I will begin by saying that I prepared for the “worst case scenario” for my medical procedure on January 27 to remove cancer cells from my face by arranging for plenty of food and help, as well as an audiobook and print book that I had underway. It turned out that I was not able to read or listen to an audiobook for about a week. I am happy to be better at last and have finished the...
This book was a good audiobook for a frigid winter week as it takes place during the beach week of a family with grown kids who all love good food. Our narrator is Rocky, the mother, who by her account is always mad and not always sure why, and whose default is to worry about what bad thing might happen. And oh yes, she’s experiencing menopause and has some pretty detailed descriptions of...
It was the enthusiasm of Reading Matters that moved me to put this Booker Prize winning novel by a British author on my Books to Read list in 2023. In the past I have enjoyed seeing videos of Chris Hadfield brushing his teeth in the space station, and that was the extent of my knowledge. This novel does an amazing job of putting you in the minds of those who do this work by following the six...
The author says she has always connected more readily with non-human creatures than with her fellow humans. In fact she credits her pet pig Christopher Hogwood, named for the British conductor, with her increased ability to enjoy other people. She and her husband Howard adopted Chris when he was a runty little fellow on a nearby farm in New Hampshire. He thrived in their care, was able to escape...
This is my eighth Elizabeth Strout book and is distinguished by having so many of the familiar characters show up again. Her first main character, the cranky Olive Kitteridge, is now 90 and living in a retirement home. She is visited by Lucy Barton and the two tell each other stories and sometimes Olive complains that Lucy’s stories are pointless. Lucy, the novelist, tells stories and...
I was surprised to find that I read 54 books this year, more than usual. Of those 35 were audiobooks and 13 were non-fiction. In looking back over the year I am conscious of how many wonderful books I read. The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. The story is set in 1910 and 1921 in Malaysia and is told in the style of Somerset Maugham’s stories from that location, and is written by a person whose...
My initial reaction before I began reading this was concern about reading a book about writing a book, especially one that bills itself as a black comedy. Some of the cheap shots did make me uncomfortable. Ultimately it’s much more complicated than that, taking comedic aim at the publishing world, academia, the television industry, while exploring aspects of dealing with racial identity...
It was thanks to Laura that I listened to this memoir of a blind federal judge. I was immediately charmed by the mention of locations of his youth in Washington, DC: Glen Echo, Rock Creek Park, these are magical names from my childhood in then-rural Northern Virginia. I’m not sure I ever went to Glen Echo Amusement Park, but my siblings and I sang the Glen Echo jingle, “Glen Echo...
I truly loved There There and admire this one at least as much. I’ve now read my favorite book for the year. It begins with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, a surprise attack by the US army on a peaceable Native American encampment in southeastern Colorado. Orange brings this and subsequent policies and events to life with characters, beginning with Jude Star, a child who barely escaped...
This is the second book I’ve read in the Benjamin Black crime series featuring pathologist Dr. Quirke. Black is the pen name of the award-winning Irish writer John Banville. The series is set in Dublin in the 1950s. As it was in A Death in Summer, the story is horribly unpleasant, and Quirke’s behavior is awfully irresponsible and self-destructive. Having just completed a long stint...