January 2022 Books Read

 

I likely rang in the new year with my "nose stuck in a book" but that pretty much sums up winter in the cozy book nook.  Reading is how I keep my brain moving and not going crazy during the shorter, darker days of winter.  This year 800 days of January was offset with some really fantastic books and the first of my 2022 Audiobook Challenge.  Here are some musings on the plot and my handy dandy rating for those who may not enjoy the swearing, sex or blood and guts.  Have you read any of these books?  What did you think? 

*Audiobook Challenge 2022*: The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant: This book has remained in my Top Five Favorites since I read the hard copy and it has sweet memories attached to it as well.  After I wrote about the book on my previous blog I shared the review on my Twitter feed.  I was really in to learning social media at that time and learned that sometimes a person could get lucky and find and tag the author in the original tweet.  What I didn't expect was to receive a personal message from Ms. Diamant and then her willingness to send me an autographed placard for my used copy out of appreciation for my review.  It meant the world to me during a really dark, sad time of life.  The audiobook was absolutely wonderful.  I listened to it during a trip for work and I hardly noticed the hours go by.  The tragedy and triumph experienced by a pre-WWII Jewish family in Boston was still just as poignant.  There were elements of the story that made my heart hurt more now than before.  I think that has a lot to do with 7 years of life experiences since I read it and having a narrator say it out loud with the emotion the author intended. If you'd like to read the original blog post click on this hyperlink.  This is a solid PG-13 due to thematic issues and sexual content.  

The Elephant of Belfast by S. Kirk Walsh: This was a gripping book about the Nazi invasion in Budapest and how it affected a local zoo.  The main character is a young woman who connects well with a young elephant named Violet.  Throughout the book we read about the sadness, danger and adventure that came with war and how it affected the zoo animals and those caring for them.  This is a solid PG-13 read due to gore related to wartime.  

Let Them Eat Cake by Sandra Byrd: I really had high hopes for this book and read it after The Elephant of Belfast to have a side of funny after a lot of sadness.  It was dumb.  It was low budget Hallmark movie dumb.  I finished it and was drawn in enough to finish, but it was nothing to write home about and promptly went in the "Back to the Thrift Store" box in the corner book nook.  This is a PG due to mild adult themes and lack of brain cells used to write it.

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce: I absolutely ADORED this book.  It really spoke to my musical hippie, Beatles-loving, avante-garde heart. The story centers around a record shop owner in the 1980s and the day-to-day experiences he has with people and their quest to find the right soundtrack for their life.  In the course of his journey as a small business owner he has met many people with their own tales to tell that often include music.  His shop is on a quirky street along with other vibrant shopkeepers doing their best to stay afloat.  Then one day a beautiful and mysterious woman faints in front of the record shop and his life changes forever and ever. The writing style in this book was outstanding and the author did a very good job at building a voice for each character that came alive for me on the page.  Definitely a 5 Star Rating! This is a PG read due to some language, but it's pretty tame.  

The Secret Gift of Lucia Lemon by Celia Anderson: This was a darling book about an older woman who takes a trip in Europe and finds herself through following the footsteps of a dear family friend.  This book was a great escape for the bleak winter outside and the characters all had delightful personalities.  Lucia seeks out answers of where to go next in life after a dead end marriage to someone she likely never loved anyway.  She learns that it's never too late to start over and there is always time for an adventure.  I gave this 4 stars.  This is a mild PG-13 for adult themes and some sexual content.  

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadow: Hear ye, hear ye, you must read this book! My friend from college recommended this book after her book club read it in 2021. She said the reviews were mixed among the members of her book club but she loved it.  When I read the description on Amazon I was instantly hooked.  Just the sarcasm of the book synopsis had me laughing.  And laughing I did not stop.  From page one until the word "the end" I laughed my guts out.  This is a clever and hysterical re-telling of Jane Grey who is married off at 16 to a guy she really detests and then finds out he's actually a horse and that makes their wedding night super awkward and then they magically save the kingdom (and her cousin) and they all live happily ever after.  Read. it. today. Just hilarious and in the #1 spot for best book of 2022. Rated PG which was refreshing and it is mostly because it's technically youth fiction.  

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy: This book has been on my wish list for years and I'm glad I only listened to it on the audiobook from the public library.  It was a disappointment and there is no way around it.  I am a diehard Anne Shirley fan and when I read about this book I was so pleased that someone had taken the time to tell Marilla's story and why she was such a sour soul until she had Anne.  I think the author wanted that to be her outcome, but for me it felt like regurgitating Anne's story that was already masterfully written by L.M. Montgomery.  The writing wasn't terrible and she did attempt to develop the characters which kept me listening, but the majority of the time I felt like I was being unfaithful to the OG Anne with an E.  Rated G.  Not a bit of scandal.  

So there you have it, my nerdy book friends! I'm so happy to be back on the blog train o' crazy and look forward to sharing my musings about the books I'm reading and listening to in 2022.....oooh that rhymed.  I would love to hear from you about the books you're reading and especially if you've read any of the books I mentioned.  Bombard my comment section, peasants! I welcome ye!

The moral of the story: January is over. Hallelujah.

Until next time, my lovelies,

-R

Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again!

 

Hi, hello dear reading friends! I'm back!! After a indefinite siesta, a global pandemic and a myriad of other crazy things, I've decided it's time to welcome you back in to my cozy & virtual book nook.  2021 was a pretty solid year for reading, but I didn't read as many books as I'd like.  I travel a lot for my day job and I've learned to love the windshield time because it means I can get lost in an audiobook.  As I was closing out the year I thought about ways I could mix up my reading/listening experience in 2022.  And then I had the most brilliant idea (at least I thought it was) -- I needed a reading challenge. I needed to be my own better version of Goodreads and send myself on a journey at the same time.  I decided that every month in 2022 I would listen to the audiobook version of a book I've already read with my eyeballs.  As I started to look at my previous blog and previous posts from this blog I could see many books that I'd love to enjoy through audiobook format.  I'm also just enough of a brain nerd to know that we process differently when we take in words on a page vs. words we hear.  How would a book I read with my eyeballs impact me when I heard it with my ears?  Would my brain remember how it felt when I read it with my eyeballs while I listened with my ears?  To really throw my own hypothesis to the test I chose a book from WAY back in the Utah blogging days called "The Boston Girl." This book changed my life when I read it, but it was seriously 7 years ago.  I won't give away the surprises, but I am so thrilled to be testing myself and attempting to remember what really spoke to me the first time, but also how has my interpretation changed and why has it changed?  

The rules in 2022 have changed ever so slightly but it's because I want to have a plan that is manageable even with a mad hatter professional life.  I've learned in the last year that small and attainable goals are better and so is making time for the things I love.  I love to read and I love to write so here I am.  So, grab a beverage, a snuggly blanket and enjoy the next year of posts about the books I've read and the books I've listened to in the cozy book nook of the The Thrifting Ginger bloggy blog world.  And as always......

Until next time, my lovelies,

-R

Mercy Is Kindness: "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Today I freely wept as I finished the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. The kind of tears I cry at someone’s funeral or when I have to say goodbye to a chapter of my life I didn’t want to let go. This memoir was a beautiful tragedy that I will never forget.

In the last six weeks we have watched the world turn upside down in response to racial injustice and the deaths of many.  It’s been hard for me to process and understand what role I can play to be a voice for those who are being treated unjustly or have lost their lives because of poor choices made by others. As I’ve tried to work through my feelings I started to actively search for ways that I could educate myself as a single, white, female who has always lived a relatively sheltered, safe life in my hometown on the prairie. I worried and wondered what difference I could make both in my education and in my actions. As many of you know and who have been following my blogs over the past few years, I am a big fan of the paralympian Amy Purdy. When I had my last blog “Let it Be and Celebrate” I wrote a book review about her memoir “On My Own Two Feet” and how much it inspired me. In her book she details her struggles as her world completely changed after she contracted meningitis and had to amputate both her legs. Amy later became an Olympic medalist in the Paralympics for snowboarding and I discovered her greatness when she became the first amputee to perform on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars. Since then I have followed Amy on social media and continued to be in awe of her faith, hope, advocacy and courage. Recently she made the decision to start a virtual book club to study the book “Just Mercy” by Brian Stevenson as part of her efforts to understand and advocate for justice against systemic racism while including others and bringing us together through her vast social media platform presence.

I quickly jumped at the opportunity to join her virtual book club during the struggles of a pandemic, working from home and not having a lot of other things to do but read and educate myself as I watched the horrific news coverage about numerous brutal deaths of black Americans. I had already read an amazing book by Austin Channing Brown called “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness” and I knew I needed to keep going until I felt like I was more educated and could use my voice and my trains of thought in my philosophies on life in a more productive way. As soon as Amy announced the virtual book club I quickly ordered the book on Amazon and had it sent as soon as possible. When I announced on social media that I intended to read this book many of my friends chimed in and commented how pivotal the book and the film were for them in their discovery and education on how to change their points of view on systemic racism. While I thought I had an idea of what I was about to read I really did not understand the magnitude of injustice that I would learn about in this memoir.

My thoughts have been ever flowing and have moved me and forced me to think about things in a different light than I ever imagined possible. This book has strengthened my motivation to exercise my right to vote and to exercise my right to speak up. I hope that what  I have to share today will help someone in the world to better understand some of their own struggles and perhaps help them move forward in figuring out how to channel a world where there’s still so much injustice that we need to address.

As I started to read the book I quickly realized that if I didn’t read it with sticky notes and a pen I was going to miss or forget important themes that started to present themselves very early on in the book. In my day job I work very closely with those who struggle deeply with a lot of different things including mental health struggles, criminal involvement with the law, chemical dependency and abuse and neglect. Additionally I work very closely with children who have experienced a lot of adverse childhood experiences that have caused deeply seated effects and subsequent behaviors of the trauma they’ve experienced. One of the things  the author brings up quite early in the book is the effects of childhood trauma on those who find themselves in the prison system in the United States of America. He is particularly drawn to those who have found themselves on death row. As he started to talk about the people he worked with who were getting close to their execution date it became very evident that these human beings had experienced a lot of what I am aware of because of my day job. Their childhood trauma, the neglect, the lack of bonding, love and education and the overall craving to be noticed.  This was an element that made this book very real and applicable to what I work with every day and struck some raw chords. While I don’t work with children who are in the prison system on death row (yes, there were kids on death row once upon a time) like the author talked about; I have worked with children whose behaviors definitely lead me to believe that if their trauma is not appropriately addressed they could very well become a statistic much like the men and women the author worked with during his time as a civil rights attorney. Where I live we don’t see the kinds of statistics centered around black Americans like Mr. Stevenson talked about, but I do see it in other minorities that are quite similar.   I was shocked how corrupt and unjust the legal system really could be for those who were from a minority group. Furthermore I had very little comprehension of how corrupt a community could really be with its leaders making decisions that were completely outside of ethical humane practices. This was a significant reminder to me that I should appreciate the opportunity to work in a place where the letter of the law is upheld as much as possible.

While the stories in this book made my skin crawl at times, I was also deeply moved by the passion and courage the author and his team showed as they defended people who found themselves on death row for unjust reasons. Prior to reading this book I really didn’t know what to think about capital punishment and as I finished the book today with an epilogue that was SO moving and sad, I wept for a system where the law had given power to a select group of humans to make decisions that includes killing. While the majority of the book is centered around one particular individual that the author was able to have released from prison and death row he also talks about so many who weren’t successful. Those are the stories that made my heart hurt. My heart hurt for the families and the communities, the mothers, the fathers and the children who had to suffer when they lost a loved one to wrongful execution. My stomach turned as he described the sights, the sounds and the smell when an execution was conducted.

But, here is the part that really brought me to tears today.  The aftermath.  The aftermath Walter McMillan experienced after the joyous day of his release occurred.  Because he had been wrongly convicted and set for execution he experienced such an intense level of trauma that it ruined his life as a free man.  While he lived a few happy years advocating and speaking to a lot of people sharing his story of hope and courage, eventually his brain trauma caught up with him and he was once again confined to the death row of his mind. The struggle Walter McMillan overcame to focus on livin’ while he was set to be dyin’ ultimately cut his life short anyway.  How does that resonate with you?  What trauma do you have in your story that has caused so much focus on livin’ so you didn’t want to die?

The author shared the analogy about the pain caused by the person who stops the stones being cast at another person.  There is a really powerful story toward the end of the book about a woman the author meets who made it her mission to come to the courthouse and watch for those to comfort when a criminal trial, many times including a capital punishment,  was coming to a close.  She was a nameless angel and her story reminded me of so many days when I’ve been the stone catcher. I’ve been the person to exercise compassion to someone who in the eyes of the law and the eyes of many in society doesn’t deserve a damn chance at making any of it right.  But, from my perspective they do.  I’m in their life because they’re a parent.  I’m in their life because they have babies who need them and I want to give them every imaginable opportunity to dodge the stones being cast so they can be reunited with their babies.  Does everyone see it that way?  Nope.  But we keep doing it because it matters. The very best solution for those broken among us is mercy. Mercy and the benefit of the doubt that somewhere in there is a human being who deserves compassion and a chance.  Doesn’t mean the mercy will erase their mistakes or cause them to change, but it does mean our part will not be in vain while we extend love as God would expect from us.

As we move forward in these turbulent times, I hope we can find more of our common ground. What unites us is what defines us.  I’m so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to be uncomfortable and angry as I educated myself about the bold, unacceptable, unjust ways toward minorities.  No matter what, we HAVE to use our voice for justice because the voiceless need us.  Please do your part.  Please educate yourself.  Please vote.  Please have mercy.

The Moral of the Story: mercy is kindness and kindness always matters.

Until next time, my lovelies.

-R

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