Review: THE GOD OF THE WOODS (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Book Beginnings quote:

"The bed is empty."

Friday56 quote:

“It was wonderful, thought Tracy, having friends like these, who seemed to see the parts of yourself you worked hardest to hide, and bring them into the light and celebrate them with a sort of tender ribbing that uplifted more than it put down.”

Summary: 

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.

Review: I listened to the audiobook of The God of the Woods by Liz Moore last month. All 14 hours and 35 minutes of it. The story is a double murder mystery with the suspected murders happening fourteen years apart. Like all mysteries I have a hard time reviewing them because the point of the book is to discover who-dunnit and if I tell you, then there is no point in you reading it. Instead, I will give you a few of my thoughts of the book.

1. The mystery begins with the first line, "The bed was empty."
2. Th Friday56 quote is about Tracy, a young camper, who finally feels accepted after years of being an outsider. Acceptance is a powerful motivator for staying silent when one should speak up.
3. There are a lot of suspects. In fact, I'd say that everyone is a suspect with the exception of the police and the children campers.
4. For that reason there are a lot of people to keep track of and details presented early on in the story have to be remembered to fill in gaps closer to the end. Don and I listened to it together so we had the benefit of stopping the audiobook to remind the other person of earlier details or even to discuss who so&so was.
5. There were so many red herrings. I swear I actually thought at least a half dozen of the people were the murderers at one point or another during the story.
6. Oddly for a book so crammed with characters, I didn't really like anyone and some of the characters I actually hated. Maybe the one exception was the police inspector, Judy, and possibly the camp counselor Louise. Otherwise, blech, those rich people were all awful, AWFUL.
7. The book was long, 490 pages, and there were more than one part where the action dragged and I thought "get on with it."
8. There story unfolded in two timelines, one for the first murder investigation and another for the second. Fortunately there was timeline help in the headings of the chapters, so I was rarely confused.

The God of the Woods ended up on a lot of the end-of-the-year favorite book lists for 2024. Many citing how thrilling the plot and how unputdownable to book is. I rated the book with 4 stars, losing 1 star for its length and all the awful, despicable characters.

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT: Books published in 2024 I still hope to read

Top Ten Tuesday: Books published in 2024 I still hope to read.

Looking over this list of the 50 Best Books of 2024 I see there are still several titles I want/need to read.

1. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

2. The Wedding People by Alison Esbach

3. Small Rain by Garth Greenwell

4. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

5. Be Ready When the Luck Happens: a Memoir by Ina Garten

6. The City and Its Uncertain Wall by Haruki Murakami

7. Colored Television by Danzy Sella

8.  Long Island by Colm Tóibín

9. Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez

10. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

-Anne

Review: SENSE AND SENSIBILITY -- Where I address the similarities between Jane Austen and The Beatles

As part of the Austen25 Project I am reading some/all of Jane Austen's novels this year in celebration of what will be her 250th birthday. The project suggests reading her books in publication order, so began with Sense and Sensibility. 

In mid-January I set up a plan to read the novel in an orderly way so I would complete it by month's end. (See plan here.) I blew right past my plan and finished the novel well ahead of schedule and have since sat on this review.

What can I say about Jane Austen and about her first published novel that hasn't already been said? Why am I compelled to read Jane Austen novels over and over again? Are there other authors, groups, or events which I feel similarly compelled to read/attend/listen to/watch like I do with Jane Austen? 

These thoughts rattled around in my brain for the few weeks it took me to read Sense and Sensibility. During that same time, I checked out yet another book about The Beatles from the public library and consumed it in less than a day. The two aren't connected, are they? Jane Austen and The Beatles? An unlikely but definite connection between the two started to coalesce in my brain.

What do Jane Austen and The Beatles have to do with each other? I turn to both of them for comfort.

Back in 2016, when Trump won his first election I found myself in a true funk. I could barely function yet I found true comfort in watching, and rewatching the old Jane Austen movies I own on DVD. It was as if I was too fragile emotionally to watch modern TV shows or movies, but movies set in the 1800s were fine. There is also something so comforting in Jane Austen books/movies about how things always seem to work out in the end. In Sense and Sensibility not only does Marianne get over her deadly fever but she finds solace and comfort in her friendship and eventual love for Col. Brandon. Elinor is resigned that her life will go on without Edward Ferrars -- at least she has her sisters-- when all the sudden he pops up, clears up all the confusion. and declares his love. Something very similar happens in all six of J.A.'s novels. In Mansfield Park, for example Austen says, "I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was natural that is should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmund did cease to care for Miss Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fannie..." It reminds me of the phrase, "Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it's not the end." I needed to remind myself that everything would be okay in the end and found that message in J.A. novels.

Right after I recovered enough from my post-election funk to be able to stop watching the steady stream of Jane Austen films, I started a two-year oddly timed fascination with the Beatles. I'd always loved the Fab Four but this was something new. I was fully involved in a personal Beatlemania in 2017 and most of 2018. I read many, many books about the group, listened to their songs incessantly, and made several posting about my obsession. (See Beatlemania, Beatlemania Part 2, Sgt. Pepper at 50, Dreaming the Beatles, Tell Me Why, Beatlemania Part Three, and a ton of references made by me about the Beatles in my Sunday Salon Posts. Reflecting back on this time period, smack in the middle of the first Trump term, I wanted to be transported back to a happier more innocent time for me. Listening to Beatles music caused me to recall happy memories from my childhood. While listening to the Beatles I could disappear from the cares of the current time for a short while. 

Rerun 2024/25. Trump wins again. I'm off TV, especially any kind of political news. Once again I find comfort in Austen books (starting with Sense and Sensibility this past month) and films (I rewatched the Emma Thompson version of S&S last week.) Also the urge to learn more about the Beatles returns. I watched a documentary about the Beatles in America and read a book about the same topic, both in January. 

Like drinking a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows on a cold day, I draw comfort from both Jane Austen books/movies and Beatles songs. It may not be the most proactive thing I can do for self care but it works.

Not exactly a review of a favorite novel, but it's what I got for you today.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Feb. 2, 2025

Weather: It snowed this morning,  big fluffy flakes. Now it is overcast and threatening to rain. The weather report predicts a few days of the same weather pattern. We'll see.

Photo collages of what I've been up to (or plan to be up to...):

Don and I took our youngest grandson to Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park for a day of snow fun. Jamie did his darndest to make a snow angel but the snow was hard-packed and by mid day we had stripped off most of our clothes, the temperature was 65 degrees Fahrenheit with all the radiant heat. It was a gorgeous and spectacular setting.

Books completed the last two weeks. Reviews: The Mighty Red; The Optimist's Daughter; Playground

Currently reading: 23% ,    10% (audio) ;       25% (Graphic memoir);        25% (audio)                                                                                                               

Up next: Part of a library book haul.

Both of my book clubs met last week. We discussed James in the RHS Ladies Club; and The Red Address Book in the SOTH Gals Club.

Top Ten Tuesday topics you may have missed:
1. Books I Was Reading the Last Week of January for the Past Ten Years
2. Most Recent Additions to My TBR List

Our dog, Mr. Charles Bingley, has finally figured out how to jump up on the couch. He's so proud of himself. Ha!

Happy week!

-Anne

Review: PLAYGROUND: A NOVEL

I just finished reading Playground by Richard Powers. The book is both brilliant and perplexing at the same time. I've reread the ending three times and I still don't think I know what happened. I;ve even visited a few websites which say they will explain the conclusion but after reading what they wrote I still don't "get it." so, with that in mind, I've decided to give this review over to others (you know, the more qualified folks than me) to tell you what is so wonderful and mystifying about Playground.

First a summary --

Playground is a least partially set on a tiny island, Makatea, part of French Polynesia, in the South Pacific. The island was once ravaged for its abundant stores of phosphate causing great environmental degradation. Now only a handful of people still reside on the island, many barely surviving on the limited resources. When a California-based company expresses interest in creating a seasteading community off their coast, the citizens are rightly skeptical that all the promised infrastructure will end up degrading the environment of their island and reef even further. 

The story revolves around the stories of three characters: Todd Keane, Rafi Young, and Evelyne Beaulieu. Evelyne, who is 90 by the end of the story, falls in love with deep-sea diving at a very young age. She becomes a marine biologist who is dedicated to studying life in the oceans. Over her long life she has witnessed the effects that climate change has had on sea life and she is very worried about the future.

Todd and Rafi meet in high school and become friends over their love of games -- first chess and later GO. Both boys are brilliant. They room together in college where Todd studies computing and code-writing eventually developing the very popular online game, Playground. Rafi gets his degree in the humanities with a focus on literature and poetry. The boys, now men, still enjoy playing Go together and bouncing ideas of each other. When Rafi meets a girl who is a talented artist, he knows he wants to marry her someday. As Rafi and Ina get closer to each other they get further away from Todd. Eventually the friends split up due to clashes over their differing worldviews. 

Todd's "Playground" becomes wildly popular and he makes a lot of money. Later he works on cutting-edge technology related to AI. When Todd is 57, however, he is diagnosed with Lewy-body dementia. He learns that the disease is progressive and he will eventually lose all memory and ability to care for himself. At this point he decides to write down his story and create what he hopes will be his legacy. The narrator in the portion of the book whose text is italicized is Todd's story.

Or is it?

Now let's see what I can figure out from other reviewers --

First from the New York Times, this headline about the author Richard Powers with a reference to his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Overstory and trees:

The reviewer talks a lot about Powers' brilliance at writing about environmental topics but it also gives more details about the plot. However this is all that is said about the confusing conclusion:

Powers, who published early on artificial intelligence with “Galatea 2.2” (1995) reintroduces it here with an all-knowing tool, a collaborative “nanny app” called Profunda, which ostensibly will help the skeptical islanders. And the late twist this device enables, whorled as a seashell, may leave even the highest VO2 max reader gasping a little for air.

Clearly the reviewer doesn't want to give away any spoilers but this paragraph is about as clear as mud and didn't enlighten me at all.

I like this review by Y. Dawoor in  The Guardian better. I especially like this description of the book:

AI thriller is for sure and one hardly sees it coming. At least this time the reviewer acknowledges that the conclusion has a plot twist, but doesn't want to spoil things for you, the potential reader:

The novel’s most disquieting inquiries are concerned with AI and its fast-evolving capabilities. Will it lead to human extinction? What leverage will it give to good and evil? Could it resurrect the dead? Is it the future of storytelling?...That Powers is an outstanding writer is hardly news. But with Playground, he proves himself a wizard. This novel is one long, clever magic trick. You approach the end thinking you have everything figured out. But then the author does something quite extraordinary – a move it would be criminal of me to give away. Let’s just say the reader is left reeling as the book’s conceit is revealed and the novel ascends to the plane of true, indisputable greatness.

My favorite parts of the story were the scenes described by Evelyne of what she witnessed during her many dives. Dawoor agrees with me, saying, "Some of the underwater scenes are so limpid and sensorially rich, it’s like watching an oceanic feature in Imax; throughout, there’s a quasi-spiritual appreciation for the wonders and mysteries of marine life."

A theme of the value of "play" is apparent throughout the book. Todd and Rafi play chess and Go. Todd makes a killing on his online game "Playground". Even sea creatures like to play, as Helen McAlpin highlights in her review for NPR:

"If you want to make something smarter, teach it to play," remarks a trailblazing oceanographer in Richard Powers' Playground. Evelyne Beaulieu is one of several brilliant characters in the novel who eagerly approach their work every day with the excitement of "a babe in Toyland." During decades exploring the ocean floor and playing "hide-and-seek with octopuses and tag with pygmy seahorses," the Montreal-born diver feels as if she's been "set loose in the greatest playground any child had ever seen." But she is also concerned by the changes she's witnessed over the years — including reefs and species that have been decimated.

McAlpin concludes her review by stating that Powers does a masterful job weaving the three strands of the stories together but "still, he manages to pull off a sly — and disturbing — twist in the novel's profoundly affecting climax."

I give up. No one is going to explain the conclusion to me and I'm not going to spoil the ending for you by discussing my theories. Guess you'll have to read the book and find out for yourself! Let me know what you think if you do read it.

-Anne

Review: THE MIGHTY RED (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

Book Beginnings quote: 

On a mild autumn night in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, Crystal pulled herself up behind the wheel of an International side-dump, steered out of the sugar processing plant, and started her haul.

Friday56 quote:

As they drove across the river, Gary's fingers tightened on the steering wheel and his mind kept flowing the wrong way.

Summary: The setting of Erdrich's newest novel, The Mighty Red, is in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and a farming community whose livelihood revolves around the sugar beet during the Great Recession of 2008. And like the path of the mighty Red river, the story's path is also meandering and expansive.

At its core the story revolves around a love triangle between Kismet Poe, of the Ojibwe tribe and brilliant beyond the confines of their small community, and two boys -- Gary Geist, the high school's football star and son of one of the biggest sugar beet farmers in the valley, who is handsome and popular; and Hugo, a red-haired homeschooled boy who is bookish and non athletic. When Gary proposes marriage to Kismet his mother, Winnie, is thrilled. Crystal, Kismet's mother is shocked and upset. On the day before her wedding two things happen: Kismet "falls" into the Red River and has to be rescued and her father skips town with all the money from the church's building fund. Neither are a good sign. Indeed the new marriage is off to a very bad start.

Review: I am a Louise Erdrich fan. As in all her other books she includes in The Mighty Red indigenous characters into her plot. These characters grapple with how to cope with the modern world while trying to incorporate and keep alive their own values and heritage. At one point, for example, Crystal, who now is destitute since her husband ran off not only with the church's money but with their family money as well, makes herself a meal of lambsquarters, one of the most nutritious plants on earth. While at the same time the Geists are spreading poison all over their sugar beet field to get rid of the same plant.

The story indeed meanders around, back and forth in time to a year before when something happened to Gary and his football friends, and even further back in history to the time there were so many buffaloes that it took three days traveling on the train to pass them all. Erdrich never misses a chance to educate her readers about issues related to the management of our land,  and our tattered bond to Mother Earth. In the Mighty Red she deals largely with the way farmers use of pesticides on monoculture plants like the sugar beet is poisoning the land, and the effects of fracking is poisoning the water. Fortunately, these details are delivered with a handful of satire and humor so they are bearable to read about. In fact, many parts of the story are downright funny, especially the details that emerge about Kismet's father.

I really liked this summary of the book here where the book is compared to a quilt made of Kismet's old t-shirts:

The bustling and brightly coloured heterogeneity here is mirrored in The Mighty Red at large. Following a variety of perspectives, it is part romcom, part overblown family saga, part cli-fi warning, part absurdist heist, part small-town satire, all tumbling out amid the turmoil of the 2008 financial crash.

And just to make it a little bit more fun, there is a ghost.

My rating; 4.5 stars.

Sign up for The Friday56 on the Inlinkz below. 

RULES:

*Grab a book, any book

*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)

*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!

*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 

*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  

Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

-Anne

TTT Tweak: Books I was reading the last week of January for the past ten years

Top Ten Tuesday---I'm on my own this week with this tweak:
Books I was reading the last week of January for the past ten years

This is a fun activity for me -- to look back on what I was reading during approximately the same date for the past ten years.  In one case, I wrote the review almost a year after I read the book because I attended an author event about the book at that time.

January 25, 2025 --Currently reading:
Playground by Richard Powers
On the list of the top 50 books of 2024.

2024
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
A book club selection and a favorite book read in 2024.

2023
I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems by Kate Baer
Erasure poems. Very clever.

2022
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer
Nonfiction. Very helpful.

2021
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow In the Dark by Kate Moore
I read this YA version as a Cybils judge and then a few months later the adult version for book club. This version was better.

2020
Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of the "Children's Ship" by Deborah Heiligman
Another YA/MG nonfiction book read as a Cybils judge.

2019
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Another book club selection. Club members got to choose which of the author's books they wanted to read and I picked this one, set in Alaska.

2018
Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks : A Librarian's Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence
As a newly retired librarian I appreciated this book.

2017
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
The third book on this list which was a book club selection. 

2016
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
I had just learned this book won a Printz Honor for the year 2016.

2015
The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin
A very creative YA novel made to seem like it was true.

And one more submission, just because I got off on my counting and I mentioned this book up top --

2014 (but reviewed in 2015)
The Boys in the Boat: Nine American and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
A spectacular nonfiction book. Not to be missed if you like read narrative nonfiction.

A few of these books, like A Covenant of Water and The Boys in the Boat are actually personal favorites. Most of the others are just books I happened to be reading in January. I was shocked to see that six of the titles were nonfiction but two of those were related to my work as a Cybils judge in the MG/YA Nonfiction category, which helps explain why January has been nonfiction heavy. Read my reviews if you are interested in learning more about what I thought of any of the books. 

-Anne

Review: THE RED ADDRESS BOOK

Title: The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg, translated by Alice Menzies

Book Beginnings quote:

The saltshaker. The pillbox. The blood-pressure monitor in its oval plastic case. The magnifying glass and its red bobbin-lace strap, taken from a Christmas curtain, tied in three fat knots. The phone with the extra-large numbers. The old red-leather address book, its bent corners revealing the yellowed paper within. 

Friday56 quote:

I wanted to write to Gösta. Wanted to tell him everything he was longing to hear. But I couldn't. I couldn't manage even a few nice words about the city I had come to hate.

Summary:

Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny—her American grandniece, and her only relative—give her great joy and remind her of her own youth.

When Doris was a girl, she was given an address book by her father, and ever since she has carefully documented everyone she met and loved throughout the years. Looking through the little book now, Doris sees the many crossed-out names of people long gone and is struck by the urge to put pen to paper. In writing down the stories of her colorful past—working as a maid in Sweden, modelling in Paris during the 30s, fleeing to Manhattan at the dawn of the Second World War—can she help Jenny, haunted by a difficult childhood, unlock the secrets of their family and finally look to the future? And whatever became of Allan, the love of Doris’s life? (Publisher)

Review: I am always predisposed to like books I select to read, especially ones being read for book club. The Red Address Book, written by Sofia Lundberg a Swedish author, is no exception. I launched into reading the book on the airplane flying to California for New Year's Day. In the beginning I was charmed by the simple story of an aged woman reflecting on her adventurous, yet sad life. Many of the chapters are headed by names of individuals written in her red address book now crossed out with the word DEAD marked nearby. Doris is 96 when she decides to write down the stories from her life for her only relative, a niece in California. 

My mother, age 95, also writes her life-stories and shares them with her friends and family. I completely understand the impulse to share memories while one has a chance. Unfortunately as I read on I found myself less and less charmed by the stories, finding most to be unbelievable. I'm guessing I will be in a minority at the club meeting, though. I am often at odds with others when it comes to liking vs not liking books. In fact just last week my daughter and I were talking about a book she was reading but she warned me that I'd probably not like it because it wasn't literary enough for me. I knew what she meant. I tend to appreciate books that are really well-written, in some ways the plot is less important to me than the writing. We'll see what others think on Tuesday.

In the meantime, have you read The Red Address Book? What did you think of it.

My rating: 2.5 3 stars.

I updated my rating to 3 stars after attending book club. One point I was unaware of was the author, a Swede, had an aunt Doris whom she adored visiting. After Doris' death Sofia found her old address book and wondered about the life of an aunt she loved but didn't know her whole story. Sofia herself left home at age fourteen to model in Paris, which was another plot point in the book. Lastly, in book club we reminisced about friends/family who led full and exciting lives before we met them. One lady from our church, also named Doris, was a real character. Before any of us knew her, she lived a wild life in Hollywood where she met many movie stars. That was a fun discussion.

-Anne

Review: THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty is a short novel, divided into four parts, set in Mount Salus, Mississippi.

 

Part 1:

Judge McKelva goes with his young 2nd wife, Fay, and his adult daughter, Lauren, to see an ophthalmologist in New Orleans because of sudden onset of vision problems caused by a retinal tear. The judge insists that the doctor do the surgery himself instead of waiting for a specialist to arrive in a few days. The surgery is successful but the recovery is grueling. It requires weeks of lying still and flat with the eyes covered. The judge, a great reader, is distraught by his inability to do anything at all and slips into a despondent depression. Lauren understands his maliase and tries to perk him up by reading aloud to him from a Dickens novel. Fay, on the other hand, is upset because she is missing Mardi Gras and wants to celebrate her birthday. In her irritation she attempts to rouse her husband by pulling him from his hospital bed. She isn't successful but the damage is down. The judge dies, probably from a heart attack.

Part 2: 

The two women bring the body of the judge back to Mount Salus and are met by McKelva friends and family to help prepare for and to attend the funeral. Fay doesn't feel accepted by these people and is irritated by their presence. On the day of the funeral, however, her whole family, the Chisoms, arrives from Madrid, Texas. The difference in social class between the two families is very apparent and the ruckus this family causes provides the comedy in the midst of the tragedy. Lauren is mortified that her father ever associated with these people. Fay makes sure that the judge is laid to rest in the new part of the cemetery, not in the plot with his first wife, even though it overlooks the new freeway and there are plastic poinsettias on the graves.

Part 3: 

Fay returns to Texas with her family for a few days. Lauren is alone in her childhood home for the first time in her life. She overhears some of her mother's friends making fun of Fay and her family, and she surprises herself that she feels the need to step in a correct the record and to stop the chatter. Later Lauren finds some of her mother's papers, photos, mementos. She thinks back on her mother's illness which led to blindness and alienation, and eventually an early death. She also allowed herself to reflect on her own situation -- losing her husband Phil in WWII and ruminating about what his life could have/should have been like. 

Part 4:

That night Lauren wakes from a dream and realizes it was a memory of the train trip she took with Phil from Chicago to Mount Salus for their wedding. At one point they looked out the window at the river and could see the point at which the Ohio River joined the Mississippi River, becoming one. "All they could see was sky, water, birds, light, and confluence. It was the whole morning world. And they themselves were a part of the confluence" (159-160). Even though Phil was no longer with her, he could still tell her of her life which was a continuity of its love. This memory soothed her. Later Fay returns and the two women quarrel over a wrecked breadboard, a gift from Phil to her mother, and bicker over who killed the judge. Was it Lauren with her insistence that the judge lie still to the point of death or was it Fay who wanted him to quit his old man foolishness and get up. In the end Fay, with all her silly and inane ways, gets the house. And Lauren, by ending the fight and retaining her honor and her values, gets to keep her dignity and the promise that her memories still survive and can soothe her.

The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973. I wanted to read it for that reason alone. As I started the book I could actually feel my eyes rolling wondering why the committee picked a book with such a downer topic and a slow pace. Then, around part 3, I came to recognize the book held some universal truths about society, about class, and poverty and old money. I chided myself for being too quick to judge the book before I even finished it. In the end I found the book very touching and, this won't surprise any of my readers, I cried several tears.

My rating: 4 stars.

-Anne

TTT: Most recent additions to my TBR shelf

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Recent Additions to My TBR Shelf

Explanations below.

1. Not Like Other Girls by Adamo -- Added last night because I saw it was a finalist for the Morris Book Award which goes to the best YA Debut novels. (2024)

2. Shackled by Cooper --- Added last night because it is one of the finalists for the YALSA Best Nonfiction Award to be announced the end of the month. (2024)

3. Salvation Canyon by Rosenthal -- I saw it on a list of books read by a friend on Goodreads. It is a survival story in Joshua Tree NP. My husband and I always joke about a sign we saw when we were visiting Joshua Tree NP which said "Don't Die Here Today!" Sounds like good advice. (2020)

4. Fourteen Days by Atwood -- Added because I am a Margaret Atwood (Handmaid's Tale) fan. (2024)

5. The Unselected Journals of  Emma M. Lion by Brower --- A book blogger did such a good review of this one I decided I need to read it. (2019)

6. Now in November by Johnson -- A past Pulitzer Prize winner that sounds like one I should read. (1934)

7. Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth): a Memoir by Marcus Zusak -- I love The Book Thief so I want to read about the author. (2025)

8. The Inland Island by Johnson --- Same author as Now in November. A book vlogger said this was one of his favorite nonfiction reads of 2024. (1969)

9. Of Time and Turtles by Montgomery -- I really liked Sy Montgomery's nonfiction book about octopuses. This one promises to be just as good. (2023)

10. Four Thousand Paws: Caring for the Dogs of the Iditarod by Morgan -- an impulse add to my list. I like dogs and I'm interested in how they keep the dogs sae on such a long run through ice and snow. (2024)

11.  The Dream Hotel by Lalami -- I added this book to my list two weeks ago of  most anticipated books of the first half of 2025. It is one on that list I'm fairly sure I will actually try to read. (2025)

12. Memorial Days by Brooks -- I read Horse last year written by Geraldine Brooks. While she was writing that book her husband unexpectedly died. I was so taken by the notion of how on earth did she finish the book with that happening in her private life. Now I can read about how she did it. (2025)

13. Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green -- I read everything this author writes and have already got in line for the book at the library even though it isn't published yet. (2025)

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- So much crying

Sunrise with tip of Mt. Rainier from Eatonville, Washington

Weather: Cold and clear. Temperatures at night are below freezing.

So much crying: Last week I spent just about every day crying, often to the point of feeling crummy probably from dehydration. Why so many tears? Good question. I am not sure. I have some theories ---

• Grief is For People -- I read this memoir by Sloane Crosley, who is devastated due to the death of her friend by suicide. For some reason I was not prepared by how hard this book would hit me, causing me to think of suicides of former students and the tragic death of a family member. I cry a lot when I read but not usually this much. This book about grief was clearly one of my crying triggers. 
• A favorite quote: "And then because I cannot call you home, I call it [grief] home. I open my eyes and in a flash it come back to me, zipping itself to my edges, bobbing between my fingers. It's made a real life for itself here. Oblivious to its own power, it snores sweetly on my chest, this outline of a woman whose time has not yet come."
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman -- the next day I finished this little gem which "caused me to laugh continuously," as author Ann Patchett said of it, "except for the parts that made me cry." The ending was especially poignant thinking about how the mother parents her adult child right up to the time of death. So sweet and so touching. 
• Favorite quote: “And this may be the only reason we were put on this earth. To say to each other, I know how you feel. To say, Same. To say, I understand how hard it is to be a parent, a kid. To say, Your shell stank and you’re sad. I’ve been there.”
• "Kimberly Akimbo" -- Last Sunday Carly took me to see a play, "Kimberly Akimbo", in Seattle. It is about a girl who is aging very, very fast due to a genetic condition and at 16-years she has  probably just about lived to the limit of her life span. But she wants to be normal, to go on adventures, to experience life. Carly and I sat next to each other, both of us crying. I felt like sobbing but somehow kept myself from completely falling apart. We went out to dinner after the show and both of intentionally chugged glasses of water to ward off that icky dehydration feeling.
• 
  
  
  
• On reflection I wonder if my many tears are a symptoms of something else. Even though I went through menopause YEARS ago, I wonder if what I am experiencing is partially hormonal. When one cries during commercials on TV there has to be some reason, right? Or what about the low-grade depression I seem to be experiencing due to the upcoming presidency of Trump. I still can barely watch the news or read anything political. About the only channel I can trust for my political news is Comedy Central. I can only stand to hear the bad news if it arrives with a joke. I don't plan on watching the inauguration on Monday, but I will have my TV on all day set to QVC or Comedy Central, so his ratings will go down. (Tiny acts of deviance.)
• Oh, and the death of Jimmy Carter. He was really, really a fine man. His tributes make me cry for what we have lost. 
• Beauty -- unusual sunrises and sunsets (see photos above and below) this week and set me to crying for joy. Below is the sunset we saw in Seattle after we left our show. It was so bright it looked like the sky was on fire.

Sunset over Elliott Bay as viewed by the Seattle Convention Center.

Books finished this year so far:

• The Red Address Book by Lundberg-- a book club selection.
• The God of the Woods by Moore -- a mystery set in the Adirondacks. Don and I listened to the audiobook together. It has a ton of characters and kept up us guessing to the end.
• Grief is For People by Sloane Crosley -- a memoir. See note above.
• Sandwich by Catherine Newson -- a novel. See note above.
• The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan -- a nonfiction journal about the author's experiences bird watching in her backyard.

Currently reading:

• The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. A classic. 40% complete. Print.
• The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. a favorite author. 66% complete. Audiobook.
• Sense and Sensibility by Austen. Part of the Austen25 project. My intro post here.

Blog posts:

• Review: Book of Doors (my last review for books read in 2024)
• A look back at 2024 through my 2024 Sunday Salon posts.
• TTT: The Most Anticipated Books of 2025
• My Year in Books -- a meme
• 2025 Reading Goals and Challenges
• Austen25: An Austen Reading Project

Not all tears, there is this --

The grandsons went up the Space Needle today with my daughters. Mt. Rainier is in the background.

My daughter said they spent a lot of time laying on the glass floor of the Space Needle.

...and photo-bombing sisters taking selfies.

-Anne