When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.
You’ve probably read that book sales increased 10% over the last year, and even higher in certain categories such as kids’ books. Audio books! People who weren’t big readers started reading more and big readers went ham.The big question is will it hold. Once people go back to having pool parties and seances, will they still be turning to books? Hard to say. God, I hope so. I meant to read all of Shakespeare’s plays and only read Macbeth and 1/2 of Hamlet. I read The Waves, which took five months. I read a biography of Dorothy Parker. I read half of Obama’s memoir. I read Shuggie Bain, Think Again, Say Nothing, Microbe Hunters, Hidden Valley Road, Homeland Elegies, and Green Lights.
What did you read in lockdown?
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Betsy Lerner 
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock, Satchel Paige by Lawrence Tye and The Overstory by Richard Powers (200 pages to go, but I’m still reading). Also, a couple of short story collections, You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian and another collection centered mostly on a California real estate agent that I can’t remember the name of. It was good, though.
I love when I see books I’ve read in other people’s lists – or books I have in my TBR pile.
I read these:
Consider This (Palahniuk)
Invisible Girl (Padgett Gerler – for a review)
Southernmost (House)
The Bean Trees (Kingsolver)
Witch Hairs (Gamble – for a review)
Betty (McDaniel)
The Summer That Melted Everything (McDaniel)
Miss Jane (Watson)
Knockemstiff (Pollock – fist bump to Mike D)
I have Hidden Valley Road and Shuggie Bain in my stack.
In a pointed effort to cut back on screen time, I turned to books. I read a lot, mostly novels, at least one per week. I reread some of Anais Nin’s diaries and at least 8 – 10 Alice Hoffman novels, as I loved escaping into her stories. Right now I’m reading Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya which is very good.
I’m going to miss lockdown, all those after-hours late nights beneath a dim lamp with a book. And wine. I’m nostalgic already.
I’ve purchased more books this year than I have in a long time. I don’t think I’ll stop.
84 Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury (Helene Hanff) purchased from RJ Julia (they’re great! thank you for writing about them last year.)
Stiff Upper Lip by Lawrence Durrell
The Bridge Ladies – Betsy Lerner
Most of Barbara Pym’s novels
A mess of PG Wodehouse novels
What Are You Going Through and Mitz the Marmoset of Bloomsbury – Sigrid Nunez
Shakespeare for Squirrels – Christopher Moore
Still Alice – Lisa Genova
Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt – Anon Duchess Goldblatt
A few mysteries by Mary Roberts Rinehart, M.C. Beaton, Charles Todd, and Charles Finch
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough
The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell
Bruno’s Dream by Iris Murdoch
A silly number of mid-century English women’s lit because escapism got me through. (Muriel Spark, E.M. Delafield, Margery Sharp, D.E. Stevenson)
Rabbi mysteries by Harry Kemelman
Audiobooks mostly. They keep me company while I’m doing mindless things like weeding and watering the garden.
WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (F) novel
THE PARTY by Elizabeth Day (F) novel
WOMEN TALKING by Miriam Toews (F) short novel
IN A LONELY PLACE by Dorothy B. Hughes (F) (Noir) short novel
THE DAMNED by Nathan Greenfield (NF)
HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD by Ottessa Moshfegh (F) shorts*
FIVE DAYS GONE by Laura Cumming (CNF)
THE ALICE NETWORK by Kate Quinn (F) novel
WHAT WE ALL LONG FOR by Dionne Brand (F) novel
AGAINST DEATH (anthology) edited by Elee K. Gardiner (NF) essays 1/2 read
THE LONDON TRAIN by Tessa Hadley (F) novel in 2 parts
LIFE AFTER LIFE by Kate Atkinson (F) novel in pieces*
GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson (F) novel
TRANSCRIPTION by Kate Atkinson (F) mystery novel
BINA by Anakana Schofield (F) novel in warnings (i don’t need to read anymore of this series, i really don’t #gettingonmynerves
GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER by Bernardine Evaristo (F) novel*
LIT by Mary Karr (NF) memoir
CITY OF FIRE by Garth Hellburg (F) fucking long novel that i will finish if it fucking kills me. PS i still haven’t finished it. gah. i will never finish it. defeated.
HALF-BLOOD BLUES by Esi Eduygan (F) novel (re-read)
SERVANTS OF THE MAP by Andrea Barrett (F) shorts; but long shorts with a historic/scientific bent
OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk (F) short novel re-read
TRANSIT by Rachel Cusk (F) short novel*
THE ART OF MEMOIR by Mary Karr (NF) (Craft)*
KUDOS by Rachel Cusk (F) short novel
RULES OF CIVILITY by Amor Towles (F) novel*
WHEN EVERYTHING FEELS LIKE THE MOVIES by Raziel Reid (F) short novel
SHUT UP YOU’RE PRETTY by Tea Mutonji (F) shorts
THE PLAGUE by Kevin Chong (F) novel
HOW TO MURDER YOUR LIFE by Cat Marnell (NF) (memoir) audiobook
THE BOOK OF SALT by Monique Truong (F) audiobook 1/3 read. the narrator wasn’t great
THE WHITES by Richard Price (F) novel
RED AT THE BONE by Jacqueline Woodson (F) novel
THIS IS THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE WILL CATCH FIRE by Nick Flynn (CNF) memoir
NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney (F) short novel
ANATOMY OF STORY by John Truby (NF) craft
WIRED FOR STORY by Lisa Cron (NF) craft
SQUARE HAUNTING by Francesca Wade (NF)*
THE TOPEKA SCHOOL by Ben Lerner (F) novel
BUNNY by Mona Awad (F) novel*
NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER by Kevin Barry (F) novel*
THE SPLENDID THINGS WE PLANNED by Blake Bailey (NF) memoir
THE YELLOW HOUSE by Sarah L. Broom (NF) memoir
LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF THE FATHERLESS GIRLS (memoir) by T. Kira Madden*
VERMIN by Lori Hahnel (F) shorts
* means i like them a lot
rea
Amazing. I’m ordering all the starred books except The Art of Memoir.
Discover the Road Ahead — ed. Amerongen, et al.
Notes on the State of Virginia — Jefferson (ed. Peterson)
The Human Figure — Vanderpoel
The Autobiography — Franklin
Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite — Moliere (trans. Hoeper)
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme — Moliere (trans. Wall)
The Napoleonic Wars: an illustrated history 1792-1815 — Glover
Letters and later writings — Franklin (ed. Lemay)
Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems — Coleridge
The Imaginary Invalid — Moliere (trans. Wall)
Writings — Washington (ed. Rhodehamel)
The Autobiography — Jefferson
Notes from the Underground — Dostoevsky (trans. unknown)
Candide — Voltaire (trans. The Modern Library)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead — trans. Wallis Budge
The Tibetan Book of the Dead — trans. Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup
Songs of Innocence and of Experience — Blake
Writings — Hamilton (ed. Freeman)
The Mantle and Other Stories — Gogol (trans. Field)
Writings — Jefferson (ed. Peterson)
Early Greek Philosophy — Burnet
You Will Never Be Forgotten — South
Collected Stories & Later Writings — Bowles
All We Ask Is You to be Happy — Lou
Black Boy — Wright
Another Country — Baldwin
Getting Away with Torture — Brody
All Quiet on the Western Front — Remarque (trans. Wheen)
The Last Mastodon — Olson
The Theory of the Novel — Lukács (trans. Bostock)
Writing Degree Zero — Barthes (trans. Lavers & Smith)
Yes, King!
The Hidden Reality/The Fabric of the Cosmos/Until the End of Time – Brian Greene
The Order of TIme/Reality is Not What It Seems – Carlo Rovelli
All the President’s Men/The Final Days – Woodward and Bernstein
It Was All a Lie – Stevens
The Honest Enneagram – Case
The Future is Faster Than You Think – Diamandis and Kotler
Under a White Sky – Kolbert
The Return of the Native – Hardy
The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Michael Booth
Unnatural Causes – Shepherd
The Remains of the Day – Ishiguro
Becoming – Obama
The End of the Affair – Greene
How Not to Die/How Not to Diet – Greger
Doing Justice – Bharara
How to Change Your Mind/Cooked/The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – McNamara
Evil Has a Name – Holes and Clemente
The Fifth Risk – Lewis
Homo Deus – Narari
The Queen’s Gambit – Tevis
But What if We’re Wrong – Klosterman
My Cousin Rachel – du Maurier
Persuasion – Austen
Aimless Love – Billy Collins
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry
Magdalene – Marie Howe
Also a bunch of rereading: Malcolm Gladwell is a favorite, and I love that he reads his own audio books in that wonderful cadence. Various cookbooks and skinny books of poetry. I also keep a stack of sweet old Agatha Christie paperbacks by the bed, for when I need a friend.
Beautiful mind.
The Master and his Emissary (reread of a great read)
The Recognitions (1/4 through, gave up)
The Blue Flower (full read, will read again, cried until I was dehydrated)
Hermione Lee’s Bio of Penelope Fitzgerald (again the crying)
Command And Control (Eric Scholsser)
Recent Theories of Narrative (more crying)
The Solace of Open Spaces (gorgeous for the fifth time)
The Silence in the Garden (William Trevor, godawful good with paragraph)
Never Mind (Aubyn sentences dropped jaw three times)
The Man Who Loved Children (Stead, a perfectly-paced and plotted work)
and counting drafting of my own work (three drafts of 180k novel down to a lean 70k novel which may need a structural edit, again the weeps)
Books whose first pages got the book put down:
The Counterfeiters
Brighton Rock
The Flounder
Mother Night
Stories Within The City Of God
A Judgement in Stone
Lie Down In Darkness
Days Without End