A Few Good Books

 

“A book, too, can be a star…

a living fire to lighten the darkness,

leading out into the expanding universe.”

Madeleine L’Engle

2025 was a very good year for reading…I keep a journal of the books I’ve read and this past year almost every one had a * by it, my way of saying it was exceptional. And then there were several with **! Since being retired I have tried to sit quietly with a cup of tea and a book for awhile in the afternoons, with the hope that I’d use that time to read nonfiction while saving the evenings for fiction. But due to the compelling novels I’ve chosen that hasn’t been the case. So many books, so little time!

Here are five books that I want to share with you, in hopes that one might strike your fancy. Let’s start with Scotty’s favorite.

A Croft in the Hills by Katharine Stewart. There’s a bookstore in Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, that I love. It’s a Waterstones, which is a chain, but it has a thorough selection of books about Scotland and by Scottish writers, with helpful and enthusiastic clerks. When I’m there I allow myself 2 books and they have all been winners so far. A Croft in the Hills was first published in 1960, with frequent reprints. The memoir of a couple and their daughter choosing to live on a small farming croft near Loch Ness, it talks of the beauty and hardship of making one’s own way and the effect of the rapidly changing world on their way of life. This tight little family faces hardship with a mix of kindness, curiosity and pragmatism and an undying love for the land they farm. Katherine sums it up by saying, Life is sweeter near the bone.

Leaving by Roxana Robinson. This was recommended to me by a dear friend and I could not put it down. The devastating story of a couple reconnecting later in life after a chance encounter at the opera. It asks hard questions about balancing one’s obligations to family against one’s own happiness and satisfaction. The ending disturbed me greatly and I asked the writer about it at a reading I was fortunate to attend. And I am still disturbed…

The Sea by John Banville. How did I not know of this marvelous Irish writer? He has just written a new book in the past couple of months, but The Sea is from the early 2000’s.  A timeless read, it deals with human emotions after great loss. After the death of his wife, the main character returns to a place by the sea where his family vacationed in summers. The book pivots between his childhood and his new life alone, with glimpses of his wife and daughter. It is a beautiful, slow read-a sense of poetry overlays each sentence.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.  This has just been made into a movie, but please oh please read the book first. One could loosely call this historical fiction- 15th century England, the plague, a never-named character who might be Shakespeare, his near-abandonment of his wife and family, his wife’s great wisdom of the natural world and the tragic loss of their son.  It is a deep, beautifully written read. 

Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.  A reread for me.  I love this book because of Cather’s deep understanding of the musician’s soul. Her description of Thea’s first time hearing a symphony orchestra resonated deeply with my own experiences of leaving a concert hall in tears, feeling as if I had just been part of another world.

What would I do without books? They take me all over the world, introduce me to new people and ideas, and bring much comfort as our world falls apart around us.

What books might you recommend, readers?