We Loved It All

Finished February 23

We Loved It All: A Memory of Life by Lydia Millet

This is the first nonfiction book by the author and is very hard to classify as it includes so many different things. While Millet has written several works of fiction, she has also had a long career at the Center for Biological Diversity, advocating for wildlife and climate change preparedness. 

This book mixes her personal memories with scientific facts, vignettes of animal and plant interactions with humans, and thoughts about life in general. 

The book is split into three sections, and she works to show our connections to others' experiences, and to life beyond the human. You can feel her emotions around many of these elements. Paragraphs within sections jump from the personal to the other elements, and sometimes feel like an expression of a stream of consciousness, with one thought leading to another. 

There are many things here that reminded me of my own memories of interactions with nature, and that revived knowledge I forgot that I had. There are also times where she taught me something new. This is a book that is hard to rush through, that one needs to sit with, and take time to examine one's reactions and thoughts. 

Goodbye, Again

Finished January 15

Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations by Jonny Sun

This lovely collection of writing gets very personal as Jonny explores his past, his relationships, and his present. He covers personal issues of loneliness, depression, anxiety, and burnout. He thinks about where home is, and coming back to places that you once lived in and don't fit into the same way anymore. This includes looking at the idea of belonging, and how relationships change when you venture in different directions. 

He examines paying attention to the details of his surroundings and I particularly loved the series of essays on his experiences with houseplants. 

He is funny, wry, and vulnerable. Some of the essays here are a single sentence, that really makes you think like 'Visiting'. Others, like many of the houseplant ones include his illustrations. One is done as a series of cels, like a comic strip. 

The essays are organized into sections: Goodbye; Go Slow; Take Care; Hello; Hello, Again; and Goodbye, Again. 

I took my time reading this as his writing is so relatable that I could find many things that moved me and that made me think about my experiences and my life. 

A great read. 

Somewhere Towards the End

Finished April 28

Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill

This is a collection of essays about various subjects around aging. It was an absolute delight to read. Written by Athill when she was eighty-nine (she lived to the age of one hundred and one) she has personal reflections on many topics. Athill was an editor and writer and her skill with words shines through here. 

She talks about relationships, sex, children, friendships, gardening, drawing, reading, writing, and health. She isn't afraid to be honest about her feelings, her mistakes, or her life choices. This book won the Costa biography award and I found it a joy to read. 

She lived a full life, and took joy in many things, and her attitude is refreshing. There are sixteen pieces here, with a postscript that I loved. 

My Life as a Villainess

Finished February 25

My Life as a Villainess by Laura Lippman

This collection of  fifteen personal essays covers many aspects of Lippman's life, from her later in life motherhood to her time as a rookie reporter in Waco, Texas to the wonder of reheating leftovers in a double boiler. 

The book is organized into four sections, each with a few essays, along with an introduction that tells us how she came to write personal essays in the first place. I came to this book having enjoyed her fiction and found myself quickly enjoying her open style when discussing different aspects and events in her life. As she says in the introduction, there are portions of her life not covered here, but what she has included is interesting and relatable. 

Her opening essay is on the mental struggle for women between the body they have and the body society tells them they should have. It's magnificent. 

The essays aren't in chronological order about her life, but are grouped roughly into four sections where they feel that they belong with each other. 

I read this book one essay at a time, taking breaks between them and found them emotionally moving and reminding me of aspects of my own life. 

Belonging

Finished June 10

Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship by Adrienne Clarkson

This set of essays / lectures was the CBC Massey Lecture series of 2014. The first essay talks about the circle we live in, with us at the center, widening to our immediate family, our community, and continuing. There was a line here that I found really spoke to me:

If we concern ourselves with the idea that we exist because others exist, that we are in a web of human relationships, then we understand our individualism in a different way from that of the solipsist. Individuals are no independent of each other. We have individual rights, but we also have duties to others

She goes on to look at this idea of circles in different cultures, from the North American indigenous cultures to the evolution of Eygalieres, a village in southern France, She refers to a 13th century experiment by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who wanted to see what humans natural language was, without outside influence, but instead discovered that humans need the interplay of human contact to survive. She also talked about how we create identity, using the story of Martin Guerre as an example of recreating oneself.

The second essay begins with the idea of Greek democracy. Clarkson talks about the difference between acting as a private individual and acting in or for the state. The price of belonging to a state meant that a citizen's rights were subject to being taken away if the community felt its values or status were threatened. She notes that the Athenian rights were a privilege granted by their fellow citizens as a community. This leads to the freedom to speak, whether in the Athenian forum, in our own Parliament, or in other public venues. "At best, citizens belong to each other because they trust each other, and that trust is the key to all political functioning and fundamental to our modern notions of what a society can be." She emphasizes that Athenian democracy was not a utopia. Slavery was a reality, and women and men not born in Athens could not be citizens. One idea that I found important here was: 

To be able to belong and yet able to criticize -- to  disagree, to withdraw consent -- is quintessential to belonging, and it is a fundamental notion that has been carried down to modern times. But it must always be remembered that to subjugate all your selfhood, ideas, inclinations, and emotions in order to be part of a collective is not belonging. This kind of sacrifice to others in the group is conformity and, carried to an extreme, bondage. Belonging, in its truest sense, means understanding the nature of the connections between one another -- the very nature of interconnectedness. It can never mean dominance or submission.

She continues to the modern ideal of France with its "liberty, equality, and fraternity" and how the French Revolution influenced that. Quoting Edmund Burke who critiqued some of the worst aspects of that Revolution "liberty is secured by equality of restraint . . . another name for justice. Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither is . . . safe." Burke believed that when building a new society shouldn't start from nothing, but should take the best of the past as a foundation for the future. The good that came out of the revolution was the idea of personal responsibility. Clarkson talks about the differences between the ideas of citizenship in Athenian democracy and now in present day Canada. She ends with a quote from Margaret Laurence who urged us "to feel, in your heart's core, the reality of others." I really like that as a basis for living a good life, that we work for the benefit of and with the coordination with others. 

The third essay deals with the cosmopolitan ethic of belonging in Canada. From her own personal connection to the Chinese head tax, and about how it didn't fit with her experience. As she says, it isn't the laws that make you feel you belong, but the people. Whether they are people in your school, your work, the organizations you belong to, your neighbourhood, or even people you encounter more casually in the course of your day, it is these other people that make one feel a part of a larger group. She includes a 1913 photograph that states the duties of a citizen, one of which is to work for others and refers to the Icelandic Althing, where annually the citizens met to affirm the rights of all. Clarkson discusses the importance of public discourse, of listening to the ideas of other people, of engaging in conversations. In our private lives, we tend to seek out people like ourselves, who believe in similar things, and have the same experiences. Conversations that deal with larger societal issues can be difficult because they can touch emotions, make us feel threatened, or touch on deeply held beliefs. We must be able to have these conversations through seeking mutual understanding and hearing out the other person. This is something that is less common in our world. We don't do enough real listening and critical thinking about what we hear and read, about what our leaders say, and this idea leads to the importance of civic participation. She says "without every citizen's active participation in maintaining the public good, society cannot be expected to sustain the same benefits and freedoms." Democracy requires our ability to accept and include the Other. Democracy deals with obligations as well as rights. It requires us to be civil and treat each other with respect. Again, it comes down to the people. She also talks about volunteerism, and the large amount of this that we do in Canada. "We don't understand that as a society, we in Canada were always a poor country and that, to a large extent, that poverty created our national character." She compares us to our southern neighbour in terms of immigrants, beginning with terminology. Here we have the term "permanent residents" for those foreigners to come to live here after they've been here a certain amount of time, compared to the U.S. "resident aliens", and that in Canada 84% of immigrants become citizens, compared to 40% in the U.S. The period of engagement as future Canadian citizens work towards that goal is a key step in belonging. She talks about how we haven't until recently talked about much of our history that involved people who weren't white, but how important it is that we do. Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee, and she sees her determination to make this country home in the eyes and actions of later refugees from Roma to Somali people. 

The fourth essay is about ubuntu, a South African philosophy based on the concept that all humanity is connected, that the relationship between an individual and their community is interdependent and mutually beneficial. Clarkson begins with Canada's stance on South Africa's request to rejoin the Commonwealth in 1961, and the declaration that was made a requirement for membership. The South Africa of that time was one that had wandered away from the idea of ubuntu, an ancient value of African tribes. "Ubuntu implies seeing another human being as yourself and treating them as you would treat yourself, with love and respect." It is a way of making a deeper connection with those around us. Ubuntu isn't tied to religion or politics. Some religions have aspects that are similar, such as the Christian "love one another as we are loved by God," but the idea of ubuntu is often disparaged as simplistic and discarded in favour of economic philosophies and the emphasis on individual wants. She gives a lot of statistics on what Canadians believe about who can be a good citizen of our country, which is enlightening in its statements if not its practices. She talks about the failures of Canadians in terms of ubuntu, particularly when it comes to our indigenous peoples, but she also gives examples of where we have lived up to this idea.

The fifth essay touches on happiness, about how we treat people affects outcomes. Examples such as treating newcomers to Canada as if they will stay and become citizens leads to that happening most of the time, and the idea of acting "as if" is an important one in terms of creating happiness. She discusses Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness which is based on the Buddhist concept of interdependence. They believe that an ethical and moral life would bring genuine happiness, a happiness that is based on living well and acting well. There is also the idea of honour, and its ties to responsibility and a discussion of ethics: "to act ethically is to act outside of any expectation of reciprocity." Another part of gross national happiness is tolerance, which is something that has been a deep-rooted practice here at the human level, despite some of the official decrees. The fourth part is perseverance, which encourages us to think long-term. Some examples of this are the Manitoba Access Program and changes regarding our natural environment. When we harvest, we need to think about sustainability Clarkson says that Canada is a nation of immigrants, with a history that includes a collection of diverse traumas. Wherever we have come from, there were events that led us to this country, so the past matters, but it should not define our future. "A life defined by loss is not worth living." This discussion takes us back to the circle through the words of John Kelly who says the circle grows as "Canadians of all colours and religions are entering that circle" Clarkson ends with the idea of the paradox from the series title, that "we are most fully human, most truly ourselves, most authentically individual, when we commit to the community."

This is a book that I read slowly, stopping to think about the ideas raised and how they reflected in my own experiences. Definitely worth reading. 

The Wave in the Mind

Finished June 3

The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on The Writer, The Reader, and The Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin

I've been reading this book slowly, savouring it. Le Guin was such a great writer, and this book has her not only writing, but talking about the process, the craft, and how reading is a relationship we have with a book. She also, naturally, talks about being a woman doing these things, and some of her writing in that area makes me think of Rebecca Solnit on that subject. 

The personal essays at the beginning of the book captured me and made me want to share them with a cousin that also enjoyed this author. She's so much funnier than I expected. The first piece, Introducing Myself, which was written to be performed, is absolutely wonderful. One quote: "As a matter of fact I think sex is even more boring as a spectator sport than all of the other spectator sports, even baseball."

Her second essay, Being Taken for Granite, has obvious humour right from the title and yet is thoughful and profound again right along with the humour. The next essay, Indian Uncles, gives some insight into her background and her parents, and the environment she grew up in. All of that is helpful in understanding in how she came to be the person she was. The essay My Libraries shows her feelings about libraries and what she values about them. She says a public library "must be available to all who need it, and that's everyone, when they need it, and that's always." The next piece is one she wrote for a magazine when she was asked to write about a favourite island. She had to think about it a while and finally chose Sauvie island on the Willamette river, where it enters the Columbia river. She gives some history of it, but talks about what makes it special and how it has, so far, defended itself against being spoiled in how it is used. The last essay in this section, called On the Frontier, was also written for a magazine, and talks about frontiers, physical and mental. 

The next section is called Reading and contains pieces about other writing, from Tolstoy to Borges to Mark Twain. I enjoyed her insights into these authors and their writing. There is also a very interesting piece in this section on rhythm in writing, both in poetry and in prose, and another about rhythmic patterns in the Lord of the Rings books. She also has a piece about reading poetry out loud, and I always like to read poetry out loud if I can, so that really connected with me. 

The third section of the book is called Discussions and Opinions. Many of the pieces here also touch on reading and writing. The first essay looks at narrative and the differences in fiction and nonfiction. The next piece was one that discussed awards and gender and started with an experience where a jury that consisted of three women initially picked only women  for the short list, and the discussion and actions that followed that. This experience drove her to amass some statistics on literary awards and the results were quite eye-opening. This naturally led into the theme of the next essay which looked at genetic determinism and a critique of the naturalist E.O. Wilson and his writing. The next essay talked about feet, and what we do to our feet in the name of beauty. Again, some thoughtful ideas emerged here. This was followed by another essay that touched on ideas of beauty, this time about pets (dogs and cats) and dancers. This essay talked about how we see ourselves and the beauty we see in those we care about that isn't what people who don't know them see. The essay that followed this one, again talked about beauty, and connected it back to the idea of rhythm, both in writing and music, and that made me think of these things differently. This is followed by the essay Telling is Listening, a discussion of communication. Not just communication between people, but also other creatures, and in indirect ways. She talks about conversation and how reading differs from watching television in that it is a conversation of sorts. She uses a lot of examples when she does this and that helps clarify what she is saying and making it understandable to the reader in real ways. The essay The Operating Instructions talks about literature is the guide to life, a manual on it for those that pay attention.The last essay in this section is a collection of thoughts on oppression, revolution, and imagination, grouped into themes. This essay is named from a quote by Primo Levi where he says "It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end."

The final section of the book is one writing and includes talks that she has given when teaching writing, whether in classes or workshops. There are many things she brings into these discussions: trust, the writer's relationship with their characters, assumptions that writers make about their future readers, and the issues that accompany ego for a writer. She also has a piece dealing with that common question writers get about where they get their ideas from. This essay had a few paragraphs that really connected for me:

    Reading is active. To read a story is to participate actively in the story. To read is to tell the story, tell it to yourself, reliving it, rewriting it with the author, word by word, sentence by sentence, chapter by chapter.... If you want proof, just watch an eight-year-old reading a story she likes. She is concentratedly, tensely, fiercely alive. She is as intense as a hunting cat. She is a tiger eating.

    Reading is a most mysterious act. It absolutely has not been replaced and will not be replaced by any kind of viewing. Viewing is an entirely different undertaking, with different rewards.

    A reader reading makes the book, brings it into meaning, by translating arbitrary symbols, printed letters, into an inward, private reality. Reading is an act, a creative one. Viewing is relatively passive. A viewer watching a film does not make the film. To watch a film is to be taken into it -- to participate in it -- be made part of it. Absorbed by it. Readers eat books. Film eats viewers. 

As an avid reader, that really made sense to me. Later in the same essay she quotes Virginia Woolf about the need to feel the rhythm in a story to write well, and it is from this quote the she gets the title of this book. Woolf says "A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which apparently had nothing to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it."

In the following essay she talks about the impulse to write and how writing comes to her. The last piece is a long poem about writing, which I read several times, getting more from it every instance. 

An amazing book. I borrowed this one to read, but have now ordered my own copy. 

Next Time There's a Pandemic

Finished May 18

Next Time There's a Pandemic (CLC Kreisel Lecture Series) by Vivek Shraya

This book is the written portion of the lecture series which was delivered online in March 2021. The series is sponsored by the Canadian Literature Centre based in Edmonton. The lecture series showcases how writers help us understand the textures of life in Canada. Each year, an established author is invited to speak about an issue that is important to them. It could be something close to their heart, something that is key to their experience, something pressing in the current moment, or a combination of these. Traditionally, the lectures are delivered live, at the University of Alberta, and are aired on CBC through the Ideas radio show, as well as being published in book form. The filmed version of this talk can be viewed on the CLC website. This book also includes a follow-up conversation between Shraya and J.R. Carpenter who created the interactive introduction to the lecture. 

This was the first one to be affected by the pandemic and Shraya brings her wide-ranging skills to the work. She is a multimedia artist, a musician, a writer, and a community leader and transgender.

She begins her lecture by talking about the experience that started her thinking about the subject, an interactions with her massage therapist who expressed a very different experience of the pandemic to that point than what she had experienced. She started thinking about what she would perhaps have done differently if she went through the experience again. Here, she organizes her thoughts into five reflections and talks on each one, expanding her inner thoughts and why she thinks these are important. The five reflections are: stay caring; skip the gratitude and say what you feel; nothing is better than something; value artists; and less surveillance, less judgement, more grace. She also includes a list of commitments she came up with in the early days of the pandemic when she considered how we might live differently after the pandemic, and allows space for you to add your own. Also included here is a song she wrote, called Showing Up. 

Each of the reflections will have you taking time to stop and reflect herself, on her words, on what they convey to you, and on your own feelings and thoughts on that aspect. 

I really enjoyed this read and found it reflective of some of my own experiences. Well worth the read. 

Our Women on the Ground

Finished September 8

Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World edited by Zahra Hankir, foreword by Christine Amanpour

This collection of essays covers experiences in a number of countries over many years. The essays are grouped into five categories by type: Remembrances, Crossfire, Resilience, Exile, Transition. The journalists telling their experiences here range from single women to married mothers, and their educational backgrounds vary as well, with some with journalism degrees and others who fell into the field through opportunity. 

All of the women here care deeply about their home country and the country they reported on, often with the two overlapping. These are women who understand the culture and the people, who learned how to deal with the bureaucracy and the gender limitations, and who persevered in telling the stories that they could tell, trying always to push harder to tell the stories that others didn't want told. 

This is an inspiring collection, one that had me stopping and reflecting on each experience. For me, this was an eye into another culture that helped me understand the world better. 

Crazy Salad

Finished August 10

Crazy Salad by Nora Ephron

This collection of articles dates from 1972 to 1974 and was published in 1975. The articles all have a focus on women or issues relating to women. Some are related to social events of the times, some to politics (there are quite a few around Nixon and Watergate) and some to specific female figures. I really enjoyed the essays, and found many of them were still very relatable nearly fifty years later, which is definitely sad to contemplate. Ephron is a very good writer, and she lets her personality and some of her personal bias come through here, which makes the essays feel more intimate and relatable. Having recently read Dorothy Parker, I particularly liked the essay on her, and I also really enjoyed the two Crazy Ladies ones which speaks to expectations on women and women who defy those expectations. A few of these are reviews and Ephron does not mince words when she doesn't think a book lives up to its buzz. 

Altogether a great collection and one I found both enlightening and engaging.

Little Snow Landscape

Finished May 26 

Little Snow Landscape by Robert Walser, translated by Tom Whalen

This collection of short works by the Swiss writer Walser is organized in chronological order of writing. The first short piece, less than a page, is an ode to his home, and the last item is another longer nonfiction piece on his childhood in his hometown of Biel. In between there are both fiction and nonfiction pieces, some about travelling that he did on foot and by train in both his country and in Germany where he lived for many years. I think these were the ones I enjoyed most.

There are others that seem to be jottings of thoughts, such as "Hats" which looks at both headgear and words related to the German word for hat. 

Some of the fiction is more fantastical and he writes in first person, taking on different characters with unexpected meanderings. There are some references to class, such as servants and employers, workers doing tasks, and decisions made about activities due to financial constraints.

The title story is the enjoyment of venturing out for a walk on a morning after a fresh snow. It is a lovely piece. 

This is a nice book to dip into in those short periods of time waiting for someone or for an appointment.

Without a Guide

Finished June 29
Without a Guide: Contemporary Women's Travel Adventures edited by Katherine Govier

This collection of experiences by women writers, many of them Canadian, ranges widely and shows interesting, not always pleasant experiences by women traveling in the recent decades. Despite the title, there are sometimes guides and sometimes the women are part of a group. But the experiences show the way that the women came to travel in these instances, their decisions and how it affected the experiences that they had.
There are seventeen essays here.
* Hanan al-Shaykh in Cairo with a documentary-making friend
* Margaret Atwood in the Galapagos Islands with her husband, parents, and child as part of a group
* Clare Boylan in London with her mother
* Wendy Law-Yone using marriage to escape Burma and taking her brother with her
* Ann Beattie tagging along with Japanese tourists in San Francisco along with a photographer friend
* Ysenda Maxtone Graham on a misguided trek into the Grand Canyon with a friend
* Katherine Govier in Morocco with her husband
* Bapsi Sidhwa in the remote Black Mountains of Pakistan with her husband and a military guide
* Susan Musgrave in Panama and Colombia with an ex-con drug smuggler
* Robin Davidson across the Outback in Australia with her dog and four camels
* Irene Guilford in the Czech Republic retracing the steps of her Lithuanian refugee mother when she escaped Russian forces following the Second World War
* Michelene Adams revisiting the Jamaica of her birth and finding what she'd thought she'd lost
* Kirsti Simonsuuri visiting northern Finland in the height of winter
* Janice Kulyk Keefer describing her robbery and its aftermath in Spain
* Alice Walker in China with a group of other writers
* E. Annie Proulx on a nightmare train trip from Montreal to Chicago and back
* Carol Shields on a singular encounter on her last day in Japan
As you can see, some wonderful writers here and a wide range of experiences. Well worth the read.

The Portable Dorothy Parker

Finished December 31
The Portable Dorothy Parker edited by Marion Meade, jacket design by Seth

This collection covers Parker's career, containing pieces from 1905 to 1962. The variety is also wide, from letters to book reviews, essays, poems, and short stories. The first part of the book contains a collection Parker published in 1944 under the title The Portable Dorothy Parker consisting of short stories and poetry; and it is followed by a section of other writing ranging in date from 1917 to 1959 and consisting of short stories, essays, book reviews, and magazine articles. The final section, entitled A Dorothy Parker Sampler, ranges from 1915 to 1962 and consists of magazine pieces, letters, an interview and a speech. So, as you can see there is a lot here and because it covers such a wide range, you can see how her voice develops.
She has a wicked, droll sense of humour and isn't afraid to say what she thinks. She has a good eye for situations and can really set a scene. I wasn't that familiar with her writing before I read this, but I really enjoyed it.
This particular edition has endflaps made of drawing showing her attitude, telling her life story, and giving a hint of the contents. These are done by Seth and are really nicely done. This is definitely a keeper and has earned a place on my shelves for years to come.

Montaigne in Barn Boots

Finished April 1
Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles through Philosophy by Michael Perry

In this book Perry talks about his discover of Montaigne's writings, his affinity for many of his musings, and his own take on the philosophical ideas in Montaigne's work. This is an intensely personal book, as he talks about his own moments of doubt and his worries.
I've always enjoyed Perry's books, and this was no exception.
Perry has read Montaigne in translation, but also read many of the critical works about both Montaigne himself and his writings. He cites some of these ideas in his nine essays, as he delves deeper into the ideas of Montaigne.
His essay titles here illustrate the way he brings his own life into the ideas. In the first Reading Like a Chicken, where he talks about pecking his way around Montaigne gives us a glimpse into his approach to his philosophical reading. In Roughneck Intersectionality, he talks about the differences in background between himself and the philosopher and the things they have in common. In Confound the Fool, he talks about the unending quest for understanding human nature. In Shame, he reveals his own angst and failures around expectations and outcomes. In Marriage, he talks about Montaigne's unusual relationship with his wife, and his own marital dynamics. In Amateur Aesthetics he talks about his own cultural influences, the subjective nature of beauty, and about the importance of context. He says

I am free to savor six kale chips and an episode of It's Okay to Be Smart then dive into a tub of Costco Cheese Balls and a four-hour Reno 911 binge-watch. "I now, and I anon, are two several persons," Montaigne once said, the upshot being, the "other people" necessary to achieve the cosmopolitan state of generative tension required for aesthetic fruition sometimes reside within the same body.

something I can definitely relate to. In Kidney Stone Wisdom, he compares Montaigne's experiences with the plague of kidney stones, and his own. While Montaigne talks about his ongoing experiences as a chance to strengthen his character before witnesses, Perry summarizes his less dignified response to the experience and expands it to include other bodily frailties more evident with age, and how some of these have provided edifying lessons.
In Meditating on Faith, Perry discusses his own experiences with religion, meditation and yoga. From his fundamentalist Christian upbringing to his introduction, via his wife, to yoga and meditation, he shows his questioning nature. He talks about the struggles with monkey mind, yet how

Whether it is due to having been raised in a large family or just general wiring, I am able to withdraw deep into my head in nearly all circumstances. As a shy person I sometimes go into public to write, which may seem counterintuitive but in fact self-consciousness is a catalyst for withdrawal. The presence of strangers compels me to lower the louvers and focus directly in on the task at hand.

He ends with What to Do, a summary of what he takes away from reading Montaigne. He says,

It seems that somewhere around my current life stage, people make one of two moves: Some stiffen, dig in their heels, and attempt to block the future; others reinvigorate life by blending it with the spirit of youth. I hope I will -- and I am working to -- bend toward the second. I am not talking here about the embarrassment of an oldster trying to vibe with the kids. Nor am I talking about abdicating principles. I am talking about offering a hand, opening new doors, and sometimes -- when new blood is best -- stepping aside and standing down. 

An edifying and satisfying read.

Pieces of My Mind

Finished December 9
Pieces of My Mind: Essays and Criticism 1958-2002 by Frank Kermode

This collection of essays and criticism turned out to be a lot more academic than I expected, causing me to keep a dictionary nearby to look up various words, and to read it slowly over many months.
Included here are a number of essays, most around books, authors, and artists. Some of them are from presentations given at conferences and other academic events.
There are nineteen long essays on subjects such as Diaghilev; Time and Eternity; Solitary Confinement; The English Novel; Hawthorne; Wuthering Heights; The Man in the Macintosh; Wallace Stevens; Secrets and Narrative Sequence; Botticelli; Cornelius and Voltemand; The Plain Sense of Things; Mixed Feelings; Eros; Memory; Forgetting; Cambridge; Literary Criticism; and Shakespeare and Boito.
There is a section of shorter essays about various people: Raymond Carver; James Lees-Milne; Auden on Shakespeare; Don DeLillo; Martin Amis; Ian McEwan; and Tom Paulin.
All in all it was a very interesting read, but definitely a stretch for me.

McSweeney's 41

Finished April 24
McSweeney's 41 edited by Dave Eggers

The collection of writing here varies widely in nature and setting. Some focus on the characters, such as the first story River Camp, where we have two men, brothers-in-law with very different outlooks on life, who have agreed to take a trip together in the wilderness. Their guide is a real character, and the two men don't exactly get along. The reader sees how they react to a difficult situation, each in their own way.
Another story, American Tall Tale is based on the folk tale of Paul Bunyan, but definitely takes the plot in a direction I hadn't anticipated.
There is also nonfiction included here, such as A Land Rush in Iran, where the author takes a closer look at the changes to one neighbourhood in Tehran over time. Another nonfiction inclusion, What Happens After Sixteen Years in Prison, looks at two sisters convicted for a crime they didn't commit, facing a troubling future when they are finally freed.
Another character-focused story is The Wolf and the Wild, where a man sentenced to community service finds real satisfaction in one of his assignments, but finds that others involved in the project aren't really interested in his ideas.
Stay Where You Are involves a situation with a couple who are traveling and get taken into the forest by a gunman. We see inside their thoughts about the situation and about their crumbling relationship.
Some stories, like Afternoon Street, feel surreal, like we are inside the mind of someone mentally ill or under the influence of something.
The main character in Robot Sex is an advanced robot working an office job and dealing with loneliness.
The book ends with four stories, each by a different Australian Aboriginal author. I think I enjoyed these the most.

Shrewed

Finished March 23
Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls by Elizabeth Renzetti

This collection of sixteen essays covers feminism, advice, and Renzetti's personal experiences. Some of the essay titles are intriguing such as "Tales for Young Witches." Others are instantly relatable, such as "The Voice in Your Head is an Asshole." On the personal side, Renzetti includes a letter to her daughter, a letter to her son, and an essay about her mom, among others. The final essay here is what she would say were she asked to give a commencement address at her school.
There is so much here to love that it is hard to know where to start. Here's a couple of quotes from the essays to give a taste of them.
"Loneliness is a public health crisis."
"At the Museum of American History, the Woolworths lunch counter, site of the Greensboro protest sit-in, stands across the hall from the wagon that delivered the suffragette newspaper The Woman's Daily."
This book made me laugh, it made me sad, and it made me angry. I encourage everyone to read it.

We Should All Be Feminists

Finished January 5
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This short book came out of a TED talk Adichie gave. Adichie uses her own experiences both in Nigeria and elsewhere to show how the way men and women are treated is still not fair for women. She gives examples from her life and from the experiences of others and shows that the attitudes stem from the way we are taught beginning as young children. For things to change, we must not only bring up girls differently, but also boys. We need to reexamine how the things we do as a matter of habit keep these differences alive. She shows how just being aware can help move us further down the road. She gives examples of how men can question other men's actions to change things, to bring that awareness to others.
This is a book that everyone should read, and I also recommend her TED talk.

Cake or Death

Finished February 23
Cake or Death: The Excruciating Choices of Everyday Life by Heather Mallick

I usually enjoy and agree with Mallick's column's in the Toronto Star, so I picked this book of essays up as a treat. Even though it was published ten years ago, it still relates to the world we live in today. From the sad state of American politics (which has only gotten sadder), to housekeeping as a means to managing depression; from a look at memoir trends to the wonderfulness of hotels, Mallick unveils truths about life even as she has us laughing.
Other topics covered her are: an average day's events; luxury catalogs; men blaming women; Britain's decline; France's elegance; fear and its purposes; people she hates; Doris Lessing; memory; how to ignore the unpleasant; urban versus rural; women's looks; things that don't work out; writer's block; what she hates and loves about America; and yes, a recipe for cake.
I love books of essays and this one did not disappoint.

Knitting Yarns

Finished February 2
Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting edited by Ann Hood

This anthology of essays shows a range of experiences with knitting from twenty-seven different writers including both men and women. Most of them knit, but others just enjoy the finished product or the soothing accompaniment of being near a knitter during the process.
There are also six knitting patterns included in the book, all by Helen Bingham: fingerless mittens, a cabled head wrap, coffee cozies, slipper socks, a dog sweater, and a lacy wrap.
I have only ventured into knitting twice as of yet: once for a scarf that my mother finished for me, and once for a too ambitious sweater that still lies unfinished in a box. I did purchase yarn and a pattern for a scarf a couple years ago, but haven't yet tackled it.
I enjoyed the stories here, partly for the knitting, and partly for the window they opened into these writers' lives.
A fun book.

The View from the Cheap Seats

Finished November 18
The View from the Cheap Seats: selected nonfiction by Neil Gaiman, read by the author

This collection ranges over nearly Gaiman's entire career, and is organized into sections. The first section on reading, libraries, and librarians was, naturally, my favourite, but it is interesting overall. There is some repetition when he uses the same experiences in more than one article, introduction, or speech, some of which he recognizes and apologizes for. When it is appropriate, he adds an update on events around the subject that happened since the initial writing was done.
He is a good writer, and he acknowledges those who have influenced him, from other writers to musicians, illustrators, and others.
He talks about or with these people in interviews, introductions to their works, or articles, as well as particular books that he loved or that influenced his life and his writing. Some I'd read, some I'd heard of, and some were entirely new to me. Having him read the book was an extra inducement to listen to the audiobook. He's a good writer, and a good observer, and both those things become obvious in this collection. His love for books also shows here as does the wide range of books he has read.