Hello, readers! It’s been a minute. I skipped my regular December update in order to give myself a little more mental margin. Plus, our inboxes are so jam packed with year end email in December, and no one needed my hot (warm) takes on best *insert something* of the year or how to end the year well or start the new year off “right”. I often love reading those emails, especially when they are unconventional in some way, but this year I didn’t feel like adding to the choir.
So here we are! I have been reading some excellent books and some mediocre books, I have written a little and spent some time reworking the first half of my current WIP. I have been pondering how to get novel #3 into your hands and bookshelves and e-readers. And I‘ve been dreaming and goal setting and identifying intentions. Don’t worry, nothing too strenuous. The themes are nurturing, adding value, finding joy, being grounded, and being faithful. That might mean pouring my blood, sweat, and tears onto the page of a story, writing my elected officials, praying, baking more pie, or re-reading Jane Austen.
Speaking of reading (see what I did there?)...
I won’t get into a rundown of everything I’ve read since my last newsletter, but I can’t help but share a few highlights of books I read in December:
The Burning by Jane Casey. Thanks to my friend Jill (hi Jill!), I have made a new friend, and that new friend is Maeve Kerrigan, a tough, smart, big-hearted, ambitious London detective. The Burning is the first in a series, and while it wasn’t the tightest mystery novel I’ve read, the characters and writing were enough to make me put a library hold on book two the minute I finished The Burning. (This may end up being a series I start buying, if I’m honest. I’m all in).
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. This twenty-year old novel was our pick for book club this month. It’s set in the 1960s, written like a letter from a father to his young son. The narrator is in poor health, and knows that he won’t have time in this life to tell his son everything he wants him to know. So he sets out to write about his family history, his life, and the wisdom he wants to pass on to his son. The style is very meandering, and it sounds exactly like an older, ill person telling stories. Ms. Robinson really nailed the voice, and despite there being not much of a plot to speak of, the narrator drew me in and I was completely immersed in this gentle, spiritual, thoughtful novel.
Such Big Dreams by Reema Patel tells a story about Rhaki, a former street child in Mumbai working at a non-profit law center for human rights. The writing is vivid and nuanced, the characters are complex, and the story is nuanced and thoughtful. It’s about agency, resilience, poverty, and coming to terms with the past. The themes are sobering at times, but the story is ultimately hopeful, while still feeling grounded.
That’s it for now! Take care of yourselves and, like I said to some friends earlier today: thank the Lord for good books, stories, and people to share them with. What have you been reading?
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