Biography/Memoir
Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglas This firsthand account of slavery is one of the biographies listed for Ambleside Online Year 10. A very short work, it took only a day or two to read. If you never read this in school, it is well worth your time to go back and read it. Douglas is very well spoken, and while his account doesn’t read like fiction, I think first-person accounts like these are so important. Fiction can have a broader viewpoint (aka omniscient narrator, multiple story threads, etc.) but memoir like this has a level of credibility that fiction cannot beat. Read it.
Jonathan Rogers, The Terrible Speed of Mercy If you’ve ever struggled to appreciate Flannery O’Connor’s stories, this book is your friend. Rogers gives not only her life story but talks about how she wrote different works and what was going on in her life at the time. This made O’Connor far more accessible to me. Between this book and Mystery and Manners (discussed under Nonfiction below), I’ve come to where I have a good chance of enjoying her stories when I pick one up. Her work can be rather startling to the senses, but this background tempers that effect. Even if you have no interest in reading her stories, it’s a good biography.
Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times This is the second book in a series that was very popular several years ago. I’m late to the game—yes. And you know when I started this book? A year ago. I read it when I’m bored when we usher at football games. We may be inside warming up. We may be in the stadium waiting for the meeting before we begin working. There’s enough of a storyline that it’s engaging, but the writing is such that I cannot just sit down and read it for pleasure. Too much use of the passive voice: “It was decided that…” and so forth. I also own the third book in the series (my sister loved them and gifted them to me one Christmas), but I haven’t started it yet and am not sure when I’ll get around to it. My apologies to all those who loved this series.
Fiction
Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow This was my fun, scary read for October that I snuck in at the last minute. Written in America and set at the end of the 18th century, it is a legend of a headless horseman who is seen riding about the settlement at night. There is debate as to whether or not the story is true. Then one evening…well, you’ll have to read the story for yourself. I listened to one of the audio versions on Audible. It is assigned reading in Ambleside so I’d read it before, but it was fun to listen to once again.
John Updike, Rabbit Run I started read this a couple months ago. It isn’t divided into chapters yet is easy to follow so I read a couple pages every night before bed. The story follows Harry Angstrom whose wife is pregnant with their second baby and cannot keep the house clean or get her act together. So he does what any normal father would do, right? He gets in his car and starts driving and runs away. Then he comes back. But he doesn’t go back home. He shacks up with a prostitute. And on and on. I feel sorry for the parents who take care of his wife, pay his bills, and all that while he is gone. Then the new baby is born and he shows up for the birth like a good father and everyone is glad he is back home. But things go awry again and, well, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens. Updike got a Pulitzer for the last two books in the series so I’ve bought the next one and have it downloaded to my Kindle, ready to read.
Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners This was the Guardian selection for October. The story follows the lives of several immigrants from the West Indies as they try to make their way in post-World War II London. It is written in the West Indies English dialect—not just the dialogue but the narrative as well, bringing an immediacy to the story that you just wouldn’t get otherwise. If you are at all interested in the immigrant experience regardless of time or place, this book is a very compelling read.
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing I tried listening to the audio of this back at the beginning of the year but got lost and couldn’t keep the characters straight. It’s one of those books with a different narrator in every chapter. It also has magical realism, which isn’t my thing. I bought a hard copy at The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis on my bookish detour in August, hoping I would fare better with a second attempt. This time I did finish the book, but I still am not sure why it’s gotten such acclaim. The plot line was rather sparse–they go on a trip to retrieve her husband from jail when he is released. You see the characters interact—her husband with his parents, the kids with each other—and while there is certainly conflict, there is no central conflict that is resolved. The story just meanders for a while and then it ends. The characters are very vivid, though, and they do stick with you. Perhaps that is the appeal. I don’t know. I’m really quite neutral on this one.
At some point in October, they announced the National Book Award Finalists and I started binge-reading through those. I got through three selections before the end of the month and hope to read the remaining two before they announce the winner on November 14. Here they are:
Brandon Hobson, Where the Dead Sit Talking The only copy our library had was the audio version on Hoopla. It’s the story of an American Indian teen who is in foster care while his mother is in prison. There are two other foster kids, also teens, where he is staying. One of them commits suicide (not a spoiler as this is revealed fairly early in the book). It could be that I listened to it rather than reading it, but like Sing, Unburied, Sing, it sort of meandered. He hangs out with the girl (who later commits suicide) and they sort of become friends, but not really. He goes with the social worker to his mom’s hearing to see if she will be released. It captures well the essence of what it might be like to be a teenager in foster care. But once again, the story lacked plot. Meh.
Sigrid Nunez, The Friend This book I loved. It’s written as a series of journal entries—a writer talking to her recently deceased mentor via her journal. His third wife gets her to take his Great Dane after he dies, even though the Friend lives in an apartment where dogs are not allowed. She writes of her grief, of her interaction with others that knew him, of the dog as it gets old, sickens, and finally dies at the end of the book. It is a tale of sorrow and grief, but a beautifully written one.
Rebecca Makkai, The Great Believers Of the three finalists I’ve read so far, this is the one I would vote for. This story gives a glimpse into the AIDS crisis in the Chicago gay community during the 1980s, following a group of friends as several of them succumb to the disease. A second storyline occurs in modern Paris where a woman tries to reconnect with her daughter who was born during the AIDS crisis, whose traumatic birth kept her away from the deathbed of one of her friends as he was dying from AIDS. The main plot revolves around fear of contracting the dreaded disease, paired with an exploration of parents embracing and rejecting their children. A very moving story on so many levels.
Nonfiction
Laura Vanderkam, Off the Clock I breezed through this book this summer right when it came out and loved it immensely. This time I read it slowly, only a chapter a week, so I could absorb more of the ideas as I went. Vanderkam talks about making the most of our downtime. It’s so easy to just watch tv and never get around to those projects you say you want to do. Yet it’s not a how-to-get-more-things-done-in-a-day type book with tips for organizing your refrigerator so you can make supper faster. Vanderkam focuses on how to bring meaning to your downtime. Think of having an unexpected day off—how would you spend it? How would you make the most of that time? How do you translate that to every day life? That is what this book is about without making you do soul searching and answer questions in a creepy sort of way. Once again, I loved every word.
Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More This was the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club selection for October. I’ve heard lots of buzz about it. Corrigan takes several phrases and spends a chapter discussing how she is using each of them in her life—”Tell me more” being one of the phrases she explores. It’s self-help light in a cheery sort of way. At times it seems Corrigan is more interested in being entertaining than making a point. The narrative flits from saga to dramatic saga, many of them rather inconsequential in the grand scale of things. I breezed through this book in a couple of days and then moved on to better things. Had it not been for the author coming to the book club discussion, I would have quit after the first chapter or two. This book has its place, but not on my shelf.
Brene Brown, Dare to Lead This is Brown’s latest release. I so loved two of her previous books that I pre-ordered this one with high expectations. It fell short. While Braving the Wilderness was great for discussing dicey topics (think politics) with family and friends and Rising Strong was a great book on family relationships, this book focuses more on corporate culture and leadership in the workplace. If you work in an office, this book is well worth your time. If that’s not your world, you may find more worthwhile advice in her other books.
Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners This book is a collection of O’Connor’s speeches and letters on the topic of writing. From “The Art and Nature of Fiction” to “A Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South,” I found O’Connors commentary scintillating. Even if you aren’t interested in writing, learning how writers think can help you be a better reader. And not just a better reader—it makes reading more enjoyable as you understand more of what goes into writing well. If you hated literary analysis in English classes but want to think deeply about good books, this is a great place to start. But once again, it is an edited collected drawn from letters and speeches so don’t expect coherent, well-framed essays.
Science/Nature
Sherwin B. Nuland, How We Die This has been in my reading queue for quite some time. It was good, but having read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, it was also somewhat disappointing. This was a precursor to both of those books, and I think they built on what Nuland started here. In some ways, I wish I’d read this first. Regardless, Nuland goes through death by heart attack and heart disease (two very different types of death) and then delves into AIDS followed by cancer and the ethical considerations that arise when dealing with terminal illnesses. It definitely enhanced my reading of The Great Believers as there is a character dying from congenital heart failure as well as those dying from AIDS. We are so removed from death in our culture; if you want to begin to counteract that, at least for yourself, this book is a good place to begin.
John McPhee, Uncommon Carriers Oh, how I love John McPhee! I found a hardback copy of this book in one of our local used bookstores—A Novel Idea. Simply put, this book is about the transportation of goods in its various forms. He rides along in a semi truck. He goes to where they train tugboat operators to navigate difficult river channels. He rides along in a tugboat pushing barges up the Illinois River. He goes inside the UPS facility where they sort packages in Louisville, Kentucky. And—the one I looked forward to most since we live in a town through which 70+ coal trains pass every day just a couple blocks from our house—he rides along on a BNSF engine from Marysville, Kansas to North Platte, Nebraska. I savored this book one chapter at a time, allowing the “book hangover” to gently fade over a few days before coming back to the next chapter. One of the best books I’ve read this year.
Richard Louv, The Nature Principle If you liked making collages in grade school where they give you a big white poster and then you’re supposed to cut out random pictures from magazines to fill it up and leave no white background visible to the eye, if you thought that was fun, you may like this book. I hated it. It’s not a serious book at all. It’s just a cheer routine for environmentalism—from growing a garden on your roof (yes!) to using the feathering technique to get better gas mileage in your car (he never says exactly what that is but he goes on about it for several paragraphs, including how it annoys is wife). The author does not lack enthusiasm for his topic, but in the end, that’s really all he has to offer.
Nate Blakeslee, American Wolf This was the PBS Newshour/Now Read This selection for October. And on, what a wonderful book it was! Well written, well researched, and very well-presented. Blakeslee follows the life of O-Six, one of the famed wolves of Yellowstone after wolves were reintroduced to the area. He also documents the legal battle over the protected status of the wolves during the Obama administration and the fallout from various decisions. Blakeslee skillfully presents the facts without judgment, making the book very appealing regardless of whether you firmly believe ranchers have the right to protect their stock or shudder at the thought of wolves being hunted for any reason. This book will also likely make my list of best books of the year.
Books with the Kids
Eric Knight, Lassie Come Home I read this aloud to the kids, a chapter or two a day at the beginning of school every day. It’s on the Ambleside free read list somewhere, and I found a vintage copy at A Novel Idea. I’ve heard of the story but had never read it or watched the movie. It’s a wonderful story. A beloved dog, a mean rich man, and a plot that wraps up pleasingly in the end. I think they also did a tv series on Lassie, and I bought a couple books based on that series for Caroline to read as well. A big hit at our house.
Kate diCamillo, Tale of Desperaux The Read Aloud Revival is doing an author interview with Kate diCamillo in November and this is the book featured in the reading guide. Caroline and I listened to the audiobook when she drove to Grand Island for a class at the Stuhr Museum early in October. I didn’t quite listen as well as I wished so I went back and read it again on my Kindle. The chapters are rather choppy, and you’d better pay attention or you are going to miss a key fact central to the plot. But all in all, a good story. Caroline says she liked Because of Winn-Dixie better. I added Kate diCamillo to my list of recommended authors for Joey on Overdrive, and he is listening to her books and enjoying them. I’d also like to read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane at some point, so you will likely hear me talk about Kate diCamillo again.
Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars Gary D. Schmidt is one of my new favorite authors. I recommended his book for the Waverly library kids book club and there were more copies of this one than Okay for Now so we all read this. It was good, but the librarian and I both liked the other one better. This is still a book that will make you want to feign ignorance of being responsible for making dinner so you can keep reading. Set in a classroom in the 1960’s, it follows one kid’s life during the school year and the various twists and turns the year takes. The things they did back in the day! This is not the last Gary D. Schmidt book I will read.
Sara Nickerson, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found This book was chosen by the Waverly librarian as a quick, spooky October read for our book club. It was okay. Set near the Puget sound, it was a fun read after visiting there and riding the ferry this summer. The mother of a very independent young girl makes a trip to an island where she puts up a for sale sign in front of an abandoned house. Then back at home, the girl discovers a package from the house and, on her own, travels the bus and ferry to go back to the house because of the connection she believes it has to her father who supposedly drowned. Of course, the mother doesn’t notice for several days that her daughter is gone. It’s an adventure story, a thriller for kids. It was a fun read, a let-your-hair-down-and-just-go-with-it kind of book.
William Shakespeare, King Lear Close Reads has spawned a new show, The Play’s the Thing, where they plan to go through all of Shakespeare’s plays one act at a time. This is where they began. King Lear demands that his daughters tell him how much they love him. The first two put on a good show but the third says her love should be apparent by how she lives her life and she refuses to play along, so King Lear banishes her and divides the kingdom between his first two daughters. Now imagine being king and then while yet living, turning your kingdom over to be run by your two son-in-laws. Yes, a Shakespearean tragedy. We listen to the Arkangel Shakespeare audio from Audible while following along with the script. It’s kind of a hybrid between watching it and not understanding most of the dialog vs understanding the dialog because you read it yourself but hearing it said with expression which I totally would not know how to add if I were just reading it myself. I listen to the podcast myself on my own time.
George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin This was Caroline’s literature selection for Ambleside Year 3 Term 1. I so love this book. I listened to the audio version once again (narrated by Ian Whitcomb). I’ve heard it said that this isn’t just an adventure story where a boy gets lost in a mine and gets caught by the goblins—it’s also a story about faith and believing that which you cannot see. This time I loved not only the story but watching the themes unfold as well. It’s one of those books that gets better every time you read it. Now that my last kid has read it, my next reading will have to be on my own.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit This was Joey’s literature selection for Ambleside Year 6 Term 1. I did not read this as a kid. I didn’t even hear about it until we started homeschooling, or if I did hear about it, I didn’t know what it was so its mention was of no significance. I read it with Ben, I re-read it two years ago when the Well Read Mom did Lord of the Rings over the summer, and I loved reading it again this fall. We have the audio version narrated by Rob Inglis which is fabulous. We both listened to it on our own, but there is a certain pleasure in reading through a book the same time your kid is reading through it.