If All Else Fails...

There's a Book for That!

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

In stress/strife/need for escape, I read.

Seeking a break, a pleasurable interlude, an off-screen pause, companionship, I read.

I read for information and understanding. For immersive journeys of reflection. For characters to love or hate or both. For fun, fantasy and escape.

And I read eclectically - when a book comes to my notice, I have a hard time letting it pass me by. With two local library systems serving up regular recommendations, a network of friends and fellow Substack authors making suggestions, plus more than half a dozen Little Free Libraries within a few blocks of home, there is rarely a time (okay, never a time) when I have nothing to enjoy, distract, or pile up bedside.

My reading lists contain things recommended, serendipitous finds, texts I meant to conquer years ago, tomes I just wanted to sit with before giving away. There are mentor texts I read to study craft or plot or theme, book club books, old academic texts, read-aloud picture books, novels for under the covers. Some books I loved. Some were seemingly important. Some are clearly art. Some are slogs.

The first quarter of 2025 contained so much - lament, beauty, pathos, planning, anger, grief, frustration, love. Also rain, wind, cold, disruption. Things that drive most of us to the corner of our couches. And so, while I have resisted reviewing “favorites” or producing “best of” lists for this newsletter, this week I’m trotting out my curious, complicated, occasionally inspiring collection of recent reads.

Nonfiction explorations of other lives, views, journeys

• The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope - Munther Isaac

• The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the While Evangelical Church - Sarah McCammon

• The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin

• We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family’s Mythmaking and Migration - Jessica Goudeau

• Finding A Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art - Nicholson Baker

• The Only Way Through is Out - Suzette Mullen

• This Magical Place We Call School - Kathleen Corley and Glenn Plaskin

• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Olympic Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Daniel James Brown

• The Snail With the Right Heart: A True Story - Maria Popova

Reflective, immersive fiction

• Tom Lake - Ann Patchett

• Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano

• The Brothers Karamazov - Fyoder Dostoyevsky

• Kareem Between - Shifa Saltagi Safadi

• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise (and sequel, Coyote Lost and Found) - Dan Gemeinhart

• Outline - Rachel Cusk

• I’ll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson

• The House in the Cerulean Sea - T.J. Klune

• Hope in the Valley - Mitali Perkins

• What Does It Feel Like? - Sophie Kinsella

• Ida, Always - Caron Levis

• I Know How to Draw an Owl - Hilary Horder Hipely

Fun, Fantasy, Escape

• The Nevermoor series - Jessica Townsend (1st is The Trials of Morrigan Crow - I raced through the three currently available)

• The Rom-Commers - Katherine Center

• Long, Bright River - Liz Moore (I liked God of the Woods even better)

• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

• The Swifts - Beth Lincoln

• The Grey Wolf - Louise Penney (sequel out later this year)

• The Grandest Game - Jennifer Lyn Barnes

• Harriet Tells the Truth - Elana K. Arnold

• Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie series (I read 4 or 5)

Yes, books are magic! But how will you know which of these to reserve at the library? If you want to dig into thoughts on these, drop me a note. I’ll reveal all in the chat 😊.

Now, after listening to, enjoying, and even buying a few of these, I’m largely moving on (certain sequels notwithstanding). I’m finally realizing that if I don’t want to reread or treasure all the books that cross my threshold, I don’t need to own them. Like the aphorism for friendships - books come for a reason, a season, or a lifetime - they have their moment, whatever the capacity of our storage systems.

And there’s plenty more to discover.