Reading

Mr Ives’ Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos

/ Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★☆ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A painful book for me to read — the story of a father losing his 17-year-old son. Mr. Ives – a religious and kind family man – spends the remainder of his life grieving.  He relationship with the love of his life withers, he takes no more joy is in existence, he loses faith in God.  Some 35 years after his son is murdered, he regains some of his faith through dreams, travel and forgiveness of his son’s killer.  It’s a dark, melancholy book. I worried for myself as I watched Mr. Ives grieve over the decades following the loss of his son.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel

/ Reading, Science Fiction

★★★★☆ | Science Fiction | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I enjoyed the writing of this story more than I expected to. I guess I have a weakness for time travel and Universe as Simulation books.

A key theme of the book was the powerful but morally corrupt Time Institute — a secret government agency that developed and used time travel technology to preserve itself without regard for the moral good it could do. The main protagonist joins the agency and uses time travel to safe a life which gets him in huge trouble.

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Grieving Dad by Mark Seidman

/ Psychology, Reading

★★★★☆ | Psychology, Grief and Loss | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A boating friend gifted me this book after he learned about Connor’s passing. The author’s 26-year-old son died in a climbing accident.  He wrote the book as therapy for himself and as a way to help other dads who have lost a child.

The most important takeaway is something I already knew but was good to be reminded: if Connor could somehow communicate with me from the other side, he would tell me to heal up and find a way to be happy again.  He would want me to miss him of course, but he wouldn’t want me to give up living.  I know that is true.

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

/ Fantasy, Reading

★★★★☆ | Fantasy | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

An interesting book.  After you die, you go to a city where you live so long as someone remembers you from the living world.  At this city, life seems to go on as it did on Earth.  People work, go out to eat, read books, complain about “life”, and all the while seem not to be amazed at this life after death.

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Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

/ Mystery-Suspense, Reading

★★★★☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I can’t remember the last 300+ page book I read in nearly a single sitting. What a terrific story, so well told.  So many tie ins to my life: Mallory the protagonist, 18 months sober, the early death of her sister in a car accident.

Books like these remind me of the true joy that comes from reading a good story.  I’d give it five stars but for the zany, frumped up ending.  This story demanded a simpler, more elegant way to finish such a smooth, entrancing beginning and middle.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

/ ★★★★★, Literary Fiction, Reading

★★★★★ | Literary Fiction | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I enjoyed this book so much more than I expected.  Perhaps it’s the grief I have been feeling that has opened up new emotional channels.  I found myself tearing up at multiple points in reading this book.  I really cared for the characters: Lily, August, May, Rosaleen, these beautiful, wise women.

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Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

/ Mystery-Suspense, Reading

★★★☆☆ | Mystery-Suspense | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads

A ghost story with two sets of twins and a few surprising twists that I didn’t see coming (but should have).  Niffenegger lost points with her depiction of Valentina’s parents (including Elspeth!) with their lack of grieving and too-easily-accepted death of their daughter.  Obviously she’s never dealt personally with the loss of a child.

Julia had never thought of death as something that would happen to her, or to people she knew. All those people in the cemetery were just stones, names, dates. Loving Mother. Devoted Husband. Elspeth was a parlour trick; she had never been really real to Julia. Valentina is in that box. It couldn’t be true. 

This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers

/ Psychology, Reading

★★★☆☆ | Psychology | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

Susan worked with Prince as sound engineer — how cool is that? Probably the most insightful thing I learned from the book wasn’t about music, but art. She described how and why the surreal art movement came to exist: as photography was invented, artists were suddenly disrupted.  A photograph would always be more realistic than a painting.  Surreal art allows the perceiver to fill in the meaning of the art from their own subconscious, a whole different part of the brain.

Reading the book made me want to dive back into listening to albums again.

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