I read (or attempted to read) four good books last month, and I’m happy to share my thoughts about them with you today.

The Creek, The Crone, and The Crow, by Leah Weiss

This historical novel with an element of magical realism held my attention throughout. It’s the first book in regular size print I’ve been able to read in a long time. The story line and Ms. Weiss’ writing style played a big part in making that possible. The setting in a fictional community in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina drew me in. I would say that the setting was as much a character as the people who populated the book.

Alternating chapters between two main characters is not typically my favorite format for a novel, but it worked for me in this book.

In a nutshell, Kate Shaw taught at the last one-room schools in North Carolina in 1980. She and the community are not happy when the county decides to close their school and bus the students miles to a bigger school.

Then, Lydia Brown, a psychic who wants to know more about her birthmark and the visions she had as a child, comes to Baines Creek looking for local recluse Birdie Rocas. Most people are afraid of Birdie and want to avoid her at all cost.

A professor from nearby Asheville gets brought into the story to help interpret Birdie’s writings. There are things hidden in the journals and there are things hidden underground.

Everyone’s story is woven together and things get more and more interesting as the contents of Birdie’s journals come to light.

I almost told too much. I don’t want to spoil the story for you.

Although it is historical fiction, the location is fairly well pinpointed to be near the real community of Little Switzerland, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have eaten lunch in the restaurant there several times, so it was interesting when it and the building it is in showed up in a number of scenes.

The Immigrant and The Outlaw, by Joy Neal Kidney

This is a delightful collection of newspaper and magazine articles Ms. Kidney has written about her childhood and the ancestors and other characters that have filled her life.

So much many of Ms. Kidney’s memories matched mine, I thought at times she was writing about my childhood. I did not grow up on a farm and I did not have grandparents, but there were lots of little details that I could identify with – like a linoleum floor, going outside to watch Sputnik go by, the oil stove in the living room, and even my Daddy’s “ashtray on a stand” by his chair.

Along with childhood memories of growing up out in the country, there were memories of helping to assimilate Bosnian immigrants and their first Thanksgiving in Iowa.

The last piece in the collection, “A Housewife’s Best Friend” made me stop and think about the difficult lives of my grandmothers. Although they died long before I was born, they lived and raised farm families without the luxury of electricity. I take electricity for granted every day, and even a momentary power surge or a limb falling on the power line sends me into a frenzy. I am so spoiled!

I recommend this book to people of all ages.

The Astral Library, by Kate Quinn

This is quite a change from Kate Quinn’s usual novels, but I must say I enjoyed it.

Let me clarify that. I enjoyed the first four of the eight CDs. The skipping got so bad on disc 4 that I finally gave up and went on to disc 5. I listened to it until it just stopped playing.

This novel has an interesting premise. When someone is at the end of their rope, they can be invited to the Astral Library. In the Astral Library, a person can enter and live in a book.

It was by coincidence that I ended up reading (or trying to read) two books in May that involved magical realism. I’d never even heard that term before, but The Astral Library and The Creek, The Crone, and The Crow both fall in that category.

Something I found extremely irritating – which I’d forgotten about books on CD – is that there is a tremendous range in the volume. Some characters almost whisper and some characters yell all the time. And sometimes one character whispers part of the time and yells part of the time. I had forgotten that was a problem I’ve had before in listening to a book on CD. I’ll try not to make that mistake again.

Ironically, I had planned to begin today’s blog post wishing everyone a happy “Audiobook Appreciation Month.”

God’s name is taken in vain repeatedly in at least the first half of the book. (I can’t vouch for the second half, since I didn’t get to listen to it.) I think this would be less offensive if reading the printed word. I found it quite offensive as I listened to the novel being read aloud. When profanity is used just for the sake of using it – and not something a character needs to say over and over again – it just ends up being irritating, and after a while it loses its impact. I was surprised and disappointed to find this in a Kate Quinn novel.

The excessive use of vulgarity did not feel necessary to the story. It had a lovely and intriguing premise.

Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, by poet Maggie Smith

In the “Introduction,” Ms. Smith offers “ten principles of creativity: attention, wonder, vision, surprise, play, vulnerability, restlessness, connection, tenacity, and hope.”

She wrote, “You have to do it to learn how to do it.”

There is a helpful chapter in the book for people like me who are writing their (hopefully!) debut novel. That chapter is about choosing a title for your book. She talks about the different responsibilities a book title has.

I identified with the author when she wrote about loving “the idea of writing every day” but not doing it. She followed that a few pages later with, “Commit to doing at least one thing in service of your writitng every day.”

I agree with her, and I try to do that – something that serves my writing every day. It might be reading an article about the craft of writing, reading in my genre, listening to a webinar, reading a poem, planning a future blog post, or doing historical research. My favorite days, though, are the ones in which I get to work on my novel.

I hope you’ll be inspired to read one of the books I read in May.

Janet

Never take your right to read for granted.