Magic Lessons

 What a great book to start off with for 2021!  I loved Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman which, of course, isn't surprising since I love all of her books.  This book is a prequel to Practical Magic by her.

Magic Lessons begins the story of the Owens women and the beginnings of the Owen curse.  Maria Owens was given up as an infant and was raised by Hannah Owens. Hannah taught Maria the Nameless Gift as she realized that Maria also had the gift. After Hannah was killed, Maria was soon sent to Curacao in servitude until she reached the age of sixteen. As she was leaving England, she vowed that love would never rule her life, after observing her mother's mistakes. But,alas, she did fall in love in Curacao.

"Any woman can make a mistake, especially when she is young, and sees the wrong man through a haze so that he appears to be something he's not."

Maria's lover returned home to Boston, and never contacted Maria. When Maria completed her servitude time, she boarded a ship to go find her lover and introduce him to his daughter. On the ship, she met Samuel Dais, who she nursed back to health on the voyage. Maria and Samuel fell in love with each other, although neither would share their feelings with the other.

The rest of the story takes place in Essex County, where Maria raised her daughter, Faith.

Ms. Hoffman's writing is stunning in every book of hers that I have read, and this book was no exception.

In one of Faith's dreams:

"She heard her mother tell her that when you were loved by someone, you never lost them, no matter what might happen next. Despite the curse, despite the losses you might endure, she knew now that love was the only thing that lasted. It was inside you and with you for all eternity."

And Samuel's father telling Maria as he was dying:

"When you fall in love like that, time doesn't matter.  This was the secret he told Maria, the last words he ever said. 

What belonged to you once, will always belong to you.

Be grateful if you have walked through the world with another's heart in your  hand."

This book is such a good story and a great prequel! I highly recommend it! 

2020 In Review

 I am so happy that 2020 is over.  May 2021 bring us abundant blessings!

I read 59 books in 2020. 50 were fiction, 9 were non-fiction (a pretty good number for me, and even more surprisingly, 4 of them are in these lists!). This year is a very easy choice for my top book of the year that I read and I predicted it after I read it.  

However, there were 19 books that I rated as very good:

 Before and After-Judy Christie & Lisa Wingate

The Revisioners-Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Dear Edward-Ann Napolitano

The Secrets We Kept-Laura Prescott

Disappearing Earth-Julia Phillips

The Overstory-Richard Powers

The Zahir-Paul Coelho

The Immortalists-Chloe Benjamin

Rebecca-Daphne Du Maurier

Rebecca’sTale-Sally Beauman

A Mercy-Toni Morrison

The Book of Lost Friends-Lisa Wingate

The Vanishing Half-Brit Bennett

Normal People-Sally Rooney

The Color of Water-James McBride

Talking to Strangers-Malcolm Gladwell

Jack-Marilyn Robinson

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell-Robert Dugoni

Almost Everything-Anne Lamott

Help, Thanks, Wow-Anne Lamott

You can't go wrong with those! All were very good reads! But the next category is the four books that I rated as great:

The Nickel Boys-Colson Whitehead

A Place for Us-Fatima Farkeen Mirza

The World We Knew-Alice Hoffman

This Is Happiness-Niall Williams

And the book of the year for me was the one that I rated as excellent:

A Little Life-Hanya Yanagihara: A devastatingly beautiful book!!

December Reading-5 books

 I finished up 2020 with five books read in December.  I received two books for Christmas, one of which I am reading now (Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman) and the other I am starting today called Wintering.  Those were two of the books on my Christmas list! So on to my end of the year reading:

1) Keeping Lucy by T. Greenwood-I mistakenly bought this thinking it was by t. greenwood (a favorite author).  It was a good book, despite my error. It began in 1969 when a woman's baby, Lucy, was born with Down's Syndrome, and the mother's powerful influential father-in-law arranged for Lucy to be put in an institution, over the mother's resistance. The family argues that it would be best for the family and for Lucy.  However, two years later the mother learns of an expose' of the "school" exposed the horrors that were going on there.  I don't want to tell anymore, but it was a good story.

2) The Orphan Mother by Robert Hicks-this is by the author who wrote The Widow of the South and continues the story by telling about Mariah, a former slave of the widow.  The story takes place in Franklin, TN as did the first book. Mariah's grown child (her only child) was killed at a political rally and Mariah was determined to find those responsible for his death.  Her search was, as to be expected, intense and dangerous, but Mariah was undeterred. I found myself liking this book very much!  It was a good read!

3) Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott-I love Anne Lamott's books and this was no exception.  It is my favorite of hers that I have read so far. It is a short book of individual essays "that explore life's essential truths."  The essay on "In the Garden" is about death and is profound. 

"Of course, when certain people die, there is anguish.  We will never get over their deaths, and we're no supposed to."

This really touched me...beginning with the first deaths that devasted me years ago when I lost my grandparents, then my brothers, then my parents, then good friends. This is a powerful, touching book and I highly recommend it!  

4) The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood-Another really good book that I had put of reading for the past four years! "the boy" was eleven years old when he began doing Boy Scout hours by helping 104-year-old Ona Vitkus with chores around her home each week. The boy was very interested in the Guinness Book of Records and wanted Ona to set some records. Sadly, the boy died suddenly, so his father Quinn decided to finish up the boy's requirements and spend the next seven weeks helping Ona.  Quinn was a musician who worked gigs and was not around the boy very much.  He and the boy's mother were divorced (for the second time). Through-out the book, Quinn and Ona help and revive each other's lives. A good read.

5) Verity by Colleen Hoover-This book came very highly recommended by others in a Facebook Book Club, so once it came out in paperback, I got it.  It's an interesting psychological mystery. Verity was a well-known writer, who was severely injured in a car accident.  Her husband, Jeremy, hired Lowen Ashleigh to complete a book series that Verity had begun. Lowen went to stay at Jeremy and Verity's home to spend some time going through Verity's office and to read the series in order to have a sense of how to finish the series. And then things began to happen!  It's a good read, although I figured some of it out early on.