Hi Neighbor!
In 2020, writer and teacher Amy Lin’s 32-year-old husband collapsed mid-marathon and died instantly. Afterward, she lost the ability to read. She would pick up a book and set it back down moments later, unable to focus on even the briefest of passages. Reading had always been her lifeline; without it she felt flat and listless. Along with eating and sleeping, it was another thing grief mercilessly stole from her.
Three years later, it came back out of the blue, when she opened a book and was miraculously able to follow along. Lin recently published a memoir of the deep love she shared with her husband and the unimaginable grief she faced after his death.
I haven’t been able to get Lin’s experience out of my mind, maybe because reading is so sacred to me. Books have been my steady companions since I was a little girl; they’ve sustained me and burrowed their way into my soul. In honor of Lin’s return to reading and bibliophiles everywhere, here are a few books that captured my heart this spring:
• The House Is on Fire, by Rachel Beanland: A riveting, fictionalized retelling of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811, which killed 70 people, including the governor of Virginia. The story is told from four different perspectives, each representing a different social class. In the days following the fire, the characters must face the life-altering consequences of the difficult decisions they made that fateful night.
• The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters: In the summer of 1962, an indigenous Canadian family arrives in Maine to pick blueberries. When four-year-old Ruthie goes missing, it tears the family apart. Miles away, a young girl named Norma is plagued by disturbing dreams of being driven away by strangers and presses her parents to fill in the gaps of her family history. (You see where this is going.) A heartbreaking but ultimately redemptive take on the unbreakable bonds of family.
• So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men, by Claire Keegan: A man ponders the demise of his ill-fated engagement, an opinionated academic crashes a writer’s seaside residency and a married woman seeks excitement and adventure in the arms of a dangerous stranger. Each story packs a devastating punch.
• The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon: Inspired by the life and diary of renowned 18th-century midwife Martha Ballard, this novel opens in the winter of 1789, when Ballard is called to examine a dead man pulled from the ice. Ballard recognizes him as the same man one of her patients accused of rape just a few months prior. When a local physician declares the death accidental, Ballard conducts her own investigation. A thrilling tale about a woman’s dogged pursuit of justice.
• Only the Beautiful, by Susan Meissner: Narrated in two timelines, this moving novel tells the story of a 16-year-old orphan named Rosie who is taken in by the Calvert’s, her parents’ former employers. When Rosie ends up pregnant and refuses to name the father, Mrs. Calvert ships her off to a home for unwed mothers. Nearly a decade later, Mr. Calvert’s sister Helen returns to the United States after working abroad and learns the devastating truth of what really happened to Rosie.
Happy reading,
Kate
