I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer and The Sunday Salon (TSS) hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking It's Monday! What Are you Reading? hosted by Kathryn of Book Date where readers talk about what they have been, are and will be reading.
I am linking up Stacking the Shelves hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently.
Thank you to everyone for your kind words of comfort and condolences regarding my mom's passing. I wasn't able to get to everyone's comments, unfortunately, but perhaps I will yet. My winter holidays were relatively quiet. My brother and his wife were able to visit us in between Christmas and New Year's. It was just my husband, daughter and I for Christmas day, but we made the most of it and had a Lord of the Rings marathon. It was kind of nice not having to worry about entertaining anyone, but at the same time, we missed having my mom and Marty's mother and brother there to celebrate with us. New Year's Eve was not too eventful either. Just the three of us jamming together to our music as 2025 rolled into 2026.
I did not prepare a wrap up for this past year. I am not sure yet if I will. As the world around us descended into chaos and violence, books helped me cope and at times inspired me. I ended up reading 110 books; my last one being Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang read by David Tennant, which was as fun as it was funny. I couldn't help but picture Dick Van Dyke as I listened to David Tennant read (the movie and book are quite different, by the way--but both delightful).
I am not sure what this year will hold for any of us. The world seems so upside down. And, to be honest, my mental health is far from great. I hope to focus on that this year. Maybe get back into counseling, attend a grief support group, and focus on my overall health. In the meantime, I will continue to read for escape, to find comfort, to find and make connections, to learn and grow, to feel hope and be inspired, to explore other worlds, cultures and lifestyles, and, of course, for entertainment.
What have you been up to? I hope you are well!
My January reading is off to a good start. I have finished 5 books (see below under Bookish Mewsings) and currently am reading two others. I am reading A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James, a horror/thriller novel featuring three siblings who return to their abandoned home to find out what happened to their younger brother who had disappeared during a game of hide-n-seek years ago.
I am also reading Laura Imai Messina's The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, translated by Lucy Rand. I am taking my time with this one, but I am loving it so far. While it is sad, it is also comforting. The novel is inspired by a real life phone booth in Ĺtsuchi, Japan, where people from all over travel to speak on the (unconnected) wind phone to their loved ones who have passed on. Other wind phones have popped up in other places since.
What are you reading right now? Is it something you would recommend?
[...] life is hard, unfair, painful. But life is also guaranteed--one hundred percent, no doubt, no question--to offer unexpected and sudden moments of beauty, joy, love, acceptance, euphoria. The good stuff. It is our ability to recognize and then hold on to the moments of good stuff that allow us to survive, even thrive. And when we can share the beauty, hope is restored. [excerpt from 17 % of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair]
Nina devotes a year of her life to reading a book a day and documenting her experience during her 46th year, in honor of her sister, who shared her love of reading and who died at that same age. For so long, Nina had kept herself busy, not really letting herself sit with and process her grief. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair was about the books she read as much as it was about her journey that year, allowing herself to slow down, remember her sister, and rediscover the beauty of life.
[...] in that love which I carried forward, I would find forgiveness. [excerpt from 40% of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair]
And now I understood why it was important to read these books. Because being witness to all types of human experience is important to understanding the world, but also to understanding myself. To define what is important to me, and who is important, and why. [excerpt from 56% of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair]
Books are experience, the words of authors proving the solace of love, the fulfillment of family, the torment of war, and the wisdom of memory. Joy and tears, pleasure and pain: everything came to me while I read in my purple chair. I had never sat so still, and yet I experienced so much. [excerpt from 56% of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair]I highlighted many quotes from Nina's memoir, excerpts that moved me in some way. I have only read about 15 of the 365 books she read that year, and only came away with a handful of titles of ones I have not read that I hope to one day. While our reading tastes might not line up exactly, I am glad I took the time to read the book. It is about more than just the books she read. I often felt a kinship with her in our shared love for reading and in using books to help us process some of what we are experiencing and feeling.
But the meaning of my life is ultimately defined by how I respond to the joys and the sorrows, how I forge crossbars of connection and experience, and how I extend to help others as they travel on their own winding road of existence. [excerpt from 88% of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair]
From an author of rare, haunting power, a stunning novel about a young African-American woman coming of age—a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, family, and country. [from the publisher]Another book from my selection of books centering grief and loss was What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons (Viking, 2017; Fiction, 213 pgs). Thandi grew up in Pennsylvania, spending her summers with her mother's family in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has never quite felt like she belonged anywhere. Her life irrevocably changes when her mother is diagnosed with cancer followed by her eventual death.
This short novel with vignette style chapters reads quickly but holds lot of emotion within its cover. It took me couple or so chapters to settle into this one because of the unique formatting, admittedly, but once I did, this was a hard book to put down. I am having a difficult time finding the words to express my thoughts on this book, and I think that is because of the emotional impact it had for me. Zinzi Clemmons writes from the heart and her own personal experience, and it shows. She captures so well Thandi's struggles whether it be trying to fit in, figure out who she is, in her relationships as a friend, lover and daughter, and also in dealing with the loss of her mother and becoming a mother herself. The more I sit with this book, the more I appreciate it.
I'd made a list list of all the things I needed to apologize for, all the things I needed to tell her I forgive her for. But as I stood there with those mathematics in hand, the weight of the moment on me, I said nothing. And when I tried to speak, only tears came. The pain was exponential. Because as much as I cried, she could not comfort me, and this fact only multiplied my pain. I realized this would be my life; to figure out how to live without her hand on my back; her soft, accented English telling me Everything will be all right... [excerpt from pg 95 of What We Lose]
Loss is a straightforward equation: 2 - 1 = 1. A person is there, then she is not. But a loss is beyond numbers, as well as sadness, and depression, and guilt, and ecstasy, and hope, and nostalgia --all those emotions that experts tell us come along with death. Minus one person equals all of these, in unpredictable combinations. It is a sunny day that feels completely gray and laughter in the midst of sadness. It is utter confusion. It makes no sense. [excerpt from pgs 112-113 of What We Lose]
"[...] the worst times are when I wake up and I think, 'I have to call Mama to say hello.'"
I realized that was how heart break occurred. Your heart wants something, but reality resists it. Death is inert and heavy, and it has no relation to your heart's desires. [excerpt from pg 145 of What We Lose]
Alongside the heavier reads, I fit in a couple of more lighthearted books over the past two weeks. I read a graphic novel by refrainbow, Boyfriends. Vol 1 that came recommended. It is a lighthearted queer polyamorous romance. Perhaps not my usual reading fare, but a sweet and enjoyable read nonetheless. I also listened to the seventh Murderbot Diaries series book, System Collapse by Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (Recorded Books, 2023; Science Fiction, 6h:36m). It is just a fun read all around, entertaining with high tension moments. I love this series. I started listening to the audiobooks last year and enjoy Kevin R. Free's narration very much. Even though they're not entirely human, I find Sec Unit (aka Murderbot) relatable as they navigates their way in a mostly human world.
A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow. [from the publisher]The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Bloomsbury, 2023; Historical Fiction, 315 pgs) was this month's Cellar Door book club selection. This is my first book by Tan Twan Eng who is most known for his book The Garden of Evening Mists. The House of Doors is told from the point of view of two of the characters, Lesley Hamlyn and author “Willie” Somerset Maugham, and goes back and forth in time between 1910 and 1921, with brief visits in the prologue and epilogue to 1947, and is set mostly in the Straits Settlement of Penang. The novel begins with Lesley looking back on her life after receiving a package in the mail. She thinks back to 1921 when her husband's old friend, Willie, and his secretary visit them at Cassowary House, and the secrets that were revealed about a past which had shaped her.
"Where does a story begin, Willie?" I asked. For a while he did not say anything. Then he shifted in his chair. "Where does a wave on the ocean begin?" he said. "Where does it form a welt on the skin of the sea, to swell and expand and rush towards shore?" [excerpt from 32% of The House of Doors]I did not know much about real life author and playwright, W. Somerset Maugham, whose short story and play "The Letter" was an inspiration for The House of Doors before reading this novel and doing a little research on Maugham after. Like his story in real life, the character of Willie had to hid his sexuality from the outside world. He had married for convenience to a woman who made him miserable and travels the world with his partner, Gerald, when he is able. When he arrives as Cassowary House, he is struggling with health and financial troubles. Despite his own issues--or perhaps because of them--Willie takes a special interest in learning more about Lesley, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own. Lesley, who has long held her secrets tightly to her chest, opens up to Willie, despite knowing what it could mean for her, that he will write about her story and how it could ruin her. And so she takes him back to 1910 and tells him a scandalous story, one about a Chinese revolution, affairs, and a high profile murder trial.
The writing is beautiful, and the way the author layered varying time periods and narratives was well done. I can see why Tan Twan Eng's books are highly regarded. He does not hide the warts of his characters, their flaws and vulnerabilities. They're very human and their lives messy, their weaknesses and hypocrisy on display. They were not always likeable, but I could understand where they were coming from. I loved the descriptions of Pengang. Tan Twan Eng creates a strong sense of place not just with the location and time periods, but also in his writing about the culture and colonialism hierarchy, particularly when it came to class and race.
I feel like I should have loved this book for all of that, and yet I find I did not. That is not to say I did not like it, because I did. I just didn't love it the way I would have expected. It took me awhile to get into the novel, it's pacing was slow initially; and while I finally was pulled in after awhile, I never felt fully engaged with the characters and their stories. I am not sure why exactly. Did I want more self-awareness on their parts; did their hypocrisy make me too uncomfortable; was there not enough conflict? Perhaps a little of all of those things. It turns out I was the only one in the book club who didn't absolutely love this one. Still, I am interested in trying other books by this author as there was much I did like about this book.
A moth flaked down from the rafters and settled on the sheets. I reached out to brush it away, but Arthur stayed my hand.
"Don't harm it," he said. They're the souls of the people we once loved, come back to visit us, to watch over us." [excerpt from 72% of The House of Doors]
Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? If not, which ones appeal to you?
Books for Christmas always make for welcome presents under the tree. Add in holiday gift cards for bookish shopping sprees and, well, what could make a booklover happier?
Dear Manny (Dear Martin #3) by Nic Stone
100 Poems That Matter
It's Okay That You're Not Okay by Megan Devine
A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (Ladies Most Scandalous #1) by Manda Collins
Caraval (Caraval #1) by Stephanie Garber
What Owls Know: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines
Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
Wild For Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane by Devoney Looser
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think?
Following in the footsteps of Deb of Readerbuzz - With all the worries and stressors in life,
I want to highlight some of the good, even the seemingly small stuff.
I was accepted into a four part anti-racism summit for work that I am excited to be a part of. I attended the first session this past week.
I've decided to lighten up my family room and recently purchased new couch and chair covers to help with that. I found a place for my grandmother's rocking chair and it's become Gracie's new favorite place to sit. Nina likes to lay down under it.
I hope you have a great week! Let me know what you have been reading!
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