Sydney Reads and Reads: June

June brought with it the beginning of Summer, lots of rain, and pnumonia for me. While my physical life slowed down as I tried to get well, so did my reading life. Rather than grand adventures, I needed literary comfort food. So I returned to one of my favorite classics, savored in a delicious new title, paid my (now) yearly visit to Tuttle Corner.

I don’t know that I would say Emma is my favorite of the Jane Austen canon, but it’s heroine, Emma Woodhouse, was certainly the character I identified with most when I was discovering her books as a teenager. Jane Austen gets a bad rap overall, I think, because people feel like it’s too snooty for them, or because of the passion and fervor her fans express toward her work. Which, I’ll admit, can be little off-putting. Yet imagine yourself as a teenage girl ready to read “real books” for the first time, sitting in a high school classroom full of loud, disinterested peers and suddenly you’re dropped into a world of manners and civility, of romance and heartbreak, a world where women and their intellect are undervalued but they’re determined to triumph anyway.  How could you not go a little ape shit over that? 

Summer has always been my favorite time to read Austen.  Something about the crisp white dresses, the bonnets, and taking long strolls through an English garden just makes me want to curl up and get lost.  Two years ago when I was in Bath visiting the Jane Austen Center there (a completely surreal and magical experience) I purchased a copy of Emma which I’d never made the time to read.  Re-visiting her and the people of Highbury after an extended absence, I found I saw Emma’s evolution in a new light, and Mr. Knightly, long my favorite Austen suitor, with new depth. 

Before I would have described Emma as bold, friendly, and maybe a little meddling. Looking out for the interests of those around her and trying to elevate them, as only she could, in ways that would improve their circumstances and quality of life. Now, in my late 20s, I see her as a young girl, thrust into the role of a woman before her time.  She excels at it for the most part, due to her circumstances and breeding, but at the expense of allowing herself to grow and develop opinions and habits in a more timely way. Emma feels as if she knows all there is to know, and she fumbles because of it.  She has the best of intentions, but not the knowledge or life experience to see how misguided they may be. Cue Mr. Knightly.

The first time I read Emma I was astounded that Emma should end up with someone like Mr. Knightly, who spends most of his time in the novel calling out her poor behavior.  I can now, however, see him as a man who cares deeply for Emma from the start and, perhaps more successfully than she, wants nothing more than for her to be the best version of herself. Even if that means she falls in love with someone else. He is a true partner, loving Emma faults and all, seeing her full potential even before she can.

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, is one of those memoirs whose hype reaches such epic proportions that a part of me thought I'd never read it. Then one day I was perusing the available titles in my Libby app and there it was.  Available for download and ready to read. I've also just picked up hiking, so it seemed a little like fate. I won't go into a full-fledged review here, plenty of people have come before me to do that. What I will say is that Cheryl's words, her journey, made me feel courageous, she made me feel like anything was possible, she made me want to take risks and completely shake up my life. I've planned several solo adventures for the remainder of 2019 which sometimes leaves me wondering if I'm completely crazy. "You're going to Iceland alone?" people say.  But reading Wild gave me some of my confidence back.  After all, if Cheryl can hike the PCT alone, I can surely survive a week in Reykjavik. Right?

After waiting very patiently the audio book for Still Me, the completion of Jojo Moyes' Louisa Clark series, became available on my library app this month! Still Me finds Louisa starting a new life in New York City while trying to maintain her relationship with Ambulance Sam back in London.  Louisa, in typical fashion, throws herself into her NYC life but soon realizes it's going to be trickier than she had anticipated.

As with Me Before You and After You, Still Me feels very different than its predicesors in tone, while at the same time dripping with the heart and authenticity, the joyful messiness, that is Lou.  Watching her learn to navigate New York brings back so many memories for me of my early days there.  Juggling jobs to make ends meet, feeling like you've conquered the city one minute and the next feeling like it's swallowing you whole. Through all it's ups and downs, Still Me, gives us the best gift of all, a chance to finally see Lou come into her own and make the choice to live her life for herself rather than molding to someone else. What a journey it's been!

Elizabeth Gilbert's new novel, City of Girls, is one of the buzziest of the summer. It's got a splashy cover, and a beloved author, coming off one of the most difficult years of her life. I expected to like this book, I expected to laugh and enjoy this book, and quite honestly I expected to be turned on by this book, but I did not expect to be moved by it.

City of Girls introduces us to Vivian Morris, a 19-year-old White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) from update New York who goes to live in Manhattan at her Aunt Peg's ramshackle theatre in Hell's Kitchen, The Lily Playhouse.  Here, Vivian is thrust from the black and white, clean-cut world of her upbringing into the glittering, bustling world of showgirls, booze, and nightclubs. And she. is. loving it.  We follow Vivan as she unceremoniously (but purposefully) loses her virginity, becomes costumer for the Lily, through both her first love, first scandal, and so much more.

I was hooked after only two and a half pages but the book really picked up steam for me in the second half. Here we find our heroine during WWII, when Vivian's focus shifts from pleasure to productivity and she's able to slow down long enough to begin examining her life, all leading up to the moving and heartfelt end.

The whole book is told knowingly through the eyes of 90-year-old Vivan as she lays out her life story at the request of a child of a dear friend. Looking back on her life, Vivian is emphatic about authenticity, both acknowledging the consequences caused by her actions, and reveling in the frivolity and fun of it all.

Unlike most historical fiction, City of Girls feels buoyed by the history, by its time and place, rather than weighed down by it. You know I love historical fiction, but City of Girls has completely changed my standard for the genre. Watch out TBR we may be doing some re-evaluating very shortly!

I feel a sort of connection with Jill Orr and the Riley Elison series, in that Jill's first book, The Good Byline, was both the first book review I ever wrote (unless you count elementary school book reports!), and the first piece I had published outside of my own blog! I also find the story of her creative journey so inspiring.  She is a modern mom, who lives only 30 minutes from my town, and she's written three real life, BOOKS! She was talented, she worked hard, figuring a lot of it out on her own along the way.  She's an everyday woman who made her dreams come true for herself and that's hugely inspiring.

In Orr's latest novel, The Ugly Truth, we catch up with Riley post-break-up (again) and smack dab in the middle of a double murder investigation. Not only is Riley trying to get to the bottom of the story, but with a high profile victim bringing the nation's eyes to Tuttle Corner, she's fighting the national press for the scoop. Flick, Tuttle Corner's lead obituary writer, is off putting his life at risk searching for the truth behind Grandaddy's death, and Holman is wrapped up in a heap of trouble all his own. Excited yet? If like me, you've come to rely on Regina from Click.com for life and dating advice, you'll be happy to know she is very present in The Ugly Truth, doling out self-care tips left and right. What I love most about The Riley Elison series, The Ugly Truth included, is how relatable they are.  Despite the unconventional circumstances, there's a groundedness and authenticity to Orr's characters that makes the pages fly by and sticks with you long after Riley's solved her case.

I was lucky enough to attend Jill's book launch party at Skylark Books in Columbia, MO where she assured us there will be a fourth installment of the Riley Elison series, The Full Scoop, coming out this time next year.  So yes, we'll finally get to find out what really happened to Grandaddy! Halleluiah!

With a little more time on my hands, and some lighter titles on my TBR July's books are flying by! I can't wait to share Naturally Tan, Waiting for Tom Hanks, and so much more at the end of July! - xo Sydney