My Name Is Lucy Barton

 

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Amgash, #1

Fiction

2016

Finished on May 26, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all — the one between mother and daughter.

 

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.

It's been a little less than a decade since I first read My Name Is Lucy Barton. I wrote the following in 2016:

After reading Bellezza's glowing review for My Name Is Lucy Barton, I knew I had to give it a chance, in spite of my disappointment in The Burgess Boys (which I did not finish). I read Amy and Isabelle many years ago, and more recently Olive Kitteridge, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. I wish I could echo Meredith's praise for this particular book, but it failed to move me, even after listening to the audio, which I started as soon as I finished the print edition. I can't remember the last time I did that, but I really wanted to give it another chance since Meredith loved it so much. My Name Is Lucy Barton was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, BookPage, and LibraryReads. I am obviously in the minority, as I barely gave it an average rating.

I find it so interesting to see how my reaction to a book can differ so significantly from the first time I read it. Not only did I enjoy My Name Is Lucy Barton so well that I read it in two days, but I also enjoyed The Burgess Boys, which I couldn't even finish the first time I tried. I wonder if my deep dive into Elizabeth Strout's works has allowed me to feel more sympathetic toward her characters, many of whom are troubled or come from dysfunctional families. We don't learn specific details about Lucy's father, but her mother is really a piece of work. The vignettes toward the end of the book read like stream-of-consciousness, which required me to stay focused and pay attention. I think when I listened to the audio, my attention drifted more readily. I understand Lucy appears in two more books by Strout, and I'm eager to read those later this year.

Much of the joy of reading Lucy Barton comes from piecing together the hints and half-revelations in Strout’s unsentimental but compelling prose. . . . She reminds us of the power of our stories—and our ability to transcend our troubled narratives. — Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

20 Books of Summer - 2025

 

It's that time of year again! I love this reading challenge, which is hosted this year by Emma at Words and Peace and Annabel at AnnaBookBel. The following are the guidelines for this annual challenge:

• The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st.
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.
• If you do pick a list, you can change it at any time – swap books in/out.
• Don’t get panicked at not reaching your target.
• Just enjoy a summer of great reading and make a bit of space on your shelves!

I've selected 20 books from my shelves, many of which I've intended to read for quite some time. I will probably start with the shorter novels so I don't get bogged down with those that are over 400 pages. I always enjoy having a list of books from which to read, and there's enough variety that I can't imagine feeling like I'd want to read something that's not on my list. I haven't accounted for audiobooks, so we'll see what gets worked in during the summer months. Any suggestions as to which one of these I should start with?

Looking Back - The Eyre Affair

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Fiction

2002

Finished on April 28, 2002

Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)

Publisher's Blurb:

Meet Thursday Next, literary detective without equal, fear or boyfriend.

There is another 1985, where London's criminal gangs have moved into the lucrative literary market, and Thursday Next is on the trail of the new crime wave's Mr Big.

Acheron Hades has been kidnapping characters from works of fiction and holding them to ransom. Jane Eyre is gone. Missing.

Thursday sets out to find a way into the book to repair the damage. But solving crimes against literature isn't easy when you also have to find time to halt the Crimean War, persuade the man you love to marry you, and figure out who really wrote Shakespeare's plays.

Perhaps today just isn't going to be Thursday's day. Join her on a truly breathtaking adventure, and find out for yourself. Fiction will never be the same again...

My Original Thoughts (2002):

I couldn't put this down! Highly recommend. Characters with names such as Braxton Hicks and Jack Schitt. There's even a vampire slayer. Fun read!

My Current Thoughts:

This humorous debut novel came highly recommended by several friends. I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't think I read any more in the series. 

Wellness

 

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Fiction

Narrated by Ari Fliakos

2023

Finished on May 20, 2025

Rating: 3/5 (OK)

Publisher's Blurb:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nix, a witty and poignant new novel about marriage, middle age, tech-obsessed health culture and the bonds that keep people together.

When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast forward twenty years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize one another, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.

Moving from the gritty '90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection. In the follow-up to Hill's electric debut, Wellness reimagines the love story with a healthy dose of insight, irony, and heart.

I seem to be in a rut of disappointing reads. It took me over three weeks to finish listening to Wellness, which is just shy of 19 hours in length. I loved the opening chapters, enthralled by Ari Fliakos' superb narration of Nathan Hill's gorgeous prose. But the momentum began to fade somewhere around the halfway mark. The segments about Jack's father and his ignorance of Facebook's algorithms pulled me back into the story, but it wasn't long before Jack and Elizabeth's navel-gazing had my mind wandering. But I can stick with a mediocre book if the audio narrator is one that I enjoy. Had I not been listening to the audio, I would have tossed the 600+ novel across the room. Having said that, I have a print edition of The Nix, Hill's debut novel, which I was planning to read later this summer. Now I wonder if I should bother.

I received a complimentary copy from Libro.fm. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Instructions for a Heatwave

 

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

Fiction

2013

Finished on May 17, 2025

Rating: 3/5 (OK)

Publisher's Blurb:

London, 1976. In the thick of a record-breaking heatwave, Gretta Riordan's newly retired husband has cleaned out his bank account and vanished. Now, for the first time in years, Gretta calls her children home: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, whose blighted past has driven a wedge between her and her younger sister; and Aoife, the youngest, whose new life in Manhattan is elaborately arranged to conceal a devastating secret.

In a story that stretches from New York's Upper West Side to a village on the coast of Ireland, Maggie O'Farrell reveals the fault lines over which we build our lives. Instructions for a Heatwave weaves an unforgettable narrative of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are.

Meh. I struggled to finish this sixth novel of Maggie O'Farrell's, which took me over a week to complete. I felt no sympathy toward any of the characters in this dysfunctional family tale, and grew impatient to move on and read something more engaging. Unlike her previous works, the structure of Instructions for a Heatwave is straightforward with a single narrative, presented in a linear timeline, over the course of four days. Each family member harbors a dark secret from their past, which they eventually reveal to some but not all of their relatives. The pacing is slow and languid, and while there is a bit of mystery involving the disappearance of Gretta's husband, the story lacked the necessary tension to hold my attention. Not one I'll read again.

There Was an Old Woman

 

There Was an Old Woman by Andrea Carlisle

Nonfiction

2023

Finished on May 9, 2025

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Andrea Carlisle isn’t struggling with her new identity as the Old Woman in the ways society seems to think she should. In fact, she is finding her later years to be an extraordinary and interesting time. In trying to understand the discrepancy, she interrogates the sources of negativity in literature, art, and received wisdom that often lead women to dread this transformative time of life. Given the cultural pervasiveness of ill will toward older women, it is small wonder that growing older is not seen as a natural, even desirable, process. Although some elements of aging are hard to reckon with, there is much to make use of and delight in, along with mysteries, surprises, and revelations.

In these personal essays, Carlisle looks for new ways to bring herself more fully to this time of life, such as daily walks with other women and connecting to the natural world that surrounds her houseboat on an Oregon river at the foot of a forest. She writes about experiences shared with many, if not most, older women: wondering at her body’s transformation, discovering new talents, caregiving, facing loss, tuning in to life patterns and drawing strength through understanding them, letting go (or not) of pieces of the past, and facing other changes large and small.

Those curious about, approaching, or living in old age will find wisdom and insight in her unique perspective. In a voice that rings with clarity, humor, and humility, Carlisle shows us that old age is not another country where we can expect to find the Old Woman grimly waiting, but is instead an expansion of the borders in the country we’re most familiar with: ourselves.

At 63, I'm not quite sure I fit the demographic for this book, but nonetheless I read it for my upcoming book group discussion. Carlisle's insights on aging aren't terribly profound, and at times her essays are repetitive, and her lists of examples too lengthy. I have enjoyed many novels about aging women, but for me, this nonfiction work missed its mark. However, she includes a suggested reading list of books with an emphasis on older characters, and I wound up adding several to my TBR list.

Books about aging women that I have read and enjoyed:

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy (4/5)

Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan (4.75/5)

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (4.5/5)

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (5/5)

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher (5/5)

Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg (5/5)

We Spread by Iain Reid (4.5/5)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (4/5)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (4.5.5)

Fellowship Point by Alice Elliot Dark (5/5)

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (4.5/5)

Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen (4/5)

Read, but didn't love:

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney (3.5/5)

As We Are Now by May Sarton (3/5)

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis (3/5)

Books from Andrea Carlisle's suggested reading list in which I'm interested:

The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble

Smile Please by Jean Rhys (essay "My Day")

The Door by Magda Szabo

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

Jumping the Queue by Mary Wesley

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin

Looking Back - Dreaming Water

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama

Fiction

2002

Finished on April 20, 2002

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Bestselling author Gail Tsukiyama is known for her poignant, subtle insights into the most complicated of relationships. Dreaming Water is an exploration of two of the richest and most layered human connections that mother and daughter and lifelong friends.

Hana is suffering from Werner's syndrome, a disease that makes a person age at twice the rate of one that is healthy. At thirty-eight Hana has the appearance of an eighty-year-old. Cate, her mother, is caring for her while struggling with her grief at losing her husband, Max, and with the knowledge that Hana's disease is getting worse by the day.

Hana and Cate's days are quiet and ordered. Cate escapes to her beloved garden and Hana reads and writes letters. Each find themselves drawn into their pasts, remembering the joyous and challenging events that have shaped spending the day at Max's favorite beach, overcoming their neighbors' prejudices that Max is Japanese-American and Cate is Italian-American, and coping with the heartbreak of discovering Hana's disease.

Dreaming Water is about a mother's courage, a daughter's strength, and a friend's love. It is about the importance of human dignity and the importance of all the small moments that create a life worth living.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

This was a very easy, quick read, but the subject matter is quite sad. At times I thought it read like a memoir. Beautiful, engaging prose. Informative, yet a simple story spanning two days with numerous flashbacks and memories.

My Current Thoughts:

I enjoyed this one, but didn't keep a copy. The Samurai's Garden was more impressive.

The Burgess Boys

 

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Fiction

2013

Finished on May 4, 2025

Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge. The San Francisco Chronicle praised Strout’s “magnificent gift for humanizing characters.” Now the acclaimed author returns with a stunning novel as powerful and moving as any work in contemporary literature.

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout's newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.

I tried to listen to the audio edition of The Burgess Boys when it was released in 2013. I might have been distracted at the time, but the opening chapters failed to grab my attention. I remember that I simply didn't care about Jim or Bob Burgess. So, when I recently borrowed a copy of the book in my endeavor to read all of Strout's novels, I did so with hesitation. I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the book as well as I did! Strout creates such quirky characters, many of whom either lack a social filter or are simply socially awkward. The relationship between the three Burgess siblings is complicated. Jim is unkind to his younger brother. Susan is unkind to her twin. Bob is a good person and just wants to get along. I loved this character-driven story, and I'm so glad I gave it a second chance! Elizabeth Strout is quite a storyteller, and I'm looking forward to re-reading My Name Is Lucy Barton, which is next on my list.

Highly recommend.

Looking Back - Three Junes

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Three Junes by Julia Glass

Fiction

2002

Finished on May 21, 2002

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage.

Six years later, Paul's death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family's future. A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglements--until a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love.

Love in its limitless forms--between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and children--is the force that moves these characters' lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future.

Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the heart--how family ties, both those we're born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy.

My Original Thoughts (2002):

I probably would have finished this sooner had I not set it aside for several new releases. It's not like it wasn't good. The last section, though, didn't hold my attention as well as the other two parts. Not great, but I'm glad I gave it a chance.

My Current Thoughts:

Three Junes won the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction. I vaguely remember the plot of this debut novel, but wasn't impressed enough to read more by the author.

A Month in Summary - April 2025

Sisters, Oregon

April 2025

April felt like a whirlwind of travel, what with four events for Rod's latest book. We came home on the 1st (from a book talk in Seattle), headed out on the 4th for the first event of the month in Seaside, OR. We were home for a week after that, then back out again to Sisters and Bend for three more events. It was fun to get back out in the RV for this "book tour" and the weather couldn't have been nicer. 

With all of our travels, April seemed like a slower month of reading, but looking back on my numbers, I read as much as in March and just one less than February. Two of my April books were super short, so maybe that's why I feel like I wasn't reading a lot. Interestingly, my favorite books in April were those two short novels. They're keepers and I hope to read them again someday. 

Books Read (click on the title for my review):

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell (3.5/5)

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (4.5/5)

We Spread by Iain Reid (4.5/5)

I've Tried Being Nice by Ann Leary (3.5/5)

The Song of Hartgrove Hall by Natasha Solomons (4/5)

Movies & TV Series:

Becoming Katharine Graham - We thought this was an excellent and timely documentary. I found the following on the Internet: "For some Americans, the right to free speech and a free press are almost synonymous. However, in recent years, Trump has tried to use the courts to punish nearly every major U.S. TV news network in reaction to interview questions or coverage he doesn’t like." Watching the documentary The Making of Katherine Graham, there are significant parallels between Nixon's treatment (specifically of The Washington Post) of the press and Trump's. "A federal judge yesterday [4/9/2025] ordered the Trump administration to immediately allow Associated Press journalists back into the Oval Office and other spaces to cover the news. The judge ruled that blocking the agency's access over disagreements about its word choices was unlawful."

Ludwig - Cute and entertaining. We'll watch the second season once it's released.

Severance (Season 2) -  Whoa. This is such a creative, but mind-boggling show! Loved it.

Churchill at War - Quite good, but we didn't care for Christian McKay as Churchill. Gary Oldman was much better in Darkest Hour.

Number 24 - This was a tough movie to watch during these troubling times. It hit too close to home. 

Travels: 

As I mentioned above, we spent some time traveling around Oregon for Rod's book talks. It was great to meet up with Robin (a fellow book blogger and longtime friend) at the Seaside event. We also enjoyed time relaxing at the RV park and exploring a newer part of Bend with our travel buddies, Dave & Molly.

Me and Robin (A Fondness For Reading)

Cheers to spring weather!