I've done a lot of reading this year, perhaps to the detriment of other activities—like socializing. I love to talk about books that I enjoy though, so feel free to leave comments about any of these. Nearly all of these books were discovered through the library, or, having found out about them, I then checked them out from my library. I hope you can find something that's new to you and that you'd like to read. As in past years' lists, these are chronological (I couldn't decide on an order in which to rank them.)
1) The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
Unsurprisingly, I learned so many things about trees from this book! Even though we know that trees are alive, because they don't grow and move at the speed we do, it's easy to treat them like objects. It's truly amazing, then, to read in this book how much trees actually are 'aware' of. The author compares the inner workings of trees to things humans do such as making friends, going to school, and talking. How do you know if a tree is talking? Do trees feel pain? Wohlleben describes how we can observe these activities in trees. A larger-sized illustrated version is available with impressive photos, and the text has been abridged for children in another book: Can You Hear the Trees Talking? I like this version for reading, though, since it's an easier size to hold in your hands. Peter Wohlleben is also the author of The Inner Life of Animals and The Secret Wisdom of Nature.
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| The Hidden Life of Trees |
2) The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
The Breadwinner series (The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey, Mud City, My Name Is Parvana) takes place in Afghanistan during the late 1990s, early 2000s. With the Taliban in control of the government, the rights of women are severely diminished. Women aren't allowed to work outside the home or even go outside of the house without a male chaperone, such as a husband or brother. Parvana's father has been arrested and put in prison by the Taliban and Parvana has to disguise herself as a boy in order to support her family. In the second book, she is separated from the rest of her family and not only survives but also takes in an orphaned baby and a surly boy who has lost a limb from a landmine accident. The realities of Parvana's situation are distressing to read, but Ellis presents her situation in a plain, matter of fact style, relating only the necessary details. Parvana is often dejected, but she never gives up hope of reuniting with her family and establishing a better life.
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The Breadwinner
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I've chosen this cookbook by Alice Waters, even though I actually use very few of the recipes in it. It is full of good advice on how to make basic, healthy, wholesome food, and it's one of the books that has helped in my cooking routine this year. I recommend checking it out if only to read about the concept of simple food. I do use the recipes for chicken salad, cucumber raita, and aioli/mayonnaise. For the mayo, however, I needed to consult Waters's cookbook for children, Fanny at Chez Panisse, because I didn't get it at first. I always failed at making mayonnaise before and with this recipe I finally made it work!
I also put this cookbook on my list because it represents a number of different cookbooks that I've consulted this year for new staple recipes that are low in sugar. I needed to eat more low glycemic foods to help my skin. It was frustrating to find that many of the foods I ate regularly had sugar in them—and that wasn't even including desserts! With the help of a couple libraries, I checked out many cookbooks and adapted recipes from them. Now I've made up my own recipe for breakfast muesli, I have a good recipe for wild rice salad adapted from Easy Beans by Trish Ross, and we regularly have quinoa and kale for dinner. I put kale in almost anything.
This book also encouraged me to buy fresh greens regularly and actually eat salad. I found that I 'like' salad when I put little to no dressing on it, usually just hemp oil or olive oil, and sea salt. Also I replaced my snack crackers with carrots. They have the same satisfying crunch. I'm always looking, too, at recipes that use foraged ingredients instead of garden grown. A good book for that is Forage, Harvest, Feast by Marie Viljoen. I'm not much good at gardens, so I think it's a good strategy to find plants that are already thriving without my help. Nettles are amazing in mashed potatoes and bread. Dandelion greens...not really my thing—but the flowers taste good fresh in salads!
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| The Art of Simple Food |
4) The Beatles from A to Zed by Peter Asher
I had to have a copy of this as soon as I heard it was out (I managed to find a used copy, though, so I wouldn't break my resolution not to buy anything new)! Peter Asher was part of the folk rock duo Peter & Gordon and is the brother of Jane Asher, Paul McCartney's girlfriend from 1963 to 1968. Paul lived at the Ashers' house in London for a couple of years in the mid 60s. Peter Asher was also head of A&R for Apple from its beginning until the end of the 60s. So, his book is full of awesome little anecdotes about his time with The Beatles, much like his radio show From Me to You on The Beatles Channel.
The beginning of Apple Records is a fascinating time in Beatles history. If you enjoy these stories, I also recommend Miss O'Dell, the memoir by Chris O'Dell.
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| 'Zed' of course! |
5) There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom's Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge) by Linda Åkeson McGurk
You don't need to have kids to benefit from this book, it can also improve your own outlook on the outdoors (although it may be more interesting if you work with kids or plan to work with kids). And I hope it makes you an advocate for reforming schools to allow kids more outdoor time, whether structured—with programmes like gardening—or unstructured—like recess. Spending time in the outdoors is directly linked with mental health and well-being. Reading this book really affected how I feel about spending time outside. It made me reconsider what I think of as 'bad' weather and just generally complain less about crummy weather. It actually kind of made me ashamed of how little time I do spend outside. In the winter it's probably only an hour most days. It also made me want a drying cabinet.
At least now even when it's too cold to just sit outside, I make the effort to get in a long walk any day that I can. Note: you should actually dress for the weather to enjoy yourself outside. Please don't get frostbite!
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| Get on those waterproof boots! |
6) Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg
7) The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde and Other Stories by Mary De Morgan
Glass Town is a historically-based blend of fantasy and reality. It takes the invented world of the Brontës as a premise for a story about what may have happened in Charlotte Brontë's life. Her invented world is so real to her in this story that she loses her grip on reality and is almost trapped in Glass Town forever by her character Arthur Wellesley. It's suggested that this experience leads Charlotte to abandon the fanciful narratives she and her siblings created in favour of writing about the real world in novels like Jane Eyre and Villette that she is now so famous for. Probably helpful as background to this story (and I definitely recommend), is the BBC drama To Walk Invisible from 2016.
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| Glass Town |
I love that I'm always discovering new authors of fairy tales. And what beautiful stories these are, too!
Pictured here is the title page to a copy of her complete fairy tales. I wish I had gotten to read that, but it's from the Queens College library in New York. I found a version of it free on Gutenberg instead: Mary De Morgan.
When night came, and every one in the[Pg 3] palace was fast asleep, the Princess went to her bedroom window and softly opened it. Then she took from her pocket a handful of peas and held them out of the window and chirruped low, and there flew down from the roof a small brown bird and sat upon her wrist and began to eat the peas. No sooner had it swallowed them than it began to grow and grow and grow till it was so big that the Princess could not hold it, but let it stand on the window-sill, and still it grew and grew and grew till it was as large as an ostrich. Then the Princess climbed out of the window and seated herself on the bird's back, and at once it flew straight away over the tops of the trees till it came to the mountain where the old witch dwelt, and stopped in front of the door of her hut. –from "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde"
"Dear blackbird," said Arasmon, looking up to it, "I wish your singing could tell me where to[Pg 55] find my wife Chrysea;" and as he looked up he saw a golden harp hanging upon the branches, and he took it down and ran his fingers over the strings. Never before did harp give forth such music. It was like a woman's voice, and was most beautiful, but so sad that when Arasmon heard it he felt inclined to cry. It seemed to be calling for help, but he could not understand what it said, though each time he touched the strings it cried, "Arasmon, Arasmon, I am here! It is I, Chrysea;" but though Arasmon listened, and wondered at its tones, yet he did not know what it said. –from "The Wanderings of Arasmon"
The sky that night was dark and overcast, and no moon to be seen, and the next night was the same, but the third night the moon shone bright and clear, and as the clock struck twelve the Queen awoke and looked at the baby, who was sleeping peacefully in its cradle; but 'twixt the strokes of the clock she heard a faint whistling outside the window, which grew louder and fuller each moment. 'Twas as if some one whistled to decoy away a bird, and on hearing it the baby awoke and began to cry bitterly. The Queen could not quiet her, try how she might. At last the little one gave one scream louder than all the others and then lay quite still, and at that moment the Queen saw something flutter across the room like a tiny bird, with pink, soft feathers. It flew straight[Pg 82] out of the window, and the whistling ceased, and all again was quiet as before. The Queen took the baby in her arms and looked at it anxiously by the light of the moon, but it looked well and slept calmly, so its mother placed it in its cradle and tried to forget the yellow fairy and the whistling. –from "The Heart of Princess Joan"
She wandered on till she came to a church, which she entered. All was still within, for the church was empty; but before the altar, on a splendid bier, lay the body of a young man, who had been killed in the war. He was dressed in his gay uniform, and his breast was covered with medals, and his sword lay beside[Pg 182] him. He was shot through the heart, but his face was peaceful and his lips were smiling. The Princess walked to his side, and looked at the quiet face. Then she stooped and kissed the cold forehead, and envied the soldier. "If he could speak," she said, "he surely could teach me. No living mouth could ever smile like that." Then she looked up and saw a white angel standing on the other side of the bier, and she knew it was Death. –from "The Wise Princess"
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| Mary De Morgan |
8) Howards End by E.M. Forster
This is a book I didn't discover until last year when a new dramatisation came out that I loved so much I had to read the book. I know there is an older adaptation of Howards End, too, which I've not yet watched because I love the new one so much! (I'm afraid to watch it, really, though I do like Emma Thompson.) The new drama is extraordinarily well done and gets at things I would not have picked up from the book—so if you try the book and it puts you off, be sure to watch the Starz drama. It seems like such a modern story even though it is over 100 years old. But that's because it's a story about people, and people are still people! It's about communication between men and women, sense of place (physically and figuratively), and class.
Like My Ántonia by Willa Cather, I think I still don't fully understand it all, but I can appreciate parts that I do—or put my own meaning to them. I feel that it's a story to be reread (or rewatched) at different times in life and you'll come out with new understandings each time. If you want to know more about the plot, see my review for the library: Howards End.
"I don't intend him, or any man or any woman to be all my life—good heavens, no! There are heaps of things in me that he doesn't, and shall never, understand." –Margaret Schlegel from chapter 19
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. –from chapter 22
...she had outgrown stimulants, and was passing from words to things. –from chapter 31
"Because a thing is going strong now, it need not go strong for ever," she said. "This craze for motion has only set in during the last hundred years. It may be followed by a civilization that won't be a movement, because it will rest on the earth. All the signs are against it now, but I can't help hoping, and very early in the morning in the garden I feel that our house is the future as well as the past." –Margaret from chapter 44
On the topic of E.M. Forster, I also listened to A Room With A View on audiobook and watched both adaptations. That's another one I may have to reread. Whether I'll ever really like George is doubtful, but you do have to read the book in this instance because in the movie version they take away his best speech (!). Forster's short stories are interesting if you're in the mood for them. I thought they were noticeably weaker than the few books of his that I've read, but if you do only read one, make it "The Machine Stops."
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| Only Connect! |
9) Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye
Nye is in the habit of picking up litter wherever she sees it. Over the years, this has led to some very interesting discoveries for her, and in this collection of poems for children (or anyone, really) she reflects on some of the discarded items. She attaches a deeper meaning to tiny parts like cigarette butts, Band-Aids, and stubby pencils through associations and musings about the owners of these objects. But she doesn't stop there. Nye expands on the many manifestations of trash in our lives with multiple "Trash Talk" poems throughout. One of my favourite poems from this collection is right on the back cover: "Nothing."
NothingNothing a childever does is trash.It ispractice.
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| From The Young People's Poet Laureate |
10) These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson by Martha Ackmann
This quasi-biography is about select moments in Emily Dickinson's life. It does not attempt to be a comprehensive look at Dickinson's life, but don't worry if you've never read her full biography, you'll get the picture. The author is a Dickinson scholar who taught a course at the Dickinson Homestead in Amherst. More than one chapter includes a close reading of Emily Dickinson's poems, including "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers." I enjoyed reading about famous figures Emily Dickinson knew, like Emerson, and also the not-so-famous figures in Dickinson's close circle. Through a little-known historical source the author is actually able to give the exact weather conditions on each day she describes! This book doesn't have to be read all at once. It's chronological, but I think it would work fine to slowly read a chapter at a time or even skip around. I kept looking back a the pictures as I read, especially Emily's conservatory and the photo of her sister Lavinia with a cat.
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| These Fevered Days |
11) Educated by Tara Westover
This was one of our book club selections from this year that I really looked forward to reading. I'm usually drawn into good memoirs anyway because of the first person voice. Tara grows up in a Morman household with the idea that it's her family against the world. Through an unconventional education she realises that she has a right to her own life apart from her family. In her narrative, she takes care to point out that these incidents are remembered from her point of view, and she does not attempt to portray all Morman families in talking about her own. Throughout, she makes great allowances for the way her family behaves. Tara reflects in chapter twenty-eight that 'what a person knows about the past is limited, and will always be limited to what they are told by others.' She became interested in historiography partly because of her experiences growing up believing that everything her dad said was true as he told it.
A decade later my understanding would shift, part of my heavy swing into adulthood, and after that the accident would always make me think of the Apache women, and of all the decisions that go into making a life—the choices people make, together and on their own, that combine to produce any single event. Grains of sand, incalculable, pressing into sediment, then rock. –from chapter 4 "Apache Women"
"Everyone has undergone a change," he said. "The other students were relaxed until we came to this height. Now they are uncomfortable, on edge. You seem to have made the opposite journey. This is the first time I've seen you at home in yourself. It's in the way you move: it's as if you've been on this roof all your life.""I'm just standing," I said. "You are trying to compensate, to get your bodies lower because the height scares you. But the crouching and the sidestepping are not natural. You've made yourselves vulnerable. If you could just control your panic, this wind would be nothing.""The way it is nothing to you," he said. –from chapter 28 "Pygmalion"
Now I needed to understand how the great gatekeepers of history had come to terms with their own ignorance and partiality. I thought if I could accept that what they had written was not absolute but was the result of a biased process of conversation and revision, maybe I could reconcile myself with the fact that the history most people agreed upon was not the history I had been taught. Dad could be wrong, and the great historians Carlyle and Macaulay and Trevelyan could be wrong, but from the ashes of their dispute I could construct a world to live in. In knowing the ground was not ground at all, I hoped I could stand on it. –from chapter 28 "Pygmalion"
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| Educated |
I read this book in college for one of my Swedish courses on children's literature. I thought it was sweet and clever at the time, and I revisited it this year. The girl in the story, Zackarina, is an only child. She lives by the sea with her parents who both work (her dad works from home). When she has questions that her parents can't answer, she goes to the beach and asks The Sand Wolf. He doesn't always give her a direct answer, but lets her discover things for herself and learn from experiences. There are also other books in this series, Mera Sandvargen and Sandvargen och hela härligheten, that I'd definitely like to reread—but I can't currently find my copies of those!
To my knowledge, this has not been translated to English yet (I can't believe that!). It is in German and Spanish and several other languages, I think. So, I've undertaken translating it myself. Translating is something I really enjoy, but I'm not an expert at it. I've translated short stories from Swedish to English in the past, and it was a laborious process of finding the correct, exact words. With this project, I'd like to present a little looser translation so that it sounds very natural in English. I'm looking at other translated books for inspiration, the My Happy Life series by Rose Lagerkrantz and Eva Eriksson translated by Julia Marshall and The Song of Seven by Tonke Dragt translated by Laura Watkinson.
Universum är allting, sa Sandvargen. Allt som finns! Det är har och nu och då och där. Det är ljus och mörker, galaxer och stjärnor, planeter, kometer, trumpeter och örnar och björnar—och sådana där små dammiga röda karameller som ligger längst nere i ena byxfickan ibland. –från "Det oändliga korven"
Om man inte vill synas, då gömmer man sig, sa han. Under en buske eller bakom en dörr. Eller bakom en massa pladder och prat. –från "Blyg, blygare, blygast"
Zackarina försökte tänka sig att mormor hade haft en mormor som hade varit en liten flicka. Tanken var som ett långt pärlhalsband, med många runda pärlor på en och samma tråd, och där alla pärlor hette mormor. –från "Namnet i stenen"
Jo, om du är rädd för mörkret, då är det farligt, sa Sandvargen. Men om du vågar tycka om mörkret, då tycker mörkret om dig. –från "Zackarina och mörkret"
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| The Big Book about The Sand Wolf/Sand Wolf Stories |
13) Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
When I'm hunting for good audiobooks, I like to browse books that the author himself reads—especially books with British readers! That's how I came across this book. I thought it was really amusing how Gaiman characterises Loki. He's at the centre of most of these tales as both the problem creator and solver. And, really, the gods do often find themselves in sticky situations. This retelling brings out the humorous side to the stories (except for Ragnarok, there's nothing really funny about that).
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| Norse Mythology |
14) Sophie's Snail (and the other Sophie books) by Dick King-Smith
This series is about a girl who wants to be a lady farmer when she grows up. She doesn't live on a farm and at first her only pet is a snail—but she has a dream! And a plan. A dream and a plan! I think my favourite of the series is Sophie's Tom, in which she gets a white rabbit that she names Beano and finds out that her 'tom' cat is really a female when it has kittens! Sophie keeps all sorts of creatures: snails and worms from the garden, a cat, a rabbit, a dog, a pony... I didn't get to read Sophie is Seven because our library doesn't have that one. There are so many poor (by poor I mean dull or boring) beginning chapter books that get published in the world today. I was glad to find this series, which is a model for how interesting the stories can be.
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| Sophie's Snail |
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| Sophie's Tom |
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| Sophie Hits Six |
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| Sophie in the Saddle |
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| Sophie Is Seven |
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| Sophie's Lucky |
15) The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer, translated by Robin Fulton
I forced our book club into reading this collection because I think Tranströmer's poems are very accessible to general readers. Haha—well, not everyone was a huge fan, but our discussion was profitable and people were still talking about it by the end of the year. I come out with a new appreciation every time I read Tranströmer's poems. This time I was caught by the prose poem "Upright" that begins with chickens and leaves us with the image of a canoe gliding on the water. Another special something about his poems is that when I read them, I don't just feel like they tell me something, I feel that they are inviting a response from me. You don't get that from all poetry. The translator's foreword in this edition is also beneficial to read at some point while going through the book. It provides background to a number of poems and keeps us in mind that these are only a version of his poetry in English.
In among the copses there was a murmuring of words in a new language:the vowels were blue sky and the consonants were black twigs and thespeech was soft over the snow. –from "Noon Thaw" The Half-Finished Heaven
As dusk falls the stones begin to gleam faintly with the hundred-year-old warmth of the hands that shaped them. –from "Upright" Seeing in the Dark
Weary of all who come with words, words but no languageI make my way to the snow-covered island.The untamed has no words.The unwritten pages spread out on every side!I come upon the tracks of deer in the snow.Language but no words. –"From March 1979" The Wild Market Square
The darkening leavesin autumn are as preciousas the Dead Sea Scrolls. –from "5" The Great Enigma
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| Tranströmer's New Collected Poems |
16) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
This far into the year, I was longing to read a Victorian novel. I pulled out several possibilities: Lady Audley's Secret, Shirley, Trilby, Cranford, The Evil Genius (not anything by Thomas Hardy). I finally decided on rereading North and South because I wanted to rewatch the film adaptation of it, too. The plot is in some ways like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with a romance at its heart. Margaret Hale does not like Mr Thornton at first, but her opinion changes by the end. But it's not excessively mushy; there's also a lot in here about politics, rights of workers, capitalism, etc., as we get Margaret's take—an outsider (southerner) and a woman—on the customs of the industrial North. One idea that struck me this time is how seriously Margaret feels about lying. She's so upset about having to lie that she passes out, and then she continues to worry that Mr Thornton has found out her lie. While reading, there were several sentences that I laughed at which were not originally meant to be funny: 'Nothing is so delicious as to set one's teeth into the crisp, juicy fruit, warm and scented by the sun. The worst is, the wasps are impudent enough to dispute it with one, even at the very crisis and summit of enjoyment.' They made me happy anyway!
He is my first olive: let me make a face while I swallow it. –Margaret Hale from chapter 21 "The Dark Night"She is too perfect to be known by fragments. No mean brick shall be a specimen of the building of my palace. –Frederick Hale from chapter 31 "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot?"…but you are a friend, and I expect you will pay my experiment the respect of silence. It is but a new broom at present, and sweeps clean enough. But by-and-by we shall meet with plenty of stumbling-blocks, no doubt. –John Thornton from chapter 42 "Alone! Alone!"
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| North and South |
17) Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
Eventually I'll work my way through all of Elizabeth Enright's books. Last year was The Saturdays and this year I discovered Thimble Summer. The plot is somewhat dated and will require context for some readers, but her writing is timeless. I love authors who seem to reach out through time and touch me in the immediate moment with a perfect description of something I have felt. Enright's own little pencil sketches at the beginning and end of the chapters are sweet too.
Most kitchen articles had characters for Garnet. The teapot smiled all around its lid and purred like a kitten the alarm clock stood with feet apart and wore its little gong like a cap on top; and Garnet often felt that the stove was a huge old woman waiting for her to make mistakes, and hissing scornfully when things boiled over. –from chapter 3
After the fragrant rains the garden was fresh and flourishing. The watermelons in their patch were little green whales in a sea of frothy leaves, and the corn on the hillside was like a parade advancing with plumes and banners. –from chapter 3
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| Thimble Summer |
18) The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Of course this book was on my 'to read' list since it came out! It's not only about the gigantic fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986—which many people don't know about—but also expresses admiration for libraries everywhere as the author chronicles the development of the Southern California and Los Angeles library system from its beginnings to the present day. Actually, these parts and not the fire in particular were most interesting to me.
…they also believed that you read a book for the experience of reading it. You didn’t read it in order to have an object that had to be housed and looked after forever, a memento of the purpose for which it was obtained. The reading of the book was a journey. There was no need for souvenirs. –from chapter 1
It doesn’t matter that I know I’m throwing away a bound, printed block of paper that is easily reproduced. It doesn’t feel like that. A book feels like a thing alive in this moment, and also alive on a continuum, from the moment the thought about it first percolated in the writer’s mind to the moment it sprang off the printing press—a lifeline that continues on, time after time after time. Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: they take on a kind of human vitality. –from chapter 5
The silence was more soothing than solemn. A library is a good place to soften solitude; a place where you feel part of a conversation that has gone on for hundreds and hundreds of years even when you’re all alone. The library is a whispering post. You don’t need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen. It was that affirmation that always amazed me. Even the oddest, most particular book was written with that kind of crazy courage—the writer’s belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was struck by how precious and foolish and brave that belief is, and how necessary, and how full of hope it is to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that these stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another, and to our past and to what is still to come. –from chapter 32
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| Check it out! |
19) Clean: The New Science of Skin by James Hamblin
There are certain books that change the way you see the world. They point out things that you can't unsee forever after that. This book did that for me. Hamblin, a medical doctor, studies everyone's largest organ through the lens of microbes. He calls it the skin's microbiome. Similarly to how your gut has a multitude of good bacteria that do necessary work and keep you healthy and feeling well, your skin also has colonies of good bacteria that actually form part of your immune system. People are so concerned with cleanliness (really meaning sterility) nowadays, that a lot of the products we deem essential and use on a daily basis wipe out not just bad bacteria but beneficial bacteria as well. Most of us are trapped in a cycle of personal grooming that causes us to buy and use way too many unnecessary products on our bodies. This is troubling. Hamblin suggests that we may not need to wash as often or as harshly as we regularly do (but this doesn't mean your hands—just most of the rest of your body!). It may be considered a hippie weirdo thing to do and it's definitely tough the first few months to wean yourself off all the shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, lotions, etc.—but ultimately, I think, worth it. It's a process of finding a balance with your skin that factors in good hygiene while also allowing your good bacteria to thrive.
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| Clean: it's about livin' things |
This is a more typically cartoony-looking graphic novel than others I have enjoyed for their art or abstractness. Don't be fooled by its appearance, though, because the plot is very tight and cleverly resolves to a satisfactory conclusion. (And the art is really fun and completely works with the text.) It's a quick read and one that I wanted to finish in one sitting. Shirley Bones is an amateur Sherlock Holmes for the neighbourhood kids, but her strengths in detection can't compensate for having trouble making real friends. Jamila helps with this in her way and the two girls' personalities naturally bounce off each other. The book also is a good example of incorporating diversity without it feeling forced.
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| Shirley & Jamila |
21) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Before I read this book, I was disappointed by how little information about the actual plot was included in reviews. Now I see how difficult it is to explain without giving too much away! I won't spoil it for you, but I'll just say it's not unlike her other work (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell), having to do with the existence of other worlds or realities. This time instead of ancient magical history, it takes place in the present day. It's full of interesting ideas that challenge rational science and prevailing thought about what is real or concrete. The characters do actually experience another world as a house full of statues with an ocean rushing through it; however, they cannot prove any of it in our world. There is a great sadness to Piranesi's situation that impressed me while reading this book, but it's broken by the light conversations between him and the Other and prevented from getting too sad. I came away with the idea that the other world itself was neither evil nor good. Though it was used by Arne-Sayles and Ketterly for evil, it could be used for good.
Once, men and women were able to turn themselves into eagles and fly immense distances. They communed with rivers and mountains and received wisdom from them. They felt the turning of the stars inside their own minds. My contemporaries did not understand this. They were all enamoured with the idea of progress and believed that whatever was new must be superior to what was old. As if merit was a function of chronology! But it seemed to me that the wisdom of the ancients could not have simply vanished. Nothing simply vanishes. It's not actually possible. I pictured it as a sort of energy flowing out of the world and I thought that this energy must be going somewhere. That was when I realised that there must be other places, other worlds.
–Laurence Arne-Sayles
Perhaps that is what it is like being with other people. Perhaps even people you like and admire immensely can make you see the World in ways you would rather not. –Piranesi
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| Piranesi |
22) On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Berne, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander
This book would make a lovely gift to for a young child—or for you if you're not quite ready to start These Fevered Days, number 10 on this list. :) It presents Emily Dickinson's life and poetic ideas in a basic way with a few details about her personal life, remaining reverent throughout. The quotes used from Dickinson are perfectly selected to strengthen the author's text. Plus, these illustrations are amazing! Visit the illustrator's page to enjoy more of her work: http://www.beccastadtlander.com.
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| On Wings of Words |
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