Moving Forward

 I was out in public for the first time in two years last night. Except for hurried, masked grocery and/or Target runs or a very rare outdoor meal, this was a first. It was a play performed in a very large, well-ventilated venue. Everyone in the audience, without exception, was masked. It was exhilarating and exhausting. When I got home, I felt as if I had been hit by a truck. I saw many, many old friends, which was wonderful. Everyone was so glad to connect. Truthfully, it felt odd. Strange. It was a combination of joy and fear.

It has been so hard to stay positive for the last two years. Two years. It seemed so much easier to huddle down and cover your head (metaphorically, and sometimes literally). I understand people wanted to have their FREEDOM, but we were trying to protect each other and ourselves. I feel what they gained most often by not masking and vaccinating, was the FREEDOM to get sick and pass it on to others. I’ll never understand it. But I digress.

Trying now to cautiously Move Forward. It’s tempting to stay in the comfort zone, not take any chances. Just dipped a toe. Frightening but necessary to try to get outside life back. Like trying to walk a tightrope for the first time. Trying to move forward. Trying for joy. Joy beats fear, right?

                                  Moving Forward.

THE BETRAYAL OF ANNE FRANK: A COLD CASE INVESTIGATION- FEBRUARY 2022 BOOK SELECTION

 This is a non-fiction account of the investigation into the betrayal of the Frank family near the end of WWII. After successfully hiding for over two years, the family as well as three others living with them were exposed and arrested.  All died in concentration camps with the exception of the father, Otto Frank. This intensive examination was conducted by a former FBI agent brought out of retirement along with his team of forensic specialists, geneticists, historians, IT specialists as well as multiple lay volunteers. Although this work by Rosemary Sullivan could have been dry and hard to collate, it reads like an expertly written, suspense novel or murder mystery. Which in fact it was.

As well as being an astonishing piece of investigative work, it is a disturbing, extensive and informative exploration of what human beings are capable of and can endure.

FAVORITE BOOK OF 2021

This has been another good year for reading. As usual, more books were read or listened to on tape than I reviewed, but the ones below made the cut. I decided a while ago that I was not going to disparage another author’s work. If I don’t like it, I won’t review it. Although I didn’t love The Book of Two Ways, it had many qualities I found fascinating. I mostly enjoyed everything on the list. I always love Olive and her unique perspective. I loved the questions we were forced to consider in The Midnight Library and Peace Like a River.

 

January 2021: The Book of Lost Friends-Lisa Wingate

February 2021: Troubled Blood- Robert Galbraith

March 2021: The Sentence is Death- Anthony Horowitz

                     A Rule Against Murder- Louise Penny

                     The Ruin- Dervla McTiernan

April 2021: Olive, Again- Elizabeth Strout

May 2021: The Forgotten Garden- Kate Morton

June 2021: The Vanishing Half- Brit Marling

July 2021: The Midnight Library- Matt Haig

August 2021: Peace Like a River- Leif Enger

                      Anxious People- Fredrik Backman                      

September 2021: The Book of Two Ways- Jodi Picoult

                           Hamnet- Maggie O’Farrell

October 2021: The Story of Arthur Truluv-Elizabeth Berg

                       The Searcher- Tana French

November 2021: The Lincoln Highway- Amor Towles 

 December 2021: The Gift of Time- Jerry Merritt

 

The mystery genre is typically a favorite and I found a new author to follow with Dervla McTiernan. I also really enjoyed The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Some may feel the outcome was predictable but I loved the premise and the existential question. Still, if I could only pick one to recommend to a friend, it would have to be Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Exquisitely written, it captured and created an imaginary world that may or may not have been Shakespeare’s reality.