Hello, GCNO readers! Another year of reading is “in the books,” to use a very bad pun. This year’s list is one book longer than the 2024 list, even though some of the books took me several weeks to finish. Demon Copperhead and Overstory are examples. Both were worthy reads but not fast reads.
I particularly enjoyed The Women of Copper Country, but I won’t name it as a favorite because what I really liked were all the references to my home state of Michigan. I even learned why the college in my hometown, then Ferris State College, now Ferris State University, is so named. I may have learned at some time that Woodbridge Ferris was governor of Michigan for a time, but I didn’t learn that he had started the Ferris Institute while he was president of the bank in Big Rapids where I had my first savings account.
My favorite book for the year has to be The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb. Lamb’s characters always exhibit honest, real emotions even in the most difficult times, and Corby Ledbetter and his wife Emily met my expectations. I bought a copy, but it’s available at the Jefferson Public Library.
BOOKS READ 2025
Fiction
The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett, Annie Lyons. Eudora Honeysett, age 85, is tired of life and begins the process of planning for her assisted death in Switzerland. However, vivacious 10-year-old Rose moves in next door and brings joy and activity to both Eudora and Stanley, another senior neighbor who is coping with the death of his wife Ada. Eudora has spent her entire life as a dutiful daughter. Lyons weaves that lonely life story into the story of how Rose’s joie de vivre changes Eudora’s view of her death. Rather predictable, but a good read. (2020)
**The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd. Set in Charleston beginning in 1803, the book tells the separate stories of Sarah Grimké who, for her 11th birthday is given 10-year-old slave Handful as her own. The story continues through 1838, telling of their separate lives and how they intersect. The story is closely based on the life of abolitionist Sarah Grimké. It provides a detailed account of the Southern perspectives on slavery and the views of bondage by enslaved individuals. A very compelling read. (2014)
Isaac’s Song, Daniel Black. Isaac writes the story of his complicated relationship with his father as part of therapy after his father’s death. He explores his own attitudes toward being gay and Black in the process, and ultimately unlocks his heart to write. (2025)
**The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky. Charlie, an awkward, loner with a history of inpatient psychiatric treatment, chronicles his freshman year in high school in letters addressed, “Dear friend.” Stepsiblings Patrick and Sam (Samantha), both seniors, befriend him and bring him into their circle of friends, leading him to parties, drinking, smoking, sex, and an increased bewilderment about the world. That this book has been challenged and banned from school libraries is not a surprise. It was more “adult” than I read. (1999)
**Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. The timeless classic tells of George and Lennie, migrant ranch hands in California during the Great Depression. George is small in build and very smart, while Lennie is very large and has the mental development of a child. Steinbeck artfully creates their characters and builds the story to its inevitable but heartbreaking conclusion. Excellent writing with artful descriptions. I should read it more often. (1937)
**The Librarian of Burned Books, Brianna Labuskes. Vivian Childs, publicity director for the Council of Books in Wartime, wages a campaign against an amendment to a 1944 Senate bill that would open the door to censorship of books. Labuskes weaves that plot line with the story of American author Althea James being invited to Berlin in 1933 as part of a Nazi plan to earn “good” press in the US, and Hannah Brecht in Paris in 1936, working to alert the French to the horrors of the fascism and anti-Semitism. Althea and Hannah had met in Berlin and had a short-lived love affair that ended with Hannah thinking Althea had betrayed her brother, part of the Resistance, to the Nazis, resulting in his death. Viv’s 1944 effort results in reuniting the reclusive Althea with Hannah, who has relocated to New York and maintains a library of books that had been burned in Germany. The organization of the story is difficult to follow, making the book a challenging read. (2023)
**The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood. In the dystopian patriarchal Republic of Gilead, Offred is a handmaid with the task of bearing the child of her commander, Fred. Gilead is a new enough construct that Offred well remembers her life before Gilead overthrew the US government. She has been separated from her husband and daughter and struggles with the cumbersome rules put on her as a handmaid. The story explores the powerlessness of women, reproductive rights, and the dangers of resistance. (1986)
**Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, Kirsten Miller. Lula Dean, as she campaigns to have books banned elsewhere banned from the public library in her small Georgia town (and for mayor, too), fills a Little Free Library in her yard with books she deems suitable to read. However, the daughter of one of Lula’s high school rivals replaces the books with books from the banned book list. The story weaves generations of Troy, GA, history with stories of how lives unravel as a result of what’s been read in the banned books. But, as lives unravel, good people are revealed to be good and not-so-good people are revealed to be really not good. The book is also an indictment of MAGA politics. (2024)
**The Air Raid Book Club, Annie Lyons. Gertie and Harry Bingham purchase a building for a small book shop in greater London in 1911. The couple struggles with infertility, and when Harry dies young, Gertie is left on her own. Gertie fosters a teenage Jewish refugee, Hedy, from Germany in 1939. Story lines of the book shop and its customers, the relationship of Gertie and Hedy, and daily life in wartime are interwoven. The book is predictable and a disappointment after The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett. (2023)
** The Giver, Lois Lowry. A repeat read from 2023. Jonas is growing up in a future society in which all controversy and challenges have been engineered out of existence for a placid culture of Sameness. After his 11th year he and all other Twelves are appointed to the role they will fill for the remainder of their lives. Jonas, alone, is singled out to be The Receiver, to have all memories of true pleasure and true pain transferred to him by The Giver. He alone will carry those memories in order than one person can advise the Committee of Elders on matters previous generations had experienced, including war, famine, pain and love. This is a fabulous, thought-provoking read for teens and adults, too. I enjoyed it even more on the second read. (1993)
**Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. The classic dystopian novel set when buildings have become fireproof and firemen, to preserve their jobs, set out to burn books and the buildings in which they’re kept. Fireman Guy Montag enjoys his job until he meets Clarisse, a reclusive neighbor who reconnects him with what he’s missing without the ideas in books. Guy connects with an underground network of academicians working to preserve the ideas in books, if not the books themselves. For me, a much better read as an adult than as a teen. (1951)
Distant Song, Tim Johnston. This All Iowa Reads selection explores what Pat Conroy calls “the bewildering intricacies of fate.” A young carpenter and a younger plumber meet by chance and take on a job at the remote home of a cantankerous recluse. Although neither of the young men are local, they soon learn of three boys who went missing 40 years earlier and were never found. A complicated crime novel with very believable relationships between a diverse cast of characters. (2024)
Three Days in June, Anne Tyler. Gail Baines explores her own marriage and divorce over the day before, the day of, and the day after her only daughter’s wedding. The divorce had mellowed into a cordial friendship over the years. When her former husband Max ends up staying at her home for the wedding weekend, her reflections lead her to reconcile what led to the divorce and to envision her future to include Max. (2025)
**The Call of the Wild, Jack London. The classic story of Buck, a St Bernard-Scottish shepherd dog mix, who ruled over a large California estate until he was kidnapped and put into service as a sled dog in the Yukon Territory. The story tells of greed, deprivation, loyalty, and the will to survive during the Klondike gold rush. (1903)
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien. Stories of the terror, boredom, camaraderie and hijinks of Alpha Company during its time in Viet Nam in 1968. The fiction is based on the stories of Viet Nam vets and speaks to the contradictions of serving during wartime in a combat zone. The reading style is easy but the meat of the stories is tough. This is a must-read for those of us who watched the Viet Nam war through the lens of the network evening news. (1990)
A Strange Occurrence at Thyme Creek, Stuart H. Martin. A rather quirky story of Stuart, a writer and cyclist on the Raccoon River Valley Trail, and another cyclist, Abby Tilton, an older cyclist who is also a minister via online ordination. Abby gives Stuart a manuscript of a story she had written using her theory of quantum entanglement time travel. The two then travel through time to help a young girl who lived 70 years ago. (2025)
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, Lorna Landvik. The story of five suburban neighbor women who form a book club in 1968 that stays together for more than 30 years. A pro forma story of relationships between women as they deal with marriage, divorce, births, growing children, careers, etc. (2003)
Britt-Marie Was Here, Fredrik Backman. Britt-Marie left her husband after learning he had been unfaithful. She has never been on her own before, but in a very small, close-knit town she learns not only about soccer, but about herself. A rather predictable story, but fresh and witty. (2014)
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. In a modern telling of Dickens’ David Copperfield, Demon (born Damon Fields, with distinct hair the color of a copperhead snake) is born in rural Appalachia to a drug-addicted single mother who dies at the hands of his violent stepfather when he was 11 years old. The story takes him from abusive foster homes to the home of the local high school football coach when he was in seventh grade. He enjoyed status as a football star, a high point in his life, until a football injury led to an addiction to opioids. He spends two years sliding into the depths of addiction until finally entering rehab. A bright spot throughout his life is his ability to draw, and that ultimately saves him. A long, difficult, powerful story, worth the time as it ultimately is one of resilience. (2022)
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry. In a companion story to the dystopia of The Giver, Lowry introduces Kira, a young orphan with a twisted leg in a harsh society that has no use for people with physical or mental impairments. She is spared being sent away to die because she has a talent for weaving, and moves from her mother’s primitive mud and stickhut to the Council Edifice, a large, stone building with running water, “tenders” to serve the people there, and plenty of food. There she learns the reality of life in the village and realizes she can influence a more positive future for the people by how she weaves colors into the robe worn by the Singer as he sings the Ruin Song, the story of the village’s history. A young adult read that’s worthy of an adult reader. I enjoyed it. (2000).
Less, Andrew Sean Greer. Writer Arthur Less sets out on a multi-continent junket to avoid his own 50th birthday and the wedding of his lover of nine years to another man, and to figure out how to salvage his most recent novel, which has been rejected by his publisher. Less’s journey of self-discovery is filled with doubts, fears, passions, and self-revelations. The story is quirky and the writing style is just offbeat enough to make this an okay read, but not one to be taken too seriously. (2017)
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Fredrik Backman. Granny is seven-year-old Elsa’s only friend. Elsa is smarter, more pragmatic, and more creative than her peers, and bullied. Granny soothes her loneliness by creating their own fairytale world, one which is explained when Granny dies and Elsa must deliver letters of apology from Granny to the other tenants in the building in which they live. Backman’s unique style and humor carry the rather complicated story. (2013)
The Women of Copper Country, Mary Doria Russell. This well-researched historical novel tells the story of Annie Klobuchar Clements, who at the age of 25 was active in organizing a 9-month strike by the Western Federation of Miners against mining companies in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The author juxtaposes the living conditions of the miners and their families with that of James McNaughton, general manager of the Calumet mines for Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. A good read, particularly for someone who knows the Keweenaw Peninsula and a bit of Michigan history. (2019)
Looking for Alaska, John Green. Socially awkward Miles Halter leaves Florida to attend the boarding school his father attended in Alabama. At Culver Creek Preparatory School his roommate Chip (the Colonel) immediately draws him into a tight group with Alaska Young and Takumi Hikohito. This coming of age novel is structured in two parts, with the first part counting down to an event that isn’t known until the reader gets there and learns it’s the death of Alaska. In the second part the three boys struggle to make sense of her death. The book is written for young adults and has been banned in many places because of references to sex, smoking, drugs, and disobedience. (2005)
Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan. A fictionalized account of the Magdalen laundries operated in Ireland by Catholic nuns, using the near-slave labor of unwed mothers and “fallen” women. A Christmas story set in 1985, Bill Furlong, who knew he had been born out of wedlock but never knew who his father was, learns the truth of what happens behind the tall, locked convent walls, and also learns the identity of his father, a man who watched over him like a father without ever revealing his identity. A great read with beautiful descriptive passages and Furlong’s thoughtful musings as he comes to know the true meaning of charity. (2021)
The River Is Waiting, Wally Lamb. One of my favorite authors publishes another well-researched novel with a plot that keeps moving, honest emotions, and descriptions that put the reader “on location.” Corby Ledbetter’s life spirals out of control to the day he unintentionally causes the death of his 1-year-old son. He is sentenced to prison, and there struggles with his guilt, his concern for his marriage and his dead son’s twin sister, his addiction to barbiturates and alcohol, and prison life. This is a hold-your-breath story all the way to the last page. (2025)
Looking for Me, Beth Hoffman. Set in rural Kentucky and then Charleston, SC, Teddi Overman leaves her rural upbringing and opens a shop repairing, restoring and selling antique furniture. She never leaves behind the unexplained disappearance of her brother into the mountains of Kentucky as a young man. The story is predictable and easy to breathe through (see above). (2013)
The Overstory, Richard Powers. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2019, The Overstory is a lengthy homage to the relationship between humans and trees, with a strong environmental message of the importance of preserving forests to save our planet. The story is woven with disparate characters who come together during what is now called the Redwood Summer, 1990, when environmental extremists gathered in California to protect old-growth Sequoia. The story continues as the activists work to return to their more mainstream lives, and ends with the arrest of some of them on federal charges related to their activism. Warning: It took me a month to read this book. (2018)
The Invincible Miss Cust, Penny Haw. Historical fiction based on the life of Aleen Isabel Cust. Born to an aristocratic English family in Ireland in 1868, Cust became the first female veterinary surgeon in Britain and Ireland. The story tells of the struggles of breaking into that profession, even though there were already female medical doctors. The author stayed faithful to the social norms of the time. (2022)
Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee. A companion to To Kill a Mockingbird, 26-year-old Jean Louise (Scout) Finch returns from her new life in New York City to visit her father Atticus and her hometown of Maycomb, GA. She is forced to update her version of her father who is not the staunch defender of equal rights he seemed to be while defending Tom Robinson, but is a son of the Old South, wanting to protect the South’s way of life. (2015)
Non-fiction
The Beauty of Dusk, Frank Bruni.The New York Times columnist and now Duke University professor experienced a stroke behind his right eye that left him almost blind in that eye. He chronicles his medical journey and adjustment to his new situation, and then goes on to write a treatise on accepting the aging process and living happily and productively in the last decades of life. (2022)
**I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb. Malala Yousafzae and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzae, who lived in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, were outspoken proponents of education for all young Pakistanis, including girls. On Oct. 9, 2012, Malala was shot point blank in the face by a Talib while riding a bus home from school. Her story provides the political history of Pakistan, an inside look at living where extremists have more power than the government, the hopes and aspirations of a smart girl, and her global influence both before and after that fateful October day. A challenging read because of my lack of background, but worth the time. (2013)
A Three Dog Life, Abigail Thomas. The author’s husband was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him with no memory, long term or short term. He can still speak, but rages and hallucinations require Abigail to place him in a long term mental health facility. The touching memoir tells of Abigail’s adjustment to loneliness and to loving her husband not only as he was when she married him, but as he is after the accident. Playing large roles in her adjustment are her dogs, all of them rescues – Harry, who Abbi and Rich rescued just months before the accident, Rosie and Carolina. A very touching read, particularly for those who have had to recreate themselves from half a duo to a solo act. (2006)
A Mother’s Reckoning – Living in the aftermath of tragedy, Sue Klebold.The author’s son Dylan and his friend Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher, wounded 24 other students, and then took their own lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, in 1999. Klebold tells of her journey wrestling with the sorrow of losing a son by suicide, her feelings of shame for his behavior, and the myriad questions of how the young man she had raised and loved could carry out such an act. Klebold consulted many experts during the course of writing the book and includes detailed end notes. She mentions only in passing that her 43-year marriage to Dylan’s father ended in the aftermath of the shooting. I would like to read a sequel telling more of that story. (2016)
Etched in Sand, Regina Calcaterra. Calcaterra tells of growing up the middle child of five of Cookie Calcaterra, a psychotic alcoholic who at various times abandoned her children to fend for themselves without food or electricity on Long Island, NY. Regina’s two older sisters leave home as soon as they’re able, leaving 11-year-old Regina in charge of Norman, age 7, and Rosie, age 5. The goal of all five Calcaterra children is to stay out of the state protective services system, where they fear they’ll be separated. Regina manages until she’s 14. The very descriptive story is shocking, but also a testament to the strength of their commitment to each other. Calcaterra eventually becomes an attorney and was executive director of New York State’s Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response at the time of writing the book. (2013)
Hut Six, Gordon Welchman. Welchman, a mathematician and cryptoanalyst, was a leader at Bletchley Park, Great Britain’s secret decryption center during World War Two. He tells of his year’s there and in great detail tells of breaking Germany’s Enigma codes. This book will be of interest to people with mathematical brains. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. I read it because my twin mailed it to me and insisted I should read it. He later confessed he also didn’t follow all the math in it. (1982)
Widowish, Melissa Gould. About 10 years into their marriage, Gould’s husband Joel was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He persevered as the disease took away his mobility. It also made him physically vulnerable, and he died of West Nile virus after two weeks in a coma. Gould tells her painful story of deciding to end life support, and then making it through the difficult early months of being a widow and a single mother to their junior high daughter. Gould is a screenwriter by profession, and her grief memoir is balanced and well-written. (2021)
Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest, Art Cullen. Storm Lake newspaper publisher and Pulitzer Prize winner Cullen examines the history and impact of ‘Big Ag’ on rural towns, rural culture, and the environment. In his forthright, stream of consciousness style, he rails against the billion dollar multi-national corporations that have taken away the ability to make a living farming. (2025)
Saving Ellen: A memoir of hope and recovery, Maura Casey. Journalist Casey tells of growing up in Buffalo, NY, in the 1960s and ‘70s in a large Irish Catholic family dealing not only with the critical kidney disease of her older sister Ellen, but also with the alcoholism of their father. Casey writes like a journalist, with plenty of fact, but leaving the reader to infer much of the emotional challenge. Even when she tells of being raped at the age of 12, she balances it with her intent not to create more worry for her family. A very compelling read, particularly for someone who has grown up with a terminally ill sibling. (2015) *** Read for the Jefferson public library’s adult winter reading program.
