What I’m Reading

For some reason, I could hardly read this winter. Head + pillow = sleep was the equation of my failure. I blame skiing. And sickness. But here are a few that I managed to read/get more than half-way through (still finishing a few! See post title in the present tense.) Enter spring’s longer days and, surprise! I can stay awake and read. Plus I had those 3 vacation days in Puerto Rico to jump start my brain that’s been frozen in a tundra. (Yes, I am blaming yet another thing on this winter).

I would recommend all of these because I close a book if I can’t get into it. I have no guilt in cutting my losses. So I hope you get to dive into a few of these soon. And I would love to hear any recommendations you all have for the last best book you’ve read. Word of mouth is a book lover’s best friend.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed –

I read this on my trip to Puerto Rico (haven’t seen the movie). I really liked the writing in this book, and sort of studied the way she crafted her memoir (the lost boot in the first few pages = a great hook. You couldn’t wait to see how she finished the trail with no boots! At least I couldn’t the emotional lightweight that I am). I also loved how tangible her mom’s love for her and her siblings was in the first chapter. It hit such an emotional note from the get go that you were invested, rooting, caring from the very start. (I still have about a third of the book left but hope to finish it this weekend.) Other books by this author: I read a little bit of her Tiny Beautiful Things when I borrowed it from my friend pool side, which is an anonymous advice column she wrote and the pieces are so encouraging and uplifting.

Someone by Alice McDermott –

This book is like staring at a painting. The mental images are so finely drawn (i.e. “I could see the down on my mother’s face”) that even though the events in the main character’s life are very uninteresting and underachieving (her first job is at a funeral home, as a teenager she purposely makes mistakes when cooking what her mother asks so she won’t be expected to cook in her life) the book reads with a pulse that comes from amazing observations of people, creating characters that stay in your memory from tiny details. The title ‘Someone’ is meant to underscore that she is almost no one of consequence, but every life story can be seen through an artistic lens so that you can find beauty and meaning in it. It is set in Brooklyn, where the author grew up, and her chiseled memories and sketches of this city add a beautiful backdrop to the book. Other books by this author: Charming Billy, which I loved and was also filled with amazing character sketches and the Irish culture in the big city. 

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson –

This exquisitely written book is narrated by a preacher who is dying, and is a letter to his young son where he examines his faith, and his life, in order to give an account to this young boy about where he came from. He tells gripping stories about his father – who was a pragmatic minister –  and grandfather, who claimed to have been visited by Jesus – and their lives in the newly settled town in Iowa. But it is also a universal story about the times in our life filled with trials and difficulty and loneliness. Oh, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for literature. So you don’t have to take my word for it. Other books by this author: Home, which I can’t wait to read. 

Death By Living by N.D. Wilson – 

This was recommended by another blogger and it was a quick read. As a parent, I really liked it, since he did a great job of putting to words how fleeting and how marvelous our job is to give kids their foundation in life. He is a dad of 5 and really into stoking kids imaginations and has written many young adult books. He is the son of a preacher and he reads like it so if that is not your bag you may not love it.  And he kind of put down other faiths (Catholics love John Paul II because he was friends with Bono. Like that is the only thing he was know for?) besides his Calvinist one but the essential idea – that life is hard and the good things in it just might cost a lot – is a good message. Other books by this author: Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl.

This is The Story of a Happy Marriage –

Where do I start with how much I love Ann Patchett? Both her fiction and non-fiction make me hang on every word. She is smart enough to not let sentimentality take over, but she has enough heart to put pure logic in its place. She gives her essays such a structure around meaning that I think of them long after I put them down. A lonely drive in the south where she gives a stranger a lift, a fight with her husband in a choice restaurant in Paris, a road trip in a Winnebago where they decide to stay together. All of these scenes can be recalled as if an intimate friend reported them, which is how the best books read. Other books by this author: Bel Canto, State of Wonder 

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing –

The title does not lie. I could do a whole post JUST on this book. I feel changed and like organization is within my grasp, and it is so simple. Just get rid of all the extra stuff you don’t need in your house! If that sounds daunting (it does to me), Marie gives you the KonMari method and breaks it down into no-nonsense baby steps that are so doable. She strongly recommends you tackle each category of stuff in order – clothes, books, paperwork, miscellaneous stuff, and sentimental stuff. She sliced through the psycological reasons we hold on to stuff. My house/closet/basement will never be the same. I’ve already filled 8 garbage bags of stuff and itching to do more.

American Sniper –

My husband read this first and I probably picked it up so we could talk about it together. But guess what? I really couldn’t put it down. I read it in a weekend at the ski condo, and I can attest that you can read it while having 4 kids jump on you on a snowy Sunday morning. It has some great story telling. Chris Kyle (and his wife and co-writers) have a knack for taking their experiences and pulling out gripping tales. The poignancy of his life makes these stories all the more weighty.

Next Up:

The Orphan Train – Just picked it out for book club but I have heard great things. I also opted to have it sent to my Kindle and my Audible app. The odds are much higher that I will finish a book these days if I have it on both.