Readers in the Rough--Recommended Books for 2025

Books read, reviewed, discussed and enjoyed in the calendar year of 2024.

Voted a PAR=2 points

Our discussion over the HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams (in January 2024) took most of us "completely out of our comfort zone" of reading and relating to plot. Science Fiction is not a genre that our book club selects.  This book prevailed and, in the discussion, we began to realize the strength of the plot, character development and delight with the change of settings.

 Our eyes were opened as we discovered that one of us deeply enjoyed the story and shared her tales of reading it several decades ago and now reading it again.  We understood the theme "searching for the meaning of life"  but not necessarily the character's approach to answering the question.  It did receive a PAR for its perspective and plot.   

To better explain our "golf terminology and voting" think of a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best and you would recommend it to any type of reader or a Hole-In-One, and a 1 being a bogey that you may or may not recommend to others to read. 

With that we began our year reading, discussing, and deciding on our one important vote for books.

HOLE-IN-ONE

THE RIDE OF HER LIFE THE TRUE STORY OF A WOMAN, HER HORSE, AND THEIR LAST CHANCE JOURNEY ACROSS AMERICAN by Elizabeth Letts took us on one of the greatest journeys we've ever taken through the power of literature. I cannot imagine how a 200-pound woman could ride across America on horseback from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1954 with a map. Her fortitude and strength of character never let us down. Her journey provides us with a glimpse of her faith in America and the world in 1954 and how we treated a total stranger on horseback with kindness. 

She well deserved a HOLE-IN-ONE rating for 5 points. 

EAGLE: This is one of the strongest years to have so many excellent books that could have been rated Hole-in-Ones except for a point or one-half a point. 

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride brings together the strength of a community that bonds, no matter the color of skin, the religious background or the amount of money one has. They all share a common core of caring for our brothers and sisters. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned for all of us in the century. 

SHELTERWOOD by Lisa Wingate takes us to southeastern Oklahoma during some of the darkest times, when mankind shared no love, no kindness, and cast-off children who learned to survive on their own in the cold darkness of the Washita mountains. This story from the 1900's couldn't be more opposite in the theme than what I like to read. However, a woman and then women begin to take hold of the story and we see how characters, both real and imagined, step up to save the lives of innocent people during the relentless race to own the land that has oil underneath. 

No, I do not like reading stories like this, but I recognize the value they carry for us today. I respect the research, plot and character development to make this a compelling story that I could not put down. 

 

TRUST is a story structured around three very different points of view. This trickster puzzle unfolds like the Japanese phenomenon that describes how different people can have different, contradictory stories about the same event.  This technique called the Rashomon effect is often used to highlight how unreliable eye- witnesses testimony can be.  

It begins with an affluent Manhattan couple who ask people to trust them with their money as Benjamin Rask makes shady deals that keep them affluent during the crash of 29 but plunge their investors into poverty. 

The next two points of view make the reader sit back and think. It is not a quick read nor a compelling plot, but it does challenge the reader to solve the question of who is telling the truth of the story.  

THE WOMEN by Kristen Hannah vividly portrays the war in Vietnam from a woman, Frankie, who in 1965 joins the Army Nurse Corps and ships out to Vietnam. Her gut crushing front line experience overwhelmed her and added to the chaos and destruction dropping her to her knees. Her sheer determination pulls the reader through the war.

It is the story after the war that struck a cord with me, a high school graduate of 1965, who lost friends and classmates to the war, and who saw our boys come home damaged and foully treated by the people they fought for. The women in Frankie life experience the same rejection in their attempt to reintegrate into society. As in real life it is the friendship that rescue and endure these nurses.  

THESE PRECIOUS DAYS essays by Ann Patchett, once again pushed us out of our comfort zone. We each read and reported on at least one of the stories that moved us. Through Patchett's speeches and reflections on life the reader discovers the depth of this author's life and influences her readers. Writing Out Loud--Ann Patchett

BIRDIE VOTES: these books each held something different for the readers to enjoy and grasp. Sunflowers using Vincent Van Gogh's life as a jumping off point; The Library Book, the story of the LA Library fire in 1986, has taken on new meaning with the destructive fires in southern California this winter. The library barely withstood a disastrous fire that reached 2000 degrees consuming four thousand books and damaging even more. It also brought a community  together to save and rebuild a vital institution of their city. 

Osman's book and then series of The Thursday Murder Club provided us with a high-spirited discussion on the who dunnit level. We fell in love with these senior citizens, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron, who pushed the envelope on the value of the creative and energetic mind of an aging population and all with a sense of humor and perspective. After three of our book club members confessed to having read another two or three of the titles even before we discussed the first one, I found myself ordering all three remaining titles on my Kindle and reading nothing else till I finished them. These mysteries provided a great escape that made me smile and laugh. 

PAR (We set the bar with a par rating.) The Birdie's, Eagles and Hole-in-Ones must be stronger in plot, character development, setting, theme, writing style, point-of-view and/or entertainment level.

THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Adams

THE CLIFF'S EDGE by Charles Todd is a murder mystery to be solved by nurse Bess Crawford. There lies a dark truth behind two once close families as they take sides after a murder is committed.  

We had earlier read No Shred of Evidence, an Ian Rutledge Scotland Yard investigator, and liked it enough to select another book in this mystery series. They are most certainly worthy of a good round of pars. 

Charles Todd's writing reflects the team of Charles and Caroline Todd, a mother-and-son writing team who have created the Inspector Rutledge and nurse, Bess Crawford series. Who is Charles Todd?

In golf and in reading we all can relate to or enjoy a bogey every now and then. That is why we felt we could still give a bogey book one point. This year we didn't read any books that we didn't think worthy of our time. I, however, made up for the bogey's on the golf course. Hitting more bogeys year after year seems to be a theme in my golf game. 

*If you only have time or energy to read one of these books, may I recommend THE RIDE OF HER LIFE. She will not let you down. 

The Gift of Trees

 Of all the poems I learned in high school,

I think I shall never see one lovely as a tree. 

A mother tree lifting her arms to pray. 

It is in these liminal spaces of my mind that poems slip through, like Joyce Kilmer's poem on "Trees" 

 "A tree that looks at God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray." I find these trees reaching out to me on country roads, in parks and walks along cement sidewalks. I talk to them when the moment arises, especially while on the golf courses that I have traversed. 

Rest in Peace dear tree
(d. 2021) 

More than any one piece of literature, Kilmer's poem left an imprint on my soul. Though Kilmer doesn't speak of laughter and grace, I find that the trees have their way of dancing with their arms, bringing smiles to our faces. (This pine tree must have had seeds that saw the Native American dancers weaving gracefully.)

With the New Year beginning and worn out worries of 2024 fading into the twilight I wanted to close the year with the beauty I sense daily from the trees. 

"A tree that in summer wears a nest of robins in her hair;"

We are fortunate that our robins never leave us in Oklahoma. We are no longer the treeless prairie as once described by the pioneers. Our trees are filled with blue jays, finches, doves, hawks, cardinals, crows, grackles and so much more. 

"Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain." 

Trees see, feel, and communicate in ways we cannot imagine. Do they weep when their arms drop in storms or a low blow from mankind? I believe they must, but it is their resiliency that I respect. 

Before we left Kansas I stopped to take a picture of this tree. A tree that withstood God knows what. For the eighteen years I traveled north and south on Monroe street through storms, ice, spring rains and dusty winds that tree stood proudly. I named her Liberty.  

I miss our black rich soil of Kansas and the blooming trees of spring, yet,  I relish the Sugar Maples and Bradford Pears in the fall when they turn from greens to yellows, oranges and reds. We watch as our Bradford Pears hold on to half-dried leaves hanging limply in the autumn winds until at last the grasses are hidden by  soft shades of red under the trees.

"A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth's sweet flowing breast:"

How is it that one line can mean so much when we see it actually happening right before our eyes. Life is so full of delight and surprise. 

Her home is hidden in Governor Dodge State Park,
Dodgeville,  Wisconsin

Once a year a tree in our neighborhood brings awe and joy to those who find him. He dresses in glowing white lights and casts his eyes upon us with a guiding light to all.  May you all enjoy the gift of our trees in the days and years to come. 

"Poems are made by fools like me,

but only God can make a tree."