An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days

Southwestern Writers Collection Series, The Wittliff Collections

by Susan Wittig Albert

From Eudora Welty's memoir of childhood to May Sarton's reflections on her seventieth year, writers' journals offer an irresistible opportunity to join a creative thinker in musing on the events—whether in daily life or on a global scale—that shape our lives. In An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days , best-selling mystery novelist Susan Wittig Albert invites us to revisit one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory, 2008, through the lens of 365 ordinary days in which her reading, writing, and thinking about issues in the wider world—from wars and economic recession to climate change—caused her to reconsider and reshape daily practices in her personal life. Albert's journal provides an engaging account of how the business of being a successful working writer blends with her rural life in the Texas Hill Country and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. As her eclectic daily reading ranges across topics from economics, food production, and oil and energy policy to poetry, place, and the writing life, Albert becomes increasingly concerned about the natural world and the threats facing it, especially climate change and resource depletion. Asking herself, "What does it mean? And what ought I do about it?", she determines practical steps to take, such as growing more food in her garden, and also helps us as readers make sense of these issues and consider what our own responses might be.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2010

About the author

Susan is the author/co-author of biographical/historical fiction, mysteries, and nonfiction. Now in her 80s and continuing to write, she says that retirement is not (yet) an option. She publishes under her own imprint. Here are her latest books.

A PLAIN VANILLA MURDER, #27 in the long-running China Bayles/Pecan Springs series.

Two Pecan Springs novella trilogies: The Crystal Cave Trilogy (featuring Ruby Wilcox): noBODY, SomeBODY Else, and Out of BODY; and The Enterprise Trilogy (featuring Jessica Nelson): DEADLINES, FAULTLINES, and FIRELINES.

THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE POINSETTIA PUZZLE #8 in the Darling Dahlias series, set in the early 1930s in fictional Darling AL

THE GENERAL'S WOMEN. Kay, Mamie, and Ike--the wartime romance that won a war but could have derailed a presidency.

LOVING ELEANOR: A novel about the intimate 30-year friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok, based on their letters

A WILDER ROSE: the true story of Rose Wilder Lane, who transformed her mother from a farm wife and occasional writer to a literary icon

THE TALE OF CASTLE COTTAGE, #8 in the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter

DEATH ON THE LIZARD, the 12th and last (2006) of the Robin Paige series, by Susan and Bill Albert

TOGETHER, ALONE: A MEMOIR OF MARRIAGE AND PLACE

AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR OF ORDINARY DAYS

WORK OF HER OWN: A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO RIGHT LIVELIHOOD

WRITING FROM LIFE: TELLING YOUR SOUL'S STORY

Reviews

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Susan Wittig Albert's writing and always enjoy it, even though the journeys she chronicles here, of living in place and becoming aware of peak oil, are not of news or particular interest to me (my own journey on these topics came to an end about two years before the year she chronicles, with the realization that we were not, as a society, going to do anything that needed to be done on either subject.)

Quotes I loved:

"Readings. I am a text person. I write every day, read every evening, and keep an annotated reading diary. I soak myself in words, sentences, paragraphs the way some people soak in hot baths . . If I care about what I am reading, I am an energetic, recreative reader; I make notes in margins, rewrite sentences, argue with the writer's opinions, insert quotations from related texts, annotate the bibliography. Like a bloodhound, nose to the ground, I follow developing interests, and if something catches my attention, I'm likely to follow that trail as far as it takes me, searching bibliographies and using the Internet to actively seek out related works." (x)

"I've been seriously addicted [to reading] since _The Tale of Peter Rabbit_, the first book I can remember reading (rather than being read to). I love the weight of a book in my hand, the smell o fink, the feel of the paper as I turn the pages, the enveloping, enlivening sense of belonging to a reading-and-writing culture. I confess to reading in restaurants, in the bathtub, at stoplights."

Quoting Eudora Welty: "I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them -- with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself."

Quoting Joseph Campbell: "To find your own way is to follow your bliss. This involves analysis, watching yourself and seeing where real deep bliss is -- not the quick little excitement, but the real deep, life-filling bliss."

Quoting Dianne Connelly "Suppose it is not possible to be lost, and that feeling lost is simply an interpretation of how I do not know where I am. Suppose that you are right here where you are." (74)

Story about jury duty (117)

I think this was somewhere, though I can't now find it: “DOGS’ LIVES ARE TOO SHORT. THEIR ONLY FAULT, REALLY.” – -AGNES SLIGH TURNBULL

Quoting Maya Angelou: "I don't belive an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at." (150).

[Bettyann · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life-changing book for me. At the end of my day, I couldn't wait to get back to it. Soaked up ideas, appreciation, and strategies like a sponge. Highly recommend to everyone.

[Annette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I read so many reviews of how wonderfully articulate, thoughtful, and insightful it was that I ordered a hard copy instead of my usual Kindle version.
By the time I reached April I was struggling to continue. I managed to get through June before I couldn't read any more. I regretted buying a physical copy of the book that would end up recycled instead of on my bookshelf.
Why?
It has a privileged, patronizing tone and completely lacks substance.
If there is any constant in life, it's change. And it's the one thing this book points out, ad nauseum, directly and indirectly: seasonal changes, human aging, and politics. Every time I read another "news flash" (inserted after nearly every entry), I wondered if the only reason it was put into the book was to add another dire prediction of doom.
It was like visiting great grandma and listening to her rant about the coming apocalypse.
I agree that humans have made a huge impact on the environment. But I can't abide with people who want to complain about it instead of actively doing something to change it. Honestly, I have a hard time with anyone (especially people who are in a position to make changes) who prefers to complain about any problems rather than try to make changes. And, to be fair, I haven't read half the book - so perhaps she eventually does do more than record news events with patronizing comments.
I don't usually write negative reviews. But I have to wonder how this book gets such high ratings. It's not entertaining and it doesn't provide insight. On the plus side, it is articulate, and there are some very nicely written passages of nature observations.
Overall, it's proof that personal journals don't always make good reading for people who don't have the same cultural or economic background.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful while being an entertaining read. Many references given of Ms. Albert's current reading throughout the months and then a very good bibliography at the end of the book. High recommended.

[Linda Spear · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to immediately talk to SWA. As with China Bayles and The Darling Dahlias, this writing is outstanding.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy two of Susan Wittig Albert's series,( the mystery series featuring China Bayles, which I just started re-reading, and the Beatrix Potter series) but I loved this journal, which she wrote over the course of 2008. She recounts many things about the ordinary life she and her husband lead in their Texas and New Mexico homes, telling of the landscape, their gardening efforts, neighbors, animals, and the daily writing challenges for a fairly prolific author. On a larger scale, she discusses her perspective on the political fights of that year, and looks closely at global weather changes, human impact on the environment, and the possibility of coming shortages in water, and fuel. At the end of each month's entries she includes a list of books she has read in that month, a good resource for future reading. I hope to read more of her nonfiction and fiction alike.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much great information in this book! I probably added half a dozen books to my To Read list, and I enjoyed reading about her writing process. The author is also a knitter, which added another element of that feeling of kinship I felt while reading this book.

I read it during a very stressful time in my life, and I found it soothing to finish my day with this book. While her concerns with the environment and the economy pushed my worry buttons a bit, she doesn't linger on this issues for extended periods of time--just enough to keep them in the back of my mind as a reminder of things to work on.

[Suzanne Kittrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is written by a Texas author who lives northwest of Austin in a doublewide with her husband of twenty years. A journal of living frugally while pursuing o successful writing career,the least of which the frustrations of having the Internet and the computer keeping them fairly independent and free. Susan and her husband are in their late 60s and still doing it all for themselves. Wonderful insights into the year of 2008.

[Skyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could read her journal for every year.

At first, I was bothered by how to read the quotations down the side of each page, but I soon fell into the rhythm of going back and forth between the sidebar and the narrative and before long I felt the layout was simply brilliant.

I added all sorts of books (over twenty) to my list of books to read based on her recommendations.

[Chris Babcock]

It's interesting to follow the path of Susan's thoughts during this year. She raises many difficult issues, but also shares the beauty of her surroundings. Many quotes in the margins that allow one to think about many different avenues of thought.

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book over the course of about six months. There isn't really anything super engaging about Albert's life. It is the ordinariness of it that is interesting. The driving home of the point that every life has a story to tell.

[Emily]

started reading this in june, but in july i didnt read any books so i returned this one and never called it back

[Larissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Succeeds in provoking thought about conservation & global warming, besides providing a whole new reading list for me.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insights into how a writer works -