Just one way, you do get back home. You have a boy or a girl of your own and now and then you remember, and you know how they feel, and it’s almost the same as if you were your own self again, as young as you could remember.
— James Agee, A Death in the Family
I’ve been using Things as my task manager since 2018. I love this beautifully designed app. One universal gripe from Things users: make it easy to complete or reschedule recurring tasks before they’re due. That was solved today. And of course the UX is genius. Well done, Cultured Code!
Currently re-reading: Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brian 💙📚
Ah, the Aubrey/Maturin novels. This is my 4th time through the 20-volume series, known as a circumnavigation by O’Brian aficionados. I love these books so much. I wrote this tribute after my third voyage. Books can be dear friends.
Finished reading: Tinkers by Paul Harding 💙📚
Universal themes run through this spare novel—fathers and sons, memory, mental illness, the mystery of existence—but the storytelling felt disjointed, and I never found the thread to connect many of the fragmentary passages. ★★★☆☆
Finished reading: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande 📚
A sobering look at the inevitable and merciless certainty of our mortality. No matter how much we exercise or how carefully we eat, death is unavoidable—and growing old is not for the faint of heart.
Old age is not a battle. Old age is a massacre.
Gawande, a practicing surgeon, argues doctors are good at fixing specific ailments but often do more harm than good with a dying patient. Not an easy read, but the lessons are essential for all of us. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: Firestarter by Stephen King 📚
Seeing the awful movie many years ago spoiled me from reading this book until now. As with most Stephen King novels, the depth of characters and human themes transcends the genre. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: Nonesuch by Francis Spufford 📚
This novel had all the elements of a terrific story: a strong, conflicted female protagonist, a menacing Nazi villain, Narnia-like magic, time travel, all set in wartime Britain. Sadly, the book couldn’t live up to the premise. ★★☆☆☆
Finished reading: The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson 📚
Timely review of the Founding Fathers’ debate and intentions for the formation of the United States. An easy read, but it will leave you with lots to ponder. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 📚
Finally read this dystopian classic. Five years ago it would have felt wildly imaginative; now it feels all too plausible. Atwood’s prose is cinematic, her warning timeless. ★★★★★
Finished reading: Hidden Potential by Adam Grant 📚
A breezy book about the importance of character, persistence, and passion in how we learn, grow, and ultimately reach our goals. Not much new territory explored here. Some interesting stories, but probably better as a TED Talk. ★★☆☆☆
Finished reading: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene 📚
This classic novel explores the fine line between love and hate in post-war London.
I have never known a woman before or since so able to alter a whole mood by simply speaking on the telephone, and when she came into a room or put her hand on my side she created at once the absolute trust I lost with every separation.
Short chapters, crisp prose, suspense-novel feel, but the real punch is in the questions it raises: fate vs. free will, faith vs. doubt, romantic longing vs. jealousy’s corrosiveness. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson 📚
Housekeeping is a novel, yes, but also a ruminative meditation on grief, loneliness, and memory. A book to take slow and let it flow over you. The perfect ending made up for the challenging parts. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, #3) by Willa Cather 📚
A literary classic set in rural Nebraska during the 1880s. It’s a coming-of-age story of friendship, romance, and small-town values, but also a quiet meditation on place and memory. I enjoyed this one. ★★★★☆
New Blog Post: Double Vision: A Personal History robertbreen.com
Finished reading: A Marriage At Sea by Sophie Elmhirst 📚
Ordinarily, I’m a sucker for first-hand accounts of enduring the perils of the open ocean on a small boat. This wasn’t that. ★★☆☆☆
Finished reading: The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad 📚
A great book to establish or reinvigorate a journaling practice. I got a lot out of this collection of one hundred writing prompts. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King 📚
Wide range of styles, but most of these stories were just okay. My favorite was UR, a novella about a Kindle with access to the multiverse. Fun references for Dark Tower fans. ★★★☆☆
Finished reading: Raising Hare - A Memoir by Chloe Dalton 📚
Chloe Dalton rescues a baby hare and, in raising it, finds her way back to herself. Luminous, meditative nature writing. I loved this one. ★★★★★
A reminder to fully embrace life on our own terms. One of my favorite passages from an all-time favorite book. Thank you for the kick in the pants, Readwise!
The Guardian just released a list of the 100 best novels of all time. I like how they arrived at the list. It’s interesting to click through and see who voted for which book. As it turns out, I’ve read just 35 of these. I sense a shuffling of my TBR list! 📚