Three quick poetry book reviews -- Mary Oliver

I've hemmed and hawed long enough. Just say a kind word about the three poetry books by Mary Oliver, still in my possession from the library, and move on, Anne.

At one point a few years back, probably around the time that Mary Oliver died in 2019 at age 83, I added all of her poetry books, or at least the ones I hadn't read yet, to my TBR list. Many of the books weren't in my library system and when I would search for copies at used book sales, her volumes were never there. She's the most beloved poet in America, no wonder I could never find a used copy of anything by her -- everyone else wanted them, too.

This past April I decided to check to see if the neighboring library system in a nearby county had any of her books and they did. I'd already secured a library card so I could cross the line and check them out. I requested three volumes and they arrived late in April. Time ran out in the month before I got to all three of them. But now that I am finished I wonder how to adequately review them.

The three volumes are:

• Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays. (Beacon Press, 2003)
• White Pine: Poems and Prose Poems. (Harcourt Brace and Company, 1994)
• Thirst: Poems. (Beacon Press, 2006)

In a lot of ways, if you have read any Mary Oliver poems, you know of her focus on nature, living things-- both wild and tame-- and God. Each of these three volumes revealed an aspect of her writing. 

In White Pine I felt a deep sadness in many of her poems. As you may know Mary Oliver had a dreadful childhood where she was sexually abused. She found solace in nature and spending time out of doors. Many of the poems in this volume felt like she was trying to find the salve in nature to heal the wounds from her past. Sometimes she succeeded, I think, as in this poem "At the Lake" where she is reflecting on the life of a fish and then these lines show a shift to self--

 At the Lake

... 

This is, I think,

what holiness is;

the natural world,

where every moment is full

of the passion to keep moving.

Inside every mind

there's a hermit's cave

full of light,

full of snow,

full of concentration.

I've knelt there,

and so have you,

hanging on 

to what you love,

to what is lovely.

Words one can return to again and again to remind oneself that everything will be okay. Usually Mary Oliver's poems start on some point of nature -- a tree, a bird in the pond, a toad beside the road -- but then a shift will occur and now the focus will be on the human condition, on humankind. That is why I want to keep reading, not to learn about toads, but to gain insights into myself.

Almost all of the poems and essays in the next collection, Owls and Other Fantasies. ar about, um..the obvious, birds. Even as I creaked open this volume I asked myself if I really cared enough to read a whole book full of bird poems. It was as if I hadn't read any of her other poems before to even entertain such thoughts.  The very first poem in the collection, "Wild Geese" brought me back from my negativity--

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

     love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on...

What? I was expecting geese and it opened with me and you and everyone. Geese didn't even enter the poem until the 12th line. Surprise! Not an animal poem after all.

In 2006 Mary Oliver published Thirst. It was the first poetry collection she published since the death of her life partner, Mary Malone Cook, who died in 2005. Clearly Oliver was in the throes of deep grief. Thirst is also the most spiritual of the poetry collections I've read of hers up to this point. 

Here in the poem, "The Winter Wood Arrives" the poet talks about stacking wood for winter, but underneath that task is this--

The Winter Wood Arrives

...

             How to keep warm

is always the problem,

     isn't it?

         Of course, there's love.

              And there's prayer.

I don't belittle them,

     and they have warmed me,

         but differently,

              from the heart outwards.

Imagine

     what swirls of frost will cling

         to the windows, what white lawns

              I will look out on

as I rise from morning prayers,

     as I remember love, that leaves yet never leaves...

Heartbreaking yet comforting. It is hard to read a Mary Oliver poem and not feel the tug from each direction. Try reading the poem "After Her Death" without crying, I dare you. You'll see what I mean. In it she finds comfort from small birds who are content after eating small fish. "They open their wings / so easily, and fly. So. It is still / possible."

In the deepest of grief, when it doesn't seem possible, when we find nature shows us how to go on... just spread your wings out and fly. It is possible to go on.

I hope these short reviews have encouraged you to seek out a volume of Mary Oliver's poem today!

-Anne

TTT: Books my mother and I have in common

Top Ten Tuesday: Books My Mother and I Have in Common

In honor of my mother on Mother's Day/Week 2025

1. The Poldark series by Winston Graham -- The Poldark series was on PBS back in the 1970s sometime and my mother and I were dedicated to watching it every Sunday night. Soon we started to read the books that were the inspiration for the series (both then and now). It seemed like neither of us could get enough of Ross and Demelza Poldark. It was the first time I remember reading the same book as my mother for the same reason.

2. A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey -- Back in 1978 I think this book was fairly popular and when I read it I knew my mother would love it. I remember giving it to her after highlighting some of my favorite passages. This is one of our favorite quotes from the book and we talked about it often over the years:

"My darling... I was enthralled by your description of the lovers bicycling side by side along the canals of Amsterdam, the man touching the woman's handlebar. That is an image to remember as you choose the man to accompany you on your journey through life -- two figures advancing through their own efforts, neither propelling or impeding the other, simply reaching across the space that separates them for reassuring proof of the other's presence."

3.And the Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer -- I don't even remember anything about this book except it is over 1000 pages long and my mother gave it to me to read. Maybe I was staying with my parents for a few days that summer  in the mid-1980s. I also recall sitting outside in their yard as I read it. It was the longest book I ever read until I read Les Miserables many years later.

4. Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres -- I became pretty passionate about this book when I read it in 1995. I remember talking to my mother about the book and the symbolism in it around the topic of love. One again, a quote struck me as truthful and my mother and I agreed that the symbolism of the tree roots was accurate: 

“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and, when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”

5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver -- By the mid-1990s my mother and I were both in separate book clubs but we would frequently talk about the books we were each reading for our clubs. One day as I sat at home reading I got a call from my mother telling me she was reading a book I should read, The Poisonwood Bible. It was exactly the same book I was reading at the moment. The story is about a missionary family in the Congo. We were also a missionary family in Africa when I was growing up. As we separately read the same book we were thinking of each other.

6. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith -- I am not sure who read it first but this series was the first book either of us read by Alexander McCall Smith and we both fell in love with him and have read many, many books by him both his books in series and his stand-alones. Just this weekend I was visiting Mom and she asked me to go through a pile of books to see if I wanted any or if I would haul them to the library for their sale for her, and I noticed a McCall Smith I hadn't read on her shelf. I snatched it up!

7. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman -- If I remember correctly, both my mom and my sister urged me to read this book in the early 2000s about Hmong immigrants who got tangled up in the US medical system to tragic results. Some of the immigrants in the story lived in the same community as my parents and sister. We all had lots of talk about related to the events highlighted in the book. I love it when books help facilitate conversations which turn out to be very meaningful.

8. American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy by Bob Welch -- Bob is a writer and journalist friend of my sister, Kathy. When he published this book in 2004 she made sure everyone in our family got a copy of it. My mother, a nurse by profession, was especially taken by the story of this Army nurse who was killed after the Normandy Invasion during WWII. We were all touched by the story, made personal by the writing of a friend.

9. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain -- I read this book about Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley, in 2013. As my mother has aged she seems to appreciate receiving books from family, even ones she has read before, more than going to the library herself. Every time she knows I am coming down for a visit she reminds me that she is out of books and asks if I can bring her some. (She's 96.) I scour the library book sale shelves for inexpensive used books I've read. Recently I found the second book in the series about Hemingway's second wife, Love and Ruin. I haven't read it yet, but Mom devoured it and called me to tell me how much she liked it. Just a month ago I found a used copy of the Paris Wife to give to Mom. I know she will like it, since I loved it so much.

10. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman -- I've noticed now that Mom is in her 90th decade she likes to read books about folks who are older, too. One of her grandkids gave her the first book in the Thursday Murder Club series, where all the characters are octogenarians, and she managed to get all the rest of the books in the series from the library. I have only read the first book so far. I'm behind. Must catch up.

I am so lucky to still have a living mother who, though she is 96, can still read and take joy in discussing books. I love you, Mom!

Mom reading with her great-grandsons, fostering a family-wide love of reading.

Do you have any similar experiences with your mother, or another relative, where you have some books in common? 

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Happy Mother's Day!

Weather in Eugene: Overcast but warm and muggy.

Happy Mother's Day: We drove down to Eugene to be with Mom for Mother's Day this year. Two of my siblings are on world trips and my youngest sister is nearing the end of her school year and is up to her eyeballs in end-of-year tasks, so we represented the family. Don and I made it to Eugene yesterday in time to attend a program and meal at her church about a mission project in Cambodia. It was heartwarming to hear the stories of how successful the children are who stick it out. After the church service this morning Don and I made a lunch for Mom and one of her friends. Menu: pork tenderloin, risotto, fresh green beans, homemade applesauce, and a tuxedo cake, not homemade.

Views from Mom's yard, inside and out.

Azaleas and rhododendrons: A few weeks ago I was all about flowering trees now I am all about flowering shrubs. Mom's yard is so lovely this time of year. She must have at least 20 of the flowering shrubs in her yard (and one blooming rose). I took the photos in her yard this morning before church. It is a little like heaven on earth sitting in her living room looking out the window. It is a very pretty time in the Pacific NW.

Books:

• Don and I are listening together to Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, a fictional story about an actual midwife, Martha Ballard, who lived in what is now Maine in the late 1700s. So well done. Audio. 53% complete.
• I am alternating reading and listening to Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, a Pulitzer Prize winner from 1919. It is my 12-page-a-day book but I'm having a hard time judging that page assignment on my e-reader. I'm nearing the midway point.
• Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays by Mary Oliver is the last of all the poetry books I checked out last month. 88% complete.
• I finished What the Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery this past week. Now I want to raise chickens! And Thirst by Mary Oliver. This poetry collection is much more religious than her other books.
• Up next: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden.

Have a lovely week!

-Anne

Six Degrees of Separation -- from RAPTURE to ...

It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as all participants, add six books, and see where we all end up.

Six Degrees of Separation. We begin with

↓

Rapture by Emily Maguire.
I haven't read the book, but the word "rapture" is a term used by Christians to describe a future event when believers will be caught up and taken to heaven in one big time event. The word 'rapture' is not actually found in the Bible.
↓

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.
Another book with a biblical title. Gilead is mentioned in the Old Testament and it refers to a place, the land of Gilead or Mount Gilead. In the book a father is writing letters for his young son to read when he is gone.
↓

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
A Black father writes letters to his teenage son about the racist world he lives in.

↓

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.
This book is decidedly spiritual also. The book is about a father and his relationship with his children who are all very different from each other. It is a great favorite of mine and I've read it several times.
↓

The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea.
A Mexican-American family whose father, Don Antonio, named his oldest and youngest children Angel. Big Angel is hosting a birthday party for himself before he dies from a cancer that will take him soon. His siblings are all there including Little Angel. The two brothers, both Angels, haven't seen each other for a long time.
↓

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
The sibling rivalry is strong in this book, an allegory of the Cain and Abel story in the Bible.
↓

The Brothers Karamazov (correct title) by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Another book about brothers. This particular cover is off. Even the title isn't right. It is sort of chilling and disorienting.
↓

Rapture by Emily Maguire.
This edition of the book, published by Sceptre, has a very chilling cover. The first cover, published by Allen and Unwin, is so lovely and this one is frightening and disorienting.

Well, I ended back where I started, but landed on a creepier cover.

If you want to give this task a try, check this website for information about the meme:

BooksAreMyFavoriteAndBest

  -Anne

-Anne

Classic Review: DAVID COPPERFIELD

My own copy of the classic book purchased in 7th grade through Scholastic Books.

Title: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Book Beginnings quote: 

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

Friday56 quote: 

Miss Murdstone was good enough to take me out to the cart, and to say on the way that she hoped I would repent before I came to a bad end; and then I got into the cart, and the lazy horse walked off with it.

Summary: 

A semi-autobiographical novel, thought to be Dickens' favorite, David Copperfield is a bildungsroman (a novel tracing a character's growth) that follows David's life from childhood into adulthood, exploring themes of family, friendship, the class system, child labor, and self-discovery. David experiences hardships like the loss of his father and a difficult relationship with his stepfather, Mr. Murdstone, but also finds kindness and support in his aunt and other figures, including Peggotty and Agnes Wickfield. His journey includes schooling, work in a warehouse as a child, a marriage to Dora Spenlow, eventually finding his calling as a writer.

Review: Back in 1970 I was in 7th grade. Every month or two the Language Arts teacher would pass out the Scholastic Books order forms. If we wanted we could order books from them for a very low cost. Each time the forms were passed out I would spend hours going over them, figuring how I could spend my measly allowance (25 cents a week) to get the most amount of books. Maybe they were the cheapest or maybe because I had heard of them before, I often ordered classics -- Jane Eyre, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, David Copperfield, to name a few. I still own these books. My copy of David Copperfield cost me 60 cents and I don't think I noticed it was an abridged copy of the original.  When I decided to read it this past month, I surprised to see my first book review written inside the front cover in my childish handwriting: "A great book ⚘⚘⚘" Yes, the flowers were part of the review. (I come by my book blogging impulses honestly!)

I decided to read the same abridged version of David Copperfield that I read as a pre-teen. Heck, why not? I've lugged it around with me for fifty years and I paid good money for it! Usually I think of abridgments as what is done to big novels so that children can read and understand the main themes of a book. This abridgment, done by Edmund Fuller, is not that type. It is truly just a paring down of the book from 800+ pages to 500+ pages. No doubt I missed some of the nuances of the stories, maybe even some of the characters, but I barely noticed anything as I happily read along.

In the forward Gladys Schmitt writes that David Copperfield shouldn't have survived as a novel. It is too long. It is ununified -- telling a life-span of stories, many unrelated, "forced into relationship only by melodrama and coincidence." It doesn't seem to have a central theme. There are too many characters. In a lot of ways it is a brooding, sad book. So why, Schmitt asks, does the book survive? "David Copperfield breaks almost every precept, yet manages to live beyond the century mark because it is a deeply human book. Readers agree with Dickens and his affectionate avowal: 'I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield.'"

While I was at the beginning stages of starting David Copperfield I ran across a Book Youtuber who encourages his followers to read classic books and he encourages them to slow down and read only 12-pages a day. That way one can savor what they read. I decided to try it on Copperfield. The chapters in the book are very short so I could usually finish a chapter by the time my 12 pages for the day were up. As I slowly made my way through the book I found the Youtuber was right. I never felt anxious or frustrated by my reading. 12 pages was just about perfect. It kept me moving with the story and I could fill up my reading time with other books. I recommend it as a practice now to you. I calculated it out. If, from the time I started with Copperfield until the end of the year, I read 12 pages a day, I will have read over 3100 pages of classic books. That will mean I can finish all the classics I have sitting around my house unread: Sherlock Holmes, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Silas Marner, Catch-22, Dracula, Go Tell It On the Mountain, and Grimms Fairy Tales. I won't have to buy another classic book until sometime in 2026. Pretty cool, huh?

My rating: 4 stars.

-Anne

A Little Bit of Pulitzer Drama: JAMES

I breathed a sigh of relief on Monday afternoon when I learned the Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to the best book of 2024: James by Percival Everett. The Pulitzer Board got it right this year, selecting a book which has the true feel of a modern classic, riffing on another classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I even spent a few moments after learning of the winner, imagining English classes in high school or college reading the two books side by side making comparisons to the plot, the language, the times. To say it mildly, I was delighted.

I did note there were three finalists announced. not the usual two, alongside the winner. None of these books -- Headshot (Bullwinkel); Unicorn Woman (Jones); and Mice 1961 (Levine) -- are well known to me. In fact, I don't think they are well known to many readers as evidenced by the low number of reviews on Goodreads: 

• Headshot: 3.5 stars; 10,108 ratings; 1,890 reviews
• Unicorn Woman: 3.09 stars; 140 ratings. 27 reviews.
• Mice 1961: 3.52 stars; 61 ratings; 19 reviews.

Lest you think these are good numbers, especially for Headshot, here are the comparative numbers for the winner:

• James: 4.49 stars; 294,414 ratings; 32,758 reviews.

I'm not saying the other three books aren't good, worthy of our notice, but they are not in the same ballpark with James. Whew, I thought, they got it right this year.

Then I learned about the controversy.

According to an article in the New York Times, "James Won the Pulitzer, But Not Without Complications" (May 6, 2025). James wasn't the first choice of the Pulitzer jury. Here are the highlights from the article:

-First, a reminder of the process -- a jury of five authors and literary critics wade through a vast number of books each year and select three titles to forward to the Pulitzer Board. The board then takes a vote which of the three to select as the winner. If the board cannot reach a majority decision on one book they may decide to not give out an award, as they did in 2012, or they can reach back to the jury and ask for another recommendation. James was the 4th book on their list.

-As delighted as many in the literary world were with James, it was mentioned that the three finalists were all authored by women. And James, the only book of the four authored by a man, was selected. Many wanted to pick at that scab, but Stacey Levine, author of Mice 1961, was demissive to this criticism, noting in an email that, at a moment when diversity initiatives and public funding for the arts are at risk, the Pulitzer Prize stands for integrity — a quality worth celebrating.“Percival’s book is so important in this regard,” Levine wrote in an email. “Is this really the time to fuss about what might or might not be gender politics in a literary contest?”

One has to wonder, however, if Percival Everett is smarting a bit since this news surfaced. Here he is the winner of one of the biggest literary prizes in the world and then he learns his book was actually selected as fourth place by the selection jury. 

But here's the thing -- If the award had gone to another little-known book, one could quibble about the male-female thing. But James' merit stands out. Not only did James win the National Book Award in 2024, it also won the Kirkus Prize and was a finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Percival Everett, a Black author, has a large body of work which has spanned his long career. He has published 30+ books. His book, Telephone, was a finalist for the Pulitzer in 2021 and was published by a small, independent press. Though James is published by Doubleday in the US, one cannot lay the criticism on this author for being a part of some publishing cabal, ruled by the big publishers.

Last year I was fairly critical of the Pulitzer Board for selecting Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips, a female author and a lesser known book, overlooking a fantastic book by another Black male author, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. So now the tables are turned. Apparently the Pulitzer Board lives in that liminal space between two schools of thought.

My hope for each new award book -- to live well beyond its publishing year, becoming a classic book worthy of being read 50, 100 years from now. I believe James is such a book.

-Anne

P.S.Here is my review of James, written in October 2024. I'd be honored if you'd read it. Let me know your thoughts.

TTT: Washington State Authors

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors from Washington State (and one of their books you might recognize)

Shelby Van Pelt (Tacoma) Remarkably Bright Creatures (Set in a fictitious town on the Puget Sound)

Rick Steves (Edmonds) Europe Through the Back Door and many, many guidebooks to travel in Europe that are constantly being updated. Named as the most famous author from Washington State by Business Insider.

Kristin Hannah (Bainbridge Island) The Women (Several of her books are set in Washington State but this one isn't.)

David Guterson (Seattle) Snow Falling on Cedars (Set in on a fictitious island in the Puget Sound)

Jess Walter (Spokane) Beautiful Ruins (set in Italy) and The Cold Millions (set in Spokane.)

Daniel James Brown (Redmond) The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (about the University of Washington rowing team.)

Laurie Frankel (Seattle) This Is How It Always Is  (about a family with a transgender kid who moves to Seattle.)

Marissa Meyer (Tacoma) Cinder and other books in the series. I actually attended the launch party for the 4th book in the series, Winter.

Sherman Alexie (Grew up in Wellpinit on the Spokane Indian Reservation, now lives in Seattle) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Frank Herbert (Born in Tacoma, was living on Mercer Island at time of his death) author of the Dune series.

Jim Lynch (Olympia) Truth Like the Sun (about the Seattle World's Fair) and The Highest Tide (a personal favorite about a zany kid who loves to explore the Southern Puget Sound tide flats)

Two Washington famous authors I've not read...

Julia Quinn (Seattle) The Bridgerton series (but I watched the first season of Bridgerton on Netflix. Does that count?)

Debbie Macomber (Born in Yakima, lives in Port Orchard)  Washington State's most prolific author with over 200 published books.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- May!

Weather: It is a glorious afternoon. The temperature is a bit cold but the sun is shining and it is so pretty outside.

Planting: Every year for Mother's Day (which is next Sunday, I know) my husband gives me a day of labor. We go to our favorite plant nurseries, buy some combination of flower starts for the pots in the yard. When we get home he goes to work preparing the potting soil -- a combination of compost from our worm bed, coconut coir, and bagged potting soil -- to go into the pots. Then he helps me place the plants into the different pots and place them around the yard and the deck. It is a lot of work and Don does the lion's share of it. I am so grateful for his loving gift of time and energy. While he was at it this year, he also rototilled our little garden spot and planted two tomato plants, three zucchini starts, basil, and thyme. We're set for summer! Now grow plants, grow.

Parade: Our daughter took Don and I to see a Broadway Touring Group's Production of PARADE in Seattle this past week. It is based on a real story of injustice and antisemitism in the 1910s in Georgia. Did I like the play? It was very well done but a very, very depressing topic.

Marshmallows: Here's a little funny tip which actually works. If you ever get that pesky cough, the one that seems to be originating in your throat, not your bronchial tubes or lungs, eat a marshmallow, a big one (or a few small ones.) According to a friend's doctor, the little bit of gelatin in the candy will coat your throat and should hold off the cough long enough for you to get to sleep or for the coughing reflex to go away. Try it. It works for me.

Books:

• Completed the last two weeks
• Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose by Nikki Giovanni -- This is my first deep dive into the poetry of this famous poet. Print. 4 stars.
• When I Was Puerto Rican: a Memoir by Esmeralda Santiago -- Written in the 1990s, this is a memoir about the author's early years, growing up in Puerto Rico. E-book. 3 stars.
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- four African women and their experiences in America and with cultural expectations. Audio. 5 stars.
• 44 Poems On Being With Each Other: A Poetry Unbound Collection by Padraig O Tuama. Print. 5 stars.
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. This is the first book I've read using the 12-page/day limit. It made the reading experience very stress free. Reread, reading the exact same book I read the first time out, an abridged version of Dickens's classic (it was still over 500 pages long.) Print. 4 stars.
• White Pine: Poems and Prose by Mary Oliver. Another poetry collection I didn't have time to stuff into April for National Poetry Month. Print. 4 stars.
• Currently reading
• Thirst by Mary Oliver. See note above. Print. 16% complete.
• All Fours by Miranda July. A Women's Prize nominee. Audio. 23% complete.
• What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery. A nonfiction, short book. I like Montgomery's writing style. Print. 8% complete.
• The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. A classic published in 1918 and a Pulitzer Prize winner. I am using my new 12-page a day method but it is hard to figure out since I am reading it on my e-reader and the pages don't match the print book edition, so I've decided to try and read 5% a day t make my goal. E-book. 10% complete.

Blog Posts written in the same time frame, click the links to read more:

• TTT: Surprised by How Much I liked These Books
• Review: Martyr! (+Book Club Discussion Questions)
• Poetry Review: Make Me Rain
• TTT: A Strange Collection of Books -- All with WORLD in the title
• Poetry Review: 44 Poems On Being With Each Other
• Review: Dream Count
• Predicting the 2025 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction
• Having a Little Bookish Fun on a Saturday

Have a lovely week!

-Anne

Having a Little Bookish Fun on a Saturday Afternoon

Today I ran into this video from Gunpowder, Fiction, and Plot titled "The Best Fiction of the Last 150 Years." This I had to see so I watched all 25 minutes of it. The host gave few reasons as to his choices, That was fine, it makes the list fly by. It seemed like his list was well-populated with a lot of the usual suspects but there were also lots of surprises. Since he was picking just one book per year, he may have selected a book by a well-known author but one of their less known works.  The host also admitted he did some fancy work with some of the dates, selecting translations, or other date related details to make them fit. For example, Anna Karenina was published in 1878, yet he has it as his opening book with a 1875 date. I looked it up and found that Tolstoy starting publishing the chapters in literary magazines in 1875, not publishing the whole book until 1878. Okay, that makes sense. But I don't know what his thinking was for Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky published it in 1866, the first English translation was published in 1886. So I don't know how he came up with a publication date after 1892????

Anyway, it was a fun activity to first watch the video (below) and then to take the test to determine how many of the books I've read from his list:

Gunpowder, Fiction, and Plot's List Challenge

I took the list challenge test and found I'd read 58 of the 150 books. Not bad. A bunch of the unread titles are already on my TBR and I added a few more. Here are the titles I'd like to read from this list:

If I manage to read all these books, I will have read over half of the books. We'll see how much effort I put into it.

Cheers!

-Anne

Predicting the Pulitzer Prize Fiction for 2025

Predicting the 2025 Pulitzer Prize Fiction winner with math!

I visited the five internet sites (the only ones I could find) which had predictions for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Next I assigned points for the books' rankings on those sites. Ten points for the top contender down to one point for the 10th place on their list. (In the first column books 6-10 were tied so I gave them all 3 points.)

The thirteen titles, listed below on the chart, were the top contenders out of 26 books mentioned overall. Overall James by Percival Everett took top billing on all five sites, down to Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout and The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan which were only mentioned by one predictor each, but were in the top half of their list, so I included them.

As you probably know, the Pulitzer Prize committee does not give readers any hints. On May 5th, they will just make an announcement of the winners (for fiction and for other categories) so this is really an effort in futility trying to predict the winner. Most (all?) other book prizes committees announce finalists or short lists  weeks/months in advance of the award ceremony. Every year the Pulitzer selection committee is different and the members are not even introduced until the day the awards go out. So one can't even guess based on past performance. But still, it is fun to take a guess and then wait to see the results.

Seven of the thirteen on my list were mentioned on the internet lists at last three times (out of five). Let me examine them a bit closer:

1. James by Percival Everett (50 pts.) 

Pro: 

a. A brilliant reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn story, told from the viewpoint of Jim, an enslaved man. It is an instant classic. 

b. So many literary merits --- among them...

    -National Book Award winner 2024

    -Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction 2025

    -Kirkus Prize for fiction 2024

    -Booker Prize Nominee shortlist 2024

    -PEN/Faulkner Award nominee shortlist 2025

Con: 

It is rare for the Pulitzer and the National Book Award to go to the same book.

2. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (31)

Pro:

a. "Electrifying, funny, wholly original." A fantastic debut novel by poet Akbar.

b. Literary merits --- among them:

    -National Book Award nominee shortlist 2024

    -Andrew Carnegie Medal nominee shortlist 2025

    -Brooklyn Public Library Prize for literary fiction 2024

Con:

Kaveh Akbar is a debut novelist so the committee wouldn't have previous nominations and writings to look back on. By comparison, Percival Everett was a finalist in 2021 for his novel Telephone. Often the award goes to writers who were finalists before. 

3. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange (28)

Pro:

a. Orange's debut book, There There, garnered much literary merit. Wandering Stars is a sequel of equal merit, to my mind. It is truly an American story.

b. Literary merits:

    -Booker Prize Longlist nominee 2024

    -Joyce Carol Oats Prize nominee 2025

c. Covers important historical events of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School autrocities.

Con: 

It is a sequel.

4. Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (26)

Pro:

a. "It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times."

b. It is science fiction which would be a unique choice for the committee.

c. A National Book Critics Circle Nominee for 2024.

Con:

This book represents a miss for me, as I missed it when I was gathering the list of the top 50 books of 2024. Science fiction could also be considered a con, as one predictor said, "I don't think I've ever heard of the Nebula Award possibility in the same sentence as a potential Pulitzer."

5. My Friends by Hisham Matar (19)

Pro:

a. "A luminous novel about friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile."

b. Literary merits:

    -Orwell Prize for Political fiction 2024

    -National Book Critics Circle Award 2024

    -Booker Prize longlist nominee 2024

    -National Book Award finalist 2024

Con: (?)

Though Hisham Matar was born in the US, he lives in Britain and is described as British-Libyan. He won the Pulitzer in 2017 in the Biography category.

6. All Fours by Miranda July (17)

Pro:

a. "A surprisingly funny novel about a woman who is upending her own life."

b. Literary merits:

    -Women's Prize nominee shortlist 2025

    -National Book Award finalist 2024

    -Carol Shield Prize nominee 2025

Con:

Touted as a woman's book, a lot of women won't be able to relate to having their lives upended. Greg at 'Supposedly Fun' describes this book as a cilantro book -- you either love it or hate it. // Only two predictors named this book.

7. The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck (16)

Pro:

a. Interconnected short stories set in New England

b. Literary merits:

    -Audie Award nominee 2025 for short stories

    -PEN/Faulkner Nominee fiction 2025

Con:

It has been a lot of years since a short story collection won the Pulitzer in fiction. This is another miss for me as it wasn't identified as one of the top 50 books of the year by my reckonings.

8. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (14)

Pro:

a. "A work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure."

b. Literary merits:

    -PEN/Faulkner Nominee fiction 2025

    -National Book Award longlist 2024

    -Carol Shield Prize nominee 2025

    -Booker Prize shortlist 2024

Con:

It is a spy novel. Don't get me wrong, I like spy novels but does the committee?

The Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction will be announced on May 5th at noon.

And the winner is....

James by Percival Everett. YAY!  Here is the announcement. The committee did the right thing and selected a book sure to become a classic!

-Anne