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Impeccably researched and beautifully written.

Sometimes books arrive at just the right moments. Usually I think these books are heady, intellectual numbers that set my thinking straight or give me clarity on the path of life. But in this case, Rosy Thornton’s The Tapestry of Love was neither heady or terribly clarifying; instead, it was simply comforting in the way good fiction can be. The story is about Catherine, a woman in her 40s who sells her house in England and moves to a rural farmhouse in the mountains of France. She leaves behind her children, her sister, her ex-husband, and begins a tapestry and upholstery business for the locals of the area. In the process of being there, she discovers a great deal about living in that place – including how to make honey and navigate the curvy, curvy roads – about her neighbors, and mostly about herself. In the process of the book, Catherine addresses her feelings about romance, her feelings toward her sister, and her feelings about her mother’s death. (See “You Poor Little Thing” for my thoughts on the character’s response to her mom’s passing.) All of these inward journeys – as well as Catherine’s retreat to the country – resonate so strongly with me that each day I looked forward to getting into bed where I could read my way back into Les Fenils, Catherine’s house. Thornton’s writing about a woman’s time on her own reminded me a great deal of the way I felt when I read Alice Koller’s Unknown Woman, where another woman takes the time to step into a life that she has created, and the passages about an adult, single woman dealing with her Mom’s death brought my breath up short in their accuracy. So if you’re in the mood to be touched by the power of solitude, peek a little at some romance, and just enjoy a lovely story, do pick up a copy of Thornton’s newest novel. And if you can, I recommend you read it at your own little place of retreat.

It’s another post-apocalyptic novel (not sure if there are more book with this setting or if I’m just subconsciously drawn to them for some reason) set in a time when most of the humans have been killed by a plague of some sort. The story centers around a group of people called “The Gardeners,” who want to return earth to its natural state before we started using up our resources and genetically modifying everything (including animals who we genetically mate to create creatures like the “Liobam,” half lion, half lamb – it was an attempt to bring about the Biblical promise of the lion laying down with the lamb). As in most of these novels, the outlook is grim, but hope resides in a few survivors who persevere and begin to find hope in their own abilities and in each other. I really enjoyed it and recommend it fully, although it is long and might be a little tedious on the page.

At present, I’m listening to Matthew Pearl’s The Poe Shadow and finding it quite intriguing, if subtle. The basic premise is that Quentin Clark, a lawyer from Baltimore, is trying to solve the mystery of Edgar A. Poe’s (he refuses to use the name Allan because Poe’s father “Mr. Allan” disowned him when Poe got into debt) death at a pub in Baltimore City. To do so, he seeks out the infamous C. Auguste Dupin, the Holmes-inspiring detective from several of Poe’s stories, who he believes to be based on a real person. The novel is a mix of mystery and quasi-historical fiction where Pearl’s massive research skills really come to life. Plus, since I still (for the next 8 days) live in Baltimore, I love hearing street names that I recognize.

Roth’s fundamental idea is that women overeat or constantly diet because we believe that somehow our ability to control our weight will give us control over our lives. This idea is one I can wholly agree with. I know that when my stress level goes up I will eat most things in site, especially if I don’t have time each day to wind down and think through my feelings. Perhaps the strongest thing I’ve taken from the book is that I need to face what I feel and not run away from it with food, TV, alcohol, or whatever other escape I want. I need to stare it in the face and move through the feeling instead of avoiding it. The book itself gets a little repetitive towards the end, but overall, I really appreciated what it taught me.

Imperfect Birds is just the right combination of great story, strong characters, and Lamott’s wit. I was listening to the car, and it made me want to sit in Beltway traffic.

Sometimes the best advice comes in simple sentences. This book will be my daily reading for my writing practice for years to come. I know it.

A couple of months ago Mother Earth News ran the introduction to Jenna Woginrich’s Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life. I read the article as I sat in the eye doctor’s office waiting for my pupils to dilate. I can’t imagine a more pleasurable way to lock my eyes into a position that makes everything else foggy. Woginrich’s style and sensibility really stuck with me. So last week, I went looking for her book, and lo and behold, my local library had several copies. I ordered one to my branch and started reading. I gobbled up this book just like I would gobble up the honey that Woginrich makes on her rented farm in Idaho. It’s full of practical advice - how to raise angora rabbits, how to sew your own clothes, etc - but also carries a sense of willing camaradarie about this whole process of “self-reliance.” In the introduction she says, I think the real trick to finding that sense of satisfaction is to realize you don’t need much to attain it. A window-box salad garden and a banjo hanging on the back of the door can be all the freedom you need. If it isn’t everything you want for the future, let it be enough for tonight. Don’t look at your current situation as a hindrance to living the way you want, because living the way you want has nothing to do with how much land you have or how much you can afford to spend on a new house. It has to do with the way you choose to live every day and how content you are with what you have. If a few things on your plate every season come from the work of your own hands, you are creating food for your body, and that is enough. If the hat on your head was knitted by your own hands, you’re providing warmth from string and that’s enough. If you rode your bike to work, trained your dog to pack, or just baked a loaf of bread, let it be enough. Accepting where you are today, and working toward what is ahead, is the best you can do. You can take the projects in this book as far as your chosen road will take you. Maybe your gardens and coops will outgrow mine, and before you know it you’ll be trading in your Audi for a pickup. But the starting point is to take control of what you can and smile with how things are. Find your own happiness and dance with it. As I sit and dream about a place like Woginrich’s, I find great hope and comfort in the idea that I need not have all I dream of now. My compost bowl on the counter and the two heads of cabbage in planter boxes on the deck are enough. And I think I”ll make some bread today. And if you have time, sidle up to Woginrich’s words and find contentment and ideas for yourself. You’ll be glad you did. Cover of Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich - Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich

Yesterday, I had the privilege of reading Fault Line by Barry Eisler. Apparently, Eisler is quite well-known for his previous books, but to be honest, when I got asked to review the book, I had never heard of him (such is the life of an English professor, I suppose — too many literary novels, not enough thrillers). And a thriller this is. Set in Northern California (particularly Silicon Valley and San Francisco), the story pursues the life of Alex, a lawyer who has come upon the “hottest” software out there; in fact, it’s so hot that people connected to it are dying. In comes Ben, Alex’s brother and black ops agent for the U.S. government. Angrily, resentfully, but dutifully, Ben comes back across the world to “save” his brother. Meanwhile, Alex’s colleague, Sarah, is also in danger, and so the three become embroiled in a plot to figure out why people are killed for this piece of code and to keep themselves alive. Eisler mixes in technology, military/spy technique, family pain, and a little romance to pull together a fast-paced novel that keeps the reader interested without leaving her with the feeling of manipulation or hyperbole that many thrillers do. The characters seem real and honest, and from what I know (remember, English teacher here), the guns, the fighting, and the technology ring true as well (although I admit that my knowledge of most of these things comes from watching The Unit on DVD from Netflix.) All in all, the book is very enjoyable. I wouldn’t recommend this book if you are looking for something that you want to parse apart for glorious language or if you’re going to be studying complex character development - these things are not the purpose of a thriller, and thus, they suffer a bit. Yet, if you want a quick, fun, engrossing read that pulls you out of your world (I hope this isn’t your world) and gives you a way to think about new places (or revisit old ones like I did during the San Francisco scenes) and new adventures, then Fault Line is definitely for you. Take it to the beach; cuddle under a blanket with a cup of coffee; read it at the library while your kids go to story time; teach it (as I might) as a model of narrative arc that works well. It’s versatile and fun - a good summer read.

Sometimes books take a while to get revved up, but when we let them get warm in our hands and settle us into our seats, we find gems in the pages. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is one of those books. The first few pages were a bit slow because they are so subtle. They tell the story of an old man, Henry, who finds himself stunned by a Japanese parasol that has been pulled out of an abandoned hotel in Seattle. Henry has lost his wife, and somehow this parasol triggers that spark of life that he needs to keep going. Ford’s writing embeds the importance of this event in the mundane, but if a reader keeps at it, she will find herself richly rewarded. The book spans two timeframes in Seattle’s history - the 1980s and the 1940s - and describes the life of a Chinese-American (Henry) and a Japanese-American (Keiko) who become friends as children during World War II. The cultural complexities of that time when internment camps and Chinese nationalism ran high alongside the soft but biting racism against African-Americans give this novel a social dimension that fleshes out a great deal that I did not know (and was not taught) about the 1940s, particularly on the West Coast. I don’t remember ever reading about or hearing a teacher speak about Japanese Internment Camps here on the East Coast, and the mentions I had of that dark stain of American history came only when I lived in California and read Farewell to Manzanar. Maybe out of embarrassment we have tried to erase this element of our history. I’m glad Ford has brought it back to me, for it is only when we hide something that we cannot work to heal it. But it’s not just the political and cultural elements of the novel that make it a valuable book; the writing and characterization are subtle and complex. None of the characters here are flat; none are simple; none are wholly right or wholly wrong - they are people. Additionally, the novel is well-paced and gripping for a mystery drives the book forward (a mystery I won’t reveal for those of you who will take my advice and pick up this book). Relationships quiver with life on these pages, and the setting - historically accurate Seattle - is rich and rewarding, reminding me a great deal of what I heard about San Francisco during the same time periods. The moments of tenderness and brutality in this book live fully, bringing me to tears and gasps even as I plowed ahead to hear what was next. And Henry, the protagonist, well, I love him - both as a child I want to help and protect and as an old man at whose feet I would like to sit. Occasionally, Ford’s writing, particularly at the end of chapters, seems a bit forced, like he’s trying to be writerly, but these lines are overlooked in light of the clarity and richness of the story. So please, pick up Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, carve out a leisurely afternoon, make a cup of green tea, and read the hours away while adding these characters and this history into your mind.

I read all three books of the series, gobbling up the fantasy and momentum of these stories filled with magic and the struggle of good to continue conquering evil. The characters are fun, and the world complex. Plus, there’s this great animal character in the last two books that gives them whimsy and also reminded me of how everything - animals, plans, our human-made creations - is connected to something greater than ourselves.

I have what some might call an unhealthy interest in ghosts. I have been on ghost walks, read lots of ghost stories, and even stayed the night once at Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in the hopes of seeing a ghost. So when this book arrived, I got very excited. Then, I put it away. It fell into the TBR pile and didn’t reappear for months. But the truth is, it’s good I didn’t read this book this winter when I might have - I would have been too scared to sit in my house alone on dark evenings. Somehow when I know it will be warm and sunny in the morning, things don’t seem as scary. That’s probably naive on a lot of levels, but so be it. The book tells the story of journalist Will Storr’s attempts to discover the truth about ghosts by going on various supernaturally-motivated trips. The book begins, wisely I feel, in the States when Storr tags along with a demonologist to study the happenings at a particular woman’s house. I won’t tell you what does happen there - I don’t want to ruin it - but let’s just say it’s enough to make Will take these ghost ideas more seriously, even so far as to contemplate whether they might be demonic. The book continues with Storr visiting various ghosty sites in the UK, his homeland, including the set of the popular TV show Most Haunted, where he is, let’s just say, less than impressed. He spends the night in haunted houses and walks the copses of England to try and thwart Satanic rituals. Basically, his exploration runs the gamut of supernatural experiences. And in the end, well, you’ll have to see what he decides about his experiences. I found the book both immensely interesting, profoundly honest, quite scary at times, and very well-written. There’s a clear awareness by Storr of his prejudices and his dispositions about these things, and he’s not afraid to keep himself in the story. Because he allows himself to speak out clearly in the book, I am able to travel along with him and translate the experiences through his eyes, eyes I trust. Plus, he’s just really funny. Really funny. I also appreciate that he entertains all kinds of theories about ghosts - from the demonic to the scientific. There are no easy - or easily accepted - answers here, and as a person of faith who struggles with how to interpret the experiences of the supernatural, I appreciated both his candor and his sincere questions. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in the subject matter or if you just want to read a good book of creative nonfiction. It’s really worth it, even if you get a bit nervous at the thought.

Every once in a while, I run across someone who says they would love to come to Jesus but there are all these sticky issues in the way, like hell, all those rules and sin. It would happen even more often when I was a Youth Director and some of our teenagers were just trying to think through the faith they’d grown up with. Jason Berggren’s 10 things I Hate about Christianity: Working through the Frustrations of Faith is a good guide for both groups and a lot more of use besides. Written with clarity, honesty and plenty of humour, Berggren talks personally about the issues he and every Christian should confront at some time or other and helps to open our minds to wider paths than we might have considered before. 10 things is a good book to keep on hand because sometime we are going to run into another of those thinking, questioning folks.

This book has been part of my writing practice for a few months now, one essay at a time, and I really enjoyed it. Some essays were more fitting for where I am than others because the topics range the gamut of genres and styles, but all in all, I really enjoyed seeing the practices and thought processes of various writers.

A great book for those who wish to disappear into a rather predictably plotted but original romance that involves art forgery, closets, and a lot of fun. The main character, Tilda, is a woman that many of us could look up to - independent but insecure, wise and witty. A very engaging read.

This is the book that let me know I was an artist. The longing that Asher feels for his painting is that pinprick of tenacity I feel in my spirit about writing, when I let myself feel it and don't deaden it with my own or other people's expectations of me. Asher's life is every artist's life, and this book gave me the courage to live my own life.

The book is about Koller's solitude, a solitude she intentionally imposes after receiving her PhD in philosophy from Harvard. She rents a little cottage in Nantucket and spends her days alone - writing, reading, walking, thinking, not thinking. It's a book of reflection, not action, inwardness, not outward relationships. It's a beautiful read for anyone who needs a little space in life, a place to breath and think.

s proof positive that you can readably combine research and reflection. His books studies earthquake myths and the people who create them, including Cloud Man, who believes that certain kinds of clouds are released from the earth’s crust just before an earthquake. But Ulin also delves into the science behind earthquakes and the way that trained scientists, particularly those at the U.S. Geological Survey try to predict and prepare for earthquakes.

Byatt’s settings make her characters, and while most often she leaves dialogue out of the stories, her characters seem to speak to you through their actions, as if we’re invisible confidants. This book whispers of fairy tales and infuses them with practicality. A lovely read.

Nobody can make me smile and cry as much as Anne Lamott. This book, the sort-of sequel to Traveling Mercies, is a beautiful, contrite, and hilarious look at what it means to live as a person who believes that life exists beyond the tangible and measurable.

Ulin combines fact, story, and opinion into a beautiful book that explores exactly where a person's reason shifts over into pure belief. His sentences are gorgeous - clear but complex - and his ideas mimic the language in which they're written. If you're at all interested in earthquakes or just great creative nonfiction, Ulin's book is a great read.

A concise compendium of the major news stories and editorials written in 1892 and 1893, following the Borden murders. It's a bit dry - simply because of the type of writing and style of the time period - but the book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to try and figure out the "true story" of Lizzie Borden.

Paul O Zelinsky takes the Grimm Brothers' Tale and paints it with words and some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. The colors are lustrous, the imagery strong. This is a must-have for any collection of children's books.

It's a languid, twisting path that Dillard leads us on in this novel, but with each bend in the trail we see nuances of the environments of stamina and love that she has built of words. This book is not for a quick read; it's to be savored, like a stroll or a great piece of chocolate.

Carter is one of the great postmodern, if you'll let me use that term, writers. She has a beautiful sense of pacing and represents interiority spectacularly. These stories are great for any one who loves fairy tales, is interested in the feminist perspective on folklore (or contemporary life), or anybody who just loves a good story. This collection pulls all of her stories together and is well-worth the cost. Check out "The Fall River Ax Murders" for a new take on Lizzie Borden's alleged crime. And watch the beauty become the beast in her revision of that tale. Enjoy!