Number 7 of books that blew me away

Where All Light Tends to Go by David Joy

Home I came to the South and in some ways, it is as if I never left. That is how this book made me feel. I knew some of these folks in my time - hell, I still know some of them. Jacob McNeely of Cashiers, a small North Carolina mountain town, has only one flickering candle left in the window, his high school love, Maggie. Hip deep in the world of meth dealing presided over by his father; Jacob is set to inherit the “family business.” Maggie can see a different life but can Jacob? I have too many friends who could not, who settled for what they had in hand. Dust to dust. I also was privileged to meet the author; I liked him. I encourage you to read the essay in the Bitter Southerner at:

http://bittersoutherner.com/digging-in-the-trash-david-joy/

Book 6 of books that blew me away

Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Pulitzer Prize winner for 2017 (among other awards), Whitehead drew me in and kept me believing in his alternative history novel. Using history, true and altered, and magical realism, he follows two slaves escaping in the 1800’s. I found that the gritty truth of the history of slavery mixed with the magical underground railroad ( a real underground train!) helped to balance my emotional response as a reader. The truth of history is too brutal for hope. Whitehead’s novel allows hope and magic.

Number 5 of books that blew me away

Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen (1961) brings the sent of my grandmother’s iron to me in “I Stand Here Ironing.” This is a small collection of short stories with words as carefully chosen as the stones in the pocket of a four-year-old, and just as valuable. The lives on display here can be pondered for a long time. Take the time to think after reading this.

Number 4 of books that blew me away

Hang on to your hats folks.

NW by Zadie Smith (2012) brought me to my knees as a reader. Once I recovered I read it again. This book is thick with both action and philosophy and literary tricks. I had to take notes to follow the characters and who was talking as well as do some reading on the background of London culture. It follows four characters in northwest London using a variety of literary techniques - switching voices, a stream of consciousness narrative, and incomplete thoughts that linger unanswered. Reading this book is not an easy undertaking but I found it rewarding and disturbing in the way life is.

Number 3 of Books That Blew Me Away

I recently reread The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) by Junot Diaz. The story of a nerdboy Dominican Republic American struggling with love and life, it holds my attention to the end. Although the fantasy and gamer jargon and the DR Spanglish may confound a reader, there are many line by line definitions to be found if you just search the title on the Internet.

http://www.annotated-oscar-wao.com/index.html

It is a heartbreakingly beautiful reflection on manhood and the essence of love. In light of his recent New Yorker article (4/16/2018) "The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma", this work is worth a deeper examination.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/the-silence-the-legacy-of-childhood-trauma

Number 2 of Books That Blew Me Away

Number Two

One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty (1984) spoke to me as a teen in Jackson, Mississippi.  I heard the voices in “Why I live at the P.O.” and loved to write. Miss Welty’s house was close to Belhaven College and Millsaps in Jackson so I knew she was real. My mother had seen her in the grocery store. Writer’s were real; their stories were real. My secret dream was real too.

Ten Books That Blew Me Away

This is in response to the FaceBook challenge from Patricia Spears Jones to list ten books that have blown me away.

The Spiral Dance by Starhawk was first published in 1979. I arrived in California in 1980. I can’t remember when I first read this but I remember the excitement of reading in print the Wicca life I had only heard about. Coming from a Southern Christian background, this was beyond the comparative religion classes where I read the Bhagavad Gita. After the second edition came out in 1989, I danced with Starhawk and many others under the full moon and asked for healing for Mother Earth. I have a signed copy from that night.