Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee

Appalachian Song by Michelle Shocklee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this dual timeline (1943/1973) book with midwives and music at its core. In 1943, a young girl who calls herself Songbird shows up in the yard of a midwife who lives with her four sisters, wounded in the shoulder by her father, because she won't drink a potion to abort her baby. Although hiding and caring for Songbird could bring danger to the sisters, they decide to do it. For four months, she stays there, endears herself to even the dissenting sister, and gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. When her father shows up a few weeks later, wanting to sell the child, Songbird and Bertie (the midwife sister) take off from their home in the back woods of Sevier county (Smoky Mountains, TN) and with the help of a pair of pastors, take the child to Nashville, where he is adopted by a loving couple. I will stop here and not share the 1973 plotline, but it's well worth your time to read it yourself.
I definitely plan to seek out more of her work.

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The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 stars - Sometimes the stars align and you find a book that is just right at the right time. This book, about three orphaned witches taken in by a motley crew that includes an older gay couple who've been together for 50 years, a middle aged woman, who acts as household manager, and a thirty-ish male librarian with trust issues. They decide they need a witchy tutor for the girls to help them accept themselves and master their talents, and Mika Moon fits the bill. Mika herself grew up without a family, as female witches die young if they give birth. Primrose, the self-appointed leader of the English witch group, took her in and used a series of nanny/tutors to raise her, while being mostly absent. One of Primrose's steadfast rules is that witches need to be solitary, for the protection of all. Mika has been alone, lonely and found it hard to trust others for much of her life. But she finds herself with strong feelings for the girls and their caretakers, much to her chagrin.
This book is about finding ourselves, and our places in the world, and taking risks, and it really spoke to me.

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Foreign Correspondence by Geraldine Brooks

Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read all the novels Geraldine Brooks has written, enjoyed them all, and have wanted to read this memoir for years. It isn't available in many public libraries, but I was able to get it From UT Knoxville, through interlibrary loan.
I didn't realize that before Brooks wrote novels, she was a foreign correspondent, who grew up in Australia. Her introduction to the larger world was developed through a series of pen friends that she regularly corresponded with from adolescence through young adulthood. It was when she came home to bury her father, as an adult, that she found the many letters from these friends, who came from America, France, Israel, and one from Australia. She decides that she will see what has happened to these people 23 years later. The second half of the book sees her visiting them, or in the case of her favorite friend, who died in her early twenties, her mother. She will continue that relationship for the rest of their lives.
I really enjoyed reading this memoir and seeing clues to some of the themes in her other books.

It was my first childish inkling of the way writing can reveal us to ourselves. It was also my introduction to the notion that Australians have lives that were worth writing about. p. 32

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Violeta by Isabel Allende (a reread 3 years later)

Violeta by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4.0 stars - This is the first book that I have read by Isabel Allende, it jumped out at me from a New Book shelf at the library. The storyline is epic, covering a full century, but the author does it in just over 300 pages. While this is a very reasonable length for a book, the premise is that this is basically a letter that she is writing (albeit on her computer) from her deathbed to her beloved grandson.
Violeta is born during the 1920s flu pandemic and dies 100 years later during the COViD pandemic. In between she lives an interesting life filled with lovers, revolutions, family, and fortune. From Depression to depression, wealth to poverty, tiny villages to world travel, feminism, Cold War, and the war on drugs, this book encompasses it all in a way that was interesting, but not overwhelming.

Update 1/24/25 - I didn't realize this was a reread, until I had checked it out. I started reading it at the library, and by the end of the day had devoured it. It was really interesting, having read the earlier book The Soul of a Woman, which was a memoir, and seeing the parallels between her life and the main character's life. Well worth the reread.

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52 Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets

52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 rounded to 3 stars - It's not that the book didn't have some interesting ideas, it's more that it felt it needed to come up with an arbitrary number (52) of them. Some of the better ones:
-Walking in the cold is good, it helps to form brown fat
-Your gait at age 45 can help predict your chances of getting Alzheimer's, but it's unknown whether the changes in your brain affect your gait, or vice versa (I suspect the former).
-Studies show that people who are able to cultivate solitude (walk alone!) are more resilient and contented.
-Don't take pictures, take the time to sketch while you walk. You'll experience and remember more.
-Make it a daily habit, in all kinds of weather, all times of day or night, and in many types of places.
Of course, there is also the ridiculous - Walk backwards! The example given was Plennie Wingo, who, in 1931 decided to walk around the world - in reverse. He did end up going 7,000 miles, but during that time he sprained his ankle, fractured it, and caused a car crash. No thanks.
The irony of this suggestion doesn't escape me. The author, who claims to love to walk, had bad back pain from her seated job. She was seriously considering quitting it to become a walking-tour guide, but decided to buy a desk treadmill instead.

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That Librarian by Amanda Jones

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It makes me angry. I am a librarian, and the idea that anyone would treat this librarian in this way, and would advocate banning books without having read them is outrageous. Libraries correctly have a challenge system available to members of the public who are concerned about the appropriateness and placement of any given book in the collection. The system involves actually reading the book in question, and thoughtfully explaining why you think it is inappropriate. Sometimes books do need to be reviewed, whether for age appropriateness or other content related issues. Sometimes a book just needs to be moved to a different section of the library. Librarians are professionals and as such, are careful with their collection choices. But, they are also humans, and occasionally make mistakes.
Regardless, no one has the right to slander and smear another person in the way that Amanda was treated. She stood up at a public library meeting and stated that public libraries are for all members of the public, including the marginalized. Collection policies are carefully considered, and policies are in place to deal with any book there are concerns about. At no time, did she reference a specific book, or imply that parents did not have the right to oversee what their children read. In fact, she pointed out that was, in fact, the parents' duty, and that many libraries have policies in place that require adult supervision of children. As a result of her speaking out, she was accused of being a pedophile, a groomer and a porn pusher, and had death threats made against her. What is this world coming to?
Chapters 15 and 16 are worth reading, without a doubt. However, there were a few issues that prevented me from rating this book higher. I wish the editing had been tighter, in places it tended to be repetitive. Also, I came away with the message that "all Republicans are bad" and "Fox News is evil and spreads lies." Blanket statements like that, about any group are, in my experience, not the way to build consensus and create a better world.


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Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully by Julie McFadden

Nothing to Fear: Demystifying Death to Live More Fully by Julie McFadden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 rounded to 5 stars - This was a Nana's book club selection and it took several weeks to get it off reserve, but it was a quick read once I did. It is one of eight books on the End of Life GR bookshelf that I have read, and the only thing you should read into that is that I find the subject of our humanity interesting. When I was much younger, midwives and birthing were the topics, and now death and dying hold a little more interest.
Our society has stigmatized the topic of death. We don't routinely care for our dying ourselves, often sticking them in a hospital to die, too many times, by themselves. But those are not good deaths. The author spent many years as an ICU nurse and watched families agree to procedures and extraordinary measures that, while prolonging the outcome, did not change the fact that their loved one was dying. In the ICU, the rule was life at any cost, and often families didn't realize the futility and pain involved.
She had a life changing moment when she suggested a family conference for one patient, and when the family fully understood the situation, their choices changed. Shortly after, she left the ICU to become a hospice nurse.
The fact is, we all die. We can't change that. But to some extent, we can choose how we die. Hospice facilitates those choices. Will we die at home, or in a hospice center, surrounded by loved ones, having said the things we need to say, shared memories and made plans, and kept comfortable? Or will we die in a hospital, pumped full with liquids our bodies can no longer process, and medications that are really doing anything for our quality of life?
The book is gentle, and while the language may seem too simplistic - sometimes the advice is repeated several places, it is written in a way that allows people to process it, even people who are overwhelmed or grieving. She tells patients and loved ones - this is your end of life journey, what do you want it to look like.
Some of the topics covered in the book include: what does death entail - there is a process our body will go through, sometimes starting weeks or months before we die; what interventions help (pain medication, etc.), and which do not (forcing food and water); what are the most important things a caregiver needs to do for their loved one (keep them clean, safe and comfortable); how to let things go; how to ask for and get help; what hospice can do to help - and what it can't do; and advice for the dying and their caregivers.
This is a book that should live in every home. Read it now, before the time is upon you, read it when you are in the process, and read it again, for the advice on grieving.

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The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4 stars. This was a little all over the place (rating-wise) for me. It started out strong, a 5, floundered a bit in the middle, and came back in the end. What worked for me: the diversity of stories, public libraries, academic, small independent bookshops, many Books-A-Million stories, but they all had the love of reading and books and talking to people about books, in common. Each story was just a few pages, and told of communities and how libraries and bookshops affected the lives of the people in them. It talked of creating readers by introducing them to books and characters they loved, or in some cases, saving a reader's life by helping them find the book that convinced them they weren't alone in this world. But it's a symbiotic relationship, as communities came together to fight censorship by schoolboards, help bookshops survive the pandemic, or start over after a natural disaster. What didn't work as well was when the book seemed to be repetitive in the middle.
I loved some of the anecdotes, one that sticks out is a man asking a bookseller to find several puzzles, ring them up, remove them from their boxes, and wrap them for him. He explains that he doesn't like to see the picture in advance, it keeps his mind sharp to put them together that way. Another story I enjoyed was by Judy Blume, where she talks about deciding, at the age of 78, that she no longer wanted to spend the rest of her life writing, she'd rather interact with readers more. To that end, she and her husband, George Cooper, moved to Key West and bought a small, independent bookstore called Books & Books @ The Studios of Key West, and how different that side of the business was. The flip side of this, is that I was very disappointed that there wasn't a story from Ann Patchett, who owns Parnassus Books, in Nashville. Finally, there were two stories about librarians who provide services to incarcerated people. Diego Sandoval Hernandez works at the Brooklyn Public Library and is in charge of Jail and Prison Services, including those for the inmates at Rikers. They do some wonderful things, including helping incarcerated parents connect with their children by reading and recording stories for them. This reminded me of the fiction book, How to Read a Book that I recently enjoyed reading.

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The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - My first thought about this book is that I wish my father-in-law was still alive because I think he (and my dad) would both have enjoyed this very much. I wish I could ask them whether they remember hearing about the journey that Annie Wilkins took across America, from Maine to California, in the mid-1950s. They both grew up around horses, and were young men at the time. I think they would have been fascinated by this, as many of the people of America were, at the time.
Annie is 63, when she is given just a few years to live, after being hospitalized for what might have been thought to be TB. She remembers a dream of her mother's, to see the Pacific Ocean, and decides that she has nothing to lose (she knows she can no longer hold on to the farm in Maine, by herself), and manages to save enough money to buy a horse and sets out in November, 1954 to ride across the country with her dog, trusting that strangers will let her sleep in their barns, etc. along the way.
A newspaper gets word of the story and she becomes something of a celebrity, people in the towns she travels through often put her up for a night, or longer, and her horse(s) are always given a place in a stable. The police act as escorts through towns and offer her a place to sleep in the jail, when needed. Overall, people are very kind to her and her animals. In Tennessee, a town gives her a second horse, a Tennessee Walker, to help her along the way.
This was an interesting book, in a simpler time, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys animals, travel or history.

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The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful book. Covering a little over 5 years (from Sept. 2017 - Dec. 2022), author Amy Tan shares a selection from nine natural journals with sketches, reminiscences and observations gathered during hundreds of hours studying the birds in her backyard. In the beginning, she could only identify three birds, but over time and through keen observation, she eventually identified over sixty-three species.
From the beautiful pencil sketches to full color drawings, each offering is a gift and a labor of love. She wrote of the effects of various wildfires on the local ecosystem, birds that normally wouldn't appear in her area were driven south by the smoke, as well as of the comfort of watching the birds go about their normal lives during COVID, when the world seemed turned upside down for many humans.
I highly recommend this book!

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Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Chocolat by Joanne Harris
3.5 stars - I read this book as a pick from the list - Books that are better than the movie and then watched the movie, itself. The book, written in 1999, takes place in a small French village in the early 1960s. Vianne and her daughter, Anouk, arrive on a north wind at the very beginning of Lent and open a chocolatier, or chocolate shop. This immediately causes friction with the church, for whom Lent is a season of denial. But Vianne is a generous, giving, intuitive woman, who befriends all, and even treats her would-be enemies with kindness and compassion.
I enjoyed reading the book, but it clearly was written as the beginning of a series. It hints at back stories, creates more questions than it answers. The movie, on the other hand, keeps the same characters and setting, but tells the story in a different way, giving the viewers a neat ending. I appreciated that about the movie, and enjoyed it for both the acting (Dame Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, and Juliette Binoche) and the ending.
I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention the parallels between this book and Lessons in Chemistry, which I recently finished. The time period in both is mid-twentieth century, and the protagonists are very similar. Each woman is a single mother to a precocious young daughter, who are running from their pasts, while trying to create a loving home for their child. While they may love a man, they are not dependent upon them. Vianne creates her living changing people's lives through chocolat, Elizabeth has a television show called "Supper at Six," that touches and changes lives in much the same way. They are both compassionate, funny, and smart. The books make good companion reads.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5/5.0 - Loved this book that takes place in the NYPL, and a tiny town in upstate NY. A group of cartographic students meet their freshman year at the UW, form a tiny friendship that lasts throughout their academic career, and spend the summer after their PhDs in a small town in the Catskills, after which their lives are never the same. Highly recommend!

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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - I put off reading this book for a long time, I think it is because I got an ARC of All These Things I've Done ten years ago, and it didn't leave me wanting to read by the author. But my loss, because I really enjoyed this book. But it must be as the author herself states:

“Sometimes books don't find us until the right time.”

I loved the way the book was laid out. Each chapter begins with a short blurb about a book, which we later see is a note to his daughter who wishes to be a writer. The chapters are short (about 20 pages), the story moves forward quickly, there are a few mysteries, it is about books, and the characters are for the most part, likeable. Excellent book!

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The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - This book grabbed and held my attention. It had so many components that ticked boxes, a book about librarians and a library, a mystery, literary references, an alternate universe. While I enjoyed this book very much, I couldn't rate it a 5 star because it did not compel me to run out and read the rest of the series.

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The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - This ticks several boxes for me: historical fiction, food, England, and strong women characters, to name a few. The setting is England during World War II, food rationing is in place, and the BBC is holding a contest to find a woman who can be the radio commentator for the program, The Kitchen Front, to help families make the most of some unusual foods (think whale and sardines) and search healthy and tasty meals. The four women start out as competitors, but as the war throws them together, they become friends, to the extent that they end up living together by the end of the book.
There are period recipes scattered throughout (but none that tempted me), and interesting historical notes at the end. If you enjoy tv shows like Downton Abbey or books featuring food, this would probably be your cup of tea!

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Dark in Death by J.D. Robb

Dark in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - This book has been my favorite of the In Death series, as the plot centers around books. The killer imagines themselves a better writer than an author they once greatly admired, and decides to recreate her books in real life, but making the villain victorious. After the second murder, the author sees the disturbing similarities and alerts the police. Eve and her team must stop the killer before people die, and eventually the author herself becomes the target. The author, her mother and two teenage daughters are strong female characters who offer great clues, and know how to take care of themselves.
This is my favorite mystery series at this point in time. As a rule, I pick cozy mysteries over other sub-genres because I don't like gratuitous violence. But I also don't care for bumbling, helpless female detectives. This series has the best of both. The murders usually happen off-scene, and in the books I've read so far, no torture has been involved (granted, I've only read 4 books). Eve is smart, savvy, brave and flawed. Her relationship with her colleagues shows respect, leadership and empathy. Her relationship with her husband, Roarke, is hot, full of passion, but also of mutual admiration, adoration, love and desire. They complete each other, and together they are more than the sum of their parts.
As much as I enjoy them, I don't think I could take a steady diet of them, and at the rate of 2 or 3 a year, I may never finish the whole series. So I'll pick and choose, and stop reading if Eve and Roarke ever split up. I have to give a shout-out to Debbie, the Drake Library housekeeper, who introduced me to this series. I think she probably re-read the entire series each year, as I never saw her on break without one in her hands.

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Bookshop by the Sea by Denise Hunter

Bookshop by the Sea by Denise Hunter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4.0 stars - What's not to love about a book that takes place on the seashore, with a newly opened bookshop, and a young woman who has given up so much for those she loves finally taking time to do something for herself, including falling in love? This was my first book by Denise Hunter, but likely not my last.

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The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5.0/5.0 - This debut novel takes place in the Wembley section of London, and is one of my favorite genres - books about books. The reading list contains eight books, ranging from Pride and Prejudice to Life of Pi, with a note - in case you could use this. There are a number of these found in the neighborhood, a few in the library, one in temple, and another on the ground. Who has created the list remains a mystery until the end. But the fact is that each person who finds a list has a strong connection to the same person. A reader herself, this person is loving and giving, and knows people will need something to help them get on with their lives.
These people eventually come together in different ways, but always through the magic of books, and share their thoughts, their weaknesses, and their strengths. The library plays an important role in their lives before the book concludes, even though it may not have before.
This is one of the few books that I could read again and again!
Book 216 of 2021

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Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

I rarely blog about books I dislike, this is an exception.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

2.0/5.0 - There's part of me that feels guilty about not liking this book very much. It's about books, and libraries, and a cat - or is it? Too much of the book is about the author's crappy life, her illnesses, the cat's illnesses, how bad a mother she was (her words), how great the town was, her family's illnesses - you get my point. It wasn't a joyful book, or an endearing one. Honestly, I just couldn't wait to be done with it. Others may disagree with me, that's fine. As Ranganathan's laws of library science state: "Every reader his or her book" and "Every book its reader." We won't and don't have to all enjoy the same book!
Book 184 of 2021

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A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - It has probably been 50 years since I've read a book by Ernest Hemingway, so this short memoir about his time in Paris in the early 1920s was interesting to me. He talks about his friendships with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Scott Fitzgerald and others. Throughout the book, he speaks of his great love for his wife, Hadley, all the while foreshadowing their eventual breakup. All in all, this book has encouraged me to seek out more of his writing.
Book 182 of 2021

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