Category Archives: family

Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll get through any more books from my tbr pile, so Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh might be my last book of 2025! I found this little gem in a little free library awhile back. Mostly these little libraries are full of throw away titles, but there’s one a few blocks from the house that is carefully curated, and I’ve found several high quality children’s books and decent literary titles over the years.

I took a quick glance at this book and saw that the writing was literary-quality and that the author was female and that it was old–all good signs–so I grabbed it. Here’s why they are good signs: there were not a lot of women writing 100 years ago, so those who were published tended to earn their place, and secondly, this book was a reprint from the original, which was published in 1955. The fact that publishers are still putting effort into keeping the book in publications is a good sign!

The book itself is, perhaps, not the feminist anthem that some hope it would be, but the message is important, if not too class-based, and that message is the fact that a woman should have the opportunity not just to have a room of one’s own, but also to have an annual two-week vacation of one’s own. And I agree!

After reading a chapter, I got curious and looked up the author. I quickly realizing that the author is also the mother from the famed Lindbergh kidnapping! I read on.

The book’s setting is lovely, in rustic a vacation home on a tropical beach, admiring the sea and the seashells it offers to the shore. How idyllic! The insights are not inconsequential and demonstrate an understanding of social class and the social movements of the time, which was before second wave feminism.

This book is worth reading for those interested in tracing feminist thought over the last century because I do think the author’s writing adds to that opus. However, the writer is also cautious and relatively safe with her ideas. I would have loved a deeper sense of place, and a deeper sense of self. Instead, it read more like theory in that regard. As a reader, I found myself wanting more specific personal reflection, one that pointed to a unique person (Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life on paper was fascinating!), but she reveals none of that and instead mostly sticks to pairing insightful platitudes with observations inspired by nature–in this case on the beach during her two week vacation–which is a worthwhile endeavor.

Rosarita by Anita Desai

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Rosarita by Anita Desai is a book for literary readers who want to spend some more mental energy in the beautiful cities of Mexico. Decades have passed now since I spent a summer traveling through Mexico on a trip with my school, but this book brought back that wonderful sense of travel–the unique sights and sounds that can only be experienced by being in Mexico, as an outsider perhaps. Readers who do not have the same connect to the country will still enjoy the prose, the rich description, and the strange emotional journey of our main character.

Audition by Katie Kitamura

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This is the first book I’ve read by Katie Kitamura, and I thought it was great! This is a 2025 release. I rarely read brand new books. In fact, this might be the only 2025 release on my reading list this year.

Audition is a very concept-y book. I assume this is Kitamura’s “thing” because it’s quite unique–this specific type of concept-driven prose, I mean–but can’t say for sure since I haven’t read her other works yet.

The book is, without doubt, very carefully and artfully written. The pacing is like a dictionary, and yet the characters all feel very human and knowable. The book’s takeaways and insights, always shown with subtlety, are profound.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl

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I read somewhere that Wendell Berry (and I mostly like Wendell Berry!) was one of Margaret Renkl’s influences, and I could definitely see that as I read, especially in the attention to and elevation of the natural world.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss is a beautifully written book that does so many important things: it captures the lifespan intimate family relationships, the landscapes that hold them, and the socio cultural aspects of these southern spaces as well.

It is also very clear that Renkl is a trained poet, as this makes the prose beautiful to read. I always love it when writers are able to produce unconventional structures in books AND also get published. Overall–a bittersweet, but life affirming book.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

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Alexandra Fuller’s book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight offers beautiful writing and insights on living in Africa through the 1970s-90s, amid war and revolution, amid those complicated social dynamics, but also amid the personal dynamics of family, of alcoholism, of mental illness, and parents who offer their children a childhood that is at once amazing and also, probably, negligent.

Fuller’s writing is consistently beautiful throughout. Even in its sometimes stark depictions, the book is infused with a contagious love of Africa. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi have not necessarily been places I’ve ever wanted to visit. I’ve grown up in wilderness areas, and so the great safaris that have drawn others have less pull for me. However, this book made me see some of the other beautiful aspects of the country. After reading the book, I wouldn’t hesitate to go.

This year there’s a new movie out based on the book. From the trailer, it appears that the film follows the book closely. I hope I get a chance to watch it.

There There by Tommy Orange

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There There by Tommy Orange has been on my tbr pile since shortly after it was published in 2019. The timing was right when I finally got around to reading it, as, interestingly, I have been reading more indigenous work for my scholarship this winter, learning more about my family’s history, and this book has helped inform all of that thinking.

It’s a good book. It is another one that I’ve read recently that has a very cinematic quality, and I could easily see it being made into a movie at some point. The book has an intentional and unique plot and timeline, with characters unknown to each other moving apart and together in each other’s lives.

I’m not sure what to say about the theory, exactly. Orange’s characters are urban Indians. Orange has them defying societal expectations and also interacting with stereotypes.

I think most readers have a lot of learn from a book like this, both in terms of good literary prose and the commentary about contemporary, urban indigenous lives.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

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On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan is a painstaking, painstaking novella. It’s beautifully written, no doubt. McEwan captures human nature and places it in a time of properness, confusion, ignorance. The book offers some wisdom about coupling, big picture, that would likely be lost on most readers who have not yet been in a relationship with a partner or spouse. McEwan uses a very detailed account of a sexual encounter to make some smart, larger commentary about human coupling. It’s good, but it is painful.

My Mother Gets Married by Moa Martinson

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This book has been on my tbr list for over a year now, and I finally found a copy to read through interlibrary loan. My Mother Gets Married is an account of Moa Martinson’s own childhood growing up in impoverished Sweden around the turn of the last century

My own grandma was frugal, but everyone was who lived through the great depression. It wasn’t clear to me if her family immigrated more because of harsh living conditions in the old country or more because of the promise of the “new” world.

While I can’t be exactly certain of my family’s exact circumstances, I think perhaps things weren’t so dark as Martinson depicts in her book based on some information I have. Either way, the book offers insights into some of the culture in Sweden at that time. I appreciated learning about the schooling they would have received, the dresses they would have worn, and the tokens that would have been important to them.

Personal interests aside, Martinson’s writing is strong. There is a subtle, underlying and scathing observations on gender, social class, and justice. Martinson’s writing reveals a deep insight and understanding of the human condition.

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

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So, Pamela Anderson is interesting. She’s raised her children. She’s gardening in Canada. She’s on Broadway. She’s galavanting around Paris Fashion Week with a bare face! Gasp! I’m really enjoying seeing an iconic figure doing something a little different than the status quo, in both subtle and overtly radical ways.

I just finished her book, Love, Pamela, and I really enjoyed it. She comes across as aware, intentional, not overtly prudish at all, but much more thoughtful than most women in her position are ever allowed to be.

Weirdly, perhaps, I identify with some aspects of Pamela’s life, especially her whirlwind romance with Tommy. He even proposed with a skull ring similar to the one that I received after a show from the person with whom I would later have children. Like Pamela, I also have seen some things, but like grounding back in familiar land, gardening, chickens, etc. Of course, there are also some critical and obvious differences too!

I appreciate that her voice is being amplified, and I look forward to seeing what’s next from this icon.

Making Love with the Land by Joshua Whitehead

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Making Love with the Land by Joshua Whitehead is one of the best there is in contemporary literary prose. I want to say that Whitehead is incredibly “playful” on the level of the line–unique and like nothing I’ve ever seen before–but “playful” doesn’t seem quite like the right word because of intensity and oftentimes heaviness of the content, but a better alternative escapes me. The book is vulnerable, embarrassing, and brave and deserving of the accolades.