So Long, Sweet Scout

Dogs speak words

But only poets

And children

Hear

—Patricia MacLachlan

Scout, our sweet golden, died in February. He was diagnosed in late December with lymphoma and the vet gave him two to six months to live. Turns out six weeks was all we got. His medicine stopped working, his tail stopped wagging, and his eyes, oh those eyes, told me what my heart couldn't bring itself to see, and I knew. The house, once full of the sounds of a large tail thumping, claws clicking across the wood floors, and the happiest growl you've ever heard, is now audibly and achingly silent.

It's taken me a good long while to be able to write about it. For days after dear friends did what dear friends do best: pour out love. Tray, of course, sent comfort between the pages of the perfect book. She knew I'd be reaching for reads that lift and The Poet's Dog did just that. Beautifully.

It's a story of two children, lost in a snowstorm, rescued by a dog named Teddy who is lost in grief. The three find refuge in the cabin that once belonged to Teddy's owner, Sylvan—a gentle poet who died just days earlier. As the snow continues to pile up outside and the wind howls, a friendship forms that will begin to heal Teddy's broken heart and help him see that Sylvan hasn't really left at all.

This little story of love and loss, written by Newbery-winning Patricia MacLachlan, will help children (and grownups) navigate their way through grief with the quiet assurance that those we love never leave us completely. They are there, if we only remember to look with our hearts, continuing to watch out for us through the love and friendship of others. I know it's so with my own gentle poet gone too soon and dear dad whose twinkling eyes made my world feel safe. And now sweet Scout is there with them, as they wait, and watch, and pour down love.

Posted by Rachel

Throwback Thursday

“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” 

Steph Curry is draining buckets. Heart Emoji. He just banked in a threeee! What a great way to end the day. Throw in a little chatter about books and I’m golden. It’s Thursday, so time to talk of reads gone-by. Maybe sports on the brain brought Mitch Albom to mind? Albom, originally a sports columnist, has written several best sellers—the very best of which is Tuesdays with Morrie. 

If you haven’t read Tuesdays with Morrie, promise me you will. Soon. This book is portable magic. What began as a labor of love to help Albom’s sociology professor pay mounting medical bills commensurate with a terminal illness, resulted in the best-selling memoir of all time. The accomplished journalist reconnected with his dying professor for the final months of his life. I’m grateful to have gotten a glimpse into Morrie’s study each Tuesday, where he shared irresistible wisdom with his “former” student. Wisdom about how to better live and how to better love. Morrie is the consummate teacher. And his finest classroom proved to include a hospital bed and an oxygen machine. Just thinking about this gift of a book reminds me, once again, that “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in.” 

Posted by Tracy

Top Bins

“A good book is an event in my life.” ―Stendhal

Rachel can attest that a soccer sideline is my home away from home.  Can’t say that I’ve ever written a blog post at a soccer game before, but I’m all about trying new things these days.  Besides, I’m trying to appear efficient.  Key word: appear.  I didn’t bring a book with me. Clearly, I have failed to implement Rachel’s advice, which would allow me to maximize these halftime minutes.  I’ll just have to settle for the temperate spring sun warming my face.  

I’m hoping you’ll settle for some famous authors' YA picks on this sunny kid-lit Tuesday.  I’ve chosen a couple that I’d like to read with the boys.  Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl, admitted that “The Westing Game completely charmed [her] as a kid: the clever mystery, the complex characters and the nasty, fantastic Tabitha Ruth Wexler.  I still read it once a year.” A book that commands an annual read?  I’m in like Flynn!

Why have I never heard of Eleanor Estes’ Rufus M.? I’d like to think it’s because I’m too young for a children’s book published in 1943.  But there should be a trickle-down effect where Newbery Honors are concerned, no?  Author Dick Cavett fell in love with Rufus at the precocious age of three. The fact that this book is still in print says a lot.  That Estes wrote The Hundred Dresses might say as much, if not more.  I’ve gotta say the prospect of a new read is just as exciting as the goal our team just headed in the net!

Posted by Tracy

Throwback Thursday

“He saw things in a way that others did not, so that a city I had lived in all my life seemed a different place, so that a woman became beautiful with the light on her face.” 

Honestly, there are times when throwin’ it back yields good things: Nestle Quik, Elmo, ripped jeans, Banana Bikes, Air Jordans, Chiclets tiny size gum, and Rankin & Bass Christmas specials to name a few. Books are no exception. Countless reads from the past cry out from my bookshelf for a re-read (a re-relish) and make me wish I could control the flow of time. Reads that make me think so many books, so little time. 

If you’re a better negotiator with the clock than I, Girl with a Pearl Earring is a book you could check out with the assurance of good literary vibes. You don’t have to be knowledgeable about or a fan of the Dutch Golden Age, Johannes Vermeer, or art to enjoy Tracy Chevalier’s most celebrated novel.  Griet, just sixteen years old, experiences servitude when her father was blinded by a kiln explosion. To help her family survive their collective tragedy, Griet takes up her post as a maid in Vermeer’s home. The unlikely bond that forms between master and servant inspires the charming portrait that has long secured a place in history. I agree with the reviewer who said, “This is a completely absorbing story with enough historical authenticity and artistic intuition to mark Chevalier as a talented newcomer to the literary scene." The novel does Vermeer’s painting justice: it’s beautifully written. You’ll likely remember it long after everything else goes out of style.

Posted by Tracy

May Book Club Selection

“Only different people change the world,” Granny used to say. “No one normal has ever changed a crapping thing.” ― Fredrik Backman, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Calling all Ove-lovers, a new Fredrik Backman was released today to raving reviews. Of course. He must have heard we needed a guaranteed winner for May book club. That Fred is one thoughtful guy. 

Clearly, we're not letting the fact that we've yet to review The One-in-a-Million Boy or even crack open A Word for Love keep us from movin on to May. Don't worry about us, we'll catch up eventually. We may not be known for our punctuality, but we can be counted on to spy a good read and we've got our book-lovin eyes on Beartown.  

While Backman's other offerings have all been good, none have left me feeling Ove-level love. If Amazon's Adrian Liang is to be believed, Beartown may be the one to do just that:  "Masterful in its storytelling and honesty, this is another winner for Backman, surpassing even his much-lauded A Man Called Ove." 

Posted by Rachel

Friendship Is Constant In All Things

“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.” ― Groucho Marx

Our intern is on sabbatical. And I’ve just returned from a quick road trip to Vegas to see Rachel and John Mayer—both keep me where the light is.  Thirty minutes from now World Book Day and the Bard’s birthday will officially end.  Not before I have something to say about it. 

Hemingway said “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” Clearly, Ernest never met Rachel or some of my other faves.  But I feel you Hemmy.  I just finished The Bartender’s Tale yesterday and already I’m missing the flinty Montana bartender, Tom Harry. I feel like I know him and his likeable boy Rusty. I’m going to miss Tom’s wisdom—to learn from the worst of [his] past rinsed away by the passage of time.” So sad to see my friends go. I had to remind myself of one important truth when I felt semi-verklempt as the sun set on Gros Ventre and the Medicine Lodge: if I miss my quiet friends, I can access them. Easily. They will always be there for me.  

On a day meant to celebrate authors, illustrators, books and glorious reading, I’m up late night to say I’m grateful for fictitious friends, new and old. And for all the ones I’m sure to make at future dates.  How awesome is that? 

Posted by Tracy

Throwback Thursday

“My grief had been plain and unpoetic, and the hole in my heart would’ve grown wide enough and deep enough to consume me had my mother and grandmother not kept me with them, and still.”

Couldn’t agree more with Rachel regarding the book club conundrum.  Sometimes you trade good reads for good friends and good eats. Of course, if you can pick a winner every month you’ve got the whole world in your hands. Seeing as it’s Thursday and I’m thinking about winners, let’s throw it back to a legitimate prize.

Oprah Winfrey did not introduce me to Kaye Gibbons. (She chose a few of Gibbon’s novels for her insanely popular book club.) Finding Gibbons was more roundabout for me. It was part luck, part inquiry, and I imagine the larger part was grace. Reading her novels was a window into her soul; in fact, her authenticity and utter honesty make her books the best policy.  

While I have taught her award-winning debut novel Ellen Foster in some of my university writing classes, I’m recommending Gibbons’ fourth novel tonight: Charms for the Easy Life.  Charms makes me think that southern women are privy to secrets of life that we all need to unlock. Sophia, Margaret, and Charlie Kate are uniquely independent women who share the same DNA and progressive off-beat lives in a world where men almost always provide for women.  Supported by Charlie Kate’s medical practice of her own making, this all-female family develops an imperishable bond as they each experience love and heartache during World War II. The Birches remind me that despite difficulties, I should embrace life even if unorthodox methods are required to do so. I want to live like Charlie Kate: with my boots on, good books and family close by, and the ability to ditch convention when called for…oh, and to live free from regret. So glad you and I met, Kaye Gibbons. 

Posted by Tracy

My Kind Of Book Club

"I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down." —Edgar Allan Poe

You and me both, Edgar. Which is why book clubs and I have a complicated relationship. Gathering with good friends to talk books and eat yummy food? I've got nothin but love for that. Feeling compelled to read books I have zero interest in? Meh. Which is why I've been book-club-free for the better part of a decade and mostly happier for it. But dang. Sometimes I miss those nights with the girls, especially when we all loved a book. And of course, the food.

So imagine my glee upon learning there's a way I can have my cake and eat it too (literally). Word has it there's a new book club in town called the Any Book Club. Here's the skinny: you get together, you eat (if that's optional for you we can't be friends), and you talk books...just not the same book. Instead of discussing one book you've all read, you each show up with a recent read and share what you loved (or hated) about it. If a book someone shares sounds good to you, you add it to your TBR list. Brilliant! No guilt if you don't want to read a book someone picks. No putting up with a read you can put down. You read what you wanna read when you wanna read it and you all stay friends. And you eat cake. Sign me up.

Posted by Rachel