One book to educate and two to binge on a beach. That’s what I shared this month on Good Day Alabama on WBRC Fox 6.
One quick thing before we get to the books: My friend Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) is having a Poetry Festival for Kids at the Homewood Public Library on May 18 at 2 p.m. There will be kids’ poetry readings, refreshments and fun things to do. Every child will receive a beautiful Father Goose bookmark. Readers of winning poems will receive a plaque and a signed copy of his beautiful book The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry. (This book will represent the state of Alabama this summer at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.) The event at the Homewood Library is free.
Now the books:
By Richard Powers
Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this is a monumental book about trees and us and how we are connected on this earth. President Barack Obama said, “It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it…. It changed how I see things, and that’s always, for me, a mark of a book worth reading.” The Overstory is a series of stories (perhaps fables) that often overlap in surprising ways. These stories, like the trees here, too, span centuries—from antebellum New York to the late 20th-century Timber Wars in the Pacific Northwest, with a great many places and lives in between. My ultimate takeaway: There’s a whole other world in our world and it is vast and interconnected and resourceful in ways we can’t even comprehend. We need to take better care of it.
By Shelby Van Pelt
This is a feel-good book that’s smart, too. And since it stars a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus, it’s a perfect beach read. After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she started working nights at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Tova is all alone now; her 18-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. As she works, she becomes acquainted with Marcellus who knows how to escape from his tank to sample items from the trashcans—and from other tanks. Turns out he knows way more than how to stealthily come and go—he’s figured out what happened the night Erik disappeared. But Marcellus is growing old and running out of time to let his friend Tova know the truth. It’s a truth that will change her life and his.
By Liane Moriarty
This was made into a television show, but I listened to it instead and it’s great fun. Nine strangers have all traveled to Tranquillum House, a secluded spa in the Australian outback for a 10-day retreat. The place is run by a mysterious wellness guru named Masha, and she promises total transformation for each. Some of these guests are looking to reboot their lives, others want to lose weight, some are grieving, others are struggling in their marriage. One, Frances Welty, is a formerly bestselling author of romance novels who recently was the victim of an internet romance scam. Her heart is broken, and her back hurts. Everyone is pampered and treated quite well—until they are not. Too late! They’ve all been drinking the smoothies. And suddenly, between massages and meditation and mindful walks, this page-turning novel becomes a locked-door mystery with Masha demanding that her guests work harder on themselves than they ever imagined.
I link to Amazon to show you exactly what book I’m talking about, but I love to shop locally at Church Street Coffee and Books, The Alabama Booksmith, Little Professor, and Thank You Books in Crestwood. And I visit my local library often in person and online!
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