Catching up - What I read in January 2020

Let's try something a little different. I'm over a month behind in my reviewing, and in order to catch up, I'm going to post full reviews for the books I can't stop thinking about, and teeny-tiny reviews for the rest.

January sort of took a bite out of me. I wasn't feeling well for much of it, and my reading was still suffering from malaise. I hope things pick up soon. I don't like feeling like I don't know what to read.

Last month I finished 12 books, seven of them on audio. There were a few stellar books, and a lot of very average fare. I think this will improve, though, as I allow myself to chip away at that wonderous TBR I built over the first part of the winter.

My favorite books of January

I wish I would have written this review while The Dutch House was still fresh in my mind, because it deserves better than a review written after the magnificence of the book has faded and plot has become hazy. If you haven't read this one yet, one-click it or get on your library hold list (I can assure you there's still a hold list for this one) right now. It's hard to distill the plot of this book, because the plot isn't nearly as important as the characters you'll meet and the experience you'll have reading it. I found the book so beautifully and smartly written. A skinny plot summary: the Conroy family owns the grand and gaudy Dutch house, so named because the family that built the house, whose portraits still hang in it, were Dutch. Mrs. Conroy never had any good feelings toward the house, and she left it, her husband, and her children Maeve and Danny, while the children are quite young. Mr. Conroy remarries, and events end up so that Maeve and Danny find themselves, quite literally, on the outside looking in, for the next several decades. That plot doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But trust me, the novel really carries you along in such a satisfying way. Before this I'd looked into several of Ann Patchett's novels, but the plots never interested me enough to try. After reading The Dutch House, though, I plan to pick up another of her books to see if the writing is as wonderful as it is here. Don't miss this wonderful read. My rating: 5 stars.

For years I've circled Watership Down, wanting to read it but never actually picking it up. Anthropomorphized animal stories (and movies, especially) do me in. And if one of the animals dies? Oh heavens. But, I read James Mustich's wonderful summary of the book in his 1,000 Books to Read before You Die, and I knew I had to take the plunge, tears be darned. Mustich indicated that the audio book was exceptional, so that's the route I went, and I have to say he was 100% correct. Though I can't place the narrator, if you're an avid listener of audiobooks, I'm sure you'll recognize the voice, too. My two great concerns about this book were violence toward the rabbits and that it was a thinly guised treatise on manmade environmental peril. Mustich sort of hinted at the latter, but in the author's introduction, Richard Adams assured his readers that the book was not an allegory, and I was comforted. Sometimes you just want a story of rabbits to be a story about rabbits. If you're unfamiliar with this tale, the plot is this: Timid little Fiver feels in his bones that the warren he lives in is in peril. He tells his brother that they must leave. They take the premonition to the chief elder, but he dismisses it. Regardless, the brothers and a handful of others set out to found their own warren to escape what is surely coming. They have many harrowing adventures along the way, get into some bloody scrapes (ha, no pun!), and learn a lot about the world around them. I found this book equally charming and deep, and superbly well-written. It is a tale well told. The author started telling the story to his daughters on a long car trip, and he continued telling it after their return. One of his daughters encouraged him to put it on paper and publish it. It was rejected again and again in England. Editors thought it was too adult for the juvenile audience and too juvenile for the adult audience. He finally found a small publisher and had modest success. Then it was imported to America, where readers fell all over it, and it wasn't until its import back into the UK that it became a hit. You're welcome, Mr. Adams. Glad we Yanks could help. Seriously, if you've been circling this book for years like I have, please consider it. It's one of the best written books I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. I think you'll love it. My rating: 5 stars.

You know by now I love a good presidential memoir, and I especially love the Bush family, so shortly after President George H. W. Bush's passing, I committed to reading his book of letters and other writings, All the Best, George Bush. And then I kind of put it off, because it's a monster of a book, clock in at 700 pages (without back matter). But I was in the mood for something long and slow and life-affirming last month, and this one fit the bill. This is a collection of President Bush's correspondence, journal entries, and other notes penned over his 70-plus years serving his country. The first letters were written when we was a young (the youngest, I've read) Navy fighter pilot, and the letters take you through his distinguished career including his time in Congress, his U.N. ambassadorship, his work as envoy to China, his time as CIA director and Republican National Committee chair (while Watergate was exploding around him), and his three terms as vice president and president of the United States. Also covered are his years pre-Washington as a Texan oilman and his years post-presidency. I loved this reading experience. It was dry in a few places, but being letters, I never felt tied to one place or idea for long. I never knew what was coming next: a dry letter regarding international diplomacy might be followed by a heartfelt letter to one of his children or grandchildren, or a hilarious letter to the chairman of the Roach Bowl, in which roaches were entered on the president's behalf. Some of my favorite stories are included, like when he had Dana Carvey address his staff as the president on his way out of office, the emotional tug-of-war he felt when sons George won his Texas governorship and Jeb lost his on the same night, the story of his plane jumping as an elderly man, as well as the story of his plane being shot down in World War II, killing his crewmates, an experience that haunted him for the rest of his life. Also, I was glad to read again the letter he wrote to his mother about his home's need for a little girl to balance out the four rowdy boys he and Barbara had, written, of course, in reference to losing his three-year-old daughter to leukemia. (They did have a daughter, Doro, after those four boys.) The entries I found the best were the charming ones he penned after leaving office, about babysitting his grandchildren and the like. I just loved the experience of reading through a great man's life in his own words, but not with the intention of ever being read by anyone but the recipient. It gives a full picture of a wonderful man, kind, tough, traditional, emotional, heroic, and funny. I highly recommend it. My rating: 5 stars.

In January I also read:

The third in the Vanderbeekers series, The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue, was as good as the first two. In this installment, the five Vanderbeeker kids and their friends had to find a way to save their mother's baking business while also solving the mystery of who keeps dropping orphaned animals on their front stoop. My rating: 3 stars.

 

This book of poetry truly exhausted me. I picked up Arias with apprehension because Sharon Old's last book of poems was so nasty I wasn't sure I'd ever pick up another book by her. This one wasn't bad, but it really felt repetitive. So many of the poems were about her mother beating her with a hairbrush years ago. She's obviously trying to work through some things, but it was emotionally exhausting. My rating: 2 stars.

 

I finally got around to Eric Metaxas's Bonhoeffer this year. I listened to it on CD, and I'm glad I did. I would have abandoned it in print form. It is a very thorough biography of German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his death at the hands of the Nazis. It's obvious that Metaxas idolizes the man, but I just don't have a lot of time for theology. Theology is man studying God, and it always ends up being completely material, not spiritual. I didn't care much for the book, though it was well-written. My rating: 3 stars.

 

I picked up Richard Russo's memoir, Elsewhere, on audio in December and abandoned it. But when my January audio holds didn't come in, I was forced to finish it. This is Russo's (he wrote Empire Falls) memoir about growing up with his mother, who seems to have mental health issues. I didn't care for this book very much for the sole reason that it seemed Russo was capitalizing on his mother's mental problems for his gain. It felt exploitative and unloving. My rating: 3 stars.

 

Oh my goodness, would someone please stop me from buying any more Rachel Hollis books? Please? I read her Girl, Wash Your Face last year, and I didn't care much for it. (Can't explain why my rating was so high.) I even put it on my Stinkers list. But then I went right back out and bought her next book, Girl, Stop Apologizing. Hollis and I have nothing in common, and regardless of what she thinks, I do not want to be her. One thing pretty much sums up Hollis and her priorities: she has a tattoo of the word "mogul" on her person. While she has some good advice, I just cannot deal with her. My rating: 3 stars.

 

 

Jacqueline Woodson's Red at the Bone, was a short, good read. I listened on audio, which was a fabulous performance. Someday I might like to read the book, though, because I feel that I missed something hearing it so fast. It's the story of three generations of black family and explores teenage pregnancy, motherhood, what it means to be a woman/man/family. I didn't care much for the lesbian plot plunked in; it seemed careless and out of place, pandering. This is a book I could see being discussed in literature classes. Woodson is very good at what she does. My rating: 4 stars.

 

 

I finished listening to The Night Diary for the same reason I finished Elsewhere, I didn't have any other audiobooks at home. This is a children's book about the years when India breaks from British rule and splits into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Twelve-year-old Nisha is half-Muslim, half-Hindu, and the adults won't tell her why she must move to Pakistan. There seems to be a lot of danger, but I couldn't figure out why. Perhaps I missed something. The book is written as Nisha's letters to her deceased mother, and it's well written. It's the kind of book honor committees love (it won the 2019 Newbery Honor), but I'm not sure it would have a whole lot of appeal to most children. My rating: 3 stars.

 

I've always liked Nikki Haley. She came on the scene as the tough and sometimes outspoken governor of South Carolina and went on to become US ambassador to the United Nations for the Trump administration. Her book about those years in office, With All Due Respect, takes its title from a statement she made to FNC's Dana Perino when someone in the Trump administration threw her under the political bus calling her confused. She told Perino that all she had to say on that matter was: With all due respect, I don't get confused. I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't quite as good as I was hoping. She sounded too much like a politician when she talked about the issues she faced such as removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds. I did find the look at how the UN works (or doesn't work, as the case may be) fascinating. My rating: 3 stars.

 

If you've read Sally Bedell Smith's wonderful biography of the Queen, Elizabeth the Queen, there may be no need to read Kate William's Young Elizabeth, as there isn't much here that wasn't covered in detail in the Smith book, but I still have to recommend this one. It's a very enjoyable read. It might be a tough fawning, but I really didn't mind. It was just a good, readable biography that I enjoyed very much. My rating: 4 stars.

I didn't finish Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here. In fact, I jumped ship pretty quickly after starting it. This just isn't a book for me, too much drama, and way too much swearing covering up for lazy character development.

Whew! I did it. And I kind of liked this format. Who knows, maybe I'll continue with it. Less time reviewing means more time reading!