What are you reading this summer? Here is a selection of great books I've read so far for the season:
A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi (2018)
YA Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Lush imagery and equally sumptuous language, this novel never falls into the trappings of ‘purple prose’ while readers chase along with the adventures of princess and prince fighting across a fantastical otherworld. We meet our heroes as they each long to escape impossible situations. While they are deciding if they can even trust one another, they are bound together in a tournament of myth and mystery. If they hope to realign their otherwise doomed lives, they must work through unfeasible challenges and prove their worth to themselves, their kingdoms, and to one another. Thrilling, romantic, and wholly entertaining.
Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017)
Elementary Fiction, Middle School Fiction, Friendships, Adventure
How can a small story feel so epic? But that’s the point, right? In real life, profound changes and realizations occur in small and mundane ways. Not every epic has to be Frodo climbing Mt. Doom to single-handily save the world.
Hello, Universe is about how fate brings the people we need into our life and how it is up to us to accept the ways the universe gently nudges us in the right way. Fate and free choice don’t need to be mutually exclusive, but being open to new possibilities can carry us in unexpected ways. This is a philosophical concept not too common in children’s literature, but Kelly’s writing makes it clear and relatable while crafting a fun adventure. Also, there is a guinea pig.
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (2007)
Personal Essay, Memoir, Religion, Christianity, Sociology
The reviews on Goodreads have a wide range of opinions on the works of Anne Lamott. There are multiple 1 and 2 star reviews from conservative Christians whose argument is “This isn’t how I do Christianity, so therefore this is wrong.” But Lamott is here to argue a key part of faith is an openness and acceptance of the diverse experiences of all people.
I’ve been recommended the works of Anne Lamott recently while starting a read-through of women essayists. Grace (Eventually) is often cited as one of her weaker outings, but I found it effecting. Lamott is frank in her convictions and owning of her failings. In her writing she reflects every readers humanity back at them while reminding them that we all suffer from the same human condition.
Side note: In the essay Steinbeck Country, Lamott says this, “We were there to celebrate some of the rare intelligence capabilities that our country can actually be proud of – those of librarians. I see them as healers and magicians.” I’m not sure about the healing, but it is a fact that all us library folk have magical abilities.
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty (2017)
Death, Funerals, Travelogue, Essay
Reading this along with Grace (Eventually) makes me wonder what deep issues my subconscious is working through.
I am one of those people who sometimes wakes up at 3am and has only one thought: One day I’m going to die. But Doughty is here to tell you that death isn’t always scary. It’s still coming for all of us, sure, but our reluctance to face that fact comes from cultural institutions that distract rather than discuss. We are a society that refuses to accept that final chapter and when we reach that stage we can’t properly cope.
But a death can be a good death if we learn how to be more open and accepting. To support this argument Doughty travels the world and examines ways in which other cultures and communities embrace death as a part of life, a transition instead of an ending, an event we all experience together. So many elements contribute to the idea of “The Good Death,” and From Here to Eternity is the perfect guidebook towards that last, inevitable journey.
I’ve been avoiding this book by keeping it on my ‘to-reads’ list for years, but I picked it up on a whim a week ago and started reading it before my brain could talk me out of it. Doughty’s voice is sensitive, caring, and reassuring. Sure, I won’t end as a mummy interred in my own special tomb/house and I probably won’t be laid out on a public pyre for all my neighbors to view, but I am reconsidering what I thought were my cultural norms and feeling more confident to at least discuss the topic of death without having an existential crisis (almost).
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