January Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

*Note to first time readers: the following is a summary of a discussion by friends who gather monthly in a virtual space called Second Life. Reading notes are lightly edited reflections shared in real time via text chat.

Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved – by Marcia Bartusiak

Sierra shared that this is not a physics book per se…but more about the development of an idea. It isn’t just about the idea of what we call black holes now but really it is also about different cohorts of scientists over time.

This very interesting and enjoyable read got Sierra interested in more stuff about black holes and astrophysics kinds of topics.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Veyot read this mostly true story about an East Coast zoo sending two giraffes in a truck to a California zoo in 1938. The author learned about the trip while sorting through newspaper clippings when writing a book about the history of the San Diego Zoo. The book is partly funny and partly serious because the two truck drivers discuss life as they go – and are tailed by a suspicious news reporter. Veyot liked the book!

Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering compiled by Hal Cannon

FireWoman read this book of cowboy poetry from 1985. It was compiled from cowboy poets at a gathering in Utah. It’s compared to the work of Lomax gathering folklore in the 1930s. The poems are presented from oldest to newest. Some are long narratives of riding crazy-wild bulls or broncos…and cold winters and hot summers on the range.

The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston

FireWoman also read this new book, published posthumously. It was rescued by a neighbor who saw people burning things from Zora Neale Hurston’s travel trunk after she died. Some pages were missing, scorched or water damaged from the 400-page handwritten manuscript but Deborah G. Plant successfully restored it and had it published. FireWoman highly recommends this book. Hurston’s research into Herod tells a totally different story than the one told now.

Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell

Petronella has been reading her way through Thirkell’s novels which are set in the fictional site of Barsetshire, England and written between the wars and also during WWII. They are gentle social satire with strong emphasis on the women characters. Petronella said that Thirkell is a wonderful and funny writer, good to read before bed.

Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers by Jean Strouse

Petronella is also reading this history book. The problem she is finding with it is that Strouse describes Sargent’s paintings but there are only a few reproductions which makes her want to look up ALL the paintings. The Wertheimers were a fabulously wealth family going back several generations. Personally, Petronella would have preferred less family history and more art history.

Human Acts by Han Kang

Connie came across this book by coincidence, though it felt serendipitous. Over the past year, she’s become deeply fascinated by South Korean culture and language, and iscurrently studying Korean. Additionally, the author recently gained international recognition, having won the Nobel Prize.

This is a fictional story that takes us through the real-life 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea (and beyond), from the perspectives of different characters. By ‘from the perspectives,’ Connie means it literally—the narrative breaks conventional writing rules, switching between points of view and tenses. Yet, it works wonders.

Connie said that the author’s writing skills are terrific and that it goes well with Asian storytelling and folklore somehow.

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

This history of the notebook is sort of written like a memoir. In an author interview that Zoe listened to, the author said that he tried to choose a protagonist for each chapter, then told the story of the notebook through their experience of it. So one chapter might feature a mathematician, another a sea captain, another a nurse, etc. And lots of famous folks, too. Erasmus, Leonardo da Vince, etc. Zoe recommends this highly readable and informative book!

Our next gathering is January 9 at 1pm SLT.

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45

October/November Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

Here are the books that were shared at our October and November gatherings.

Beethoven: Biography of a Genius – by George R. Marek

This was FireWoman’s mother’s book. It’s a big one with small print – FireWoman said that she can read and read and read…and still have read only twenty pages. Beethoven is her favorite composer – and she discovered that he was her mother’s fave as well.

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

FireWoman heard about this book from her BFF. Goodreads recommends it for fans of The Midnight Library. It features a dangerous journey, magical landscape and the Trans-Siberian express. A young woman has lived on the train her whole life and new passengers are just getting on. FireWoman is looking forward to reading it.

Philosophy for Passengers by Michael Marder

Sierra shared that this is a book trying to tackle being a passenger as a philosophical thing…so it is kinda in the same set of books about philosophy of travel. She’s had a hard time getting engaged with it.

Why I Read: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser

Sierra said that this is in another category of books about books & reading…and that she honestly hasn’t given it enough of a chance yet.

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Rethinking Geopolitics by Jeremy Black

Sierra recently purchased these titles. Zoe read the Aoyama book and loved it!

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Fantasy Fiction/Occult Fiction. This is a book that is set in an alternate version of Earth where there are “muggle” humans and magical beings. A man named Linus is a caseworker who works for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He’s summoned by Extremely Upper Management to visit a unique orphanage.

So he visits this orphanage on a faraway island and discovers there are 6 children there who are far more magical than the orphans he’s used to seeing. One is a gnome, one is a sprite. There is a wyvern and a shapeshifter and some sort of blob. And – a six year old Lucifer, son of the Devil aka the antichrist.

So Linus is tasked with being there for a month, to see if the orphanage should remain open or be shut down. Zoe said it’s a cozy, heartwarming read.

Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore and Herb Craft by Ann Moura

FireWoman mentioned this title when Zoe shared about a recent National Geographic issue about witchcraft.

A set of books by Rudolfo Anaya: The Sonny Baca Novels: Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, Shaman Winter, and Jemez Spring

Magical realism. These are set in and around Alburquerque (the original way that it’s spelled). Includes shaman, dreams, shapeshifting – everything FireWoman likes to read. She said that storytelling is Anaya’s focus, and New Mexican history. The one thing that she initially found irritating in the style of writing is that Anaya repeats the same things several times. But then she remembered a Choctaw storyteller telling her that things to be remembered are repeated four times throughout the story.

FireWoman also recommends reading the books on a device so that the Spanish can be easily translated.

My Staggerford Journal and Days with Smoke: A Minnesota Boyhood – two books about Minnesota author Jon Hassler

Jon Hassler wrote My Staggerford Journal in 1975. It’s about his sabbatical year when he wrote his first book, Staggerford.

Days with Smoke is a collection of unpublished stories of Jon Hassler, edited by Will Weaver. Veyot commented that Weaver wrote Hassler’s stories in a way that was interesting to her. He repeated things and made the sentences shorter.

Sweet Land by Will Weaver

Inspired by her Hassler reads, Veyot read this collection of short stories. One of them was made into a movie. It’s about a Norwegian farmer who imported a German wife. His town didn’t accept her.

Another story was titled Sheet Rock. The wife in the story says that she knows all about sheet rock from watching This Old House with Bob Vila.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan

Veyot mentioned this one too and asked if anyone had read it. Zoe said it’s on her list and that it features snippets from Tan’s nature journal.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Irisse has been listening to the audiobook version of this classic novel from old England. She can relate a lot to the main character. She said it’s about inner healing and the healing of others. And bits of magical realism as well. Many of us agreed that The Secret Garden is a special book.

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Zoe is reading Klune’s unofficial “Kindness Trilogy”. It in includes House on the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door and The Lives of Puppets.

Under the Whispering Door is about a man named Wallace who is kind of a jerk. He dies in the first chapter. He attends his own funeral and is stunned to learn that others view him as a jerk – because that’s not how he saw himself. So Hugo, a tea shop owner and ferryman for the dead, tries to help Wallace with his transition. Wallace ends up finagling on week to reutrn to the living to try to live a different sort of life.

Zoe had only just started this novel so she’ll let everyone knows what she thinks at the next meeting.

Our next gathering is January 12 at 1pm SLT.

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45

September Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

*Note to first time readers: the following is a summary of a discussion by friends who gather monthly in a virtual space called Second Life. Book notes are lightly edited reflections shared in real time via text chat.

Based on a book that our friend Veyot read a few years ago, our Book Lovers Coffee Hour group started a roadside poetry project. We host a mailbox near the Reading Room where random passersby are invited to share an original poem.

In August, we received the following poem by Emm Evergarden.

 In the hush of a still room, books find me,
Their spine-tingling whispers call me home,
Through ink and paper, they draw my heart's plea,
Each page a pulse, a beat in this tome.

They find me when the world is loud,
In silent lines, I find my crowd,
Stories seek the depths of my mind,
Books find me, and in them, I’m defined.

Each cover a compass, each word a key,
Unlocking realms where I’m truly free,
They find me lost, they find me whole,
Books bind my wounds and heal my soul.

Books. Find. Me.

Here are the books that were shared at our September gathering.

Go Set a Watchman – by Harper Lee

FireWoman truly enjoyed this book. She could see how it could be/was written before To Kill a Mockingbird.

It’s about Scout/Jean Louise, who is in her early 20s. She’s going home for a visit and comes face-to-face with the segregation in her small hometown in Alabama. She’d been living in New York City and only visits Maycomb periodically. Her Dad, Atticus, is old and very arthritic.

That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones

FireWoman also read this eye-opening read about an elementary school librarian who spoke at her local public library in favor of not banning books. Four days later, she started receiving death threats. Her lifelong neighbors chimed in.

She hires and lawyer and has an ongoing suit against the baddies. It’s written with some fun parts. She has a chapter titled WWJD: What Would Judy (Blume) Do.

Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin

Set in WWII, a young librarian is recruited by the U.S. Military to work in Portugal, posed as a librarian, but walking the streets gathering magazines and newspapers that give clues to the German military strategy.

One day, she discovered some words that seem misplaced and realizes that it is a secret code, sent by a French resistance worker. Then the story switches to tell about the French resistance worker’s strategy.

The stories of the librarian in the safety of Portugal and dangers involving the young resistance worker who was the typesetter in Lyon France were a stark contrast. The end involves resettling lots of Jewish and French people to Portugal.

Veyot liked her writing.

The Library of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Cold Shiver mentioned this sci-fi that takes place in a library. Despite glowing praise, Cold personally wasn’t a fan of the writing style – but said that it’s a creative and original story with interesting takes on AI in the future. Worth a read.

Anarchist Cybernetics by Thomas Swann

Sam shared about an essay that explores how cybernetics, a system of feedback and self-regulation, can inform anarchist organizing. Swann argues that cybernetics can help anarchists develop more efficient, adaptive systems of collective decision-making, mutual aid, and resistance to authority.

It’s short in size but very technical.

LINK: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/thomas-swann-anarchist-cybernetics

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

Each chapter in this book is a new story with a new main character. The first chapter is about an author taking five years to write her first book. The next nine chapters are about the different people who read the book. One is the professor who encouraged her to write the book, and of course, one story involves the author meeting a reader. Veyot liked all the stories and the style of writing.

House Lessons: A Memoir in Essays by Erica Bauermeister

Veyot’s share reminded Zoe of a different Bauermeister title that someone recommended. It’s on Zoe’s TBR.

Secret Voices: A Year of Women’s Diaries edited by Sarah Gristwood

Zoe bought a copy of this book while on vacation. It’s a collection of excerpts from over a hundred diaries. Organized by month and date, each day offers a few entries from different people – sort of like snapshots into the lives of a spectrum of women through the ages. It’s pretty neat.

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

Fiction, set in the 1850s. Mary Elizabeth Frankenstein, grand niece of the famous scientist, is young and trying to make her own name in the world of science. She stumbles upon a cache of old documents and discovers the “shocking truth” of her great uncle’s past. Then sets out on a quest in the wilds of Scotland.

Zoe is only 25 pages in, so she doesn’t know what the quest is yet – but she’s enjoying it so far. She found it at her public library’s display of horror books. She typically doesn’t go for horror books but the cover is really pretty so she figured, why not?

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Sam mentioned this book as an example of one that they chose based on the cover. It was a big book for them at the time so sometimes it works to judge by the cover!

Our next gathering is October 6 at 1pm SLT (Note that this is the 1st, not the 2nd, Sunday of the month). All are welcome – bring a friend!

SLurl to The Reading Room: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gundeulbawe/41/164/45

August Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

Here are the books mentioned by the readers who joined us at our August gathering:

Annie Leibovitz at Work – by Annie Leibovitz

Sierra shared that this is probably the most autobiographical of the three Leibovitz books that she read. It has chapters about different points in Leibovitz’s career that talk about how she got into photography and her experiences.

Sierra generally thinks of Lebovitz as a portrait photographer–which is how she usually chooses to position herself even though Sierra thinks Lebovitz doesn’t like photographic categories so much.

One of the things that is even surprising is that at one point, Lebovitz went to Sarajavo. She has some photos from that period…so you could say ‘war photographer’ fits in there, too.

Annie Leibovitz Portraits, 2005-2016 and Wonderland by Annie Lebovitz

Sierra also read these two fairly large epic tomes of Lebovitz’s work. Going through these in relation to the one above was interesting when reviewing her work as a photographer. This is where…a Kindle is simply not not not going to do the work justice. Sierra emphasized that print is needed for this.

Though someone like Leibovitz has a large assortment of assistants that most professionals wouldn’t have, her work is still amazing…lots of details. A great deal of thought goes into it.

Cemetery of Untold Stories by Isabel Allende

The main character is an author who has some story ideas that never developed. She decides to actually bury the notes for stories on land that she has inherited in a poor district in her hometown in the Dominican Republic. She has a small house built on the plot and then hires a person to make gravestones and decorate the graves. The ghosts from the graves speak to the author, and to the cemetery workers, and the cemetery becomes a popular public park.
It also has a little story about Trujillo and about a doctor who escapes from the island. Veyot said she enjoyed all of it.

Veyot also encouraged everyone to see Bryn Oh’s current exhibit, The Skyfisher.

Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen

CK recently started reading this book. She loves his songs, knows a bit of his poetry, and was warned that this was a difficult book. She agrees that it IS very difficult to follow.

This book reads a bit like a stream of consciousness, and there are so many different ‘thoughts’ in the main character’s mind. It reads like poetry, which is quite hard when it’s not actual poetry but page after page.

CK also shared a SLurl to the Loenard Cohen Club in SL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Beau%20Belle/226/28/22

Killer Weed by Manning Wolfe

FireWoman read this book that is available on Amazon for 99 cents. This book, as do all her other books, grabs the reader within the first couple of pages and is very hard to put down.

Medical marijuana is legal in Texas, Really. And this is a book about greed and murder (of course) for the top licenses to grow medical marijuana in Texas. FireWoman had to remind myself it was fiction.

Manning’s characters are very believable and very easy to NOT LIKE! The bad guys that is.

Horror Tales of Japan: 21 Japanese Folktales Not to Be Read to Children by Kyota Ko

FireWoman said that some of these are very scary. They are all short and shared with a lot of cultural background. The author did all of the art on his iPad. It is very good. FireWoman recommends all of Kyota-san’s books.

Words Without Music by Phillip Glass

Veyot was reminded of this memoir when Sierra shared about her Lebovitz reads. Glass was still driving a cab to make money while he was quite famous in music. He was a composer who wrote music that was too modern at first. Lots of piano compositions and string quartets. Now his music is in movies. It was only lately that Glass realized that he stole some phrases from country western songs – short tunes. He hears them now in his music.

Veyot thought this was easy to read and enjoyed it.

The One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood

Zoe read this book about a 104 year old woman and the friendship she forms with an 11 year old boy scout. He attempts to help her get into the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living person with a valid driver’s license. But then he dies unexpectedly and his parents take over. Zoe is halfway through it and is enjoying it. It’s a warm-hearted read – though if you’re currently struggling with personal grief, you might save this one for later.

Our next gathering is September 8 at 1pm SLT. We’ll meet at our new location in Seogyeoshire. All are welcome – bring a friend!

Discover Silent Book Club: The Reading Room Meetup and More

Recently, Bay City Library Director Ayame (aka Stable Mum/Friendly Fairelander), introduced me to Silent Book Club in Second Life, an officially registered chapter of *Silent Book Club® (SBC).

As described on their website, SBC is “a global community of readers, with more than 1000 chapters in 50 countries.” SBC members gather in public – typically at a cafe, bar, bookstore, or library – to chat about books, then read alone, together.

On Sunday, I hosted the first of what will become a regularly monthly SBC meetup at our Reading Room. Bay City Library and Sonder Books will also host meetups; a current schedule can be found here.

Our gathering began with folks helping themselves to hot chocolate and cookies before nestling into comfy chairs. After a quick round of introductions, a few folks shared the titles of the books that they were dipping into:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators by the U.S. Navy

From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe

The One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood

Silent Book Club in Second Life is open to more meet ups at new locations. If you’re interested in hosting one, get in touch with Stable Mum (Friendly Fairelander).

The next Silent Book Club in Second Life gathering at The Reading Room will take place on September 22 at 6pm SLT.

* “Silent Book Club” is a registered trademark of Silent Book Club LLC.

July Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

We opened our July gathering by sharing 3 poems that we received through our poetry mailbox. They are reprinted here with permission from each poet.

 I'm a little bit late for book club today.

Drove over from Haman, got lost on the way.

The path is lovely, but I wore the wrong shoes

Twisted my ankle, its only a bruise.
 
The next time we meet, I might take the train.

~ Written by Veyot. Copyright 2024.

A Solitary Bee Landed On Me

A solitary bee,
landed on me,
with gentle hum and fragile wings.
Its tiny feet, a light caress,
paused on my arm, in nature's dress.

No rush, no swarm, just it and I,
beneath the broad and endless sky.
A fleeting guest, a moment's grace,
a whispered bond in this quiet place.

We shared a breath, a heartbeat’s span,
then off it flew, this little friend.
Leaving behind a trace of gold,
a story in the silence told.

Written by Emm Evergarden. Copyright 2024.

birds in the rain

Today i walked
in the rain—
have you ever wondered
where the birds hide
when it rains
and what they think about
while waiting
for the sun?

Written by Julian Heylinck. Copyright 2024.

Here are the books mentioned by the readers who joined us at our July gathering:

The Jungle – by Upton Sinclair

We comment about the abuse to the animals in the Chicago slaughter houses at the turn of the 20th century, but the abuse to the human workers was far beyond everything. The parts that were censored from the 1906 edition were very involved with socialism being on the rise all over the world. FireWoman found this book to be very enlightening.

The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi

FireWoman doesn’t remember how she came by this series but it is very good storytelling.

The first book is The Henna Artist. The second book is The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. They are set in 1950s India. FireWoman couldn’t put it down. She’s now on the third book, The Perfumist of Paris. She said the character portrayals are great, very believable.

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

The premise of the book is that there is a library in Hell — not necessarily part of Hell, but kinda leasing space there. Books that authors think of, but didn’t actually write, wind up there. The librarians have the job of taking care of the books, administering the Library, fixing book bindings (or re-binding, as needed). Sometimes… a book will get antsy and leave!

When a book leaves it takes the form of a character in the book — generally the protagonist. Then the librarian has to seek them out to return them.

Such is the start of the book, when Claire (our protagonist Librarian) has to retrieve a book that went walkabout (Sierra’s term) but on the way it turns into rather more of an adventure, with other sidekicks in tow.

Sierra said that this was a really fun read! So much so that she got a couple of follow up books, too. She liked the world building that went on with this… getting at how these ‘afterlife’ realms relate… besides Hell we get a glimpse of Heaven, of Valhalla, and an un-labeled realm that was sorta Greco-Egyptian kinda (?). Good writing, too… the dialogue worked well.

Irving Penn: Centennial

This is a photography collection that Sierra has been going through. It goes along with a MET gallery exhibit. Penn was mostly a photographer though he did some other drawings and paintings too. A lot of his work was in Vogue — so a lot of fashion photography, but he also did lots of portraits. He has a whole series that he is known for where a subject is positioned between two narrow panels forming a v-shape. Sort of a simple layout but Sierra thought it was interesting how much mileage he got out of that. She said that the book, Centennial, is quite the heavy tome and a pretty thorough compendium of his work.

The Executioners Song by Norman Mailer

This is Vivian’s favorite book. It won a Pulitzer Prize. It’s about Gary Gilmore, the first prisoner to have the firing squad. It’s very romantic in the most crazy way. It has short chapters, huge book but she devoured it. Gilmore felt by choosing to die there was dignity in his death instead of just rotting in jail. He had very different beliefs but Norman Mailer made her understand this man. Based on a true story.
A film based on the book is available to view here.

The Weatherman by Steve Thayer

FireWoman mentioned this in passing as a spine tingling read.

With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix

Tiordan shared this title. It helped him through a period of watching someone close to him pass away.

Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith

This is Tiordan’s favorite book. It’s a wonderfully weird book about a manhunt and a world divided into sectors, each with their own rules and ways of beings. There’s a zone of cats, a zone where the soul is believed to be a boomerang, a zone of “Actioneers” where everyone works and is measured by the size of their desks. The author has a stunning turn of phrase and a grasp of the absurd. It’s also insightful and haunting at times.There’s the spider that skedaddles, the trousers that receive congratulatory notices and a sea that differs depending on how its seen and from where. Much more to be discovered – it’s a fun, thoughtful read!

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Zoe mentioned this title in passing as something on her TBR, about a bedridden woman who shares the story of a snail that lives on her nightstand.

Extraterrestrial Languages by Daniel Oberhaus

Sierra mentioned this book that she recently added to her TBR pile. About basically the problem of… if we ever communicate with aliens…. how would that really work? It looks niche and eclectic, which often appeals to Sierra. 🙂

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Zoe recently started this book about an unlikely friendship between a retired English professor, the handyman who has a crush on her and a young woman who accidentally killed the handyman’s wife. It’s a rather cozy read – and well written. Zoe recommends it and is keen to read Wood’s other books.

Plant Spirit Medicine: The Healing Power of Plants by Eliot Cowan

Ananda mentioned this book in passing. She hasn’t started it yet but it sounds interesting!

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Betzi is re-reading this series at the moment. She has an SL daughter and they’ve been listening to the audiobooks together.

Our next gathering is August 11 at 1pm SLT. We’ll meet at our new location in Seogyeoshire. All are welcome – bring a friend!

November Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

Happy holidays, bookworm friends!

During our November gathering, I mentioned that I’m opening a second reading room – a space with ties to our Shoshin Reading Room as well as the Seogyeoshire Library.

I’m calling it the Somdari Reading Room – named after the Jeogeot region where it lives. The image above is a snapshot of the entry room. There are two other rooms – works in progress – which will foster community gatherings as well as cozy reading nooks.

A guided tour will be given after the holidays – date and time, tbd.

Meanwhile, here is the roundup of books that were mentioned at our most recent gathering. It’s an intriguing list – please enjoy!

Dead by Proxy by Manning Wolfe

This is the first book in a new action suspense series, set in Austin, Texas. FireWoman has read several of Wolfe’s books and recommends them, particularly to readers who enjoy a quick get-to-the-who-done-it.

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens

Veyot shared this novel about two teenage boys who solve a mystery by finding a corpse in the woods and locating the killer’s car. Though Veyot usually doesn’t like teenage characters, she would recommend this as a choice for high school reading. She compared it to To Kill a Mockingbird — with boys instead of a girl as the main character.

MacArthur Park by Judith Freeman

Also shared by Veyot, this is a philosophical look at a long marriage of a couple who live near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. It includes lots of quotes from famous authors and mentions the song, MacArthur Park. The couple thinks the song is about the decline of the park, but it’s really about a failed romance

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

FireWoman also read this YA magical mystery book and commented that La Sala’s style is unique and dark. She recommends his other titles, The Big Read: Reverie and Bedazzled as well.

Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa

FireWoman recommends this YA series that mixes Japanese fairy tales, folklore, and history.

What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts

Written along the vein of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Zoe read this collection of short stories about a seemingly magical librarian. Each story focuses on someone who is struggling and somehow ends up at the same library, speaking with the same librarian. Each person is able to work through their issue based on the books that the librarian recommends.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

Zoe also recommends this cozy modern Japanese novel.

Our next gathering is January 14th at 1pm SLT. ‘Til then – happy holidays and happy reading!

October Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

One of the things I enjoy most about our coffee hour is the exposure to so many different new-to-me genres and authors. It was thus a pleasure to welcome three new friends to our monthly gathering – Konnie, Lomesse, and Roslyn – along with a couple of our regulars, to hear all about their intriguing recent reads…

Falling in Love with Joseph Smith: My Search for the Real Prophet by Jane Barnes

Veyot described this as a lighthearted history book whose author was a producer on a PBS documentary about the Mormons. Barnes apparently liked the stories about the teenaged Joseph so much that she seriously considered joining the Mormon church.

Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber

Veyot also shared this novel that shows Mormon life in Utah in the 1880s, including the main character’s memories of her earlier life, the loyalties of Mormons to each other, and the government’s order to start prosecuting polygamists. To add suspense, there is a missing husband and a desperate stranger pursued by a federal marshal.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

Roslyn is in the midst of reading this popular series – and occasionally arguing with the author.

Footprints of the Welsh Indians: Settlers in North America Before 1492 by William L. Traxel

Roslyn also recently read a treatise on Welsh Indians. She said it was a sad story in the end because if they were here, they lost their ability to read and write their language – and so were lost in history. Ros described it as a dry but fascinating read.

Underdogs of Japanese History: 11 Iconic Characters Who Prevailed Against the Odds…Or Didn’t by Kyota Ko

FireWoman enjoyed this collection of great stories and well-researched ancient history of Japan. She recommends his first book, Folktales of Japan, as well as his social media accounts on LinkedIn and Instagram. He posts nearly every day – awesome stories!

Goodnight Racism by Ibram X. Kendi

Magnolia Flower by Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi.

FireWoman also enjoyed these two children’s books.

Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods by Grace Lin

FireWoman considers this a must-read! She was salivating as she read this brand new book by Newbery and Caldecott Honor author/illustrator Grace Lin.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

Lomesse shared this famous novel about schizophrenia and the author’s hospitalization in 1950. She commented that the world in that illness is very different but that the author did her best to capture it.

A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux, translated by Tanya Leslie

Zoe recently read this memoir about the author’s relationship with her mother who eventually died from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. The author saw herself as an archivist of sorts, attempting to document her mother’s life in a way that presented her as a fully formed woman.

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman

At its heart, this is a love story set in the Australian countryside, in the 1960s. Zoe thought it was going to be about a bookshop…it it is, and isn’t. The man is a farmer who has such a good heart but has also experienced a lot of loss. His love interest is a woman who, among other experiences, spent time in Auschwitz. They bond over books and their experiences with learning how to build a life while wrangling with grief. Zoe thought it was really beautiful.

Our next gathering is November 19th at 1pm SLT. See you then – bring a friend!

September Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

We received not one but TWO poems in our mailbox – yay!
Here is the first one:

Surrounded

bottom feeders are

gonna bottom feed

but what are all

these hungry ghosts

doing stuck up in our heads

gee I wonder?

It was written by a resident named Elan. Check out his original art here.

Here’s the second poem, by Manow Bellic:

A soulful link, so pure and true,

Ignited by a coffee brew,

A bond that’s grown, steadily strong,

In friendship’s garden, it belongs.

Did I mention, a coffee’s grace,

The genesis of this embrace?

Through sips and words, it found its start,

A tale of two souls, a work of art.

Thanks to Veyot for sparking this wonderful project! Our poem mailbox has been such a lovely way to connect with talented inworld poets.

And now, on to this month’s book notes!

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Shelved in historical fiction, but also referred to as “Witch Lit”, this is the story of three women who share an ancestral line but live in three different time periods. Each woman encounters tragedy but works through it with the help of a bit of magic – magic born of strong ties to nature, rather than the abracadabra sort. Zoe considered this a page-turner. She sympathized and was inspired by each woman – they showed remarkable strength and resilience. Also, it has a gorgeous cover!

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

This is a cozy fantasy about an orc who changes careers and opens a coffee shop with the help of a succubus, a hobgoblin, and a rat. Zoe thought this was a fun read! No one in the village had ever heard of coffee or cinnamon rolls. The orc renovated an old livery to create her shop and brought in a coffee machine made by goblins. Apparently goblins have all the cool tech.

Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse (1970-2000) by Stephen Kotkin.

Sierra’s delve into Russian history continued with this title, which she commented was more satisfying than some of her other recent reads around the same topic.

Sierra also picked up these books for her TBR pile:

The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China by Robert D. Kaplan

The Ghost at the Feast: American and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 by Robert Kagan

The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier

Our next gathering is October 8th at 1pm. See you then – bring a friend!

August Reading Notes

Hello, reader…

It’s so hard to believe that summer is almost over! But I must admit – I’m looking forward to fall. It will be so lovely to curl up with a good book and a pumpkin flavored treat, won’t it?

Anyhoo, here’s the roundup from our August gathering. There are definitely some gems here!

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

This is the first of the trilogy that FireWoman mentioned during our July gathering. It starts in Chile in the 1830s and ends in California in the 1850s. The story is of the 1849 Gold Rush to California and the influx of people from all over the world to the area. It is the first mention of the families written about in Allende’s The House of the Spirits.

FireWoman very much enjoyed this series…and noticed that her sleeping dreams have been more prominent and more vivid while reading Allende. Isn’t that neat?

Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War by Stephen F. Cohen

Along the same vein of her July reads, Sierra picked up this 2009 book that has her hovering around the question of…why did the Soviet Union collapse?

The Soviet Century: Archaeology of a Lost World by Karl Schlogel

Sierra also found this ENORMOUS TOME of a book (822 pages not counting the index!) that is like an archaeology encyclopedia. It has chapters on how housing was built in the Soviet Union or the mausoleum, etc. She’s been treating it as something to dip into rather than something to read straight through.

The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Rush

Sierra stumbled upon this book that she hasn’t read but looks intriguing. Here are some related articles with information on the book by the author.

We Reached the Glacier Just as it Collapsed: The world’s widest glacier is melting–and changing predictions about our planet’s future. By Elizabeth Rush, in The Atlantic (paywall).

What Antartica’s Melting Glaciers Taught Me About Becoming a Mother by Elizabeth Rush.

Inseperable by Simone de Beauvoir

Zoe picked up this book at an antique store for $3, though it was published in 2021. It’s a novel inspired by the author’s real life friendship with Zaza Lacoin. It follows two young girls as they explore life in post WWI France and how their friendship shapes their philosophies on life. Zoe thought that it was beautifully written and especially enjoyed the real life letters at the end between de Beauvoir and Lacoin.

Our next gathering is September 10th at 1pm. See you then – bring a friend!