“Truly, it is as if I do not exist, I guess is the closest thing I can say. I mean I do not exist in the world. It could be as simple as the fact that we had no mirrors in our house when I was growing up except for a very small one high above the bathroom sink. I really do not know what I mean, except to say that on some very fundamental level, I feel invisible in the world.”
I adore Elizabeth Strout. She simply does not disappoint. Her characters are so real, so three-dimensional and textured and layered and flawed and yet perfect. Her writing is so simple, so profound and so quiet. Her writing and story in this book felt like cotton to me, it felt like it was holding me and being so very gentle with me.
“Whenever I don’t know what to do, I watch what I am doing.”
I loved the two previous Lucy Barton books so I was excited to have more of her. This one is about William, her ex-husband as he navigates some major challenges in his life and Lucy is there to support, be a witness and be a friend to him. They are both old and the interactions of the two was very interesting to read.
“But I thought: It’s odd, because on one hand I think I am invisible, but on the other I know what it is like to be marked as separate from society, only in my case no one knows it when they see me.”
But the best part of the book, for me, was not what happened or the other characters but Lucy herself and the way she thinks, the way she processes the world around her and the way she feels in the world. Her observations about other people says so much about her and how she is in the world.
“I thought about Lois Bubar. I thought how she seemed healthy; I mean she seemed inside herself, as I have said, in a way that was comfortable.”
I loved every single moment I spent with this book and I cannot wait to read more of Elizabeth Strout’s books.
with gratitude to netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
He liked the idea of traveling with someone whom he could not trust completely. It would encourage him, even more than usual, to share no secrets.
Although I’ve wanted to, I’ve never read a book by Colm Tóibín before and nor have I read any books by Thoman Mann, so I am not exactly sure why I requested this ARC when I saw it but I am so glad I did.
This is the story of Thomas Mann from when he was a young child to his death. It covers decades of history contextualized within Mann’s life. It covers his family dynamics for his family of origin and then his relationship with his wife, his children and more.
It has a lot of backstory about his books and how they came to be. How they were received, what they meant to him and his life.
More than anything, he wished to live intensely in the voracious moments before this, in the sure knowledge that it would happen.
It also has a lot of the politics of the time. As a German who was in Germany all throughout the beginning of World War II, there is a lot of politics and the impact its had on his life (and books, and family, etc.)
There is so much interesting content here and it’s so incredibly well-told that I could not stop reading it. The family issues, suicide, politics, sibling rivalry, fatherhood, being gay at a time when it was not acceptable, fleeing war, citizenship and belonging, being an artist, writing novels, marriage, and so so much more is covered in this beautiful book.
He wanted to tell Golo, who was now thirty-two, that Elisabeth had declared that after the age of thirty no one had the right to blame their parents for anything.
I am so very glad that I requested this novel and I cannot recommend it enough.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Scribner for an advanced copy in return for an honest review
Two step-sisters come together after a long time in order to help their sister and have to walk through their issues from the past. I enjoyed this novel, especially the flawed but genuine characters who grow and learn during the book.
I enjoyed this story of a wealthy man bringing together his friends one last time now that he has a terminal diagnosis. I liked the imperfect multi-dimensional characters and I liked how marriage, friendship, and love were all portrayed with the complexity they have in real life. A week or two later, not much of this book has stayed with me, but I still remember the warm feeling it gave me when I was reading it.
I put off reading this book 20+ times and I had given up on it when a friend recommended it to me so I picked it up again. This book has a lot and there was much that I could easily have skimmed but in there there are also a lot of gems.
“scrolling through the feed…many things in there seem important but the sum total is nonsense and it produces not understanding but a dull and stupefying dread.”
This is a feeling I have often. I feel this with podcasts, magazine articles and short episodes too. I don’t enjoy bite-sized information nearly as much as truly sinking my teeth into something. Getting attached to the characters, the story. Caring deeply. I think that’s why I enjoy novels so much more.
Another well-done and character-driven mystery. The wealthy parents of three siblings is found murdered and as the book unfolds, we get the backstory and perspective of each kid and their caretaker to see if we can figure out who did it. Even though none of the characters are likable, with the exception of the father, none of them felt comically evil to me and I could totally see any of them doing it. I enjoyed the time I spent with this one.
I thought I wasn’t going to like this book as it sounded like it wouldn’t be my cup of tea but I decided to try it anyway and I ended up liking it. I got attached to Lucien and Sophie as they navigated their lives and loneliness and the questions around memory and what we remember, what we wish we remembered, and what we wish we could forget. An interesting read.
A fantastic literary mystery that is about a small-town where a black woman goes missing and a bunch of money is embezzled at the local plant. Boady, a fifteen year old boy living with his single mom, starts befriending the son of the new black family that moves into the neighborhood. The book tackles issues around being in a small town, racism, and what it means to grow up in a town like that. The mystery is there but this book is so much more than that. Fantastic read.
There are so many moments in every single day and I experience so much. Anxiety, stress, exhaustion, elation, joy, celebration, pride, sorrow, frustration, love and more. I find that there days where I have small moments of each of these.
I have long been a fan of Tara Brach and have read all her books and listened to many many of her class recordings from years ago.
Last week, I discovered a “new to me” book called “Trusting the Gold” which has some of her practices and each of them were profound and helpful to me.
In one chapter she talks about Zen master Sono who was known to lead people to enlightenment by using the affirmation “thank you for everything; I have no complaints whatsoever.”
I loved this so much that I added a daily reminder to my calendar at 2pm with the exact phrase. And every day since when it pops up, I smile and say it out loud to myself.
It’s been an excellent way to ground myself and remind myself of the way I want to be in the world.
