When I taught high school English I like to plan my curriculum, one book at a time, once I’ve chosen it. One novel may naturally lead to another. Some names seem to fit certain seasons. This second consideration is often based on intuition rather than logic. But it seems to make a real difference. Some books feel more immersive at certain times of the year. Last week of December which is both chaotic and in some ways ill-defined. It is often a unique place in our emotional lives. And they seem to want their own distinctive reading material as well.
Choosing the right book for the day ahead can be tricky. This is because the atmosphere that defines the last day of the year can be filled with confusion and conflict. as the illuminations twinkled as the sun set behind the horizon. And a strong wind blew us away to a holiday party in the house. Most of us feel a mixture of joy and chill, something new and uncertain is about to happen. Nostalgia competes with the promise of a fresh start to the new year. Perhaps what makes the book so appropriate for the time is that. both-ness: the space between sadness and joy end point and starting point darkness and light The six books below summarize that point. And each one is perfect for reading by the fireside as the days grow imperceptibly longer.
flightBy Lynn Steiger Strong
Family members are often the only people who can truly understand your developmental experiences. Whatever it was like growing up with your mother. What did your childhood holiday parties smell like? Part of this is what can make being misunderstood or judged by them especially painful. In Strong’s novel, siblings Henry, Kate, and Martin gather together on their first Christmas since their mother’s death. Each mourns her loss. and struggling because of a complicated and unresolved relationship with her They are fighting over how to handle their inheritance: her home in Florida. Disagreements over how to handle sales or ownership and whether it is viewed as a financial lifeline or a reminder of the past. It lies beneath the surface of every conversation about Christmas traditions or family photos. Through the alternating perspectives of each character. Readers will understand the personal sorrow that everyone brings home with them. But this novel suggests that It is possible to grow beyond the people we were in our youth. to escape While still holding on to the people who knew us back then
Little things like thisBy Claire Keegan
Keegan’s novella follows Bill. Furlong, an Irishman who transported coal throughout the small town During the cold winter of the 1980s, the story takes place on Christmas Eve. This was a time when Bill found himself especially fascinated by simple things of beauty. In his life, for example, a neighbor poured warm milk. On her children’s cereal, little letters from his five daughters to Santa Claus, his mother’s kindness appeared. Many years ago When she became pregnant outside of wedlock while delivering fuel to a local Catholic convent Bill discovers that women and girls are being held there against their will. By being forced to work in One of the church’s famous “Magdalene Laundries” He knew well the city the church had designated. Why did he want to keep quiet about the secret he just learned? But it quickly became clear that his morals would prevent him from doing so. This is despite the history of the treatment of unmarried women and their children. Ireland’s is harsh and cold. But the novella is like Bill’s life. that look like little ordinary moments of love
lost and foundBy Kathryn Schulz
This hybrid memoir was written after Schulz’s father died. It is divided into three parts: “Lost,” “Found,” and “And.” with Elizabeth Bishop’s famous poem “One Art,” a dictionary history of Plato’s ampersand. seminarand the geology of the Chesapeake Bay crater. lost and found It is—somehow—obligatoryly readable. This book is both deeply researched. and deeply personal; As Schulz contemplates the experience of falling in love after her death. She wondered how this moment of great joy was connected to her pain. and tries to explain that seemingly opposites can not only coexist. But how do we live together? “Our chronic conditions involve experiencing things. Many at once Some things are inherently related. Some things are compatible. Some things are conflicting. And some of it is completely unrelated,” Schulz observes. By the time she wrote that grief had given “What life can no longer do: a continuous, emotionally powerful connection with the dead,” she has conveyed her main point: loss and search are impossible to separate. completely separated The events in her memoirs are typical. But the context she provides makes the book feel at once familiar and new.
Children’s Christmas in WalesBy Dylan Thomas
“Many years ago When I was a child,” Thomas begins, “there were wolves in Wales.” This wild landscape seemed so much of the past. On the contrary His later life and career in mid-century New York feel almost anachronistic. Thomas’ voice recording Children’s Christmas in Wales It may be better known than the book version. But lines like “All the Christmases roll downwards the two-tongued sea” were just as appealing in print. with his Welsh accent His memories of a bucolic childhood are even more shocking and affecting if you know that his adult life was filled with addiction and illness. Even those unfamiliar with his later life are at a loss. of the mysterious and cheerful country he saw through the eyes of a child It feels instantly painful and unavoidable. Unexpected lines like “a cave that smells like a Sunday afternoon” and the vague darkness of some of the shots (At one point, Thomas calls it “the deacon’s jawbone.”) Offsetting what might be a gruesome reminiscence of childhood Christmases,
by Dylan Thomas
North WoodsBy Daniel Mason
North Woods Delightful, strange and unexpected, it is the story of the plot of the land of Massachusetts over the course of nearly 300 years, whose inhabitants include both 18th-century colonists and today’s college students. In these forests which will eventually have a house Then there was the orchard. Then it was a hotel. And then there’s the house again. Readers meet people connected to key moments in American history—slave catchers and supporters of the Underground Railroad. Spiritists were both sincere and opportunistic, as were those whose personal sufferings played out in their era, such as women who died in childbirth. A famous painter who hides a love affair with another man and a family that doesn’t get any help. Son’s mental illness Mason’s narration sometimes alludes to moments from previous chapters. And sometimes direct characters—supernatural—have interacted throughout the centuries. Throughout decades and centuries Characters that their contemporaries view as unstable or suspicious. Readers understand which is most consistent with the past of the house At the end of the novel Mason conveys the paradox of history: the span of history is far longer than the life of an individual human being. Yet it is inexorably shaped by how each of us spends our day.
Tess of D’UrbervilleBy Thomas Hardy
Hardy’s bleak Gothic novels are not comfortable. christmas songs– but its scope and mood are exceedingly chilling. It’s the kind of book that needs a hearth to compensate for the suffering and melodrama. The story follows the innocent Tess Durbeyfield from childhood until her death as she suffers a series of heartbreaks and disasters. Occurred in the late 19th century. Test Depicts England on the verge of breaking away from its agricultural past. And what the main character endures becomes a metaphor for the larger change Hardy believes he is facing: where her mother’s generation leans on Tess and her contemporaries did. “Practice national teachings and standard knowledge under an endlessly revised code of conduct,” he wrote about the folk legends, dialects, and ballads transmitted orally. “When they’re together The Jacobean and Victorian eras are juxtaposed.” Like Hardy’s other works, the novel is devoid of subtle political arguments. But sometimes the writing is also quite funny. The enduring storytelling quality of this book combined with the use of fairytale castles unjust punishment and the powerful and vibrational natural world. encourages the most impactful children’s literature Those relationships are contained in a novel that is worth watching. Tess of D’Urberville The perfect book for long, dark nights.
by Thomas Hardy
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