Just like writing, my reading pleasure travels through peaks and valleys. This summer I’m on a ride of really good books.
POETRY
The Trees Witness Everything by Victoria Chang
A brilliant collection of short, powerful poems that are both ethereal brushes and in-the-gut punches.
Passage
Every leaf that falls
never stops falling. I once
thought that leaves were leaves.
Now I think they are feeling,
in search of a place —
someone’s hair, a park bench, a
finger. Isn’t that
like us, going from place to
place, looking to be alive?
Also recommend her other new book: Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief
You really can judge a book by its cover. I chose this book for its great design: a vellum wrap cover with interior pages that feature short blocks of poetic prose and ample white space — places to breathe and rest. The evocative 'story' is told in spare but rich language and combined with small images of text-based art, that makes you slow and rush all at once.
Vintage Sadness by Hanif Willis Abdurraqib
Inspired, influenced, and infused with a wide range of contemporary music — from Kanye to Kirk Franklin and lots more — this poetry collection sings!
My fave: And What Good Will Your Vanity Be When the Rapture Comes.
Download the book (and playlist) for FREE.
FICTION
I Married You For Happiness by Lily Tuck
This is a love story that is tragic, ordinary, and extraordinary — all at the same time. Beautifully told in elegant stops and starts that mimic memory and grief.
A slim, quiet novel with deep reverberations. The story reveals one life jolt after another and asks: What do we owe those in crisis? And how do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves?
NON-FICTION
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke
“Only a few friends realized at the time how much physical suffering I was undergoing. We are bad at recognizing the suffering of others unless we are given clear-cut clues and evidence. And so invisible illnesses often go unacknowledged.”
Brilliant, insightful, scholarly and thorough. Blending the personal and universal, this books provides a sweeping examination of chronic illness —from mysterious symptoms to failed diagnoses, elusive treatments, and the devastating toll disease can take. With clarity, compassion and painstaking research, the author calls for a seismic shift in our approach to disease — and I am cheering her on!
The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life by Katy Butler
A no-nonsense guide for living, aging, and dying with meaning and joy. Katy Butler offers clear advice with warmth and wisdom, with an emphasis on a life of quality-over-quantity. Also recommend her earlier book: Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death.
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom
Amy Bloom writes with humanity and humor.While heartbreaking, this story of an end-of-life decision is told with such wit and candor that it left me in triumphant tears.
These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett
A surprising and moving meditation on family, friendship, reading and writing.
“The trouble with good fortune is that we tend to equate it with personal goodness, so that if things are going well for us and less well for others, it’s assumed they must have done something to have brought that misfortune on themselves while we must have worked harder to avoid it. We speak of ourselves as being blessed, but what can that mean except that others are not blessed, and that God has picked out a few of us to love more? It is our responsibility to care for one another, to create fairness in the face of unfairness and find equality where none may have existed in the past.”
SOME THOUGHTS
There are things you don’t notice until you share your reading choices:
• I’m reading a lot of books about illness and death. (Don’t worry, I’m fine).
• I’m reading a lot of books about marriage. (Don’t worry, I’m happily hitched).
• I’m reading books with tree titles that have little to do with trees:
The Trees Witness Everything and Bough Down
• I’m not trying to read anything. That is, my book choices are random and mostly spontaneous. I keep a running list of books I want to read but an interesting cover or great title can change my course, as does the proliferation of Little Free Libraries.
• Reading is my mental health medicine of choice. What’s yours?
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The world turns on words, please read & write.