Some Things You Just Have To Live With: Musings On Middle Age, by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

Some Things You Just Have To Live With: Musings On Middle Age by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Years ago, while wandering through the local library, I discovered The Sewing Room : Uncommon Reflections of Life, Love, and Work, by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton. I didn't read the book; I devoured it, and ended up buying a copy for myself.

Since this happy meeting, I've bought other books by Rev. Crafton, including Some Things You Just Have To Live With: Musings On Middle Age.

I just finished Some Things..., a slim volume of essays written by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, a retired Episcopal priest. The essays in this volume deal with the joys (and foibles) of middle age, describing the changes we go through during this time in our lives. Written in good spirits, with a touch of humor intact, Some Things You Just Have To Live With: Musings On Middle Age is a joy to read, especially by those of a certain age. I highly recommend this slim volume.

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Talk Before Sleep, by Elizabeth Berg

For those of us who love to read, there are a few books that we reread for a variety of reasons. Whether it's to learn more on a subject, reread a well-written book, or simply akin to revisiting an old friend, it's something we usually enjoy.

Talk Before Sleep, by Elizabeth Berg is one of my go-to books when I want something quick, yet satisfying. It was the first of Berg's books that I'd read, and probably my favorite, for several reasons.

Talk Before Sleep is the story of friendship, told from Ann's perspective. Ann and Ruth first meet at a party. Ann was immediately put off by Ruth's good looks; she soon discovers, though, that Ruth has an honesty that is even more breath-taking than her looks. The book follows their friendship, shifting back and forth through past and present. The present describes Ruth's coping with terminal breast cancer, and how the two women, along with a small group of friends cope with Ruth's ongoing health issue.

The book feels as comfortable as the flannel shirts that L.D. - one of Ruth's friends - wears, while showing how distressing the disease is to the group.

A review in Kirkus several years ago states that "Berg...offers a sappy tale about a woman witnessing the death of her friend..." (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/elizabeth-berg/talk-before-sleep/). While the book might be viewed as borderline-sappy, it came across more as telling about how friendships can help us through difficult times.

Talk Before Sleep is well worth reading, especially if looking for a quick, satisfying read.

Mor and Me: Life, Language, and Love in Letters from Danmark, by Lise Margrete Greene

Mor and Me: Life, Language, and Love in Letters from Danmark by Lise Margrete Greene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many of us have a desire to travel, to see the world, or, at least, the country we live in. Unfortunately, no everyone who wants to travel has the chance to do so. That's when books dealing with travel are wonderful to get lost in.

Mor and Me: Life, Language, and Love in Letters from Danmark by Lise Margrete Greene is one of those books.

Before we go further, I have known the author for a number of years. When she mentioned having written Mor and Me, I had to read it. (Writers are a funny bunch; if we discover a friend also writes, we feel compelled to read said book/article/etc.)

Getting a copy on my ereader (the book also comes as a hardcopy), I was able to start reading almost immediately, and was pleasantly surprised.

Lise's mother (Mor) was from Danmark (the Danish spelling of Denmark). Having heard stories from her mother's youth, Lise felt compelled to travel there. While there, she would email family and friends about her time there. This book grew from those emails and other writings about the country.

Without adding more (I don't want to add any spoilers here), Mor and Me: Life, Language, and Love in Letters from Danmark is well worth reading, especially for those of us who can't travel.

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Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There was a time, several years ago, when I would not read anything by Stephen King. He had a reputation of writing horror books, and, well, I'm not into horror stories. Catching a glimpse of The Shining, the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie based on King's book of the same name didn't help. If you've seen Kubrick's version, you understand; it's not something to watch if horror isn't your thing.

But several years ago, I viewed Dolores Claiborne (the 1995 movie featuring Kathy Bates as Dolores), and decided to read the book.

"Okay," I thought, "maybe it's time to give King a second chance."

That chance came with 11/22/63, back in 2017; this is truly an amazing book.

After recently watching the 2001 movie treatment of Hearts in Atlantis for the umpteenth time, and mentioning that I needed to read the book, my youngest handed me his copy.

"I think you'll like it," he told me.

Hearts in Atlantis is made up of five interconnected stories: "1960: Low Men in Yellow Coats," "1966: Hearts in Atlantis," "1983: Blind Willie," "1999: Why We're In Vietnam," and "1999: Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling". The first two stories - Low Men... and Hearts... - make up the bulk of Hearts in Atlantis. However, the other three stories fill in many gaps, tying up loose ends and giving closure.

For those who've seen the movie, featuring Anthony Hopkins, the movie follows "Low Men in Yellow Coats" fairly closely, with a couple of extra bits from the last couple of stories.

While reading Low Men, one can picture the movie (if one has watched it), seeing where the movie differs. The movie doesn't ruin the reading, any more than reading the book would ruin the movie. (Spoiler alert: at the end of this first story, Bobby gets into trouble, something not shown in the movie.)

The other four stories within the book follow other characters, with the last story (Heavenly Shades) bringing Bobby and Carol - who now goes by a different name, for reasons brought out in the other three stories - back together.

The paperback version of Hearts in Atlantis is 672 pages, not quite as long as some of Stephen King's other books, but not quite a quick one-day read. But if you're looking for a great read, this is it.

And, for the record, my son was wrong. I don't like this book; I love it.

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Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach

Note: This is a repeat of 2017's sole post, with slight changes. I should be back to writing here on a regular basis.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

During the early 1970s, it seemed everyone read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I had read it several times, and had fond memories of it.

Several years ago, I received a copy of this slim book from two different people and decided to reread it to see how it stood up over the intervening years. Since then, I've reread it several times, usually during the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull tells of a seagull who doesn't quit fit in and is banned from his flock as a misfit. Jonathan's misdeed? He loves to fly, loves learning how to improve on flight, how to fly faster, and knows that such learning is, itself, what makes life worth living. The flock, however, has come to the understanding that flight should be merely to be used for food-gathering. Thus, since Jonathan can't comply with living beneath what he is capable of, he is labeled a misfit and cast out of the flock.

It doesn't take long for him to reach a higher consciousness, learning from those who have gone on before him. However, those gulls who teach him soon admit that Jonathan is higher than they are, and that the student has become a teacher.

Soon Jonathan realizes that he must go back to his previous flock and start teaching the newer out-casts, several of whom call him the Son of the Great Gull.

This novella, with its photos of seagulls, can be considered spiritual in nature without being preachy. It shows the reader that we all need to be the best we can be, that we should be our truest self, and while we are learning from those more knowledgeable than we are, we are also to teach those coming up after us.

This is one book that I feel has held up well over the years.

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Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank

When Randy Bragg receives a telegram from his older brother ending with the words "Alas, Babylon," he knows disaster is near. The two words were Randy and Mark's code for impending disaster, whether trivial or horrific.

In this case, Mark, an Air Force Intelligence officer, fears that World War III is imminent, and wants not only to alert Randy of this real threat, but let Randy know to expect Mark's family's arrival in relatively safe Ft. Repose, Florida.

Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank (pen name of Harry Hart Frank), one of the "first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age" describes life in the fictional town of Fort Repose, Florida immediately following a full-scale nuclear strike on the United States, less than 12 hours after Mark's wife and children's arrival. The people in Fort Repose must learn to come to grips with their new reality: store shelves that are soon empty, no gas for the cars, meds for diabetes (and later, typhoid fever), and a government breakdown, where each person, each town is an island. The book follows the struggles of those living on River Road in Ft. Repose for that fateful first year.

A year after the devastation, the residents of River Road are visited an Air Force helicopter, carrying Randy and Mark's friend Paul Hart - now a colonel - along with his crew, bringing news from the outside. As Paul gets ready to leave, Randy asks the question on everyone's mind: "'Paul, there's one thing more. Who won the war?'

"Paul put his fists on his hips and his eyes narrowed. 'You're kidding! You mean you really don't know?...We won it. We really clobbered 'em!' Hart's eyes lowered and his arms drooped. He said, 'Not that it matters.'

"The engine started and Randy turned away to face the thousand-year night."

Although Alas, Babylon was published in 1959, it is still every bit as relevant as it was when it was published, and well worth the read.

Tampa Bay Noir, edited by Colette Bancroft

Tampa Bay Noir by Colette Bancroft
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are short story collections that are mildly interesting, and there are collections that grab the reader's attention and won't turn loose until the last page. Tampa Bay Noir is definitely the latter.

Edited by Colette Bancroft (the book editor for the Tampa Bay Times since 2007), Tampa Bay Noir is one of two books representing Florida in publisher Akashic Books's noir series. (Miami is the other Florida city.) As with the other noir anthologies, this book has all new short stories; these are based in different areas of the Tampa Bay area, mainly Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. Michael Connelly's "The Guardian," set in Hyde Park, opens the anthology; Tim Dorsey, Lisa Unger, and a host of others add stories/mysteries to this quirky, dark collection, ending with Colette Bancroft's "The Bite."

While some of the stories here may not be for the faint-of-heart, I found the book difficult to put down. Each story, each writer, took the book to another level that ensured that I will definitely put this into my rotation of books-to-reread-and-reread, year after year. It also left me with a list of writers who novels will soon be in my to-be-read pile.

For anyone who has lived in the Tampa Bay area, thought about living here, or just plain wants a book to keep one captivated, Tampa Bay Noir is definitely the book to pick up and read, cover to cover.

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