Tag: book list

The Power of Reading: Book List #2

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WHY WE SHOULD READ.  I love the Wall Street Journal (for a host of reasons),  but their tight firewall only allows subscribers to access the full text of an article.  So I’m going to quote from the lead essay in the November 26-27 Review section.  It’s by Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club, and is entitled, “The Need to Read.”  I think it’s excellent.

“Books are uniquely suited to helping us change our relationship to the rhythms and habits of daily life in this world of endless connectivity.  We can’t interrupt books; we can only interrupt ourselves while reading them.  They are the expression of an individual or group of individuals, not of a hive mind or collective consciousness.  They speak to us, thoughtfully, one at a time.  They demand our attention.  And they demand that we briefly put aside our own beliefs and prejudices and listen to someone else’s.  You can rant against a book, scribble in the margin or even chuck it out the window.  Still, you won’t change the words on the page.”

And after providing examples of books that have influenced him or changed his mind or made him wiser from Stuart Little to The Odyssey to Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea to Reading Lolita in Tehran, Mr. Schwalbe salutes the power of reading:

“Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny—but only as long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only as long as they actually do so.  The right to read whatever you want whenever you want is one of the fundamental rights that helps us preserve all the other rights.  It’s a right we need to guard with unwavering diligence.  But it’s also a right we can guard with pleasure.  Reading isn’t just a strike against narrowness, mind control and domination:  It’s one of the world’s great joys.”

In these somewhat unsettled times, his words resonate with me.

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BOOK LIST FROM MY BLOG

And here, in time for your holiday shopping should you choose, is the list of books I’ve mentioned in the blog since June.

Buruma, Ian                          Their Promised Land (biography, July)

Belfer, Lauren                       And After the Fire (novel, June)

Brower, Kate A.                    First Women:…First Ladies (biography, June)

Gyasi, Yaa                              Homegoing (novel, June)

Lewis, Sinclair                      Main Street (novel, June)

Purnell, Sonia                       Clementine (biography, June)

Cambor, Kathleen                In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden (novel, July)

Church, Elizabeth J.             The Atomic Weight of Love (novel, July)

Cooper, Anderson                The Rainbow Comes & Goes (nonfiction, July)

Delinsky, Barbara                 Blueprints (novel, July)

Doiron, Paul                          The Poacher’s Son (mystery, July)

McCoy, Sarah                       The Mapmaker’s Children (novel, July)

Simonson, Helen                 The Summer Before the War (novel, July)  

Smith, Dominic                   The Last Painting of Sara de Vos (novel, July)

Cleave, Chris                        Everyone Brave is Forgiven (novel, July)

Haigh, Jennifer                    Heat & Light (novel, Aug.)

Matar, Hisham                    In the Country of Men (novel, Aug.)

McCann, Colum                  Dancer (novel, Aug.) 

George, Elizabeth               Believing the Lie (mystery, Aug.)

Thompson, Victoria           Murder in Chelsea (mystery, Aug.)

Cleve, Chris                          Everyone Brave is Forgiven (novel, Aug.)  

Erdrich, Louise                    LaRose (novel, Aug.)

Donati, Sara                         The Gilded Hour (novel, Sept.)

Sweeney, Cynthia                The Nest (novel, Sept.)

Haruf, Kent                           Our Souls at Night (novel, Sept.)

Carr, David                           Night of the Gun (memoir, Oct.)

Harrod-Eagles, C.               Orchestrated Death (mystery, Oct.)

Hadley, Tessa                       The Past (novel, Oct.)

Goodwin, Daisy                    Victoria (novel, Nov.)

 

Note:  Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

 

 

 

Book List: January-May 2016

JWF 2 Comments

By popular request and for your reference (as well as my own), I’ve created an alphabetical list of all of the books I’ve mentioned or commented on since the beginning of the year; i.e. January through May, with one title that will appear in another posting this month.  List includes the genre and the date of the blog post in which it appeared.

It is possible to search my blog by the tags, “books” or “reading,” for example, and get the posts that have those tags, but this does not provide an organized list.  And you can see all the posts that are categorized as Books or Reading, but that again just gives you the entire post.  So here’s the first list of authors and titles.  I’ll do this periodically throughout the year.

BOOKS CITED 2016, Jan-May

Addair, Lynsey           This is What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love & War

(memoir) 3/20/16

Coutts, Marion           Iceberg (memoir)  2/20/16

Fair, Eric                     Consequence (memoir) 5/18/16

Fechtor, Jessica         Stir: My Broken Brain & the Meals That Brought Me Home (memoir) 5/18/16

Gawande, Atul           Being Mortal (nonfiction) 2/20/16

George, Elizabeth      Banquet of Consequences (Inspector Lynley mystery) 5/18/16

Groff, Lauren             Fates and Furies (novel)   2/14/16

Harrod-Eagles, C.     The Dancing Years (historical novel, Morland Dynasty) 4/29/16

Haslett, Adam            Imagine Me Gone (novel) 5/30/16

Kalanithi, Paul           When Breath Becomes Air (memoir)

Kinsley, Michael        Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide (memoir) 5/22/16

LeBan, Elizabeth       The Restaurant Critic’s Wife (novel) 5/18/16

Lee, Janice Y. K.        Expatriates (novel) 3/5/16

Markham, Beryl        West with the Night (memoir) 2/14/16

Newman, Janis C.    Master Plan for Rescue (novel) 1/29/16

Ng, Celeste                Everything I Never Told You (novel) 3/5/16

Norris, John              Mary McGrory, The First Queen of Journalism (biography) 1/22/16

Nuland, Sherwin       How We Die (nonfiction) 2/20/16

Nutt, Amy Ellis          Becoming Nicole (nonfiction) 1/9/16

Redniss, Lauren        Radioactive (graphic biography) 4/23/16

Reisman, Nancy        Trompe L’Oeil (novel) 1/9/16

Sansom, C. J.             Dissolution (Tudor mystery) 5/22/16

Strout, Elizabeth        My Name is Lucy Barton (novel) 4/23/16

Tallent, Elizabeth      Mendocino Fire (short stories)

Traister, Rebecca       All the Single Ladies… (nonfiction) 4/15/16

Walker, Walter          Crime of Privilege (mystery) 2/20/16

Warlick, Ashley          Arrangement (historical novel) 3/20/16

Winspear, J.                Journey to Munich (Maisie Dobbs mystery) 4/23/16

 

Booknote: Summer Reading

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For some of us, summertime is an excuse to read something light or more frivolous than we usually would.  For others, it’s an opportunity to devote time to delving into a serious tome, perhaps one that’s been languishing on the shelf.  I view it as a chance to do both—indulge in lighter fare and stretch my brain with something more challenging, usually a nonfiction title.  When I was working fulltime, Maine was my time for extended reading.  Now I have more available time, but I still see Maine as a gift for long spans of reading, whole mornings or whole afternoons.

Before leaving home, I load up my Kindle with new books, pack a few paper books in my luggage, and, don’t tell my spouse, even mail myself a box of assorted novels and nonfiction to await my arrival.  On the day we arrive at our rental house, a priority is to assemble all the books I’ve brought or mailed and put them in stacks on the living room end table with another stack in the bedroom.  There’s something very appealing about having all those choices laid out from which I can choose what to read next!

Here are some titles I’m considering.  More to come in a future post.

Flying Shoes by Lisa Howoth.  A first novel about an unsolved murder in Mississippi in 1996.

Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose.  A novel about a lesbian and cross dresser that seems appropriate reading given today’s ongoing conversation about gender and gender roles.  On the “2014 100 Notable Books” list from the New York Times Book Review.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Chiaverini has written several historical novels set in the time of the Civil War as well as a series of books about quilters.  Lighter fare and this will be my first of hers..

Muse by Jonathan Galassi.  A new short novel about the world of publishing.

Ashley’s War by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.  Nonfiction account of women on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2010.

The Secretary by Kim Ghattas.  Published a couple of years ago, this is a reporter’s account of traveling with Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.   Timely given her candidacy.

WHAT I’VE READ RECENTLY

What is it like to work in the White House?  The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower is a quick read  based on interviews with butlers, seamstresses, housemaids, valets, and other White House staff from FDR and Truman to the present.  For the most part, the closer you get to the present day, the more restrained the staff are in their comments about the President and First Family, but you still get an intriguing glimpse of that enclosed world.  Each family has its own distinct personality and its own preferences and some families were definitely friendlier to the staff.

 

Booknote: Mysteries of Character

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GEMMA, MAISIE, AND CLARE

My mother devoured mysteries.  I think when she was raising her four children they were pure escape.  She would read a Crime Club mystery in an evening and then read several more over the rest of a week—all of that required frequent trips to the public library.  I am more selective in which mysteries I like, but I do have a few favorite authors whose series I follow.   These are mystery novels featuring women detectives with these characters evolving over time.  Reading them in the order they were published enables the reader to share in how a relationship, whether it’s with a work partner or a romantic interest, deepens and changes.  For me, this is much more satisfying than a one-off crime novel. The books in these series are also well written.  Each author came to writing after some other career and with considerable life experience and each has won multiple awards for her writing. So, here is my first batch of favorites—for those who know me, there aren’t any surprises!

Deborah Crombie grew up near Dallas, Texas, lived in the U.K. with her first husband, a Scotsman, and then returned to the U.S. and Texas.  She loved England and her contemporary mysteries are set there and feature the Scotland Yard detective team of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma Jones.  The first books focused on Duncan, but then their relationship developed.  They became partners in life and often work together, whether officially or unofficially, on their cases.

The novels are rich with the complexities of children and stepchildren, ex-spouses, unreasonable bosses, challenging colleagues, and yes, murders with few clues.  One of her most recent titles which I just read and enjoyed is The Sound of Broken Glass.  There are at least 17 titles in the series—hard for me to believe I’ve read that many!

The Maisie Dobbs mystery novels by Jacqueline Winspear are mostly set in England in the period from WWI into the 1930’s.  Maisie is a psychologist and private investigator and a somewhat quirky woman taking advantage of the winds of social change.  Author Winspear was born and raised in the U.K., immigrated to the United States in 1990, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay area.  Several years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting her briefly when she was also a guest at an author lunch.

I find Winspear’s evocation of this earlier time in history to be fascinating and believable.  Besides Maisie, her other characters—Maisie’s father, her mentor Maurice, and her friend James Compton—come off the page and I find myself savoring the details of their lives and their interactions.   Currently, I’m reading the very latest Maisie Dobbs, A Dangerous Place, this one set in Gibraltar.

Unlike the other two writers, Julia Spencer-Fleming has always lived in the U.S. and has not strayed too far from home.  She grew up in Plattsburgh, NY as an army brat, went to law school and then practiced law before becoming a successful writer.  She now lives outside Portland, Maine.  Her main character, Clare Fergusson, is undoubtedly one of the more unusual detectives.  An ordained Episcopal priest, Clare has her own church in a small upstate NY town, and previously was a helicopter pilot in the army.  The town of Millers Kill is almost as much of a character as police chief Russ Van Alstyne with whom Clare collaborates.

Almost every book title is a phrase from a Protestant hymn and some chapter titles too, but don’t be put off, there is some church politics in the mix, but these are not preachy tomes.  One aspect of Spencer-Fleming’s work I particularly admire is her willingness to tackle contemporary issues within the context of a murder mystery, be it abandoned babies or the struggles of returning veterans.  You may find, as I do, that her stories stay with you.  One such for me was One Was a Soldier published in 2011.