My Year In Books

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was first published in Great Britain in 1954. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns. Ironic as it may seem given the role that book burning plays on the novel itself, Fahrenheit 451 has faced multiple censorship and banning attempts throughout the years. The problem that Bradbury brings to the forefront in Fahrenheit 451 – which also occured more recently in America’s history – is that people are afraid to hear the truth. But keeping the truth from people doesn’t keep them safe.

Khaled Hosseni, author of ‘The Kite Runner’ says, ‘Banning books doesn’t protect students, it betrays them.’

From ‘Grief is For People’ by Sloane Crosley:

‘What I am experiencing is called cumulative grief, or ‘grief overload,’ the kind associated with multiple losses, often of different genres, always in quick succession. I do remember what it was like to concern myself with other matters. Sanity is on the horizon if only I am willing to put in the work. Not to force it mind you – nothing seems to horify people so much as the idea that you must rush the grieving process even as their tolerance for the topic dwindles.’

‘You become numb when you swallow too much sadness at once.’ Sloane Crosley

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water, by acclaimed author, Abraham Verghese, is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast. The story is a multi-generational tale, following the travails of a family who are part of the minority Christian community, often marginalised by the dominant Hindu culture.

According to tradition, Christianity in Kerala was founded by Saint Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, who landed on the Malabar Coast, at Malankara, in 52 CE. He is believed to have converted a few Brahmin (high-caste Hindu) families to Christianity,

One of the overarching themes in The Covenant of Water is faith. The faith of the Saint Thomas Christians, their unshakable devotion and commitment to Christ and his teachings, sustained them in their bleakest hours.

Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955. He is the author of ten previous novels, including The Master, Brooklyn, and The Magician.

Long Island has been described as ‘a novel of enormous wit and profound emotional resonance.’ Eilis Lacey is Irish, from the small town of Enniscorthy. She is married to Tony Forelli, a plumber. They live on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their two teenage children and Toy’s extended family.

‘The intimacy offered by a small town (like Enniscorthy) can appear as suffocating nosiness and claustrophobia. But it can also offer a sense of intense belonging.’

Ukraine’s most famous novelist, Andrey Kurkov, has given us Grey Bees, a story that highlights the struggle of a thoughtful and sensitive man, Sergey Sergeyich, and his determination to survive in a time of conflict and uncertainty.

Sergey Sergeyich is a 49-year-old retired safety inspector who suffers from Silicosis. He lives in the village of Little Starhorodivka in Eastern Ukraine’s Grey Zone, the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces.

The story is a meditation on life. It suggests that we all go through tough times when life feels grey, when all the colour has seeped out of our existence. Times that reflect feelings of being under threat, compromised, or defeated.

In the Chicken Hill of the 1920’s and 1930’s, many of the Jewish residents of the Hill were slowly moving into downtown, away from their black neighbours, into Main St. homes. Moshe and Chona Ludlow, two of the novel’s main characters, who own and manage the grocery store from which the book takes its name, argue at one point about whether to stay on Chicken Hill or move downtown. Chona protests that she doesn’t want to move:

“‘Moshe, I like it here. I grew up in this house. The postman knows where I live.’

Exasperated, Moshe pointed out the kitchen window toward Pottstown below. ‘Down the hill is America!’

But Chona was adamant. ‘America is here.’”

Colleen Oakley’s novel, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, is a work of contemporary fiction. The story examines the impact of change on a small, isolated community and how they process the tragic death of one of their own.

Anders Caldwell is a struggling journalist working for a small-town newspaper. When he uncovers the mystery of a whole town pretending a dead man is still alive and living amongst them, he cannot help but be curious. When Pearl, (Mrs. Olecki), finally tells Anders how and when the town decided to go along with Piper’s delusion, she says: ‘It’s amazing what people will do for the ones they love.’

‘The Boys in the Boat’ by Daniel James Brown is the story of how nine working class boys from the American West – sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers – beat the odds and found hope in the most desperate of times.

The boys became the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team. Although expectations were low they achieved the ultimate prize, winning gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, witnessed by a disgruntled Adolph Hitler.

‘Harmony, balance, and rhythm. They’re the three things that stay with you your whole life.’ George Yeoman Pocock

The Glass Maker takes place on Murano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon which for centuries has been associated with glass making. The year is 1486. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter of a Murano glassmaking family. Working with glass is considered a man’s job, but Orsola feels that glassmaking is in her blood and longs to have the same opportunities as her brothers.

Tracy Chevalier uses the narritive device of the main characters only ageing a normal lifetime, but the story spans from the late 15th century until the present day.

‘People who make things also have an ambiguous relationship with time. Painters, writers, wood-carvers, weavers, and, yes, glassmakers: creators often enter an absorbed state that psychologists call flow, in which hours pass without their noticing.’

‘Before the Swallows Come Back’ by Fiona Curnow is a heartwarming story about love, family and redemption. The novel follows two young people, Tommy and Charlotte, who are forced to do what is necessary to survive, after devastating changes to their lives force them apart.

The story is set against a backdrop of the most beautiful, lyrical description of the natural world of woodlands and streams.

‘The wee road, dotted with passing places, sucked its way around the lock then veered off into nothingness. As it did so his anxiety began to slip away; desolation was comfort, the trees that flanked one side friends, the bleak moorland that stretched up the sides of the mountain likewise, he knew this. He could breathe here.’

Maryte is a devoted beekeeper. She lives by the old rules: work with fellow beekeepers, be a good Christian and a good harvest will follow. These rules help her cope with her grief when she inherits her husband’s tree hollows. But as harsh conditions and tax increases threaten the harvest, Maryte begins to question her faith, her community and her own sanity.

Her eldest daughter Austeja is a risk taker, speaks her mind and dreams of escaping their isolated community. As her mother works, she finds refuge in the ancient forest and the old beliefsinstilled in her by her defiant grandmother.

‘Bees choose their masters. Bees don’t sting good people.’

From ‘Davita’s Harp’ by Chaim Potok:

The word idea, Mama said, came from an old word that originally meant to see. An idea was something that existed in a person’s mind. It could be a thought, an opinion, a fantasy, a plan of action, a belief. It used to mean an image in the mind, a picture of someone or something, a likeness. But no one used it that way anymore.

‘Is when I hear the door harp an idea?’

‘No darling. That’s hearing. That’s one of your senses, like seeing, touching, and smelling. An idea is in your mind.’