January:
1. Second Best by David Foenkinos - An ARC I got in 2023 and managed to bury under a pile of books (oopsy), Second Best is the story of Martin, who almost got the role of Harry Potter and found the loss so traumatic that he's been living in the shadow of his "failure", ever since. Will Martin ever figure out how to move on? Translated from the French, very compelling but not brilliant. The ending, however, is perfect.
2. Angry Weather by Friederike Otto - A total nerdfest of a read, Angry Weather is about how a newish (10-15 years, as I recall) method, attribution of extreme weather events, uses huge amounts of data to model a particular weather event quickly and determine whether or not climate change was a cause or partial cause of the event and to what extent. The objective is to find the answers as quickly as possible in order to get the information out and then go through the peer review and publication process, later. That enables scientists to make the determination about how much impact climate change had on an event a part of the news reports and the decision-making when rebuilding. There's also a bit of history on knowledge and understanding of climate change (which goes back farther than one might think) and the history of how Exxon and others chose to deceive the public about climate change and how successful they were. A fascinating read.
3. Peace is Every Breath by Thich Nhat Hanh - While Peace is Every Breath didn't end up being my first finished read of the year, I like starting the year with a book by Thich Nhat Hanh to help me get the year off on the right foot, thinking positively. As always, an excellent read that encourages awareness in everything you do, even including some affirmations to read or recite while you're doing various (often mundane) things such as bathing, washing dishes, etc.
4. Twelve Moons by Mary Oliver - I meant to stretch this one out a bit because Mary Oliver is my second "first of the year" author who helps me start the year mindfully. But, once I got going, I couldn't put the book down. As the title indicates, there are quite a few poems that reference the moon but otherwise it's her usual look at nature: life and death, animals and trees, moss and rivers and mushrooms. My favorites were, unsurprisingly, poems about trees. I particularly loved the poem about a walnut tree that she and her mother were considering selling to help them pay the mortgage when they were stretched thin. But, they let it go and the tree remained. The budget stayed tight but they were happy with their decision.
5. Cat + Gamer, Volume 5 by Wataru Nadatani - The 5th in this manga series wasn't the best but I still enjoyed it. The first story is about the new kitty, Soboro, getting its first bath. Musubi likes baths and is a little envious that Soboro is getting one. Soboro, however, is not a fan. In another story, Riko is so busy watching the cats and playing with them that she forgets it's her birthday. Fun, as always, and I am besotted with the cat art but this one is a bit less memorable.
6. Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea by Ashley Herring Blake - Hazel had two mothers, but Mum died in a tragic accident, two years ago. Since then, Hazel, her little sister Peach, and Mama (her other mother) have left their house in California and they've traveled from one rental to another, moving on every few months. Mama doesn't want to talk about Mum and the few bits of Mum-related memorabilia are packed away. When the family rents a house in Maine for the summer and Hazel's mother begins to fall for an old flame, Hazel is beside herself. She just wants to go home, to spend time with Mama talking about Mum, and to stay away from the people who stare at her scars from the same accident that killed Mum. Will a new friend and a mermaid legend help Hazel to deal with her grief? This is the second of the books that got a teacher suspended for having them in her classroom. As with the first I read, The Fabulous Zed Watson, there is LGBTQ+ content and I did find an article saying that's what the objection was to the titles. But, it's mostly about trauma, grief, friendship, and healing and it's a good book.
7. How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior - Another unputdownable read, this time a novel about a curmudgeonly 86-year-old named Veronica McCreedy. Veronica lives by herself, with a housekeeper and gardener who help out at her large home. She doesn't like people and she's been pondering what to do with her money as she isn't likely to live much longer, healthy as she is. Then, two things happen. Housekeeper Eileen brings out an old box with a padlock that leads her to look for any unknown relatives; and, she starts watching a show about penguins that intrigues her. On a whim, Veronica decides to go to Antarctica to check out the lab where Adélie penguins are studied to see if that's where she should endow her millions of pounds. The scientists try to discourage her, but Veronica is nothing if not determined. I may have stayed up a bit late finishing this one. Loved it and it's the first in a series so I'm looking forward to eventually reading on.
8. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - This is a reread and I confess that I had no idea what an allegory was or what the author was trying to say when I read it the first time (long ago). So, I no longer owned a copy and checked the book out via Hoopla. Unfortunately, it was a very bad copy — as in, I think someone probably ran it through an online translator. Seriously, it was so awful I considered giving up but The Little Prince is short and I was at least understanding the point of the story, this time. I do wish I'd managed to read a decent translation but I still don't think this particular novella is for me. However, I am a big fan of Flight to Arras by Saint-Exupéry.
9. Saplings by Noel Streatfeild - My first selection for a year of reading Persephone books, Saplings is the story of the Wiltshire family. Alex and Lena live in London and have 4 children. At the beginning of the book, the children are on holiday at the seashore with their nanny and governess when their parents show up. Alex tells them he's going to have to send them to the country because war is coming but Lena is a bit of a narcissist and chooses to stay with Alex. Saplings covers the war years entirely, with a death from a direct hit during the Blitz, the anxieties of the children, a move to a new house, a parent who has a nervous breakdown, and finally, the end of WWII. There's an afterword in the Persephone edition about how the author was a bit ahead of her time in her portrayal of the effects of war on children that I thought wrapped the book up nicely. Published in 1945, you really get an excellent perspective on the time period.
10. Charles & Ray: Designers at Play by James Yang - The story (picture book) of Charles and Ray Eames of Mid-Century Modern design fame, written and illustrated by my high school friend, I chose to read Charles & Ray after reading that Eames House survived the Pacific Palisades fire. It tells about their particular skills and how they worked together through numerous failures, determined to design the perfect, comfortable wooden chair. If you're a fan of Mid-Century Modern, you'll love the illustrations. An afterword by the author says he fictionalized a little bit but the focus is on determination in spite of repeated failure rather than strict biography and in that it certainly succeeds.
11. McSweeney's #75, Ed. by Eggers, Yeh, and Horowitz - The 75th volume of McSweeney's short stories is designed like an accordion file, each story individually bound with a unique cover, and all are by "new" authors. I didn't like the first two I read and was pretty sure #75 was going to end up being an issue I disliked, in general, but then the tide turned and some of the stories were immersive, if not enjoyable. Overall, a pretty good selection.
12. The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang - A translation from the Korean, I read The Rainfall Market for discussion in The Tiny Book Club on the Fable app. Serin has a hard life but when she hears you can change your life if you write a letter and are sent a ticket to the Rainfall Market, which is only open during the rainy season, she decides to try. At the market, a cat named Issha becomes her guide while she seeks to find the perfect life amongst a number of options. But, unbeknownst to her, someone is trying to stop her. A bit weird for my taste but the author's note actually made the book feel more meaningful as it tells about his own struggles, which vaguely mirror those of Serin.
13. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay - OK, you're totally going to be able to tell which poem was my favorite before I even say a word about this volume of poetry, right? It's one about . . . a tree. Of course. In this case, there's a fig tree and a woman is cleaning up beneath it so people don't slip on the ripe fruits that have fallen. The author comes along and she tells him to take as many as he wants to help prevent more work cleaning the pavement. Then, more neighbors arrive and ask him to pluck some figs for them because he's tall. It's not just about a tree. It's about community and a tree that is growing where it shouldn't even be able to but (so much hope and joy in this poem) the tree didn't know it's not in the correct growing zone. Nor did the immigrants who planted it. Beautiful. A wonderful volume of poetry.
14. Ties by Domenico Starnone - This translation from the Italian is a book I bought after reading author Alex George's glowing recommendation. Ties is about selfishness, fidelity, marriage, family, and — as I believe Erma Bombeck put it — "the ties that bind and gag." Aldo has left to live with another woman and in Book 1 you see the pain from wife Vanda's point of view as she is first hurt, perplexed, then angry and resigned. In Book 2, you read Aldo's perspective on reflection over 30 years later and then in Book 3, that of the now-grown children. A fascinating peek into how each individual responded in the short and long term to an infidelity. The ending was not entirely unexpected but pretty clever, I thought. A solid read.
15. Walter Anderson for Children by the Mississippi State Historical Museum - There may be a few very odd things showing up on my reading list because we've been cleaning our attic and this is one of them. Walter Anderson for Children is technically an activity book but there's plenty of information about the broad variety of mediums he worked in, examples of his line work, watercolors, block prints, and ceramics, etc. The "activity" part comes in filling in open spaces with what the reader has learned. But, my little readers did not fill this in so it's still crisp and clean. Anderson was a Mississippi Gulf Coast artist and I confess that I know about him, have been aware he's important, and paid little attention to him, anyway, probably because I didn't have the time or room for artwork when my children were small. Now, I'm a bit obsessed. His art is fascinating. We may have to take a road trip to his museum on the Coast.
What a month, eh? Speaking to Americans, here, mostly. I know what's currently happening has worldwide implications but, whoa.
Anyway, reading-wise, it was a pretty good month. I read two poetry books, a children's picture book, a children's art activity book, an ARC from last year, a spiritual book, a nonfiction about compiling climate data, a volume of short stories, novels old and new (two of them translations), and a middle grade book, in addition to two e-books (pictured below).
Checking in on the reading goals, I added an exception for banned books or books about things that are being currently banned from government documents as an exception, so a few books walked in the door but I don't plan to add any further exceptions and, apart from the two Hoopla e-books, I read exclusively from my shelves. Go, me! I did also focus on the bedroom stacks, for the most part. The Persephone books are housed in my home library and, yay, that's another goal met. I read my first Persephone book of the year, Saplings. It's a good one. I did not read any of the books I've been putting off and listed as hopeful reads but I started one (Fobbit by David Abrams) and finished it on the 1st of February so you'll see that in next month's wrap-up.
My absolute favorite was How the Penguins Saved Veronica, but I pretty much loved everything else, as well, apart from The Rainfall Market and The Little Prince. I am definitely an outlier when it comes to The Little Prince but I might have appreciated it more if the copy I checked out was readable. I've never come across a translation as bad as the one I borrowed from Hoopla. It was something.
Hope everyone is doing OK, having a good reading year, and (Americans) annoying the heck out of your representatives and senators. Hang in there, everybody!
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