Books I Read in 2024
from ggprints on Etsy
* = Stars (rating)
#1 - Once Upon A River - 5*
Bonnie Jo Campbell
I liked Once Upon A River a lot. The main character, Margo Crane, is really interesting to get to know. The story follows her as she is growing up from around the age of 15 to 19 on and near the Stark River and then the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. There’s a line drawing map on the first page and I just love maps at the beginning of a book like that. Almost all the novels by Wendell Berry have maps like that. And the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
Margo lives with her dad in what sounds like a kind of compound, or at least a bunch of houses close by each other and the river, in a town named after the family in most of the homes, Murrayville. In an early chapter, Margo’s dad is killed and Margo starts on her life of finding places to live on her own and sometimes with other characters on and near the river. She idolizes Annie Oakley and works to become a sharpshooter like her. She hunts and practices shooting, finding a peace in the act of laying her cheek against the rifle, aiming, and shooting. A lot of the story is in her mind. She processes things slowly and internally so she doesn’t talk much. Even when she’s with someone, she’s alone in her mind. I see there’s a movie based on the book and I’m curious how they’ll portray her rich inner life.
Margo’s mother abandons Margo and her dad before the novel begins. Throughout the book, Margo is looking for and then finding her mother, who keeps saying she is “in a delicate situation” and it’s not a good time for Margo to be with her. Her mom turns out to be, from what I perceive, a rather selfish, shallow person more interested in her looks and possessions than Margo or others. But the book holds out hope for her at some time in the future.
I liked getting to know Margo and learning about her self-sufficient means of living near the river. The other characters, too, are interesting to get to know. I like the way she experiences different kinds of grace and love from different people.
I blogged a quote in an earlier post. Wonderful writing!
#2 - Brooklyn - 4*
Colm Toibin
Brooklyn was a good story and very well written, but I didn’t like the ending. It’s the story of a young woman from a small town in Ireland who goes to Brooklyn with the help of an Irish priest who emigrated there. At first I worried there’d be sexual abuse or something, but there was not. I think it’s set sometime in the ‘50’s and the Irish girl, named Eilus, gets a job in a department store and takes courses to become a bookkeeper so she can get an office job. She falls in love with an Italian boy. I guess I shouldn’t give away much more. It’s a good story, as I said. I enjoyed reading about her and the other characters in her life—her mom, sister, brothers, landlord, Irish friends, and so on. Her life getting over her homesickness and settling in to her American life was interesting and engaging. Eilus was a good character with a rich inner life. A lot of people liked the book and I do think the writing and story were excellent. I just gave it a 4 rather than a 5 because the ending wasn’t what I wished it would be. It’s a realistic ending and all, so it’s just a personal preference. If you’re considing the book, I recommend reading others’ opinions besides mine.
#3 - The Five Wounds - 4*
Kirstin Valdez Quade
The Five Wounds was about a family in New Mexico. The main character is the 16-year-old daughter who is pregnant and moves in with her father and grandmother after an argument with her mother, who had raised her until then. I wasn’t sure why it was named The Five Wounds but the stuff I’ve read online seems to imply it’s because there are 5 family members involved in the story—grandmother, uncle, father, mother, and daughter. The term “five wounds” refers to the five piercing wounds of Jesus on the cross that the Catholic church venerates in their worship—one in the left hand, the right hand, the left foot, the right foot (all caused by nails), and the sword piercing in his side. The book starts and ends with a Good Friday parade ceremony where one participant carries a cross up a hill and is roped to the cross (or, if he requests, nailed to the cross).
I often felt frustrated at the characters for not saying what they wanted. The narrator is omniscient so we read all the characters’ thoughts. Frequently, they hope that others will somehow support them—by comforting them when they retreat, or taking action to defend them, or in some way making them or the situation better. But they do not voice these desires and even act or say things in exact opposition to those wishes. I kept thinking, “Well, I guess we often do that, but I sure wish they’d say what they want.” For example, Brianna, the 16-year-old daughter often wishes her grandmother, dad, friend, or mother would come after her when she walks away in anger or hurt. She wishes they would comfort her and help de-escalate the emotional scene that is occurring. But she acts in direct opposition to helping that happen. First, she leaves the scene, and then she says angry, hurtful things to those she wishes would show her love and support. Realistic, I know, especially for a child.
A lot of the story hinges on the “Smart Start!” program that Brianna attends, which provides training and preparation for single mothers, including getting a GED. The teacher is a young woman who puts her heart into making the program excellent. Brianna idolizes the teacher and takes to heart the maxims she learns about child care and life in general. The teacher has her own insecurities and it’s interesting getting to know her as well as the rest of the characters.
In the end, I cared a lot about the characters and wanted to keep reading. The writing is excellent. I agree with a reviewer who said the story is an “intimate, humorous, and heartaching portrayal of a New Mexican family.” I would add hopeful. I recommend it.
Here is a link to a good interview of the author, Kirstin Valdez Quade, by the Jesuit Media Lab Book Club.
#4 - The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - 5*
James McBride
This may very likely turn out to be my favorite book of the year! So good. A small Pennsylvania town around 1936. The main characters are Moshe and Chona, a Jewish couple who own and run the “Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.” Moshe also owns and runs a theater in town which brings in black bands, not appreciated by the whites in town. The black people mainly live on “Chicken Hill,” and so do the Jews. The majority of the Jewish people, though, move away as they make more money. Moshe and Chona do not, because Chona loves and is enmeshed in the lives of her neighbors, as well as calling out the injustices in the town authorities. There are quite a few magnificent characters that I loved getting to know. Their stories mix and circle around in a way that I love. I see it in Garrison Keillor’s storytelling. Characters do things, the story meanders, then it circles back and you see connections you had no idea of. There’s a lot of humor, too. Here’s a passage right at the beginning. The book starts with this little incident long after the story happens. Police find a piece of jewelry buried in the area known as Chicken Hill. They ask an old Jewish man about it.
They produced a piece of jewelry, handed it to him, and asked what it was.
A mezuzah, the old man said
It matches the one on the door, the cops said. Don’t these things belong on doors?
The old man shrugged. Jewish life is portable he said.
The inscription on the back says, “Home of the Greatest Dancer in the World.” It’s in Hebrew. You speak Hebrew?
Do I look like I speak Swahili?
Cracks me up! I wrote a blog entry about this one.
#5 - The Book of Lost Names - 3*
Kristin Harmel
This novel is about a Jewish woman who lived in Paris when it became occupied by the Germans in World War II. Her father was captured by the Nazies and sent to a concentration camp and she and her mother escaped, assisted by a Catholic priest and a group of others who helped Jewish people, particularly children, escape from France. The main character, Eva Traube Abrams, has artistic talent that ends up becoming useful in creating forged documents for the escapees. She and a young man also involved in the forging organization come up with a system of logging the children’s new names matched to the false ones they create for them. They use a book to make tiny marks by certain letters to spell out the names, a secret code. Years after the war, the book is found and Eva, who never even told her own son (by now a grown man) what she had done during the war, goes to retrieve the book so it can be used to find the children, now adults and let them know who they were before their escape.
I thought I liked the book a lot when I started, and even brought it to my book club to recommend. But it turns out this combined historical novel with romance, and I ended up skimming the pages to get to the end so I could find out what happened without actually having to read it. Basically, I got tired of it. I usually like stories like this, with Jewish protagonists who have a story about their lives during the war. But I don’t recommend this one. Not horrible or anything, just not one that keeps you—at least me—wanting to read the next page.
#6 - Silver Alert - 5*
Lee Smith
I have read other books by Lee Smith and also heard her speak years ago at the Festival of Faith & Writing, Calvin University, Grand Rapids, MI, which I try to attend every other year. Smith is from the South and speaks with a bit of a drawl. She was very funny in her talk. If I remember correctly, I think she’s the person who quoted one of my favorite lines, a variation on “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.” Some relative or family friend of hers used to say, according to Smith, in a slow, drawn-out, Southern accent, “Poe me a drank, it’s duh-ark under the ha-ouse.” {Pour me a drink; it’s dark under the house.) It makes me smile whenever I think of it.
According to several reviews, this book, Silver Alert, is “a warmhearted story of improbably matched characters trying to reclaim their lives.” The two characters are Herb Atlas, a tough-speaking but soft-hearted old man, and Dee Dee, a young woman who has led a very hard life, including sex slave work, drug and alcohol addiction, abuse, and jail, but has finally landed with her friend in Key West, Florida, where she’s trying to make a living as a manicurist.
Dee Dee works for Herb by providing manicuring service to his wife who has Alzheimer’s. Herb’s wife is becoming very hard to take care of and Dee Dee is able to keep her calm and contented in a way no one else seems able. Herb and Dee Dee become allies and, in the end, traveling buddies. The chapters go back and forth between each of their lives—told from their perspectives.
It’s funny and, as the reviewers said, heartwarming. I loved getting to know Herb and Dee Dee. It was also fun for me to hear about Key West, where I lived when I was in sixth and seventh grade while my dad was stationed at the Naval Air Station there. The Florida setting gives the book a colorful, tropical background.
#7 The Mysteries - 3*
by Bill Watterson (Author), Bill Watterson and John Kascht (Illustrator)
Weird, if you ask me. I didn’t much like this book. I’m probably not deep enough, or something. The New York Times review I link to above gives you a good overview using lots of quotes and references to Calvin & Hobbes, which I love, along with everyone else. I guess the point is that we humans went too far with technology and industry, which I think is probably true.
#8 - There There - 4*
by Tommy Orange
There,There is a good book. According to the reviewers, the title is “a reference to Gertrude Stein’s line about the city of her childhood, Oakland, California: ‘There is no there there,’ she wrote.” I think it must also be a play on the words, “There, there,” that we say to reassure children, but I haven’t yet figured out how that fits into the story. Maybe a commentary on how we try to whitewash the ugly events that happened in the history of Native Americans?
I had never heard or thought of the term “Urban Indians,” but that is what this book is about. The Urban Indians in the story grew up and lived in Oakland. There are a LOT of characters. I liked reading about who each of them were and some of their story. My problem, along with a lot of other reviewers, was that I could not keep them all straight in my mind. Along with others, in the climax/ending, when all the characters go to or are connected to the “Big Oakland Powwow,” I had to keep going back to the beginning, where they are all listed with short bios, to remember who was who and how they were related and connected to the others (which is why I gave it a rating of 4 stars rather than 5). But that did not stop me from enjoying the book.
I had not heard of Tommy Orange before. From what I read, he “is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He earned a master's degree in fine arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He was born and raised in the Dimond District, Oakland, California, and resides in Oakland, California…” (Wikipedia). He was influenced by Sherman Alexie, who was a mentor to him and helped develop the MFA program Orange attended and received his degree. I could see some of Alexie’s style of writing in this book. The thing lots of reviewers wrote about is that Alexie and other Native American writers wrote about people who grew up on the reservation, while Orange wrote about people who lived in cities and some who barely had any awareness or knowledge of their Native American legacy.
Orange’s newest book, Wandering Stars, is “a prequel and sequel to his award-winning debut novel ‘There There’.” I plan to read this one, too.
#9 - Field Notes for the Wilderness | Practices for an Evolving Faith - 5*
Sarah Bessey
This book is like a collection of personal letters from Sarah Bessey—friend to friend. She writes heart-to-heart words and small stories about her own life and family. I find it easy to read and relevant—maybe a better word is sympathetic—to my own experiences and thoughts. The format of the book is that each chapter is a letter to the reader, addressing different aspects of living and traveling through the wilderness. She begins and ends each chapter hinting at the various aspects she’ll be talking about: “Dear Wanderer…I’m glad you’re here, S”; “Dear Growing…You can love who you are becoming, S”; “Dear Heartsick….Even still, S”; “Dear Heart-broken…You’re allowed to be sad, S”; and so on. This format makes the book a good “pick-up-and-put-downable-book,” the way you might read one letter in a sitting, then another later.
#10 - Thin Places | a natural history of healing and home - 5*
Kerri ni' Docharaigh
I think you have to be in the right mind space to read Thin Places, and I was. I have always been fascinated by the idea of “thin” or “liminal” places, where the veil between humans and the divine is thin. I have been fascinated by Ireland, too, for many years. It seems full of thin places (although I’ve never been there IRL). This is a memoir of Kerri ni’ Docharaigh’s life so far, growing up in Derry, Ireland, and experiencing The Troubles both in her country and her life.
#11 - Demon Copperhead - 4*
Barbara Kingsolver
This book deserves 5 stars because it is so well-written, but I feel I have to give it 4 because I do not plan to finish it. Again, I feel rather shallow, but I could see the story was going to be gut-wrenchingly sad, and I couldn’t face the prospect of reading it. The book is based on, or an homage to, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, which I also have not read. I read the first 7-1/2 chapters. The main character tells the story of his birth and early years with his single mother, growing up in the Appalachian mountains. In the 8th chapter, his mother passes out and the boy, nicknamed Demon, goes to the hospital with the abusive husband/stepfather that his mother married.
At the end of the 7th chapter, Kingsolver writes, “Life as we’ve lived it is over.” That becomes more evident at the hospital, where the staff questions Demon, and it becomes apparent that he will be placed in foster care. That was when I decided to stop reading. I read the final chapter to be assured that Demon makes it through.
The story, I learned from my book club discussion, brings in the opioid crisis and the plight of children—many children—in foster care and especially those in. As it says on the author’s website about this book:
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours.
The story is narrated by Demon and there’s a lot of humor in his way of describing things and using sarcasm.
At the time, I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.
and
Mrs. Peggott being a lady that doesn’t beat around the bushes and if need be, will tell Christ Jesus to sit tight and keep his pretty hair on.
I began reading Demon Copperhead because it was this month’s choice for my book club. At the meeting, several members loved the book, and several had also read David Copperfield. Several loved the book. So, really, don’t go by me. It’s a great book.
#12 - Reading Genesis - 5*
Marilynne Robinson
I think I’ve read all Marilynne Robinson’s books. Her novels are amazing. Her writing is amazing. The Britannica (linked above) says she is an author “known for her graceful language and studied observations on humankind and religion.” Yes. I think that if almost anyone else had written this book, it would read like a textbook. I am trying not to purchase so many books by using the library more. I started reading Reading Genesis with a library book, but I was only a few pages in when I knew I had to buy it so I could underline. The first sentence needed underlining!
The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. ~~Page 3, Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson, Published Farrar, Straus and Girox, New York, copyright 2024, First Edition.
Pretty much every “Email of God’s Love” I write, I come up against the problem of evil. And in my reading, too. In fact, the New Yorker article I link to in the heading of this entry says the logic Robinson gives for the providential fulfillment of God’s covenant could apply to the Holocaust. Disturbing. More than disturbing; distressing. But what could “explain” the holocaust if not how evil humans are? And what could comfort us—more than comfort us; make us able to live—in a world where that is true if not God’s love that abides even though we humans are so evil? I wrote a bit about that and this book here.
#13 - Children’s Bible | A Novel - 4*
Lydia Millet
When I decided to read it, I didn’t know this book was about climate change. I didn’t know it was going to be dystopic. Those are not my usual preferences for books, movies, or stories. It is a good story, though. You can read a good summary of it in the link the title contains above. I liked the narrator, Evie. Her younger brother James is a wonderful character, too. And the loving, caring relationship the brother and sister share is beautiful.
I don’t know what to think of the fading and final disappearance of the parents. It seemed all right and kind of amusing when the kids banded together and tried to hide from each other which parent were their parents (which led to calling each of them “a parent” or “a mother” or “a father,” in a generic, rather removed way, the way you’d say “a monkey” or “a dog”). But for all the parents to eventually leave completely, defeated by, it seems, their inability to live in a world without their usual material comforts, especially their alcohol—that seemed a bit much. I cannot remember for sure if I read Lord of the Flies, or more likely know of its basic plot because of reading about it, but this book made me think of that one. The kids formed their own family or community unit. They later came to rely on some adults, but the parents were not very helpful or even competent.
I also don’t know what to think of “the owner” who showed up and rescued the kids and meted out justice to the evil-doers who stole from and tortured the kids and their caretaking “angels.” But I admire the author's imagination. It seems to me she wondered what it would be like if a bunch of old friends and their kids got together for the summer and then faced the chaotic, brutal realities of what could happen in a future world facing the realities of climate change. It kept me interested and wanting to keep turning the page. By coincidence (maybe?), the day after finishing the book, I listened to an episode of the “On Being” podcast where a woman talked about Hurricane Katrina’s effect on her family and world, including the acknowledgment that Hurricane Katrina was one effect of climate change; and I went to an “Online Gathering With Brian McLaren” about his book (and more), Life After Doom, also about climate change. I think A Children’s Bible | A Novel will stick with me.
Oh, and I also don’t know what to think about it being called A Children’s Bible. I can’t quite figure out what Millet was trying to say about the Bible or God or whatever. James has a children’s Bible and he interprets it as code that the kids refer to in the book, including at the end, which seems to mean it’s significant. But I can’t see why or what she is trying to say. Maybe I’m being obtuse. I need to read more reviews and editorials about it.
This entry about the book may not make you super eager to read it. :/ But like I said, it is a good story, and the writing is very good. Believe it or not, there is even quite a bit of humor.