Lory Widmer Hess's Blog, page 10

2023: My Year in Nonfiction

Though doing these lists is a lot of work, I value the opportunity to look back and reflect on my year’s reading. Everything has a role to play, not just my favorites, and it’s interesting to see the patterns that evolve as I read my way along.

This year I made a conscious effort to read spiritual memoirs in several categories. I’m glad that some other readers (notably Lisa and Deb) joined in and found the Spiritual Memoir challenge valuable as well, but I’ve decided not to run it next year. I find that I’ve begun to see every memoir as a spiritual memoir, even if not deliberately presented as such, for every personal story is a story of the human spirit. In the future I’d like to do some kind of project focused on spirituality, especially reading sacred texts from various traditions, but I’m not sure yet what form that will take.

In the meantime, as you can see, I have read a lot of books on spirituality as well as a ton of memoirs! Some of these were assignments for my Spiritual Direction training, but even without that I’m sure I’d always continue to explore this field. Psychology is a related topic in my view, for soul and spirit are intimately connected (though not the same).

Moving in a more outward direction, I also enjoyed some excellent books of history and biography, and a few more medically-oriented ones. However, I feel as though my nonfiction reading is rather one-sided, so I’d like to make an effort to change that. In 2024 I’m going to join the Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Shelleyrae of Book’d Out. I hope this will help me to branch out into some new categories, such as Transportation, The Future, and Architecture.

I am not complaining; it’s been another amazing year of nonfiction reading! You can see my Nonfiction November posts for more details, too:

My Year in NonfictionChoosing NonfictionBook PairingNew to my TBR

I hope you’ll let me know what your outstanding nonfiction reads have been this year. I’ve highlighted one standout in each category, although there were many others that I enjoyed. See the links to my StoryGraph reviews or blog posts for more on each book.

Spiritual Memoir Challenge Autobiography of a Yogi Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior Pilgrimage to Eternity In the Land of Invisible Women My Broken Language The Diving Bell and the Butterfly The Salt Path , plus The Wild Silence and Landlines Spare Faitheist I’ve Seen the End of You Devotion Other Memoirs Welcome To My Country The Prince, the Showgirl, and Me My Side of the River Nervous Run Towards the Danger The Crosswicks Journals Drinking: A Love Story Slow Motion Hourglass Inheritance How to Catch a Mole Everything Is Fine Spirituality The Gift of Being Yourself Life of the Beloved The Road Back to You The Return of the Prodigal Son Human Being and Becoming Daring Greatly Bio-Spirituality Discernment Sacred Conversation Psychology and Brain Science Your Survival Instinct Is Killing You Emotional Inheritance Grandchildren of Alcoholics Dopamine Nation Healing Your Family History Medicine After Life After Life Heart: A History History and Biography The Woman They Could Not Silence A Century of Wisdom Forget the Alamo The Black Count Killers of the Flower Moon Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes One Hundred Saturdays Reading the Theatre Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers Judi Dench: And Furthermore… Writing The Art of Creative Nonfiction

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite books of 2023

In the midst of my fiction and nonfiction review posts, I couldn’t resist joining in with this Top Ten Tuesday topic, to share some of my favorite books of 2023. It was hard to pick only 10, so I somewhat randomly chose from my top reads of the year. I could do another one or two of these!

What have been your favorites of 2023?

2023: My Year in Fiction

I’m celebrating the New Year by sharing my list of all the fiction books I read in 2023! As you can see, I read quite a lot of books from other countries, which was wonderful. These were some of my most memorable reads of the year and I can highly recommend most of them. I also managed a few in German or French, as I continue to plug away at my language skills.

I also enjoyed some other fiction, both historical and contemporary, some children’s books, some rereads, and a couple of themed projects. A new project I’ve just begun is the Ozathon — it will continue throughout 2024 and beyond. Don’t forget to visit The Book Stop for an introduction to this month’s book, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

I have highlighted a pick from each category, but there were many others I could have chosen. With the exception of a few disappointments, each and every book was memorable and worthwhile in some way. Click on the links to my StoryGraph review or blog post for more about each book.

World Fiction Cloudstreet – AustraliaPortrait of an Unknown Lady – ArgentinaAll Quiet on the Western Front – GermanyBefore the Coffee Gets Cold – Japan Half of a Yellow Sun – Nigeria Haven – IrelandThe Count of Monte Cristo – FranceWhen We Were Birds – TrinidadThe Island of Missing Trees – CyprusSweet Bean Paste – Japan The Girl with the Louding Voi ce – Nigeria The Great Divide – Panama Three Apples Fell from the Sky – ArmeniaRead in other languages Kindergeschichten Krabat Voyage au centre de la terre Other new to me adult fiction The Half-Drowned Ki ng The Monsters We Defy Demon Copperhead Body and Soul The Fortnight in September Search Our Souls at Night The Violin Conspiracy The Warm Hands of Ghosts A Murder of Quality The Temple of Fortuna Far Afield Miss Mole Lighter fare The Baker’s Daughter Mrs Harris Goes to Paris Footsteps in the Dark Death in the Stocks Behold, Here’s Poison A Tangled Web Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels The Christmas Appeal Pyramids The Fair Miss Fortune New to me children’s and YA Thomasina Once There Was The Story Girl The Golden Road Rereads The Farthest Shore David Copperfield Unexpected Magic The Neverending Story Tehanu The Star of Kazan The Nonesuch Reading the TheatreRuddy Gore Ella of All-of-a-kind Family Death of a Hollow Man Death Ex Machina LoveHain readalong Rocannon’s World Planet of Exi le City of Illusions The Word for World Is Forest The Telling Five Ways to Forgiveness Ozathon The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

#Ozathon24: December Wrap-Up

Well, I tremendously enjoyed rereading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz this month. And here are the posts I found, please add yours in the comments if I missed it:

Entering the Enchanted CastleHowling Frog BooksStaircase WitPuss RebootsThe Book StopRosie Amber

As a bonus, here’s a post from Pages Unbound about The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus – which inspired me to reread that one, too, as seemed appropriate to the season. It was published between the first two Oz books, and Santa Claus will appear as a character in a future book, so you might want to take a look as well.

And I also enjoyed an article from Public Domain Review about the Denslow illustrations.

We’ll be moving on to The Marvelous Land of Oz for January, hosted by Deb of The Book Stop. But feel free to let us know about your Oz- or Baum-related posts any time.

Illustration by W.W. Denslow

Over at Authors Publish: Is an unpublishable book worth writing?

Authors Publish Magazine has just posted an essay of mine that mused on the question: “Is an unpublishable book worth writing?” This came up in connection with my personal experience of writing an entire book I didn’t feel able to submit for publication. Was that a waste of time?

As I looked into the experiences of other “unpublishable” authors, I learned there are many pathways to publication, and that writing for the love of it is always worthwhile.

The essay begins:

Why write a book that can’t be published? My own first book, a memoir that I wrote in the aftermath of my father’s death, was one of these. I’d never completed a full-length manuscript, only fragments and false starts, until then. But somehow, during this time of loss and grieving, I found the motivation to bring my memories full circle, ending up with what felt like a solid piece of writing. For personal and legal reasons, I didn’t feel that I could make it public, and to fictionalize it felt wrong as well. Still, the act of finishing it proved to me that I was able to structure and sustain a full-length narrative, that I could write a book.

To read more, click here.

Labyrinth

This poem was written after a retreat at the Alcyon Center in Maine some years ago. Walking their outdoor labyrinth brought me this experience of how confusion and disintegration can be transformed when we simply focus on our next step, one at a time.

As we enter into the turning point of the year, in a time of world crisis where the way forward is very difficult to perceive, I wish you well in whatever you are seeking. May your path emerge as you walk it.

Labyrinth

I look into the world:
so many paths
bewilder me with multiplicity.
Which do I choose?
Where do I start?
What way will I go?
How will it end?

Then I see
there is only one path,
the one named
Who am I beyond appearances?
I pick up this thread
and walk.

Back and forth
around and about
distant and close
backtracking, backsliding
foregoing, forgetting
but following, following
till I come to the center,
the heart.

My heart
your heart
our heart
the heart of hearts
still center of silence
pulsing with faith.

There the thread of love
leads me outward again
to rejoin myself
to collect, to connect
the fragments broken
through heartlessness.

So hope is born
in the restful place
where nothing moves
except
everything.

Originally published in Amethyst Review

Labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral

#Ozathon24: Journey into the heart

Much as I love reading, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz probably had a greater influence on me through the movie version, which I watched on TV every year — this was before recordings made it easy to watch our favorite films at the touch of a button. It was a kind of annual religious rite for me, which I anticipated, savored, and remembered until the next time came again.

What made this story so special for me? It’s a quest narrative, with Dorothy whirled away from her dreary Kansas home by a cyclone and dropped into the colorful, dangerous land of Oz. She wants to return home, while the quirky characters she meets — an animated scarecrow, a living tin man, and a lion — want to find inner qualities: brains, heart, courage. It turns out they already have these, that the resources they search for are within them, but they don’t want to hear that message. Instead, the humbug Wizard of Oz, astutely applying the placebo effect, gives them symbols to which they can attribute the power they fail to recognize in themselves.

Illustration by Julia Sarda

This does not apply to Dorothy in the book, who bears no responsibility for being torn away from her home, and goes through no inner development at all. She is the same innocent at the end as at the beginning, and her actions are those of a young child: looking for companionship, acting out of trust, doing harm only by accident. But in the movie, Dorothy goes through a transformation that is real, not faked — even if it is framed as a dream. (That only means it’s a journey into the inner world, where symbols represent the truths hidden from ordinary consciousness.)

She is caught up in the cyclone after she tries to run away from home, and can only return home once she realizes the futility of looking for her heart’s desire outside of her own back yard. As played by an adolescent Judy Garland, she’s not a child, but a young woman on the threshold of adulthood, and she has to mature in order to find her way forward. Painfully, she realizes that her thoughtless action has hurt her caregivers, and recognizes that what she wants above all things is to restore their relationship.

Judy Garland as Dorothy – trading card by Leonard Vela

The book has more incident and detail than the movie, which compresses Dorothy’s adventures in Oz and omits some of Baum’s more subtle satire. But the movie is more vivid and lively than the book, with its stellar performances by all the leads, its visual spectacle, and its musical numbers that enhance the emotional impact in manifold ways.

I remain fond of both versions, and as I re-experience them as an adult, having since developed an interest in spiritual development and esoteric Christianity, I can see the traces of my current fascination with our deeper human nature. Dorothy’s three companions, for example, clearly exemplify the soul-forces of thinking, feeling, and willing, which must be kept in balance by our center of consciousness if we are to develop in a healthy way. Dorothy represents that center, the ordinary human I or ego; she is guided and protected by the wise Good Witch of the North, as we are by our higher self, and accompanied by her dog, Toto, as we are by our lower, animal nature.

Illustration from the original edition by W.W. Denslow

Dorothy’s journey, during which she must bravely confront evil and see through deception, thus represents our journey through life. And the most vital element of her successfully coming through these trials, it’s clear, is the way she and her companions support one another. Even when they believe they don’t have brains or heart or courage, the desire to help others calls forth these abilities, and makes them real and effective.

Illustration from the Folio Society edition by Sara Ogilvie

And what is the origin of those abilities? The Tin Man’s longing to feel is explicitly connected to the heart, but the courage the Lion seeks has also long been seen as a function of the heart — the very word stems from the French “coeur.” And thinking with the brain, divorced from the heart, becomes an empty and mechanical activity. A sixteenth century prayer invokes both: “God be in my head, and in my thinking … God be in my heart, and in my understanding.” It may be the brain that thinks, but it is the heart that understands, bringing wholeness.

Thus, the quest in The Wizard of Oz is a quest for the threefold heart. Fourfold, if one counts Dorothy’s quest for home, “where the heart is.” And the land of Oz is itself a heart-image, with its four realms evoking the heart’s four chambers, and its central city mimicking the heart’s central position in our body. Even the different coloring of the various lands is reminiscent of the contrast between red arterial and blue venous blood.

Illustration by Lisbeth Zwerger

But something is wrong in this heart-land. Two of its regions have been taken over by wicked witches, and the good witches who rule the other two parts, while powerful, seem to be either not powerful enough or not interested to oppose the wicked. Meanwhile, the central city of Oz is ruled by a mere human being who, upon accidentally traveling there in a balloon, was hailed by the people as a great Wizard. Afraid to disabuse them of this notion, he ends up creating more and more elaborate layers of deception, and has to keep everyone at a distance, unable to reveal his true self. It takes the innocent Dorothy and her companions, whose quest moves them to travel through the land — periphery to center and back again — to disturb this unhealthy state of affairs, bringing about the opportunity for change.

When Baum wrote the book, the heart was still a very mysterious organ, with much mystique surrounding it — not yet the prosaic pump we think of today. But Baum had an insider’s knowledge, for he himself had a heart condition; his was weakened by rheumatic fever as a child. The soul-body connection that medicine is only now starting to acknowledge as central to heart-functioning was a visceral experience for him. He didn’t do well under intellectual or militaristic pressure, and after two miserable years at a military school he collapsed and was sent home.

Illustration by Michael Hague

Perhaps this aversion to traditional male aggression helped him to develop the imaginative qualities that became his greatest strength. They didn’t always lead him to commercial success — even after Oz became a hit, his financial fortunes rose and fell, almost with the regularity of a heartbeat — but they always led him toward enchanting inventions, with which he amused and delighted generations of children.

He can’t be considered a truly great writer, for his remarkable inventiveness was not always matched by a remarkable literary style, and his financial troubles often drove him to hasty productions that lack full artistic integrity. But he had a great heart, in spite of its physical weakness. Kindness, integrity, insight, wonder, beauty, and joy were the ideals toward which his adventures sought to lead readers. And from my first step onto the Yellow Brick Road, I knew that was the adventure I wanted to be on, too.

Illustration by Evelyn Copelman — this is the edition I actually had as a child.

With my blogging friend Deb of The Book Stop, I’ll be reading through all of Baum’s 14 Oz books over the next year, and after this first installment, I’m greatly looking forward to revisiting these childhood favorites. I hope you’ll join us, whether for a book or two or more. If you write up your own post, link it in the comments, and I’ll include it in my wrap-up post at the end of the month. You don’t have to read our book of the month, either — feel free to link up any time.

What have been your discoveries in Oz?

My Book: When Fragments Make a Whole

I’d like to make an official announcement: my book When Fragments Make a Whole: A Personal Journey Through Healing Stories in the Bible will be published by Floris Books in February, 2024! Click on the title to learn more.

From the publisher’s description:

In this candid and courageous book, Lory Widmer Hess describes her experience of inner transformation through her exploration of the healing stories in the gospels. In a unique blend of poetry, commentary and autobiography, she describes how she engaged with and drew inspiration from these stories. Her approach will inspire readers on their own journey of spiritual growth.

Writing the book was a long and many-layered journey, and the path to publication has turned out to be one as well. I’m nervous about turning an account of my own healing process over to the world, to be possibly judged and criticized. It’s a very vulnerable place to be in, but I remind myself that we have to “dare greatly” and make ourselves vulnerable in order to grow. Given sufficient support from our community, those daring moments are what bring us all forward.

I am glad that I chose to work with a traditional publisher, rather than self-publish, even though the process was not always easy. The title, for example, was not my first choice, although I came to appreciate it. The cover design went through some birthing pains, too, and having my words edited was not always comfortable. But since this is such a personal project, sometimes I needed another, external point of view to help me see what was unnecessary, distracting, or phrased in a misleading way.

In the end, I think all the discussion and different perspectives helped me create a better book, and that’s the important thing. I am also glad to have confirmation that other people find my message important to convey to the world, enough to put their own time and resources behind the effort. Their reputation is on the line with this book, not just mine. That reassures me that I’m not just indulging some personal need for expression.

Now it’s time to think about publicity, and I’d like to ask for your help. If you are a book blogger who would be interested in a review copy, please let me know, and I”ll do my best to get one to you.

If you are a reader who would consider buying the book and sharing a review on Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, etc., I would be most grateful. I’ll be posting sales venues when they are available. The UK publication date is February 29, including the ebook version; print copies will be available for US distribution in early April.

You can already pre-order through Bookshop.org — I’ve added a widget in the sidebar that links to my affiliate account. Here is an affiliate link for the UK Bookshop version. Those so inclined can also pre-order from Amazon (print or Kindle version).

If you’d like to stay connected with updates on my writing life, the best way is to join the Enchanted Circle newsletter list below.

Thank you all for being a part of this journey! I look forward to sharing more with you.

Photo by Ravi Kant on Pexels.com

A poem and a painting for Advent: Announcement

My poem “Announcement” has been published at Reformed Journal, and I thought a link would be an appropriate way to celebrate this festive season.

This poem was inspired by a painting of the Annunciation that I saw at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston some years ago. I got to talk about a bit about that inspiration, and the process of writing, on the Reformed Journal Podcast.

The poem sadly wasn’t posted with the accompanying painting, but here it is:

Piermatteo d’Amelia – The Annunciation, about 1487

I found this such a striking and unusual version of the Annunciation when I saw it. I brought a postcard home, and eventually a poem emerged. You can read more about the painting and its setting at the Gardner here.

The poem begins:

An anxious mind is paralyzed by choice.
The angel doesn’t offer choice, but birth —
springing the snare of virtue versus vice.

For the rest, please visit Reformed Journal.

Whatever your tradition at this time of year, I wish you the grace of light, the consolation of peace, and the wisdom that leads us toward the birth of our better selves. Thank you for your presence here.

Dean Street December: The Fair Miss Fortune

Dean Street Press books are almost always fun to read, but more fun in company with others! So when Liz started a “Dean Street December” event last year, I was happy to join in. In spite of the sad fact that due to the unexpected death of publisher Rupert Heath, no further books will be produced, I still have quite a lot on my shelf waiting for review. And so I’m glad the event is back this year, giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts about one of these backlist gems.

For no particular reason, I settled on The Fair Miss Fortune by D.E. Stevenson. This author has been the source of many cozy reads, though I find some of her books decidedly more successful than others. Intriguingly, this particular book was rejected by Stevenson’s publisher at the time of writing, and it was not published until Greyladies rediscovered it in 2011. That made me curious to find out more about why such a popular and prolific author made an apparent misstep in the middle of her career, and whether it still presented such an obstacle today.

The reason given in the letters which preface the book (spoiler!) was that the plot concerns identical twins and mistaken identities, and the reading public had been subjected to enough of those stories at the time.

Now, identical-twin plots can be a bit contrived, but that weakness alone doesn’t seem enough to sink the book. Stevenson herself couldn’t understand the objection at all. Having read the book, I’d say that the problem is that the reason for the twins confusing their identities is not strong enough and that the confusion goes on for too long. An editor could have worked with the author to strengthen these elements — but maybe it was thought easier to simply reject it and have Stevenson produce another book, as she did with such ease.

That weakness aside, what was there to enjoy in the book? We get to visit a small English town that has been disturbed by the coming of a road that will connect it to the wider world — which fills certain inhabitants with horror. One widow, accompanied by her devoted but downtrodden son, leaves her dark, old Elizabethan cottage for a new house where they can be sun-worshippers. But she sells the old house to a young girl who intends to do something shocking: open a tea-shop! And then, abetted by another young man who’s just come home from India, cuts down the rhododendrons that made the house so dark and gloomy. What larks!

Such mildly comic antics are entertaining enough; houses and land are important to Stevenson, and we get a sense of the social milieu through the way the characters care for their environment or merely use it to show off and bolster their status. But the tea-shop never materializes, sadly, for that could have been a wonderful way to shake up the old regime. Instead, the identical-twin element comes in and becomes the main focus. The two Miss Fortunes, naturally, attract two different men — a nice touch is that these swains know “their own” beloved in spite of their identical appearance, and are surprised to fall out of love so quickly when confronted (unknowingly) by the other!

But again, I think the reason for this device was thin, other than to create narrative complications. There are some amusing scenes, but also unnecessarily painful and silly ones. In addition, the “good” characters were a bit bland, and the more distinctive “bad” ones (notably the downtrodden man’s mother, and a flashy girl who attracted him before he met Miss Fortune) did not get enough time on the page for my taste.

If you enjoy this sort of thing, though, I encourage you to read it and form your own opinion. It was certainly not a terrible book, and had some moments that sparkled.

Have you read The Fair Miss Fortune? What did you think?

D.E. Stevenson, The Fair Miss Fortune (Dean Street Press, 2022)