The Best of 2018

Another good year of reading. I expect a spectacular year in 2019. Stay with me because this will be my tenth year of blogging about books. 

There were a lot of books that I wished that I had gotten to this year. Actually, I have a whole list, including Transcription, Virgil Wander, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, November Road, All the Lives We Never Lived, and Why Religion. I’ve got them all on my Kindle. I hope to start the new year with them and make January a big month. Join me on the journey.

So, anyway, here is my list for 2018.

Best Book of the Year

The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Nobody does narrative nonfiction better than the ever-curious Susan Orlean.

Literary

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Many smoldering fires in a brilliantly written book.

White Houses by Amy Bloom. Everything we didn’t know about Eleanor Roosevelt.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Historical fiction at its best.

French Exit by Patrick deWitt. Absurdist comedy.

Picture Books

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy. Praise for everything RBG.

Mysteries and Thrillers

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn was my first mystery of the year and probably the best.

The Third Hotel by Laura ven den Berg. Weird but highly effective.

Audio (Miriam and Sci Fi—can you believe it???)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Much better than the movie.

Science Fiction (Two sci fi in one year. Unheard of!)

Artemis by Andy Weir. A fascinating look at a colony on the Moon.

Nonfiction

Milk by Mark Kurlansky. Everything you wanted to know on the topic—and more. Great narrative nonfiction.

Super Hero Ethics by Travis Smith. This is not an important book, but a really fun read.

Spiritual

You are Not Alone by Debbie Augenthaler. A book to pass on to a grieving friend.

Brother John: A Monk, A Pilgrim, and the Purpose of Life by August Turak. A beautifully illustrated look at the spiritual life.

Memoir

Educated by Tara Westover. A stunning look at the power of education and persistence.

Best Titled (maybe not the best book, but a great title)

The Little Old Lady Behaving Badly by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg. My little granddaughter loved to call me “the little old lady behaving badly.”

Important but Disliked (Can there be such a category)

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.  I knew I was reading an important topic but I felt manipulated.

Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food

By Ann Hood

W.W. Norton     2018

256 pages     Essays

Why is it that sometimes you just need a book that you can read without fuss or anxiety or excitement—just a book that comforts. Ann Hood’s Kitchen Yarns is just that. I began this book of personal essays just before I started preparations for Christmas, and it made me look again at the food I was cooking with an eye toward why I was cooking it. Why do I always want wild rice casserole and frozen yum yum for Christmas dinner? Because there is a story behind each of those dishes.

In Kitchen Yarns, Hood does exactly that. She tells the story of her life—from her happy childhood, through failed marriages, the death of her brother, and then of her young child,  Grace, until her current happy marriage and her career as an author. Each essay, each story is told through the lens of a dish or a meal. She understands the power of a good meal and the power of a good story. The reviewer in People Magazine says, “perfect holiday-season fare. . .you’ll want to keep both kitchen and Kleenex close at hand.”  

The stories brought me peace, because I also believe that meals, properly prepared or even just thrown together, bind us, inspire us, and comfort us. Hood says, “I always believed in food as the greatest comfort. Food can’t heal, but it can soothe and comfort us. “ I am leaving on Tuesday to go to the funeral of the 104-year-old mother of my oldest friend. Of course, my friend and her siblings are planning meals for guests that will warm their hearts and their souls.

This is the major gift of Ann Hood’s book—food and the joy that it brings. But—the recipes are good too. True to Hood’s style, the recipes are, for the most part, uncomplicated, filling, delightful. I really want to try the tomato pie and the Chicken Marbella. The Kirkus reviewer suggests that some of the recipes are marginal, but I think that is part of the value of the book. Some of our best food memories are of the memory rather than the food.

Ann Hood speaks my language. I first met her when I read, The Book that Matters Most a couple of years ago. I came to realize that Hood fashioned the character Maggie after her own struggles following a divorce. You will really enjoy both of these books.

Ann Hood’s website.

Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication.

By Oren Jay Sofer

Shambhala     2018

284 pages     Spiritual

The Shortlist

Here is a brief summary of Say What You Mean by Oren Sofer.

We spend so much of our lives talking to each other, but how much are we simply running on automatic—relying on old habits and hoping for the best? Are we able to truly hear others and speak our mind in a clear and kind way, without needing to get defensive or go on the attack? In this groundbreaking synthesis of mindfulness, somatics, and Nonviolent Communication, Oren Jay Sofer offers simple yet powerful practices to develop healthy, effective, and satisfying ways of communicating in his book Say What You Mean. 

Sofer is a teacher of meditation and Nonviolent Communications in both Buddhist and secular contexts. His advice is sound and the techniques he prescribes can help everyone engaged in meaningful conversation.  He suggests that there are three steps to creating skillful communication. At the outset, they seem simple enough: lead with presence, come from curiosity and care; and focus on what matters. Each section of the book focuses on one step with the last section of the book fitting everything together. There are practices within each section, and I found myself underlining a lot of great information and helpful guidance.

The techniques he suggests include feeling confident during conversation; staying focused on what really matters in an interaction; listening for the authentic concerns behind what others say; reducing anxiety before and during difficult conversations; and finding nourishment in day-to-day interactions.

 

As I was looking over the book, I was thinking about a family member who has trouble expressing what he is feeling. Much of what he expresses are his current frustrations, and it takes a while to sit with him and get to the heart of the matter. Yet, when one listens closely, his love, care, and worry come out, and the conversational partner is able to discuss the important things. When I talk with him, I am listening for the authentic concerns behind what he is saying.

I hate chit-chat, primarily because I am no good at it, and I hate meet-ups and parties where it is all about chit-chat. Say What You Means offers sound advice on talking about what really matters.

I was privileged to read an advance copy sent by the publicist. Out today, Saw What You Mean is mindfulness in action.

Oren Sofer’s website.

The Feral Detective

By Jonathan Lethem

Ecco     2018

336 pages     Literary?

OK, so I am way confused. What did I just finish reading? The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem. Was it a mystery? Was it dystopia? Was it political? Was it a love story? Four days after finishing it, and I am still not sure. I read it because it was on a bunch of lists and also because I had just finished Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult, and I thought I was going to read something lighter. WRONG!!!

Here’s a quick synopsis of the book.  Phoebe Siegler, a consummate New Yorker, travels to the Mojave Desert in search of Arabella, a friend’s missing daughter and an 18-year-old dropout of Reed College. She hires hirsute Charles Heist, the “feral detective,” who lives with three dogs and an opossum. Quickly falling for his woodsy charms, Phoebe travels with Heist to the far reaches of the desert, where the mostly female Rabbit group is engaged in a long standoff with the male Bear group. To save Arabella, Heist will have to do battle with the charismatic Bear leader, called Solitary Love, as Phoebe learns to question her assumptions here on “the far side of the Neoliberal Dream.” 

There is a lot of questioning of life after Trump. (The book was written right after the election.) The Publisher Weekly reviewer suggests that “The novel feels like it was written as a kind of therapy in the aftermath of the 2016 election” but the election references scarcely engage the reader--like just more of the weirdness of the plot and the characters. By the same token, there are a lot of references to Leonard Cohen, in very reverential tones. Why bring Leonard Cohen into this mess?

Phoebe is a ditzy character, sometimes entertaining, but mostly an enigma. Why in the world is she here—a New York girl in the Mohave desert. Ostensibly she is there to find her friend’s daughter, Arabella, who has disappeared. Phoebe is here because she quit her journalism job in disgust after the 2016 election. She is not someone that the average reader can identify with—well, with the exception of the Trump stuff! But then neither is Charles Heist, the private investigator she hires to help her look for Arabella. Ditz that she is, she immediately falls in love with Heist, so when she loses him in the desert, we are not sure who she is now looking for—Arabella or Heist. The plot is disjointed and crazy.

The best part of the novel are some of the written descriptions. All the settings in the book are very elegantly written. The reader can visualize exactly where the characters are at any given moment. They are perhaps too eloquent for the crazy plot. As the New York Times reviewer says, “There’s a good book lurking in this material. The plot is shaggy and complicated; so much so that even the author loses interest in it.” Here is a sample quote to illustrate what I mean.  Laird and Phoebe have just left the highway to head out into the desert. “We were hardly the first to go here, though the marks on this Etch A Sketch surface grew directionless and baroque. The joyriding treads inscribed grooves on the planet, suggesting the possibility of a tire-based language with communication with drones or satellites above, for beaming meaning back at passing contrails.”

I knew the name Jonathan Lethem, although I had never read any of his books. Most reviewers complained that this was a poor representation of the author. Part of me is curious to see if that is the case, but on the other hand, I really don’t think I want to attempt any more.

When I was two, my post-war Marine father was stationed in the Mohave Desert dismantling the Marine war machine. I lived there for one year. When I was in my 50s I went back to the desert to see if I could find where I lived as a toddler. Found the base, but the Quonset huts had been replaced by nice condos. You know what, after The Feral Detective, I have no desire to return.