The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

4/5 stars

What's it about? A heart-wrenching meditation on grief, loss, and marriage, Didion lays bare the aftermath of her husband's sudden passing and her daughter's long illness. Sparse and unforgettable.

How’d I find it? My spouse, a devout Didion fan, lent his copy. This is a book he gives regularly to bereaved loved ones.

Who will enjoy this book? There is no one quite like Joan Didion, but for those seeking similar subject matter, try Kat Chow's Seeing Ghosts. If you want to recreate the general feel of the book, try poet Ada Limón's The Carrying.

What stood out? The sheer intimacy of this book is astounding. I mourned John as I read. After finishing the last page and dabbing my eyes, I happened to notice that the letters for "John" are in a different color within the title on the cover. The crying resumed.

Which line made me feel something? The bursts of repetition broke me. "You're safe. I'm here." "You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends." These recall the larger shared life between Didion and Dunne, making his loss all the more poignant.

Upstream by Mary Oliver

4/5 stars

What's it about? In this collection of selected essays, Mary Oliver offers insight into her life as a reader, writer, and human. Though most of the book focuses on nature and gratitude, a section devoted to literary criticism muses on Whitman, Wordsworth, Poe, and Emerson.

How’d I find it? My spouse received this is a Christmas gift and kindly let me read it first.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Walt Whitman, Annie Dillard, Ross Gay, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s World of Wonders

What stood out? Essays written by poets offer a buffet of language and sentiment, and Upstream is no exception. Oliver’s love for the world is potent and infectious; after sitting with this book, you’ll want to go for a walk. I find a current of sadness that runs beneath Oliver’s measured glimpses of her own life, but this makes the simple joys she describes, such as observing a resident spider feed, all the more special. The writing can be precious at times (think 2013’s Dog Songs), but the overall warmth of the reading experience makes those moments easy to overlook.

Which line made me feel something? “Once I put my face against the body of our cat as she lay with her kittens, and she did not seem to mind. So I pursed my lips against that full moon, and I tasted the rich river of her body.” Did…Mary Oliver admit to suckling a cat?

French Braid by Anne Tyler

3/5 stars

What's it about? The loosely knit Garrett family appears to be a pack of lone wolves, but their ties persist through generations. The novel centers around Mercy, Robin, and their three children, and ripples out to new characters as the family grows. Each chapter is an intimate snapshot of one Garrett descendant that expertly paints a vivid portrait of the family as a whole. A leisurely read that satisfies.

How’d I find it? This was a Christmas gift that I’ve been longing to crack open.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of family dramas à la Ann Patchett or Damon Galgut's The Promise and those seeking an easy, well-written novel.

What stood out? Anne Tyler writes people so expertly, and her portrayal of families is honest and relatable. As a resident of the DMV, I also appreciate the nods to East Coast culture (particularly the local accents). The chapters read like standalone novellas, which helps the novel move along at a clip. I was never bored.

Which line made me feel something? The sarcasm and know-it-all demeanor of Alice, Mercy and Robin's eldest daughter, provides entertaining passive-aggressive interludes. These were my favorite bursts of humor in the novel.

True Crime Story by Joseph Knox

1/5 stars

How’d I find it? An aunt passed along this copy, not remembering what it was about.

Why not 3 or more stars? Once I realized that this was not, in fact, a true crime story, I could no longer overlook the odd cobbling and unvaried nature of the interview "transcripts" that make up the bulk of the book. The ending left me quite baffled.

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? On publication day, I marched myself over to Solid State Books and got myself a signed copy.

Why not 3 or more stars? It pains me to give this book anything less than four stars, especially because I love (LOVE) The Passage trilogy fiercely. These reluctant two stars have nothing to do with the story driving The Ferryman. The tensions between Prospera and the Annex build deliciously, and our time in the Nursery marks the beginning of an unexpected new twist in the plot. Ambitious and exciting to read. Seriously, no notes. This has the trappings of good sci-fi.

But the writing. It doesn't rise to the challenge set by the story. Expect precious, a surface-level treatment, archetype as character. "I am Proctor Bennett." Expect lots (and lots) of telling. The figurative remains cookie cutter, uncomplicated. Was The Passage the same? I can't remember. Either way, unlike The Passage, this one might fare better when it's adapted for the screen. It could use a little more magic.

Ghostways: Two Journeys in Unquiet Places by Robert Macfarlane

4/5 stars

What's it about? An exploration of two spaces that unsettle and lure the spirit: a strip of land off the coast of England that hosted nuclear tests and a forgotten valley thoroughfare. In "Ness," Macfarlane fashions a harrowing tale of encroachment, while "Holloway" chronicles friends as they hunt for a passage using instructions from a novel.

How’d I find it? I selected this book during a weekend browse at Bridge Street Books.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Roger Deakin, Leanne Shapton, and Rob Cowen's Common Ground

What stood out? The writing is poetic and textured, and the lovely use of illustration and white space allow the reader to soak in the language before moving to the next page of prose. While the two tales differ greatly ("Ness" is certainly more didactic), they complement each other and pair for a delightful read.

Which line made me feel something? From "Holloway:" "...the landscape's pasts felt excitingly alive & coexistent, as if history had pleated back on itself"

Soft Science by Franny Choi

4/5 stars

What's it about? The collection explores the tension between human and human-made, between strength and weakness, control and abandon. Choi's language is rich and intoxicating, a dessert that you finish over several sittings.

How’d I find it? This was a solid birthday gift from my love.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of contemporary American poets (Hanif Abdurraqib, torrin a. greathouse, Sally Wen Mao, etc.)

What stood out? "Perihelion: A History of Touch" is a standout piece, taking the titles of its various subsections from full moons in the Farmer's Almanac. I am personally skeptical of most books where the word "wound" is used on the first page, as it typically means I'm in store for a book-length exploration of identity — not always the reading experience I'm going for. The craftsmanship of Soft Science makes the appearance of "wound" twice on the first page forgivable. I'm telling you, this is high praise.

Which line made me feel something? There were so many. An example from "A Brief History of Cyborgs:" "Even blood, when it comes down to it, is only a series of rules."

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

5/5 stars

What's it about? Maggie Nelson plumbs the depths of her obsession with blue, of color itself, and of grief over a lost love in a knockout work that defies genre. The result is reflection rendered, a meditation of a book that succeeds in creating an immersive mood, a mind state.

How’d I find it? I was late to work, hustling down the sidewalk after finding a hard-fought parking space, and passed a Little Free Library. Well, I didn’t pass it at all. I found this.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, William Carlos Williams, and Emmanuel Carrère's Lives Other Than My Own

What stood out? What a book. A slice of brilliance that had just the desired effect: a tickle in the brain that had me mulling over the words like a worry stone. The numbered paragraphs (verses?) are peppered with references to works I want to read immediately.

Which line made me feel something? “...the blue of the sky depends on the darkness of empty space behind it. As one optics journal puts it, ‘The color of any planetary atmosphere viewed against the black of space and illuminated by a sunlike star will also be blue.’ In which case blue is something of an ecstatic accident produced by void and fire.”

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

3/5 stars

What's it about? The novel follows Lotto and Mathilde, a couple who marries young and impulsively, and explores intimacy, performance, and the experiences that shape us as individuals and partners. We view the relationship from each perspective, allowing the reader to revisit scenes with new information (usually one of Mathilde's many secrets).

How’d I find it? A mystery. I came to Lauren Groff through Florida and hearing her speak at AWP, and somehow acquired Fates and Furies in the intervening years.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Ann Patchett's The Dutch House (for the chapters covering Lotto's side) and Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (for Mathilde's), readers who enjoy relationship dramas with split perspectives (like An American Marriage by Tayari Jones)

What stood out? Come for the language! It's Lauren Groff, so the writing is candied with deliciousness and rippled with humor (see "Which line made me feel something?" below). The bracketed asides from an omniscient narrator offer lovely nuggets of wit and context. I also marveled at the excerpts from Lotto's plays within the novel and how deftly Groff inhabited her characters' creative spaces. I struggled with the thumbprint of misogyny in the novel; even when acknowledged, the treatment of women (both how they're treated and written) felt somewhat icky. It's perhaps for this reason that I found few of the characters or sex scenes believable.

Which line made me feel something? "She stretched her long arms over her head, and there were little nests of winter hair in the pits. She could hatch baby robins in those things."