Bookish Chatter | Late June Reading Update

I woke up this morning with a start when I realized it was already Wednesday. I’m shocked by how quickly this week has moved. But I’m here this morning and am ambitiously hoping to update you on my stack of books and the state of my reading journal. Wish me luck!

RECENTLY FINISHED:

Four Souls was the third bonus book that we squeezed in for the Erdrich-Along. Out of these three (The Beet Queen, Tracks, and this one), it was my favorite. This describes the period when Fleur lived in Minneapolis and was married to John Mauser – the rich man who stole her family’s land. The story is told by two narrators: 1) Polly Elizabeth, the sister of John’s first wife, who tells us what life is like for Fleur; 2) Nanapush, who keeps us up to date with what happened on the Reservation while Fleur was away. This book is full of redemption and humor; I simply adored it.

We finished another read aloud this week, Comet in Moominland. This is my first Moomin book and I really enjoyed it. The illustrations are lovely and it’s full of the coziest details. In this one, young Moomintroll and his friend Sniff learn that a comet is on its way to Moominvalley. They go on a daring adventure to the Observatory high in the mountains to learn more about when it will arrive and what to expect. This was such a fun little book and I’m looking forward to starting the next in this series this morning.

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CURRENTLY READING:

There’s not much change from last week.

• The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish – I was hoping to curl up and spend big chunks of time with The Weight of Ink this week, but my concentration left me (again!) after Friday’s ruling. I’m finding that I really need to pay attention to this book, so I’m reading in tiny bites and am enjoying it very much. I’m so close to finishing and am anxious to learn what happened to Ester!
• Bunny by Mona Awad – I’m still listening to this on audio! I’m struggling to find audiobook time, so I’m making very small amounts of progress. And still – this book is SO entertaining. I can’t wait to learn what is actually happening to these characters.
• The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry – still reading through this lovely book of poetry, just one or two poems a day. And just like when I read my previous book of poetry by Wendell Berry, nearly every poem feels relevant and scratches at something that’s going on in my own life. I’m not sure how he does it.
• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg – still reading just a chapter or two a week for a little inspiration.

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READING JOURNAL UPDATE:

Thank you all for your comments about keeping a reading journal last week. I love how varied the responses were — it shows how much work and how difficult this process can be. Reading is so personal and I love learning from you all. Mary posted some pictures of her most recently finished notebook on Friday and that inspired me to sit down and get to work on mine.

The first two pictures include books I’d prepared covers for earlier this year. I didn’t really write anything earth shattering on those pages, just quickly scribbled the impressions that I still felt from them. (And I mean scribbled, my handwriting is atrocious in this notebook and that’s probably okay.)

The third picture includes a little printout I made from the Fiction Matters Paperback Summer Reading Guide (not sure if everyone can view that link? I think it’s free for everyone because it’s from the FM newsletter, which isn’t just for Patreons). I pasted that in along with my TBR lists for the rest of the year. I’ve been trying to sort my TBR monthly because then I can decide which books to carry forward each month and which were whims that I can leave behind. It’s been working pretty well the last several months, but we’ll see how it goes in the future.

The fourth picture is the layout I prepped for Saturday’s Zoom session for the Erdrich-Along. This was handy because we discussed all three books and I loved having my notes right in front of me. And I think it’s my favorite page in the journal – I love that it’s FULL and how the books are part of one big family.

I skipped lots of books as I was playing catch up — I’m telling myself it’s okay to have an incomplete record here because I have another notebook that includes a very complete record. I’m not sure how devoted I’ll be to keeping this up to date in the future, but I love how it forces me to sit and think about what I’m reading. And it was really interesting to write about books that I’d read several months ago — it’s funny what stuck with me and what I couldn’t remember.

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Okay – I think I got everything onto the screen that I hoped to say, however imperfectly. This week (month, year, decade?) has been hard, hasn’t it? I feel so lucky to have good books and good friends to help me through it, so thank you all!

I’m planning to be back on Friday with a few joyful moments, until then – take good care.