My recent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reads plus all the books I finished lately
For whatever reason you may also need to hide between the covers of a book right now, I hope you find good company there, too.
Hi friends,
This week features our once-a-quarter-or-so regular edition of Field Notes wherein we talk about one of my favourite subjects: reading!
However, before we jump into this week’s Field Notes, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the anxieties, hopes, prayers, fears, fury, and longings of our American friends during this intense time around your federal election. Our hearts and our deep prayers are with you, all around the world. And we take a moment to also remember all those who suffer without headlines right now, as well.1
RELATED: This Blessing Will (Hopefully) Be What You Need + the audio version
As E.B. White said, "Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book." For whatever reason you may also need to hide between the covers of a book right now, I hope you find good company there, too.
Full disclosure, I haven’t been feeling very well lately on this side of the computer lately, but the consolation has been that I’ve had more time for reading … hence this longer list. Plus, I’m currently seven weeks into a self-imposed season of silence on social media, which also results in more time for books (well, that and other more productive, communal, health-related, necessary, or family things etc. too but also: lots of books!).2
And in just a couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing my Best Books of 2024 with you, too so keep an eye out for that in your inbox! (If you’re curious, here are my favourite reads of 2023 and this was the latest previous Book Corner from back in July.)
(To loop in our newer subscribers, once a quarter or so, I typically share what I’ve been reading myself, select a favourite or two from that stack, and then we all chat about books in the comment section like we’re bloggers from 2006. You’ll also find a round-up of e-book sales that I thought you might like today.)
My Favourite Recent Reads
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this book in a day but I will probably be thinking about it for years. I cannot stop talking about it. This is an investigative years-long project within a progressive Anabaptist church in Pennsylvania pre/during/post pandemic, all during their transfer of leadership and the Black Lives Matter reckonings of 2020.
First up, Eliza Griswold is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and whoa, can she write. It is the kind of book that you cannot put down: you’re compelled to keep turning pages, desperate to know what happens next, even when it feels inevitable. But even beyond her skill and wise touch, I was simply very affected by this story. There are so many ways we can hurt each other, even while trying to “get it right.” It's never easy to be in meaningful community across class, political leanings, gender, generation, race, and culture; this story captures the moment of so many churches right now in such a wise, compassionate yet infuriating way. It was sobering, insightful, compassionate, nuanced, honest, and incisive even when it was sad and frustrating.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think that the best thing about literary novels like this is the expansive space that the prose leaves for you to bring your own interpretation or experiences to the story. Told by Lara, it is set during the pandemic when her three beloved adult daughters have returned home while the family farm is in the midst of cherry harvest. While they are in ‘lockdown’ together, the adult daughters ask their mother about an old story back when she was a young actress and dated someone famous, and well, away we go. It was just so beautiful. I loved (almost) every single character and I loved the larger theme around how we all hold infinite stories that our children cannot understand or fathom, no matter how old they grow. It’s such a universal thing to tell a simple version of our story to a child and then, later, to round that story out with more colour, perspective, and complexity … even while you keep some things just for yourself. It’s hopeful, insightful, intelligent, and a bit wistful, too. I absolutely loved this and sighed with contentment when the story concluded.
(P.S. I rarely, if ever, listen to audiobooks, but I decided to do that with this book, which significantly amped up my appreciation of the prose because it’s narrated by none other than THE Meryl Streep. Holy smokes, it’s just the best listen I’ve had in ages so that definitely influenced my enjoyment of the book. Those hours flew by.)