Winter Reading

The stack of books waiting by my bed has risen to tottering height. So much to read and already the spring garden is calling. I want to recommend Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Drifting into Darien, both by Georgia writer Janisse Ray. She is a memoir writer and and ecologist / naturalist who grew up in Baxley, Georgia (near where I grew up in Fitzgerald). Her home was in a junkyard, her family self-proclaimed "crackers," and the upbringing strange enough for any southern writer. The apostolic church, the state insane asylum, the cooky grandfather, etc., etc. are background music to Ray's developing love of the land she sprang from. She writes prose odes to the Altamaha River as she makes her way down it by boat. I newly appreciate the astounding flora and fauna of the region. And I always like to see writers from unlikely backgrounds soar.

I read several novels in January that I would pass on to you if you were my neighbor: Swamplandia by Karen Russell, The Fireman's Fair by Josephine Humphreys, and If You Lived Here by Diana Sachs–all three good pull-up-by -the-fire books.  I also read three others that I would not recommend–so no use to mention them and hurt the authors' feelings.  I'm deeply into Barry Hannah's Long Last Happy: New and Selected Stories. He's, of course, a one-off writer, deeply quirky and sprung with life. Next, I'm launching into The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. My friend Rena says it's the best book she's ever read; she fell into the Musil-world as if down the rabbit hole. She recommends the Wilkins / Pike translation. 1130 pages! Should get me through most of February.

Would love to hear recommendations from you!