Challenge: 50 Books discussion

ready to start the new year

Whoo hoo! Here's to a happy reading year!

Tiffany wrote: "Whoo hoo! Here's to a happy reading year!"

Thanks, Tiffany! I hope you have a happy reading year, too.

Already April! Time flies when you're having fun and not reading much.

1. Don't judge me! Spare by Prince Harry audiobook. Yes, I guess I gave into the hype in reading this book. I feel both a little chagrined and also defiant about that. I don't have any particular interest in the royals. Harry and Meghan caught my attention because I had often thought that living under a microscope, as famous people do, would drive a reasonable person absolutely mad. The fact that they fought this was of interest to me. Much has been made of the passages about his brother, father, and step-mother, but I believe that this book is more about the press and the impact it had on him than about any falling out with his family.

Imagine having your photo taken every time you left your house (or even though the windows of your house!) Your photo demanded as you left the hospital as an infant in your mother's arms. Telephoto lenses trained on you as you attempt to relax on vacation. If you're caught out with messy hair or the wrong clothes, being analyzed, mocked and berated. Then add to that "reporters" publishing accounts about you straight out of their fetid imaginations. To me, this feels like a particular kind of hell.

Curious, I had watched the interview of Harry and Meghan with Oprah Winfrey. They are both so fetching and clearly in love. So I felt I had to read Spare and see what else he had to say. Many people have said "I thought they wanted privacy! Why are they doing all these interviews, and why did he write this book?" Simply to get their own version of events out there. How would you feel if people read about you almost every day and you knew many items were fully fictional? Would you want a little bit of your voice heard? I know I would.

Most of the book is actually about his life before he met Meg. His childhood, his schooling, his military service (and the many parties he went to.) It's very interesting stuff and you can see that he has had issues with "the press" since he was young. Again - no privacy! Every misstep published and discussed. And completely fictional missteps as well. Harry claims that his own family (step-family?...) had a hand in giving false stories to the unscrupulous editors and 'journalists.' And of course, worst of all, he blames the paparazzi for his mother's death; and rightly so, I think.

Therefore, he reached his limit when Meg was being dragged through the muck; many of the stories not only untrue but frankly racist. The press seemed to want to promote the hate and threats that Meg was being subjected to. Harry feared for their safety and welfare. His family, in effect, merely told him to suck it up and ignore the stories rather than refute them or sue. "It just isn't done" Eventually this led to them leaving England.

I prefer if I read a memoir to hear it read by the author. I get so much more out of hearing their own voice as they talk about their lives. This was no exception (the English accent doesn't hurt, either.) Harry's ghost writer did an amazing job fashioning the timeline and wording. Harry admits he's no scholar, and this book is incredibly well written. Well done for finding a great writer.

Obviously, I have empathy for Harry and his family (um, meaning his wife and children.) I would not want to live in that environment and I admire their wish to remove themselves from it.

2. Foster by Claire Keegan The touching story of a young girl sent to live with a childless couple while her mother prepares to give birth to the latest in a seemingly endless number of babies. The nameless girl is not accustomed to a loving home, and slowly blossoms under the care of her foster parents. The ending of the story is ambiguous and I hoped for the best.

3. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout I hadn't read any other books by Elizabeth Strout, but I'll be looking for them now. Lucy by the Sea is the latest in a series of books with Lucy Barton as the main character. In this book, Lucy is pretty much oblivious to the coming COVID pandemic, but her ex-husband William is firm in insisting that she leave her apartment in New York and go with him to Maine to avoid what's coming. There are complications inherent in living with an ex, although Lucy and William get along fairly well. They have two adult daughters who William also tries to protect as well as he can.

The character Lucy Barton is a writer, but this book is written as if she were recording her thoughts for her own use and not for publication. It's very casual and therefore very personal.

4. Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty


5. The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier The title story is the one that inspired Alfred Hitchcock to create the classic movie. The movie bears little resemblance to the original; not least because the setting is completely different. As in her other books, duMaurier set The Birds in Cornwall, not upstate California.

6. Death of a Gossip by M.C. Beaton Short book I brought along to read at the doctor's office. It served its purpose.

7. When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash Wiley Cash has been recommended to me by friends who moved to North Carolina and appreciate his writing, as well as his knowledge of the state. This book grabbed me from the very first page. All the characters are well drawn and have their own stories. The ending is a real...surprise. I enjoyed every minute.

8. Every Man a King by Walter Mosley Long a fan of Walter Mosley, this book did not disappoint.

9. Viviana Valentine Goes Up River by Emily J. Edwards I've listened to all Three Viviana Valentine books now and they are just pure fun. The stories are fun, the characters are fun, the language is fun, the narration/reading is fun.

10. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier How is it possible that I never read this before? I've been reading du Maurier since I was in high school (we are not going to talk about how long ago that was) but somehow missed this book. It's an excellent noir thriller.

11. The Hillside by Jane Smiley Sadly, not one of my best experiences reading Jane Smiley.

12. You Are Ready For Takeoff: A Short Trip by Susan Orlean An entertaining and informative short about hypnosis used to quell the anxiety caused by flying.

13. Still Life by Louise Penny I hadn't heard of Louise Penny or Detective Inspector Gamache before I saw Penny and Hillary Clinton promoting the book they wrote together. How could I have missed her all these years? Thus I have started on the world of Armand Gamache and his team, investigating odd murders in the tiny, beautiful, quaint, and deadly village of Three Pines. I'm trying to pace myself so that I don't end up having to wait and wait for new releases.

14. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Robin Wall Kimmerer's book has changed my thinking about life in a consumerist, capitalist society. Not that I always thought it was the best way to live, but now I understand that our entire society needs to change the way we think and the way that we act, if we want to continue to live in this world. The Earth will survive us all, you know. We have and will continue to make many other species extinct and we are well on our way to making ourselves extinct as well. (Sometimes I think it can't happen fast enough, if that will save the rest of the Earth's creatures.) But the Earth will go on until it falls into the sun and perhaps by then it will have established new life forms from the waste we are creating, and I hope to hell that human beings are not one of those life forms. We must stop acting as if we have an endless supply of...anything! Clean air, clean water, food: all the things we need to exist. There are limits and many of us seem to believe--and act-- as if there is a limitless amount of everything we want. Read this book, begin to have humility and gratitude, and change the world.

I hold her lessons in my heart every day and attempt to act in a way that honors them.

15. John Woman by Walter Mosley I found so many things about this story problematic that if it weren't written by Mosley, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

16. The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly

17. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

18. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson Erik Larson brings history to life and this book about Churchill during the Blitz is no exception. If you want to know how the Churchills and their friends, and his government, lived during the Blitz, this is the book. Exceptional.

18. At Risk by Alice Hoffman A book about the early days of the AIDS crisis, when little was known and understood and fear ran rampant. I remember those years and this book was a reminder of the panic (and hate, and denial) of that time.

19. Direct Sunlight: Stories] by Christine Sneed A collection of brilliant stories; every time I finished one, I had to set it aside and contemplate for a few minutes.

20.Faithful by Alice Hoffman

21. Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds by Lyanda Lynn Haupt The anti-twitcher book! I am a birder and frequently bird with groups. I’m not very good at ID yet, so going with others helps me learn. However, I don’t like the acquisitive aspect of birding. “There’s a [fill in the blank]. I’ll mark it in my book (or app) and quickly move on to look for other birds”. Or worse, in my mind ,”Oh, it’s just a robin or crow or …”

The author encourages us to take a deeper look at birds; even very common birds. What is their habitat? What is their behavior like? Get to know them instead of counting them and moving on.

22. Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook by Christian Cooper. Mr. Cooper is known by most people as the victim of a racist woman in the Ramble in Central Park in 2020. That is the least of his story. He is a Harvard-educated activist, a nerd, well-traveled, a writer, and a birder. He is a compassionate, intelligent, thoughtful man who stands up for what he believes is right. This is the story of his life, told partly through his birding adventures. His story is unique, interesting, and he exhibits a grace that we should all have.

Oh, and by the way, the book is thoroughly engaging and I loved every minute.

23. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

24. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett This was one of my favorite books this year. I loved this story-within-a-story by Ann Patchett. Watching a movie one night, her husband remarks to their three grown daughters, "You know, your mother dated him," referring to the leading man in the film. Lara then tells them the story of her abbreviated acting career as they pick cherries in their orchard during the COVID lockdown. Since we know where Lara is in the present, we think we know where the story is going, but that's misleading. There are a number of wonderful and sad surprises as the story unfolds. Ann Patchett is a master story-teller and I loved this book immensely.

25. The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

26. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit is sparked to write this book by a brief mention that George Orwell planted roses. This takes her and us on a journey including Orwell's history as well as his family's; the big business of roses and what that means for the people who toil there; fascism (of course--we're talking about Orwell here!); and the human need for beauty. She weaves everything skillfully so that this book was a joy to read.

27. What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

28. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles I loved A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway, so I finally got Amor Towles's first novel to see if he started out as well as he ended up. I shouldn't have wondered. There were at least four places in this audiobook where I thought, "Oh, it's over already," but I was wrong. (I listened to this on Audible, so it's not always obvious when the book is finished.)
None of the endings I imagined actually took place, and that's a good thing! I was completely enthralled by this story of Brooklyn (Brighton Beach, no less) girl Katie (nee Katya) Kontent who arrives in Manhattan and quickly is befriended by a rich society man. Her life is forever changed by this chance encounter.

29. Normal Rules Don't Apply: Stories by Kate Atkinson

30. Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea Based loosely on his mother's experiences in World War II, Luis Alberto Urrea has brought to life a story of brave women in WWII who have largely been forgotten. Irene leaves her fiancé and enlists in the Red Cross where she is assigned to drive a moveable kitchen (well, donuts and coffee) truck in Europe. She shares this task with Dorothy and they serve coffee and donuts to soldiers, as well as chat, listen, flirt a little, and otherwise bring a bit of comfort to the soldiers.

They have some close calls and meet people whose memories will stay with them forever. The ending has a bit of a twist, which I enjoyed.

31. Holly by Stephen King I'm delighted to be reading Stephen King's more recent books. A few years ago, a friend and I read Joyland when we were on vacation, and we were both very happy with it. I've listened to several books since then and when I heard about Holly I was quick to get the audiobook.

In an interview (I believe with the New York Times Book Review) King said he didn't know how to write a mystery where you don't know who the perpetrator is. He finds it more interesting to tell right off who is the 'bad guy' and proceed from there. That approach makes this story really work. You know who and because of that you get to know why. Usually the "why" is left for the epilogue and that would be very disappointing in this story.

The reader was good; her various voices for the characters were good representations of them.

32. The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

33. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny I'm enjoying these Armand Gamache books immensely! He's a well-drawn character, as are the others. The stories are exceptionally interesting and the setting is sublime. This is the second book and I'll be starting on the third soon.

34. The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

35. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

36. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

37. The Rise: A Short Story by Ian Rankin

38. Viviana Valentine and the Ticking Clock and Emily J. Edwards

39. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

40. The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash What an amazing book.

41. Elevated by Stephen King

42. Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones by Dolly Parton Not a lot to read amongst all the pictures, but then I got it from the library for the pictures. The story of Dolly's life is incredible; a poor girl who wanted all her life to 'be pretty' and pursued that with few means. A force to be reckoned with, our Dolly.

Three more Armand Gamache books: the last being the best of the three. I was carrying the book around the house and reading it while I tried doing other tasks.
43. A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

44. The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

45. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

46. Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

As usual, I have 46 books here and 49 in the "my books" list. I'm not going to go through them one by one because it's tedious. I'll be happy with what I have.