Lift Where You Stand, Ladies

“Love is the most powerful and underused force for change in the world.”

I have many feminist icons: the late RBG, Ruby Bridges, and Susan B. Anthony, to name a few. Of course, in true millennial fashion, I gotta throw Beyonce into the prolific mix (#beyhive forever)! Melinda Gates is my latest idol. This woman has done it ALL–completed an undergrad in Computer Science, an MBA, worked her way up the Microsoft ladder through her multimedia material ideas, and more. But what inspires me most about her is how she left behind a life of success and fame at Microsoft to not only raise her family, but to give back to those around the world who need it the most.

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World is not your traditional “girl power” book. It’s not light and fluffy, and it doesn’t leave you feeling all warm inside. Melinda Gates shares insights surrounding the world’s heaviest issues, which requires grappling with the weight of their impact. From the get-go, she shares a story about her dad’s work on rocket ships, and the moment of “lift” when they leave planet Earth. Gates admits that, for decades, she has pondered the idea of “lift” in two lights: the first being the traditional religious view, with the idea of lift being Jesus Christ’s grace; the second, however, is through a lens of curiosity. It revolves around the idea of learning more about those in different positions of life, and how that can propel us to become our best selves. The philanthropist with a big heart shares hundreds of stories that are both gut-wrenching and motivating. It sounds cliché, but I put the book down and felt inspired to make the world a better place.

The Moment of Lift is a solid 5 out of 5 stars for me. You should know it’s not for the faint of heart. Some of the stories are absolutely devastating and heartbreaking, but the results are crystal clear—when communities focus on helping women, regardless of the scenario or circumstances, societies become a better place for all to live. I’ve been raving about this book non-stop. Grab yourself a copy right away. (And here’s a nice little bonus: book proceeds are donated to the organizations discussed in the book. Giving back and a good read all in one!)

P.S. If you get hooked like I do…Gates shares some of her important ideas in a Netflix episode of “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.” Great date night activity or pick-me-up after a long day.

Posted by Michelle

Still Playing Favorites in 2020

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes…Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever. “ —Neil Gaiman

It’s no secret I’m a Neil Gaiman fan, and not just because he’s given me permission to make mistakes. Having Covid symptoms for the whole of January and beyond felt like one giant mistake. (C19 hammered Rae too.) Not posting my 2020 faves, while a bit of a blunder, has got me thinking it’s not too late to bring on the thunder.

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR

I’m still in Never Never Land over Maggie O’Farrell’s stunner Hamnet. If you are curious as to why Shakespeare titled his most famous play after his only son who died at age 11, you’ll want to check out Mag’s theory. If that’s never been a source of curiosity, don’t worry—O’Farrell’s poetic pages ultimately deal with hope and healing. And who couldn’t use a bit more of those soothing remedies right about now? Click here for my review.

FAVORITE MEMOIR

This remarkable real-life story about a girl, her grandpa, and soul-saving honeybees will stay with me for a good long while. I’ve given this book to more than a dozen friends. No lie, it’s the bee’s knees. You can read all about it here.

FAVORITE THRILLER(S)

American Dirt has been called a “romance thriller”; regardless, it’s a page turner. This novel about Mexican immigration will change the way you think and feel. What an eye opener. (And heart stopper at times.) Check out my review here.

I sent Rachel The Dry ages ago. It was The Lost Man that made me an instant Jane Harper fan. In the middle of the pandemic, I devoured The Dry, which solidified Harper as a fantastic storyteller as far as I’m concerned. And Stephen Shanahan’s voice is pure silk. (This selection could easily fall under Favorite 2020 Listen.) Check out Rachel’s awesome review here!

FAVORITE LISTEN

What did Rachel say? “My list, my rules.” I’m going to let you choose which audible narrator is better—Richard Armitage or Juliet Stevenson. Good luck with that! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to The Jane Austen Society and our book club selection, Wuthering Heights. Both listens constituted classic lit ear candy. You can read all about them here and here.

 Posted by Tracy

Hope Springs Eternal

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” —The Shawshank Redemption

As a lover of historical fiction, I could hardly wait for the release of Kristin Hannah’s new book, The Four Winds. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression in the drought-plagued region of Texas known as the Dust Bowl, the story follows Elsa Martinelli’s journey from her beloved homeland in Texas to the promise of a better life in the golden state of California. However, Elsa soon realizes that she’s traded one set of problems for another. In an effort to save her children from starvation and the respiratory illnesses associated with breathing in too much nasty dust, she heads west—only to find herself homeless. In addition to her living woes, Elsa quickly discovers that the state is overrun with impoverished people desperate for work and food at a time in history where minimum wage and labor regulations are non-existent. On top of it all, the migrant workers earn the lowest wages and are treated with indifference and cruelty by the farm bosses.

Elsa’s character is reminiscent of a Jane Austen heroine living in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath era. At one point, I felt like there was too much heartache and struggle woven within Hannah’s pages for me to love them. When I finished the book and thought about Elsa’s story, I realized that her tragic tale was really a story of love and hope. And hope is always a good thing.  

*On a scale of 1 to The Nightingale, I’d give this new release at a definite 8, maybe higher.

Posted by Sharee

Having Fun Isn’t Hard When You’ve Got a Library Card

“Want…is an interesting word. It means lack. Sometimes, if we fill that lack with something else the original want disappears entirely. Maybe you have a lack problem rather than a want problem. Maybe there is a life that you really want to live.”

What if I told you that you had a chance to live your life differently? The Midnight Library’s Matt Haig claims that between life and death, there is a library, full of an infinite number of life stories. Pick the one you want to live in, but choose wisely—if you are disappointed with your choice, you’re sent right back to the library. After her overdose, Nora is sent to the Midnight Library to review her life options. A quick look into the Book of Regrets leads her to select from a few “better” options, including lives where she’s an Olympian swimmer or the lead singer of a rock band. Through all of her regrets and life paths, Nora quickly realizes that “the only way to learn is to live.” However, are the “better” life options truly the least disappointing? You may be surprised by Nora’s ultimate choice!

This absorbing book is drawing plenty of attention, and rightfully so. For those of you who love the idea of a magical reset, this one’s definitely for you. (Think “It’s a Wonderful Life.”) Both my mom and I agree that this book is pretty darn close to 5 out of 5 shiny stars. A great weekend read that’s the perfect mix of entertainment and reflection. You’ll be hooked from the beginning – we couldn’t put this feel-good book down!

Posted by Michelle

As Good Luck Would Have It

“A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.” —Irish Proverb

If it’s true a good friend is like a four-leaf clover, then a once-in-a-lifetime friend is like a 56-leaf clover—virtually impossible to find without Heavenly help and born-under-a-lucky-star fortunate to have. I’m sure you’re well aware by now that Rachel is my 56-leaf clover. Today is Rae’s birthday.  I’m celebrating the girl who is a good luck charm, as life is always better with her in it. Her friendship reassures me that the universe may well have my back. And she quietly reminds me, “where there is kindness, there is goodness, and where there is goodness, there is magic.” I see so much magic in you, birthday girl.

Of course, Rae and I believe books are handheld magic. Reading Hamnet (Waterstones’ Book of the Year) at December’s close was a serious source of enchantment for me. And not just because I’m literati. The fictional account about Shakespeare’s son who tragically died at age 11 has made more than a dozen Best Books of 2020 lists. NPR called Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel “timeless.” I have a few adjectives of my own: compelling, lovely, immersive, and illuminating (to name a few), but they feel a little small. Honestly, I can’t wait to read Hamnet again. And I may not wait long. I’m with Dominic Dromgoole, author of Hamlet, Globe to Globe, “I don’t know how anyone could fail to love this book. It is a marvel: a great work of imaginative recreation and a great story. It is also a moral achievement to have transformed that young child from being a literary footnote into someone so tenderly alive that part of you wishes he had survived and Hamlet never been written.” Let’s be honest, it’s a moral achievement to unearth legitimate magic in the year 2020. Bravo Maggie, Bravo. As good luck would have it, we’re readers when you picked up your glorious pen.

Posted by Tracy

Take Me To Church

“When she wants for me things that I don’t want for myself – I am angry that she doesn’t understand me, doesn’t see me as my own, separate person, but that anger stems from the fact that I don’t see her that way either. I want her to know what I want the same way I know it, intimately, immediately. I want her to get well because I want her to get well, and isn’t that enough?”

Happy 2021, my friends. We’re already off to a rough start (cheers!), so let’s keep the books coming. I’m always looking for a way to escape our current reality, even if it means looking into an unstable alternate one.

Every now and then, you have a book that just strikes a chord in your soul. Know what I’m saying? If you haven’t, you will. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi struck four or five chords at the same time for a bittersweet harmony. In the beginning, we jump directly into the life of Gifty, a fifth-year post-graduate neuroscience student at Stanford University, who is attempting to find a “cure” for addictions by getting rats hyped up on Ensure. Shortly after, we learn more about who she is—the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, who moved to Alabama to start a new life before her birth and grew up as the only Black girl in her church and at school. Gifty also reveals to readers early on that her father abandoned her family when she was very young to return to Ghana; her promising high-school athlete brother, Nana, died in her teens from his opioid addiction; and her bedridden mother deals with extreme depression.

Heavy, I know. But the rest of the book is the unraveling of Gifty’s story and her struggles to accept herself and her beliefs. Within the first few pages, Gifty flies her suicidal mother out to the Bay Area to live in her tiny apartment, as she learns from her mother’s pastor that she refuses to leave her bed, eat, or perform any basic living routines besides going to the bathroom. Struggling with mental illness for over 10 years, her mother refuses any assistance—instead, she turns to God for help. Readers then take a deeper dive into each of the traumas, and its effects on both her and her mom, along with Gifty’s lifelong desire to be close to her mom and her wrestle to create and maintain a close-knit relationship.

On top of her issues with her mother, Gifty is also grappling with her belief in God. Raised in a zealous Southern church, she has been (for lack of a better word) scared into believing that God exists. After arriving at Harvard, Gifty soon learns she’s in the minority with her faith in a higher power and begins to question her beliefs and childhood; however hard she may try, there’s always something drawing Gifty back to Deity throughout the book. So where does she take it from here?

 Gyasi is beyond brilliant in both writing style and storytelling. The questions she asked throughout the book caused me immense introspection and reflection on my beliefs and how my past has shaped me into who I am this day. A solid 4 out of 5 stars, this is a book that you do not want to miss.

 WARNING: There are deep depictions of drug abuse, overdose and emotional abuse throughout the book.

Posted by Michelle

Remarkable Jane

“We love Jane Austen because her characters, as sparkling as they are, are no better and no worse than us. They’re so eminently, so completely, human. I, for one, find it greatly consoling that she had us all figured out.” 

Attention Literati! You know who you are—scrupulous readers who crave good prose and don’t mind admitting one bit, “Yep, still doin the English major thing.” Of course, you don’t need to be an English major to adore Jane Austen. (She can feel universal like the need for oxygen, a craving for chocolate, or the pure love of puppies.) If you love Jane Austen (and I know you do), I’ve got a thoroughly charming read for you.

Jane had tons of stuff figured out over 200 years ago. I wonder if that’s why her works are still so relevant today? (You’ll have to join our upcoming book club to find out.) In the meantime, if you’re a Janeite like me, you will love Natalie Jenner’s The Jane Austen Society. Her debut novel is set in the small English village of Chawton, where Jane Austen lived for the final 8 years of her storied life. An unlikely cohort—a doctor, a widow, a farm hand, a Hollywood star, to name a few—band together in an effort to preserve what remains of Austen’s home. Not surprisingly, they forge authentic connections through remarkable Jane. And their common goal of protecting her legacy, amid difficulties of their own, underscores characters that sparkle in their own right, who are no better or worse than each of us.

 p.s. The audible narrator, Richard Armitage, was spot-on!

Posted by Tracy

Mostly Idiots

“It's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.”

“A bank robbery. A hostage drama. A stairwell full of police officers on their way to storm an apartment. It was easy to get to this point, much easier than you might think. All it took was one single really bad idea.  This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.” So says Fredrick Backman in his latest.

In a year full of frustration, anxiety, and a good bit of political idiocy, humorous fiction might just be what we all need. A failed bank heist (it’s difficult to rob a cashless bank) leads to a hostage crisis involving eight anxious and slightly broken people. A robber in need of a getaway runs into an apartment open house where the would-be thief gives new meaning to Stockholm Syndrome. What follows is a whimsical story that uses humor to touch on the more sensitive topics of forgiveness, tolerance, hope, and our innate desire for human connection. Isn’t that what we all crave during these turbulent times? In my opinion, A Man Called Ove remains the crowning jewel in Backman’s writing portfolio, but this heartwarming tale lifted my spirits much in the same way as the loveable curmudgeon Ove. If you’re a Backman fan, you will love his latest offering. If you’re not a fan, I think you soon will be.

Posted by Sharee