Welcome to Book Chat, a newsletter for readers and eaters. I’m really happy you’re here.
I’m currently working through a short series where I share my personal story and talk about books that have been important in my life. This issue features Part 8.
If you missed the previous entries, you can find them here:
Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five | Part six | Part seven
My reading life: part 8 - the 2000s
We survive the millennium bug and launch ourselves into a new century full of hope for what it might bring. But in 2001, an attack on the World Trade Centre in New York fills us with a sense of disquiet about where we are heading.
In Australia, it all seems very far away and hard to believe, but it’s still very shocking. Is the world spinning out of control? Where will it all end?
Like most people, I don’t have any answers, so I just carry on working and trying to keep doing my bit in the community.
By 2004 I have three part-time teaching jobs and doing my tax is a nightmare. I still love teaching, but I am tired of marking endless essays and realise I need a change. It’s hard to contemplate leaving the group of teachers I have grown to love, many of whom are still friends today, but once I make up my mind, there’s no turning back, so I apply for a full-time position with a large charity in the city.
My colleagues coach me for the interview because I’m notoriously bad at self-promotion. I win the job, but it involves a fairly long commute to the city and in the first week I cry every night on my way home, wondering what I’ve done. Eventually I learn the ropes and become more confident. My role involves coordinating training for over 3,000 staff and it’s pretty full on, but I have a good team and an office of my own, something I will miss later.
Having a full-time job means I get paid every week (and not just in term time) and eventually I feel financially secure enough to contemplate an overseas trip. In 2006 we take the kids (now teenagers) to Switzerland to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. It’s winter and we go to a ski resort even though we don’t ski. The prime purpose of our visit is to soak in the thermal pool. It’s wonderful to lie in a hot pool with snow capped mountains all around you. I recommend it.
We also go to Ireland and are on the road when the University acceptances are published. The four of us traipse into the only place in town with internet access to find out if Ellen (our youngest) has been accepted into her preferred degree. Thankfully, it’s good news and we travel on. It seems so old-fashioned now that everyone has the internet in their pocket.
When we get home, I go back to working in the city, but I soon begin to fantasise about getting a job locally. As I sit waiting for a train on a freezing cold morning, I notice the government office next to the station is all lit up, but at six thirty in the morning the entire building is empty because all the lucky workers are still at home in their beds. I envy them, so I set my sights on getting myself a job there.
I’m thrilled when I find out I’ve been successful. I can leave home at a reasonable hour and even walk to walk when the weather is fine. The downside is that I go back to working in an open-plan office and it’s noisy and hard to concentrate. I like my new team, but I miss the autonomy of my old job, and I miss my friends.
What I was reading
Favourite books from this decade include Ann Patchett’s first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. This is probably my favourite book of hers, although I also enjoyed Run, The Dutch House and Commonwealth.
The Patron Saint of Liars
Set in 1968, Rose arrives at St Elizabeth’s, a Roman Catholic home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky. Rose has fled her dull but loving husband without telling him she is pregnant and has decided to be ‘a liar for the rest of my life’. As penance, she has also abandoned her widowed and much loved mother. She hopes that God will appreciate her sacrifice and understand how desperate she is to flee.
Rose is a complex and not altogether likeable character, who struggles to reconcile her need to be free with her desire to be the person she thinks she should be. Sometimes it’s hard to understand her decisions but I totally get this, as I sometimes feel the same about my own life. If asked why I have made certain choices, I would be hard pressed to say why, but age has convinced me that some decisions simply cannot be explained in a neat or rational way. I suspect this is what attracted me to this book, along with my sympathy for lost women. I love the way Rose finds a sense of community at St Elizabeths.
The Secret Life of Bees
Another memorable novel from this period is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It’s a coming of age story about a young girl who grows up believing she has killed her mother. At fourteen, she yearns for her mother and for forgiveness.
As Lily strives to reconcile her inner turmoil, she witnesses the battle for civil rights in her area, and is introduced to the fascinating world of bees. Lily finds a sense of family within a strong group of black women and with their help, learns to let go.
It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.
This sounds like a super-sweet novel, but I don’t remember finding it so.
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?
Let the Great World Spin
Let the Great World Spin, by the Irish writer Colum McCann, is a more complex and broader novel than the previous two choices.
Set in New York in 1974, the story opens with Phillipe Petit’s attempt to walk on a high wire strung between the twin towers. In the crowd below, people of all kinds are leading ordinary, but complicated lives.
Among them are Tilly, a 38 year old grandmother living on the streets and trying to protect her daughter Jazzlyn; Corrigan a Catholic monk from Ireland who lives and works with prostitutes in a tenement in the Bronx; and Claire, a wealthy woman living on the Upper East side who belongs to an informal group of mothers who have lost sons in Vietnam.
They all have a story to tell, and their stories intermingle, but not in a cheesy or predictable way. This is not sit-com territory.
In this clip, the author talks about the parallels between 1974 and 2001 and how the daring act of Phillipe Petit provides an entry point for writing about the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Let the Great World Spin won the National Book Award in 2009 and I am keen to read his latest book Twist, which has been described as a meditation on the narrative of truth.
What I’ve been eating
Easter has come and gone but I got to spend some quality time with my eldest daughter, Katie. We had roast lamb on Easter Sunday (a family tradition) and Katie made a delicious croissant cheesecake for dessert.
The cheesecake had a biscoff base, a frangipane filling, and a cheesecake topping. Totally decadent and yummy! The recipe is by Kiley O’Donnell. You can find it here.
International Book Club
Invitations have gone out for our next meeting which is scheduled for June 5 in the USA and Canada, and June 6 in Australia. If you didn’t get an invitation and would like to come, please let me know.
We will be discussing The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, so if you have read it and have thoughts/opinions, please join us.
Book Club is free for subscribers.
Well folks, that’s all for this issue. If you enjoy reading Book Chat please press the heart button as it helps other readers to find us.
Stay safe and happy reading,
Marg xx
Just really enjoying your style of weaving your reading with your with own story, Marg .. such a pleasure .
An entertaining read as usual, Marg! You’ve had such an accomplished working, reading and family life!
I haven’t read any of the books you mention, but your descriptions always give me a reason to want to pick them up.
I realize now I haven’t read with purpose since college and even now am a bit random in my picks—distracted into reading news rather than novels or escapist mysteries that I later can’t remember. A course of self-improvement might be in order. Your posts about books are excellent inspiration!