The year of books in review

 

1. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.”― Virginia Woolf

Well, this year of reading started off with the project of reading all the books the students chose for the Philosophy in Literature  class.   Here's the blog post about that   https://teachingphilosophyandyoga.blogspot.com/2023/03/philosophy-in-literature-censorship.html 

Fahrenheit 451 and Slaughterhouse Five have really stuck with me over the year.  And  some of the books from that reading project  led to me reading other books by the same author.

For example,  The Hate You Give  by Angie Thomas  led to  reading  Concrete Rose  and  On the Come Up.   All these are highly readable, about important timely topics  such as  race, violence, poverty, and the power of human endurance. 

The Testaments which  we read for the class  led to a return to Margaret Atwood.  Her collection of  short stories  Old Babes in the Wood is a highly enjoyable read including a sort of male version of the Handmaid's Tale and a truly delightful imagined interview with George Orwell.   I also read  Lady Oracle   which was good but very strange in many ways.   I also reread Handmaid's Tale. 

To Kill a Mockingbird  led to me finally reading Go Set a Watchman.  I personally really liked it as it is both a kind of sequel and prequel. 

1984  which we read  for the class  led me to Julia  when it finally came out in October.   Julia,  written by Sandra Newman, and approved by the Orwell Estate is the story of  1984  told from  Julia's perspective.  It is bleak indeed. It is really well done and in many ways undermines the story of 1984 while also reinforcing its horror.  I definitely recommend, but it is a tough read.  

I reread Are You There God?  It's Me Margaret  after seeing the movie with Lenore.  Highly enjoyable book to return to.  It was quite formative for me in youth

My two favorite books of the year were  Tom Lake and  Demon Copperhead.  Fantastic in both the audible and the written format.    I also really enjoyed, in so far as one can enjoy a book about cannibalism,  Holly, by Steven King. 

Others on my Audible profile are   Bastille Day, first book I have read by colleague Greg Garrett, plan to read more. I follow Greg on Facebook so I am very aware of his life as a writer and it was great to finally read something.   Good for a  Girl,  very interesting foray into the world of competitive running. The Seamstress of Sardinia because it was free one week on audible, but it was good and I learned a good bit about Italy and class structures in the late  1800s.  After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging by William James Jennings which had a lot of great insight about race and education

Books I started and did not finish are   The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams. Killers of the Flower Moon, Reclaiming Conversation. I probably would have finished these if I had them in print, but they were a little too dense for listening.   Women Talking   I am about half way through on Kindle.  Stella Maris  I have not gotten into yet, but started it.   I have also started Max Perkins  biography (editor for Hemmingway,  F. Scott  etc)  It also has a great movie version. 

I reread some of the Bridgerton novels as they are highly enjoyable and generally pretty light.