Fiction Review: American War

I tend to save December reading for some of the books on my shelf that garnered the most praise and accolades, as well as gifts from last Christmas that I haven't gotten to yet! With a half dozen award nominations and on many Best of 2017 lists, American War by Omar El Akkad fit both criteria. I just finished this stunning fictional debut last night and couldn't wait to write about it.

American War is a historical account of the fictional (I hope) second American Civil War, fought from 2074 through 2095 over the issue of using fossil fuels. The U.S. federal government outlawed their use, while a group of southeastern states decided they'd rather secede than comply - but the U.S. government wouldn't let them. What followed was a war like no other, fought with both official military and a wide assortment of revolutionaries (aka terrorists), plus the use of biological weapons. Everything else about the U.S. changed dramatically as well. Both coasts are underwater (causing a massive inland influx of the population), Florida is now a sea, and a large portion of the Southwest is under Mexico's rule. All of these things are massive changes and events, affecting the whole world, but this novel focuses in on one family in particular, the Chestnuts. Sara T., known since childhood as Sarat, remembers when her family was whole and happy, living in a shipping container home next to the Mississippi Sea, not too far from where New Orleans used to be. She played with her twin sister, Dana, and her older brother, Simon, on the banks of the Mississippi. Then her father was killed in the beginning of the war (through no fault of his own), and as the war on the Texas front crept closer to their home, her mother was forced to leave their home with the children for a refugee camp in Mississippi called Camp Patience. Just six years old when they moved there, Sarat and her siblings grew up under terrible conditions in the camp, living in tents in the mud. As adolescence neared, a mysterious man took Sarat under his wing, and she soaked up the attention and education he provided. Eventually, though, Sarat became an instrument of the war and played a surprisingly large role in it.

This book is powerful and moving and thought-provoking on so many levels. I loved the way the author took a huge national event with international repercussions (one character says, "Everyone fights an American war") and narrowed it down to the perspective of a single family - and often a single girl/woman - to see its effects close up in a very personal way. The details of the war and the state of the United States are eerily reminiscent of issues that we already see on the news every day in the present, so it is a chilling tale that feels like it could really happen. On a personal level, although Sarat grows up to do some horrible things, it's impossible not to like her and feel empathy for her and all that she and her family have gone through. American War explores the effects of war on both individuals and communities in a way that is completely immersive and engrossing. Although this was a bleak read for the holiday season, it does end on a note of hope for the next generation, though it is still clear that the xenophobia that led to the war and all that followed it are still alive and well. This was a powerful, imaginative (yet all too realistic), and compelling debut novel, and I can't wait to see what Omar El Akkad comes up with next.

333 pages, Alfred A. Knopf

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the book on audio. I read this one in print, but from the sample, it sounds like it is also excellent on audio.

You can purchase American War from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

Or you can order American War from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Memoir Review: The Lost Girls

The last book I read for Nonfiction November (though I finished it in December) was another one that had been on my bookcase for a very long time. It was published in 2010, so I figured it had "aged" enough to finally tackle it! As always, I don't know why I waited so long - I thoroughly enjoyed reading all 500+ pages of The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World, a three-way memoir by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner. The three women in their late twenties chronicle the almost-year they spent traveling around the world together.

Chapters alternate between the perspectives of the three authors, and Chapter One actually begins about two years before the actual round-the-world trip when the three of them were on vacation in South America together and made the decision to take the "big trip." At the time, two of them worked for the same women's magazine as writers/editors, and the other worked in television. They had a hard enough time just taking a short vacation (many co-workers told them it wasn't worth the backlog of work they'd return to); taking a full-year sabbatical from their careers seemed crazy. But they dove in and committed to the concept, and found themselves, two years later, heading back to South America to begin a trip around the world, giant backpacks slung on their backs. Yes, as young women early in their careers, this was not to be a luxury tour, but a bare bones classic global backpacking experience, staying mostly in hostels and sticking to a budget. Each chapter of the book explores in detail the place they were visiting, from Peru to Kenya to Laos to Australia, with many other stops along the way, but this isn't just a travelogue. Each woman's chapter, both at home and later, on the road, gives some insight into her own personality, relationships, goals, and life. In this way, they highlight not only what they saw and did but also how the trip changed them, and the impact it had on each of them and their relationships with each other, too (spoiler: the trip made them dedicated lifelong friends).

I really loved this book, both for its armchair-traveler appeal and for the same reason I like all memoirs: the personal made universal. It was of particular interest to me since I am also a freelance writer, working with magazines some of the time and doing some travel writing (one of the women was a freelancer by the time they took the trip), so the inside view of the publishing world was fascinating to me. When it comes to travel, each of them really digs into the details of the trip - what they did, who they met, what they ate (an essential aspect of travel for me!), and wonderful descriptions of the exotic locales. They include everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and are honest about each of their low moments, as well as the life-altering highlights. I love to travel but rarely have a chance to leave the U.S., so I loved reading about their adventures. My favorite part of the trip was the month that they volunteered at a girls' school in Kenya, with the relationships they made there, and the impact they had on the young girls they interacted with. All three of them are excellent writers, with engaging narratives in a personal essay-type style. Although the book is fairly long at more than 500 pages, it easily kept my attention, and I got to know each of the women and appreciate the way the three different perspectives were woven together. I know I couldn't even begin to handle a trip like they took with my health problems, but they certainly gave me the travel bug, and I am ready to explore!

525 pages, Harper

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

You can purchase The Lost Girls through an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:


Or you can order The Lost Girls from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Books for Christmas!

I hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season and that those who celebrate it enjoyed a Merry Christmas! Here is my annual round-up of the books that my book-loving family exchanged for Christmas yesterday - quite a haul!

First, I received, from my son, my mom, and my husband:

• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (a classic I've been meaning to read for years)
• Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson (a favorite author)
• Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (another favorite!)
• The Official Scrabble Dictionary (my mom and I love to play Scrabble together)
• And, not a book, but a set of classic Hitchcock movies from my husband because I just watched my first Hitchcock (Rear Window) last year!

We gave our son:

• The Rose and the Thorn by Michael Sullivan (book 2 in The Riyria Chronicles - he just finished book 1 and loved it...almost bought book 2 three days ago for himself!)
• Defender by Robert J. Crane (book 1 of The Sanctuary series)
• Pithy Seedy Pulpy Juicy by Hilary B. Price (a book of cartoons - she draws Rhymes with Orange in the newspaper, with is very Far Side-like)

And, from my son and I, my husband got a big stack of his favorite thrillers:

• Edge by Jeffrey Deaver, a stand-alone novel (not part of the Lincoln Rhyme series)
• Live to Air by Jeffrey L. Diamond
• The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
• Past Tense by Lee Child
• Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

That should keep him busy for awhile!!

And I gave my mom two of my all-time favorite novels ever: Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver.

So, it was a happy and bookish Christmas here! Hope it was for your family, too!

Books Read in November

Last of fall color & crisp blue sky in November

Whew, it's taken me awhile to catch up reviews from November because of the holiday season, my illness flaring up, and especially...because I read so many books last month! Here's what I finished in November (links are to my reviews, where available):

• How To Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather (MA) - teen/YA novel on audio
• Flawed by Andrea Dorfman (Canada) - graphic memoir
• Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees by Olivier Kugler (Iraq, Greece, France, UK, Germany) - graphic nonfiction - reviewed for Shelf Awareness

• Seven: In the Lane of Hope by Michal J. Marini (DE) - memoir
• Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka (MA) - teen/YA graphic memoir
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (South Africa) - memoir on audio

• Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh - essays
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (GA) - nonfiction
• On Two Feet and Wings by Abbas Kazerooni (Turkey) - memoir on audio

• The Lyme Solution by Darin Ingels, ND - nonfiction
• Happiness Is a Choice You Make by John Leland (NY) - nonfiction on audio
• Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley (NY) - essays

  
Yes, that's right - I read 12 books in November! That is an all-time record for me. Now, granted, three were graphic novels and very quick reads, and I crammed in four audio books, but that is still a big accomplishment for me. Not only that but I crushed Nonfiction November, with 11 of those 12 books nonfiction (the novel was a leftover from October that I finished in early November). I read almost all fiction normally, so this was a nice change for me. I enjoyed every one of them. The four audio books were especially good and have all stayed with me, long after I finished them. Both Hey, Kiddo and Escaping Wars and Waves were very powerful and unique graphic-novel style books. I guess Born a Crime would be my top book of November, but it's a close race!

Progress in 2018 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Reading Challenge - I added 5, bringing my total-to-date to 31 (and I think I should get extra credit for finally reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil after 20+ years on my shelf!). 

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - November was Family month, and Seven: In the Lane of Hope was a family memoir.  

Back to the Classics Challenge - Gift From the Sea counted as a 20th century classic, published in 1955.

2018 Badass Books Challenge - nothing new added
  
Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge - I added Iraq, Greece, France, UK, Germany (all in one book!), plus South Africa and Turkey.

2018 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added Georgia and Delaware (it's rare to find books set in our tiny state)

Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month. I filled in 22 squares in November - an excellent Bingo month for me (though impossible to get "set in the future" or "magical abilities" when you are reading all nonfiction!)

Spaces filled in:

How to Hang a Witch - in a series, baking/cooking, mysterious character, bad boy actually good
Flawed - free book, graphic novel
Escaping Wars and Waves - read a physical book, travel/distance, start over/new beginning
Seven - family gathering, feast, sports
Hey, Kiddo - not in a series, married couple, sassy/sarcastic character
Born a Crime - library book, pet, brown on the cover
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - shelf love, made into a TV show or movie

What was your favorite book read in November?   

Nonfiction Review: The Lyme Solution

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that Lyme disease is an important subject for my family and that I've had a rough few months lately, with my own Lyme recurring and triggering my immune disorder to go crazy. My oldest son has the same immune disorder, plus Lyme disease and two other common tick infections as well. So, I took advantage of my recent infirmity to read a book I bought back in September: The Lyme Solution: A 5-Part Plan to Fight the Inflammatory Auto-Immune Response and Beat Lyme Disease by Darin Ingels, ND, FAAEM. Although I thought I knew a lot about treating tick infections, after 10 years of battling them in our family, I learned even more reading this book, and it led us to try a new treatment approach.

While Lyme disease itself is a bacterial infection (not all tick infections are bacterial) that is often treated solely with antibiotics, the situation is far more complex than that. If you only have Lyme and no other tick infections (there are at least a dozen common ones, some more common than Lyme in certain regions) and you were lucky enough to catch it and get diagnosed very early, then a month or two of antibiotics might be enough to eradicate the infection. However, that is rarely the case. So-called co-infections are often present, and many people have difficulty getting an accurate diagnosis. Cases like ours are not uncommon, where people battle tick infections for years, decades, or even a lifetime, and these infections can be devastating and very debilitating, even leading to permanent neurological damage if left untreated. Ingels explains all of this in his introductory chapters, including the challenges of diagnosis, the limits of antibiotic therapy, and the complex effects that these infections have on our bodies, including our immune systems.

The bulk of the book details Ingel's 5-part plan:

1. The Gut Protocol That Restores Your Immune System
2. The Lyme Solution Immune-Boosting Diet
3. Prevent and Target Active Infection
4. Hidden Toxins in Your Surroundings
5. More Sleep, More Exercise, Less Stress

 As you can see, much of it deals with supportive therapies that help to improve the immune system and reduce inflammation, so your own body can better fight off these complicated infections. In the treatment chapter, Ingels recommends various herbal protocols (which is what we now use after too many years on antibiotics). Finally, he addresses chronic Lyme (a category we certainly fit into!) and advanced protocols and also includes plenty of recipes and other guidance for his immune-boosting diet.

I was impressed that Ingels' introductory information on tick infections was mostly accurate; believe it or not, this is a rarity with these complex diseases. He does a good job of explaining why Lyme disease is so hard to get rid of, the ways that it affects all parts of the body, the role of both antibiotic and herbal remedies, and why it is so difficult to get an accurate diagnosis. I would have liked more attention paid to co-infections since these are almost always a factor and quite often the reason why someone being treated just for Lyme disease isn't getting well. He does mention the other common tick infections briefly in a few sections but does not address their specific symptoms and treatments in detail.

We were already addressing gastrointestinal issues, diet, and inflammation, though his information added to my body of knowledge. What was most valuable to me in this book, though, was his review of various herbal protocols. I learned that the one my son has been on for almost five years is considered too potent for many people and often causes a severe negative reaction (known as a Herx reaction) - this was a lightbulb moment for me since that has been exactly my son's experience! In addition, my own treatment with this same protocol has clearly not been 100% effective, since my Lyme goes into remission but then keeps recurring every few years, as it did this fall. So, based on what I read in this book, we checked with our Lyme specialist (LLMD) and then switched both of us to a different protocol that is supposed to be gentler and cause less of a reaction. After 3-4 weeks, we are both still reacting moderately to it and so are taking it much, much slower than what Ingels recommends in this book, but I am hopeful that this new approach will help my son to improve further to a new level of functioning and help me to finally get rid of my own Lyme for good. My copy of the book is filled with Post-It notes and tabs, and I learned a lot from it. The Lyme Solution is an excellent starting point if you or someone you love has tick infections (or if there is an undiagnosed condition that might possibly be related to tick infections, as so many are misdiagnosed at first), whether you are new to this topic or, like us, have plenty of hard-won experience.

359 pages, Avery (an imprint of Penguin Random House)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book.

Purchase in print, e-book, or audio from Amazon:


Or you can order The Lyme Solution from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Teen/YA Review: How To Hang a Witch

I think the title of today's review book makes it clear just how far behind I am in writing reviews! I began listening to How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather back in October, as the perfect end to my two months of spooky reading for the RIP Challenge this fall. I finished this intriguing teen/YA novel that mixes history and fantasy in early November. I'm glad I finally found time to review it because I really enjoyed it.

When Samantha's father is moved to a special hospital near Boston because of his lengthy coma, Samantha and her stepmother move into an old family house in Salem, to be closer to her dad. Their last name is Mather (yes, descended from the infamous Mathers who were involved in the Salem Witch Trials), and her father grew up in this house but hadn't been back there in decades, so Samantha has never seen it. When Samantha starts going to her new high school in Salem, she runs into trouble right away. There is a group of teens at school who call themselves the Descendants because their ancestors were among the women who were victims of the witch trials. They dress all in black and are immediately hostile to Samantha whose ancestors were on the wrong side of history. Things aren't much better back at home in her father's childhood house, where a handsome but angry ghost is not happy that Samantha has moved into his sister's old room and is touching her things. Before long, what starts as minor pranks and meanness aimed at Samantha and the Descendants turns deadly, and the enemies must band together before their town succumbs to another period of trauma and death. Samantha begins to figure things out with the help of her ghost friend, some historical research, and old diaries she finds in a hidden room of the house, as well as the kindness and help of the next-door neighbors, a cute guy who goes to her school, and his mom, who was her dad's childhood friend.

Notice that the author of this novel is also a Mather, and yes, descended from those same Mathers. Her own family history led her to research details of the Salem Witch Trials and incorporate them into her modern YA novel. She is also an actress, and that shows in her story, filled with dramatic twists and turns. This book was perfect for October, with witches and a ghost, too, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on audio. The tension builds as the mysteries surrounding Salem and its famous history grow. It's a complex, suspenseful, dark mystery steeped in real-life history that is packed with surprises.

368 pages, Ember
Listening Library

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audiobook.

You can purchase How to Hang a Witch from an indie bookstore, either online or locally, here:


Or order How to Hang a Witch from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 12/17! What Are You Reading?

Whoa, December 17 already, and Christmas is just over a week away! How did that happen? My past week was mostly filled with holiday prep. I set aside my writing work almost entirely last week to finished ordering gifts, and I spent most of my time putting together my annual year-end DVD of photos and music for my family. It's a lot of work, but it means a lot to me to have that keepsake of the year and to DO something with all my photos! I am almost finished now - just previewing it and then hopefully tonight I can burn the DVDs. My goal is to get all of them (plus photo calendars) in the mail to far-flung family members by Wednesday. Then, I just need to wrap gifts, send cards, finish a few last end-of-year writing tasks...whew! Busy, busy!

I also hit some milestones last week health-wise, with my first time in the grocery store and my first walk around the block in more than two months...though I overdid a bit and had a couple of down days, too - baby steps! I'm not quite back to my normal baseline after that big flare-up of my chronic illness, but I am getting there, bit by bit. I even made it to my husband's office holiday party on Saturday evening for a couple of hours.

We always have time for books, even when we're busy! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

• I finished reading The Light Years, a memoir by Chris Rush that is due out in April. It's a moving, powerful, funny story of a seriously warped childhood among the drug culture of the 1960's and early 1970's. I am hoping to review it and interview the author.
• Now, I have turned my attention back to fiction, with another review book, Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen. When I read the synopsis of this twisty time travel story wrapped up in family drama, I begged my editor to send it to me! It's like this novel was written for me, with all of my favorite fiction elements, about a man in the future who is part of a time-traveling law enforcement team. He is on a mission to 1996 when he gets left behind and stuck there. Eventually, he lets go of his old life in 2142, finds a job in IT, marries a woman, and they have a daughter together. Eighteen years pass, and the Retrieval team finally comes back for him. He goes back to his own present (where he's only been gone two weeks), but he barely remembers his fiance and his old life. When he finds out that his daughter is in peril in the past, he has to figure out how to save her. IT'S SO GOOD!!!
• I finished listening to Release by Patrick Ness, a teen/YA novel narrated by a gay teen whose father is a hardcore evangelical pastor. The novel all takes place in a single day - possibly the worst day of Adam's life, when everything that could go wrong does. It's completely engrossing, and I enjoyed it very much, though I'm not sure I totally "got" the parallel fantasy/afterlife story woven into it.
• Now, I am listening to Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. I loved her novel LaRose (which I also listened to on audio), and this one also deals with the Ojibwe tribe, but with a completely different story. It's about a pregnant woman named Cedar who was born Ojibwe but adopted and raised by a kind white couple, but it's all set against an apocalyptic background where time seems to be moving in reverse, causing all kinds of problems in animals, plants, and humans. It is suddenly rare to have a normal pregnancy or birth, so when Cedar's doctor sees that her ultrasound looks normal, he advises her to hide. It's a strange story but very compelling, and I love listening to Erdrich read her own novels on audio. 
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the king of entertaining narrative nonfiction. He says this story of the sinking of the Lusitania is interesting, and the torpedo was just launched (no worries about spoilers in historical nonfiction)!
• Jamie, our 24-year old son, finished his favorite Wheel of Time series, with the final book #13, Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.
• He is now reading a book I gave him for Easter that sounded right up his alley: The Crown Tower by Michael J. Sullivan, book 1 in The Riyria Chronicles. He says it's great so far. Thanks for the recommendation, Beth Fish Reads!

Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: Trainwreck - light, funny, raunchy romcom starring Amy Schumer

TV Tuesday: Killing Eve - compelling & completely unique thriller that we loved!

Nonfiction Review: Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley - warm, witty, relatable essays about life

Nonfiction review: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh - a modern classic that is lyrical, insightful, and still relevant - my 3rd time reading it!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week? 

So excited this weekend to get dressed like a grown-up & go out in the evening!

  

Nonfiction Review: Gift From the Sea

In 1990, one of my closest childhood friends gave me the modern classic Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, with a lovely inscription in the front cover. I recently reread the slim book (my third time) and found the lyrical writing and insightful thoughts more resonant than ever.

Lindbergh wrote this small but powerful book during a brief writing retreat at the beach, some rare time for herself in the midst of a busy life as wife and mother. She began it as a journal to herself, thinking that no one else would be able to relate to her very personal musings. She was, of course, very wrong, as this book has remained popular and in print since its publication in 1955, speaking especially poignantly to women of a certain age. In eight chapters, she examines different types of shells that she finds on the beach and compares each one to an aspect of her life, for example, the channeled whelk as an empty home for various sea creatures, with musings about her own "shell." Or an ever-expanding oyster bed as a metaphor for women's lives in the "middle years of marriage," growing unwieldy and continuing to add on new pieces. Each chapter is written in beautiful language that expresses her deepest feelings, as a wife, mother, writer, and woman on topics of peace, balance, purpose, and more. I loved both her insights and her sense of humor in this passage:

"With a new awareness, both painful and humorous, I begin to understand why the saints were rarely married women. I am convinced it has nothing inherently to do, as I once supposed, with chastity or children. It has to do primarily with distractions. The bearing, rearing, feeding, and educating of children; the running of a house with its thousand details; human relationships with their myriad pulls - woman's normal occupations in general run counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life. The problem is not merely one of Woman and Career, Woman and the Home, Woman and Independence. It is more basically: how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center; how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel."

Despite having read the book twice before, I felt like I was discovering it for the first time and could relate deeply to many of Lindbergh's thoughts and feelings, perhaps because I am now closer to the age (a bit beyond it!) that she was when she wrote it, in the midst of family, home, and a writing career. I found that far from being dated, her words written in 1955 are eerily relevant to our modern life in 2018, as here:

"For life today in America is based on the premise of ever-widening circles of contact and communication. It involves not only family demands, but community demands, national demands, international demands on the good citizen, through social and cultural pressures, through newspapers, magazines, radio programs, political drives, charitable appeals, and so on. My mind reels with it. What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now!"

Her words apply perfectly to our harried lives today, with social media and the 24-hour news cycle (can you imagine what she'd think of all this?). I could fill pages quoting passages in this review - she shares shrewd, intuitive thoughts on almost every page of the book. It will takes me hours to write all the passages I marked in my Quote Journal! As I envied her two weeks alone at the beach, I inwardly cheered for every page, thinking, "Yes! That's it exactly!" It's amazing that this slim book is so relevant and moving more than 60 years after it was written. As with my friend's thoughtfulness toward me, this timeless book would make a perfect gift for any woman in your life.

138 pages, Vintage Books
Random House Audio

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Though my copy is a 20th anniversary edition,  the version now being sold is a 50th anniversary edition, with a new introduction written by the author's daughter.

Listen to a sample of the audio book. 

Purchase Gift From the Sea from an indie bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

Or order Gift From the Sea from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Nonfiction Review: Look Alive Out There: Essays

Ever since the 2008 release of her best-selling collection of essays, I Was Told There'd Be Cake, I've been wanting to read some of Sloane Crosley's work. I'd heard rave reviews online, on podcasts, and from friends. So, I was excited to listen to her latest essay collection, Look Alive Out There, on audio last month, read by the author. I so enjoyed her warm, witty writing that covers everything from the trivial to the deeply moving.

Crosley's book includes 16 essays, some under two pages long and some continuing for more than 20 pages. Each one is an acute observation of an ordinary moment (or more) in time. Topics are far-ranging, from the time she attended the wrong shiva (and didn't admit it to the hosting family!) to her cameo on an episode of Gossip Girl that didn't quite meet her expectations. Some of her essays are about amusing or annoying brief episodes in her life, like Right Aid, about sharing a birthday with the clerk at her local drugstore or The Chupacabra about the surreal moment when she was receiving a massage and the masseuse's dog had a seizure in front of her. A few essays are truly jaw-dropping (though true) and based on articles she wrote for magazines, like Up the Down Volcano, about her misadventure trying to climb a 20,000-foot active volcano in Ecuador with no preparation or Relative Stranger, her interview with a second cousin who was a major porn star. And a couple of her essays really delve into deeply personal stories, like Cinema of the Confined, about developing a chronic illness (that one really spoke to me, and I plan to listen to it again) or dealing with fertility issues in The Doctor Is a Woman, though her ever-present sense of humor keeps even these from becoming too dark. Here's a brief excerpt of the first few sentences of her first essay, Wheels Up, to give you an idea of her unique style and tone:

"I am running late for the airport, trying to catch a cab on my street corner. A woman in a wheelchair and her date, a man, arrive at the corner seconds after me. They pretend not to see me, and I pretend not to see them, which is the kind of cutthroat strategy New Yorkers employ when embarking on otherwise benign activities. It's partially to avoid conflict and partially to claim innocence in the event of the finger."

Crosley has a talent for telling a story with warmth and wit and for zeroing in on details that we can all relate to, even if our experiences are vastly different than hers. Listening to her read these essays feels like sitting with a friend - a very funny friend - over coffee, while she regales you with her latest escapades. I enjoyed every single essay in the collection and listened to the entire book in just a few days, and she left me wanting more. Now that I've experienced Sloane Crosley's writing talents, I will definitely be looking for her other essay collections and her magazine articles, too.

256 pages, MCD
Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book from the essay Outside Voices, read by the author, or request the book from Audible.

Purchase Look Alive Out There from an indie bookstore, either online or locally, here:


Or order Look Alive Out There from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.