Best book finished in 2025, also published in 2025: Today marks the third time in under five weeks I've mentioned Lily King's 2025 novel Heart the Lover in a blog post. That alone indicates the impact it had on me. A brand-new book in a "Best of..." post has happened only once before - in 2024 - when Percival Everett's James pummeled me, albeit for different reasons altogether.
Best moment of musical communion: During the maiden voyage of my music course entitled Women of Heart and Mind, I scanned the room of about thirty adults as we all listened to Karla Bonoff's Goodbye My Friend. Witnessing their reaction to that song was a gift I'm reasonably sure I'll never forget.
Best inspirational quote discovered for future blog use: "If love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will" - James Baldwin.
Best tribe-related moment: I'm auditing a class on short stories led by a reading soulmate. In the same class are - a.) a new friend from my hiker's group; b.) another friend who belongs to my book club; c.) the moderator of a writer's group I joined early in 2025, fast becoming a friend; d.) a regular attendee of my music classes. This wasn't planned; I was as surprised to see the four of them as they were to see me.
Best news: No competition here. Early in December, my daughter and her partner landed a deal to write an animated film for Disney based on the irrepressible Junie B. Jones from the children's book series by Barbara Park. Stay tuned for future bragging.
Happy new year!
Happy New Year! Heart The Lover is definitely on my "to read" list. Not only your recommendation but many others cinched this. My best news is that my granddaughter is pregnant with a little girl who is due to arrive in May!
ReplyDeleteInes; Glad you're adding "Heart the Lover" to your queue; I'm confident you won't be disappointed. BTW, it was you who first directed me to Lily King back in 2017-18 when you raved about "Euphoria" and I subsequently devoured it. So, thanks for turning me on to her; she's a keeper.
DeleteInes; Belated congratulations on that new great-granddaughter that's coming! I forgot to include that in my first (hastily written) response to your comment. Duh!
DeleteHappy New Year, Pat. This is Cookie and I can’t seem to get out of the Anonymous zone!
ReplyDeleteI have been recommending two books that I loved. The first won the Booker award for 2025. “FLESH”. It is existential in tone and design and very spare in language. The first chapter could be a short story on its own. Definitely something I would like to discuss with the right book club. The other is “The Bird Way” by Jennifer Ackerman which Scientific America called a lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence. It’s fascinating.
I am currently reading “Art Work: On The Creative Life” by Sally Mann. I love her photography and this book does not disappoint especially if you are a fan. One of my favorite quotes is from this book. She attributes it to Branch Rickey who was a popular coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers ( of which I know nothing). Someone had said to him that he must feel pretty lucky and his response was “LUCK, SIR, IS THE RESIDUE OF DESIGN.”
I tried to link The NY Times reviews to my comments but the ability to do that must be associated with my inability to get out of Anonymous territory.
Cookie; Thanks for the comprehensive comment. Sorry you're having trouble escaping the anonymous zone; technology. Turns out I read "Flesh" in June of 2025; compelling for sure. That first chapter when the protagonist gets involved with his landlady's wife certainly grabbed my attention. I've also read an earlier book by Sally Mann although the title is not coming to me this moment. However, I do recall it was the one she released in response to the controversy that was swirling around her at the time about her pics of her children in the nude. I'll look out for her newer one. Finally, love the Branch Rickey quote. Puts me in mind of Twain's aphorism about luck. He said "The harder I work the luckier I get". Thanks for reading.
DeleteTo get out of being anonymous on Blogger, you need to update your User Profile within Blogger's Settings to set a public "Display Name," which will then appear on your posts and comments instead of "Unknown," by going to Settings > User Profile and saving your chosen name. For comments left anonymously, you can't edit them, but you can contact the blog owner to ask them to remove them or adjust your comment settings for future posts to require sign-in.
DeleteChris; Thanks for offering help and instructions to any reader stuck in the anonymous zone.
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