March 16, 2023
The sun is shining today and wee buds are just peaking out on the plum tree after a long winter. This past few months I’ve done a lot of reading.
Today I just finished Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I couldn’t put this book down. The author used spare clear language to depict thoroughly engaging characters in a small midwestern US community. Good and evil. Darkness and light. Loneliness and depression juxtaposed with kindness and compassion.
Fayne by Anne Marie MacDonald – This novel stirred me up in so many ways but especially how women were treated and made powerless in the late 1800s.
I’ve been listening to David Sedaris and thoroughly enjoying his humour and self-deprecation. He tackles serious subjects with a light touch. Me Talk Pretty One Day, Calypso, Happy Go Lucky, When you are Engulfed in Flames.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a sweeping novel covering 4 generations, that explores identity, belonging and home. The way Ethnic Koreans in Japan are treated is alarming and real. The characters came to life with gripping details and stories.
January 2023
Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
-memoir, highly engaging and well read/performed by the author as an audiobook.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
-tells the somewhat true story of Lucrezia di Cosimo de’Medici, who at 15 was forced by her parents to marry the older Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, thus merging two dynasties. Although Lucrezia is a fine artist, it doesn’t empower her at all. She is subjected to her parents’ decisions.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I would definitely recommend this book about an intelligent opinionate female scientist who is sidelined by her male colleagues, mistreated and underpaid. It is engaging, and funny but also sad to see how bright women had to struggle.
From the NYT “How, exactly, [the main character Elizabeth Zott] was cheated out of a doctorate and lost the love of her life — Calvin Evans, a kindred scientist, expert rower and the father of her daughter, Madeline — are central elements in the story, but feminism is the catalyst that makes it fizz like hydrochloric acid on limestone.”
