A LONG OBEDIENCE IN THE SAME DIRECTION (+PDF of study session questions)

My Women's Bible Study group at church recently decided to study the Psalms of Ascent with the aid of Eugene Peterson's wonderful book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

Eugene Peterson wrote this book, published in 1980, to counter society's obsession with the "quick fix" and instant gratification. He focused the book on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) which are sometimes called the Pilgrim Psalms. These psalms were sung by pilgrims as they traveled from their hometowns to Jerusalem several times a year to attend the annual festivals. Since Jerusalem is situated on a hill, these pilgrims sang the song as they ascended the hill moving toward the holy city. Thinking of Christians today as pilgrims, Peterson, "with prophetic and pastoral wisdom, shows how the psalms teach us to grow in worship, service, joy, work, humility, community, and blessing" (Publisher).

After publishing A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Peterson embarked on a larger project -- to translate all the Psalms into idiomatic North American language. Peterson said in his 20th anniversary preface to this book, "I knew that following Jesus could never develop into a 'long obedience' without a deepening life of prayer and that the Psalms had always been the primary means by which Christians learned to pray everything they lived, and live everything they prayed over the long haul" (6). That project, which morphed beyond the psalms to the whole Bible, became known as "The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language" ("The Message", so short) translation of the Bible. It is a translation I use quite often or alongside other, more traditional translations when I am studying scripture.

Peterson died in 2018 but his son, Leif, wrote a commemorative preface including part of his eulogy for his father in this edition, published in 2021. In the eulogy Leif included a poem he wrote for his Dad which is titled "The Message." It concludes with these lines:

Because for fifty years you've 

been telling me the secret. For fifty

years you've stealed into my room

at night and whispered it softly to my

sleeping head. It is the same message

over and over and you don't vary in one bit.

God loves you.

He's on your side.

He's coming for you.

He's relentless.

This message alone made me want to read the book. I wanted to learn more about this relentless God! 

When I read A Long Obedience in the Same Direction last summer I was convinced that it would make a terrific study for our women's group at church. When we finished another study in late January I pitched the idea of using this study and focusing on the Psalms of Ascent at the Bible portion of it. The only problem, there were no discussion questions. Or more correctly, there are discussion questions which were written before Peterson had even published his translation of the Bible and don't cover all fifteen of the psalms. No problem, I said, I'll write the questions for our discussion. So that is what I did. I had no idea how detailed a project that would become but ultimately it was a rewarding project for me and the feedback I got from the group was positive. 

The book is divided into sixteen chapters all on a theme related to one psalm. The theme for Psalm 120 is Discipleship, Psalm 121 is Repentance and so forth. Each week one woman would take the leadership role and guide the discussion and work through the questions. At the end of hour-long session that same person would close the session in a prayer loosely based on the week's theme or the psalm.

I enjoyed and got a lot out of reading the book for myself but studying the book alongside other women really enhanced my understanding and deepened my experience with the material. 

If you would like to study A Long Obedience in the Same Direction with your Bible study group and don't want to write your own questions, you can help yourself to mine. I've saved them as a Pdf and have been assured you don't have to have an account with Adobe Acrobat to open the document so you can print them out. Just click the link below. If, by chance, that link doesn't work for you, you can email me (click email link of the side bar) and request a WORD version of the questions. Be sure to use the title of the book in the SUBJECT line so I don't delete the request thinking it is spam.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction PDF

Sample page of discussion questions:

(Here's the file "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.pdf" for your review.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:e93f62ed-ecc7-440a-b414-392ff03d6c93)

-Anne

Nonfiction review: THINGS IN NATURE MERELY GROW

Things in Nature Merely Grow is a heartbreaking memoir by Yiyun Li. 

“There is no good way to say this,” Yiyun Li writes at the beginning of this book.

“There is no good way to state these facts, which must be acknowledged . . . My husband and I had two children and lost them -- Vincent in 2017, at sixteen, James in 2024, at nineteen. Both chose suicide, and both died not far from home.”

Li, a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, decided to write this memoir for James. She wrote another book after her first son died, Where Reason Ends, which was a novel and one she imagined Vincent as the main character. Li decided to write a memoir for James. He wasn't like his brother, effervescent and outward facing, James wouldn't have liked to be the center of attention for anything, including a character in a book.

Most people would gasp at the idea of a mother writing a book about her son just months after his death, but Li found she needed to do it. She realized that words may fail but are still necessary. Li also continued doing things that others in a similar situation would have cast aside in the weeks/months after the suicides -- piano lessons, gardening, teaching, and writing -- among them. She called this "radical acceptance". She didn't use the words "grief" or "mourning" in the book. She decided she wanted to live thinkingly not feelingly next to the deaths of her sons.

As Li writes, “The verb that does not die is ‘to be.’ Vincent was and is and will always be Vincent. James was and is and will always be James. We were and are and will always be their parents. There is no now and then, now and later; only now and now and now and now.”

I think that above quote was the one that nearly broke my heart. Just think about being a mother of two children who commit suicide and to be able to embrace the now and now and now. Such bravery.

The story isn't only about James and Vincent it is also a bit about Li's childhood. Her mother was very abusive and would blame her outbursts and anger on Li because she loved her best. In 2012 Li was so depressed she attempted suicide twice and had to be hospitalized. She worried later that her own suicide attempts may have given her sons the ideas for ending their own lives. Such an awful, unknowable spot to be in.

Clearly this is not the usual grief memoir. Much of the book focuses on the inadequacies of words to express the magnitude of loss the author is feeling. By embracing radical acceptance Li is allowing herself to live with dignity looking into the future. Li also gives some practical ideas how to be a friend to someone who loses a loved one. She actually gives suggested phrases and actions to use and those to avoid. 

The prose are exquisitely written. Li has full command of literary references which completely charmed me. Such talent.

 Avoid this book if you are triggered by suicide and related topics.

My rating is 5 stars.

-Anne

Review: FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

Title: For Such a Time As This: An Emergency Devotional by Hanna Reichel

Summary: 

In an era of political polarization, eroding democratic norms, and rising authoritarianism, many Christians find themselves disoriented, wondering how their faith should inform myriad daily decisions. Drawing upon both scholarship and pastoral wisdom, theologian Hanna Reichel offers a timely resource for believers seeking spiritual grounding amid societal upheaval.

For Such a Time as This provides a thoughtful framework for discernment rooted in scripture, historical wisdom, and the core commitments of Christian faith. Through meditations on scripture, reflections on historical precedents including the Confessing Church’s resistance to Nazi Germany, and portraits of inspiring figures who maintained their integrity in the face of oppression, Reichel guides readers toward their own Christian response to the present moment. (Publisher)

Notes: I am the librarian for my church's small library. I have a miniscule budget, $100, to spend on it each year. We've limped along with an aging library for so many years hardly anyone uses it. This year I decided to make a change and weed out all the old dusty books and get members to donate new books to add some life to the place. I created an Amazon wishlist, asked several people in the congregation to join me in adding books to that wishlist that they'd like to see in the library and then publicize how people can purchase a book off the list. So far I've gotten twenty new books and still counting. (See list here: Library Amazon Wishlist.) For Such a Time As This is one of those new books which the pastor or the social justice committee recommended for the list. When it arrived I knew I wanted to read it, but I also wanted to get it into the hands of other people in congregation. Many of the people in my church are very concerned about Christian Nationalism and how the message of the gospel is being warped by their rhetoric. I quickly scanned the book and found it instantly helpful. As I read, I wanted to remember highlights from several of the chapters so I could refer back to them when I get a second chance at the book in the future.

These highlights, below, are those truncated notes to myself to remind me what chapters spoke about what topics. I doubt they will be very meaningful to anyone else. But sprinkled throughout are a few quotes, which I have highlighted in yellow and will use as my quotes for Friday56 today, though doubtless the quotes actually came from page 56.

Hanna Reichel is a theology scholar. Her first book was about Karl Barth, a Swiss Theologian whose writings influenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others and helped develop the Confessing Church during the Third Reich in Germany, to stand up against the other churches that went along with Hitler and his hijacking of the faith. In this book Reichel offers insights from Barth and philosophies which came out of the Confessing Church as part of her devotionals. I especially liked how she highlighted some of their declarations, like the Barmen Declaration, or parts of various creeds, confessions, and catechisms, which have guided the churches through the ages. In a way, it comforted me to know that we can lean back into church history and find strength and help from old documents, many I knew nothing about before speed-reading through this little book.

Here are some highlights and thoughts for several of the chapters:

1. "He then rebuked the wind" or find calm:

• It is not easy to stay calm in a storm, but necessary that we do so. Physical flooding will sweep you away. Emotional flooding will immobilize you. Don't let the storm control your emotions or your response
• Karl Barth, and the Confessing Church before and during the Nazi reign. 

2. "Jesus wept" or feel your feelings:

• "The only thing I ask God is that I may never become indifferent to injustice -- to pain, to suffering, to war, to betrayal, to the future." -Léon Gieco
• Empathy is a muscle. Strengthen it.

3. "Derive them of their pathos" or test your feelings:

• "Feelings of anxiety and worry can easily be channeled into resentment and envy, scapegoating immigrants, political dissidents, or supposed enemies of the state. Fear narrows love and moral responsibility."

7. "Two are better than one" or build with what is there:

• Looking at the Barmen Declarations and the Heidelberg Catechisms, the Confessing Churches used what had been worked out in the past to inform the present. This didn't allow for the church to be led by the special leader (the Fuhrer) but by Christ and Christ only.

9. "Stand where God stands" or protect the weak:

• Part of the Belhar confession says "the church as possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged."

10. "Stand firm" or do not give up space:

• The Episcopal priest, Mariann Budde, addressed the President from the pulpit "Mr. President please have mercy..." What was special about this sermon was that Budde ceded neither physical or spiritual space to the power that controlled the room.

14. "Do something brave" or make a start:

• Silence does not protect you. Not from harm nor moral complicity. Not speaking out does not make you neutral, it makes you a bystander.
• Think for yourself. Be as brave as you can. Expect to feel uncomfortable. If you find yourself unsure who to behave at least speak out loudly saying, "This seems wrong."

15. "Rejoice always" or lean into joy: (Can I quote the whole chapter and somehow make it seem like a summary?)

• The beautiful story of how Etty Hilversum's life was so filled with joy even in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, she said of the state of of her soul, "Somewhere inside me the jasmine still blossoms..." This turning inward was her way of quelling hatred and destruction. Our main responsibility, we found, was to "guard little pieces of God inside of self" and the moral duty is to reclaim large areas of peace inside ourselves and reflect it toward others.
• Make space for that joy. Let it grow. Let it roar through your life and expand to others.

I doubt this post is very helpful to anyone. I wish I had the book with me still and I could round out this post with a better review. If you struggle with the state of politics and religion today and find yourself at odds with the Christian Nationalistic rhetoric, I recommend you look around for this book and see if you also find it helpful, like I did.

____________________________________________________________

-Anne

Review: WHY FATHERS CRY AT NIGHT

Title: Why Fathers Cry at Night by Kwame Alexander

Book Beginning/First Line Friday Quote:

I was two. It was my birthday. She gave me wooden blocks in all shapes.

Friday56 quote:

"Portrait of a New Lover: Genesis"

five minutes after

she reads his note

her smile explodes.

She wonders if he is the one

Summary: Kwame Alexander is a poet and children's author. This book is his memoir. In telling his story Alexander uses love poems, letters, recipes, and remembrances. 

Review: I guess you could call me a Kwame Alexander fan. I've read ten of his books, starting with his Newbery Medal prize winning book, The Crossover. Of that book I wrote: "Best YA book I've read all year and, added benefit, it only took a little over an hour to read. The concrete poems were my favorites." The book, a novel in verse, introduced me to this fine poet and I've been firmly in his camp ever since.

Why Fathers Cry at Night is not a typical memoir. For one thing it is stuffed full of love poems written for girl friends who became his wives. (He's divorced.) Reading these poems felt a little voyeuristic for some reason. If I was reading the same information in prose, would I feel the same way? Hmm, not sure. In the book Alexander grapples with how to relate to his daughters now that he is estranged from their mothers and is still dealing with his grief over the death of his mother, six year after she passed.

Initially I wasn't very impressed by the format perhaps because he was sharing poems he'd written early on in his career and they weren't as good as his later stuff, or maybe it  just took me a while to accept the amount of information he was willing to share and settle for that. Later I was fully invested in the author's story and the format of the memoir. I am even tempted to try his mother's fried chicken recipe. I enjoyed reading how food and music were all tangled up in his memories. Aren't they tangled up in all of our lives?

My rating: 4.5 stars.

_______________________________________________

-Anne

Nonfiction review: TONI AT RANDOM

Title: Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams

Book Beginnings/First Line Friday quote:

Friday56 quote (actually from page 6, last page of preview):

Summary:

A multifaceted genius, Toni Morrison transcended her role as an author, helping to shape an important period in American publishing and literature as an editor at one of the nation’s most prestigious publishing houses. While Toni Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her editorial work is little known. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses Morrison's remarkable journey from her early days at Random House to her emergence as one of its most important editors. During her tenure in editorial, Morrison refashioned the literary landscape, working with important authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest, and Lucille Clifton, and empowering cultural icons such as Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali to tell their stories on their own terms. (Publisher)

Review: My husband started listening with me to the audiobook, Toni at Random, but he abandoned the book as soon as we arrived at our destination telling me to go on listening without him. At that point we were about at midpoint in the book and it isn't like him to stop listening once he is invested in a book. But this time he claimed the book just was too detailed and boring to keep his interest though he does greatly admire Toni Morrison.

Just looking at the first paragraph (above) you get the idea. That is the whole paragraph and Toni Morrison isn't even mentioned in it. I agree, this paragraph is boring. At times, it is almost as if this book is written for other editors or even publishers. Like the book is saying "this is how you do it!", just be like Toni Morrison. Since I listened to the book and never touched a printed version of it, I had to snag my Friday56 quote off of the preview pages provided by the publisher. Unfortunately this time only 6 pages of text were offered for preview. Actually, however, the quote I found on that last page was a very good one to follow up on first page because she is speaking at the conference and publishers, book sellers, and Black writers are hanging on her every word. She essentially is saying "we're all we go," and that the impetus for change in the publishing industry had to come from Black people. This is exactly what she set about to do as an editor for random House Publishing -- she found and nurtured Black writers toward successful writing careers. And she was tremendously successful at it.

I had no idea until I read Toni at Random how much work editors do for writers and the agencies they work for. Ms. Morrison not only gave writing suggestions but she did a tremendous amount of handholding and urging. One time she invited an author to come to New York and to stay in her house so they could work closely on the final manuscript. The process took two weeks with Toni editing pages downstairs and the writer running upstairs to make the needed changes and corrections. When Random House contracted with Muhammed Ali to write a memoir it was right after he got out of prison for not serving in the Army during the Vietnam War. He had been suspended from the boxing world and for all he knew, he was finished in his chosen sport. But before the book could be written, he was back in boxing and the deadlines for the book kept getting pushed off. Toni had to work with the ghost writer for far longer than anyone thought, sometimes even chasing him around the country,  just to get the book finished. When it was finally published the book, The Greatest: My Own Story, was tremendously popular, selling very well.

Don gave up on the audiobook before the chapters on Ms. Morrison's work with Muhammed Ali and Angela Davis. Both of those individuals were often in the news during my childhood and I found myself interested in learning more about both of them than I knew before, not just about the books they wrote but about their lives. 

All together I'd say that Toni at Random is probably not a book for the average reader unless that person is tremendously interested in the publishing industry or a huge fan of Toni Morrison. As the summary says, this book is about Ms. Morrison's editorship career, not her writing career, so readers don't find out anything about where she got her ideas for her own books. But it rounds out her story and it gave me one more reason to admire this famed author.

My rating: 4 stars.

_______________________________________________

-Anne

Short Reviews: THE SERVICEBERRY; THE VEGETARIAN; DEATH IN THE JUNGLE

Eek! I was a reading fiend this summer and not a reviewing fiend. Today I looked through the list of all the books I haven't reviewed. I apologized to some of them which I won't review, and determined I did have at least a few words I'd like to say about these books.

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Scribner, 2024. 120 pages.

I enjoyed Braiding Sweetgrass by Wall Kimmerer when I read it two years ago. I saw The Serviceberry on the shelves of my local bookstore but I assumed, without picking it up, it was just an illustrated gift book version of the first, so I didn't need to read it. I was wrong. I was looking for a book about economics for a reading challenge and this was on the list of suggested titles.

In The Serviceberry, Wall Kimmerer, an indigenous biologist, considers the ethics of reciprocity in a gift economy as she harvest berries next to the birds who are eating them (and spreading the seeds for future plants.) A gift economy is one where everyone has enough and doesn't take more than they need. Sharing out of abundance (think about your zucchinis and tomatoes this time of year) rather than hoarding what you have while others have to struggle to get by. This is what happens in the capitalistic form of economics which is based on scarcity and each man for himself.  “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

Both my husband and I were very touched by this short book. It's descriptions of ways we can move to a more gift or spirit-filled economy brought us hope for our future. 

Here is the first serviceberry plant I saw on our hike in Montana. Since the fruit wasn't ripe in June I had to identify the plant by its leaves.

On a related but a side note, this summer I saw my first serviceberry plant, with its unripe fruit, in the mountains of Montana, where huckleberries are king. I was standing over the plant trying to figure out if what I was seeing was a huckleberry plant and my son-in-law pointed out the leaves were all wrong. That led me to do some investigation when we returned from our hike, and I discovered I had been hovering over a serviceberry bush. This realization made me think of the book I'd neglected to pick up at the bookstore, The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Everything in my brain always seems to circle back to books. Ha!

My rating: 5 stars.

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The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith

Hogarth, 2007. 188 pages.

Yeong-hye lives with her husband and has a typical marriage. Waking from a nightmare one morning she renounces eating meat as a way to purge the blood and brutality in her mind. First her husband and then her sister, and eventually her whole family gets involved, trying to force her to stop the nonsense and return to eating meat. This has disastrous effects, not only for Yeong-hye but also for her marriage, and for her relationships within her family. "Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her."

As you can see from the cover, Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for her writings, including The Vegetarian. I, unbelievably, had never even heard of the book or the author until last November during the Novellas in November challenge when it was brought to my attention by another participant. I didn't care for the book at all, though I admit the writing was gripping. The story was so bleak and all the characters so awful. But the description of it being Kafkaesque are so true. The story was so surreal and disorienting. For this reason, I am glad I read it, but it is unlikely I will ever tell anyone else to read it.

My rating: 3 stars.

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Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming

Anne Schwartz Books, 2025. 346 pages.

It has almost been 50 years since the notorious Jim Jones persuaded 900 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch and commit "revolutionary suicide" in the jungle of Guyana. But how did he do it?

Using first-person accounts, author Candace Fleming reveals many details of Jim Jones' upbringing during the Depression, his founding of a church, The Peoples Temple, based on the promises of equality and justice in first Indianapolis, then California, and finally in the jungles of South America.Also detailed were all the mind-control techniques he used to attract and keep devoted followers, even willing to kill themselves to show their ultimate devotion to him. Among the survivors of that tragic massacre was Steven Jones, Jim Jones son, who stood up to his father over and over again, but was unable to stop the tragedy from happening in the end.

The other day I told my sister some of the details I learned from the book and described how this was not just an indictment of dumb people who followed a nefarious cult leader. But how this is a story of good-hearted people who were attracted to the ideals and then drawn in by the community, and eventually ended up unable to leave it, even though many tried. As I was describing all this to my sister, my husband, who was listening in, chirped up and said. "We're all suckers for books and shows about cults." Yes. But this booked helped me see beyond the cult. It also spoke to me of human needs and how government/churches/society often treat people very unjustly and how people crave to be part of something bigger than themselves. Think about Trump and his MAGA hordes. He does awful things, like Jones who used drugs and had sex with many women, and his followers lower their own standards to still be in agreement with him. It is frightening to think about. People are so easily led astray.

As a YA nonfiction title I did spend a bit of time thinking about Death in the Jungle in teenager hands. I worry it is a bit long for that population at 346 pages. Would teenagers have the patience to digest so much information on one topic, unless, like my husband, they are fascinated by cults? I'm just not sure. I had the hardest time getting teens to read any nonfiction in my library but I think if a librarian really sold it, they would find it as interesting and revealing as I did.

My rating; 4.25 stars.

-Anne

Review: RAISING HARE: A MEMOIR

Title: Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

Book Beginnings quote:

Standing by the back door, readying for a long walk, I heard a dog barking.

Friday56 quote:

The leveret, I learnt, was a European brown hare one of more than thirty species of hare in existence today.

Summary: "A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare" (Publisher).

Review: Count me among the majority of folks who didn't know that rabbits and hares aren't in the same family and that they have very different living habits. For example rabbits, who are generally about half of size of hares, live in burrows they've dug underground and they live in family groups. Hares, live out in the open, preferring shallow indentations in the grass or the dirt to sleep. Newborns even have different names -- newborn rabbits are kits or kittens, newborn hares are leverets. Hares frequently experience superfetation, which means they can conceive when they are already pregnant. They often have have very small litters of one or two leverets, and then deliver another litter just a few weeks later. This is a very rare occurrence in other mammals but fairly common in hares. I knew none of this before I read Chloe Dalton's memoir, Raising Hare. Dalton learned these facts herself after she rescued a newborn leveret from a dog and ended up forming a friendship with the creature.

After my fascination with learning new facts about hares wore off, I found myself focusing on Dalton's insights on the natural world. Dalton lives in an old, converted barn near working farms in the English countryside. Since hares do not reside in burrows underground, they are especially susceptible to harm/death during typical harvesting practices where big machinery is used. Also the farming practice of planting right up to the edges of the property leave no room or buffer for safety. After one particularly gruesome experience where Dalton walked a field after harvest, finding many dead and mutilated animals, she was happy to learn that the new owners of the land were going to employ organic farming practices which involves biodiversity and allowing for room for weeds and wildflowers to regain a foothold -- all practices which help the native animals to survive. Once again, I've spent zero time in my life contemplating the effect of modern farming practices on native animals until this book came along.

Raising Hare is easy to read and doesn't come across as too preachy. I like the word the publisher uses to summarize the book as a "meditation" on our natural world. I did find myself meditating on what I was learning. The illustrations of hares, beautifully rendered by Denise Nestor, add to the sense of wonder I felt as I meditated on the book.

My rating: 4.25 stars.

Reading challenge: Raising Hare is the 12th book I've read for the '20 Books of Summer Challenge.'

-Anne

Review: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES

Title: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES: A MEMOIR by Ina Garten

Book Beginnings quote:

"There has to be something more fun than this," I said to myself , probably for the millionth time, as I sat at my desk drafting nuclear energy policy at the White House.

Friday56 quote:

What did I do? Besides going to college, there was dinner to prepare every night -- we certainly couldn't afford to go to a restaurant -- which meant coming up with a menu, shopping on the base, and then teaching myself how to cook. I had to learn everything. My bible at the time was Craig Claiborne's' New Your Times Cookbook, and I immediately started making his recipes.

Summary: A memoir by Ina Garten -- aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen cookbooks, a Food Network personality, and a cultural icon -- shares her personal story from a difficult childhood to meeting Jeffrey and marrying him while still in college; from a boring job in Washington, D.C. to ownership of a specialty food store and becoming the Barefoot Contessa, and her journey to get to where she is today.

Review: It seemed like everyone was reading this book last year and I wanted to be one of those people. I really enjoyed learning about Ina Garten's backstory, how she was ready to spring at several opportunities that led to her success first as a business owner and then as a Food Network chef and cookbook creator. As Garten described the creation of several of her famous recipes, I was reminded I have a copy of her cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey. I decided to pull it out and make several recipe from it. We especially liked two entrees: Rigatoni with sausage and fennel and Skillet-roasted lemon chicken, and a dessert: Raspberry rhubarb crostata (I used strawberries as they are in season right now.) As I read through these and other recipes, it occured to me I should read the whole book. A first for me, reading through a whole cookbook. I actually learned some really helpful tips, too. Have you ever read a cookbook all the way through? Clearly I need to read my other cookbooks for ideas and tips, not just go to the same recipes over and over.

My rating of the memoir: 4 stars and the cookbook: 5 stars. Makes sense, doesn't it?

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: THE NOT-QUITE STATES OF AMERICA

"The story of the U.S. Territories is the story of a nation that really, truly believes itself to be exceptional but also can't make up its mind what, exactly, that means. More powerful or more just?" (207)

Doug Mack, author of The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and other Far Flung Outposts of the USA, began his project to write this book when he realized how little he knew about the territories and how little has been written about them when he attempted to do some research. 

Everyone knows that America is 50 states and ... some other stuff. Scattered shards in the Pacific and the Caribbean, the not-quite states -- American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and their four million people are often forgotten, even by most Americans. But they are filled with American flags, U.S. post offices, Little League baseball games, and residents who serve in the U.S. military at high rates (Book jacket).

How and why did these lands come to be U.S. territories? What are they like and what rules govern their existences as territories? And why aren't they states? These are the questions to Doug Mack set out to answer when he decided to visit all five of the territories and to do some comparisons between the territories themselves back in the mid 2010s.

Starting with a visit to the largest island in the US Virgin Islands, St. Croix, Mack began his tour of the islands, crossing over to the Pacific before ending up back in the Caribbean in Puerto Rico as his last stop in the tour of territories. 

Here are a few things I gleaned from the book:

1. Guano first. Back in the late 1800s American farmers were anxious to locate fertilizers for their fields. Why not mine islands for their bird poop (guano)? So began the hunt for territories which could supply the noxious goop.
2. Ultimately the nineteenth century expansionist push was to show the world that we were a real-deal power.
3. Court cases, known as the Insular cases, set up the scene for "foreign in a domestic sense." Of the five territories, all are governed by different sets of rules from each other and from our constitution. It is so confusing I won't even try to explain (probably because I don't understand the differences myself.)
4. After WWII and since we reached 50 states with the admission of Hawaii and Alaska the territories have faded from view --ignorance and silence has bred more ignorance and silence (250).
5. The people in the territories haven't been able to make up their minds about their political status. Most people Mack spoke to felt that statehood would mean a more stable economic status but it would come at a loss of their culture and the life they enjoy. I got a sense of inertia, why change the status quo?
6. When something does happen in one of the territories that makes the news, such as a hurricane in Puerto Rico, the reporting often makes it sound like what is happening is in a foreign country. In fact, a non-voting member of Congress from American Samoa was once introduced as the representative from "American Somalia." Even members of Congress speak about members of the territories as aliens.
7. "In 1900 we talked about the territories because they had the potential to be states, but when the Insular Cases effectively shut that door, they continue to be not-quite states, and our attention has waned" (252).

I decided to read The Not-Quite States of America because I set myself a challenge to read a book from every states and territory last year and I was down to missing only one state (South Dakota) and four of the territories. Why not knock off four areas with one book? After reading this, however, I determined to go ahead and read a fiction selection set in the territories or a nonfiction memoir written by a person from the territory. I learned factual stuff from this book but I felt disconnected from the heart issues at hand. For example the poetry book I read, From Unincorporated Territory by Craig Santos Perez, I learned more about Guam and about what makes its people tick than I did from reading this book. However, I didn't understand the title of the poetry book until I read this one! See my challenge to read a book set in all 50 states and territories.

My rating 3.5 stars.

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: MEMORIAL DAYS

In May 2023 I read the book Horse by Geraldine Brooks. It was a book club selection and we had a very lively discussion over the book, as I remember. Brooks is one of my favorite authors and I always appreciate how much research I can tell she has done for her books. 

Last year I learned that Brooks' husband, Tony Horwitz, died suddenly in 2019 when Brooks was in the middle of writing her book Horse. This thought struck me at that time -- How, on earth, did she complete a book and have it published just three short years after that event? I've learned that Horwitz, also a writer, often helped his wife with her research and proofread her manuscripts, greatly assisting her writing process.

This year I read Brooks' memoir, Memorial Days, which answers to some degree my question above.

Three years after her husband's death Geraldine Brooks booked a flight to a remote Australian island with the intention of FINALLY giving herself the time and the space to mourn. In a small cabin away from phones, TV, and social media Brooks pondered the various ways in which different cultures grieve and what rituals of her own she might employ to help her rebuild a life around the void left by Tony's death. After his death she was so wrapped up in all the duties required of her she left little time to properly mourn his death. Now three years later she realized that grief doesn't go away because you ignore it. She knew she had to do the WORK of mourning, of coming to terms with her grief.

In her essay “On Grief” Jennifer Senior quotes a therapist who likens the survivors of loss to passengers on a plane that has crashed into a mountaintop and must find their way down. All have broken bones; none can assist the others. Each will have to make it down alone (from Memorial Days).

During her time on the island Brooks would often go for days without seeing any other humans. Instead she spent time reading excerpts from his journals and other writings, exploring his medical records, and recalling her own memories of their life together. If she did she run into someone, say on the beach down the path from the cabin, she would turn away from the contact not wanting any intrusions on her time with Tony. Finally, after so many years, she was able to properly say goodbye to him. During these days of melancholy or "the happiness of being sad," as Victor Hugo called them, she was able to embrace her new life.

I was very moved by Memorial Days even though the memoir didn't expressly answer my question about how Brooks wrote Horse after her husband's death. I was moved because I know someone in a very similar situation who experienced the untimely death of her husband. Because of his position in the community there have been many memorials and honors paid to him and she has been showered with love and attention by many people and organizations. I fear, however, that the widow has never had the time and space to properly mourn her loss in a personal way. I don't think she has made it down off the mountain due to her "own broken bones." No one can do the work for her but now I wonder if this book would help be the catalyst toward finally taking the time to do the hard work of grieving, which is still with her.

The book is not cheery, obviously, but it is hopeful and helpful. I do recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars.

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE

Title: Grief is For People by Sloane Crosley

Book Beginnings quote: 

All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own way.

Friday56 quote: 

During the closing lecture of the festival, a Scottish author winds down her reading with a folk song about the sea...She lilts all over the stage. I imagine this moment holding me up on its hip, bouncing me. Wave goodbye to Russell! Say: Bye-bye, Russell! I can feel my heart pounding in my neck. Salt water drips down my face and I scratch my pinkie so hard, I nearly break the skin.

Summary: Following the death of her closest friend, Sloane Crosley explores multiple kinds of loss in this disarmingly witty and poignant memoir. (Publisher)

Review: This book wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It took me several chapters and a major thought-realignment to get my brain around the reality of the book not the imaginary one I had worked out in my head. I was expecting a self-help book for those coping with grief. This is NOT that book.

This is a memoir about friendship and death. This is a hard book, one which consolidates the truth -- Everyone grieves in different way and there is no timeline on that grief. The last chapters were especially poignant as Sloane Crosley gains a bit of distance from her grief and is able to take a look at it with a bit of objectivity. A bit.

When Sloane's friend, Russell, dies by suicide, she is left to grapple with her grief alone. She loosely follows the Kubler-Ross stages of grief for her format: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as she outlines what her life was like after his death. In the middle of all this, a pandemic descends on the world and she has to cope with it, too, just like we all did. See why I say it is a hard book?

I admit I spent the whole last half of the book crying -- not for the death of Russell, I didn't know him. But for the death of D, who I did, and for all those people, like Sloane Crosley, who are forced to traverse alone in an unknown world known as "Grief World." It reminded me of this quote from another book Hum If You Don't Know the Words:

Only after I had learned those boundaries and generalities of my grief was I able to venture further into the mountains and valleys, the peaks and troughs of my despair. And as I traversed them-breathing a sigh of relief thinking that I'd conquered the worst of it-only then would I finally arrive at the truth about loss, the part no one ever warns you about: that grief is a city all of its own, built high on a hill and surrounded by stone walls. It is a fortress that you will inhabit for the rest of your life, walking its dead-end roads forever. The trick is to stop trying to escape and, instead, to make yourself at home. (Hum If You Don't Know the Words, 320).

There were two excerpts which touched me specifically. Let me see if I can find them...

“But there was never going to be a version of the story in which it wasn't my missing jewelry and my dead friend. You can ignore grief. You push it around your plate. But you can't give it away.”

_____________________________________________________ 

"My grief for you will always be unruly, even as I know it contains the logic of everyone who has ever felt it. Sometimes I close my eyes so that I can listen to it spread. So I can make it spread. I run it up the walls of my apartment. I listen to it circle the door frames and propel itself out the window. I can hear it clonking down the fire escape, cracking the concrete as it lands. Sometimes I hear it in the rivers, sloshing against the stone, or in the subway screeching to a halt. And then because I cannot call you home, I call it 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."

Both of these quotes really spoke to be about how grief changes us and it can't be ignored. We are forced to grapple with grief once it arrives at our doorstep.

I do recommend this book, but it isn't an easy read. If you are in the middle of a deep grief, I'd proceed with caution.

My rating 4.25 stars.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Favorite nonfiction reads of 2024!

Weather: Rain. Perfect baking weather!

Three days until Christmas: Almost all the shopping is done. Most of the gifts are wrapped. I took the turkey out of the freezer so it would be thawed by Wednesday. I've made my yearly batch of  peppernuts or pfeffernüsse cookies, mixed up a batch of candied pecans, and made peanut blossoms with Hershey kisses. Today I hope to make chocolate crinkles and peanut butter balls and then I'll call it good.  Just in time to share my sweet treats with my neighbors. What about you? How are your holiday preparations going?

Favorite books of the year: Every year I put together several lists of favorite books: This past week I published my favorite book club selections. This week I hope to pull together a list of favorite audiobooks. And today I am publishing my 2024 favorite nonfiction books.

My favorite nonfiction reads of 2024: Instead of writing lengthy descriptions of each, I've linked the titles to my reviews. Please visit those reviews to learn more. The nice thing about nonfiction titles is the subtitles usually give a big hint about the topic.

1. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow -- America right before WWII was enamored by fascism. I wish more people read this before the election.
2. Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench, with Brendan O'Hea -- The famous British actress has a series of interviews with Brendan O'Hea about all the roles she played in Shakespeare's plays.
3. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed -- Advice from Dear Sugar, a on-line help site. Sugar, Cheryl Strayed, became well known after this for her book Wild.
4. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer -- This YA version of Kimmerer's excellent source about indigenous practices was illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt and adapted by Monique Gray Smith. It was a book club favorite.
5. Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton -- The author visited all 63 of the National Parks and talked about his experiences in each according to themes. I was reading this while we visited the five National Parks in Utah.
6. The Twenty-One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the Federal Government Over Climate Change by Elizabeth Rusch -- Twenty-one students, with the help of activist lawyers, have sued the government but eight years after they brought the case, it has not gone to trial yet. Discouraging yet importantly encouraging at the same time.
7. House Lessons: Renovating a Life by Erica Bauermeister -- A woman buys a run-down house in Port Townsend and spends time renovating it. She learns about herself in the process. A popular book club choice.
8. The Mona Lisa Vanishes: a Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day -- A terrific middle grade book about a well-known artist and his most famous work.
9. Subpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors by Amber Share -- Based on the wildly popular Instagram account, Subpar Parks celebrates the incredible beauty and variety of America's national parks juxtaposed with the clueless and hilarious one-star reviews posted by visitors. I laughed my way through this one and enjoyed the illustrations, too.
10. Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie -- Twenty years after a fatwa was declared over this author, he was attacked and nearly killed by a knife-wielding terrorist. This book brings the focus back onto literature. [No review yet.]
11. Honorable Mention: The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos -- A hospice nurse shares what she has learned about life and death.  

Oops. I left off the list one of my favorites:

2a. Somehow: Thoughts on Love by Anne Lamott -- Advice or examples on how to be more loving. I think this quote sums the book up nicely: "If the younger ones in our lives can remember only this one idea, that they are here, briefly, a little space to love and to have been loved, they they will have all they need, because love is all they need, rain or shine...good old love, elusive and steadfast, fragile, and unbreakable, and always there for the asking: always, somehow" (191).

    

Singing!

Music: Today was the annual cantata at church. Both of my daughters and my husband sang in it. Hubby is in the back row with the beard. Daughter #1 is right in front of him, and daughter #2 is in the front row right in front of the violinist. I loved watching them sing and felt such joy at the music. Carly had a solo in a number called "Turn Your Heart to Christmas." I thought it was such a poignant message. It is not referring to the materialistic Christmas but the holy, spiritual, peace-loving message of Christmas. // Earlier in the week my daughters sang "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the grandkids. Both girls were in jazz choir in high school and sang the Fred Waring version of the song every year. Enjoy the 1955 production of the song.

May you receive a blessing this season and find both hope and peace.

-Anne

Nonfiction Review: PREQUEL

Title: Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow

Book Beginnings quote:

(Chapter 1: The Glass House)  The reedy and excitable twenty-six-year-old recent Harvard graduate, full of anticipation, was motoring out to an open field in Potsdam, Germany, to attend a Nazi youth rally. Part of the draw for the Harvard man was the chance to see and hear, in person, Adolf Hitler, who was still several months away from ascending to the chancellorship of Germany but already the talk of Europeans and Americans in the know. Another factor in the draw to Potsdam was the opportunity to witness up close the dazzling spectacle reliably on display at Nazi rallies.

Friday56 quote: 

The way Johnson envisioned the Father Coughlin Labor Day event in Chicago, it would recreate the pageantry of a Hitler rally, not unlike the Hitler Youth rally he'd attended in Potsdam four years earlier. "The police were all pro-Coughlin, especially the Irish," Johnson told a Coughlin biographer fifty years after the fact.

Summary: 

Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.
 
In the 1930s there was a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.
 
That effort worked alongside an ultra-right paramilitary movement that stockpiled bombs and weapons and trained for mass murder and violent insurrection.
 
At the same time, a handful of extraordinary activists and journalists were tracking the scheme, exposing it even as it was unfolding. In 1941 the U.S. Department of Justice finally made a frontal attack, identifying the key plotters, finding their backers, and prosecuting dozens in federal court. These efforts at bringing the insurrectionists to justice largely failed.
 
While the scheme has been remembered in history—if at all—as the work of fringe players, in reality, it involved a large number of some of the country’s most influential elected officials. Their interference in law enforcement efforts against the plot is a dark story of the rule of law bending and then breaking under the weight of political intimidation.
 
The tentacles of that unslain beast have reached forward into our history for decades. But the heroic efforts of the activists, journalists, prosecutors, and regular citizens who sought to expose the insurrectionists also make for a deeply resonant, deeply relevant tale in our own disquieting times. (Publisher)

Review: On a recent trip my husband and I listened to the audiobook of Prequel read by Rachel Maddow herself. We watch Maddow every Monday evening on MSNBC and she mentioned aspects of this book and the podcast Ultra on the same topic. We were prepared mentally for the book's topic but I was not prepared emotionally. I got so angry and sad as I listened. It infuriates me that Americans would want to give away their (our) rights to an autocrat like Hitler and that is just about what happened.

If you have never read any of Maddow's books I want you to know that she does exhaustive research. I am fairly sure that all the facts and details in Prequel have never been pulled together in one spot before which increases the impact ten fold. There is no way I can even begin to touch on everything she includes in the book so I thought I would focus on just a few of the historical details that match what is happening today in politics.

Throughout the book we learned that many of the people who were pushing the American First/Pro-Authoritarian agenda in the 1930s and 40s were actually funded by the German (Nazi) government. Some were paid money and others, like some of the legislators who pushed the far-right agenda and attempted to stifle efforts to find out what was going on, were rewarded with money flowing to their pet projects and reelection donations. Sound familiar? We don't have 50+ years of research to back up these claims but the Mueller report did find that Russia interfered with our elections in 2016 and made attempts in 2020 and 2022. Putin wants Trump to be elected again so that Trump will withdraw support for Ukraine. The Republican agenda today is moving toward being more and more pro-Russia. 

The church played a role in the far-right agenda in the 1930s. Father Coughlin had a super popular radio show and his message was very racist, antisemitic,  and isolationist. He had a huge following with millions of people tuning in to his show every week. Today we know that evangelical Christians have thrown their support behind Trump and the Republican agenda, even though the message is the opposite of what Jesus taught his followers to do -- love your neighbor as yourself. 

The judicial system in the 1940s was overwhelmed and essentially swamped by the insurrectionists when they were finally brought up on charges. Delay, tomfoolery, and lack of respect for the justice system were all partially to blame. Essentially most of the indicted individuals never served a day in prison. Though many of the insurrectionists from January 6, 2021 have been convicted and received prison sentences but most of them are low-level participants, not the organizers. Of the 91 indictments Trump has received he has so far been successful in using delay tactics to his benefit over and over again.

 Those of us in the literary world all know that a 'prequel' is a book which was written after the first book about events that happened before. The prequel gives history and context to further the story and the reader's understanding. Rachel Maddow's book is a prequel to what is happening in politics today. She is giving us history and context to round our knowledge in hopes that we will thwart the efforts by many who seem eager to give away our democracy.

The book is a warning! Are we paying attention? -Anne