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Bob on Books Best of 2024

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It’s that time again! Here are my picks for my personal “best reads of 2024.” Most of the books were published either in 2023 or 2024 and all were reviewed this year. I chose a “best overall” and then books in a number of categories, reflecting what I read–seventeen books out of the over two hundred I reviewed so far in 2024 (including one I just finish and haven’t yet reviewed).

Best of the Year

The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese. New York: The Grove Press, 2023. Verghese is a magnificent writer, the story is beautifully told, spanning several generations in colonial and post-Colonial India. I wrote, “To read Verghese is to read a consummate story weaver who has thought deeply about the human condition in its frailty and fallibility, in the powerful bonds upon which our lives and loves depend, and in the hopes and holy aspirations that represent the best in human striving.” Review

Best Non-fiction

The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta. New York: HarperCollins, 2023. Tim Alberta spent a couple of years traveling the country to figure out why so many evangelicals aligned themselves with the politics of the right. Probably the best exploration of this topic I’ve read from an investigative reporter who is also a person of faith. Review

Best Science Book of the Year

Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek. Little, Brown (ISBN: 9780316570695) 2024. I just finished reading this and was amazed at the discoveries that have emerged in the few short years that the James Webb Telescope has been online that are changing our understanding of the cosmos. Review forthcoming.

Best Memoir/Biography

An Unfinished Love Story, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982108663) 2024. Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a fascinating memoir of going through her husband’s papers from the 60’s when he was a speech writer and advisor for Kennedy and Johnson. It is fascinating to read about his part in some of the speeches and policies of those two administrations as well as the somewhat different perspective of Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose first book was on Johnson. Review

Best History

Challenger, Adam Higginbotham. Avid Reader Press (ISBN: 9781982176617) 2024. Adam Higginbotham combines research into the Challenger with profiles of the crew. My son and I agree on the major lesson underlying this narrative: “Listen to your engineers.” Review

Best Fiction

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. HarperOne (ISBN: 9781529105100), 2019. This one is actually hard to classify. It is a short and charming hand written and illustrated story that explores the things that matter most in life, particularly unconditional love. Review

Best Historical Fiction

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024. I’m not sure why Kristin Hannah doesn’t receive the critical acclaim that some other writers have received. She writes compelling plots with strong characters, in this case chronicling the under told story of combat nurses in the Vietnam war Review

Best Mystery

The Grey Wolf (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Number 19), Louise Penny. Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9781250328144) 2024. Louise Penny took a year off and came back with a page-turning plot with a “trust no one” theme. And guess what? The plot includes the story of two wolves, the grey and the black. Guess what the title of Penny’s next book is. Yep. The Black Wolf, releasing fall of 2025. Review

Best Poetry

Contemporary Catholic Poetry: An Anthology, Edited by April Lindner and Ryan Wilson. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640606463), 2024. An anthology of works from 23 poets including Dana Gioia that is a great introduction to a variety of contemporary poets–a great way to discover ones you like! Review

Best Children’s

Saint Valentine the Kindhearted, Ned Bustard (text and illustrations). Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2024. Ned Bustard tells and illustrates the story of Saint Valentine for children upholding the virtue of kindness, something we need in our coarse and cruel world. The woodcut illustrations are exquisite! Review

Best Graphic Work

By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025. Hutter was a leader of the Radical Reformation and a martyr for his faith. This graphic biography tells the story of his life and the ideas for which he died with an economy of words by using graphics to complement dialogue and narrative. Review

Best Devotional

Diary of an Old Soul, George MacDonald, with introduction and notes by Timothy Larsen. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007686), 2024 (originally published in 1880). In 1880, George MacDonald wrote an extended poem with 365 seven line verses, one for each day with blank pages opposite the verses. Timothy Larsen introduces and lightly annotates a new edition of the work, a pocket sized volume ideal for devotional reflection. Review

Best Formational Resource

Moms at the Well, Tara Edelschick and Kathy Tuan-Maclean. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 781514006788), 2024. Being a mom is hard. The two moms who wrote this knew this not only from their own experience but through a survey of 700 moms. Out of this, they developed a seven week Bible study experience looking at seven moms in scripture, including personal study, group discussion and videos accessible via QR codes in the book. Review

Best Christian Life Book

Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, Ronald Rolheiser. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609471) 2024. “Chastity” is one of those cringe words. Fr. Rolheiser argues for an understanding of chastity that extends far beyond our sexuality that treats our whole lives as holy ground. Review

Best Christianity and Culture Book

Word Made Fresh, Abram Van Engen, foreword by Shane McCrae. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802883605) 2024. This book is a great doorway to the world of poetry for those who don’t read poetry but might be open to try reading some. Van Engen helps us find poets we like and to understand how words and form are used by poets to convey meaning. I can’t think of a single book that has been more helpful to me in reading poetry. Review

Best Theology Book

Bonhoeffer for the Church, Matthew D. Kirkpatrick. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506497822) 2024. Matthew D. Kirkpatrick distills Bonhoeffer’s theology of the church from his writings, underscoring the centrality of Christ for the life of the church. For anyone concerned about what it means to be the church, this is a text marvelously rich in insight. Review

Best Apologetic Work

On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences, Gary R. Habermas. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087778600), 2024. This is volume 1 of a four part work and considers the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus using a minimal historical facts approach, making a strong case for the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. At 1072 pages, Habermas is exhaustively thorough, yet highly readable! Review

This hardly exhausts the great books I read in 2024. Check with me tomorrow and I might have a different list. In fact, before the year is out, I will have one more list, my “most read reviews” list which is kind of a “people’s choice” award–at least what my readers found of greatest interest. Hopefully, you;ll find something here worthwhile for your own reading and for gift-giving.

Review: By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story

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Cover image of "By Fire" by Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, and Sankha Banerjee

By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025.

Summary: A graphic biography of this early leader of the Anabaptist movement, marriage to Katharina, and martyrdom.

The Radical Reformation arose among Christians who believed the Reformation did not go far enough. Because adherents believed in baptizing only those professing faith, they became known as Anabaptists. The early movement taught holding all in common, living peacefully, including refusing to pay taxes for war. This incurred the wrath of the rulers of the lands they inhabited, resulting in the deaths of many.

This graphic biography portrays the life of one such figure, Jakob Hutter, after whom the Hutterites, a continuing movement are named. But Hutter was not always a peaceful Anabaptist. The first part portrays him, along with a friend who saved his life (and later betrayed him), Peter, engaging in the failed Peasants Revolt.

Through a refugee, Ursula, he comes to hear Georg Blaurock, who preaches removing from the existing church, and the way of peace and community according to the gospels. Jakob is convinced and parts ways with his friend Peter to join the Anabaptists, soon becoming one of their teachers. Meanwhile, Peter is growing more in love with Katharina, a young woman in the village, who also knew Jakob.

During this time, as the Anabaptists refused to pay taxes to fund Ferdinand’s war against the Ottoman empire. Arrest, drowning, hanging, and death at the stake followed. Katharina had joined the Anabaptists after hearing Jakob, was arrested, and saved her life by recanting. Meanwhile, the Anabaptists had fled to Moravia. Katharina, convinced she has made a mistake, joins them. Eventually, she and Jakob marry.

They live peacefully for a time until driven to live in the open fields. As a result, Jakob wrote a plea to the governor of Moravia, further engendering hostility.

Peter, in his anger and jealousy for losing Katharina, agrees to spy on the Anabaptists, and betray them to the authorities. And so, when Jakob and Katharina secretly return to Tyrol, he betrays them. The authorities arrest them and take them to Innsbruck. Jakob endures torture and preaches repentance as the flames mount around the stake. (This may not be a good scene to show younger children.) Katharina, after escaping, was recaptured and executed, probabably by drowning.

A few things about this graphic portrayal. I appreciate the artistic detail, the use of muted colors, and the willingness to let images rather than words tell the story at points, giving the reader a chance to imagine and reflect. “Peter” is a fictional character. However, he is based on the life of Jorg Frue, who actually betrayed, for money, Jakob and other Anabaptists. This story appears in the after matter, which also includes the mandates against Anabaptists, maps, profiles of historical figures, a timeline, and two of Jakob’s letters.

This is not a pretty story, even though a plaque marks the site of Hutter’s death, a picturesque square in Innsbruck. The denomination of which I’m a part traces its lineage back to the Radical Reformation as do the present-day Hutterites. I wonder if many of us realize that we have martyrs in our spiritual lineage. And I wonder if we reckon with the possibility that some of the radical values we embrace, at least in theory, might require us to follow Jakob and Katharina, and the One they loved.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!

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Cover image of "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!" by Quentin Schultze.

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!, Quentin Schultze. Edenridge Press LLC (ISBN: 9781937532017) 2024.

Summary: Life lessons from the movie “A Christmas Story” from a friend of storyteller and screenplay writer Jean Shepherd.

We all have our favorite classic Christmas movies that we can watch over and over again. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is probably at the top of my list. But in second place, I would probably pick “A Christmas Story.” Part of the reason is that we lived in the Cleveland area during the filming of the movie. There really was a Higbee’s store! In addition, there are so many memorable lines:

“You’ll shoot your eye out!”

“Frah-JEE-lay”

“The line ends here. It begins there.”

“That [Olds SOB] would freeze up in the middle of the summer in the equator.”

“Mom hadn’t had a hot meal for herself in fifteen years.”

“Triple dog dare”

“Oh, f-u-u-u-d-g-e”

I’ll bet you can remember the scenes just from the lines!

Quentin Schultze, who taught communications for many years at Calvin College, had the unusual experience of inviting Jean Shepherd, who wrote the film’s screenplay, to co-teach a course on storytelling. Along the way, he had the chance to gain an inside glimpse into the storytelling behind the movie. Specifically, he contends that, embedded in the different scenes, are a number of parables, life lessons as it were reflecting Shepherd’s keen insights into human nature.

Schultze begins with Ralphie’s dream to get a Red Ryder “200-shot range model air rifle” to protect his family from Black Bart and the villains of Cleveland Street. He pursues the dream the whole movie, and Schultze believes that lesson of pursuing dreams is a good one, even if we make fools out of ourselves.

Subsequent chapters draw from other scenes, warning us against obsessions like leg lamps or bullies like Scut, who inhabit not only schoolyards but companies, churches, and even government. Ralphie and Randy teach us about caring for family.

Some of the lessons go deeper. The tension with the unseen next door neighbors, the Bumpuses, and their hounds leads to an exploration of who the Bumpuses our in our lives, and perhaps whether we are Bumpus-like. When Randy hides under the sink after Ralphie beats up Scut for fear of “the Old Man,” mom’s response reflects the reality that we all have times of needing refuge. Perhaps the most appreciated was Schultze discussion of heroes, and the everyday sensibility of mom that makes her the hero in the story.

Of course, there are the lighter moments that remind us of the playful. Singing ‘Jingle Bells” in the car, Ralphie’s disquisition on different soaps, and the wax fang episode in which Mrs. Shields adds them to a draw of gags, including still-chattering teeth, all reveal Shepherd’s playful outlook. The fact that we love the trivia from this movie suggests how successful Shepherd was.

There’s still probably time to get and read a copy before watching the movie again. Schultze helps us understand why we love this film. He helped me appreciate the storytelling genius of Jean Shepherd. And if you haven’t seen the movie in a while, it will remind you of all your favorite scenes, and some you may have forgotten.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author for review.

Review: Poverty, By America

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Cover image of "Poverty, By America" by Matthew Desmond

Poverty, By America. Matthew Desmond. Crown (ISBN:9780593239933) 2024.

Summary: An argument that poverty in America is the result of choices made knowingly or not by affluent who benefit as a result.

Most discussions of poverty find the cause of poverty in one of two places. Either the poor are poor because of their own bad choices. Or the poor are poor because of systems and structures stacked against them. Matthew Desmond contends that the data offer a different picture. Poverty exists because the rest of us knowingly or not benefit from it. He shows that the poor who graduate from high school, get full-time jobs, and delay child-bearing until marriage are still poor. And he shows that our structures, at least governmentally, have vastly expanded resources for the poor. Without them, things would be far worse.

First of all, workers are vastly underpaid, particularly in light of corporate balance sheets. The “gig” economy makes this even worse. Government aid in the form of food stamps and the Earned Income Credit (when it is used) prevent their state from being worse. Thje rest of us subsidize low wages unknowingly.

We also force the poor to pay more for housing, mostly on the rental market, excluding them from home ownership, the monthly payments for which may be lower than rising rents. In addition, payday lending operations charge exorbitant interest for short-term loans. Desmond asks, “Who is feeding off this?”

We actually have a welfare system that most benefits those who least need it. Government subsidized retirement benefits, 529 college savings plans, child tax credits, and mortgage deductions and other subsidies benefit those well above the poverty line. But we just don’t think of that as “welfare.”

We use zoning practices to bar affordable housing creating de facto segregation while priding ourselves that it has been outlawed. We create cities that are patchworks of private splendor and public squalor.

Desmond argues that the resources are there to change this situation. If the wealthy paid even the current taxes they owe, substantial funds would be released to help the poor. Desmond points to the extra assistance given during COVID and how it kept people out of poverty as well as released funds into a struggling economy.

Desmond argues that all of us can make different choices, about the wages we pay, the zoning of our neighborhoods. He also argues for restoring power to workers through unions that make collective bargaining rather than a “gig” existence possible. Of course, companies could voluntarily empower their workers through such things as employee ownership options.

What Desmond is asking is what kind of country do we want? He argues that we all pay a cost for poverty. By changing things like zoning, empowering, and properly compensating workers, we create a better country for all of us.

What struck me reading this just after the 2024 elections was that it seems we want a very different country than what Desmond advocates and that even many of the working poor believe their lives will be better in this kind of country. I cannot believe Desmond is oblivious to our political discourse. Yet I think, as compelling as is the case he makes, he talks past the majority of the country, including many of the populations for whom he advocates as well as many who he needs to persuade among the more affluent.

Review: Lieberman’s Day

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Cover image of "Lieberman's Day" by Stuart M. Kaminsky

Lieberman’s Day, Stuart M. Kaminsky. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781480400207) 2013 (first published in 1994).

Summary: Abe’s nephew is killed and his wife shot in a mugging while a murderer stalks the abused ex-wife Hanrahan is sheltering.

Moments after walking out the door from a dinner party on a cold winter night, David Lieberman and his wife Carol confront two muggers. Things go awry and one mugger shoots David, the other, Carol. David dies, but Carol, critically wounded and pregnant, survives. Abe Lieberman, who hasn’t yet fallen asleep gets the call at 12:02 am. David is Abe’s nephew.

The book chronicles the next twenty-four hours as Abe, and his recovering-alcoholic partner Bill Hanrahan track down the killers. At the same time, Abe must try to comfort his brother and sister-in-law in the loss of their son, drawing on the help of his tight-knit Jewish community, including the Alter Cockers, a group of older men who hang out at his brother’s diner.

Abe relies on his street connections, cutting a deal with El Perro, a drug kingpin, to find the killers. Shooting a pregnant woman is an offense even to them. Meanwhile Hanrahan learns that the violent ex-husband of an abused woman and her son, who he has sheltered, is back in town. Will Hanrahan find him before he finds them?

Both men also struggle with domestic issues. Abe’s daughter’s marriage has broken up but now she struggles as her former husband is seeing another woman. Abe is loyal to his daughter while liking the father of his grandchild. He’s met the woman he’s seeing and likes her as well. Bill’s wife walked out some time ago. Despite a relationship with an Asian woman who is ready for more, he cannot let go.

Meanwhile the plot is building toward double climaxes in Bill’s apartment and Carol’s hospital room. For one of the killers, Carol, while alive, is a threat.

This is a relatively short novel. The fast-paced double plot unfolds in the span of one very long day during a very cold Chicago winter. Amid all this, I enjoyed Lieberman’s street-savvy wisdom combined with the restraint that accompanies others in their grief, never saying the stupid thing.

Review: The New Anabaptists

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Cover image of "The New Anabaptist" by Stuart Murray

The New Anabaptists, Stuart Murray. Herald Press (ISBN: 9781513812984) 2024.

Summary: An effort to describe the practices emerging Anabaptist communities embody with three case studies as examples.

In 2010, Stuart Murray published The Naked Anabaptist, articulating the core convictions that have shaped the Anabaptist movement. In recent years, working with Mennonite church planting efforts, it became evident that a follow-up work was needed to, as it were, “clothe the naked Anabaptist” (this was considered as a title for this book). What Murray offers here is a description of common practices, reflecting Anabaptist heritage, that characterize these emerging communities. In six chapters, he explores twelve practices common to these communities. Following this, three case studies of diverse Anabaptist communities exemplify these qualities.

Murray’s first practice is a commitment to start with Jesus. He offers examples of war, baptism, tithing, oaths, and women in leadership to show how a commitment to start with Jesus works in each of these matters. Rather than treat the Bible as a “flat” book in which all parts have equal weight, he proposes that Anabaptists read all scripture in light of Jesus and treat the gospels as starting points.

Building on this, the other practices include baptism of would-be disciples and communion as a peace meal. Communion is understood as a celebration of Jesus’ radical work of peacemaking and it is a real meal, enjoyed in community. Closely related to this is the Anabaptist practice of hospitality, extending from shared meal to offering refuge. A commitment to a multi-voiced church in which members listen to each other include multi-voiced worship and biblical interpretation, non-hierarchical leadership, and consensual decision-making. I especially appreciate these last two in light of the abuses of leadership power and the stifling of dissent in authoritarian churches. Murray follows this by practices of truthtelling–mutual accountability and truth-telling, extending beyond not needing oaths to trustworthiness in our speech and actions.

The next two practices affirmed are simplicity and sharing. The author argues here against tithing, which he believes to have no New Testament foundation. Rather, the call is to live an uncluttered and generous lifestyle. This is reflected in a commitment to mutual aid and commonality. Finally, he describes practices of Anabaptist witness. This includes ethical evangelism: inviting without inducing, persuading without pressuring, friendship without strings, sensitivity without compromise, and humility that foreswears having all the answers. Anabaptist witness is also a peace witness. This means emphasizing restorative justice. And it means building bridges of understanding between different cultures and faiths.

In the second part of the book, three women offer case studies of emerging communities. Alexandra Ellish describes the Incarnate project of planting Anabaptist communities in the UK. Karen Sethuraman describes one of these communities, SoulSpace Belfast. She also shares the core values of a spinoff, Soulspace Bristol, an embodiment of Murray’s practices. Finally, Juliet Kilpin offers an account of Peaceful Borders. It offers support to a concentration of asylum seekers and refugees in Calais, France. Appendices to the book summarize core convictions and practices, and offer a liturgy for gathering around the table.

In concluding, Murray proposes that what he is doing is to articulate the spirituality and practices of post-Christendom churches. I think he properly diagnoses our moment. Rather than trying to return to the Christendom project, Murray returns to Jesus and practices reflecting a gospel-centered understanding of discipleship.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Conection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Church in Dark Times

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Cover image for "The Church in Dark Times" by Mike Cosper

The Church in Dark Times, Mike Cosper. Brazos Press (ISBN: 9781587435737) 2024.

Summary: Understanding and resisting the evil that seduced the evangelical movement, drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt.

Mike Cosper has both experienced and closely studied how leaders and their followers abuse power, embrace ideologies contrary to the gospel, and often act with cruelty toward those who question. He left a church with such a leadership culture. And he chronicled the ministry of Mark Driscoll in the podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. In this book, Cosper tries to understand how people of good intention were corrupted. And he articulates “practices of resistance” for those who do not want to repeat this history but resist it.

There are a spate of books that have been written on this topic. What sets Cosper’s book apart is his use of the thinking of Hannah Arendt, the philosopher who studied Hitler’s totalitarianism. However, in opening, he is quick, invoking Godwin’s Law, to deny an attempt to equate churches with Hitler. Nevertheless, the embrace of aspects of a totalitarian and authoritarian vision can inflict great harm. As he notes, “one can fall far short of [Hitler’s] monstrous achievements and still land squarely in hell.”

He begins with Arendt’s treatment of ideology, a story of everything that exchanges the gospel of grace for an iron logic. He uses Driscoll’s masculine ideology as an example, with its sweeping thesis that the church has failed to reach a generation because it lost all the men. To challenge Driscoll was to not be “man enough.” And this opened doors to spiritual abuse. Ideology proposes grandiose visions of changing the world through a particular leader or movement of leaders. An example Cosper gives is Bill Hybels and the Willow Creek movement.

The problem with ideology is that we bend reality and morality to ideological ends. It has meant exchanging the humility of redeemed disciples for the implacability of the fight. Authority is abused to attain spiritual goals. Often, we tend to look for moral monsters as a result. Instead, what we find is a banal form of evil, as Arendt did in studying Eichmann. Very ordinary people give little thought to the evil system they support. Likewise, church leaders often collude and close ranks against dissenters, not out of principle, but simply loyal conformity.

But how might we resist ideology and authority? Cosper turns to a Seattle native of another generation for help. Eugene Peterson never led a big congregation. He eschewed bigness for the pastoring of people. Rather than casting visions, he was more concerned to see how God was already at work in lives. Out of all this, Cosper arrives at three “practices of resistance.” First he encourages solitude and thought. Second he advocates storytelling and culture making–reflecting Dostoevsky’s idea that “beauty will save the world.” Finally he advocates worship that reminds us of the bigger story of God within which we live.

Cosper goes deeper than some in exploring the dynamics of authoritarian and ideologically captive churches. If nothing else, he introduces many to Hannah Arendt as a prophet for our time. The practices he commends make sense for resistance. They may not win the day in the sense of persuading people to repent from subverted ideologically driven churches. Rather, they sustain faithful witness to the gospel. Solitude and thought bring discernment. Storytelling and culture making point to the good, true, and beautiful gospel. And worship reminds us that as communities, we are God’s dwelling places, caught up in God’s cosmic plan to redeem all things. As dark as our times may be, the real destiny is not one of making one country great but extending God’s love to a world for which he died and will one day return to as king.

Cosper speaks unsparingly about the dark times facing evangelical churches within our cultural landscape. But he offers hope from the only sure source Christians have ever known-the risen and returning Christ. Many talk of speaking truth to power. Mike Cosper preaches the gospel of Jesus to every false ideology. What other hope and what other answer can we offer to dark times?

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Meet Me at the Lighthouse

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Cover image for "Meet Me at the Lighthouse by Dana Gioia

Meet Me at the Lighthouse: Poems, Dana Gioia. Graywolf Press (ISBN: 9781644452158) 2023.

Summary: A collection of poems reflecting memories of people from several generations as well as the places of Gioia’s life.

I’ve suggested to others wanting to begin reading poetry to find an anthology and notice whose poetry you like and explore those poets further. Here, I am following my own advice, having encountered and liked Dana Gioia’s poetry in an anthology. And in this case, it was good advice. There was so much I connected with in these poems.

Many of these are about memories, typified in the opening and title poem, “Meet Me at the Lighthouse.” He recalls an old nightclub, on a foggy pier, speaks to an anonymous friend who has died, urging him to meet him there for one night of listening to some of the greats in jazz–Gerry Mulligan, Cannonball Adderly, Hampton Hawes, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, and Art Pepper. Who of us hasn’t remembered places like this and ghosts of our past and wished for ‘one more time?”

In “Three Drunk Poets” he recalls the crazy things we do in our youth. In this case, he recalls a night where, with two other poet friends in a small town, they challenged each other to keep walking until they ran out of remembered poems. They ran out of city lights before they did poems, with a coyote joining the recitation. At that, they turned around.

“Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir” evokes memories of the Christmas season. Like many of us, his decorations are old and carry memories of Christmases past–and the ghosts of family.

Gioia evokes other ghosts. One is of an uncle, Theodore Ortiz, who joined the U.S. Merchant Marine, serving until his early death. Another is of the life and death of his great grandfather, Jesus Ortiz, and of the two boys who followed him as cowboys.

He writes several poems about Los Angeles. “Psalm and Lament for Los Angeles” paraphrases Psalm 137, setting it in the demolished places of his childhood. He asks, “What was there to sing in a strange and empty land?” His lament recalls the feelings of revisiting my home town of Youngstown and missing so many of the places of my youth–my house, my school, my church, the department store where both my father and I worked.

He also recalls the hot summer nights and the passions of the flesh so near the surface while another poem recalls the missed chances of romance.

In the final poem, “The Underworld,” Gioia joins the ranks of poets who chronicle a descent into hell. He alludes to Virgil, Dante, Senecas, Christopher Marlowe, Yeats, and T.S. Eliot. He concludes with “Disappointments” what was not there. He captures the nothingness that the Bible calls the “outer darkness.”

I found that there was a lot I could connect with in Gioia. Perhaps what I like as a relative neophyte at reading poetry is the accessibility of what he writes. Familiar verse structures and rhyme schemes. A story line. Perhaps as well in this collection, his remembering provokes my own. He recalls what is both sweet and sad in life and reminds us of how often these come together.

Now to find more of his work!

Review: Orbital

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Cover image of "Orbital" by Samantha Harvey

Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802163622) 2024.

Summary: A day aboard the International Space Station as six people recount their work, weightlessness, and the wonder of earth below.

Between the end of October and now, Orbital won the Booker and Hawthornden Prizes and was shortlisted for several others. In addition, it was designated a “Best Book of the Year” by Oprah Daily, Financial Times, and The Guardian. As I read the book, I wondered whether it was deserving of so much recognition.

For those not familiar with the book, it is a fictional account of a day aboard the International Space Station through the eyes of six people. During this time they orbit earth sixteen times. The chapters trace ascending and descending orbits. There is no plot. Rather, we glimpse what they are thinking and feeling, what life in zero gravity is like, their work and interactions through the day, and what they see of the planet that is home for the rest of us.

I noted what so many reviewers have commented upon–the sheer beauty of what it is like to see our home from 250 miles up, circling it at over 17,000 miles per hour. They witness multiple sunrises, and transitions to night, the city lights of their homes, and the variety of colors of earth’s varied land- and seascape. They see landmasses without borders. From space, they cannot see another human besides those on the crew. But they witness the effects of human activity–fires in the Amazon, algal blooms fed by fertilizers, and much more.

They follow a forming typhoon developing into a category five superstorm. One of the crew had stayed with a family on the Philippine coast toward which it is heading. There is concern for their safety, amplified by the vision of the sheer immensity of the typhoon.

One example of her descriptions is her account of the aurora borealis:

“The airglow is dusty greenish yellow. Beneath it in the gap between atmosphere and earth is a fuzz of neon which starts to stir. It ripples, spills, it’s smoke that pours across the face of the planet; the ice is green, the underside of the spacecraft an alien pall. The light gains edges and limbs, folds and opens. Strains against the inside of the atmosphere, writhes and flexes. Sends up plumes. Fluoresces and brightens. Detonates then in towers of light. Erupts clean through the atmosphere and puts up towers two hundred miles high. At the top of the towers is a swathe of magenta that obscures the stars…”

It might look something like this:

Aurora borealis from the International Space Station. An European Space Agency photograph
ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons

By contrast, the descriptions of daily life, apart from a space walk, are startlingly ordinary. Working out to maintain muscle tone, preparing food, cleaning, emptying trash, running experiments, communicating with those back on earth. Essentially, it is an experience of transcendence amid the ordinary. Another paradox is the utter dependence these six have on each other, and yet the bounded privacy they observe. In particular, the narration takes us into the private thoughts and dreams of the crew.

They live with the precarity of their own situation. A hairline crack is slowly growing in the Russian module. A thin metal skin protects them from annihilation. But they also recognize another form of precarity–that of life on earth with its thin envelope of atmosphere as well as the unfolding changes being wrought by human activity, visible even from their vantage point.

So is this plotless work of fiction worth all the attention? I’ll be honest and say I’ve read better fiction and this won’t be my “best of the year.” The novel is uneven–some parts soaring with rapturous description, and some just ho-hum–just a list of all the places they are seeing. Actually, the account of life on board the station is interesting–all the ways they adapt to weightlessness, including learning to sleep. I also found the characters of interest–each had interesting back stories and interior lives and reactions to their experiences. All were transformed by seeing the earth from space.

You may find this amazing. I found it interesting but not amazing. I hope the success won’t hurt Harvey. There are flashes of brilliance here, and an imaginative conception in the book as a whole. But I think and hope her best books may be yet to be written.

Review: One, Two Buckle My Shoe

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Cover image of "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" by Agatha Christie

One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (Hercule Poirot Number 23), Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780062073778) 2011 (originally published 1940).

Summary: Poirot seeks the murderer of his dentist, found dead not two hours after Poirot visited him.

Like many of us, Hercule Poirot does not like going to the dentist. But his appointment with Dr. Morley goes off uneventfully. Except for complaining of the unexpected absence of Miss Nevill, his assistant, their conversation, as much as was possible, was pleasant. Two hours later, Poirot learn Morley has died, in what was an apparent suicide.

But Poirot is not so sure. Even after the inquest, when evidence came out that his last patient, a Greek man named Amberiotis, died in his hotel room of an overdose of the painkiller Morley used. The authorities believed that Morley killed himself for his mistake. But Poirot, having interacted with him, and talked with others who knew him, isn’t so sure.

For one thing, the telegram calling Miss Nevill away was a decoy. There were several other patients, including successful financier Alistair Blunt, former actress Mabelle Sainsbury Seale (who Poirot briefly encountered), and Amberiotis. Also, an American, Howard Raikes came, and not wanting to wait, left. One other, who did not have an appointment, also came. Frank Carter was Miss Nevill’s fiancé, and not approved of by Dr. Morley. He had come to plead his case with the doctor, including the new job he’d just gotten. Finally, Dr. Reilly, his partner, appears to have a drinking problem, and his practice is not going well.

More strange things happen. For one, Mabelle Sainsbury Seale disappears. A month later, police find a body in the lodgings of a Mrs. Albert Chapman. Mabelle’s clothing is found on the body, but dental records reveal her to be Mrs. Chapman. Both had been patients of Dr. Morley. Then Blunt, who had just survived one assassination attempt where Frank Carter was present, invites Poirot to his estate, to persuade Poirot to search for the missing Mabelle. While they are talking, a shot is fired, but misses Blunt. The gun, a match for the pistol by which Morley died, is at Carter’s feet. Carter’s “job,” as it turns out was as a gardener at the estate.

Things are not looking good for Carter, who is hardly of the most exemplary character. But Poirot comes to think that a trap has been laid, not only for the hapless Carter, but for himself. Carter professes innocence to both crimes, saying he came upon Morley after he was shot. The key, Poirot believes, is finding the “missing Mabelle.”

The title rhyme carries through the titles for each chapter. Poirot, as always, thinks as much as he “detects” and it is a reference to a Psalm that puts him on the trail of the killer. This was Christie at the height of her powers in 1940 in a well-paced mystery with a number of “red herrings.”