Anne Tyler is a great storyteller. Her stories are generally about families. I've just read "A Spool of Blue Thread" and thought some of you might like it because one of its themes is caregiving. The first third of the book focuses on an elderly woman who doesn't accept that she is declining and her adult children who try to take care of her. I think it presents both sides of this conflict very well. It reminded me of many posts on this site! The rest of the book is also about caring about and for family. Tyler is very good at showing an event from several different perspectives.
My own special favourite is Breathing Lessons. And The Beginner's Goodbye. And, obviously, The Accidental Tourist.
They say you should never meet your heroes, but Ms Tyler would definitely be on my fantasy dinner party list.
Oh tee hee - just giggling at the husband who always gives himself away by humming a song that says what's really on his mind, so that his wife turns on him and snaps "No I am NOT crazy!!!"
Jeanne, will have to look for Spool of Blue Thread next. It sound as if I would enjoy it. Thank you for the recommendation.
I toyed with the idea of getting the book to see if it would make more sense but thought of Dorothy Parker - "this book should not be tossed aside lightly, but hurled with great force."
Once I'd paid, the website suggested that I might also like: "Brick."
This is going to be a fun Christmas.
That is a brilliant USP Blannie! - undemanding mysteries with added dog for reassurance and comic/touching moments. Sounds perfect.
The late Alan Coren was lectured by his publisher on how to improve his sales. "Put a cat in the title. Golf, obviously, everyone likes golf. Or anything about the Nazis."
You can see the results on Amazon under "Golfing For Cats."
The original topic of a fictional work about caregiving dynamics sounds very interesting, Jeanne.
Not sure if I will make it through the series of 7 soon to be 8 books. While I do enjoy it, the author uses too many words.
I’m like - “get to the point already!” . But read this second one I shall.
I love the Patricia Cornwall books to on Kay Scarpetta. I love forensic science and her books move through the storyline quickly.
I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but since becoming a caregiver I seem to see caregiving themes in everything I read. The author of "A Box of Darkness" went to visit her mother in a nursing home shortly after becoming widowed, and her mother actually forgot that her daughter's husband had died and absently passed on her greetings to him as her daughter was leaving. That would be my mother, who forgot that one of my sisters had colon cancer. The author of The Geography of Love was caring for her husband through lung cancer, when her mother had a health crisis and her out-of-town sister tried to drop the old lady off on the author's doorstep after she was released from the hospital. Wow! (The author refused to take her but said she'd stop at her mother's house daily to see to her needs.)
I recently finished Home is Burning, written by a young man whose mother was sick with cancer when his father was diagnosed with ALS. This kid was a year out of college and had just started progressing in a career and a relationship with a woman he wanted to marry, and his mother demanded that he and his younger brother drop everything to come home and care for their father for an indefinite period of time. "It's time for you kids to step up and give something back," or words to that effect. The young guy was immediately drafted, over his objections, into helping his father in the shower and in the bathroom. Sheesh! Sometimes I want to scream at total strangers, but it's always interesting to see how other people (fictional or real) respond to the challenges of illness and disability in the family.
I just downloaded the audiobook "A Spool of Blue Thread" I just now started listening to it. Thank you for suggesting it :).
I have found the Chicken Soup nonfiction books inspiring though. I have almost the entire series, and have read some several times. The Ocean one is particularly appealing as it addresses bonds created by humans with ocean creatures. It's very heartwarming, and makes me wonder, as I have often, how much we really could communicate if we tried (as people who work with marine animals do). It's also inspiring to contemplate the relationship we have with living beings that aren't humans, i.e., whether it's a dominant or more equal relationship.
For fiction, subjects range, depending on mood. I've always found Margaret Truman's "Murder in/on....(insert name of place)" to be a good read. I have (I believe) the entire series and have read most of them twice. It's interesting to see how her writing expanded and became more sophisticated as she herself became more experienced.
Now I'm on a Clive Cussler kick. His novels are action oriented, move quickly, and are completely engrossing, even if they are variations of a common theme. However, they're researched well and seem to be grounded in scientific and engineering basics. History is always a focus around which the plot revolves, and, like the James Bond movies, there's an international villain trying in one way or another to build an empire for himself.
The Romanov Prophecy was one that was particularly intriguing. It's steeped in the history of the Revolution and the ensuing events, unsettling, but a reminder of country wide suppression as well as a pivotal event in the evolution (or tyranny, in this case) of a nation.
Sometimes I'll read a legal novel, such as Scott Turow's works. When I'm in a military mood, it's Stephen Coonts, who has an extensive knowledge of aviation and reflects it in his fast moving novels.
Today, however, I'm in a mood to just thumb through gardening and holiday magazines and plan complicated knot gardens which I probably will never have the stamina to create, or imagine lovely holiday decorations which probably will never get made b/c I can't find my supplies amidst boxes and boxes of material which I also probably will never get to use for quilts.
Alas, dreaming about gardens and decorations is a major part of my life.
It was titled Griffin and Sabine, was extremely allegorical, and written as 6 separate sequential episodes. The "plot" and action were via letters, complete with envelopes, in magnificently and creatively styled art as background or complements.
Has anyone else been captivated by this very unique and creative writing style?
So did 84 Charing Cross Road by the sound of it... But it still sounds extremely intriguing.