No matter how busy you may think you are, your must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”                                                                                                              –Confucius                                                                                          

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.”

–William Styron

“Read 500 pages every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. 

-Warren Buffet

“More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.”     

-Helen Keller                                                                                                                                            “No two persons ever read the same book.”

–Edmund Wilson

“You cannot open a book without learning something.”

–Confucius

“That is what literature offers – a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place.”

-Jeanette Winterson

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

-Cicero

Each month the club suggests a new book that will grow you!    The main monthly choice will be a book that is recently published – it will be new to most of us.  We’ll also have a bonus book that is either a classic, a not well known read,  something to learn from,  one we may have missed from the last year or so, another great newly published book, a great re-read for you to consider, or a selection from a favorite author.  These I have read already and I’ve included them here as they created growth, emotion, depth, learning, contemplation, surprise, or just great reading for me.

Please share your thoughts, reviews, comments below (at the bottom of the page) on each book.   Add books you’d like to see included as well.  

What are you reading??

*2023 – 2024 monthly posts will be shown on this page.  Archives for previous years of Sapphire Girl’s book club picks, 2014 – 2022, can be found by clicking on the tab above for Sapphire Girls, then drop down to Book Club, then slide to side tab for Book Club Archives.

Sapphire Girls Book Club Reads

2023

January

Monthly Choice:  Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

I love this author and was thrilled to know of a new novel published 2022, but didn’t get to it. Looking forward to starting this year’s reading with what the Washington Post dubbed, “may be the best novel of 2022” and “equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” And Barbara Kingsolver knows how to tell a story! Published 2022.

Bonus Book: A Book of Days, Patti Smith

What a glorious book gifted to me by my glorious friend Gloria! We both love Patti Smith, and she knew I’d love it and I do! It’s a diary of sorts with a short contemplation or quote from her day, and a photo too – usually a Polaroid – her creative image container of choice. Smith has used her 250 Land Camera to capture her life since 1996. She inspires me! Her need to create, her active and inquisitive mind, her nonconformity, her artistry, her embrace of life’s movement and wonder, her attentiveness. All attributes I value, and aspire to. I read a passage a day, along with the accompanying quote, absorb them, then anticipate tomorrow’s. Then I get to work on my own photos, quotes and writing. Yes, inspiring! Thank you Gloria! Thank you Patti! Published 2022.

February

Monthly Choice:  Ways of Being, James Bridle

The author’s subtitle, “Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence” had me riveted immediately, and then Jane Goodall’s praise on the back jacket, “James Bridle encourages you to widen the boundaries of your understanding the contemplate the innate intelligence that animates the life force of octopuses and honeybees as well as apes and elephants…be prepared to reevaluate your relationship with the amazing life-forms with whom we share the planet.” YES!  My studies of Indigenous Knowledge have brought this kind of innovative yet ancient thinking that may just save our planet, and widening my perspective is always a priority! I’ve just started it, and it is brilliant. As Alexandra Kleeman says of the book, “James Bridle’s view of the mind, embedded in a more thoughtful world, is a revelation.” Published 2022.

Bonus Book: Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta

Again the subtitle compelled me, “How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World.” I’m reading a lot in this genre for papers I’m writing, but more importantly, I’m so very appreciative for the true learning and broadening of perspective that is possible with a book like this. I think this author is visionary. And his thoughts and worldview can change you (they did me!) if you’re open to it. It’s the kind of book that you need to read in small snippets, and then put down and ponder. Do a little sand talk of your own! Published 2020 and highly recommended.

March

Monthly Choice:  Unfollowers, Leigh Ann Ruggiero

It’s a beautiful thing how books come to me – to all of us likely, but I can only speak for my experience with them. They arrive, they are mentioned, they drop at my feet… They are such a gifts that invade my field by serendipitous means at just the right time. Insistent. In the case of Unfollowers, the unexpected find was because a classmate of mine in my Law & Policy in Native American Law (I know, yikes, it’s required for my Certificate!) class wrote it!! What I found was a novel elegantly crafted, with such profound juxtapositions of worldviews between Africa and white America, spirituality and evangelicalism with the underlying foundation of the everlasting effect of childhood trauma. Intertwined lives that feel like destiny. Friendships. Heartbreak. Characters that live off of the page. As all good books too, this one has stayed with me. It is subtle but quite powerful, a page turner in its own quite way. The author won the Juniper Prize for fiction, and I hope this will be the first of many awards and future works. I truly enjoyed the writing, the story, the characters and the explorations offered here and I know you will too. Published 2022.

Bonus Book: Women of Light, Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Strong women, holding their heritage and traditions, fearlessly… the woman of light has the gift of sight and premonition, and a strength born of the women who proceeded her.  It’s a period piece of Denver history too, where racism is pronounced and endured daily. Our Hispanic sisters have suffered deeply from European colonizer racism, overcoming great odds just to survive, and prosper, and be absolutely authentic to who they are. The author was a National Book Award Finalist for Sabrina & Corina – I’ll read that too! Published 2022.

April

Monthly Choice: Olga Dies Dreaming, Xochitl Gonzalez

For my wedding planner and event professional friends, a must read! This is pure entertainment with elements that we all will recognize – the minutiae of wedding details (napkins!) start the book, and had me from the first pages. So recognizable. Laugh out loud funny. Our wedding planner main character is mightily flawed. Aren’t we all? I’d never find a creative way to keep a client’s property though! A really fun read as our Spring unfolds into wedding season. Published 2021.

Bonus Book: Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch, River Galchen

Came across this find at my local bookseller, Bookworks, as a staff pick. These picks always intrigue me as those staff members are well read folks!  The author has received many writing accolades including the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and a Rona Jeffe Foundation Writer’s Award, and she writes regularly for the New Yorker. Two previous books were New York Times Best Books of the Year. And I’ve got to include this: she also is an MD! I mean geez. Her intelligence and story telling are immediately evident as savored the opening chapters of this book. Hope you like it as much as I did! Published 2021.

May

Monthly Choice: The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghes

Cutting for Stone was an immersive read that I thoroughly enjoyed, so this new novel by Verghes is an easy choice for this month’s book choice. It took a decade for the author to craft this book after his first offering that I enjoyed so much. The author is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and it boggles the mind that his talent allowed him to write this novel covering 77 years while fulfilling his Stanford duties. Oprah says this novel is one of the best she’s ever read, (ever read !!) certainly an impressive accolade that made an impression. Looking forward to going on this ride, with the novel’s impressive recommendations, I’m ready to lose myself in its 715 pages.. Published 2023.

Bonus Book: The Soul of a Woman, Isabel Allende

I have loved Allende’s novels (The House of the Spirits!), so was intrigued to delve deeper into the author herself with this book I found as an employee reader choice at Bookworks (I love buying locally and these recommendations are always good ones for me). She writes of being a feminist before there was any kind of wave in that direction in Chile, and as it was just forming in Europe and the US, of motherhood, of inner evolution through the years. I loved her transparency, recognition of the universal themes of being a woman in our times, and those places where she is completely and absolutely unique in her selfhood. Every life has such a rich story, and when a talented storyteller is telling the story it is absorbing. Loved the tag line too, “on impatient love, long life, and good witches.” Published 2021.

June

Monthly Choice: Through the Wilderness, Brad Orsted

Yellowstone! Mountain lions & grizzly bears! There is so much intimate knowledge of the bears, lions, Chico Hot Springs, and Doug Peacock, giving the book the aura of the familiar. But the book is about nature’s power to heal after unspeakable tragedy.  Nature’s embrace, her acceptance and her insistent demand of complete attention, and of being fully present brings healing over time. Much time.  Brad’s journey is a harrowing one, and his writing of his true story is openly raw and heartbreaking, and finally uplifting with hope and transcendence. I was with him on his treks through this landscape that I know, but that he alone is completely immersed in, and that’s what it took for nature to do her healing work. Orsted is a good writer and he unflinchingly unmasks himself in the pages as he traverses this most difficult of journeys. He finds the pervading love, healing, and embrace that his heart craves and that he must have to go on with life, while holding his daughter’s loss with him through each day. Published 2023.

Bonus Book: The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber

Another new author for me, and I am in love with his writing. The story line and focus are right in my love zone too. The book cover includes a review by the Washington Post that says, “If you love books, make room on your shelf. Smart, packed with excitement and fascinating details about rare manuscripts and ancient and modern cryptography.” Yep, so many intriguing components put together in a gripping story with well researched real info on intellectual property, ancient manuscripts and the business and love of books. This was a New York Times bestseller but I missed it in 2007 when it was published.  Gruber is another very smart writer holding a PhD in marine sciences and previously was a policy analyst and speechwriter for the EPA.  Other books include: Night of the Jaguar, Tropic of Night and Valley of Bones, and I’d like to read them all.

July

Monthly Choice: The Invisible Hour, Alice Hoffman

Brand new novel by one of my favorite authors. I pre-ordered it, received it just days after publication and read it in two days. The mystical and magical are intertwined as I’ve come to love in her novels in ethereal ways. There is time travel and a glimpse of The Scarlet Letter that underlies the story line, along with the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne interwoven as well. In this novel, it’s birds of all kinds and water that are prevalent themes too, especially sparrows… And most importantly to the novel, is the power of words on paper, the freedom they can bring, the transformation, the impact to a life even a hundred and fifty years after they were formed. I loved that aspect of the book immeasurably. We cannot forget the privilege that reading as we chose is, and the way reading can transform us, give us hope. As Kristin Hannah says in her sparkling review, “A fantastic mystical journey that celebrates the joy and power of reading and dares to believe the impossible.” All true.  Published 2023. *And note to self, reread The Scarlet Letter!

Bonus Book: The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman

This is a harrowing read based on real life events in Israel where Rome was singularly focused on eradicating any resistance to their rule and supreme authority over all expressions of life. Masala was the stronghold of Jewish refugees who will not succumb to slavery and domination, a place were traditions and cultural expressions lived on. In 73 CE the Romans bring the last siege, and the novel covers the year just previous to this event. Alice Hoffman amazes me with her storytelling – every novel different from the last (exceptions are her magic series where the characters and their predecessors and heirs continue through time). But there are pure Hoffman inclusions too, the strength of woman, their sisterhood, and their foundational importance to community, to family, and to that culturer and tradition. This story and these characters will stay with me. This is a story that had to be told, and Alice Hoffman was up to the task. Published 2012.

August

Monthly Choice:  Crow Mary, Kathleen Grissom

This novel is based on the true story of an incredibly strong and resilient woman in the late 1800’s in Montana and Alberta.  Her handsome young warrior is killed while hunting buffalo, and her fifteen year old heart is broken to bits. She takes the marriage proposal of a fur trader, a white man, and they join a Metis tribe that serves as a transition time for Mary. She wears her Crow heritage with pride and strength throughout her life, and this stroy, her story, she maintains traditions and culture, sometimes defiantly. She is an excellent horsewoman and markswoman with a rifle and pistol, and that comes in force during a daring rescue she executes. What a remarkable woman, and I acknowledge how important it is that her story is remembered and will continue to be. The author is white, but she has permission from Crow Mary’s great great granddaughter for this project and she did excellent research. A well done historical novel that helps with understanding of Crow and Metis culture and tradition. Published 2023.

Bonus Book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Art by Ellen Forney

I’ve finished up my last class in the Certificate in Native American Studies, but having been so immersed in all things Native American,  I feel the need to continue reading, understanding, and using the learning to help in any way with  moving forward agendas for self-determination, self government and preserving and protecting sacred land, language, culture and traditions of our Native Nations. This is a book I’ve had in my home library for years, published 2007. And now, inexpicably it is included in many banned book list. I respect Sherman Alexies’s perspective, humor and ability to express truths. My site isn’t for political commentary, but suffice it to say, the inclusion of this book on any banned list is another reason for this month’s choice as a bonus book. Published 2007.

September

Monthly Choice: Wonder, R. J. Palacio

Back to school calls for a reminder that compassion must reign.  This “meditation on kindness” is indeed a call to kindness for the different yet extraordinary among us. The book is written in the first person by the central character, Auggie, a middle schooler who in addition to dealing with the normal angst of that time of life, must navigate the differentness that defines every moment of his life. In his words, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”  Yet, of course, inside he’s just a normal boy who happens to be very smart and funny and fun.  These attributes too often are  overshadowed by the immediate and preliminary reaction to his face.  His friends step up, his family is always there for him, and the principle has his best outcome in his heart, so with that foundational support, and Auggie’s indomitable will, the novel does evolve into a kindness meditation.  This book was recommended by my niece Ashley, and as I’ve said before, I always read her recommended books! I know she is raising her daughters to always show the compassion and kindness demonstrated in the book by Jack, Auggie’s closest friend. Published 2023.

Bonus Book: The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

This book was recommended by my good friend Gloria. I do love to read recommended books by good readers and I’m glad I read this one. This memoir won several awards and was a NY Times notable book and is an impactful story that has stayed with me. It has so many saddnesses and I felt the author working through with her writing very difficult moments and years.  It’s a hard read sometimes… but Walls’ resiliency prevails. The choices her parents make during child raising years, and continue to make as Jeannette makes her life a success in the world as a journalist and novelist, are at times impossible to absorb. I mean, if you think your family is dysfunctional!  This dysfunctional family is created by a parenting style that refused to compromise in any way from the parent’s extremely unique and unwavering perspective of living in our world. I vasilated at times from respecting the parents absolute steadfast commitment to their strange ways and being so sad for the impact these choices had on their offspring. But all the children raised in that environment come through it and are doing well in the world and are mentally and emotionally sound, even as their parents continue to battle homelessness and continued hardships. Published 2005.

October

Monthly Choice: Untamed, Glennon Doyle

This book! The type of book that I had to put aside periodically to absorb the words I just read, either in recognition, admiration, or revelation. Glennon is brave here. Startling sometimes. Raw. Real. She had the guts to reinvent herself at age 40, reestablish her family with different rules, reestablish herself with the guidance of her own soul. As she tells her own unique individual story, she writes a sort of manifesto for women’s voices, rights, equality. Her young kindergartner, Tish, is me at that age, is me now, as she laments the polar bear’s plight. Her heart aches and she can’t let it go. And her mother, Glennon, finally has an epiphany as she’s about to tear her hair out if she hears about the polar bears one more time: “Then I looked down at my baby and thought, ‘Ah, you are not crazy to be heartbroken over the polar bears; the rest of us are crazy not to be.” I wrote in my daily journal that day after reading that sentence, “Those moments when you’ve been just exactly there, and felt alone in the experience, and then read someone sharing it, even a tiny little girl, bring such a wave…” Sarah gifted me with this book for no occasion other than she knew that I’d like it. And I sure did. Very appreciative. I loved it. Published 2020.

November

Monthly Choice: I’m Not a Mourning Person, Kris Carr

I’ve followed Kris Carr’s personal journey for a long time, amazed by her resiliency and positivity through an ongoing health crisis. Her cookbooks, self improvement blogs and books have consistently been mainstream. So this book was a departure – dealing with deep grief and the falling apart that comes with it.  Her grief was the result of losing her father, her rock and mainstay. And, of course, we all have our own deep griefs… I bought the book when it first came out not knowing that deep grief of the sorrows of the world would hit on Oct. 7th with the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel.  How humans can be brutally barbaric to other humans at this point in our evolution is baffling and heartbreaking to me. Shattering.  I gifted the book to my good friend E who is suffering mightiy with what I recongized as grief after the attacks. It’s personal and she needs so desparately to feel seen and acknowledged.  So back to the book. Carr deals with just these aspects of grief – how the world can go on unaffected while your own personal world is shattered and broken. Reading her words you feel her pain mirroring your own, and somehow it’s not such a lonely journey. It helped me, and I hope it helped E.  Grief indeed is messy and overwhelming. It’s a journey and it is reassuring to read of another human’s walk to the other side with healing and hope, while holding the hole in her heart, in our universal hearts, for all that has been lost, for all the precious souls that have been lost. Published 2023.

December

Monthly Choice: 

Bonus Book: Heart to Heart, A Conversation on Love and Hope for our Precious Planet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Patrick McDonnell

This is such a sweet book, and such a sweet gift from my friend Gloria for Christmas. I had to experience it right away. The drawings are lovely, and they tell the story as much as the words do. Yet, the words are quite poignant, and speak to our foundational connection to our planet – the Mother Earth and all her wild creatures. And our responsibiility to them all as human creatures coexisting with them, and as their stewards. So many quotes that have remained in my heart. Yes, heart to heart, the Dalai Lama can speak directly, as the animals and the earth do to me . If a panda bear knocked at the Dalai Lama’s door what would transpire? That’s the wonderful story of love, connection and of a shared existence on this magnificent planet that we all call home. “Real change in the world will only come with a change of heart.”  Loved this little book and will reread it often. Published 2023. 

Sapphire Girls Book Club Reads

2024

January

Monthly Choice: What The Bears Know, Steve Searles and Chris Srskine

Another awesome gift, this one from Steve for my birthday. I loved it so so much. Steve is the bear whisperer of Mammoth Lakes, California – a beautiful place west of Yosemite National Park that I’ve been to several times. A mountain town, ski town, and a bear town. Steve is a skier turned bear eradicator, turned bear manager, turned bear advocate, turned a believer that coexistence between bears and humans is absolutely possible, turned creator of creative non-lethal means to move bears away from people, turned deep lover of the creatures. He taught himself to employ non lethal tactics of all kinds that proved effective in moving bears away from people, so they can live their lives and the humans can live theirs successfully.  It is a way of life in Mammoth Lakes now, and Steve has taught the techniques to others around the country. He’s a beautiful soul who recognizes the souls of the bears he comes to know so well. And he lets us see them too. I loved Steve’s mountain man, folksy, humorous way of telling his story. He thinks he’s a gruff manly man, but he’s a mush inside. That’s clear. Chris is the writer from the LA Times, that writes the story that Steve tells him – they collaborate in a bromance, fractious, endearing way.  I’ve read so much about bears, and still I learned more about them here. These are black bears, not grizzlies, and their temperaments are as individual as all bears are, and very different from griz. I sure am having a wonderful reading journey so far this year, this winter. “So many problems are education problems” Steve says. Yep. Published 2023.

Bonus Book: An Echo in the Bone, Diana Gabaldon

Because, OUTLANDER! This has been my guilty binge watching this long and beautiful Montana winter. So engrossing, passionate, historic. Season one through six now watched. From Scotland to America in times of deep trouble – revolution, disquiet of all kinds, the characters persevere. I have come to know these characters… Claire, Jamie, Brianna, Roger, Young Ethan, Fergus… all flawed, damaged, unique, brave, awesome. All a reflection of their times, BUT three of the characters (Claire, Brianna and Roger) are time travelers so they are the reflection of two time periods, two hundred years apart. Interesting plot twist! The characters all have unique gifts. And of course there are lessons in that. There’s too much violence (but it IS historical), and lots of passionate sex, so just be ready. I originally began watching this with my Mom, and let’s just say it was… uncomforable. The author said she wanted to explore love and passion through time, within a marriage, instead of it being a woman meets man, love happens, end of story. And she’s done that, and I am invested. Season 8 to be filmed soon (!), this is book seven. Published .

February

Monthly Choice:  Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

Second book of 2024 and it’s a really absorbing read. Garmus is funny and poignant, raises really difficult and complicated issues and covers a lot of ground. Lack of women’s rights, voice, authority, opportunity in the 50’s is front and center and there’s a parallel time line to the present where we witness the extreme pain and damage of these injustices, assault, limitations. But too, there is Elizabeth bucking all the traditional roles, a brilliant chemist who refuses to toe the line of gender and expectations. She is keenly intelligent, innovative, steadfast, honest, in spite of a horrific past and her ongoing tragedies. She has incredible resolve and strength. Garmus wraps the timelines up nicely and positively, thankfully, in her ending, and I closed the last chapter with a smile on my face, happy with all I gleaned from this read. Thank you to Mela for this absorbing read. Published 2022.

Living the Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

Creativity is crucial. Important. A vital ingredient in who we are. Having read Cameron’s The Artist’s Way decades ago, and having experimented with Morning Pages all those years ago too, I was intrigued with this 6 week course to “experience the artist’s way”. The subtitle is “An Intuitive Path to Greater Creativity” The chapters are invitations, to grounding, stamina, optimism, strength, calm, and commitment to and morning pages are the cornerstone. Three hand written pages, flow of consciousness, unedited, each and every morning, first thing. And I do them, each and every morning and I now absolutely and unequivocally, GET how very much they infuse my day with centeredness, with connectedness with calm and presence. How awesome is that. She has three other foundations, Writing for Guidance (did that too), Once a Week Artist Date (go explore something creative), and Walking. All my things.  Published 2023.

March

Monthly Choice: The Women, Kristin Hannah

This month it’s all about the women. The book cover inside jacket sets the stage for the story, “Women can be heroes.” Well, of course they can and ARE, but possilby our heroine at 20 years old didn’t fully know or embrace that. A novel set in Vietnam, and its aftermath, this novel will be close to the bone. I have loved Hannah’s writing,The Nightengale and The Four Winds, so I’m eagerly anticipating this new novel just published.  Published 2024.

Bonus Book: The Women of Chateau Lafayette, Stephanie Dray

These unsung heroines womened up during the 1780’s and this saga takes us from that time through World War ii, as the women continue to ensure the survival of each other and the castle they inhabit, the castle they keep in the heart of France, Chateau Lafayette. The Epigraph at the beginning of the novel says, “Most castles are defended by men. This one, by women.” Historical fiction is such a riviting combination for me. The characters created to compel, but the history all too real. I will learn here. Published 2021.

April

Monthly Choice:  Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl

Spring!  Everything about being outside in nature and the immense world that becons and is unearthed day by day here in northwest Montana is so sweetly exhilarating and welcome including this book.  The author is a New York Times opinion writer and wrote the bestseller, Late Migrations. She was compelled to write The Comfort of Crows during Covid, exploring the experiences available to her in her own backyard.  She found immeasureable beauty there and coorelations to her own life as seasons passed. Her brother is the illustrator.  Ann Patchett wrote of the book that it is a “howling love letter to the world”  and we are promised by the Amazon review “a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.” That’s the line that got me interested in reading it. For me, the natural is deeply personal.  Published late 2023.

Bonus Book: An Immense World, Ed Young

Everything about this book drew me in. The many accolades, the subtitle (How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us), its status as one of The NY Times 10 Best Books of the Year and its winning the Carnegie Medal for excellence in nonfiction all were reasons to make this an easy choice and a must read. How is the world truly perceived by our fellow creatures?  Can we even know? I look so forward to exploring these questions and all the questions I didn’t even know that I have. Published 2023. I’ve never read this author, Ed Young, but I see too that he’s won The Pulitzer Prize.

June

Monthly Choice: Wandering Stars, Tommy Orange

The author’s novel, There There, was assinged reading in my Native American Literature and the West class that I took en route to my Certificate in Native American Studies that I completed last year. After many works formed from historical writers, the novel was a departure by a contemporary writer. I am so glad that I was introduced to Orange (Cheyenne, Arapaho). His writing is spare, clean, evocotive, and, of course, from a Native perspective. In 1864, the Sand Creek Massacre happened in Colorado. It is a little know horror among many, lost by the tellers of history to the myth of our nation building. The novel begins there, the historical trauma of this and hundreds of other massacres woven into the DNA of our Native American brothers and sisters.  They deserve to be witnessed. I can certainly see why Orange was a finalist for the Pulitzer with There, There. Orange writes of intergenerational trauma, no, rather than write about it, he has his characters live it. Feel it. Experience the deep pulsing of pain whose origin cannot be found – and if it is found, the question of where is the outrage, why the deep silence, in this country of proported freedoms, individual expression of happiness, human rights? Where indeed. There’s no there, there.  Published 2024.

July

Monthly Choice: The Fox Wife, Yangtze Choo

This month we absorb the world of our fellow creatures who we share our precious planet with. Choo is a new author for me. I know I”m going to love her writing. Set in Manchuria in 1908, we have a Chinese medicine shop, foxes who gather qi, and a mother named Snow, the novel is woven with “singular unforgettable characters, and explores a world of mortals and spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection.” I love it already. Published 2024.

August

Monthly Choice: Black Bird Oracle, Deborah Harkness

The fifth in the Discovery of Witches series, I ordered this novel as soon as it was published. It seems to be a perfect late summer guilty pleasure read. The Oxford scholar, Diana, a witch, and her scienties husband, Matthew, a vampire, continue to combine their mundane day to day life of  raising  twins and holding down demanding jobs while being anything but ordinary. Diana is surprised to learn of a long lost great aunt who is a talented practioner of all things in witchery. She agrees to take Diana deeper into her skills and into her darkness. The twins begin to reveal their unique powers inherited from their parents too so there are many complexities to navigate.. Just the right combination of wicked intelligence, magic, family drama (and love!), secrets and intense competitiveness amongst the witches. Published 2024.

September

Monthly Choice: Once There Were Wolves, Charlotte McConaghy

Both of these novels chosen for this month made a deep impression and impact on me. In wildly different circumstances, historical time frames, and characters, we are shown the power of the wild ones to heal our hearts – from unspeakable trauma, from loss and heartbreak, from PTSD from war, from addiction, from the depths of despair and hopelessness. I have encountered these themes previously where grizzlies, orcas, and fox have bestowed these gifts of healing as well, so poignant and moving. The themes here engrossed me with new knowledge about wolves, about Scotland and a neurological condition called “mirror touch synshestesia” and expanded eternal themes of family and sisterhood, small community living and politics. The weaving was intricate with a mystery to be solvedl, secrets revealed, love to be discovered, healing to continue, forgiveness, all tied up with an unexpected conclusion. You’ll see! Published 2021, I loved the book.

Bonus Book: West with Giraffes, Lynda Rutledge                                                       I missed the wolves immediately and intuitively selected this book I’d had on the shelf for a year, not even sure when or where I got it. It was a perfect novel to read after my deep dive into wolves. This is a period piece from 1938, historical fiction with a true thread to the “hurricane giraffes” that made it from New Jersey to the San Diego Zoo. An incredible adventure is shared along the way, secrets revealed. How a woman author can so clearly get in the head of a dust bowl seventeen year old orphan is amazing to me. So believable. By the end of the book I felt like I made the journey with the “Old Man” “Red” and “Woody Nickel” – such incredibly well crafted characters as well as “Boy” and “Girl” the giraffes. Loved them all and I loved this book. Highly recommended. Published 2021.

October

Monthly Choice:

November

Monthly Choice:  A Year of Living Constitutionally,

At my local bookseller I found this on the front table and was immediately intrigued. I purchased it for Craig’s birthday knowing he would enjoy it after consulting with the bookstore owner and reading a few pages right there in the store. Of course it’s perfect timing with the election this month. Unprecidented in it’s importance is this election in my humble estimation. Published

Bonus Book: A Year of Living Biblically

So then I found that the author had taken the same approach to actually living the tenants of the Bible, and in the same vein as The Good Book, I knew the perspective would fascinate me. Interpretation. We all decide how to absorb these words, principles, directives… but I think that’s the point, how do we decide our truths, how we interpret ancient words today. Even divinely given, there are endless, quite disparate ways to interpret and live the very same words. Published.

December

Monthly Choice: