Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt

I've missed reading just for enjoyment and this story was very satisfying.  Narrated by a curmudgeonly giant octopus in an aquarium, it is a story of living with grief and loss.  I was taken aback by the description of the main character, Tova, a 70 year old woman, that is portrayed over and over as old, feeble, frail, and needing help. Ugh!  Her story in a small town in Washington state near Puget Sounds intersects with a young man struggling to fit in the world.  A quick read, with a touching, uplifting message.

Quotes:

" All of these things had been stored away for her to pass along someday, relics to be carried up the branches of the family tree.  But the family tree stopped growing long ago, ts canopy thinned and frayed, not a single sap springing from the old rotting trunk.  Some trees aren't meant to spurt tender new branches, but to stand stoically on the forest floor, silently decaying."

Published: 2022  Read: June 2023  Genre: Fiction

Rules for Visiting - Jessica Francis Kane

 The reviews on this one were good and I liked the concept - a woman reaches out to connect in person with her friends from the past in the age of instant communication.  It missed the mark.  The heroine, May, is strange; a detached, disconnected, landscape gardener.  The author interweaves descriptions of the personalities of various North American trees into the narrative to illustrate the choices of personalities we can adopt.  I think that what was she was trying to do.  The back story of May's life was so obscure that when it was revealed it was anticlimactic.  Some thoughtful observations kept me reading but in the end, the book fell flat

Quotes:

"Friends are God's apology for relations (Hugh Kingsmith)"

"...the Dunbar number--the maximum number of people with whom any individual can maintain stable relationships--and how, despite predictions, it hadn't gotten any bigger in the age of social media."

"A house is a physical thing that is build with wood and bricks, furnished with furniture and carpets, while a home takes time and is built with memories." 

"Perhaps a best friend is someone who...holds the story of your life in mind.  Sometimes in music a melodic line is so beautiful the notes feel inevitable; you can anticipate the next note through a long rest.  Maybe that is friendship.  A best friend holds your story in mind so notes don't have to be repeated." 

Published: 2019  Read: April 2020  Genre: Fiction 

 

Ellen in Pieces - Caroline Adderson

This tells of the life of a woman through the people in it.  I didn't like it at first; it jumped from one part of her life to the next abruptly, sometimes with years in between; I felt liked I'd missed something, that there were no transitions.  By the end of the story I realized that was the whole point.  Her life is revealed by the stories of her family members and friends, their "pieces" of her puzzle.  I was very satisfied with the writing at the finish.  A good read.

Published:  2014  Read:  June 2018  Genre: Fiction

Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam, Jr.

This was a joy to read!  It's a memoir of the author growing up in a coal town in West Virginia in the late 50's, shortly after the Russians launched Sputnik.  He and his friends are inspired to build rockets and with the help of their teacher and school, acquire the knowledge to do so.  They experiment with launching their rockets to hone their skills, while their coal town home is moving toward oblivion. 

I loved learning some rocketry and finally can name a use for trigonometry and calculus, not that I ever took those classes!  The relationship of the boys to each other and of Homer to his parents is genuine and moving.  I learned too of the hard lives of coal miners, giving me a new appreciation for my relatives who worked in the mines in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s. 

Some lucky person will pick this up in the next campground we visit!

Published:  1998  Read: May 2018  Genre: Memoir

Tapestry of Fortunes – Elizabeth Berg

I have always enjoyed this author’s books.  She writes the way women speak to and about each other, capturing the sisterhood of shared experiences. 

This book is the story of Cecilia, a single, professional motivational speaker whose best friend recently died.  She is grieving and regretting not having done the trips and adventures they had spoken of over the years because she enjoyed working and didn’t take the time.  She decides to make the big change that is long overdue.  

She sells her home, takes leave from her job and moves into a shared house with three other women; Lise, a divorced physician with an estranged 20 something daughter; Riley, a gay, rebellious, newspaper advice columnist and Joni, a professional chef with a belligerent boss.   She fulfills a commitment to her friend and volunteers at a hospice.  

When she receives a postcard from her first love, she embarks on a road trip with her roommates to discover if the flame is still bright.  Each of them is exploring a way to heal or move on from relationships.  Their camaraderie feels genuine and familiar.  While the knots are tied up a little too neatly in the end, it was a satisfying read that reminded me of the power of friendships.

Published: 2013  Read: June 2016  Genre: Fiction

ISBN: 978-8129-9314-1

The Mockingbird Next Door - Marja Mills

subtitle:  Life with Harper Lee

Two years ago in November I went with my good friend Kathryn to the Nashville book festival.  It was marvelous.  A weekend of listening to southern writers discuss their books and the writing process.

We heard Marja Mills explain the writing of this book at the festival.  At the time, there was a controversy going on as Harper Lee had denied authorizing the biography.  When Harper Lee died recently, my library displayed this book and several others related to the famous author and I finally picked it up to read.

Marja Mills was a journalist sent from the Chicago paper she worked for to research and report on Harper Lee the year Illinois made "To Kill a Mockingbird" the Illinois book of the year.  She makes a connection with Nelle Harper Lee and her sister Alice and returns to their small town when physical disability forces her to leave her job for a while.  She lived next door to them for over a year.

As I read the story, I felt I was reading about the unfolding of a friendship.  Two people from different parts of the world find their commonalities and share the everyday activities of life.  I didn't feel the author exploited their friendship, though she was aware of its special qualities. Some may see it as taking advantage of a pair of older women who wanted to have their memories recorded.  I think everyone has a need to tell their story before they are gone and forgotten and Marja happened to be there with a sympathetic ear and a journalist's skill for capturing those stories.  I also think Marja was where she needed to have someone help her see what her own life was shaping up to be.  I suspect that the fuss was due to Lee's declining capacities as she was nearing the end of life and lost her sister, Alice, and not any betrayal of their friendship.

To me, it's the story of Marja learning to slow down and appreciate the daily rhythm of life and of Nelle deciding to trust and share that life with someone.  Nelle Harper Lee is revealed as a lover of words and writing, fun loving and shy, intensely private and loyal.  It is a shame she did not keep writing while she was alive.

Published:  2014  Read: February 2016  Genre: Biography

Shadow Divers - Robert Kurson

Subtitle: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of WWII

I waited too long to read this book.  My BFF recommended it ages ago and I finally got it off my TBR list and got a copy from the library.  It was a great read.

It's the story of two men looking for shipwrecks in the sport of "deep wreck diving". Dangerous to the extreme as well as competitive, they find a sunken submarine off the coast of New Jersey and seek to identify it.  

I really enjoyed the relationship of these fiercely independent, risk-taking men.  Their dedication to the search and their persistence despite dead ends and roadblocks and tragedy made for a good read.

Published:  May 2005  Read: September 2015  Genre: Adventure, Non-fiction