What I Read — March 2024
I finished:
The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be by Mark Nepo. This was deep. I think that’s why it took me such a long time to finish it — I needed to take a small bite at a time. Yet I found it encouraging. One quote from the book (page 291): “As I grow older, my wonder widens and softens. As I become more humble, I keep finding that we’re all of the same awakening tribe; forgetting and remembering our way, dropping and picking up the one truth that there is nowhere else to go but here…”
Haruko/Love Poems by June Jordan. Nice lines within her poems, but I didn’t really connect with many of them overall.
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton. I’m a big fan of Edith Wharton. I really enjoyed this novel — about a self-involved woman named Claire who was striving to live in high society and to be known for it, to be known within all the right circles. When she reached a level or goal she desired, she found it wasn’t satisfying and looked desperately around for the next thing that would finally make her completely happy. She was completely unaware that this was a never-ending quest.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This was a fun audio to listen to. I listened to it in order to participate in a book club I recently joined. Main character was a young woman named Marietta who renamed herself Taylor when she ventured away from home and while on the road was ‘given a toddler girl to please take care of’ at some random gas station by a stranger who told her it was her sister’s child, and she could not take care of it. Taylor felt she had no choice but to take the child and attempt to take care of her. The toddler who didn’t speak for some time and whom she called Turtle, turned out to have been abused. Taylor formed a family in the place she settled and within that odd family, Turtle eventually grew out of her shell and begin to thrive. Heartwarming, heart-rending, and funny.
Worthy by Jada Pinkett Smith. The drama around Jada Pinkett Smith — the Smiths — has not bothered me enough to lose interest in her. I am still one of her biggest fans. I am continuously moved and inspired by her honesty and her quest for healing and health. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and love reading about another woman’s journey.
Currently reading: The Runaway by Alice Munro; Hoops (poems) by Major Jackson; Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert; Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern; Bel Canto by Ann Patchett; and random poems because it’s National Poetry Month (Rita Dove, Charles Bukowski, Donald Hall, Terrance Howard, Maya Angelou, etc.)
