Deesha Philyaw's The SECRET LIVES of CHURCH WOMEN is a Finalist for Nat'l Book Award/Fiction 2020

Deesha Philyaw is an American author and journalist.  Her collection of short stories The SECRET LIVES of CHURCH WOMEN was a finalist for the 2020 Nat'l Book Award and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award 2021.  The collection spans four generations in the lives of seven women and their daughters who are connected through a literal sisterhood having being fathered by the same baby daddy though raised by their respective mothers.  Their lives intertwine and parallel in their mother/daughter attachments and affiliations with church and its doctrines.  There's a kinship amongst the women despite their conflicts, combustible sexual relationships with partners, major disappointments and varying devotion or resignation within the church.  As unique and disparate individuals, their passions all burn incandescently.  Thanks to Philyaw's lucid writing we're bestowed a vivd picture of their inner turmoils and strengths.  The church acts as a central axis as their lives revolve around its influence.  For some, the church is omnipotent.  Some adhere fervently to its indoctrinations while others reject what they find as hypocritical or toxic causing fractures or irreparable disconnections.  Regardless, these are all formidable women worthy of compassion.  Our perceptions of their choices and behaviors are indelible given a clear understanding of who these women are and what they mean to one another.  Men circumvent the periphery.  Lasting commitments are forged amongst women or for some, a devotion to God. A profound story of two women referred to simply as "Mother" and "Daughter" retains a palpable sadness for an unrequited love between Daughter and Mother and Mother's unfulfilled life having been devoted to Christ.  "Mothers raise their daughters and love their sons.  But who ever loved Mama, besides her children?  Despite her devotion to the church and chaste living.  Mama had never had that peace that passes all understanding that was supposed to be yours when you invited Jesus into your heart.  Nor did she have that joy, unspeakable joy, promised in the Scriptures.  What Mama had was the love of Jesus-whose touch, Daughter imagined, was too ephemeral to quench anything."  In another story a mother's love was overbearing.  "But like a beautiful quilt in summertime, my mother's love was the suffocating kind, the kind you chafe against and don't miss until the seasons change and it's gone."  Truths vigorously heralded in laments are unraveled with a gentle touch that makes this collection worth cherishing.  "Sometimes wheels are set in motion long before the spark is manifest.  Is that the same things as fate?  I don't know, but I do now that rare, brilliant events take time".  Make the time to revel in The SECRET LIVES of CHURCH WOMEN. 

JOHN STAMOS IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME Memoir

John Stamos is a household name thanks to a four decades in the TV, movie and music business.  This is thanks in part to an iconic TV sitcom called FULL HOUSE.  Stamos, now 60, and yes, more handsome than ever, shares his life story, bears his soul and we are richer for having read it.  Why now?  Fair question that John addresses in a very candid, touching and poignant response.  Happily married to his wife Caitlin with whom he shares the joys parenting their five year old son, Billy, there are troubling and depressing periods due to loss of loved ones, disappointments in relationships and career.  It's striking  John's assessment of his blessings and regrets (he's had a few). Firstly, he comes from a very loving family.  (We should all be so fortunate to have parents and siblings like John's). And if that's not enough, the real life family born from Full House which is still solid.  For those fortunate to know John personally (including yours truly) you know he's a considerate, sincere and warm human being.  John tributes his career but more importantly, his values to how he was raised.  A memoir without family dysfunction is refreshingly positive.  This doesn't mean the novel is purely sanguine.  John's life has its heartbreaks.  He reveals regrets, culpability and remorse at the breakup of his marriage to actress Rebecca Romijn. A major take-away from his memoir is to own one's mistakes and not repeat them.  There's an epiphany that with great love there comes great sorrow with its passing.  John mourns the irreparable loss of his parents and his very close friends; his beloved co-star Bob Saget and Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys.  It's interesting to note how the deep connection with Bob developed over time, struggles, shared good-times and rough-times.  The essence of John's writing is a tribute to the preeminence of family, friends and celebrating life.  Of course, Stamos' career in entertainment is extremely fascinating.  His regaling of his numerous Broadway roles in musicals was eye-opening.  Unfortunately, the pressures inherent to performing live theater played a major role in a toxic, dependence on alcohol.  John's candor about drinking, driving and his DUI are...sobering.  John cannot be accused of trashing people but he is guilty of name dropping multitudes of famous celebrities and artists as friends.  The overall tone of this memoir is cheery, grateful and relatable. John doesn't cotton to false modesty; the man knows he's good looking,  But, he's much more than just a pretty face.  He's a talented dramatic and comedic actor, skilled musician on the drums, a wonderful friend and devoted husband and doting dad.  Enjoy your beautiful family, friends and life, John.  Order the cake.  Skip the calamari.  Thanks for sharing.

The VIOLIN CONSPIRACY by Brendan Slocumb-Who Stole the Stradivarius?

Brendan Slocumb's musical mystery thriller The VIOLIN CONSPIRACY has a lot more in store than merely solving the case of the missing, multi-million dollar Stradivarius violin.  This easy read glides through classical music, and life as a professional performer.  The plot also entails heavy lines of racism and slavery.  There are trials and tribulations of a single black mom raising her son amid financial constraints and views her son as income.  There's a scherzo love story written with abandon.  A major movement comes from a mentor whose guidance is invaluable.  Added to the composition are imposing lawsuits and legal maneuverings Ray must wrangle with.  All these notes comprise a layered, full-fledged novel.  The storytelling is riveting and filled with embellishments and surprises.   Rayquin "Ray" MacMillan is a young, black youth learning and loving to play classical music on a school loaned instrument.   Ray's classmates all have their own instruments and private lessons. Ray is left to fend with his second-hand, school loaned instrument.  But, Ray has something others have not.  He's got talent, artistry and passion for his craft in which to make something special of his life and love for music.  Still, Ray has an arduous path ahead to overcome his limited training, racial hatred, and demanding family members.  On the other hand, he also has a loving grandmother who loves him and bequeaths her grandfather's old fiddle for him to keep and an established music professor who supports his studies and career.  Lo and behold, the fiddle turns out to be a verified Stradivarius which leads to family and foe filing lawsuits to get their money grubbing hands on it. But, before they can score a court victory the violin gets stolen from his hotel suite and held for ransom. The only ones in the room with him were a chambermaid and his girlfriend, also a classical musician.  There isn't a false note in this tale of hard work and dedication plagued with greed and injustice. The social commentary rings true and the vibrato of striving for one's dream resonates fully. The suspense filled hunt for the prized, missing instrument combined with the tension of competing in the most prestigious musical competition in the world built to its crescendo.  THE VIOLIN CONSPIRACY is an engaging read in many different measures.  While an inspiring novel its gravitas comes from the narrow mindedness with which Ray is viewed.  "That's all they saw and that's all he was to them."  More often though, it soars on the triumphant joys inherent from music and dedication.  

WE SHOULD not be FRIENDS Will Schwalbe Shares His 40+ Year Friendship of Opposites

Will Shwalbe's memoir of a rocky but durable friendship with the muscular, popular jock he met at Yale when they were both tapped to join one of the college's secret societies makes a captivating read of relationships that are quixotic, symbiotic and often problematic.  Shwalbe is an author, editor and publisher who was a scrawny junior at Yale when he and first gets to know Chris Maxey who will go on to become a Navy Seal and founder of an independent, ecological school in the Bahamas.  With self-deprecating candor and warmth, Schwalbe makes a great case for why the two are an odd couple of oil and water that somehow blends into a rewarding, ongoing friendship that survives the test of time without rhyme but for some reason.   Shwalbe, is gay, non-athletic and awkward.  Maxey is a heterosexual hunk with swagger to spare.  Together, they make an outwardly disparate pair. "Friendships like ours proceed largely unchronicled," notes Shwalbe.  Their life paths crossed when tapped into a secret societiesy at Yale.  They became intertwined for reasons that may not be apparent at a glance.  There's plenty to be gleaned from their friendship, one being to give others a chance to get to know you and you them.  Shwalbe admits to being skeptical about Maxey wanting to befriend him and was fearful of his thinking he might be coming onto him.  Maxey concedes to using homophobic slurs and stereotyping gays. "As we shared stories with each other. we were starting to find that our lives had more in common than we could have imagined."  "Shwalbe has a deft writer's gift for charm.   He regales us in fits and starts and despite periods apart, they remained deeply rooted.  It's hard to determine the moment a heart becomes overrun with affection and morphs into love.  I was deeply invested in their individual journeys; Maxey's as a Navy Seal, family man with travails and the founder of a school, and Schwalbe's literary career, travels and finding his longtime partner.  But, what made this read worth celebrating is the simple, yet elegant gospel, how fortunate it is to have formed an unshakeable friendship in life.  "We enjoy one another's company.  We like the people our friends are, and the person we are when we're around them."  

Alice Munroe's Short Story Collection THE MOONS OF JUPITER is Extraordinary

Alice Munro, now age 92, is one of the world's premier short story writers and she shows no signs of slowing down.  In fact, her writing continues to dazzle while still creating innovative curves to the short story structure.  Born in Canada in 1931, Munro sets many of her story in her native country and often weaves her own life into her fiction.  The many prestigious literary awards and honors including the Nobel Prize in Literature (2013), Man Booker Int'l Prize (2009), Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award and the Medal of Honor for Literature.  THE MOONS of JUPITER published in 1982 is a collection of short stories that share themes of regret, disillusionment and forbearance over time.  What unites the stories is their uncanny power of observation on daily life, its inflections and innate emotional responses.   Munro masters a deceivingly simple story with the depth of familiarity she draws for the characters; what they are truly feeling despite what they may or may not be expressing.  Munro gives an elegant clarity to her characters that enables the reader to identify individual personalities and traits.  In the title story, family members assemble around the patriarch as his health is flailing.  There's the gravitational familial ties that circumvent the parent.  The father's doting daughter, Janet, is also coping with the dissension of her daughter which bears the most potency to cause her pain and regret.  Meanwhile, Janet's father awaits an amputation required to save his life despite the inherent risks of surgery.  A constant flux of power dynamics are at play while considering the risks of change and annexation.  Another story focuses on two octogenarians who knew each other as young girls and now find themselves in the same senior center.  Their trajectories took them in different directions once married and with children but they've found themselves situated together as elderly, wheelchair dependent widows.  Imagining these two would become reunited as friends at this stage is premature for their keen disparate personalities which prove self-serving.  We grasp how and why they try to dominate the other and how the two women seek out what they need from other residents.   Another prevalent motif in the collection is the quest for love and its travails.  Munro poses an astute view that traverses the varying stories.  "Love is not kind or honest and does not contribute to happiness in any reliable way."  In the short story, "Labor Day Dinner" there's a vying for one man's affections despite one's noting its futility once possessed. "Setting things up to find failure inhume, railing at him, then getting cold feet and making up.  Gradually the need to get rid of him would build again, but I was always sure it was his fault-if he'd just do this or that I could love him."  THE MOONS of JUPITER is one of Munro's many compelling short story collections to treasure.  

The novel FLIGHTS by Nobel Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Tokarczuk (b. Poland1973) is a Man Booker and Nobel Prize winning author.  FLIGHTS is a fragmentary novel that transcends time, space and oftentimes logic for a complicated, chaotic and unsettling read.  The stories unfolds with a mysterious disappearance of a mother and child. The father is waiting in the car for them to return from what was to be a quick rest stop.  The family was vacationing on a small foreign island.  The father becomes dependent on his landlord for his assistance and translation.  When it becomes more apparent that it would be impossible to have left the island without notice the father becomes a suspect and how things will be resolved remain an unsettling enigma.  The beguiling chapters are all vastly different in subject, time and style.  For many readers the discordance will feel distracting and perhaps troubling in their intent.  For others, searching for a connective tissue present a challenging objective.  Unifying themes of travel, discovery and desire for groundbreaking exploration are tantamount.  This can be found in studies of the human form and its preservations.  "Transforming the human essence into a body and before our eyes undressing it of mystery."  The quest deemed paramount is  the essential need for a continual foray into the unknown, the unexamined by fierecly knocking down barriers.  Ironically, having unearthed the hidden, Tokarczuk condemns its clarifications.  "Description is akin to overuse-it destroys; the colors wear off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what's been described begins to fade, to disappear."  The author also speaks to being drawn to that which is aberrant.  She's attracted to that which is flawed and defected, mistakes in the making.  "I believe unswervingly, agonizingly, that it is in freaks that Being breaks through to the surface and reveals its true nature."   Interspersed among the book are shorter stories or anecdotes which are noteworthy and yet baffling.  I'm at a loss for deciphering Tokarczuk's theological introspections.  Nevertheless, I found them arresting in their ambiguity.  FLIGHTS is not an easily accessible read.  While never tedious, it's oftentimes trying.   I was captivated most by several of the in depth stories as in the missing wife, and the scientist who visits a preservationist widow hoping to glean secret formulas taken to the grave.  FLIGHTS will elevate some readers onto an uncommon strata while pushing off others.  "What makes us most human is the possession of a unique and irreproducible story, that we take place over time and leave behind traces." 

Oprah and Arthur C Brooks' BOOK How to Attain Happiness

If you're not a self-help genre book seeker, join the club with me.  However, it was hard not to get swept up in the infectious joy emanating from Oprah and Arthur C Brooks when discussing their joint book project entitled BUILD the LIFE YOU WANT: the Art and Science of Getting Happier when appearing on CBS Sunday Morning in September.  Oprah is one of the world's most recognizable and revered people whose parlayed her celebrity and likability into a well-being guru.  Brooks, a prof. at Harvard holds packed classes lecturing on attaining happiness.  Brooks' popular column in the Atlantic on building one's happiness drew Oprah as a fan.  Oprah reached out and suggested they collaborate on a book together which they were pleased to be promoting.  As Oprah says, "Life is better when you share it."  As many people know, if Oprah puts her name or stamp of approval on something it's like winning the lottery.  Although, according to Brooks, neither money, good lucks, fame or power are elements that assure happiness.  My cynicism and curiosity are what drew me to purchasing and reading the book.  This non-repentant cynic found it a somewhat enjoyable, enlightening and empowering read.   I say this honestly but begrudgingly for I had a captious contention for belittling what was sure to be cliched advice.  However, I fond sensible suggestions when dealing with problematic issues within my family.   Many of the topics were not up my ally and then I would find a snippet that felt directed right towards me.  "Go through the day focusing on things outside yourself, resisting judgement, and avoiding anything self-referential." I incorporated purely observational thoughts rather than opinionated and value-based.  This was a gem as a practical suggestion I put into action with positive results.  And, this tidbit also fit for me, "When someone says, 'You are wrong,' respond with "Tell me more."  And, for me, the most constructive framing for my mind-set was redirecting my focus outward and more time spent marveling at the world around me.  Experiencing awe mitigates a self-centered, perspective freeing a person to appreciate and enjoy what life is offering.   Arthur Brooks should be happy that I am endorsing BUILD the LIFE YOU WANT.  While I'm not Oprah, coming from me, that's not too shabby.  And, as you can see, attaining happiness is an on-going, lifetime enterprise.  Although, I don't surmise I'll be deferring to another self-improvement book in the near future.