“MY CIRCLE OF TRUST BOOK CLUB” Women Love Books & Want to Share Them

4 March 2010 415 views 7 Comments Tags: AGING, Boomers, Circle of Trust, Feminism, Fifty is the New Fifty, Second Adulthood, SENIORS, Suzanne Braun Levine, Women 50+

ALSO, AN UPDATE ON BOOKS BY FRIENDS

Like all of you, I have a circle of friends that I try to connect with on a regular basis. For me, it’s often over lunch. I look forward to those dates with a real hunger – for the intimacy, the chance to chronicle our lives to ourselves and each other, and the sheer delight of gazing at a well-loved face.

If too much time goes by, one or the other of us sends an e-mail titled “re: lunch?” Occasionally we need to schedule an urgent date, and then any other appointments become less urgent. Usually though we catch up, we complain, we laugh – and we recommend books to each other. It’s no surprise to me that a love of books is bringing women together in large numbers online and in real life where comfort food and wine can result in intimate revelations and real life connections to the book or topic being discussed.

Recently, more than the usual number of very enthusiastic recommendations have come my way, and I want to share them with you. I am adding some of my own discoveries; to my surprise many of them are novels. I wonder what it means to shift my reading from non-fiction to fiction in this stage of my life.

Those of you in book clubs will have your lists to share. I hope you will post them in the comment section on the site so we can be inspired by the books and the insights of your “Circle of Trust.”

BOOKS WE LOVE

From my friend Susie
Her important new book, The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist’s Struggle to Preserve the World’s Harvest, is an intimate and accessible account of a very big issue: http://thevikinginthewheatfield.com/

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee – she calls it “Wonderful. A little clever in structure…but wonderful.”
Out Stealing Horses by Per Pettersen. “I just sent this to my daughter-in-law who has just had a baby boy, as an introduction to what lies ahead.”
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty of Science by Richard Holmes. Susie gave me this one for Christmas and based on the subtitle, I can’t wait to dig in.

From my friend Maddy

Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison. The story of her long marriage – a love affair that encompassed shared work as well as mental illness. An excellent video: The Big Think Interview with Kay Redfield Jamison

Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Lore Segal. Eleven inter-related short stories by an author we both love.
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. “Do you like poetry?” Maddy asked. “I used to,” I reply. “Well, in any case you will love this novel about a poet with writer’s block.” Sounds intriguing to me.

Books from Me

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. The latest of her novel/mystery/delicious character masterpieces.
The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory by David Plouffe. I loved the camaraderie among smart and dedicated personalities who worked as a team. As an inveterate “West Wing” watcher, I thought this was it in real life.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I am probably the last on my block to get to this prize-winning multifaceted view of one woman’s life. Let me put it this way: when I wasn’t stopping in awe of the writing, I was laughing out loud.

Books by Friends

Land the Job you Love! Ten Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50 by Mary Eileen Williams. She is a long-time career counselor and founder of the lively blog and radio show “Feisty Side of Fifty.” This is good advice – simple, without being simplistic.

I have previously recommended Sugar Time, a novel by Jane Adams and Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from A Midlife Crisis a memoir by Amy Ferris. They are a perfect pair of books for all of us.

Amy’s book is heading for an off-Broadway production: http://marryinggeorgeclooney.com/blog/

Jane, who has a Ph.D. in psychology, has moved on to an important issue for many of us, working on college applications for our kids and looking ahead to the next stage of our lives. She has put together an online course that helps parents and teens get through “Transition Fever.” http://www.launchintocollege.com.

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7 Comments »

Claire said:

Thank you so much for the book advice. I’m going to dig out some of those, particularly the Audacity to Win, as I’m also a West Wing fan. (Addict, really.) And as an aspiring writer, “the Anthologist” also sounds great.

My current personal favourites are:
“the Poisonwood Bible” – particularly for the characterisation, which is superb;
Obama’s “Dreams from my Father” (I never knew biography could be so readable and so interesting!);
“State by State” which is an anthology of writings about each state – “greater than the sum of its parts”, someone has said, and I concur whole-heartedly: it’s also a way of discovering writers like Jonathan Franzen and Dave Eggers if you haven’t already done so.
I also very much enjoyed “Then they came to the end”, by Joshua Ferris, last year, so I’m looking forward to reading his new one, “the unnamed”.

# 6 March 2010 at 7:19 am

Eileen Williams said:

Dear Suzanne,

Thank you so much for spreading the word about my book, Land the Job You Love! 10 Surefire Strategies for Jobseekers Over 50! http://bit.ly/8xi4Oo I wrote it to provide a step-by-step, easy to follow guide for those who’ve found themselves unemployed in midlife and need to successfully compete in today’s difficult market. The job search has changed a lot over the years and, with some insider tips and strategies, experienced workers truly can turn their age into an advantage.

Your list of recommended books looks like a super selection of great reads. I’d like to add a book from a woman we can all admire, Eugenia Lovett West. I came to meet her because I was asked to interview her on my radio show. This amazing woman began a new career as a mystery writer at the age of 81. She entered a contest and was discovered by Ruth Cavin, the highly regarded mystery editor at St. Martin’s Press.

Eugenia’s first book, WITHOUT WARNING, was hailed by the late Dominck Dunne as “a fast-paced page-turner” and by Rebecca Sinkler, former editor of the “The New York Times Book Review,” as a “snappy, fast-paced work that will keep you reading late in the night.” Her second book in the series just came out and is entitled: OVERKILL.

When I asked Eugenia to share her thoughts on remaining happy and healthy in our later years, she replied: “Do something creative–something that makes you get up in the morning with a sense of joy and purpose.” And, I’m sure your readers will agree, that’s not a bad way to live when you’re 86!

# 6 March 2010 at 1:38 pm

Karin Lippert said:

I was eager to Google Kay Redfield Jamison seeing her latest book on the list, and found a wonderful lecture – she gave at a meeting for teachers – on exuberance. It was insightful and a pleasure to watch her. I ran out and bought the book: “Exuberance: The Passion for Life”…Am reading it and ENJOYING it tremendously. I have admired her for years – “An Unquiet Mind – A Memoir of Moods and Madness,” was deeply moving and brilliant as was “Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament.” After reading “Exuberance..” I may wait just a bit to tackle the book about her husband.

link to lecture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoXAK9qbRh4

# 6 March 2010 at 3:41 pm

Kathy Ferrier said:

I read such a wide variety of books. Right now, I am reading “On Hallowed Ground” The Story of Arlington National Cemetery. I won the book, and didn’t think I would read it, but I decided I needed to honor the men and women who call it their final resting place. I’ve been there, but never thought about it’s history. This is a very well written book.

My favorite book this past year was “The View from Dephi” by Jonathan Odell written in 2005. It takes place in a small town in Mississippi in the pre-civil rights era. The story of two women, one black and one white, their struggles and how their paths cross. I highly recommend it.

# 10 March 2010 at 8:25 pm

susan crowe said:

My recommendation is “The Brain That Changes Itself” By Dr Norman Doidge. It’s about neuroplasticity, but don’t let that stop you from reading this book. It’s so utterly readable. I think it’s the most important life-changing book of the decade, maybe the century. It has given me such enormous hope, about myself, about my children, about ourselves as humans, and about the potential we have to change ourselves and the world. It’s so readable, with incredible human stories of people who have actually benefitted from the newest research on the ability of our brains to change.

# 12 March 2010 at 2:05 am

Karin Lippert said:

“The Brain That Changes Itself,” sounds terrific especially at a time when so much of education is focused on testing and standardization. It is difficult for many chilren to adjust to the demands made of them by our traditional educational system. Of course, this is also to true for women whose post-menopausal intellectual capacities were underestimated throughout history…Our brainse in fact still change as we grow odler (and in some respects get better).

It’s good to know people are thinking outside the box when it comes to the capacities of our brain.

# 24 March 2010 at 2:07 pm

Karin Lippert said:

I have just finished reading “The Winter Vault” by Anne Michaels. I lovd her book “The Fugitive Pieces,” and this book was a real gift from an intelligent and skilled novelist. Her two main characters became my intimate young friends while reading the book. I feared the ending, but was rewarded.

# 31 March 2010 at 2:01 pm