Well, this was a lovely discovery! Kitchen was in a stack of books given to me very randomly by a friend who moved away a couple of years ago and did a big purge. She has great taste, but also loves to buy books, so I’m finding it all a little hit and miss. I wish I had picked this up the day my friend gave it to me. It is incredibly, beautifully written, so also I must give due credit to the translator, because […]
What if she doesn’t want to remember?
You know how sometimes you keep trying to read a book, but you aren’t feeling it so you put it down indefinitely and then when you pick it up again, you can’t believe how much action there is and you just plow through the end as if you’d never put it down? Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God was like that for it. It’s the first book I started reading in 2017, and one of the last that I finished. I don’t think I read a […]
Not A Thing To Be Fixed
Best for: Those who are grieving, or those who want to be better prepared to support those who are grieving. In a nutshell: People who are grieving deserve better than what society offers them. This book attempts to provide some direction towards that. Line that sticks with me: “We have to be able to see what’s true without fear of being seen as weak, damaged, or somehow failing the cultural storyline.” (p 54). Why I chose it: Ms. Devine spoke at an event I attended […]
Widow author and bad boy rock star – the book is really good!
Kate Mosely is a widow living alone and rather lonely in the little town of Crowell, Montana. She more or less runs the local newspaper she inherited from her father (with help from his old business partner), but her small claim to fame is writing a novel that’s become a bestseller, much thanks to her persistent and aggressive literary agent, Stephen. Now, hoping to create more buzz for the book, as well as spurring Kate into writing a second novel, he’s booked her on several […]
“Stories are the wildest thing of all, the monster rumbled. Stories chase and bite and hunt.
Pretty much every night, Conor wakes up screaming from the same nightmare. So when the monster shows up in his garden, just after midnight, he’s not as scared as you may have thought that he’d be. After all, he deals with some pretty unpleasant things on a daily basis. The bullies who pick on him in school. The fact that he seems to be falling out with his only friend. The teachers either ignoring him or being overly understanding and solicitous. His father, who seems […]
Dying Is Just A Verb
Best for: Someone who wants to provoke (a bit of) deeper thinking on the ways we live our lives. In a nutshell: A hospice chaplain uses stories from families and individuals she has assisted to make sense of life. Line that sticks with me: “The things you lose do shape who you become. But the losses don’t obliterate what came before.” Why I Chose It: This was an impulse buy only in that it was on my list and I didn’t yet own it. I […]