Three Books--No Mysteries

    I squeaked in three books this week. Hurrah! If I was going to give a theme to my reads this week, it would be Girl Power, a phrase I dislike because it diminishes women. Shouldn't it be woman power? Perhaps a better theme would be women finding their voice and their power.

    When it comes to science fiction, Ursula K. LeGuin is legendary--not only as a woman writing sci-fi but as a great writer. However, the book Lavinia is more fantasy. She is the final wife of Theseus, as related by Virgil. As a young woman, Lavinia meets when the poet's shade when he is at the edge of death on a ship out at sea, and she is worshipping at a shrine. She asks him about her life to come. He has written her into existence, but has made her a flat, colorless character. LeGuin's book tells Lavinia's side of the story. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis's book Till We Have Faces inspired by the myth of Cupid and Psyche as told by Psyche's older sister. Occasionally, this book is my favorite, and sometimes it is Connie Willis' book To Say Nothing of the Dog. 

    Lavinia starts slowly, but builds in intensity as Lavinia becomes self-aware and active in her life. She is ruled her entire life by men and creatively makes her way into the life the poet Virgil wrote for her. It might be an extended metaphor for fate versus choice. 

    I like self-help books because I want to do life THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE. Several self-help books I've read use the motivation to try harder and do better. The Lazy Genius: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn't, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi is the kindest book of this genre I've read. She exposes the two extremes of trying harder against the opposite position of you'll never make it, give up: genius or lazy. I've been to both extremes, and it's not fun or effective. She has thirteen Lazy Genious principles (that's a lot, but they build on each other) and a Magic Question. My daughter, a Family Nurse Practioner (FNP), and the mother of a toddler and twins recommended it to me. I found its blend of philosophy and practical advice helpful and stress-reducing. 

 

    I finished Still Life by Sarah Winman thirty minutes before writing this post, and I feel that my thoughts are still in Florence, Italy. Winman evokes Florence with beautiful and tactile descriptions that it is hard not to buy a plane ticket immediately. The writing is evocative and lovely; the characters are tangible. Ulysses, a British soldier in World War II, meets Evelyn Skinner, a British art historian in her sixties, towards the end of the war in Italy. She inspires him to look at the world with new eyes.

“Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It repositions our sight and judgment. Captures forever that which is fleeting.” 
― Sarah Winman, Still Life

    Several women are unconventional for their time--mothers who don't want to be mothers, same-sex attraction, career over family, and in various ways, they own that and its consequences. The book has a prophetic parrot, visionary elders, love, cruelty, tension, food, art, tragedy, and beauty. I think it will win awards.  

Senior Citizens and Murder

 

  I heard this book recommended on the podcast "What Should I Read Next." This is one of my favorite podcasts. Two-thirds of the books I read I hear about are from Anne Bogel or her guest.  

Side note--I spent many minutes searching the internet to correctly punctuate a podcast series title. I'm not entirely comfortable with quotation marks, I was thinking italicized like a book title, but this is what I understand the internet to say. If you have a better answer, please try and leave a comment. I'm not sure that comments are working even though I've made them available in settings. This is my life with technology: sometimes I rock, sometimes I roll.

Back to the books I read this week. Richard Osman's book The Thursday Murder Club was a five-star read for me. I usually don't give five stars, especially to murder mysteries, but this was an exceptionally good book. The premise is a group of four elderly resident's living in a senior community gather together every Thursday to discuss unsolved murders when in their midst is an actual murder. There is Joyce, the retired flirty, nurturing nurse; Elizabeth, the hardcore former MI-5 (6?) cold war operative; Ron, the tough, but kind labor organizer known as "Red Ron," and Ibrahim, the wise no longer practicing psychiatrist. This book was funny, twisty, and heartwarming without being trite. It is peopled with quirky, distinctive characters and murder. I was guessing who-done-it right up to the very end. 

   I loved the first book so much that I immediately checked out the second one, The Man Who Died Twice. It was as good as the first. There is a third book in the series that I will read once it becomes available on Libby, or I might spend a precious Audible credit to listen. It's that good. I hope it gets made into a series on a streaming service I subscribe to. Fingers crossed.

Odd Ducks

    A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa is an odd duck of a book. I do like odd ducks. When I looked to see how this book was classified, I found it spanned several categories: autobiography, fiction, history, feminist literature, and literary criticism. Ní Ghíofa chronicles a fraught time in her life in relation to a famous Irish poem of lament written by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill called Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire. I've seen A Ghost in the Throat referred to as autofiction, a new category for me. The book is about women finding their voice: the thread of a female text runs through the book and the poem.  Ní Ghríofa is known for her poetry, which is evident in her writing. Her words, phrases, and cadence are lyrical and memorable. I listened to the audiobook and it helped me hear the correct pronunciation of the Gaelic names. In the end, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire is read in Gaelic, and then Doireann Ní Ghríofa's translation. 

I feel I'm not doing this book justice, but I recommend it. 

    I feel the need to read theology books. I want to understand and grow in my faith. However, I struggle to connect with books that others find efficacious. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together is a Christian Classic that has been quoted and recommended often. It didn't speak to me, I think because my heart bends towards legalism, not grace and kindness towards others or myself. Tell me the rules so I can keep them and create evidence of being righteous, approved, and virtuous. Bonhoeffer's book was filled with rules of being "good." I finished it and was discouraged. 

Not everyone feels as I do.

 book_review_life_together_by_dietrich_bonhoeffer

    Drawn to the Light: Poems on Rembrant's Religious Paintings by Marily Chandler McEntyre was a lovely book I received for Christmas. I would read one or two poems before bed. McEntyre's poems deepened the experience of the paintings. A poem that stood out for me was Christ on the Cross (53). She speaks as Rembrandt painting this horrific scene:

Let my hand not recoil
from the body's truth,
nor my brush stray from the story.
Let me be true to the darkness
you entered, O light of the world,
and to the awful beauty
of your agony.

🐣

Happy Easter

The Beatles and Murder

    Dear Husband and I watched Peter Jackson's The Beatles: Get Back documentary (six-plus hours), and that slice of their lives made me want to know more. After research, I chose Bob Spitz's book The Beatles: The Biography. I listened to it through Audible and didn't find out until the end that it was abridged. ☹️ 

    I still learned a lot about John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but I'm curious about what was left out--it wasn't their drug use or availing themselves to their groupies. Spitz charted their pre-Beatles lives, influences, and struggles to make it big. As I went through the book, I would stop and listen to the album it was referencing. 🎶 Thank you, Alexa! 

    Reading the book was like watching Titanic. I was invested in their climb to fame, which made their dissolution painful. 

I had one big question: Did Yoko Ono break up the Beatles? My answer: maybe. She didn't keep them together, but it seemed John and Paul were wrestling for individuality as, to a lesser degree, were George and Ringo. They were ripe for a life beyond The Beatles.

The book reminded me of the Eagles' song Life in the Fast Lane. The Beatles: The Biography describes a band that succumbed to a Rock and Roll lifestyle and unchecked egos.

 

    After reading about the six Mitford sisters, I tried to find the novels written by Nancy Mitford. Unfortunately, they weren't available through my library, but I did find a murder mystery series written around the sisters. The Mitford Murders is the first in the series written by Jessica Fellowes. She is the niece of Jonathan Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame, and she's written several successful companion books related to Downton Abbey. 

    She is well-versed in this period of history, giving the book a realistic feel without being intrusive. The murder is the actual unsolved murder of Florence Nightingale Shore, a retired nurse clubbed to death on a railway car. Fellowes cleverly blends fact and fiction, crafting an entertaining tale. 

 I quite liked it. 

It was ripping good fun.  

😜