane Moriarty, The Last Anniversary

Dimitry Elias Leger, God Loves Hairi

Sarah Addison Allen, Lost Lake

Stephen L. Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park

Andrew Sean Greer, The Story of a Marriage

Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins

Marilynne Robinson, Lila

Rebecca McClanahan, Write Your Heart Out

Suzanne Hudson, In a Temple of Trees

Paul Acampora, I Kill the Mockingbird

Erik Larson, Dead Wake

Nick Hornby, Funny Girl

Kimberly Blum-Hyclak, In the Garden of Life and Death (poetry)

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant

Richard Ford, Let Me Be Frank with You

Renee Knight, Disclaimer

Beth Moore, Beloved Disciple

Josh and Ryan Shook, Firsthand

Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

Rachel Joyce, The Love Song of Queenie Hennessy

Kate De Camilla, Because of Winn-Dixie

Roger Pinckney, Mullet Manifesto

Sharon Draper, Out of My Mind

Colum McCann, Translantic

Kent Haruf, Our Souls at Night

Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

Celeste Ng. Everything I Never Told You

Kate Clanchy, Meeting the English

Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

James Michener, The Source

Ron Rash, Above the Waterfall

Paula McLain, Circling the Sun

Lynn Anderson, They Smell Like Sheep

Nellie Hermann, The Season of Migration

Lynn Adarrio, It’s What I Do (A Photographer’s Life of Love and War)

Meg Mitchell Moore, The Admissions

Ta Nehisi Coates, The World Around Me

Joyce Maynard, Labor Day

Libby Bray, Beauty Queens

Bill Clegg, Did You Ever Have a Family?

Robert Beatty, Serafina and the Black Cloak

Joseph Bathanti, Half of What I Say Is Meaningless

Fredrik Bartak, A Man Called Ove

Louise Penny, Still Life

Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

Colm Toibin, Brooklyn

Stephen King, Finders Keepers

Jojo Moyes, Me Before You

David E. Poston, Slow of Study (poetry)

Bruce Niedt, 24 x 14  (poetry)

Dannye Romine Powell, Nobody Calls Me Darling Anymore

Brant Hansen, Unoffendable

Megan Kaminski, Deep City (poetry)

Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

Laurie Kolp, Hello, It’s Your Mother (poetry)

Louise Penny, A Long Way Home

David Mitchell, Slade House

Scott Owens, Thinking about the Next Big Bang n the Galaxy at the Edge of Town (poetry)

Jojo Moyes, After You

Kim van Alkemade, Orphan #8

Matthew Neill Null, Honey from the Lion

David Baldacci, The Memory Man

Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds

My 2015 Reading List

It's Time for my 2014 Reading List

I am not sure how many years I have posted my list of books read in the prior year on New Years Day.  I've kept the list in my little notebook much longer.  I read awhile back that Art Garfunkel, a prolific reader himself, has kept a list of the books he's read since he was sixteen. I wish I had done the same. In fact, this year, along with books (and book gift cards), I gave my granddaughter Avery--about to turn nine--a little notebook where she can record what she reads.

 The record, which I maintain on my wall calendar, tells me much about my years.  I read fewer books in January and February as a new school semester begins.  My best reading month this year was May, particularly since I left town the morning after graduation ceremonies and headed to Dog Island, Florida, where no television or internet competed with books, allowing me to slough off the old school year.

I notice that I read quite a variety, lots of poetry (probably more than I've listed here) and more nonfiction that I once read.  My reading has taken me all over the world and back in time. I've laughed out loud (a lot) and cried just a little.  I've stopped in the middle of a page to call or email someone I think should be reading the same book.  I can't even wait to finish to be sure.  The one I'm reading right now, Shari Smith's I Am a Town, is just that kind of book. I have specific chapters earmarked for different people.

When people ask for book suggestions, my answers vary according to the asker. Some books I know one friend will love, while it would leave other reading friends untouched. Right now I'm assembling piles to passel out (part of my plan for cleaning out the study). I can't usually give my books away, but I can send them on long journeys. I'll have much to say later about my Christmas gift books (every one perfect choices) and my other to-read list. For now, here's my list. I'd love to see yours too.

Seventy Books I Read in 2014:

Robert Swartwood, ed. Hint Fiction

Louise Erdrich, The Round House

Curtis Sittenfeld, Sisterland

Wiley Cash, The Dark Road of Mercy

Alan Bradley, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

Amy Tan, Valley of Amazement

Alison Kemper, Donna of the Dead

Joseph Bathanti, Concertina

Fannie Flagg, The All-Girls Filling Station Reunion

Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

Louise Shivers, Here to Get My Baby out of Jail

Joyce Meyer Hostettler, Blue

Francine Rivers, Redeeming Love

Emma Donoghue, Frog Music

Anna Quindlen Still Life with Bread Crumbs

Christine Baker Kline, The Orphan Train

Elizabeth Blackwell, While Beauty Slept

Frances Mayes, Under Magnolia

Vivienne Schiffer, Camp Nine

Laurie Kolp, Upon the Blue Couch

Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry

Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini

Herman Koch, The Dinner

Michael Beadle, Invitation

Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, The Tilted World

Gabrielle Zevin, Elsewhere

Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

Robert M. Edsel, The Monuments Men

Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black

Joe Formichella, ed. The Shoe Burnin’: A Collection of Southern Soul

Lily Koppel, The Astronauts’ Wives Club

Dianne Setterfield, Bellman and Black

Jane Hertenstein, Freeze Frame

Sherman Alexie, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Suzanne Hudson, All the Way to Memphis

Ilene Beckerman, Love, Loss, and What I Wore

Peter Heller, The Painter

Justin Go, The Steady Running of the Hour

David Radavich, The Countries We Live In

Courtey Maum, I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

Joe Formichella, Waffle House Rules

Rachel Joyce, Perfect

Kathryn Ma, The Year She Left Us

Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes

Jill McCorkle, Life After Life

Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling

Judith Richards, Thelonius Rising

Rainbow Rowell, Landline

Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm

Smith Henderson, Fourth of July Creek

JoJo Moyes, One Plus One

Joe Queenan, One for the Books

Bill O’Reilly, Killing Lincoln

Adam Pick, The Patient’s Guide to Heart Valve Surgery

Liane Moriarty, The Husband’s Secret

Yvonne Wakefield, Suitcase Filled with Nails: Lessons Learned Teaching Art in 

    Kuwait

Alison Kemper, Dead over Heels

Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Tom Perotta, The Leftovers

Joseph Mills, This Miraculous Turning

Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies

Scott Owens, To

Peg Bresnahan, In a Country None of Us Calls Home

Michael McFee, The Smallest Talk

Edward Rutherford, Paris

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

If you're still with me, you may find an imbedded link to the IndieBound Next List, my not-so-subtle hint that you support independent booksellers.

It's Time for my 2014 Reading List