2016 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2016?

The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

OR

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

OR

We Are Not Such Things by Justine van der Leun

OR

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

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2015 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2015?

The Sound of Life and Everything by Krista Van Dolzer

OR

Etta & Otto & Russell & James by Emma Hooper

OR

The Secret Wisdom of the Earth by Christopher Scotton

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Let's Bust a Recap : Anxious People

Fredrik Backman exploded onto the scene in 2012 with the publication of his debut novel A Man Called Ove. If you haven't at least heard of it, you're probably not a big reader.  I finally got around to reading it myself ten years later in 2022 and joined the legion of fans Backman has garnered the world over. Despite the fact that I've had two of his other books—Britt-Marie Was Here and My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry—sitting on my shelf for five years now, I found myself purchasing a copy of Anxious People a few weeks ago and diving right into it when my book club chose it for our April selection. And may I just say: Backman has done it again.

On opening this book, the first thing I read, of course, was Backman's dedication:

This book is dedicated to the voices in my head, the most remarkable of my friends.

And to my wife, who lives with us.  

Are you kidding me? I'm already sold. 

Chapter one opens with a bank robbery and a hostage drama. In his second paragraph, Backman writes, "This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is. Especially if you have other people you're trying to be a reasonably good human being for." So begins an investigation into this bank robbery turned hostage drama. Father and son Jim and Jack are the two police officers on the case, interviewing the hostages who were all released from the apartment viewing they attended the day before New Years Eve after being held there by an armed bank robber who had just tried to rob a cashless bank across the street. 

A cashless bank.

Backman has this uncanny ability to capture the strange messiness of being human in such a profound and profoundly funny way. His books make you laugh out loud, they make your heart ache, they make you nod your head in agreement thinking "yes, that really is what it's like!" Anxious People in particular is one giant reminder to remember that the people around you are going through their own stuff. Stuff you may never know about. But stuff that compels them to make the choices you've deemed idiotic. And they are idiotic. But the choices we make may seem just as idiotic to the next guy who doesn't know our stuff. 

So be kind.

It's just brilliant. Anxious People came out in 2019 and the English translation by Neil Smith in 2020. While A Man Called Ove is still easily my favorite of the two, I absolutely loved Anxious People. Given the nature of the police investigation and the host of colorful characters, Anxious People feels very scattered in a somewhat disjointed way, and Backman did a great job of keeping me guessing the entire novel. There isn't really a main character to anchor the story so you constantly feel like you're being pulled in different directions from beginning to end. But it just works. 

If you haven't gotten around to reading Fredrik Backman yet, add my voice to the chorus of people recommending you move his books to the top of your TBR. He's becoming a favorite and it will not be another four years before I pick up another one of his books. 

But which one next? Britt-Marie, or My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises?

2014 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2014?

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

OR

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

OR

A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

OR

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

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Let's Bust a Recap : When God Writes Your Life Story

I distinctly remember receiving When God Writes Your Life Story along with two other books by the Ludys as a gift in high school. Around that time, I read one of the other books, When Dreams Come True. I liked that one. It was the couple's love story told from both their perspectives. Very sweet. I think I started this one shortly after finishing that one, but didn't get very far into it. Probably not even past the first chapter. (I never picked up the other one, When God Writes Your Love Story, so I have no comments about it.)

Years later in 2015—and now that I'm thinking about it, that would have been a solid ten years after receiving these books as gifts—when I decided to make my very first book list, When God Writes Your Life Story got a spot. And I even started reading it again. But once again, I didn't make it past the first chapter before setting it aside. 

So obviously, it got a spot on my 2026 book list along with three other books from that very first list and I wasted no time in dusting it off to read in March. And it turned out to be a 50/50 book. I 50% couldn't roll my eyes any harder, and 50% thought it could actually be a very helpful resource. So let's get into it. 

Basically the premise of this book is when we're kids, we dream big, like, superhero big dreams for our life. But as we get older, we settle for mediocrity. So if you want to make your life count and live a thrilling existence, read our book to make it happen. 

Do you see me rolling my eyes?

Eric and Leslie Ludy published When God Writes Your Life Story back in 2004. It's the sixth in a long line of books they've published together. I am genuinely happy to report that the Ludys are still married and active in ministry, and seem to be a pretty unproblematic couple. A lot of spiritual leaders from the Y2K "purity culture" era have fallen from grace hard, and for me, that taints their work—however founded in truth it may be. But the Ludys seem to be the real deal, and I'm sincerely glad about that.

But their writing. Boy oh boy. When I say the first two-thirds of this book is some of the cheesiest, most trite, "Christian-ese" nonsense I've ever read: it legitimately made me want to hurl. If you've been around or know me in real life, you know I grew up in a pastor's household. Maybe you think that means I grew up with this kind of sunshine-y, Christian-speak, climb God's Everest, Jesus loves me, kind of vocabulary. But if you actually know my dad, you know he won't stand for what he calls "Sunday school answers." We never got let off the hook with a "because the Bible says so" answer around the family dinner table. My dad is quick to cut through the BS and tell the truth plain, especially when it's hard. As a result, I have grown into an adult who can't stand this "churchy" way of talking. It makes my skin crawl. And so for the first 140ish pages of When God Writes Your Life Story, I was wincing. A lot. The Ludys don't out-and-out lie or say anything blasphemous, but they also don't say things that are particularly helpful, practical, or that give a full picture of life. This book is geared to a younger demographic—nothing wrong with that—but they go so far as to say that older people have criticized them and their message as being naive and overly optimistic and that those naysayers are part of the mass of people who have settled for mediocrity in their lives. 

As one of those older people reading their book, let me add my two cents. While I would agree that there can literally be nothing in life more ultimately rewarding than living for God wholeheartedly, I think the Ludys are setting young people up for major disillusionment by talking about the Christian life as if it is a thrilling adventure every. single. day. And they do talk about it like that. What will happen to the teenager who joyfully embraces this ideology when she grows up and realizes that the bills have to be paid every month, the dishes have to be washed every day, the laundry never ends, and she actually has to buy the groceries and cook the meals day in and day out? Her kids will throw tantrums and things will break and she will get sick when it's the most inconvenient. Learning to live a quiet, faithful life through all that doesn't always feel exciting. Some (most?) days it feels exhausting. Is she still doing it right when she doesn't feel like she's living on the mountaintops? I think if she swallowed the Ludys message, hook, line, and sinker when she was a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed twenty-two year old, fresh out of Bible college, she might become a sad statistic of another kid raised in church who walked away from it all as an adult. 

But Hannah, you said this was a 50/50 book? What is helpful in all that?

When God Writes Your Life Story is sectioned into three parts: Part One—Dreaming the Impossible; Part Two—Living the Impossible; and Part Three—Frontier Field Guide. If you're anything like me and have a low tolerance for BS, those first two parts will be painful. But if you want to skip all that and go straight to the Field Guide, that's where I think this book actually has something helpful to offer. While the first two parts read like, "The Christian life is such an adventure, keep reading to learn how to climb the Christian Everest!" (I wish I was kidding), this third part gets into practical, real-world application of how to confront and confess sin and live a holy life. A how-to for setting achievable goals, creating healthy habits, and getting involved in community. When God Writes Your Life Story offered some of the most balanced, practical advice I've ever read about finding and joining a church. That part especially resonated with me as someone who has had a very difficult time finding a church as an adult now that my dad (you remember him, the straight-shooter?) is no longer pastoring a local church. 

So there's good stuff in there. You just have to wade through a lot of cheese to get to it. My advice? If you find yourself with this book in your hands, skip straight to the "Frontier Field Guide" and go from there. If you want to get a feel for what you're missing in parts one and two, just read the little "In a Nutshell" page at the end of each chapter. I promise, the chapters themselves aren't any deeper than what you get there. While I did feel like a lot of my time reading this book was wasted, I can honestly say that I could see myself referring back to that third section in the future. 

On to the next.

2013 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2013?

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

OR

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

OR

Palisades Park by Alan Brennert

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Let's Bust a Recap : Hannah Coulter

Wendell Berry is one of the most highly lauded living authors today. Currently 91 years old, his resumé is a thing to behold. I've been wanting to read his work for some time now, but let me tell you: his books are hard to find secondhand. Even on my go-to resale sites, they land on the pricier side. And now that I've finally read him, I understand why. You don't let go of Wendell Berry easily. My sister-in-law was kind enough to get my collection started when she gifted me Hannah Coulter for my birthday in 2024. It immediately earned a place on my 2025 book list, but I didn't quite get to it last year.

Since 2026 has been the year of trying to read all the books I put on my book lists but never actually read, Hannah Coulter automatically got another spot. And when my friend Karis started reading it at the beginning of March, I got the FOMO real bad and resolved to read it as soon as I finished Project Hail Mary (which didn't take long because I couldn't put that book down, though I didn't manage to start Hannah until after Karis finished). Start it I did though and ended up reading it over the course of a week. This quiet, deeply felt novel is written in the form of twice-widowed Hannah Coulter looking back over her life and relating her recollections to Andy Catlett. As Hannah sorts through her memories and recalls her childhood, her first love and loss, building a life with her second husband, and raising children: the reader is transported to a simpler way of living, but not one without its own unique complexities, struggles, and heartaches. It was a pleasure to read, and it felt deeply personal. Hannah's musings on life and the specific choices she made were so real and easy to relate to. Her story is so profoundly human, the characters littering the pages almost tangible. Nothing about Berry's writing felt contrived or overdone. Truly such a beautiful book. 

Wendell Berry is closely identified with rural Kentucky and his writing is known for being grounded in a strong sense of place. Hannah Coulter, published in 2004, is the seventh of his Port William novels which began with Nathan Coulter, published in 1960. There are eight total, and Berry wrote them in such a way that they can be read in any order. Now that I've read Hannah Coulter, I'm most interested in picking up Andy Catlett next since Andy is the one she's sharing her memories with in this book, but I hope to add all eight of the Port William novels to my library and read them as they come. 

To sum up: this reader's opinion is that the Wendell Berry hype is fully earned. After reading a little more about Berry himself, his views and activism, I'm not sure how his non-fiction would land with me, but I absolutely loved my first experience with his fictional Port William and its membership, and I'm looking forward to my next visit there. 

2012 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2012?

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

OR

11/22/63 by Stephen King
OR

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

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Let's Bust a Recap : Project Hail Mary

Oh yes. I unapologetically jumped on the bandwagon of people reading this 2021 bestseller in anticipation of the new film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Sci-fi is not my go-to genre and though I was aware of the universal popularity of Andy Weir's books The Martian and Project Hail Mary, I didn't have much interest in reading them, despite the glowing reviews from personal friends and family. 

But when the news dropped last summer that the long-awaited adaptation would be making its way to screens in March this year, I began that internal bookworm debate of to read or not to read. I was immediately interested in seeing the film. We're fans of the Gosling around here and what better date night than an adventure through the galaxies? Ultimately, I decided—and so did my husband—that we would give the book a go, and since I got to select the book for my book club to read in March, I dragged them into it with me, too.

I procured a copy (a saga in and of itself involving long library wait times, hunting unsuccessfully for a secondhand copy, buying the book from a major retailer, then immediately having my hold come through from the library, my husband taking the library book with him on a trip to Winston-Salem where he got snowed in for a week and read it in like a day and telling me we should definitely keep the copy we bought, but then him finding it in the first secondhand bookstore he visited for a fraction of the price we paid the major retailer, so naturally he bought it and I returned the new book) and, along with my brother Reagan, began reading. (Another fun story: Reagan and I ended up finishing the book within minutes of each other. 1:30 AM Eastern Standard for me; 10:30 PM Pacific Standard for him.)

Okay, so here's where we hit a snag in this review. 

What review, Hannah? You've been bombarding us with all your usual nonsense and gotten nowhere!

Right, but see: I went into this book almost completely blind. I didn't know much of anything about it beyond it involving a guy going to space. And it was one of the best reading experiences ever. I am firmly in the camp of readers who would advise you to go into this book without reading a single review, or watching the movie trailer, or even reading the back of the book. This is one of those books you walk away from wishing you could read it for the first time again. 

But where does that leave me, your humble internet book reviewer? I will give you one sentence about the premise, then a few more details about the success of the book, my general thoughts about the adaptation, and we'll leave it at that. Deal? 

A man wakes up from a medically-induced coma, but he can't remember why he was in one, where he is, or even what his own name is. 

*cue the drama*

You guys, it's so good. Definitely read it. In 2021 it debuted on pretty much every big bestseller list for the physical book and the audiobook narrated by Ray Porter, and it jumped back up to the top of all the bestseller lists again last summer when the teaser for the adaptation dropped. Now, I'll be the first person to tell you that Andy Weir's writing isn't anything to phone home about, but the man can spin a yarn, let me tell you. And while this book was chock-full of the science and math, he never took it to the point where my eyes glazed over, which is saying something because I am not a science and math girl. This is a keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat novel, and I was reading it every chance I got. 

As for the movie: we loved it. A very good adaptation, as adaptations go. Naturally, there were some omissions we were disappointed about, and, honestly, the opening wasn't great; but overall it was a very good time at the movies. We saw it in IMAX which was awesome and I'd highly recommend it if you have the chance to see it that way. I do honestly feel like I would not have enjoyed it as much as I did if I hadn't read the book first. This was an adaptation for the book-lovers if ever I've seen one, and while it still would have been a fun date night if we hadn't read the book first, I don't think I'd feel compelled to buy the movie on DVD or watch it again if I hadn't loved the book so thoroughly and had all the information the movie couldn't possibly have included. 

Project Hail Mary has a fan in me. I don't know that I'll ever pick up Andy Weir's other books, but I'm so glad I didn't miss out on this one. 

Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.

2011 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2011?

I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

OR

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

OR

The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly

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Let's Bust a Recap : Fervent

I was reading this book a solid year ago (from March to May), but we're finally getting this recap done because I finally re-watched War Room which I wanted to do before posting this. 

Fervent by Priscilla Shirer came out in the summer of 2015 just a month or two before War Room which is a faith-based film that Shirer had the starring role in. I'm pretty sure I went and saw War Room in the theater with my BFF Christina and we ended up buddy reading Fervent last year together too. 

I was aware at the time War Room came out that Fervent had recently been published as a sort of unofficial companion book to the movie, but I didn't have a copy and didn't make a point to get a copy either. However, in 2024 two of my other BFFs, Amy and Lyndsey (Christina was supposed to come too but got sick), drove up to meet me in Alpharetta, Georgia for a Living Proof Live event. As girlfriends do, we went shopping together at a massive Goodwill and I came across a copy of Fervent for a measly $2. I think Amy ended up buying a copy as well. Christina and I talked about buddy reading it that fall, but life being what it is, we ended up pushing it to after the new year. I'm glad we got to it because I needed this book. Honestly, I need all the books on prayer I can get. I'm putting Fervent and A Praying Life by Paul Miller into the regular rotation of my reading life. 

Shirer's emphasis in Fervent is making a prayer battle plan so that we are equipped to fight in the ongoing spiritual warfare that is happening all around us—whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. Something Shirer confronted right out of the gate is putting our enemy in his proper place. She says:

Whenever the conversation of demonic activity comes up in a book like this, most people scatter to one of two extremes. Either they overestimate Satan's influence and power, living with an inflated, erroneous perspective of his abilities. Or they underestimate him. They don't assign him any credit at all for the difficulties he's stirring up beneath the surface of their lives. One extreme leaves you saddled with undue fear and anxiety; the other just makes you stupid...unaware and completely open to every single attack. 

Full transparency: I tend to fall in the second category. As Shirer goes on to point out, God already defeated Satan once and for all and He didn't break a sweat to do it. The devil didn't and doesn't stand a chance against the Almighty God of the universe. But as Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, clearly warns us, the devil would still love to devour me if I let my guard down. The Scripture is clear about spiritual warfare: it's real and we have to take up arms.

So in Fervent, Shirer targets ten areas in our lives the devil is prone to attack and lays out strategies for the reader to pray about each one. And she's practical. She designed the book with prayer cards for the reader to tear out and fill in with their own prayers to post on the walls of their closets. She includes many Scripture references at the end of each chapter which was my favorite part. My copy is already well-highlighted and will continue to be for years to come. I've always appreciated Priscilla's no-holds-barred approach. She's not afraid to tell you the truth and to tell it to you plain. This book is a kick in the pants, get off your butt and on your knees, call to action, and we could all use a little more of that in our lives. 

As for the movie War Room, I'll also tell it to you straight: a movie star Priscilla Shirer is not. Bless her. The star of that film is little Miss Alena Pitts who is Shirer's second cousin in real life and who plays her daughter in the film. As a lot of faith-based films tend to be, the acting comes across a little cheesy, but the content is so powerful, I still found myself with tears running down my face as I sat on my couch watching it last week. 

I highly, highly recommend Fervent and if you can watch War Room afterwards, so much the better. 

2010 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2010?

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

OR

Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson

OR

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

OR

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

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Let's Bust a Recap : Merry Wives of Windsor

And we're back with some more Shakespeare, and look at me go, posting my recap within a month of reading the play! Merry Wives of Windsor has been my favorite play by the Bard in many a year. It was a true comedy, and even though a lot of critics say it's Shakespeare's worst play, I loved it. What can I say? I'm a simple girl, and I like what I like. The Merry Wives had me grinning from ear to ear. It's full of scheming, trickery, and women getting the best of a bunch of silly men, and I was here for every word of it.

We open on a bunch of men talking about a bunch of stuff and, boiling it all down to what's actually important, we learn that 1) Page has a daughter named Anne whom he's ready to marry off to a guy named Slender, and 2) that there's some guy named Falstaff running around who's a lowdown, good-for-nothing. 

Then we meet a Welsh parson who is determined to help Slender woo and win Anne. And let me just tell you, everyone else seems to care more about Slender marrying Anne than Slender himself cares. At one point, when he's supposed to be wooing her, Anne straight up asks him if he even likes her, and he's just like, "Yeah, you're as good as any other woman, I guess." And when she presses him on if he even wants to marry her, he continues with, "I actually don't really care, but your dad and my uncle think it's a good idea so why not?" He's hilariously unconcerned about his future marital bliss. 

But back to the Welsh parson. We find out that Anne has another suitor, a one Doctor Caius, and he is not happy that the parson is trying to help Slender court his ladylove and he's ready to fight him over it. So he challenges him to a duel. 

The parson! Not Slender, who is his actual rival for Anne's hand in marriage. This is basically just Shakespeare's device to get these two guys with funny accents on the stage together for more comedy. (The doctor is French.) We also learn that Doctor Caius is Anne's mother's choice for a husband for her daughter. 

Are you confused yet? Anne's dad wants her to marry Slender (who couldn't care less what woman he ends up with), her mom wants her to marry the French doctor (who very passionately wants to marry Anne), and Anne herself wants to marry some guy named Fenton (who blew through a fortune so neither of the parents like him which, honestly, seems justified). 

While all this is going on, the lowdown, good-for-nothing Falstaff arrives in town, broke as a joke, and ready to seduce the titular merry wives, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, to get his filthy paws on their husbands' money. So he decides to send them pretty much identical love letters to try to get in their pants. He then tells a couple of his underlings to go deliver the letters but they're all, "We're not your do-boys, loser" even though, as far as I can tell, that's exactly what they've been up to this point. I guess they're sick of Falstaff though so they go and tell Page and Ford exactly what Falstaff is up to. 

Page laughs it off, but Ford gets insanely jealous and comes up with a whole big plan to disguise himself and befriend Falstaff so he can keep tabs on the whole situation. Oh and this plan involves him paying Falstaff to seduce his wife so that then Ford himself will be able to seduce her too?? It's Shakespeare, guys, what did you expect?

Little does Falstaff know, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford are besties so, of course, they immediately show each other these outrageous letters and, after they get over the audacity of this clown to send them the same letter, they realize they are going to have a lot of fun messing with Falstaff. 

So Mrs. Ford sends Falstaff a letter telling him to come to her house while her husband is away and we're off to the races. 

Falstaff brags to Ford (who he thinks is some guy named "Brook") how easy it was to seduce Mrs. Ford and tells him he's about to go to her house right now. Ford, naturally, is in a total rage over this and gives Falstaff a short head start but then heads for home himself to catch his wife in the act. 

They're all playing right into the merry wives' hands. 

So Falstaff shows up at the Fords' home but before he can really get anywhere with Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Page runs in yelling, "Your husband is coming, your husband is coming!" The women stuff Falstaff into the dirty laundry and have the servants carry him out right under Ford's nose and dump him in the river where he nearly drowns. 

Chalk one up for the merry wives. 

The wives at this point realize that their husbands are obviously wise to Falstaff's intentions and decide to have even more fun with this. 

Falstaff, humiliated, swears off Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, but a quick letter with some sweet nothings that the wives' cooked up has him right back in the game and he's immediately bragging to Brook (aka Ford) that he was just about to get it on with Mrs. Ford when her husband showed up and he escaped in the laundry basket. To which Ford is fuming over his wife's deceitfulness and loudly castigating Page for being such a naive idiot for not suspecting his wife of questionable behavior since women plainly can't be trusted. 

The second time Falstaff trots off to the Fords' house, the merry wives dress him up as a fat old lady that Ford hates and has forbidden to come in his house so that when Ford shows up to once again catch his wife cheating, he beats Falstaff black and blue thinking he's the fat witch that was banned from the house.  

Brilliant. Chalk another one up for the merry wives. 

At this point, they let their husbands in on the joke. Page gets a good laugh, and Ford is properly cowed, apologizes to his wife, and proclaims his unflinching faith in her from then on. Then they all, along with various other characters that I haven't given much attention to in this recap, come up with one final plan to humiliate Falstaff. 

Mrs. Ford writes him one last letter asking him to dress up as Herne the hunter with big antlers growing out of his head and meet her by a tree at midnight. Then they dress up all the kids in town as fairies and instruct them to pinch Falstaff and burn him with torches when he shows up. 

Diabolical.

Meanwhile, Page has instructed Slender to steal away with Anne (who will be dressed in white) during all the confusion and marry her. But Mrs. Page has also instructed the French doctor to do the same thing (but she says Anne will be dressed in green). And Anne and Fenton have made their own plan to run away during the frenzy and elope. (I'm not sure what color Anne actually wore and that bothers me a little.)

So after the plan has been carried out and the mayhem dies down, Slender shows back up saying he ended up with some boy dressed in white and the doctor says the same thing about a boy dressed in green, and then Anne and Fenton arrive all glowing and triumphant. Everyone has a good laugh, the Pages' congratulate their daughter for marrying the man she actually loves, and even Falstaff takes the joke on the chin and they all go off to have a meal together. 

I mean, is that not funny? As far as I'm concerned, that's a good time at the theater, and I would go to a live production of Merry Wives of Windsor any day of the week. The critics can say whatever they want; I thought this play was hysterical. 

2009 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2009?

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

OR

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

OR

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

OR

Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen

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Let's Bust a Recap : As I Lay Dying

A few weeks ago, I recapped my first Hemingway and now I've also tackled my first Faulkner, and you guys, I have to say: I haven't been particularly impressed with the Jazz Age bunch.  

Way back in 2018, I read The Great Gatsby for the first time and I remember thinking, "Really? This is the book we're all lauding as one of the best offerings of the 20th century? Really??" And then I found Hemingway painful. And now Faulkner who by the end of the novel I just kept thinking, "What a pretentious prig." 

(Why am I even comparing these three authors? They were contemporaries being born in 1896, 1897, and 1899, respectively, and they are all three often lauded as some of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Faulkner and Hemingway both won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and Fitzgerald was nominated for it twice.)

But getting back to the pretentious prig. Faulkner himself bragged that he wrote As I Lay Dying "in six weeks, without changing a word" (not true) and that he "set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force." He claimed: "Before I ever put pen to paper and set down the first words, I knew what the last word would be...Before I began I said, I am going to write a book by which, at a pinch, I can stand or fall if I never touch ink again." Oh brother. If having a total disregard for punctuation and not finishing sentences is what it takes to make a great writer, then why do we even care about education? Honestly, why? 

But I digress. All my ranting aside, I liked Faulkner the best, and As I Lay Dying is one of the most unique pieces of literature I've ever read. (But hear me loud and clear: I am not equating uniqueness with inherent goodness. Different doesn't automatically mean better.) Stream-of-consciousness is not my favorite writing technique and Faulkner was one of the pioneers of it. 

As I Lay Dying—originally published in 1930, in case I haven't mentioned it—is basically the story of Addie Bundren's death and her rural family's subsequent quest to carry her body to its final resting place in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi, a request she made of them before she died. The book is written from multiple points of view—no less than fifteen!—and each "chapter" (if you can even call them chapters) are narrated by different people, including a couple by Addie herself after her demise. The main characters are the Bundrens, obviously: Addie's husband Anse, and her five children, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. Darl probably has the most of the 59 "chapters". It's a chaotic, dark, sometimes funny, a lot of times disturbing novel. Vardaman thinks his mom is a fish. Dewey Dell is stressing over an unwanted pregnancy and trying to obtain an abortion. Addie's body isn't embalmed so the stench the Bundrens take with them everywhere is a constant topic. Anse steals from his children. Cash's leg gets broken and they try to make a cast for it out of concrete. Darl starts a fire and gets taken away to an insane asylum. I cannot over-emphasize what a strange, tragic book this is. 

How do I wrap up a review like this? I will never read As I Lay Dying again. And I wouldn't really recommend it either. But I haven't stopped thinking about it. I'll definitely read more Faulkner. But it will be a few years before I pick him up again. 

How do you feel about stream-of-consciousness writing? Do you like Faulkner, Hemingway, or Fitzgerald? And which one do you like best?

2008 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2008?

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

OR

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

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Let's Bust a Recap : Living Life Backward

"Life is gift, not gain."

If I could sum up my takeaway from Living Life Backward in one sentence, that would be it. And in my mind, I kind of chant it like the sharks in Finding Nemo talking about fish. 

Living Life Backward is David Gibson's 2017 treatise on the book of Ecclesiastes. Cody read this a few years back, and when I asked him to recommend a couple of books for my book list last year, this was the first one he pulled off the shelf. I did actually start it in November, but it got put on hold while I poured all my reading energy into finishing David Copperfield before the end of the year. And then it got put on hold again while I focused on our first book club book The Reason for God. (I usually don't like to have more than one non-fiction book going at once.) But I finally picked it back up and finished it the second week of February. 

In Living Life Backward, Gibson systematically works through the entire book of Ecclesiastes. It's easy to view Ecclesiastes through a pretty depressing lens. Some translations open with "Everything is meaningless." But Gibson's argument is that the wisdom we can derive from the book of Ecclesiastes actually frees us up to live lives that are ultimately more happy and fulfilling. The only thing we can be absolutely certain of in this life is that death comes for us all. Though we don't know when or how, we know that at some point, every one of us will die. Everything else in this life, from our perspective, is uncertain. One of the things Gibson says in his book really struck me: that we like to live as if the one thing that's certain—death—will never come, while all the things that are actually uncertain are certain for us. We spend our lives trying to figure out unknowable things, and pretend like we aren't going to die. Obviously, this sets us up for a very unsatisfying life because, like we all know deep down, we do all die. Gibson and the writer of Ecclesiastes point out that living life in light of the end—living life backward, if you will—informs our day-to-day living. 

So "life is gift, not gain"...what is that? If we live our lives constantly striving to gain more, more, more; then ultimately we will come to the end feeling like everything was meaningless. I mean, he who dies with the most toys...still dies. What were we working so hard for? Everything that we acquire can't go with us when we die and most of us will be forgotten after we're gone. But if we view life as a gift from God, we can enjoy what He's given us and not only that, we're supposed to enjoy what He gives us. By enjoying this life, we're actually fulfilling God's purpose. When I'm not afraid to die, when I live my life with open hands and a peaceful heart, people around me have to wonder, what does she know that I don't? 

I'm probably making this sound super-trite and overly clichéd, but Gibson's book was a breath of fresh air. It was a timely reminder. And it did really help me understand Ecclesiastes better. There are things in that book that can seem contradictory, but Gibson does an excellent job of breaking it all down. Don't let my cheesy review put you off. Living Life Backward is a book I highly recommend and one that I would definitely read again.

2007 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2007?

Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

OR

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski

OR

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

OR

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

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Let's Bust a Recap : A Farewell to Arms

Well, I've got my first Hemingway under my belt and it was, as Rory Gilmore warned us way back in 2002, painful. And I don't mean that in a good way.

A Farewell to Arms was Hemingway's second novel and first bestseller. Published in 1929, it is considered by many to be the premier American war novel of World War I, and it cemented Hemingway's status as one of the great American writers of the 20th century. 

A first person narrative set during the Italian campaign of World War I, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of American Frederic Henry's time serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian army and his passionate affair with an English nurse called Catherine Barkley. The novel is divided into five different "books" and, in my opinion, it was a complete slog up until almost the very end of the third book, but then the last hundred pages or so were completely unputdownable. But like in a I-can't-look-away-from-this-absolute-trainwreck kind of way. Much of Hemingway's work was autobiographical in nature, and he drew on his own experiences living as an expat and serving in the Italian campaigns of World War I to write A Farewell to Arms. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was drawn from his first love, Agnes von Kurowsky, who ultimately spurned him in real life. And apparently ruined him forever. Her literary counterpart meets a pretty bleak end. 

I don't know, you guys. I can see the value in A Farewell to Arms for its true-to-life portrayal of the First World War and the Italian campaigns. There were glimmers of brilliance in there. I mean, who am I to poo-poo one of the "great American writers of the 20th century" and the 1954 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature? But Hemingway's sparse style just wasn't my bag. While A Farewell to Arms wasn't sexually explicit, it felt crass to me, and Hemingway's dialogue is the thing of my nightmares. If more than two people were having a conversation, Heaven help you figure out who was saying what. His ending—which he famously rewrote some forty-odd times before landing on the one he chose—left me cold. Ultimately: not a book I'd read again and also not one I'd recommend. 

However, I have struck a bargain with my friend Jon—a literary exchange, if you will—wherein for every Hemingway I read, he will read a novel by Jane Austen. Jon has Mark Twain levels of hatred for Austen based on reading like one chapter of Persuasion over ten years ago. Given my recent discovery of my distaste for Hemingway's writing, this seems like a fair deal, and given that Jon has yet to even start one of my homegirl's most excellent works, I think I'm safe from Hemingway for a couple of years at least. 

What's your take on Ernest Hemingway or any of the "great" 20th century American writers in general?

2006 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2006?

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

OR

How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot

OR

Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore

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Let's Bust a Recap : The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

The second book chosen for our book club to read this year was this 2024 debut by Australian author Anna Johnston: The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife. 

And what a gem! I loved this hilarious, heartfelt novel from the first word to the last. Johnston did not miss a single step in her debut, and I've already put her upcoming release on my amazon wishlist and requested that my library buy a copy even though it's not coming out till August. 

In the first chapter, we learn that 82 year old Fred has just been evicted from his home and is taking a walk along the river to find a little snatch of peace while he tries to figure out what he's going to do. In an insane turn of events that involves his uncanny doppelgänger floating away down the river, Fred finds himself being loaded into a van and taken to a nursing home where he's fed the best meal he's had in months and tucked away into a warm bed. Despite his earnest attempts to correct the mistake, Fred can't seem to make anyone believe that he isn't Bernard Greer and decides maybe it won't be so bad to "borrow" this stranger's life since he won't be needing it any more. 

While you might think you'd have to suspend disbelief to such a degree that this story couldn't possibly be enjoyable, I think Johnston actually pulls it off. She does such a wonderful job of spinning a yarn that seems like it could—believe it or not—be plausible despite how absurd it sounds on the surface. Frederick Fife is a kinder, sunnier Ove who, instead of being adopted by the people around him against his will, adopts all the people around him himself to create his new found family. I loved it so much. 

Another surprising element of The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife that endeared me even more to this sweet novel was that I saw myself in Fred. I mentioned in one of my recent reviews that it's hard to find a novel where the protagonist is childless and content. In The Borrowed Life, Fred and his late wife very much wanted to have children but were unable to grow their family. While this was one of the harder elements of this narrative to read about (and let me just give a trigger warning for miscarriage), I felt such a kinship with this character who kept a sunny outlook and had such a beautiful and fulfilling marriage with his partner. I didn't expect the story I'd see myself in to be that of a lonely male octogenarian, but I'm so glad I found it.

Finally, I have to continue my applause for Johnston's brilliant debut by saying that I didn't see the twists coming. I certainly haven't read every book on the planet, but The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife felt wholly original and fresh to me, and I stayed up way past my bedtime finishing this one. 

Two enthusiastic thumbs up from this reader, and I'm so looking forward to Anna Johnston's sophomore novel—coming in August!

2002 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2002?

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

OR

Three Junes by Julia Glass

OR

Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy

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Let's Bust a Recap : Coriolanus

It's February which means it's time for some Shakespeare, but before I pick up Merry Wives of Windsor which is the comedy on the docket for 2026, I've got to get Coriolanus done and dusted. So today, let's talk about one of old Billy the Bard's last tragedies and then hopefully we'll be back in a few weeks to talk about his Merry Wives. 

Coriolanus is basically about this guy Caius Marcius who's just kindof this mid Roman. He has money and he thinks the plebeians are a total waste of space, but he's also not really in a position of power either. He's hotheaded and bloodthirsty and a complete snob. 

So the Volscians are trying to overthrow Rome led by Tullus Aufidius (whom Marcius deems a worthy adversary by the way, because why even fight if it's not going to be a good fight) and Marcius leads a troop of soldiers into the city of Corioles and completely wrecks it. The Romans basically hoist him on their shoulders and take him back to Rome singing Hail the Conquering Hero and Rome names him Coriolanus for his total devastation of this city. So from now on, I'll refer to him as "Coriolanus". 

Meanwhile, I should mention that his mom Volumnia, who has this very creepy reverse-Oedipal thing going on, has been sitting back at home with Coriolanus' wife and kid waxing on about how she hopes the battle is bloody and that her son is victorious but, you know, with some wounds to make it more dramatic and hot. It's weird. His wife Virgilia is like, "I mean, I hope he wins too, but we want him to be okay, right?" To which Volumnia is all, "The bloodier the better." Like I said, weird.

So Coriolanus is back and being honored by all the powerful people and his mom is all, "Here's your chance to move up politically." But Coriolanus hates this idea because it involves putting himself on display and basically begging for votes from the plebes. Who, as I mentioned, he considers to be a waste of space. But he's a momma's boy so he does what his mother tells him and we have a whole scene of him showing off his battle scars (literally) to the commoners and trying not to absolutely blow his top while his friend Menenius (the only person in the whole play who is actually a reasonable and likable human being) is trying to get him to keep it together and not to lose it on these citizens. 

He ends up getting the people's support—almost not—but before he can even take his place as a consul, these two other guys, Brutus and Sicinius who have hated him from the beginning, stir the people up into a riot against him. Honestly, I can't really blame the people because Coriolanus is such a stuck-up jerk—definitely not Prom King material—but why Brutus and Sicinius care so much is a little beyond me. Jealous losers.

At this point, Coriolanus finally loses his barely controlled temper and not only does he rip the Romans a new one, he goes off to such an extent that he gets himself banished. He comes back with the very mature, "NO, I BANISH ROME FROM MY PRESENCE." Good one, bro. 

So what does he do? He goes to Tullus Aufidius (his mortal enemy, remember?) and says he wants to wreck Rome now and will T.A. help him do it? Because that seems like a reasonable response and nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan, right?

T.A. says sure, let's go right now. 

So Coriolanus is now marching against Rome and the Romans are in a panic because for all his faults, we've already established that Coriolanus can kick some serious butt in a fight. So all his friends are going to him trying to talk him out of this madness. But obviously, he's not hearing any of it. So the Romans are like, "Get his mom." 

I mean, good move. 

So Volumnia goes to her son, taking Virgilia and Coriolanus' son with her, and they have this whole back and forth where Coriolanus is basically all, "There is nothing you can say that will keep me from burning Rome to the ground." And even his kid is like, "If you do this, my entire goal in life will be to grow up and fight you myself." Which Coriolanus doesn't really seem to care about, but his mom finally talks him out of it (momma's boy, remember?) and Coriolanus succeeds in making peace between the Romans and the Volscians. 

So now the Romans and the Volscians are loving him and old T.A. is not happy about it. Coriolanus returns to the Volscian capital and obviously there's a big to-do, but T.A.'s buddies aren't having any of it and publicly assassinate Coriolanus. 

I mean, he kindof had it coming. I know this is supposed to be a tragedy but are we sad about this?

Once Coriolanus is dead, T.A. all of a sudden gets a conscience and is all, "This is sad. I'm sorry. Let's give him a proper send-off." And they all pick up his body and carry him out. And that's the end. 

lol

Coriolanus was a very engaging play and I read it pretty quickly, but it was also a little confusing because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to like Coriolanus or not. As I said, no one in the play was remotely sufferable except for Menenius so whenever Menenius was giving a reasonable defense of Coriolanus, I was like, "okay, maybe he's not the worst guy ever" but then as soon as Coriolanus himself showed up I was like, "No I definitely hate that guy." So basically I'm a plebeian. Ha! What I'm coming to realize about Shakespeare (and maybe I've said this before) is that the only difference between his tragedies and his comedies are that everyone dies in the tragedies. Sometimes his comedies are very sad, and a lot of the time his tragedies are hilarious, but the difference is just whether or not people die. So when I pick up Shakespeare, I'm never sure what I'm going to get. And that's fun. 

2001 : My Life In Books

 Which book should I read for 2001?

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

OR

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
OR

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

OR

A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols

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Let's Bust a Recap : Before We Were Yours

Okay, this book was extremely popular when it was published in 2017, and so many people recommended it to me. I read it last August, and maybe I'm the outlier here, but I did not like it.

Buckle up for a scathing review and possibly some spoilers, and if you're one of the ones who loved it and recommended it to me: sorry, not sorry. 

Lisa Wingate's 2017 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours is structured as a dual timeline, going back and forth between 1939 Memphis, Tennessee and present day Aiken, South Carolina. In 1939, we're following the story of Rill Foss who is desperately trying to keep her family together after she and her four younger siblings are kidnapped and taken to an orphanage. In the present day, we're following the story of Avery Stafford, a wealthy young lawyer from a prestigious old money Southern family with the perfect handsome fiancé to boot. A chance encounter with a confused elderly lady at a nursing home who mistakes Avery for someone else has her questioning her entire family history and sets her on "a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption." And that's straight from the back-of-the-book blurb. Not dramatic at all.

This "historical fiction" novel (and yes, those quotes are dripping with sarcasm) is meant to highlight one of the most notorious scandals in our nation's recent history: that of Georgia Tann and the Tennessee Children's Home Society, a front for her black market adoptions which was operational from the 1920s to 1950. Tann trafficked literally thousands of children through the Home Society, and when I say the uterine cancer that took her life mere weeks before charges were brought against her was too good a death for her: I mean it. People have praised this book for bringing to light this "little known" part of history, but this scandal has been covered pretty extensively in books, podcasts, documentaries, TV, and even a movie. I'm not so sure we needed Lisa Wingate's novel. Her writing isn't bad, but she doesn't shy away from the horrific things that went down in Georgia Tann's organization including child abuse, child rape, and even child murder, and I felt sick the entire time I was reading this book. I kept waiting for a brilliant resolution to make all the misery worth it, but we never get one. 

And don't get me started on Avery's storyline. It felt like Wingate just wanted to write a Hallmark romance but have people take her seriously so she tangled it up with the most horrific scandal in our nation's history so she could get that "historical fiction" tag. While I did wonder where Rill would end up and that kept me turning the pages, there was nothing remotely mysterious about how Avery's story would turn out. You saw every beat of her dumping-her-perfect-family-approved-fiancé-for-the-laid-back-single-dad coming from a mile away. (Sorry for all the hypens.) 

Before We Were Yours has been compared to Orphan Train by readers and marketers alike, and, before I even knew that, I was definitely getting those vibes while I was reading. But compared with Christina Baker Kline's excellent novel, Wingate's Before We Were Yours felt manipulative and her manufactured happy ending fell incredibly flat for me. It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but all things considered, it didn't add up to a good experience for me, and I wouldn't recommend this one. 

What book didn't live up to the hype for you?