Books in Northport: May's Gifts

Books Read January 2025

1. Thomas, Kai. In the Upper Country (fiction, 2023). Brilliant novel of refugees from American slavery who joined forces over generations with indigenous peoples of the U.S. and Canada in a quest for freedom. Tales within tales. A tour de force. 2. Reade, Charles. The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages (fiction, 1861). Picaresque historical novel set in the late 1400s, with every element a reader could ever desire. Adventure, love, humor, philosophy, description, atmosphere, etc. 3. Estes, Eleanor. The Moffats (juvenile fiction, 1941). Every now and then I re-read the always charming books about the Moffat and Pye families, enjoying Louis Slobodkin’s simple illustrations as much as the stories I first discovered in grade school. For me, they never grow old 4. Lane, Eric & Michael Oreskes. The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again (nonfiction, 2007). The authors stress that many compromises were necessary for the Constitution to come into being in the first place and that its structure of checks and balances were designed to prevent despotism. Recent and current winner-take-all strategies from the White House, in Congress, and in a loaded Court system have all been partisan attempts in recent decades to short-circuit what the authors of this book call our Constitutional Conscience. Full text of the United States Constitution included as an appendix. 5. Godden, Rumer. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep (nonfiction, 1987). The second book of memoir from this prolific author (she wrote and had published over 60 books, both fiction and nonfiction) tells of her childhood and young womanhood, and motherhood mother, covering years in India, England, and Kashmir. 6. Barr, Nevada. Firestorm (fiction, 1996). Although the firestorm in this novel was confined to wilderness and did not touch urban areas, descriptions of the blaze and its aftermath were difficult to read as fires raged in the L.A. area this January. 7. Gilbert, Elizabeth. Committed: A Love Story (nonfiction, 2010). Memoir plus explorations of the history of marriage, along with customs in a couple of other countries the author and her then-future husband visited. 8. Wang, Qian Julie. Beautiful Country (nonfiction, 2021). Another memoir, this one from a young woman who came to the U.S. from China with her mother to join her father who had come before. 9. Orcutt, William Dana. From My Library Walls: A Kaleidoscope of Memories (nonfiction, 1945). Where did he find room for bookshelves with all the portraits and framed letters he had hanging on his library walls? 10. Lenski, Lois. Houseboat Girl (fiction – juv., 1957). Simple story and simple illustrations tell of a vanished way of American life. Now, if only I could find my copy of Phyllis Crawford’s Hello, the Boat! 11. Gilbert, Elizabeth. Signature of All Things (fiction, 2013). Enormous canvas brilliantly executed. 12. Smith, Alexander McCall. The Enigma of Garlic (fiction, 2022). Comforting. 13. Hamilton, Mary Mann. Trials of the Earth (nonfiction, 1992/2017). One woman’s life, working and raising a family in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta in the late 1800s. 14. Hughes, Sian. Pearl (fiction, 2024). A small book but not slight, this novel gains substance as it goes along.

Books Read December 2024

167. Ehrenreich, Ben. Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time (nonfiction, 2020). 168. Hood, Ann. The Properties of Water (fiction, 1995). 169. Carter, Hodding. The Lower Mississippi (nonfiction, 1942). 170. Kundera, Milan. L’ignorance (fiction, 2000, Fr. trans. 2003). 171. Hard, Margaret. A Vermont Memory: Our Life in the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop (nonfiction, 1967). 172. Moberg, Vilhelm. Unto a Good Land (fiction, 1954). 173. Hillerman, Tony. Talking God (fiction, 1989). 174. Van de Wetering, Janwillem. The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery (nonfiction, 1974). 175. Godden, Rumer. An Episode of Sparrows (fiction, 1955). 176. Waxman, Abbi. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (fiction, 2019). 177. Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Age of Uncertainty (nonfiction, 1977) 178. Marquand, John P. Thank You, Mr. Moto (fiction, 1936). 179. Hastings, Macdonald. A Glimpse of Arcadia (fiction, 1960). 180. Gessen, Masha. Surviving Autocracy (nonfiction, 2020) 181. Godden, Rumer. The Diddakoi (fiction, 1972). 182. Harden, Greg. Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive (nonfiction, 2023). 183. Cook, Josh. The Art of Libromancy - Essays: Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century (nonfiction, 2023). 184. Mason, Daniel. North Woods (fiction, 2023). 185. Carpenter, Scott Dominic. Paris Lost & Found: A Memoir of Love (nonfiction, 2024). 186. Lawhon, Ariel. The Frozen River (fiction, 2023).

Books Read November 2024

153. Stuart, James. Three Years in North America (nonfiction, 1833). 154. Murray, Albert. South to a Very Old Place (nonfiction, 1971). 155. Stratton-Porter, Gene. The White Flag (fiction, 1923). 156. Gurnee, David L. & Diane C. Gurnee. Collaboration (fiction, 2003) 157. Spence, Gerry. Half-Moon & Empty Stars (fiction, 2001). 158. Orlean, Susan. The Library Book (nonfiction, 2018). 159. Traver, Robert. People versus Kirk (fiction), 1981). 160. Regan, Margaret. The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands (nonfiction, 2010). 161. Wheeler, Theodore. The War Begins in Paris (fiction, 2023). 162. Mongtomery, Sy. What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird (nonfiction, 2024). 163. Horwitz, Tony. A Voyage Long & Strange: Rediscovering the New World (nonfiction, 2008). 164. Mosley, Walter. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (fiction, ). 165. Morris, Willie. Terrains of the Heart & Other Essays on Home (nonfiction, 1981). 166. Llosa, Mario Vargas. Who Killed Palomino Molero? (fiction, English trans. 1987).

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Saturday, May 31, 2008

May's Gifts

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