January // booklist

January reads ~ a good start to the year!

Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

memoir / 1996 / narrated by the author / 4 stars

Enjoyed this memoir of his childhood in Ireland. Loved how he wrote it from his child perspective.

"Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure & no one in the world can interfere with it. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."

(one of his teachers)

"Jesus, Mary & Joseph, this is a desperate situation!"

Charlotte's Web, E.B White

fiction / 1952 / narrated by Meryl Streep, etc.

Love this version on Audible. I think I enjoy this story more every time. Listened to with Davie, colouring together in the afternoons...

"On foggy mornings, Charlotte's web was truly a thing of beauty. This morning each thin strand was decorated with dozens of tiny beads of water. The web glistened in the light & made a pattern of loveliness & mystery."

Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith

fiction / 2012 / narrated by Rebecca Lowman / 3 stars

This was a short, lovely little book, though a little underwhelming plot wise. A nice bedtime listen.

Mere Motherhood, Cindy Rollins

memoir / 2016 / 4 stars

How about this worn library copy?! An easy, conversational read. Her story of raising & homeschooling 9(!!!) children.

"We have to repent of that idea of control, repent of our little kingdoms over & over again."

"Reading aloud covers a multitude of sins. It is a grace. When we cannot escape ourselves, we can escape to other worlds altogether."

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

fiction / 2021 / 4 stars

A little gem. A short novel set in '80's Ireland at Christmas. This was very well done - her writing style reminded me a lot of Tove Jansson. Poignant & succinct.

"Was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there."

"Was it possible that the best bit of him was shining forth & surfacing?"

Wind, Sand, & Stars, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

non-fiction, autobiography / 1939 / 

Checked this one out after reading The Little Prince again ~ this is like the adult/autobiographical version.

I have a thing for stark landscapes; this is a poetic rendition of the human landscape - beaming light into my soul. A surprising gem.

"We are in contact with the wind, with the stars, with the night, with the sand, with the sea. We try to outwit the forces of nature. We wait for dawn as a gardener waits for spring. We wait for the next port of call as a promised land, & we seek our truth in the stars." (on being a pilot)

Devotions, Mary Oliver

poetry / 2017 (compilation) / 4 stars

I generally enjoy Mary Oliver & have been reading this compilation of her work before bed. I wait for the poem that every couple pages will sock me in the heart when I don't see it coming. 

“In spring there’s hope,

In fall the exquisite, necessary diminishing, in 

Winter I am as sleepy as any beast in its

Leafy cave, but in summer there is

Everywhere the luminous sprawl of gifts,

The hospitality of the Lord & my

Inadequate answers…”

Also read The Dictionary of Lost Words for Book Club - didn't love.

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Loving the winter reading vibes this year.