Other Women's Stories: What I'm reading this week (11/19/18)

What I finished last week:

Add Eowyn Ivey to my list of favorite authors. I listened to her second book, To the Bright Edge of the World a couple of months ago, and I loved it so much that I immediately picked up her first, The Snow Child. And I liked it even more. This one was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and I can see why. It's hard to give a plot summary without giving away the magic of the book. In short, this is the story of a childless couple in the 1920s Alaskan frontier who form a child out of snow and then come to believe the child has come to life. This book is often described as magical realism, but the amazing thing about Ivey's writing is that it could be magical or it could be real, or it could be both at the same time. That's the true magic of this wonderful book. If you're not into fantasy (as I'm not), don't worry, this isn't heavily magical, it just leans ever so slightly in that direction. Plus, the storytelling is flawless. I've seldom read a book that is so well paced. The characters are never described, but you get to know them by their words and actions (they're shown, not told). And I love, love, love books where the place itself is a character. The wild, unsettled Alaskan frontier in the 1920s has its own personality. Ivey said that she grew up in Alaska reading books that didn't represent her reality, and this book is her offering to others like her. This is the perfect winter book, and I happened to pick it up at the exact right time of year. It was so cozy, I did not want it to end. You don't have to be adventurous to pick up this one and fall in love, but an adventure will be yours. My rating: 5 stars.

I'm going to try to plow through these next four reviews, because I have a Thanksgiving dinner to plan, a house to clean, and a Sunday afternoon jigsaw puzzle that's not going to put itself together.

I quite enjoyed Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. While magical realism is not really my favorite type of reading, I can enjoy a good adventure (see above), so when I listened to this one, I found it friendly and fun. The Amazon review does a much better job than I can with giving you a plot summary, but here goes: Clay takes a job at Mr. Penumbra's bookstore, but it doesn't take long to realize this is not your ordinary bookstore. Hardly anything is sold; instead, strange folks come by to borrow big, unreadable volumes in the middle of the night. Discoveries are made and Clay and his talented friends go underground (literally and figuratively) to solve some secrets and what not. Even if you don't generally enjoy sci fi adventures, I think you'll find this one fun. The audio was good, though not spectacular, and I often got lost because I couldn't give the book my full attention, but I still liked it. My rating: 3 stars.

As you know by now, I love photography and portraiture. Last fall I purchased a copy of Annie Leibovitz Portraits: 2005-2016 for the library, and I'm likely the only person to have checked it out. And that's really too bad. I don't know enough about photography to speak intelligently about Leibovitz's technical skill, but I can attest to the power of her images. This is a big coffee table book, and the photos are large and full color. There are dozens and dozens of portraits of people you know--lots of celebrities, athletes, artists, the Obamas, and on and on. They really are spectacular. If your library has a copy of this one, and you're interested in portraiture, check it out. It's wonderful. I did not expect to be moved by the images, but many really spoke to me. My rating: 4.5 stars.

Reviewing poetry books is quickly becoming one of my least favorite parts of blogging. I no longer have the vocabulary or patience to critically critique poetry or a poet's style. I just like what I like, and frankly, describing it takes the magic out of the good stuff and gives too much attention to the bad. Poetry is so personal that critiquing it publically is like critiquing your mother publically. Perhaps I'll stop reviewing poetry next year, I don't know. But at any rate, I finished two books of poems last week: Ten Poems to Set Your Free, edited by Roger Housden, and The End of Desire by Jill Bialosky. Housden has a whole series of these touchy-feely pseudo-memoir Ten Poems poetry books. I've reviewed a couple of them here over the years. (In fact, here's a review from earlier this year where I railed against Housden's style.) This one was very much like the others in style and feel. The essays following each poem are never really my thing. Their naval-gazing ways don't fit my personality. What brings me back to these books is Housden's remarkable eye for finding a good poem I've never heard of. Three of the poems toward the back of this book were just wonderful (here's one; here's another), and worth the price of admission. My rating: 3 stars.

The End of Desire is my second Jill Bialosky book of poetry (a review for her The Players can be found here), and her wonderful Poetry Will Save Your Life (reviewed here) is a treasure. Now that I've read two of her books, I can form an opinion of her writing. I enjoy her poems, but her more autobiographical poems don't do much for me. She obviously writes to understand her life and relationships, but maybe the poems are too personal to be universal (which any poetry workshop will tell you is impossible). They're too dark and mysterious, and I don't like poetry that makes me uncomfortable. I come to poetry for clarity, not chaos. The less autobiographical poems, though, were wonderful. My rating: 3.5 stars.

What I'm reading now:

Oh, I'm loving this re-read.

(Is it still a re-read if a book was read to you the first time?)

My (abandoned) Kindle read:

I may finish I Don't Care if We Never Get Back sometime, but I don't think I'll finish it this month. I looked forward to this one for months, and I read 40% of it, but I just don't ever feel like picking it up. I've never tried to read a book that switches between third-person singular and third-person plural throughout the book. It was disorienting and so weird. Why didn't an editor rectify that craziness?

My nighttime reads: