My reading interests lately have ranged from romance
to historical fiction to social commentary. And of course sprinkled in are the
lighthearted murder mysteries (if such a thing isn’t an oxymoron) as they become
available on my holds list.
End of Story
by Kylie Scott
Winterland
by Rae Meadows
Summer Stage
by Meg Mitchell Moore
The Trackers
by Charles Frazier
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (Thursday
Murder Club series)
When poet Christian Wiman was diagnosed with cancer, he knew he believed in something, but “what,” he writes, “was considerably less clear.” His book My Bright Abyss is a collection of ruminations on faith, belief, love, death, and grief.
As a poet, he often includes excerpts from his own
writing along with stanzas from both lesser and well known poets and theologians.
As someone in my book club aptly observed, this “complicates” things. But
reading this book wasn’t meant to be a simple matter of sitting down and
opening it. His musings and interweaving of other writings makes you pause,
think, reread, take notes, reread, and breathe.
As a recent episode of this
show proposes, some things are meant to be savored. This book is one of
them.
“Christ is God crying I am here, and here not only in
what exalts and completes and uplifts you, but here in what appalls, offends,
and degrades you, here in what activates and exacerbates all that you would
call not-God.”
There’s a moment in her appearance at Seattle Arts and Lectures where Ann Patchett describes the Peter Dukes of her twenties (Peter Duke is a character from her new novel). And she charms the audience by describing how one young man charmed her by pretending to sell Amway. Later in the conversation with Melinda French Gates, Gates makes reference to Amway and Patchett says, “That’s going to be your take away?!”
My take-away is going to be the fabulous list of
recommendations she peppers throughout her interview. And of course I’ll be anxiously
awaiting my own copy of Tom Lake arriving from Elliott Bay Book Company, a bonus perk of
supporting SAL.
Ann Patchett recommends….
Monsters by
Claire Dederer
Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch
Swing Time
and The Fraud by Zadie Smith
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
James by Percival
Everett
Demon Copperhead
by Barbara Kingsolver
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
Sorrow and Bliss by
Meg Mason
Absolution
by Alice McDermott
Fool for Love
by Sam Shephard
The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Checkhov
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It
by Maile Meloy
The Orchid Thief and
The Library Book and On Animals by Susan Orlean
The Magician’s Elephant and
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Beatryce Prophecy
and The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo
WooHoo! You’re Doing Great! Sandra
Boynton
The Moment of Lift by
Melinda Gates
