I listened this memoir by a Native American poet in December because it was mentioned by Laura. I am currently listening again to bring Joy Harjo’s voice back into my head. The first chapter or two is poetic, including part that she sang. She moves into a more conventional story-telling mode and we learn that she was born in Tulsa, her father was Muscogee Creek, and her mother was part...
This year I read 54 books, a few more than usual. There were periods when I could not read, finding myself too irritable and critical, and I gave up on a few books I am sure I would have loved in a different time. I read more non-fiction this year than usual (18) and find to my surprise that nearly half of my favorites are non-fiction books. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. While the first...
When this book came out, I was moved to read Bennett’s previous book The Mothers and admired it; this one deserves the attention it has received. It is centered on the story of twins who came from a village in Louisiana populated by Black people with very light skin. They preferred to avoid those with darker skin while they were themselves subject to the oppression of whites. The story...
In 2015 and 2016, I listened to audiobooks of Graham Greene: Our Man in Havana and The Heart of the Matter. I was enthusiastic about both of them, despite having expectations that the plots of both would make me uncomfortable. What I knew about the plot of this one also made me uncomfortable, and in this case, that feeling remains. In the case of Our Man in Havana I was wary that the humor was...
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante. Jack by Marilynne Robinson The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett She come by it Natural by Sarah Smarsh A Promised Land by Barack Obama The End of the Affair by Graham Green. Audiobook by Colin Firth Our Shadows by Gail Jones The Power of Adrienne Rich by Hilary Holladay (an Orange County resident) An Angel in Australia by Tom Keneally. Lisa wrote about it...
This is my third Jennifer Johnston novel. She is an Irish writer, much loved by Reading Matters. I have appreciated each of them. I listen to them and have been rewarded for that because in each case sound is an element of the storytelling. In this case the reader slips into the occasional song, most notably Christmas carols. SPOILER ALERT Much of the story is told from Henry’s point of...
The developments in the lives of three teenager siblings is the heart of this book; their lives change when they discover a boy who had been knifed and left to die in a field. Their discovery saved his life. The three are Matthew, 18, Zoe, 16, and Duncan, 14 and they live in a village near Oxford in a comfortable and loving family. While the knifing is a key event and we do learn about the...
It will not be possible to fit all I want to remember about this book in one short post. So I’ll start by saying that listening to the author read her essays was educational and entertaining, but even more, it was uplifting and brought me joy. It was as wonderful as her first book H is for Hawk. From childhood she has always been a lover of the natural world and her essays reflect that. She...
This turned out to be an excellent book for these times. A post in A Life in Books about Japanese novels tells that it features an elderly woman who had Hansen’s Disease (formerly known as leprosy) as a young teenager and spent her life confined to a sanatorium though she had recovered. Even after the law was changed allowing former patients to leave, Tokue had no home to go to, and her...
It was the pleasure Tony experienced in recognizing the setting of this book as his own alma mater that drew me to the book. What kept me reading is a little less certain. I did keep reading, despite thinking that the graduate student life of these friends does not resemble the real life of graduate students as I know them. But then the “real life’ referred to in the title is life...