Another backlist that’s been sitting around my house forever.
It was a story gently told of a deserted island stranding. Not Survivor TV style or Tom Another backlist that’s been sitting around my house forever.
It was a story gently told of a deserted island stranding. Not Survivor TV style or Tom Hanks Movie style. This was a very realistic look at survival that beats the odds.
Barry and Sophie will live in my mind for a long time to come.
More than that, this story has a proper beginning, middle and end. I’m not so sure I can say that about every book.
It’s almost like a perfect reading experience. I’m not sure that I can even say that about every 5 star I have read.
If you have a reluctant adult reader on your list, this could be the one book that reader might read this year. It’s just so smooth. One page read turns into the next. ...more
Too many more 5 stars and y’all are going to stop believing me. (I’m owed this though as the first half of 2023 did not bring me too many 5 stars.)
“I Too many more 5 stars and y’all are going to stop believing me. (I’m owed this though as the first half of 2023 did not bring me too many 5 stars.)
“I ask everyone in the audience to think about the worst thing they had ever done, and then I ask them to tell it to the person to their right. The audience gasps, and that feeling behind the gasp is exactly what shame feels like.”
Elevator Pitch: Read this book if you are struggling with how to forgive; want to understand that we are all about one step away from total self-destruction whether it be from an addiction or just a really bad choice; want proof that we all live many lives; don’t yet understand you have to like you and that comes from inside as not one external source holds that power over you.
Also, read this book if you have never needed help with any of the above but want to walk in the shoes of someone that has struggled with some or all of the above.
Reading this book for another person would be you being a good person.
“I don’t think I have ever known how I am or who I am. I have always felt like an actor playing the role of me. My whole life I had pretended to be a beautiful, happy, shiny person in the hopes that would somehow make me a beautiful, happy, shiny person. I fit in everywhere because people love beautiful, happy, shiny people. But the problem with me trying to fit in everywhere is that I have never actually felt like I belonged anywhere. Or with anyone.”
“I forgive, Ray [Hinton] says, because I’m not giving the State of Alabama one more second of my life.”
“I thought what I craved was approval and praise, but it’s simpler than that, I craved acceptance. For all the different versions of me I have been, and all the many lives I have lived.”
“I realize suddenly that I am tired of pretending I am anything other than who I am. People may love me or hate me, praise me or criticize me, reward me or punish me. All I can be is who I am now, and then work hard to become the person I most want to be. I am tired of hustling for an approval even the great and powerful Oprah can’t really give me. I know what I’m looking for can only be found on the inside, and it’s going to be my job to keep finding it over and over.”
“I have lived many lives and will hopefully live many more. But for now I am just myself. I have done lots of good in my life, and I have done lots of bad. One doesn’t negate the other. And the truth is, I don’t believe the worst thing I have ever done is found in the stealing or lying or drug abuse. The worst thing I have ever done is build my identity out of the worst thing I have ever done. I’ve condemned others for not being able to see beyond my past when I was the one who couldn’t see beyond my past.”...more
Is it only me that lacks the wherewithal to re-type a review that GR blinked out on??
No energy.
So, I’ll just say:
This book was absolute perf10 STARS.
Is it only me that lacks the wherewithal to re-type a review that GR blinked out on??
No energy.
So, I’ll just say:
This book was absolute perfection for me. It was a love story in all the ways, shapes, and forms love takes. Meaning, never easy. Always worth the work and struggle but never, ever the way you think it should go.
It starts with Torie’s 17 year old voice and travels with her until maybe age 40. She is one strong and wise girl but you would never be able to convince her of that. She always chooses the next right thing but is never fully certain of herself.
This dichotomy of who she is and how she views herself propels the whole story right to the last page and last line.
Paula, Amanda, and Barbara: I think you may all love this one. ❤️...more
Another best of for the year. I think I’m getting better at picking my books and not finishing the ones I don’t care for.
I don’t usually start with thAnother best of for the year. I think I’m getting better at picking my books and not finishing the ones I don’t care for.
I don’t usually start with the author but a word must be said for Margaret Verble. She’s not getting enough attention. Ms. Verble is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She tells the story of Kit Crockett - a Cherokee child growing up in the Eisenhower years in Kentucky that lost her mother in her early elementary years. The voice of Kit Crockett is one of the best child narrations I’ve ever read.
Kit’s Cherokee family is strong and supportive of her yet helpless against the strong White Voices in their town.
The relationship between Kit and her Father one of the best I’ve read too.
Kit’s bookmobile and love of reading brought me straight back to my childhood.
Her life after losing her mother is very reminiscent of when I lost my dad including all of the adults that wanted to jump in and help but really did nothing more than make it worse.
Most importantly the men of cloth, preachers, that wanted to bring Christianity to a family that did not participate in Christianity was so spot on that I thought I was reading my own story. This book is worth the read if only for the observations of evangelicalism.
This guy took an awfully long time to get to his point - and that should have lost him a star - but when he did - Bam! He got it right - I can give thThis guy took an awfully long time to get to his point - and that should have lost him a star - but when he did - Bam! He got it right - I can give the star back now.
MARRIAGE IS BRUTAL. (My words).
The rest of this review is his words.
Miracles: what comes possible when people run toward one another and not away.
All of life is a miracle - I believe this now - and maybe to see this fact, maybe you have everything burned away. Maybe the only people who believe in miracles are the people who have no other options.
This is the joke and surprise of marriage. You promise the impossible and then have the audacity to attempt it.
One of your greatest misconceptions, the one you must jettison as soon as is convenient to you, is that you’re easy to live with. You’re not. You’re a monster.
What will you do with the fact that one in four marriages experiences infidelity? If you’re a man, you’re more likely to commit infidelity than you are to play a musical instrument. If you’re a woman, you’re more likely to have an affair than you are to have bangs.
Audacity, therapy, honesty, intimacy, nudity, a belief in transcendent profundity, a loving community that does not bless the whims of your ego but loves you anyway: you need all these to stay married, and a thousand million other mercies besides, including perhaps the most obvious and impossible of virtues. You need comedy.
EDITED TO ADD A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE THAT I WANT TO KEEP NEAR TO ME:
“If Jesus ever comes back again - I don’t know, maybe he will, they say he will- then I think we’ll have a good laugh. Laughter can sometimes feel impossible when you have so much hurt to remember. “...more
This one is 5 for the succinct, straightforward telling of a horrific crime synthesized through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. It holds back no puncheThis one is 5 for the succinct, straightforward telling of a horrific crime synthesized through the eyes of a 12 year old boy. It holds back no punches and the narrator is exactly as he should be.
The subject matter is hard and inexcusable. The rating is for the writing, and for its ability to pull me into the story in a way that I was not aware of the heatwave, or the day or the time. I just read for the love of reading in these instances.
This is what seems to be missing so much in the newer published books many times. ...more
It is the prayer of living in the margins. I’m not trying to say marginalized as that implies victimization. I mean living a dream sThis is a prayer.
It is the prayer of living in the margins. I’m not trying to say marginalized as that implies victimization. I mean living a dream so close to the bone that one tiny misstep or misfortune can mean the end of it all.
Lawrence is going to homestead 150 acres in Alaska in 1956 with a severe case of war PTSD. He wants a wife and 12 kids.
Marie is going find a man with some land because she grew up in Texas with the promise of nothing.
This is a marriage of convenience in the truest sense.
Now, reader, watch them live through every hardship while navigating a marriage of strangers.
Pay attention to Lawrence’s dad, Joseph. He plays Father, capital F. He shows them the right way to live.
You will find passages that are prayers:
A time for purpose. A time to rest. A time for good. A time for tears. A time for stones. A time for music, a record on the Victrola. A time for keeping, and what is he keeping? A time for provisions… A time for waiting. A time for cutting and halving. A time for planting. A time for giving. And what has been given? And what has been taken?
A time for yolk, the soak in the bread. A time for hunger. A time for salt. There will be a time for preserving. For jars. For every hurt to bruise. For spoil. For a dishrag to sour. There will be a time to call hers. When the child is of age. If another is not already in her arms. Not for chopping wood. Or wringing laundry. Time to sit on the porch in the sun long enough to know the hour. To sing with no end. Time to be out of grasp, and sight. Time to be.
**this is not a cute little pioneer story. This is pretty real stuff of a married couple working hard, hard for it.
BEST OF 2023 for the beautiful prose to describe the hard scrabble life in nature. ...more
If you even crack this book open, just plan to finish it. That’s what I did minus an overnight of sleep. I fell asleep reading it and woke up at the nIf you even crack this book open, just plan to finish it. That’s what I did minus an overnight of sleep. I fell asleep reading it and woke up at the new 4 am (daylight savings time) to finish it. And I only meant to read about the author yesterday before that all happened.
This book is crazy sad, messy, unexpected (in an expected way) and crazy beautiful, life affirming, and comes to the ultimate conclusion in a book about hospice like on every. single. page.
You will cry unless you work in hospice and then you will probably nod your head in an all knowing way.
Okay, you’re on your own now. Do with this what you wish. You should err on the side of reading it though.
IT MAY JUST BE MY BEST READ OF 2023.
BEST OF 2023 for its honesty about death and dying. ...more
5 stars for a memoir written in its fullness of time. Not a minute too soon, not a minute too late.
I am not one to list trigger warnings but this boo5 stars for a memoir written in its fullness of time. Not a minute too soon, not a minute too late.
I am not one to list trigger warnings but this book is about sexual abuse and please go into this knowing that.
“The pitch in the voices of spokespeople for the Christian Right triggered my shame and shut me down. I didn’t want it to. I wanted to be one of them. But I qualified for the Moral Majority about as much as I qualified for head of brain surgery at the medical center. My kind belonged to the immoral minority, and, boy, was it lonely.”
ELEVATOR PITCH: Read this book if you have been spewed out of the belonging circle or want to understand how that might feel. Read to witness someone laying bare their soul. Read it if you want to see a comeback like no other. Read it if salvaging what is good and leaving the rest is on your mind. Read it for imperfect parenting and most particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Read it for a down homey Southern upbringing. Oh, and read it if you find the glory in death do us part marriages and husbands that are unequivocally their own persons. Read it for emptying the nest with contentment and finding the path forward.
“Family is a heck of a thing, fierce and frightful. There we are, all zipped up inside the unknown together and not always voluntarily. It can be dark in there, trying to get through the night. We can feel utterly alone, singular and isolated, while crushed and crowded and so close in body that our sweat mingles and we inhale what they exhale, unfiltered. We want to touch, to hold hands, on our own terms, which is our right, but most times we don’t.”
“Madness came for us. It descended on our roof, spilled over our gutters, and surrounded our house. It seeped through the cracks around our windows. This madness layered our faces, blanketed our bodies, entered our bodies, entered our pores, and infected our blood. It haunted our rooms at night like a ghoul. It hammered, then shattered, our security.”
“These were not uncomplicated dynamics for some of us, but a family can go a long way on denial. The maddening complexity is, denial could, on occasion, offer a little relief. It makes for a poor lifestyle but a pleasant lunch.”...more
It is a book about dying but more importantly about living.
“BUT THE SECRET TO A BEAUTIFUL DEATTENTION PLEASE:
This book deserves a read. By everyone.
It is a book about dying but more importantly about living.
“BUT THE SECRET TO A BEAUTIFUL DEATH IS TO LIVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re 17, 27, 47, 57 or 87. You can live a beautiful life today. It’s not too late. And it is never too early to start either.
ME TALKING TO MYSELF:
Social media has done a terrific job of skewing the definition of BEAUTIFUL LIFE. Whatever a BEAUTIFUL LIFE is for YOU, is a BEAUTIFUL LIFE. Step away from the Instagram visuals for a few days and think about that please.
“AND INSTEAD OF CONSTANTLY ASKING OURSELVES THE QUESTION OF WHY WE’RE HERE, MAYBE WE SHOULD BE SAVORING A SIMPLER TRUTH: WE ARE HERE.”
Here are a few thoughts to get you started in your own BEAUTIFUL LIFE:
“Grief is just love looking for a place to settle.”
Put your heart out there. Let it get broken. Take chances. Make mistakes.
“Don’t let the best parts of life pass you by because you’re too scared of the unknown.”
“Be cautiously reckless.”
“What a beautiful thing, to help someone die with dignity.”
“While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.”
“We get stuck in a routine and we look at them as we’ve always looked at them, without seeing them for the person they’ve become or the person they strive to be. What a terrible thing to do to someone you love.”
“That was the day that I began to realize how hard it is to be anything but what the world already thinks you are.”
“Turns out, in the opinion of most medical experts, your grieving process shouldn’t last longer than six months. And if you aren’t over it by then, there’s something clinically wrong with you. WHAT THE HELL?”
WHICH BRINGS US STRAIGHT BACK TO THE TOP:
“Grief is just love looking for a place to settle.”
Let’s all go out and live our BEAUTIFUL LIFE, okay?...more
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