December in Review

I don't know how I managed to read so much with all the holiday obligations. I can only ascribe my success to online shopping and minimal decorating. And sheer laziness.

A friend recommended This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, saying it was the best academic work of the year, and she may be right. In an age where making your name as an intellectual seems to involve creating obscure and/or incredulous spins on the staples of history, Drew Gilpin Faust comes up with a really smart and obvious discussion AND a really accessible doorway for readers: death. The work is structured simply, each chapter devoted to different aspects of dealing with death on such a spectacular and national scale, and the reader learns about the process of dying, killing, burying, numbering, etc. It's not a "pick a side" approach, and Faust uses numerous examples from primary resources on both sides of the conflict. I honestly just wish it had been longer, because she presented a number of topics that I would have welcomed tangents with interesting tidbits. I got another Drew Gilpin Faust book for Christmas, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, and I'm hoping it's as good.

After Into the Wild, I decided I really should read Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer's account of the disastrous 1996 climbing season on Mount Everest. It was just as enjoyable as his other work, but with a personal story to tell, he didn't spend as much time delving into background material and logistics as he usually does, which is where I learn the most. In short, I wish there'd been more history on the attempts to climb Everest, more details on Sherpa culture, and more discussion of the logistics involved in making a climb possible. However, in all fairness, I have to acknowledge that wasn't the story he set out to tell.

A friend loaned us The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a glorious story by Kate DiCamillo. As one of us was coming down with bronchitis and the other was recovering, I spent a rainy December Saturday on the living room futon reading it aloud. Edward Tulane is an elegant, but exceedingly pompous, china rabbit. He thinks very highly of himself, but devotes little of his cold china heart to thinking of others, until he is lost and separated from the little girl who adores him. Through a string of adventures, in the typical fashion of children's classics, Edward Tulane learns that love is not just about being loved, but also loving. My only wish was to know more about the lives that Edward passed through after he moved on, but I suppose that's also part of love - parting and perhaps never knowing the fate of someone you cared for or someone who cared for you.

I had a hard time polishing off Tasha Alexander's And Only to Deceive, but perhaps that's because I love Deanna Raybourn and her Lady Julia Grey series accomplishes everything Alexander attempts to do, only better. Victorian lady seeks solution to mysterious death of husband, etc., but Alexander's heroine was a bit stiff and self-righteous. The character postures too much, and the right had all the markings of a first novel that hasn't been scrubbed down - bits of it felt like writing workshop exercises. Meh....

Catherine O'Flynn's What Was Lost was a different story - a great first novel that won a Costa award. Still, I fear she may suffer from being stuffed into a genre cubbyhole, because it's not really a true mystery in some sense. Regardless, her writing was wonderful, her characters were colorful without being too quirky, and she created a fairly successful atmosphere and setting as well. I enjoyed the sarcastic and snippy tone of her writing - would compare it to Kate Atkinson actually. I'll be on the lookout for her next effort.

I can't say enough good things about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Barrows and Annie Shaffer) or enough bad things about the title - it's quirky, but just too darn cumbersome! The book was wonderful, one of those books that I keep picking up and putting down because some subconscious part of my mind wants to prevent me from gobbling the whole thing up. It's all the good things the reviews say - warm, friendly, funny, touching and just perfect. Most of all, it's a book for people who truly love books, who understand how books can lift and inspire and serve as lights in dark places. With such a gloomy outlook in the world these days, I was so happy to read about goodness, friendship, survival and all the things that really matter. I can only hope that there will be sequels and other adventures for this motley cast of folks brought together by their love of books.

And finally, in a little afterthought, I picked up one of my mother's books that I've been toting around for 20 years but never read - A Bit of Christmas Whimsy by David Edman. It's nice, a little O'Henry-ish, what with the city setting, the "common" people, etc., and although the twist ending isn't much of a twist in today's world, it was a nice story about how things tend to work themselves out, regardless of our mucking about in them. Just what you'd expect of a little holiday novella, but I'm glad it's stuck with me through various moves and book weeds.

And now, off to finish a January book!

Warmth Returneth!

Heat arrived in our house for New Year's, after having taken its leave around Christmas, and if the old adage of my surrogate grandmother that what you do on New Year's day, you'll do all year holds true, I'm in for a good time. Personally, I think this was meant to discourage post-holiday/pre-return to school squabbling in children and excessive drinking in adults. (Who wants to spend the whole year arguing over a supply of AA batteries or hungover?) Anyway, I hope she was right! I spent the morning fussing over the stove (and she was right, because that's normally how I seem to spend a good bit of my year), but I spent the afternoon wrapped in a quilt, toasting my feet in front of a sturdy little flame, reading quietly and steadily through a really good novel. So, here's to doing all year what you did on New Year's day!