I’m hoping to get Calamity Club in Libby before my longish plane ride next week. Probably won’t have much time to read it during the vacation week in between though. I’ve been on the waiting list for a couple of months. When I reached the front of the line a couple of weeks ago I put it on hold and can then suspend the hold when I’m ready to be first in line again. There are two copies. I’m hoping I timed it right! In the meantime, I got to the front of the Libby line for The Things We Never Say and I’m halfway through. I had no idea what it was about but am finding it making me think about my life. I don’t know if that’s enjoyable or not!
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I think I’m going to try audiobook. I am usually only a one book at a time person and I do not/cannot spend no more than a an hour MAX reading a day. I do not want to be tied to that book being my only read for probably 2 months!
I feel I could listen to this and eye-read another. Thanks for your thoughts!
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I wish I could concentrate better with audiobooks. I tried listening to the second book of a series where I didn’t remember the first one too well and was immediately lost. So frustrating!
I feel like I’ve been slightly disappointed by everything I’ve read lately. So I am happy to say I really enjoyed T. J. Klune’s fantasy The House on the Cerulean Sea. It’s so cozy that it borders on twee, but I really liked all the characters. I loved the protagonist who painfully slowly realizes that doing his job well is not the way he should be living his life.
Most of my audiobooks are non-fiction, listened to during gardening, walking, running. (Currently I’m “reading” audio version of Jill Biden’s memoir “View from the East Wing”.) Generally I listen to chapter one at regular 1.00x/normal playback speed… then start increasing bit by bit if it is palatable. Usually I end up at 1.30x.
For The Correspondent fiction audiobook I stuck with 1.00 speed. Enoyed the narrated parts without distortion. Ditto for All The Broken Places, which I highly recommend (sequel decades later to “Boy in the Striped Pajamas”).
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Just finished THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS and really enjoyed it. It takes place in two different time periods and is very well done.
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I just finished Culpability about a family that experiences a car accident then intersects with all sorts of interesting, current issues re: AI, ethics, morality.
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I thought Culpability was interesting, but I didn’t really enjoy the author’s writing style. I started another one of his - The Displacements - but I couldn’t get into it and it was an early DNF.
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My husband of 21 years lost his battle with cancer this past Saturday. He was 50 years old. Can anyone recommend a book on grief/grieving? I am Christian, if that matters for your recommendation, although it doesn’t need to be written from a religious perspective. 
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I’m so very very sorry to hear of the loss of your husband. You and your family will be in my prayers. 
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Thank you.
I’m so sorry. I lost my husband of 40 years at 62. You’re in a different world now, and I send love and many condolences.
What I read:
Joyce Carol Oates wrote a book after her husband’s death called A Widow’s Story.
Geraldine Brooks’ Memorial Days.
The best for me was Julian Barnes’ odd but somehow very powerful for me, Levels of Life.
I know that searching for solace, and I hope your strong faith will provide that for you. It’s a hard journey. Be kind to yourself.
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Thank you for your condolences and your book suggestions. This wasn’t what I initially had in mind, but each of these seem like they’d be helpful. I think I’m going to give Levels of Life a try, first.
Love and condolences to you, as well. 62 is also far too young to be a widow.
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I’m so, so sorry for your loss. May you feel comforted during your mourning, may memories come unbidden that make you smile through tears, and may God’s presence be keenly felt.
I have heard good things about both A Grief Observed (CS Lewis) and A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken), but have not read either, so please take these recs lightly unless confirmed elsewhere or they sound good to you.
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I have heard good things about A Grief Observed, and hadn’t thought about it. Thank you.
@tsickles I’m so very sorry. 
I have recently seen this book mentioned by a couple of people, Welcome To The Grief Club https://a.co/d/01zLoesi
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My condolences, too, @tsickles. I hope you have love and kindness surrounding you right now. Obviously, you know you can always come to your CC family.
From a secular standpoint, I too would recommend Memorial Days as well as Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking written after her husband died. She suffered more grief when their only child died not along after. She wrote about that in Blue Nights, but these are her personal stories.
From a Christian perspective, I’d turn to Phillip Yancey who understands that we live on a broken planet and no one escapes this life unmarked by suffering. His writing is intelligent, compassionate, and sometimes surprising; it hits where you need it. I recommend A Cry of Grief and Where is God When it Hurts?
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I am so sorry @tsickles. Sending thoughts of peace and strength and hugs out to you and your family.
I am Episcopalian, but found a book written by Sharon Brous ( who is a Rabbi) to be helpful. It’s called “ The Amen Effect”.
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The book that I have heard recommended numerous times is Healing After Loss: Daily Meditations For Working Through Grief by Martha Whitmore Hickman. Both of my sisters said it was the one book that made a difference to them when their husbands passed.
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May his memory be a blessing, @tsickles. And please remember that we have a bereavement thread.
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Thank you for the reminder about the Bereavement thread. I had forgotten it was there.
Also, thanks to everyone for your condolences, and your book suggestions. I have saved them all and will read more than one, I’m sure.
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