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| Einstein keeps watch at the Jersey shore. |
Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in January, this month that has lasted 27 months already. A lot of this was tough reading for me. I engaged in skimming. And had one DNF because it was just too difficult.
One memoir, two fantasies (unusual for me, and both also count as children’s lit), two mysteries, one classic, one which read as sort of poetry, and one nonfiction on sexism.
Book 1
Early on, I could see.
Book 2
An Unexpected Party
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
Book 3
Our troubles began in the summer of 1914, the year I turned thirty-five. The Archduke of Austria had just been assassinated, the Mexicans were revolting, and absolutely nothing was happening at our house, which explains why all three of us were riding to Paterson on the most trivial of errands.
Book 4
Up the stairs they raced, taking them two at a time, trying to be as quiet as possible. Gamache struggled to keep his breathing steady, as though he was sitting at home, as though he had not a care in the world.
Book 5
You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but that ain’t no matter.
Book 6
A Brief Introduction to the World of Aerwiar
The old stories tell that when the first person woke up on the first morning in the world where this tale takes place, he yawned, stretched, and said to the first thing he saw, “Well, here we are.”
Book 7
Blessing for Waking
“And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” – Mark 13:37
This blessing could
pound on your door
in the middle of
the night.
This blessing could
bang on your window,
could tap dance
in your hall,
could set a dog loose
in your room.
…
Book 8
The Problem That Has No Name
The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States.
Did not finish
On a bright, humid evening in early August 2019, ten Honduran migrants met to pray in the basement of a Mexican housing complex called Solidarity 2000.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
Vision: a Memoir of Blindness and Justice, by
David S. Tatel
352 pages • first pub 2024.
I found this a fascinating memoir. Painful to read the final chapters because of, well, everything that is now happening.
Book 2
The Hobbit: or There and Back Again (The Lord of the Rings #0)
By J.R.R. Tolkien
365 pages • first pub 1937
Maybe I just don’t like fantasy. This is yet another book that everyone raves about, and it is called classic. I tolerated it. I was much more charmed by it the first time I read it. This time it just seems to be a lot of tromping through dark places with little food. The lack of women characters is disturbing to me. (I have the same assessment of the first part of the bona fide LOTR books, of which I only read a few chapters.)
I am not sure what this book says about the human condition but maybe I’m just being dense. If you love this book, please enlighten me.
I read it for book club, and felt a wee bit more favorable towards it after our discussion. Book club folks said it is partly an analogy for the first World War, which makes sense. And it does have a good examination of greed, and the meaning of “burglar.”
Book 3
Girl Waits with Gun (Kopp Sisters #1)
By Amy Stewart
408 pages • first pub 2015. Based on a real person.
I really liked this mystery. Just the right balance of peril vs ridiculousness. Loved the characters. I hope I can read more in this series. Is this the only book I have read that takes place in New Jersey? Yes, it was set in rural Northern New Jersey, and there was ( and maybe still is) such a thing. I spent a small portion of my life in Southern New Jersey, because that’s where my mother was from.
South Jersey's claim to fame
Book 4
Bury Your Dead (A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery #6)
By Louise Penny
371 pages • first pub 2010.
According to my kindle, this book was 511 pages. And seemed like it. There were three story lines, including a revisiting of the mystery in the previous book in the series. I enjoyed the mystery of the books & historical dead bodies, including some amusing spots. But the story line about the terrorists was too fraught for me, although I thought it was told well. I liked all the characters (which can be sad when the killer is revealed and it’s someone I liked) and the descriptions of cold and snow, but two mysteries would have been enough for me.
Book 5
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck #2)
By Mark Twain
327 pages • first pub 1884
I was re-reading this in advance of reading "James" by Percival Everett. Twain is a master at portraying Huck Finn's "voice". I found the first part highly engaging, as Huck and Jim make their way down the river. I tired of it sometime after the Duke and the Dauphin showed up. So after their second caper, I just skimmed it. The consistent use of the n* word was difficult to see past.
Book 6
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga #1)
Andrew Peterson
290 pages • first pub 2008. Children’s (middle grade) lit.
The writing style is quirky fun, but I quickly tired of it. Silly footnotes, similar to a Terry Pratchett book. Clever, perhaps, but I wasn’t in the mood for that. I did finish it, because I quite liked the child characters. But I did not read the footnotes. I thought the disability of one character was thoughtfully portrayed.
Book 7
Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
By Jan L. Richardson
180 pages • first pub 2015
Just what I needed.
An excerpt from the introduction:
A blessing will not fix us. It will not, of itself, resolve the difficulty we are in or undo harm we have caused or received. Instead, a blessing is a channel of the Divine, a profound means of grace that has the capacity to open our eyes so that we might recognize and receive the help of the One who created us in love and whose deepest desire for us is that we be whole.
….
A blessing speaks from God’s mysterious heart into our own heart, meeting us in our ache for connection and presence.
…
Rather than being an indicator or measure of God’s favor, a true blessing most often meets us in the place of our greatest need, desperation, pain, or lack.
And here is one of the blessings, one that is challenging for me.
Book 8
The Feminine Mystique
By Betty Friedan
562 pages • first pub 1963
Often dated, but at times gives a description of today’s America, point-blank. Brutally honest and correct in some instances. Terribly wrong in at least one instance. I skimmed and skipped parts of it, and yet it still took me 2½ months to get through it. But I respect this book: I can only imagine that when it was published it was a society-changer.
I put a lengthier review on storygraph.
Did not finish
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
By Jonathan Blitzer. 534 pages • first pub 2024
nonfiction history politics
This is a timely topic, for sure, but the events were too fraught for me right now. Graphic description of torture.
I hope you are finding some pleasant reading material! I will be purposefully seeking out some lighter reads in February, although book club selections might make that tough.
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| Rough seas ahead |
