Photos from our 2021 weekend retreat

 

Must have cheese

Book of the year 2020

 Our list of books in 2020:

 

Fierce Attachments, Vivian Gornick

Extra credit: Belonging, Nora Krug

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier

Small Fry, Lisa Brennan Jobs

The Book of Delights, Ross Gay

Fascism, Madeline Albright

What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty

Hot Milk, Deborah Levy

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabelle Wilkerson

Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Amateur, A Reckoning with Gender, Identity and Masculinity

Deacon King Kong, James McBride

It's a rare year where we have twelve (eleven if we remove the extra credit book) books to choose from.   Many of these titles were loved and there was a lot of discussion about possibly choosing a favorite fiction and non-fiction this year.  

We tried to each list our favorite two titles, and it went south pretty quickly.  

H: 1) Deacon King Kong
2) Warmth of other Suns

B: 1) Warmth of other Suns (woos)

    2 a) Amateur

        b) Rebecca

       c) Fascism

        d) Deacon King Kong

M 1) WOOS

     2) a) Rebecca

         b) Amateur

A: 1) WOOS

     2) Rebecca

T) Transcendent Kingdom

     Fascism

D) WOOS

      Fascism / Rebecca

Clearly the Warmth of Other Suns wins hands down as the favorite read for 2020, but then the debate about number two evolved into a great discussion about how Deacon King Kong, Fascism and Rebecca were superb reads.  That brought up the love for the Book of Delights.

We agreed that there were no stinkers this year, but that there were a couple that might not have been worth the time during this crazy busy year.  One was described as a "written for the planned Netflix adaptation."   2022 edit:  What Alice Forgot (still not a Netflix movie.)

Then we did something that we've never done, we discussed our favorite "worst" character.  We decided that descriptions of real people disqualify as they might have been just terrible people.  The overwhelming love was for the dastardly evil and malicious housekeeper at Manderley,  Mrs. Danvers.  

Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson, actress)

Deacon King Kong, McBride

Our last discussion of the final 2020 book.   Books selected in the year are in the running for Book of the Year even if the discussion happens in January.

Meeting on zoom isn't as much fun as being in person, but there is a bit of charm to it.  We get to see and hear all the happy dogs, spouses pop in with food and beverages, and every once in a while we get to wave to a teen coming home from wherever teens go during a pandemic.

We've been together for so long, that now the babies are off to college.  Well, with the exception of the two late starters - we're navigating elementary and middle school and can see the look of relief on the faces of our fellow bibliophiles that they are past the pre-teen stage. 

Last night we discussed Deacon King Kong, by James McBride.   Our discussions are always pretty short when everyone loves the book and last night it was a very short love fest.   McBride weaves a funny story and creates memorable characters who you can clearly see in your mind.  More than one comment was made that this book will be a great movie it's actually being worked on as a TV show.  Thankfully McBride is part of the script writing team, which means the show will be delicious. 

I'm thankful for an author who doesn't need to wrap every loose end up in a tidy bow.  Life is not always like that, and a bit of wonder is good for the soul.   

Prediction:  this one will rise to the top of the heap for 2020.