Brown Dog by Jim Harrison

 

The character of Brown Dog is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan's Siddhartha. Brown Dog is always on the lookout for a good fishing river, a night of carnal pleasure, or an odd job that pays enough to buy a six-pack. He is happiest when he is in the woods of Michigan and flying under society's radar. He is a flawed every-man with simple tastes and a pure heart whose bare-knuckled fighting skills, occasional poor judgment, and adherence to his own set of rules rather than the law of the land often land him in one sort of trouble or another. He does his very best to take care of those who can't take care of themselves, even when he's having a hard time meeting his own needs. This book collects all of the various Brown Dog novellas into one (along with one new B.D. novella) so lovers of Brown Dog can immerse themselves in his off-kilter hero's journey.

I am so fond of the character of Brown Dog. As someone who has lived in and has strong memories of the U.P., I also love the northern Michigan setting – I recognize the remote towns, natural features, and woodsy environments described in these stories. After reading the last page and closing this book, I found myself both exhilarated by the beauty of a story well-told, and sad because there are no more Brown Dog adventures to read. However, there are many more of the canny wordsmith Jim Harrison's books for me to delve into and I look forward to those.

Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani

 

This collection of stories is deep with understanding about how war tears at the hearts, minds, and physical bodies of regular citizens not involved with the policies or the decision making that set one country to battle against another. It consists of a novella and a handful of very brief stories that involve attempts to cross a closed border, forced re-locations of families, a few stories that have a strong, emotional father-son dynamic, and an epistolary piece by a character who has the means to flee Gaza for the United States, but is having second thoughts. They address the universal suffering of war and conflict.

The sad and tragic nature of the stories were brought home to me even more by the fact that the author, Kanafani, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Beirut when he was 36 years old. Although each story was written with beautiful, subtle language and was impactful, the ones that stood out for me were The Land of Sad Oranges, A Hand in the Grave, and Letter from Gaza.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

In Brisbane, Australia, a passenger ship docks and the passengers disembark and disburse. A young girl of 4 is discovered on the docks by the wharf master, alone, sitting on a small suitcase. She doesn't know her name or where she is from. The wharf master takes her home and when, after several days, no inquiries are made about her, he and his wife decide to call her Nell and keep her as their own.

The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell's life, with the mystery of her family origins at its center. The story moves back and forth between the early 1900s, the 1970s, and 2005, and incorporates Nell's ancestors and descendants into the story as the mystery slowly unfolds. It is a dark, gothic tale full of family secrets with themes of enchantment and faerie tales woven throughout. I really liked the the character of Cassandra, Nell's granddaughter, and her time spent at the atmospheric Cliff Cottage on the edge of the sea. 

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway takes place over the course of a single day in the mid 1920s during which the title character is planning for a party that she is hosting that evening. The point of view passes from Mrs. Dalloway to other characters in a round-robin fashion, during which the reader has access to that person's inner monologue, shared in a style that's close to stream-of-consciousness. Access to the characters' thoughts and memories allows the reader to know what is in the mind of not only Mrs. Dalloway, but also her family, future attendees of her evening party, and a husband and wife who are struggling with severe “shell-shock” being experienced by the war veteran husband, a condition we would now call PTSD. Being privy to the perspectives of so many characters who have opinions about the main character also gives the reader an interesting 360-degree view of Mrs. Dalloway.

The way Virginia Woolf writes the internal, anguished monologues of her characters is remarkable. Because of the flowing style that reads like unfiltered thoughts, including some repetitiveness of phrase, this isn't a quick read, but it's a very worthy one. With each book (I've read To The Lighthouse and A Room of One's Own in addition to Mrs. Dalloway) my admiration for this author grows. Her writing style is challenging, full of depth, and gives the reader a detailed look at early 20^th Century culture and manners.

An aside: This is the first book that my in-person book club (The Dalloway Club) read, when it formed in 1999. (I joined the club during its fourth session, when the book was The Handmaid's Tale.) I've been casually planning to read Mrs. Dalloway sometime ever since then; I am finding it mildly interesting and coincidental I actually picked it up and read it the year I am 52, the same age as Mrs. Dalloway on this day of her party.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

 

In this Pen Hemingway-winning novel by NoViolet Bulawayo, 10-year-old Darling and her friends live in a small village made up of shacks lived in by families who were forcibly ejected from their homes by developers with bulldozers who razed their houses to the ground. The children make frequent treks to nearby affluent neighborhoods, taking fruit from the trees in front of the homes in order to ward off hunger. They make up games to keep themselves occupied and witness some terrible things, sharing the stories from a child's perspective. Eventually, Darling is sent to live with her aunt and her aunt's family in Detroit and she needs to learn new adaptive skills to survive in this place that has plenty of food, but is strange and filled with other challenges.

The story contains heavy, heartrending events told with innocent playfulness from a child's, and then teenager's, perspective. I was completely engaged by the language, which pulls the reader in and brings the book's descriptions to life in the imagination, whether Darling is hiding from violent trouble-makers in a tree in Zimbabwe, or sneaking to watch forbidden videos with her school friends in her aunt's basement in Michigan. It's a very worthy read that helps one understand in a real way the challenges of leaving your family and friends behind in a dangerous place with little promise, to move to a culturally (and geographically) colder, foreign place where there are daily risks to be aware of and success is far from assured.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin

 

George Orr lives in a speculative future where prescription drugs are heavily-regulated and violations are met with serious repercussions. In George's case, he is borrowing drugs from others to keep himself from dreaming, because of what happens when he has what he calls an “effective dream.” Therapy for his fear of sleeping/dreaming is mandated, and George feels like his problems are only getting worse as his therapist takes advantage of his power over George. How George responds to the challenges of a domineering doctor and powerful dreaming are of key importance – the future is hanging in the balance.

I am so blown away by Ursula LeGuin's writing. She gets right to the center of what drives human behavior and shines a light on it. Her writing is full of big, philosophical ideas and universal truths. I loved the character of George Orr for multiple reasons. I'm going to keep making my way through her catalog; there is so much to choose from. She is one of the authors whose works I've started reading fairly recently, and wished I had started earlier.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

 

Ocean Vuong offers to the reader three generations' worth of powerful stories and memories of a grandmother who emigrated to America from Viet Nam after surviving the war, a mother who works past exhaustion to support her family, and son who is the first of his family to speak fluent English.

Vuong's debut novel is told as a letter to his mother, in fragmented, non-linear vignettes that start out with a solid memory or story and transform into prose, showcasing Vuong's background in poetry and his skill with the written word. Interwoven throughout is the coming-of-age story of two teenage boys, an immigrant farmhand and a farmer's grandson, who are attracted to each other and form an emotional and physical attachment. Their relationship is told with a detailed realism that is simultaneously engaging and uncomfortable in its forthrightness. This writing exposes with skill and honesty the agonies of abuse, addiction, grief, poverty, trauma, and otherness in raw, powerful, and beautiful words. The novel is haunting, heartbreaking, and pushes the boundaries of the form.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

 

In a small town on the South Carolina Coast in the 60s and thereabouts, Kya Clark lives, first with her dysfunctional family and then alone, in a run-down cabin on many acres surrounded by a marsh. Despite being ostracized by the townspeople and ridiculed by other children her age, Kya figures out how to survive and support herself in the marsh, and then with the help of a very few trusted others, she learns how to educate herself as well.

The story is rich with the natural details of marsh plants and wildlife and contains a mystery or two and a few twists as well. I loved the focus on nature. I also liked Kya's fierce attitude toward most humans and the evolution towards limited trust, along with the deep joy and dedication she felt toward the marsh and its creatures.

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker

 

In this collection of fresh, futuristic short stories, Pinsker weaves incredibly inventive tales filled with diverse characters. There are stories set post-unnamed disaster about people who are surviving in the new normal. Whether sci-fi, fantasy, mythic, or otherwise, all of the stories are thought-provoking. I love reading something that feels new and different, and makes me a little uncomfortable in the best way. The writing style feels ahead of its time, like how more books will be written as culture progresses. This book blew me away. Top of my list for 2020.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

 

In a sentence, this book is about love, loss, and the environment. It's made up of the stories of three women who are living in a small struggling area of farmland at the base of a mountain in southern Appalachia. A wildlife biologist lives a reclusive life in a rustic mountain cabin, observing a newly-arrived pack of coyotes, until a young hunter interrupts her solitude. An entomologist from the city moves to the small town for love, and eventually has to decide whether to stay and care for the land she's come to love and become part of the large farming family or go back to the city. Just down the road, sparks fly as a couple of elderly neighbors – one with an organically grown apple orchard and the other with a dream to repopulate a decimated species of chestnut tree – feud over how to care for the land.

Over the course of a summer, the three determined women fight for what they want and discover how they are connected.

I really loved this book. Its pace is languorous and the language is lush and beautiful. The reader is surrounded with stories of love and loss, and presented with the challenges of the balance between farming and mastering the land and protecting the wild. I've read a couple of other books by Barbara Kingsolver – Flight Behavior and The Lacuna – and I enjoyed those as well. I love the depth and nuance of her characters. Happily, she's got quite a few books out there, so I'll keep picking them up.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

 

In the distant future, Rosemary Harper (resident of Mars) joins the crew of a spaceship that drills wormholes through space-time to make shortcuts from one location to another that would otherwise take much more travel time. Rosemary is withholding information about herself in order to stay under the radar. The crew of the ship are a bunch of interesting characters from all walks of life. As this adventure story progresses, and the crew members agree to a major new job that will keep them from being “planet-side” for quite a while, the story delves deeper into the lives of each crew member. The major job they've hired on for has a big payoff that will take them to the next level in their field, but it comes with a lot of risk. It's not certain all of them will make it safely home.

I don't read a lot of sci-fi, space opera types of stories, but I really enjoyed this book. The ideas were fresh, and I enjoyed the diversity of the characters and the openness with which the story was told. I was drawn in by the characters and their stories more than any other aspect. It was a delightful adventure, and I look forward to picking up the next book in the Wayfarers series.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

 

Hope Jahren's love for the trees and plants she studies is evident in this memoir of her life. Loving descriptions of how trees live, grow, endure, and propagate are intertwined with Hope's memories of growing up in wintry Minnesota, leaving to attend college in California, and making stops in Georgia, Hawaii, and Norway along the way. Hope includes introspection about her very different relationships with her mother and father. Hope's deep and unconventional friendship with fellow scientist and eventual lab partner, Bill, is central to her life story. That loyal friendship carried her through some very trying times, including the challenges of poverty, an initially undiagnosed mental illness, and the struggle to be funded as a research scientist, especially a woman research scientist, in the field of geobiology.

It's an honest, deeply-moving book about not fitting in, but not giving up in the struggle to find balance and create the space where you belong. Hope Jahren's book about climate change came out in March 2020 – The Story of More. I can't wait to check it out.

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

 

This heavily-researched historical fiction novel tells the tale of rival paleontologists who are both dangerously passionate about their work uncovering the fossils of dinosaurs in the American west. Student William Johnson, the purely fictional main character, spends time in both paleontology camps, starting out with Othniel Charles Marsh, who abandons him mid-trek under paranoid suspicion of him being a spy. William Johnson is left with no alternative but to join the expedition of Edwin Drinker Cope, who has plans to travel to dangerous areas in search of fossils not yet discovered, and barely believed to have been real creatures, in this modern age of 1876.

This wild adventure that travels from the 'civilized' East Coast through Cheyenne, Wyoming, the wilds of Montana, the Badlands, and the historical gold mining town of Deadwood while featuring many historical people from that time was riveting. Dragon Teeth was written by Crichton in 1974 and published posthumously in 2017. I don't know why I haven't read more of Michael Crichton's superbly researched and action-packed works (to date, I've ready only Timeline and this one), but I plan to investigate his 20+ books for future sure-fire adventure reads.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

 

Porto Vergogna is an all but unknown port where there is a community of fisherman and their families who live in a dozen or so houses that cling to the cliff face along the shore and, surprisingly, a single hotel with only an occasional client. In 1962, when an ailing American actress arrives unexpectedly by boat (the only way to arrive at Porto Vergogna), Pasquale, whose family owns the hotel, is smitten and does his very best to get to the bottom of what ails the young actress. The task involves getting in touch with the Hollywood people who are working at the Roman film set for “Cleopatra,” a set the actress was also working on until she became ill.

The story leaps back and forth through time from 1962 to near-current as the tale unfolds from both ends, and the reader sees from the points-of-view of a few different main characters in various locales that include Italy, Hollywood, the Pacific Northwest, Scotland, and England.

I loved this book of historical and literary fiction. The writing, the story, the characters and locales. It was intricate, complicated, nuanced, and beautiful.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

The initial vibe I got from this book was so wrong. Years ago, when there was a big buzz surrounding this book (even Gilmore Girls had an episode paying homage!) I imagined it being another self-indulgent Eat Pray Love wine/whine fest and I ran far, far away from it. Until a few weeks ago, when a respected individual at work who is an avid hiker suggested it. I was dubious but decided to give it a try on audio. Turns out, I loved it! It did remind me a bit of Eat Pray Love in that Cheryl makes some really unsound decisions that put her at risk while she is out on the trail. But it is very unlike that other book in that Cheryl, at the time of writing Wild, seems very self-aware and shares her thoughts and the details of the adventure of her hike along the Pacific Crest trail with such unfailing honesty and heart that I could not help but feel engaged by the story. She talks about the death of her mom and how it affected her and how the extended hike, away from civilization with only what she could carry and relying so heavily on just herself, helped her put her broken self back together. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 My Top 10 Reads in 2020

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Leguin

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker

Every book on this list was an exceptional read for me in 2020: Beautiful Ruins and Prodigal Summer both had lush, lovely descriptions that put the reader right there in the middle of everything. Wild and Lab Girl were honest, brave, and interesting. Where the Crawdads Sing had that focus on the natural world that I crave. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous pushed the boundaries of the form. The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula LeGuin, you are amazing; this was a timely read for me and the main character's perspective on life balance was relatable.

The standout for me, though, was Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker. It is fresh, futuristic, and smart. This collection of short stories knocked me out. I look forward to reading Pinsker's 2019 A Song for a New Day and her forthcoming novel, We Are Satellites, out in May. I feel like she's showing us what fiction will look like going forward.

Look for reviews for each of the above at this site soon.