Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf is incredible. It’s low-key, but the operational definition of a page-turner. It opens with Addie Moore calling Louis Waters and inviting him to sleep with her. The twist is that they are seventy-something widow(er)s, and there’s no explicit sex. They defy the town gossips and family opposition. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, “A fine and poignant novel that demonstrates that our desire to love and be loved does not dissolve with age.”
Kent Haruf is a best selling novelist. But this is the first book of his I have read. I literally couldn’t put it down. Haruf has a spare style—like Hemingway, without the macho. It’s a fast read, but you might want to linger. It’s truly gripping.
Romeo and Juliet by Frank Dicksee (1884) [Public domain]Yes, parental objections, physical distance, poverty, etc., are great ploys. But CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL OF MISCOMMUNICATION.
Cover of Pride and Prejudice from 1894 [Source: Pinterest]Jane Austin nailed misunderstanding. You can, too. Want a handy guide? Check out The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
This book explores five ways people express love.
#1 Words of Affirmation
#2 Quality Time
#3 Receiving Gifts
#4 Acts of Service
#5 Physical Touch
According to the author, each person has a predominant mode of expression.
FOR PLOT PURPOSES, you need only have two people with different preferences for expressions of love to go unrecognized.
This book is a NYT #1 Bestseller. The writing is accessible, the examples informative. I recommend it!
And as so often happens, there are now niche sequels.
GO FOR SOME LOVE! After all, Valentine’s Day is coming soon.
IMHO, The New York Review of Books is the single best source on what’s out there. It is published biweekly and does more than what the title says. The publication describes itself as a “journal of intellectual currents.” It contains articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. The book reviews span the publishing world (see the cover shot above) and each article is an education in itself. And, BTW, the writing is excellent.
Often two related books are covered in a given article. But you get more than a simple review. The authors put the books in context.
Sue Halpern’s article, listed on the cover as “There Is Now Another You” and inside as “They Have, Right Now, Another You,” is a delightful example. Yes, she does review Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (Cathy O’Neil) and Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy (Ariel Ezrachi and Maurice E. Stuckey). But she also discusses the 98 data points Facebook collects on each of its nearly 2 billion users. “Among this ninety-eight are ethnicity, income, net worth, home value, if you are a mom, if you are a soccer mom, if you are married, the number of lines of credit you have, if you are interested in Ramadan, when you bought your car, and on and on and on.”
Using herself as an case in point, she describes the erroneous—and laughable—profiles that can be generated. (You really should read this article!)
In addition, I learned some interesting—and sometimes disturbing—bits of info. For example, FB follows users across the Internet, disregarding their “do not track” settings. It knows every time a user visits a website that has a FB page. There are some 5,000 data brokers worldwide who comb public records and sell the info to public and private buyers. I concluded that FB isn’t really free to users; we are paying for it by getting the ads targeting our profile. “These ad references are the coin of the Facebook realm; the company made $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2016 alone…”
To paraphrase TV pitches, “But wait! There’s more!” NYRB contains ads from big name publishers, university presses, and indie publishers, the book pix usually accompanied by blurbs to entice you to the bookstore—or to put your name on the waiting list at the local library!
Readers of NYRB get a glimpse of what’s showing in museums, galleries, and theaters from San Francisco to Chicago, from DC to New York. Some people actually visit those places specifically to see such shows and exhibits. Maybe someday I’ll be one of them. Oh, sigh.
BOTTOM LINE: the NYRB provides info on What’s Out There, and sometimes it’s even local.
Truth: Marathon euchre and cribbage got us only so far. It’s only natural that talk turned to books. So here’s a list of books the four of us recommended to each other.
[Source: Goodreads]Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katharine Boo is beautifully written nonfiction. It’s about striving and hope in a Mumbai under-city, and won both a National Book Award and the LA Times Book Prize.
Another excellent nonfiction read is Escape From Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West, by Blaine Harden. It’s a gripping story.
The novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is moving, funny and good writing.
[Source: Goodreads]Two people praised the novel Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf as excellently written. It’s the story of a seventy-year-old widow and widower who become soulmates, written as Haruf was dying.
Purity by Jonathan Franzen was described as a “weird” but excellent novel about two young people with strange mothers, searching for their real fathers, one in San Francisco and one in East Berlin.
[Source: Goodreads]Iron-hearted Violet by Kelly Barnhill is YA fantasy, about a princess who is very smart, not pretty, living in a land of dragons and magic castles.
When we got to mysteries, there were too many to list, so we just went with authors: pretty much anything by Tara French or Donna Leon for books set abroad, Greg Isles, Kathy Reichs, Lee Childs, Jeffrey Dever, Janet Evanovich, Nevada Barr, or Dennis Lebane.
People are creatures of habit. Your challenge for the year ahead is to break out of your reading rut. How many of these categories can you sample this year? Choose at least a dozen!
HUMOR: It’s a scientific fact that you can’t get ulcers while laughing. So choose humor for the good of your health.
PRIZE-WINNERS: Pulitzer, American Book Award, Booker Prize, Hugo Award (sci-fi), Caldecott (children’s books), National Book Critics Circle Award, or any other you choose. You can’t go wrong!
BESTSELLER: See what’s popular– for example, any NYT Bestseller category.
READ FROM THE BIBLE: Any one or more books, any of the 450 translations into English. An all-time international bestseller. If you are into brevity here, choose the Book of Ruth.
[Source: Amazon][Source: Goodreads]PUBLISHED MORE THAN 100 YEARS AGO: There are hundreds of classics that fit this category. But consider Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was the most popular book (after the Bible) in 19th century America.
[Source: NPR]HISTORICAL FICTION: Any fiction set before 1950.
ROMANCE: Can be mixed genre, as long as romance is a central theme.
YOUNG ADULT: Any genre. Explore what young people–and many adults–are reading. Think Harry Potter, or the recent vampire series.
BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR: This can be current or historical, just find a life worth reading.
ABANDONED BOOK: Any book you started but didn’t finish. Why did you put it aside? Is it better the second time around?
MAGICAL REALISM: Márquez inspired many writers–and readers–to explore this genre. If you aren’t a fan already, you might become one!
NEGLECTED BOOK: Any book you’ve had hanging around for awhile, intending to read eventually. What’s been stopping you?
A BOOK IN TRANSLATION: Any book that has been translated from another language. Think Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Proust, Marquez, or something more modern, like Ha Jin.
HORROR: Just look for the shelf label in your local bookstore or library. Think early Steven King.
ACTION/ADVENTURE: Think Indiana Jones or James Bond.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS: Can be another quick read, while standing in the aisle, even!
POETRY: Can be all one poet or a collection. Maybe try Shel Silverstein?
[Source: Amazon]NOT YOUR ETHNIC BACKGROUND: Easier than you might think. Most books in translation or set abroad would qualify, as well as subgroups within the U.S.
SCIENCE: It can be as technical or as popular, as focused or as general, as you like. Mary Roach is my favorite popular science writer.
HISTORY: Social, military, political, whatever, as long as it is nonfiction. I like Dean King.
MYSTERY: Classic or modern, cozy or police procedural, foreign or domestic. They’re everywhere!
FANTASY: It can be anything from an older book, like Alice in Wonderland, to a book that has just come out. It exercises you in willing suspension of disbelief.
So, in 2017 READ, READ, READ! Get thee to the bookshelves.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is THE book of the year. The basic premise is that the Underground Railroad was an actual network of trains running underground in antebellum America.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is a debut novel– not surprisingly, a multi-generational family saga. This book deals with the slave trade among Africans.
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters again deals with slavery, but through alternative history and noir suspense.
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer tells of a marriage/family falling apart.
The Wonder by Emma Donoghue is about religious delusion and self-denial, set in Ireland in the 1800s.
The Lonely City: Adventures In The Art Of Being Alone by critic Olivia Laing is nonfiction, on the connection between loneliness and visual art.
Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years And After, 1939-1962 is the third and final volume of this biography.
Eyes On The Street: The Life Of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel is another excellent biography, this one of a female writer, activist, and “public intellectual.”
Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen is the tenth book mentioned. It’s a lyrical telling of his roots and his rise to stardom.
I happen to like and trust NPR picks. But these lists are everywhere.
The December 10-11 issue of The Wall Street Journal’s BOOKS OF THE YEAR feature gives you great variety. Your local library probably has it archived, and it’s worth a look. It includes the year’s reading of fifty varied, prominent people.
Meghan Cox Gurdon lists the best children’s books of 2016.
Tom Nolan gives his choices for the best mysteries of the year.
WSJ pictures 20 covers of their books of the year.
And it gives catchy titles to several reviews. The World’s Most Mysterious Book is The Voynich Manuscript, edited by Raymond Clemens. Double Barreled Magic is Morning, Paramus by Derek Walcott and Peter Doug.
Two Ole’s for Spanish Food are Grape, Olive, Pig by Matt Goulding; and Cu’rate by Katie Button.
Of Arms and the Freedom is a review of Thunder at the Gates by Douglas R. Egerton.
The Disease of the Enlightenment is Scurvy by Jonathan Lamb.
The Roads That Led From Rome deals with Ancient Worlds by Michael Scott.
A Death Star Is Born reviews George Lucas by Brian Jay Jones.
The Eagle and the Dragon is the review of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom by John Pomfret.
Last but not least is Everything Old Is New Again, a review of Rethink: The Surprising History of New Ideas by Steven Poole.
These are just two of the varied approaches to reading the year gone by. You can get lists from Amazon, Esquire, Barnes & Noble, Bloomberg, Goodreads, and many more.
So, dear readers, look back at 2016 and see what you might have missed.
Frankly, I’m feeling dragged through a knothole! Besides all the usual holiday hassle, I am still recovering from cataract surgery and focus is sometimes a strain and sometimes just not a happening thing. I’m told this will resolve soon. In the meantime, when I can’t read, I can still watch! So here, for your watching pleasure, is a selection of Christmas movies based on books.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Although not as old as some, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss) is definitely a classic.
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. The movie is a yes or no sort of thing, but it appears that most people like the book.
’Twas the Night Before Christmas (Clement Moore) is a secondary story in the film—but then, most movies vary from the books.
The Gift of Love (based on The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry )
The Nutcracker (based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman) is more than a ballet. It’s been made into a movie at least three times—in 1993, 1986, and 2016.
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) may be the most filmed book of all. Movie versions were released in 1938, 1951, 1984, 1999, 2001, and 2009; musical versions in 1970 & 2004; and various take-offs like Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983, Scrooged in 1988, The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992, Ebenezer in 1998, A Christmoose Carol in 2006.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (Agatha Christie) for diehard mystery fans.
It’s a Wonderful Life by Jeanine Basinger
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Robert Lewis May) and Olive, the Other Reindeer (J. Otto Seibold & Vivian Walsh)
The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum)
Technically, Miracle on 34th Street (Valentine Davies) shouldn’t be here, as the book and the movie came out simultaneously. But who wants to be technical?
And if you want still more movie options, go to imbd.com for 100+ Christmas movies based on books.
Of course, you should feel free to read the books instead—or even in addition!
Fairly early on, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce has a wonderful scene involving Christmas dinner. It runs more than ten pages, and reveals the characters and their Catholicism beautifully. It’s often humorous (as people share anecdotes) and sometimes disrespectful (as when Mr. Dedalus refers to the bird’s tail as “the Pope’s nose.”) It ranges from humor to anger. A thoroughly enjoyable passage.
Many of you know that I am a die-hard fan of Dorothy L. Sayers. I recently reread Strong Poison. It is relatively early in her series. Needless to say, some of the language is dated. (It was published about 80 years ago, after all.) I hadn’t actually read Sayers in well over a decade. But in rereading, I found that my long-standing admiration is more than warranted.
In Strong Poison, she solved a poisoning case in a most ingenious way, and incidentally educated the reader about interesting twists and details about arsenical poisoning. In clearing the prime suspect, Wimsey not only found the real killer, but coincidentally developed a passion for the acquitted suspect that became a subplot going forward.
Have His Carcass is the next novel in which the love interest develops. But the thing to note about this book is that knowing how it turns out, I can recognize, as I couldn’t on the first read, all the red herrings and dead-end hypotheses AND appreciate all the dropped clues and bits and pieces that make the reader say, “Of course!” when the solution is revealed. Sayers is a must-read for mystery writers!
Statue of Dorothy Sayers opposite her home at 24 Newland Street, Witham. [Creative Commons]
Injunction for readers: Revisit an old love—preferably one you haven’t read for five years or more. Knowing what happens, you can reread an old favorite and evaluate the craft. Do you still love it? Why or why not? As we approach the new year, appreciate the past.
“It is thought by many, lately, and said by some, that the republic has seen its best days, and that it remains for the historian to chronicle the history of its decline and fall. I disagree. Sparrows may yet cross the sky.” -Jill Lepore
“Days before the reading I felt so much dread. But today is different. Thank you writers, audience, community. This is what a shift feels like. We are not passive. We are co-creating this reality.” -Stacy Parker Le Melle
“Dorothy is the real saviour of the book (Baum’s wife, it’s worth noting, was a prominent suffragist), but even when they’ve exposed the wizard as a fraud, she and her friends turn to him for aid. “How can I help being a humbug,” chuckles Oz the not-so-great, “when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done?” -Maya Jasanoff
“The musician Sara Bareilles wrote a song entitled “Seriously”, sung by Leslie Odom Jr, about what Obama’s inner thoughts must have been during the election. I’ve been repeating these lyrics to my daughter: ‘In a history plagued with incredible mistakes, still I pledge my allegiance to these United divided States.'” -Cynthia Bond
