Summer Reads 2022
June 17, 2022
Amy Mair of Red Fern Books Podcast and I recently sat down (in person this time) for our second annual Summer Reads tie-in. Read the highlights below and then listen to more in our conversation over here.
If Amy managed to execute some editing wizardry, you will miss out on an epic coughing fit as this guest-of-the-week almost combusted. Mic-off is a safer bet for (hack, hack) this gal. Otherwise, we had a really fun chat!
These six books are chosen with an eye to variety across eras and themes. My hope is that we’ll all get a fresh glimpse into new worlds through these pages and be inspired and entertained along the way. Now just add some sunny weather, a cool drink, and uninterrupted time to read!
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
By the time this blogpost/podcast hits the airwaves I have no doubt you’ll be very familiar with this choice. Lessons in Chemistry has spent all of its young life on the bestseller and recommended lists, far and wide, unanimously celebrated. Bonnie Garmus is a debut author (at 65 years old) whose story was picked up for publication in 35 countries – impressive! If you liked Eleanor and Bernadette of Eleanor Oliphant or Where’d You Go Bernadette? you’ll most certainly enjoy Elizabeth Zott of Lessons in Chemistry. Despite her quirky outspokenness and her identity as an advanced scientific researcher, Elizabeth becomes a reluctant TV cooking show personality of the early 1960s. You’ll delight in plenty of chuckles but there’s surprising poignancy and social commentary and personal growth in the story as well. Elizabeth has a charming supporting cast of characters including a very special dog. This is a great summer read – any time of the year!
You Had Me at Pet-Nat – A Natural Wine-soaked Memoir by Rachel Signer
I’m sure you may wonder at times how I narrow down my book choices, especially when the selection may be a little bit off the radar as this one appears to be. In this case, it was simple, I encountered the paragraph below and was had. I don’t think I can really improve upon it so I’m sharing!
“It was Rachel Signer’s dream to be that girl: the one smoking hand-rolled cigarettes out the windows of her 19th-century Parisian studio apartment, wearing second-hand Isabel Marant jeans and sipping a glass of Beaujolais redolent of crushed roses with a touch of horse mane. Instead she was an under-appreciated freelance journalist and waitress in New York City, frustrated at always being broke and completely miserable in love. When she tastes her first pétillant-naturel (pét-nat for short), a type of natural wine made with no additives or chemicals, it sets her on a journey of self-discovery, both deeply personal and professional, that leads her to Paris, Italy, Spain, Georgia, and finally deep into the wilds of South Australia and which forces her, in the face of her “Wildman,” to ask herself the hard question: can she really handle the unconventional life she claims she wants?” (Hachette) Cheers!
Letters To a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us by Colleen Kinder
If you’re a regular reader of Bedside Table Books, you’ll know that I’ve been singing the praises of essay collections as a way to re-boot one’s reading or to embrace variety. I recently stumbled upon two terrific pieces of writing, independent of one another, and discovered that by chance they were both selections in this Letters to a Stranger collection. I knew instantly that the connecting themes of brief encounters/missed connections/moments of shared humanity would be perfect for deep Summer sighing and if these two examples were any indication, the reading would all be excellent. 65 great writers have shared their experiences with strangers – you’ll encounter names like Maggie Shipstead, Lauren Groff, Pico Iyer … Can’t wait to savour this collection!
We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama
Another debut receiving a lot of positive attention, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies is a multi-generational saga which begins in Chinese occupied Tibet of the late 1950s and follows a family’s refugee experience through to modern-day Toronto. Family connections impacted by displacement, threatened cultural identity, and the haunting of harsh experiences are the basis of this compelling story. While author Tsering Yangzom Lama was born and raised in Nepal, she has strong ties to Vancouver and a BA in Creative Writing & International Relations from UBC. She followed that up with an MFA (Columbia) These descriptives taken from a wide array of blurbs are pretty convincing that this is some very fine writing: “achingly beautiful” “symphonic” “transcendent” “a marvel” and “magnificently textured”. Wow. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Carolina Built: A Novel by Kianna Alexander
There is a particular delight in the discovery of a story that has been hiding away in the archives just waiting to be celebrated. Thanks to Kianna Alexander’s writerly curiosity, we are now able to enjoy a story inspired by one remarkable Josephine N. Leary. Leary was a freed black woman, born into slavery on a Southern Plantation in the 1800s. As a wife, mother, and entrepreneur, she overcame an incredible number of challenges but used her savvy financial management and investment skills to build an impressive real estate empire. A feat at anytime but particularly in the early 1900s. Kianna Alexander researched deeply into her fellow North Carolina native’s story and the result is this exciting new novel, based on Leary’s life.
I really don’t need to say much more than “Geraldine Brooks” to flag this one. Brooks has several hugely successful and popular reads under her belt and each one is a unique and fascinating tale based on extraordinary research. Think: Year of Wonders (worth re-visiting with present day pandemic context), Caleb’s Crossing, March, and People of the Book among others. Horse, released June 14th, 2022, grows out of more impeccable research, and links three stories through different eras all tied to the famous race horse “Lexington”. “A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.” (Goodreads) As she has in previous novels, the author has provided a fascinating Afterword. Don’t skip those pages!
A New Year
January 30, 2022
Is it? Still? A new year? I’m hanging on to the “new” in New Year and its associated sense of optimism and hope for as long as I can!
Gemma Correll‘s illustration, “Is this the most January January ever?”, made me laugh. There definitely seems to be a general malaise afoot as 2022 gets rolling. Conversations I’ve had with fellow readers have reflected this. Due to the mood, there is a prevalent sense of disappointment &/or frustration from an inability to focus on reading with the ease we have in the past. I’ve felt it too. I admire those who have been able to embrace a Pandemic pause in their lives to devour bigger books and more pages than ever. My books-per-month count may be way down but I have found a new appreciation for essays and short stories. It seems writers and publishers have as well – there are so many new collections on the shelves and more to come. If you’re struggling with getting into a novel, why not dip a toe into a book of essays or stories? There are many genres but here are a few that may lighten the mood or distract you with intriguing thoughts.
I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott – Sometimes when all the news articles seem to be too much one needs a little escape. This collection from a charming, self-professed Type A-overthinker, abounds with humour and poignancy. Philpott writes self-deprecatingly but honestly and often with a wink. Marriage, parenthood, big life moments, and more importantly, the little moments all feature.
The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken – I’ve yet to read McCracken’s work but feel strongly pulled to dive in. She is the only reader Ann Patchett apparently trusts for input on a manuscript. Now that’s an endorsement for having an understanding of words! “With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires—for intimacy, atonement, comfort—bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed—and so do her readers.“
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay – “A volume of lyric essays” in which poet Ross Gay shares “a daily essay about something delightful – an essayette” . The Crow’s Ablutions, and Flowers in the Hands of Statues, Loitering, and The Sanctity of Trains just a few titles among the 102 included here. Plenty of quick little reads to make you pause with a gentle hmmmm or a giggle. Truly delightful. Perhaps this will serve as inspiration to slow our pace and notice the delights we encounter in our own days.
Midlife Bites: Anyone Else Falling Apart or Is It Just Me? by Jen Mann – Jen Mann is a popular blogger, known for writing with humour about home life with kids and the crazy-making expectations that bombard us. Her epic “Overachieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies” rant went wildly viral and gathered her a fervent following among the more “realistic” mom-set. Now Jen has taken her truth telling to the mid-life crisis and her wry humour is hitting a nerve yet again. “I inhaled this book in one sitting; it’s a must-read for anyone over forty. This should become the gift all girlfriends give one another.”—Zibby Owens, host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books
Binge: 60 Stories to Make your Brain Feel Different by Douglas Coupland – Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had something from this creative thinking icon. I’m intrigued by the title alone and look forward to giving this a try. “The characters, of course, are Doug’s own: crackpots, cranks and sweetie-pies, dad dancers and perpetrators of carbecues. People in the grip of unconscionable urges; lonely people; dying people; silly people. If you love Doug’s fiction, this collection is like rain on the desert.” (goodreads)
The Joy of Small Things by Hannah Jane Parkinson – Happy focused vignettes by a young English writer on topics as wide-ranging as Finding Lost Things, Fonts, Pockets, The Smell of Wood and Being Inside When its Raining. Many of these pieces appeared in her very popular column in the Guardian newspaper. Hard to decide whether to fly through them all in one sitting or dole out just a few deep sigh worthy moments at a time.
The Most of Nora Ephron – Our beloved Nora wrote some of the most enjoyable, funny, challenging, and poignant essays of our time. Two collections, I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing are included in this recently released compilation of ALL of Nora’s writings. Screenplays, novels, essays, blogposts … they are all here in one “most” impressive collection. “Readers will admire their literary heroine even more when … they discover, or are reminded, of the brave positions she took, and of how far her preoccupations and her writing ranged.” —Francine Prose, The New York Review of Books
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett – I read this lovely collection over the holidays; it was a favourite gift. Ann always inspires with her way of seeing the world and some of these essays will remain with me always. A great thing about essays is that they are more easily re-readable. I can see keeping this on a nearby shelf and re-visiting on down the road and finding new gems that emerge with the passing of time and a change in perspective. Highly recommend.
