Communing on the floor with the last books I bought IN PERSON from bookstores, back in February and early March. This behavior is completely normal and not alarming, right?!
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From left to right, books purchased from Magers & Quinn and Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, and from Mr. K's in N Charleston. Highly recommend all three stores for all your used and new book needs.
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I miss the feeling of walking the floors of a bookstore, of stopping in front of the stacks, my head cocked to the right to read the spines, squatting down to see the low shelves, my fingertips on the books' edges, about to pull this one out, no, that one, and then the notorious narrowing down, where putting back even one book feels like some sort of victory. Soon, again, I hope!
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#booklover #bibliophile #booksofinstagram #bookstacks #saveindiebookstores #bookstorelove #bookstagram #booksandwine #bookworm #booksbooksbooks
"You are a wave that has crashed upon the shore." -- George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
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A book about death, about life, about grief, about love, it felt like being carried on a quilt constructed by people I couldn't see but could hear, their stories at times gentle, at times not, but always enthralling. It made me think about the moments in my life that could accompany me beyond this place, if there's anywhere to go—the moments that punctuate, the moments that puncture.
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• the feeling of my grandmother's silken fingertips on my 6-year-old face
• the sound of crickets singing in the country black night
• the lingering smell of blooming honeysuckle
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Would I fold these into my own story in the bardo? What would I expect to be saddled with—it can't all be good, right? What would I tell, again and again, hoping someone would listen and see me?
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Even if you've not read Lincoln, I bet you've seen the pages and the layout, all the white space, the chorus of voices presented, like lines in a play. You do feel disoriented at first, or at least I did, but then quickly you find the rhythm and the heartbeat and it becomes natural. By the end, I thought, well he couldn't have told it any other way.
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I waited to read this until the time felt right, and I wasn't wrong to choose now. Surprising and funny and life-affirming and sad, it was perfect for this moment. It was a comfort, this book about death, about life. "How did you live? Tell it truthfully."
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✨ Exhale. ✨
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My first outing (x 3) with Vivian Gornick. I can't help but think about her, 84 years old, living with her two cats in her rent-controlled Greenwich Village apartment, cut off from one of her primary life-sources, the streets of NYC. Her love for her fellow New Yorkers, the rhythms and music of the language she overhears as she walks, the scenes that surround her, all of it bleeds through every page of The Odd Woman and the City. Reading that book now is bittersweet, as is much of Approaching Eye Level.
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In Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, I at least take some comfort in knowing that, though she can't venture outside her apartment for her strolls, she can at least journey through her favorite books, perhaps repeatedly. Fair warning, reading Unfinished Business will undoubtedly add books to your own to-be-read list.
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Across all three books, bits of dialogue and certain bright details appear and then reappear, in slightly different contexts. I liked this, as well as the note she made at the beginning of Unfinished Business about this practice of hers. It made me think about how events from all of our lives shift and take on new meaning, usually as we get older and look to put our past in some sort of order. Something that felt insignificant at the time can become almost totemic later. That's one reason, of many, for keeping a journal.
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I found myself craving fiction after three non in a row, and it felt like the time was right for Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. So far, it's early and I'm still finding my footing in it, much like Willie Lincoln, but it feels strange and wise and unfamiliar, and I'm into it.
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Hope you're well, all of you. 💫
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#viviangornick #igreads #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #whereiread #booksandcoffee #instareads #booklover #bookstack #bookworm #booksbooksbooks
A care package, from me to me, supporting one of the best and most legendary bookstores on the planet, Square Books, which just happens to be in my home state of Mississippi.
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Real talk—today SO MANY things have made me sad, some related to These Times, and some not. I won't list 'em because I'm sure you have your own worries.
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But I'm trying to breathe, acknowledge my feelings as they come, focus on the intersection of what matters and what I can control (a frighteningly small bit!), and count the things I'm grateful for. Independent bookstores are among those things I'm thankful for, and while I can't fix it all, I'll at least try in my own small way to help.
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Hoping all of you are hanging in there. My plan is to read in the sunshine this afternoon. ❤️🌞📚
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#squarebooks #mississippi #independentbookstore #saveindiebookstores #bookstorelove #booklover #bibliophile #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #igreads #readersofinstagram
❤️🌞📚🌿❤️
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Books have helped me over the last few weeks and perhaps they would you, too.
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Maybe your idea of relaxing is reading about an epidemic during a pandemic, in which case, wow, let's talk about that, but I couldn't leave out Dopesick because it's so good. I read it in late February just as everything was heating up. Beth Macy has such a gift for humanizing social issues; here, the battle with opioids. I loved her book Factory Man, too. Highly recommend either of them.
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The remaining 4 were perfect corona-time reading. I mean, what is there to even say about Alice Munro, except let her take you by the hand and guide you into small towns where you'll meet people who feel familiar and you'll find yourself astonished at what she accomplishes with language. Queen. A comfort, a joy.
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Hanging out in the drawing rooms of old NYC with Newland Archer and crew was such a good escape. I'd read and enjoyed Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome a hundred years ago and loved reading this one, at last. Let Wharton sweep you away!
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Dear Committee Members had me laughing out loud, like for real. An epistolary novel about an underpaid, under-appreciated college writing professor and all his gripes with the world and his colleagues, it was exactly what I needed.
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I kept the writing/school theme going with The Gulf, about an atheist poet in her mid-30s living in NYC who moves to Florida to open a creative writing school for evangelical Christians with her ex-fiancé. Hijinks ensue! But Belle Boggs also made this a clever look at for-profit education, corporate Christianity, and the modern divide (the gulf!) in American society. I cried at the ending, which I won't give away, but it was both sweet and bittersweet. Also, to be fair, I'll cry at just about anything these days. 😭😂
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Finally, I bought all these at indie bookstores in Colorado, South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi. Please, if you're able, support your faves. They need us and we need them to make it through this. ❤️
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