Day 24 :: A Good Book

Here are the books I have read in the last 5 years that I gave a 5 star rating. 

The review is what I wrote on my Goodreads account.

2021

I took a lot of pictures of various pages in this book, which means I wanted to remember it so I could discuss it later with friends. It's a "need to discuss" book. My favorite essays are Auld Lang Syne, Wendover, Wonder, the Iceland one.
Actually there were hardly any that I didn't love, but those are the one I had to set aside and sigh about.
That one part, where the soldiers sing over and over "we're here because we're here because we're here because we're here..." ☠️
I keep thinking about this book. I want to reread some of the essays.

2021

I'm almost exhausted by how much I love this book. It is such a delightful tale and I feel like I need to read it again. It was like a special dessert you save for later when the kids are in bed...Every time I opened the book to read it was like I sat here with my delicious treat. So delicious are the words and descriptions. How precious are words and books and documents that are superfluous and excessive now in the year 2020. We sling them about the internet without thinking. Anna's storyline was so profound in how rare and fragile written word used to be. They can actually disappear from off the face of the earth if it rained too hard.
How do I even ever read another book? This was so lovely and fun and delicious. I loved it so much.

2022-2023

 Specifically the whole trilogy and The Hobbit. This series is so crazy because when you are reading it, you can think of nothing else. 

Gosh this book. So wonderful. 
The greatest of victories. Sam, going even though he doesn't know the way.
Gollum's role. It could not have been achieved without his antagonism, his friction to work against.
The last sacrifice of the Captains as a diversion.
So much. I need to chew on it some more.
I know I love a book when all I see is that book in everything. It relates to everything else in life. Every conversation can circle back to a connection to these books.

2023

This really is a five star book. The writing is amazing. The characters are so great. It's a survival story, a coming of age, great redemption. But it's just too much sadness and awfulness. And drug use/addiction is not my favorite of plot lines. There were no pallet cleansers...just so much bad luck and not enough redemption - for me.
But I do recognize this is GOAT of a book. How does a writer pull this off.

2022 and 2023

Such a beautiful book. I loved the writing, I love the characters, I love the count. So many layers, I fear I have missed some of them. It was slow roasted and cooked to perfection.
Every sentence carefully crafted, example:
"In particular, he was thinking—with a sense of foreboding—that in the course of twenty years this firefly, this pinwheel, this wonder of the world had become a woman who, when asked where she was going, could answer without the slightest hesitation: Does it matter?"

And the sentiments, the ideas...I feel like I want to reread it:
"After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour."

And this: the personifications are perfection:
"Like the wheeling of the stars,"
muttered the Count as he paced.
That is how time passes when
one is left waiting unaccountably. The
hours
become
interminable.

The minutes relentless. And the seconds?
Why, not only does every last one of
them demand its moment on the stage,
it insists upon making a soliloquy full
of weighty pauses and artful hesitations
and then leaps into an encore at the
slightest hint of applause."

I've read this one 3 times. It is at the top of my all time favorites.

2023

So good.
It's such a relief to read such good writing, such good storytelling.
It's beautiful and heartbreaking. There is a rise and a fall, always giving and taking. There's so much symmetry and interweaving - like water. Somehow the whole story mimics the nature of water.

2024

This is the kind book I'm talking about. Where reading the beautiful construction of words is the whole activity. The plot is secondary. The characters are the stars of the show. The way Rainy describes everything is the entertainment.
Absolutely no skimming. Sometimes reread, and reread a third time. Highlight it to enjoy later.
But also the plot. Very good. Bravo. (I read this one twice in a row)

FIVE YEARS AGO

 

The Season

Of course this month is flying by. Here are some fun things we've been doing - with a lot of our usual traditions canceled (santa village, ward party)...I'm not bothered one tiny bit by anything cancelled in December.

I completed every single Christmas puzzle already. 

One Saturday we went to Padden. It was super fun until the sun went behind the mountain and we all started freezing, waiting for the dads to get done on the mountain.

By the time they met us with the car, we frantically piled into the warm car with all the kids squeezed in, seat warmers cranked. Hunter and Andrew sat on me and Lisa's laps in the front, gripping the steering wheel warmer to warm their little hands. 

We went from frantic and miserable to giggly and cozy. I love that kind of thing. 

I treasure the memories in my heart. and blog. 

This year the cohort did a gift exchange. They were SO excited.

We exchanged at bookmobile, and the Dicksons were thirty minutes late, so the kids almost died there on the porch from waiting too long. 

Our house is half decorated for Christmas and half a construction zone. 

Jim is painting the doors, painting the piano, installing new lights, and finishing the faux beam. 

For a couple of days we had a mattress as a front door. 

All those gift boxes are young women gifts.

One night we had our own downtown Blaine tree lighting.

It wouldn't be 2020 if the mail truck didn't spontaneously combust right around Christmas when people are sending and receiving precious packages. 

We had a few things burn up, but they were all refunded by Amazon.

So, yeah. 

There are a few traditions that Evan insists on and loves: 

Make hot chocolate and watch The Polar Express,

Grinch night, with Grinch drink and watch the Grinch,

and 

Peppermint making night, and watch Charlie Brown Christmas.

I love these traditions too.

Us gals went waterfall chasing one day. It was so beautiful. 

This is a new game: around the house treasure hunt. 

This is the trickiest clue. Can you guess it?

Shoes. That's correct. 

The treasure at the end was cookie making supplies. 

I rarely have Christmas steam to make sugar cookies. This season has been relatively clear of extra nonsense, plus I have had the baking bug lately. 

(PS this shirt is his creation - it's the super hero costume from his character from the book he wrote.  LB stands for Laser Beam. I love him to death.)

Andrew is reading the Captain Underpants series.

Avery is reading Hunger Games.

Evan is reading the Amulet series. 

Taking Koda on walks through the forest has been so wet lately. 

I bought waterproof pants and a waterproof jacket. I wear giant boots and a beanie. I wander around and Koda leaps over logs and smells all the smells. We both get soaked. 

One day, everything was so lush and dripping. There were new pink mushrooms sprouted. 

Sometimes I walk quickly and do many laps.

Sometimes I walk slowly and notice all the new cool things growing.

Sometimes I try and find a path that doesn't take me through a puddle - like "lava". That means I have to walk across logs and duck through branches. I have yet to find the path that doesn't take me through standing water. 

Christmas Sunday! New Christmas clothes!

It was a lovely meeting, even while breathing through masks.

Day 24 :: A Good Book

The Overstory:

I love parts of this book. I loved most of this book. I loved a lot of this book a lot. I would take pictures of some of my favorite parts so that I could read it again later. 
Some parts I would read and reread. I chewed and chewed some parts. Some parts after rereading made completely different sense. 
But I also am a little confused about this book. I think I need someone to tell me more about what it all means. Especially about Neelay. His character was so great and so confusing. 

January 29, 2020

Where the Crawdads Sing:

I especially loved the first half of this book. I love the writing and Kya’s survival journey. This is the kind of book I didn’t waste. I looked forward to being quiet and alone so that I could enjoy every sentence. If there were distractions around me, I put it down and saved for later.

June 4, 2019

Station Eleven: 

This isn’t a literary triumph, but it made me think think think. 
Try to wrap your mind around a world where civilization ends within a few weeks, but nothing is really destroyed. It’s all just lying around collecting rust and dust. How do we act? What do we value? 
We care about so many stupid silly things in our privileged world. Like (talking with Lindsay at the bus stop) burning all things Nike in protest. We have so much time on our pampered, precious hands.

I loved the part when Clark is looking at the snow globe - an item that has no real necessity in our lives - and thinks about all the cogs of a civilization that it takes to creat and transport such a thing...thoughts like that you only have when you are deprived of creature comforts. Like when the electricity goes out for multiple hours. We don’t even realize what a grid we depend on.

September 6, 2018

Everyone Brave is Forgiven: 

The writing is everything! Some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. 
As far as a war novel goes, it's not my favorite, but the story is secondary to me. I don't even care what he is selling, I am buying because: the writing.
Probably my favorite scene is when simonson is talking to the general. There is nothing in the plot that makes it a special scene, but the writing and the dialogue had me shaking my head. Words are art. Beautiful art.

June 21, 2017

***
I accidentally just reread this book and it’s still beautiful. 10/20/2018

Lonesome Dove: 

at first, like most people, i didn't think i would really make it through this book. it was all men, and the only women were "whores". men men men whore men men men. but i found that at the end of a chapter, i couldn't stop reading. eventually i was lapping it up and didn't want it to end. i can't quite put my finger on why i loved it. the subtle beauty. the rich characters. gus. who is THE lonesome dove? is there a character that isn't a lonesome dove? they are all a part of a bigger whole, but so lonely in their own brains. 

I loved that the best characters turned out to be the women.

**spoiler**

i hated that most of the best characters died. after you know who died, i lost some steam. i wanted to finish it, but without his voice and dialogue...the book was deflated. for that reason i would give the book 4 stars if someone really pressed me to.
The other interesting thing about this book is that as much as i loved it, i don't know that i would suggest others to read it. i don't know why. i feel like there was something great about it but i don't know how to explain it.
i was in the mood for a meaty classic tale, and this satisfied greatly.

February 8, 2017

The Grapes of Wrath:

Where do you even begin? First, I do NOT remember this book, but I supposedly read it when I was 20ish. It was all so lost on me then. It makes me wonder about all the other books I have "read" when I was young. I should reread more.

Second, I just really love Steinbeck. I loved the details when characters were talking together. Like at the beginning when Tom was hitchhiking and he was chewing gum. The dialogue and the little idiosyncrasies of human behavior entertains me to no end. It reminds me of JD Salinger's writing in that way. There isn't a ton of action in the pages of talking but I am riveted. 

I think the main theme I took away this time around is how they had to stay in the present. Any time they started to think too far ahead, the reality of the situation would crush them. Maybe that's why most of the men were so pathetic. They were crushed by the futility. I don't think they were heroic necessarily. Tom had potential, but either there are too many odds against them, or they were fools of circumstance. 

I love the big picture chapters that were somewhat poetry-meets-history lesson. Then I loved the personal focus on the Joad's attempt at making a life. It was a good "pan in - pan out" of the situation.

I would love to discuss this book with a group of people. There's so much. 
I really loved it. I would lay in bed at night thinking about it, and when I would put the book down, I found myself talking like they did. Trying to anyway.

March 10, 2016

All the Light We Cannot See: 

i loved it. but i have to start by saying, i wish it would have ended as they are sharing the peaches. that would have been my perfect ending. i didn't like the way it continued on anti climactically, eventually taking us into the modern age. it felt like it cheapened the reality of a war torn world. it ended on a very disappointing level. 

but enough about what i didn't like...for a while i could swear this is one of my favorite books. it was so rich and beautiful and horrible and stark and wonderful:

i loved the opposites - the giant v little werner, the blind v being shut in, entropy in a country striving for perfection, radio waves that meant so much but are invisible to us all, science and poetry, locks and keys.

Van Rumpel, who is so patient, waiting is his thing, runs out of time.
is this world happenstance? are we just made up of atoms and carbon and earth's crust? or is there more order to what happens to us? 
Marie Laure is likened to the mollusks and sea creatures she loves. 

at times i would finish reading a page and have to set the book down and shake my head because the passage was so perfect and beautiful. regardless of the story or anything that happens to these lovely characters, i just love the writing. i want to re-read some of the passages over and over again. 

January 18, 2016


**These are all the 5 star books I have read in the last 5 years. All these "reviews" are from my Goodreads account. 
Station Eleven is kind of a trip because it is basically the beginning premise of the current situation in our world. 

5 years ago

Day 22 :: Celebrity Crush

It's actually a "fictional character based on a historical person" crush,

because celebrities are the worst, all around. 

But this CHARACTER is just great: conflicted, nuanced, fearless. 

Uhtred, Son of Uhtred

Uhtred of Bebbanburg

Uhtred Ragnarson 

5 years ago

School.

It's hard right? Nobody wants to do school like this. Not one single one of us. 

Some minutes are ok, others are a mess. 

My favorite part of school is when we read together - after breakfast, before actual "work". 

We started this fabulous book. It's so strange and full of every exciting adventure you can think of. Our little hero boy is blind, of course, and that is his superpower. 

Today we were schooling at our kitchen table, and a bird flew right into the window.

He sat there and gathered his wits for a good hour. 

We didn't know if he was going to die or recover. 

Hey! Just like our economy! It's a real metaphor. 

Avery was very concerned. 

Andrew would go over to the window and say in his high little voice: "hi Vah Medo! hi Vah Medo!"

She showed the bird how to fly. 

And she took a time lapse of his recovery. 

While we weren't watching, he eventually hopped away. Good thing we got a video of his heroic recovery. 

One day the kids played in a mud puddle; the mud puddle at the bottom of the slide, made by soap and hose water. 

Pavlova number two was a success! It is our household favorite corona dessert. 

I love some of the kids' imagination games they play these days. 

They call this a beanie boo meeting. 

Evan has to write daily for school, then share it with his teacher. Today he wrote: 

"Sometimes my brother and sister and the Dickson family go to this one forest that's near our neighborhood. We make stuff like weapons and bows. We also buy and trade and sell our stuff. Our money is huckleberries and cattails. We also do capture the flag for our game and war. We also have bases the boys have their own base and the girls have their now base. I'm in the boys base. The forest is really fun."

I like the part about what they use as goods and currency. 

My kids empty the dishwasher as one of their chores. Avery does the top, Evan does the bottom, and Andrew does the silverware. Lately when I holler "come empty the dishwasher!" one of them comes down and empties the WHOLE thing as a surprise for the others. They take turns being the emptier/surpriser. 

The other day, I awoke in a sweaty panic - afraid that my blog would disappear from off the internet. 

I am just renting this space from Google, and since hardly aint nobody blogs anymore, what if they just evicted us all and bulldozed our creations? 

I know this is a rona-related fear, but NOTHING IS SECURE anymore. Including blogger. 

So I worked all day at backing it up and making a blog book for Andrew's first baby year. 

I've done all I can to preserve all the memories. 

Some days I am more optimistic than others, but lately I just picture this giant drain, and everyone and everything and every job is circling that drain.

I knew that school was going to be cancelled for the rest of the year before they announced it, 

and likewise I feel that we are not going to get to live/work here in Bellingham much longer. I'm just waiting for them to announce it. 

May corona have mercy on our souls.