Sweet Comfort Novels & Thoughts on Bad Books
Last summer, I was feeling nostalgic and a little melancholy, too. I was preparing to send my first kiddo off to college and parenthood was starting to feel like my life’s tectonic plates shifting beneath me. I needed to find my footing. So naturally, I had been on the hunt for a good book to provide some perspective, help, and comfort. I tried more than a few.
Imagine my delight when Ann Patchett’s newest novel Tom Lake showed up on my doorstep.
I dove in right away, and every single bit of it felt like sweet, sweet comfort.
The story follows a mother whose three young adult daughters have come home to wait out the 2020 pandemic summer, and they all get wrapped up in the mother’s retelling the story of her own young adult days. It’s a beautiful story and Ann Patchett is in her master storyteller element. But particularly for me, it was the perfect reminder that kids are meant to grow up and find lives of their own ~ and even when it’s hard to let them go, we can do it. (And if we’re lucky, we get to reap the reward of sheer and utter joy every time they come home to visit.)
As spring draws near this month, I’m reading Tom Lake again ~ as I do with all my favorite books. So I thought I’d share it here with you today in case you want to join me.
Fellow audiobook lovers will want to know this ~ the audio version of Tom Lake is narrated by Meryl Streep.
(yep, that Meryl Streep ~ eek!)
Whenever I hear the name Ann Patchett, I think about the first novel of hers I read ~ State of Wonder ~ and how I fell in love with the origin story of that book as told from Elizabeth Gilbert’s perspective in Big Magic and then fell in love with the story itself from page one.
It was such a good book.
So good.
It led me to reading her collection of essays This is the Story of a Happy Marriage and into a deep dive into the lovely world of local bookshop culture. (In case you’re not familiar, Ann Patchett started Parnassus Books in Nashville and has become a huge advocate and supporter of local bookshop culture around the world.)
That experience was exactly why I started writing about the books that help us redefine our lives.
And yet at the end of the day, State of Wonder is just a novel. I’ve talked to plenty of people who have read it and weren’t as blown away by it as I was. I’ve talked to people who read it and didn’t really care for it. It just wasn’t for them.
That’s because only we know what resonates with us.
We can’t force it.
Timing is everything.
That’s why I love to give you a few books to choose from in these little book chats of ours.
It’s also why, for every book I write to you about, there's at least a few others I don't write about.
Some of the books I don’t write about are nice enough to read and I’m glad I read them but I have complicated feelings about them. Others I abandon and/or put in a “Bad - Definitely Don’t Recommend” pile. Most of them are harmless enough, but some are borderline toxic, questioning and undermining things I deeply care about, so I usually don’t mention them to you. But today, I thought I might share a few ~ because there might be something in the list you’ll love, or at least want to chat about.
Here are the books I’ve read recently that I won’t be writing about:
I reserve the right to revisit and write about them later, so if you want to chat about any of those, I’m here. (Just hit Reply.)
And if you’re looking for your next read today, here’s the newly published list of 2024 Audie Award Winners ~ it’s the list I’m using right now. (& audiobooks are great for springtime walks in the woods, so this is right on time, hey?)
With love & good books,
Celeste
P.S. Last week we talked about small steps we can take to thrive in March (especially since March can feel off sometimes) and a friend wrote back about the items in the list calling them “happiness hacks”. I love that ~ they’re up on the blog today in case you missed them.
Also, Early bird registration is open through the end of March for the spring Well + Wander Retreat at Acadia ~ Details & links below.
