Every year I set a reading challenge (number of books, book genres) – this year it’s 52 books with at least 10 being non-fiction / historical / biographical. Despite having a lot of mandated reading while I was taking my course, I also (somehow) found time to do a fair bit of reading in January and February. This list isn’t comprehensive; just a few picks that I’ve enjoyed so far in 2018.
Windigo Moon: A Novel of Native America, Robert Downes – I picked this up at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor over Christmas as they always have a table of suggested books (and they have a great assortment of Michigan history, local authors, etc). It caught my interest because it told the story of an Ojibwe clan and many of the locales were in northern Michigan – places that I know and love. If you like history, and stories of Native Americans, or are specifically a northern Michigan buff, this is a nice read.
Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan – I heard a Slate Audio Book Club podcast about this and although they tended to like her prior work better, they had enough kind things to say about her writing in general that I reserved it at the library. I enjoyed it as an eccentric historical novel, about a young woman’s desire to be a diver in New York during World War II; her missing father, disabled sister, and a local gangster play large roles. Her writing is spectacular and I loved the main character’s sense of independence and determination.
Dance Dance Dance, Haruki Murakami – I think I am destined to love everything by Murakami and want to read his entire catalogue. This is actually #4 in a series but as I haven’t read the previous 3 I think I can attest that it works just fine as a stand-alone. His writing is lyrical and simple and yet deep-diving and I find myself laughing out loud at some of his turns of phrase. The main character describes his work as freelance magazine writer as “shoveling snow” – “You do it because somebody’s got to, not because it’s fun.” “Shoveling snow, huh?” she mused. “Well, you know, cultural snow,” I said.” Since I read this passage, everything that I do that I have to do has become “shoveling snow” and in some cases this applies to actually shoveling real snow. 🙂
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Fraser – This was my first non-fiction pick for the year. If you’re a fan of Little House, but you want the real story – and to view it in the context of the country as a whole at that particular time in history, this book is for you. Exhaustively researched, this sets forth the true chronology of Laura Ingalls’ childhood travels across the West and paints her family as real people, with human failings. Their travels were considerably more complicated than her famous books depict, more traumatic and at times desperate. The concept of Manifest Destiny loomed large over the Ingalls family, but even in that era where whites were free to take and take, they were unable to gain a foothold. At least one of their moves was so Pa could outrun a debt. Almanzo didn’t have good judgement with money either. Laura was set to work, young, to help provide for her family, working in hotels and as a seamstress in less than ideal conditions. Rose Wilder Lane likely suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and her relationship with her parents was fraught with codependence and control issues. I found this book entirely fascinating and satisfying.
Six Ten 