Let's Bust a Recap : 2022

Well, the good news is: we've made it through another year. Can you even believe it? I didn't clear the To Be Blogged stack, and I only finished one book in December (yesterday!), but it was a great reading year and I'm looking forward to making a fresh new book list for 2023 today. 

But before we do that, let's take stock of 2022. I read a lot of really great books this year and, quantitatively, this was my best reading year yet with my tally adding up to 46 books. I got re-acquainted with the library system this year thanks to my book club, and I've finally read The Lord of the Rings which felt like a major literary milestone for me. I discovered a series I never dreamed I'd enjoy but ended up loving (also thanks to book club), and I finally read and consequently unearthed some new favorite authors I've been meaning to get to for years. I still haven't tackled David Copperfield despite this being the third year I've put it on my book list, and I only managed to complete one presidential biography this year though I am well on my way through my biography of Polk. C'est la vie. Tomorrow is another day, or, as it happens, another year. Here's what I read in 2022.

January

Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts : completed 1/8

Great way to start the year. Highly recommend reading this in January.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read) : completed 1/20

The Proposal by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/23

I love a good re-read, especially near the beginning of the year, and I did a lot of comfort reading in January. This English Garden series by Lori Wick is a familiar favorite for me. 

The Rescue by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/24

The Visitor by Lori Wick (re-read) : completed 1/27

February

The Selection by Kiera Cass (library book) : completed 2/1

Not my favorite, but the book club decreed this would be the book for January so to the library I went.

The Elite by Kiera Cass (library book): completed 2/2

The One by Kiera Cass (library book) : completed 2/5

The Lady's Mine by Francine Rivers : completed 2/15

So excited to get a new release from one of my favorite authors!

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare : completed 2/25

Ye ole Bard's most maddening comedy yet.

Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman : completed 2/28

 

I Am A Church Member by Thom S. Rainer : completed 2/28

The MVP of the three church membership books I read this year.

March

What Is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile : completed 3/11

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (re-read) : completed 3/29

Wasn't planning to re-read Jane Eyre this year, but this was the book club book for February. Haven't decided if I should recap this for the blog or not. Any thoughts on that?

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (re-read) : completed 3/31

Wasn't planning to re-read this EVER, but this was the book club book for March. Just as depressing as the first time around with an added sense of dread knowing what was coming. 

April

Summer Promise by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 4/10

Decided to go back to the very beginning and visit with Christy this year for my Robin Jones Gunn selections.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (library book) : completed 4/18

Easily my least favorite book of the year. 

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : completed 4/27

May

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 5/20

Such a good idea reading these aloud with my husband. We loved them.

Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear : completed 5/21

June

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse : completed 6/1

One of those newly discovered favorite authors I'd been meaning to get to.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 6/3

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty : completed 6/17

Another new favorite author.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 6/23

That series I didn't expect to love.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 6/28

July

Cress by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 7/8

Winter by Marissa Meyer (library book) : completed 7/14

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (read aloud) : completed 7/24

That ending. 

August

President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy : 

completed 8/6

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne : completed 8/15

Not a summertime book!

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman : completed 8/24

One of my favorites this year. So much laughing and crying.

Present Concerns by C.S. Lewis : completed 8/30

September

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare : completed 9/8

Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais : completed 9/15

Could not put it down. Looking forward to her next book.

In His Image by Jen Wilkin : completed 9/21

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie : completed 9/30

Read the book; skip the movie.

October

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 10/2

Got to read the whole book to my niece when we brought her home with us for a week. Love that.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (re-read) : completed 10/6

Thinking I'll end up recapping this one.

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : completed 10/15

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl : completed 10/20

So fun.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl : completed 10/26

But I liked this one even better.

November

A Whisper and a Wish by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 11/5

Yours Forever by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 11/6

The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer : completed 11/27

My BFF Christina read this one with me. 

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley : completed 11/28

Flavia is so fun. Looking forward to more of her adventures.

December

Watership Down by Richard Adams : completed 12/30

Recap coming soon. This one was so good.

I'd love to hear what you read this year or if you kept any resolutions you made for yourself. I hope you made some memories in 2022 you'll treasure, and I hope you're looking forward to a brand new year. Thanks for visiting this little corner of cyberspace, and have a safe time bringing in the new year tonight! Don't forget to check back soon for my 2023 book list. 

From me and mine, peace and love to you and yours. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Hum If You Don't Know the Words

We're chipping away at the To Be Blogged stack and today's feature is Bianca Marais' 2017 debut Hum If You Don't Know the Words. This book first hit my radar in 2019 when I was trying out the Instagram and Marais' second book If You Want to Make God Laugh was coming out as a new release. I was immediately intrigued by both titles, and when I realized that Marais is a native South African and both books are historical fiction set in South Africa during the apartheid era, I immediately added them to my Must-Read list. My sister-in-law got them for me for Christmas that year (thanks, Dakota!), and I promptly put Hum If You Don't Know the Words on my 2020 book list, but didn't manage to get to it that year. It went back on my list again this year, and in September my friend Amanda chose it for our book club to read. It ended up being the most unputdownable standalone I read this year.

In Hum If You Don't Know the Words, we're introduced to Robin Conrad, a ten year old white girl living in Johannesburg with her parents in the 1970s, and Beauty Mbali, a widowed Xhosa woman raising her children in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei. During the Soweto uprising, Robin's parents are brutally murdered and Beauty's daughter goes missing. Through a series of events, Beauty is hired to care for Robin and this unlikely pair forge an unexpected and complicated bond. The book alternates between their perspectives, and even though there were absolutely devastating elements to this story, the overall tone held hope high. I didn't want to stop reading about these characters, and If You Want to Make God Laugh instantly earned a spot on next year's book list. While it's not a sequel to Hum If You Don't Know the Words, I hear that Beauty and/or Robin may make a cameo in its pages. (I really try to go into the books I read as blind as possible, so I don't know all that much about Marais' follow up novel and please no spoilers in the comments if you've read it!)

I can't say enough good things about Hum If You Don't Know the Words. I enjoyed the South African setting and language (having lived in Joburg for a short time myself in 2009 and 2010), I appreciated the historical context (which was a vital aspect of the novel and written well), and I especially loved the characters' stories (Robin's abrupt coming-of-age and attempts to understand the scary, ever-changing world around her; and Beauty's struggles to find her daughter in a world that's entirely against her because of her black skin color juxtaposed with her mothering of a frightened little girl who can't even understand the benefits she's been given simply because of her white skin color). I wasn't ready for the book to end when it did, and I seriously considered starting Marais' next book immediately. 

All in all, this is a novel I'd recommend to just about anyone. While there are very difficult—potentially triggering—situations and some strong language sprinkled throughout, Hum If You Don't Know the Words will ultimately make you consider the sanctity of human life and—I would hope—cause you to recognize that every person deserves to be treated with dignity. 

Ten out of ten; would recommend.

What's the most unputdownable book you've read this year?

Let's Bust a Recap : Gone With the Wind

Alright, well since I admitted yesterday that I still had Gone With the Wind hanging around on my shelf, waiting since last year to be blogged about, I figured I'd go ahead and just tackle it today. According to Goodreads, I began reading Gone With the Wind on October 2nd last year and finished it on November 14th. However, I vividly remember wishing I could just devote all my time to reading it until I finished instead of, you know, going to work and handling my adult responsibilities. If it wasn't for all that, I'm pretty sure I'd have devoured this one in about a week. I read some real gems last year, but if push came to absolute shove, I might have to say that Gone With the Wind was my favorite book of 2021, and it's definitely on my list of All Time Favorites now.

Gone With the Wind is one of those Southern classics I was always a little ashamed I hadn't read, but because of its sheer length (and maybe also due in part to the sheer length of the film as well), I just never picked it up. I've had that tattered hardcover edition sitting on my shelf for years. Now that I've read it, it's one of those books I'm chagrined I didn't pick up sooner. I couldn't put it down, and I'll forever be indebted to my sister-in-law for agreeing to buddy read it with me and giving me that final nudge I needed to start it. Literally days before we began reading it, I found that mass market paperback in a Little Free Library and boy am I ever glad because it went everywhere with me.

If you're somehow unfamiliar with this iconic saga, it's the coming-of-age story of Scarlett O'Hara, a spoiled sixteen year old Southern belle living in Clayton County, Georgia when the South is on the brink of seceding from the Union and entering the Civil War. Throughout the course of the novel, Scarlett grows up, ends up being widowed twice and married three times, successfully preserves her family plantation Tara through the Reconstruction Era, births three children (and has one awful miscarriage), loses one of her children, and ends separated from the man she loves but with the determination to get him back. 

When I say I experienced just about every human emotion imaginable while reading this book, I am not exaggerating even a little. Margaret Mitchell produced a masterpiece of a novel and I totally get why it's still one of the most popular books in the world. Despite its 1936 publication date, in a poll as recent as 2014 it's still considered the second most popular book in America behind only the Holy Bible itself. More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. The thing that won me over and made me a lifelong fan was Mitchell's ability to write such human characters. While Scarlett and Rhett Butler do some absolutely reprehensible things, you completely understand what led them to their actions. It's hard to hate Scarlett (or Rhett for that matter) when I'm sitting in my cozy armchair at home wondering what I would have done in the same situation. While I aspire to be the kind of Southern woman Scarlett's mother Ellen or the indomitable Melanie Hamilton are, I can sympathize with young Scarlett's desperation and her overwhelming determination to "make it". While reading Gone With the Wind, I flip-flopped between despising Scarlett and pitying her. That's excellent writing. I've said before that my favorite books tend to be ones that present me with moral dilemmas and ethical tension that's hard to stomach, and Mitchell produces that tension in spades in Gone With the Wind. 

There have been several sequels and prequels to Gone With the Wind (some authorized, some not), but none by Margaret Mitchell herself. And even though a couple of these have come highly recommended to me by trusted sources, I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to read any of them. Gone With the Wind stands on its own and despite its heartbreaking and unresolved ending, it needs no sequel. There's something so fitting about Scarlett's closing lines: "I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day." Throughout all of Gone With the Wind, Scarlett copes with her own impossible choices by not thinking of them today, but putting off the hard thoughts for another day. What better way to end her story than with her personal maxim?

The 1939 movie adaptation starring Vivien Leigh is considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1939. I personally have only seen it in its entirety maybe twice in my life, the last time being at the beginning of 2010 so I'd be hard pressed to comment on the book versus the movie. But now having read the novel, I have the vague idea that I'd prefer to just sit down with it again over watching the film, something akin to my disgust with the Pride and Prejudice adaptations floating about in the world. But I'll hold my final judgment on this until I rewatch the movie with my sister-in-law. (She loves the movie.)

Gone With the Wind is not without its problems, and if you want to come at me with how problematic Gone With the Wind is, go right ahead. It will not change how I feel about the book, or the fact that I have every intention of reading it again. It is frequently the center of controversy and has been challenged and banned in multiple places, and I definitely get how it could be extremely triggering for some readers. Gone With the Wind may not be the book for everyone, but it will have a home in my library until I'm gone from this earth. 

Have you read it?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Secret Garden

So here's the thing: The Secret Garden is one of two books leftover from last year that I've been wanting to recap before putting them back on the shelf. (The other is Gone With the Wind.) My original plan was to follow up by watching the movie adaptations before writing my recaps to include some thoughts about how they compare to the books they were adapted from, but you know what? It's December. I've been watching World Cup games since the week of Thanksgiving and now we're thick into my Christmas movie collection, and I just can't have these books carry over into another year. So let's talk about this sweet children's novel today. It was one of my favorite books of 2021.

I read this book in September last year while I was laid up with the COVID. And I can't even tell you how much I loved it. Two years ago in 2020, I finally got around to reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and it left me determined to read The Secret Garden as soon as possible. I enjoyed A Little Princess, but The Secret Garden is now easily my favorite of the two. 

The Secret Garden was published in 1911, a few years after A Little Princess, after being serialized from November of 1910 to August of 1911. It's about a little girl named Mary Lennox who is sent to live with her uncle on the Yorkshire Moors after she is orphaned due to a cholera outbreak in British India where she was born and has lived her whole life to this point. She's only 10 years old, and has lived a neglected existence because her wealthy, self-absorbed parents couldn't be bothered with her care. Mary is a sour, unattractive, rude child when she comes to England, but through the revelation of the beauty of nature, she softens and grows into a lovely little girl. Her friendship with Dickon Sowerby and her discovery of her bedridden cousin Colin add fun to her life and a vital human element to this story. 

I recently read a beautiful piece on this book over at Word on Fire, and because I was moved by reading it and also because I could not possibly express these sentiments nearly as eloquently as Haley does, I'm going to link it here and urge you to take a few minutes to read it. 

The Beauty of Creation Beckons: The Secret Garden & the Awakening to Abundant Life

Other than that, I will take a moment to compare the novel to its 1993 movie adaptation which I've seen many times. Unlike with the two adaptations of A Little Princess that I own, The Secret Garden is a much more faithful adaptation of its source material. The only bone I have to pick with it is that I wish Dickon's mother had been a more central character in the adaptation like she is in the book. Other that that, I would highly recommend watching this one after reading the book. In fact, maybe I will have a little Christmas movie moratorium tonight to watch The Secret Garden. (Did anyone see the 2020 adaptation? How was it?)

This book came to me just when I needed it. Sometimes, when I read a beloved children's classic that I missed out on when I was a child myself, I mourn the lost time, but I'm glad to have discovered The Secret Garden when I did. It's found a home on my list of All Time Favorite books, and I'll certainly be reading it again. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Death on the Nile

Well, if you're reading this, thanks for staying with me on this never-ending saga of "Has she quit blogging forever, or will something pop up randomly after a month and a half of silence?"

Listen, I did not accurately factor in how the World Cup would negatively impact my reading life—much less my blogging life. It's my all-time favorite sporting event and it only comes around once every four years. You'd think I would have given a thought to how planting myself in front of the TV for eight hours a day to watch the beautiful game would have an effect on the rest of my life, but no. Not a hope of that. 

Anyway, I'm popping back in today to try to make a dent in the To-Be-Blogged stack and to assure anyone wondering that yes, I do in fact intend to keep up this little hobby of mine, however sporadic that may look.

And the book I plucked at random out of the stack for today is Death on the Nile by the Queen of Crime herself: Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE. 

If you've followed this little corner of cyberspace for any length of time, you may remember that I'm still a bit of a Christie newbie. I've only read two of her other novels (in 2017 and 2018 respectively), and after reading And Then There Were None, went on a bit of a Christie strike thinking no other book of hers could possibly be worth it after that brilliant display of murder-mystery prowess. 

I knew the strike was destined to end sometime, however, as I continued to collect her books and add them to our home library. Since my recap of And Then There Were None at the end of 2018 (at which time I only owned three of her books) our Christie collection has grown to a whopping 28 of her novels. And when friends of ours invited us over to watch the new movie released this year, I begged for a little time to read the original work first. 

So about halfway through September, I re-entered the world of Agatha Christie to read her 1937 rendering: Death on the Nile.

And I have to say: Agatha did it again. 

In Death on the Nile, our famous Belgian, Hercule Poirot, is approached by the effervescent Linnet Doyle (previously Ridgeway) on board the steamer Karnak (cruising down the Nile—hence the title) about the matter of her ex-best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort stalking and harassing her and her new husband Simon. Linnet, who is independently wealthy and has everything she could possibly want, stole Simon away from poor Jackie, and ever since their marriage, Jackie has been popping up everywhere they are and making them feel terrible about themselves. 

But when Linnet turns up dead in her cabin one night after Jackie makes a huge scene with Simon and a little pistol, this case of harassment turns into a murder mystery that only Poirot could solve. As he delves deeper into the details, he finds that nearly everyone on board has a reason to want Linnet dead. But who actually killed her?

I won't ruin it, but wow. How does she do it? Once again, Christie tied my brain in absolute knots trying to figure this one out, and once again, I was left gobsmacked by the final resolution. If you've never read anything by Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile would be a great one to pick up. 

The movie, on the other hand, was a bit of a letdown. Opposite to my experience with Murder on the Orient Express which was wonderful up until the end where everything seemed to fall apart; Death on the Nile seemed to drag on and on, but then Branagh really stuck the ending. They significantly cut down the cast which took away from the brilliance of Poirot solving the case, and just added in a lot of awkward, unnecessary bits that didn't do anything for the story except maybe make it a little more relevant to contemporary culture. Gag me. Our little group had a good time watching it though, and then I had the satisfaction of being questioned about what was changed from the book. 

Interestingly, I found myself reading an article recently about the All About Agatha podcast. I'm not a podcast listener myself (though I've tried), and these Agatha experts rank Death on the Nile #9 out of all Christie's mystery novels. And for anyone wondering, that's 66 novels. I was thunderstruck to see that they had the gall to put And Then There Were None at #2, but also intrigued. I actually own a copy of Five Little Pigs (though I have an American edition titled Murder in Retrospect), and now I'm at a loss as to how to decide my next Christie novel. All along, I'd been planning to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd next (which you'll notice is #3 on this list), but then that got upset by Death on the Nile this year. Not to mention, I still haven't read a Miss Marple mystery yet. 

SEND HELP.

All told, I'd definitely recommend Death on the Nile, and somebody please tell me which Agatha Christie novel I should put on next year's reading list! This link should take you to a list of the 28 I own on Goodreads if you feel so inclined to help a sister out. 

Where do you land on the scale of Agatha Christie fandom if 1 was "Agatha who?" and 10 was "I have a poster of her in my bedroom"? Any other World Cup watchers out there? Who do you choose in the final: Argentina or France?

Let's Bust a Recap : Roald Dahl

A couple of years ago, my husband got me a colorful box set of sixteen of Roald Dahl's most loved children's books and thus began my journey of discovering the delight of Roald Dahl as a woman in my 30s. Children's lit is one of my favorite genres, and Matilda and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory were movies I watched over and over as a kid so I was excited to finally read the original words from one of the world's favorite authors for children. 

And thus far, I have not been disappointed. I started this venture reading The Twits and The Witches. Last year, I naturally selected Matilda and followed it with The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me. This year, it was a no-brainer to read the Charlie books so today we'll be talking all about Charlie Bucket and Wonka's wonderful chocolate factory. 

We first meet Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was originally published in 1964. Charlie and his poor parents and both sets of his ancient grandparents are struggling to stay warm and fed in their tiny shack of a house when Willy Wonka announces that he is inviting five children to come see his amazing chocolate factory which no one has been inside of for years. Charlie manages to win the fifth and final Golden Ticket and the next day, he and Grandpa Joe are on the adventure of their lives touring Willy Wonka's incredible factory. 

This was such a fun book, and I was tremendously pleased that the movie I grew up loving seemed to follow it so well. The horrid children who won the other four Golden Tickets were portrayed perfectly on screen. I haven't seen the newer remake starring Johnny Depp. Is it worth it?

We pick right back up with Charlie Bucket in the 1972 sequel: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. To be honest, I had always assumed that they tried to squeeze this narrative onto the end of the movie I grew up watching because their ride in the Great Glass Elevator didn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the movie to me. But in fact, at the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they are riding in the Great Glass Elevator, and in this super-fun sequel, we pick right back up in that same elevator. Charlie, his parents, and both sets of grandparents soon find themselves on a zany adventure in space when the elevator shoots into orbit. They manage to make it back to the chocolate factory only to accidentally minus Grandma Georgina when she takes too much of Wonka-Vite, a formula Willy Wonka's been perfecting for years to make people younger. 

I loved this follow-up to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, maybe even more than the first book. I think I liked it so much because I had no idea what to expect and the outrageous situations this little band of people found themselves in were so imaginative and wild and the solutions were clever. The Witches is still holding as my favorite Dahl book so far, but Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator is a very close second. 

Next year, I'm pretty set on reading James and the Giant Peach and The BFG, but if you'd like to recommend a different favorite, I'm all ears! 

Pumpkin Carving 2022

Guess what time it is? That's right. Time for our annual pumpkin carving post. And let me tell y'all, this year—and the last few months in particular—have been so busy that it almost didn't happen in time for Halloween. I was in Florida last week for a wedding, and when I got home, I was hoping to carve our pumpkins on Sunday because I was 100% positive that Sunday was, in fact, Halloween. Seriously. I would have bet you good American money that yesterday was November 1st. So I was trying to figure out how to carve like, a turkey or a cornucopia or something Thanksgiving-y into my pumpkin (because we can't throw the whole tradition out just because we're a day late) when my sister-in-law called me and helpfully reminded me that it wasn't November yet. 

So after Cody was done with work yesterday and we'd had a super-yummy dinner, we found our pumpkin carving tools (no small feat in our recently moved into basement) and kept our Halloween pumpkin carving tradition alive. And since I mentioned it: we carved our pumpkins in the basement of our sixth (and hopefully last because I never want to move again) home-sweet-home together. 

I like him.

It's becoming one of my favorite parts of this tradition to look back at all our pumpkins of years past and reminisce about where we were and what was going on in life that year. This year, we had a lot going on. We bought our second home and moved for the second time in a six-month period. We joined our church in North Carolina. I quit my job delivering packages for amazon and started watching a baby boy from church a couple days a week. Cody traveled most of the summer for work and also went on a missions trip to the Republic of Georgia. We {semi}renovated our basement and moved the rest of our stuff into our house (which felt like the third move in the span of a year and a half). It's been wild, but it's been good, and I'm thankful to God for all His good gifts to us and that I'm still carving pumpkins with this guy eleven years later. 

This year, Cody picked up a couple of jumbo pumpkins from Ingles and we kept it simple with some classic jack-o'-lantern faces. I think these are the biggest pumpkins we've ever gotten!

Happy Halloween or November 1st or Thanksgiving Day, for all I know! 

I hope you're enjoying the sweet things wherever you are. 

October 31, 2022

Let's Bust a Recap : The House of the Seven Gables

Ok, so The House of the Seven Gables was our book club book for the month of July, and I'm just going to say right off the bat that this is NOT a July book. I don't know how much importance you place on the seasons when you're reading, but atmosphere is huge for me, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Dark Romanticism is not a summertime author. 

But the book club decreed that this would be the book for July so at the end of July/beginning of August, there I was, struggling through Hawthorne's 1851 offering about this old haunted mansion in New England.

I actually wasn't dreading it. I knew July probably wasn't the best time to read The House of the Seven Gables, but The Scarlet Letter is one of my all-time favorite classics and I'd had Hawthorne's follow-up novel on my shelf for years waiting to be read. 

I'll just go ahead and tell you now: it wasn't great. It wasn't bad, and maybe if I had read it during the winter by a cozy fire, it might have garnered a more favorable review, but as it stands: I'll probably never revisit this one.

In The House of the Seven Gables, we're introduced to old Hepzibah Pyncheon who has been living alone in poverty in our titular House, and who—to her immense mortification—has finally resorted to opening a little shop in the House to support herself. Hawthorne opens his novel by giving us a never-ending brief history of the House and the Pyncheon family so by the time we meet Hepzibah, we know that the Pyncheons are cursed and the House of the Seven Gables is supposedly haunted. 

Throughout the course of this slow narrative, we meet the young and vibrant Phoebe Pyncheon (who comes to live with old Hepzibah and who breathes new life into the house), Clifford Pyncheon (Hepzibah's brother who also comes back to live with her after getting out of jail for murder—and who I legitimately thought was an actual ghost for a while), Holgrave (the boarder living in part of the House), and Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon (who we eventually learn set up Clifford for the murder he didn't commit). The main thrust of the plot is the reckoning between the three elder Pyncheons (Hepzibah, Clifford, and Judge Jaffrey) over Clifford's wrongful 30-year imprisonment, but man, we go through a lot of history to get to the point. 

And here's the thing: it really wasn't bad. Hawthorne is a masterful writer and one of my favorite aspects of The House of the Seven Gables in particular was the way he could paint a portrait of a character and without telling you how to feel about the character, he intrinsically made you feel a certain way about that character. His use of subtle sarcasm is absolutely superb, and his humor is biting. I'd recommend this book for the masterclass it is in writing alone.

But for all the good writing in the world, it was slow. I mean, good-luck-staying-awake, bless-you-if-you-can-finish-it, drink-all-the-coffee, thick-molasses-in-January SLOW. Getting through an entire chapter without falling asleep felt like a small victory, and it took me over three weeks to read it. (And it's not very long.) I think I was the only person in our book club who finished it. If you're going to pick this one up, adjust your expectations accordingly and settle in for the journey, because this one is a marathon—not a sprint. 

I saved a ton of quotes from The House of the Seven Gables and maybe one day when things settle down a bit, I'll share them here. All in all, this one is a take it or leave it. I wouldn't enthusiastically recommend it, but I wouldn't not recommend it either. I personally think The Scarlet Letter is loads better and would tell you to start there with Hawthorne, but The House of the Seven Gables was good too. Just not great. And don't try to read it in the middle of summer. 

Are you a seasonal reader? What's one of your favorite classics to read in the autumn?

Let's Bust a Recap : Antony and Cleopatra

Oh boy, time for more Shakespeare. This year's tragedy was Antony and Cleopatra, and I think next year we're going to hit either our re-read of Julius Caesar or Romeo and Juliet because I've had a tough time with the last two tragedies I've read, and I need next year's to be a winner. But we'll circle back to this at the end of today's post. 

So Antony and Cleopatra...where to begin? We open our play to learn that Antony has got it bad for Cleopatra and has neglected all his responsibilities to be at her beck and call 24/7. Like, he's off sleeping with Cleopatra in Alexandria and letting Rome go to pot and not caring two figs that his wife Fulvia died after rebelling against Octavius. 

But Octavius is all, "Enough of that. You need to get it together and come help me put down some pirates that are wreaking havoc around here." Naturally, Cleopatra doesn't want her boy-toy to leave her, and we get a lot of angsty back and forth between her and Antony about him leaving. 

But he does, in fact, leave.

He meets up with Octavius and Lepidus (the two other guys in charge of Rome), and they agree to set aside their differences to deal with the pirates. While everyone's feeling good about each other, Octavius' general Agrippa suggests Antony should marry Octavius' sister to keep everybody friendly. 

This is obviously a terrible idea, but of course, they do it because Antony has no qualms about being monogamous or anything ridiculous like that. Enobarbus (Antony's right hand man) is the only one who sees the absolute trainwreck that is about to ensue because he knows there's no way Antony is giving up what he has with Cleopatra, and he famously details Cleopatra's irresistible charms saying:

        "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

        Her infinite variety: other women cloy

        The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry

        Where most she satisfies."

Then we have a scene with a soothsayer who warns Antony that he will for sure lose if he ever tries to fight Octavius which is important because foreshadowing. 

Meanwhile, back in Egypt, Cleopatra finds out about Antony's marriage to Octavia and she throws a royal hissy fit wherein all her lackeys assure her that she is gorgeous and Octavia is garbage. Which calms her down. Not in time to save the messenger from some serious abuse, but who cares about him, right?

Then we have a big confusing mess wherein Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus (the three guys in charge of Rome, remember?) end up not fighting the pirates and making a deal with Pompey (one of the pirates) that he can keep his land as long as he flips on the other pirates and also he has to send tributes to them. To which the other pirates are all, "Bro, why don't you just wreck these guys and take over Rome?" But Pompey's all, "Nah, that wouldn't be cool." And then there's this big drunken party, but then Octavius and Lepidus (without Antony's knowledge or approval) attack Pompey anyway. 

So why did we even just go through all that?

Antony heads back to Alexandria and crowns himself and Cleopatra as rulers of Egypt and his share of Rome and also complains to Octavius that he owes Antony more land from his recent war with Pompey. Oh, and he's not happy that Octavius kicked Lepidus out of the triumvirate and threw him in jail.

 

You see what's happening, right? Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Octavius is like, "You go ahead and be king of Egypt, but that's it, kiddo." To which Antony is like, "It's go time, son."

So they're gearing up for a showdown, and Antony's people are like, "You will lose at sea; fight on land." But Antony's all, "Octavius dared me to fight at sea, and I'm no sissy." And Cleopatra chimes in with, "My whole navy is yours."

But then they go to battle and Cleopatra runs away with her fleet of ships and Antony follows her leaving all his men behind to get slaughtered. Which he's a little embarrassed about, but hey, the kisses of Cleopatra are worth it.

Yikes, bro.

Octavius ends up sending a messenger to Cleopatra asking her to give up Antony, and she starts FLIRTING WITH THE MESSENGER which, naturally, Antony walks in on. He rages for about two seconds and then forgives her and promises to fight another battle for her, this time on land.

At this point, Enobarbus who is pretty much the only guy that's been unreservedly #TeamAntony this whole play is finally like, "I'm out." And heads over to Octavius' side. But Antony just gathers all Enobarbus' stuff and sends it to him with a "No hard feelings, my man." Which kills Enobarbus because he's so ashamed of his own disloyalty. Literally. He dies.

Antony loses the battle. (Foreshadowing, remember?) And then he has a major temper tantrum and swears off Cleopatra because this is all obviously her fault and only hers.

Cleopatra decides that the way to win Antony back is to send a message to him that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. So she goes and locks herself up in her tower and waits for him to come rushing back to her.

Bad move, sis.

When Antony gets the message, he decides his life isn't worth living anymore and he begs his boy Eros to kill him. But Eros won't do it, and instead kills himself. Which Antony thinks is just the most honorable and brave thing he's ever seen so he tries to kill himself too. 

Except he's an idiot and only manages to mortally wound himself. 

So he's sitting there bleeding out when he finds out Cleopatra isn't even dead. They hoist him up to her in her little tower and he dies in her arms.

Is it over? Not yet.

Cleopatra has now been placed under a Roman guard since Egypt has been defeated by Octavius and she tries to kill herself, but the guard gets the dagger away from her in time. Octavius shows up and is all, "No worries, we're going to treat you right." But one of Octavius' own men is like, "Nah, sis, he is going to parade you around like a caged animal." 

So then we get a lot of Cleopatra being bitter, envisioning her humiliating life under the rule of Octavius. And then she pulls a poisonous asp out of her basket and kills herself by having it bite her. Her two servants die too. Octavius finds them all there and feels kinda bad. But not really all that bad because now he's free to become the first Roman emperor aka take over the world. So he gives her a nice funeral. The end. 

I mean, holy moly. I think we all know that Shakespeare is the king of dysfunctional relationships, but Antony and Cleopatra take it to the next level. They are equally screwed up, and it's wild. This play was difficult to get through just because there's sooo much jumping around. All Shakespeare's plays were obviously meant to be seen on the stage, but this one in particular needs to be seen acted out, not just read in my living room with me trying to keep track of where everyone is and who's loyal to who. Antony and Cleopatra has one of Shakespeare's biggest casts and keeping everyone in line gets a little tricky. I was constantly flipping back to the cast list to figure out who was who.

That being said, this one was way better than Troilus and Cressida and I would recommend giving it a go with the caveat that it would be best read in as few sittings as possible so you're not lost every time you come back to it. Which is really true of all Shakespeare's plays if we're being honest. 

Anyway, circling back to the beginning of this post, I think next year I'll be reading Romeo and Juliet. My ultimate goal is to read Shakespeare's entire body of work. I read Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar in high school and thoroughly enjoyed them both, but when I undertook to read all of Shakespeare, I decided that I would re-read those as an adult as part of this undertaking. I've been saving them for when I need a win, and I think the time has come. We're officially down to six comedies and six tragedies, so let's just keep this train rollin'! 

Let's Bust a Recap : Present Concerns

And speaking of our favourite 20th century Brits (which we were on Tuesday, in case you missed it) let's talk about our C.S. Lewis selection for 2022. 

C.S. Lewis gets an automatic slot on my book list every single year. Last year, I didn't really make much of a list and decided to let my whims guide my reading. And horror of horrors, I didn't end up reading anything by C.S. Lewis. And his literary presence was sorely missed. 

But this year, we're back on track and I read this collection of essays that was published posthumously in 1986. 

(Sidebar: I've gotten in the habit of photographing my C.S. Lewis books with a hot beverage because it just seems appropriate, and I thought it was very clever—and aesthetically pleasing in this particular instance—to photograph Present Concerns with a cuppa from Starbucks. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

Anyway, moving on. Present Concerns includes nineteen essays that reveal his thoughts about democratic values, threats to educational and spiritual fulfillment, literary censorship, and more, demonstrating Lewis' wide range of interests and his absolute mastery in conveying his thoughts through the written word. These essays were originally published in various newspapers, magazines, and books between the years 1940 and 1962, and were compiled and introduced in this book by Walter Hooper. I couldn't have chosen a more fitting title for this collection. Though the topics Lewis discusses in these essays were obviously timely for their original audience, they were just as relevant in 1986 when this slim volume was published and continue in their applicability today. 

As is always the case, I was once again impressed with Lewis' ability to communicate his thoughts in the simplest language even while articulating some of the most profound ideas I've ever read. The man was just so dang smart and I always feel like such a dunce when I'm recapping his books because my sentences seem so lame in comparison. Of the nineteen essays included in Present Concerns, there were only two that I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend: "The Empty Universe" (while I had a vague grasp on his main point, this one was just a bit over my head) and "Interim Report" (which was an article for The Cambridge Review comparing Oxford and Cambridge, neither of which I have much firsthand knowledge of). Two of the essays that particularly stood out to me were "Three Kinds of Men" (in which I felt like old Jack proceeded to kick me in the gut, but then followed up with a pat on the back and a, "No worries, chap, I'm in the same boat as you.") and "Talking About Bicycles" (mind blown; just read it). 

All in all, another triumph from one of my all-time favorite authors. I really appreciate the people like Walter Hooper who took it upon themselves to compile these essays into books because they're turning out to be some of my favorite of Lewis' work. I saved a few quotes from this one that I'm sure I'll share on here someday. In the meantime, what C.S. Lewis book should go on next year's book list?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Inimitable Jeeves

Ah, yes, I've finally been properly introduced to Bertie and Jeeves—two of P.G. Wodehouse's most popular characters—and it was a hoot. Due to the fact that Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century and I pride myself on being a bookworm, I was aware of his work. But I'd be lying if I didn't credit Rory Gilmore with being one of the motivating factors for adding Wodehouse to my LIFE LIST. Now, I'm not one of these Gilmore Girls diehards that have decided to read every single book mentioned or seen on the show (lists have been compiled), but I watch the show often enough that every time I hear Rory telling Richard during her sophomore year at Yale that she's "very into Wodehouse right now", I mentally remind myself that I really need to get around to Wodehouse myself sooner or later.

Well, 2022 was the year I finally got around to him, and now he'll be popping up on my book lists for the next twelve years, because I have added ALL the Wooster and Jeeves books to my library and this first foray into his work provided a side-splitting good time. This first installment—well, I guess technically the second installment, but I don't want to get into all that right now—was published in full in 1923, but it pulls together short stories that were published between 1918 and 1922 so all things considered, I ended up reading this barrel of laughs right as it's coming up on its 100th anniversary of entertaining readers. 

In The Inimitable Jeeves we are introduced to our fashionable young Londoner and indolently wealthy Bertie Wooster and his all-knowing valet Jeeves. Throughout the course of the novel which is actually just a series of short stories strung together, Bertie gets roped into helping his hopelessly romantic friend Bingo Little who can't help falling in love with every girl he sees. And when I say Bertie gets roped into helping Bingo, I ultimately mean Jeeves gets roped into helping them both, because Bertie cannot possibly function without Jeeves' always correct advice, and when he attempts to solve a problem on his own, he inevitably makes the situation worse and needs Jeeves to fix it anyway. 

And it's hilarious. I literally laughed out loud at some point during every single episode Bertie found himself in, and my very favorite bits were Jeeves' insistence about Bertie's proper attire and Bertie's equal stubbornness over wanting to wear the most ridiculous things. Which always resulted in the inescapable result of Jeeves being right and Bertie getting rid of the article in question. They're a riot.

As my sister-in-law Caroline would say (and once again, she has endorsed an absolute winner), Wodehouse's books are the perfect literary palate cleanser, and you can be sure the next volume in my collection—Carry On, Jeeves—will be on next year's book list.  Definitely would recommend a Wodehouse for anyone who needs a laugh. 

Have you read anything by P.G. Wodehouse?

Let's Bust a Recap : Dear Emmie Blue

Okay, so on Monday we talked about A Man Called Ove which was my book club's book of the month for August. Today, we're talking about Dear Emmie Blue which was my book club's book of the month for last August. Oy vey. We're getting caught up around here, but it's a process.

Dear Emmie Blue by UK author Lia Louis was published just a couple summers ago in 2020. It was generally well-received, but for some reason it didn't quite hit the mark for me.

At the outset, we meet Emmie who is meeting up with her best friend Lucas because he has something important to ask her. Emmie, who has been secretly in love with Lucas for six years, thinks he's finally going to admit he has feelings for her as well and ask her out. The bombshell: he's proposed to his ex-girlfriend and wants Emmie to be his "best woman" at their wedding. Obvious devastation ensues. Of course, Emmie says yes—she can never say no to Lucas—but that means a lot of painful involvement in getting her unrequited love ready to walk down the aisle to share his life with another woman. It also means she has to spend quite a bit of time with Eliot, Lucas' older brother, with whom she had a serious falling out eleven years prior over a devastating betrayal of trust. All of this comes together in a sweet package of what it means to navigate relationships—not just romantic ones!—in a healthy way in life.

All the elements were there to make for a great book, but they somehow didn't add up for me. I liked Louis' ability to seamlessly tease Emmie's past circumstances in a way that felt slightly mysterious and kept you reading while still moving the story forward. I thought her writing style was funny and easy to read. And her insertion of text conversations and mixed CD playlists served the story well instead of being clunky as they sometimes have a tendency to be in other things I've read.

But, the actual development of relationships was sorely lacking. Hurtful choices made my different characters—particularly Lucas—seemed to just magically work themselves out with no real consequences or communication. While I could go with Louis' setup of different conflicts throughout the novel, very few were resolved realistically. I was left at the end of the book with a lot more questions than answers. 

On top of that, Emmie's friend Rosie, who is most certainly written for a bit of comic relief, was over-the-top crass which was the final nail in the coffin for keeping me from recommending this book. 

Overall, I enjoyed reading Dear Emmie Blue and it's staying on my shelf for now, but it ultimately fell flat for me and I wouldn't recommend it. 

Let's Bust a Recap : A Man Called Ove

This charming novel celebrated its 10th birthday over the weekend! And even though I'm probably one of the last reading people in the world to pick it up, we're going to celebrate it here anyway. 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was originally published in Swedish on August 27, 2012. After being inspired by an article about a man named Ove having a fit while buying tickets at an art museum, Backman began writing blog posts under the heading "I am a Man Called Ove" wherein he detailed his own pet peeves and annoyances. At some point (I think in response to fan encouragement), Backman realized the potential to develop his posts into a full novel. It was a hit. The English translation by Henning Koch was published a couple years later in 2014 and went on to spend a whopping forty-two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.

If you like books, you could not possibly have avoided seeing this one, and I picked up a copy at The Book Shelter the summer of 2018. I even put it on my 2019 book list, but for one reason or another, I didn't get around to it. It was on my shortlist of books to read last year, but once again, I didn't ever pick it up. I pulled it off the shelf again this year, but it didn't make the cut. Then, just a few days after I published my 2022 list, my bookish comrade Sheree over at Keeping Up With The Penguins published a list of books with significant birthdays happening this year and wouldn't you know, Ove would be turning 10! So I unofficially slated it for August and when book club time came around, I leaned on my friend Amy to choose it (since August was her month) and she did. 

And we're all grateful. 

Because A Man Called Ove is now on my list of All-Time Favorites and will very probably hold as my favorite book of 2022. 

But what makes the book so great? Good question. On the surface, A Man Called Ove is just about a cantankerous old soul who, after losing his wife and being pushed out of his job into early retirement, has decided there's nothing left to live for so he's going to end it all. But each time he attempts to end his life, people just keep getting in the way.

Doesn't sound like the ingredients for one of my new All-Time Favs, does it? But Backman somehow manages to infuse this pretty heavy material with so much humor and heart that you can't help but fall in love with Ove and the colorful cast Backman creates. I was literally shouting with laughter from the very start, and by page forty I was actually crying my eyes out. And so the rest of the book went: alternately laughing and sobbing the whole way through. 

This is a book I would recommend to nearly anybody. While there is a bit of less-than-polite language sprinkled throughout, and I wouldn't personally endorse some of the life choices made by different characters—Ove included—overall this was a fantastic book; and much like you can disagree with someone while still loving them, I found myself thoroughly loving Ove and his neighborhood even while not agreeing with all their choices. Ultimately, this book is a brilliant snapshot of the human need for connection. God said from the very beginning that it's not good for man to be alone, and A Man Called Ove conveys the truth of that in such a funny, heartwarming, real way I'm so glad I didn't miss out on. 

Happy Birthday to A Man Called Ove! I'm excited for more of Backman's work. I've already got Britt-Marie Was Here and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry sitting on my shelf. Which should I read next?

Let's Bust a Recap : Maisie Dobbs

Today's recap is actually a double feature of the next two books in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I read the first Maisie Dobbs book during the global COVID-19 lockdown in April of 2020. My mom had borrowed it earlier that year, and she and my dad both loved it so naturally, I had to read it, too. That Christmas, I ended up getting my parents the next five books in the series, and my dad proceeded to read all five of them before my mom and I even got home from our Christmas trip to Germany. Since then, both my parents have acquired and read all seventeen Maisie Dobbs books, the most recent one having just come out earlier this year, and now my Gramma is ten or eleven books in as well. I'm obviously chugging along at a much slower pace, opting to read one each year. But at least now I know I have access to all seventeen whenever I get around to reading the next one because they are all sitting proudly numbered on my parents' shelf. 

Birds of a Feather, the second book in the series, was my Maisie Dobbs novel for 2021, and I managed to squeeze it in right at the tail end of the year. Literally. I ignored my family for most of the day on New Year's Eve finishing it up. This second installment was published in 2004, one year after Winspear's debut of the character in 2003, and in this one it's the spring of 1930 and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. When three of the young woman's friends turn up dead, Maisie finds herself in a race to find the murderer before it's too late. 

I plucked this copy out of a Little Free Library in 2020 before I bought the books for my parents for Christmas that year, and subsequently used it to fill that slot on The Unread Shelf's book bingo card last year. The conclusion of this one broke my heart as Maisie discovers that the answers to the mystery are tied up in the unforgettable agony of the Great War, but it ultimately ended on a slightly lighter note by introducing a couple of potential love interests for our savvy protagonist that I was keen to watch develop in the coming books. 

Pardonable Lies was published in 2005, and in this complex novel, we see Maisie tackling three cases at once. A 13 year old girl has been accused of murder, but Maisie isn't so sure she's guilty. A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton, KC to seek the aid of our intrepid investigator in confirming the death of his son. And Maisie's friend Priscilla also begs Maisie to find out what happened to her brother Peter during the Great War. But that's not all. Someone is trying to kill Maisie, too. Who would want her dead? 

While the first book of the series is still probably my favorite, this third installment was fantastic. The way Winspear intricately wove Maisie's investigation of these three separate cases together and also continued to bring us along on Maisie's journey of grief over the loss of her own mother at such a young age and all the trauma she endured during the war was really masterful and absorbing. From the very beginning, I've really enjoyed Winspear's pacing in these books, and the quality has remained high through these first three novels. I wasn't planning to read Pardonable Lies so early in the year, but I found myself up at my parents' house one day without my current book in progress and I ended up picking up their copy of the next Maisie Dobbs book and was soon caught up in the mystery.

Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather, and Pardonable Lies have all raked in several awards and nominations, and I would unreservedly recommend any of them. Each can stand on its own, so you don't necessarily have to read the whole series or read the books in publication order to be able to enjoy them. Although my personal recommendation would be to start at the beginning and go in order, if you're just looking for a good mystery to cozy up with, any one will do. Next up for me is Messenger of Truth, and I'm looking forward to it.

Have you read any Maisie Dobbs? Do you like mysteries? Who is your favorite fictional sleuth?