Mary Oliver ‘Upstream, selected essays‘.
What can I say about this book.
Exquisite.
That’s all it needs.
Just exquisite.
As poetic as her poems.
It gives you so much to think about too… I had to read it with a pencil by me to underline all the amazing resonating phrases. This is not a book to read and put on the shelf, but to read and re read, to dip in and out over and over again.
The way she writes about nature it’s so inspiring and really makes you want to go out and ‘be’ in a forest or a field or by the sea…
… For whatever reason, the hears cannot separate the world’s appearance and actions from morality and valor, and the power of every idea is intensified, if not actually created, by its expression in substance. Over and over int eh butterfly we see the idea of transcendence. In the forest we see not the inert but the aspiring. In water that departs forever and forever returns, we experience eternity…”
And this other quote too really caught my eyes in the current world ‘climate’:
(Also… Mary Oliver looks like my grandmother, who died when I was only 16. I’ll try finding a photos but she hated having her pictures taken…)
So 2 books down, 46 to go. I’ve updated the list with some of your suggestions. If the titles are in Italic it means I haven’t got the book yet… also… they could all change!
2018
2017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)
2016 – Upstream (Mary Oliver)
2015 – La tentazione di essere felici
2014 – Storia della bambina perduta (Elena Ferrante)
2013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)
2012 – Wonder
2011 – The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)
2010 – Salar the Salmon (Henry Williamson)
2009 – Let the gread world spin (Colum McCann)
2008 – The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
2007 – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
2006
2005 – Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
2004 – The Sunday Philosophy Club (Alexander McCall Smith)
2003
2002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)
2001 – American Gods (Nail Gainmand)
2000 – Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin)
1999
1998
1997 – Paradise (Toni Morrison)
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1990
1989 – The Joy luck club (Amy Tan)
1988
1987 – Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
1986
1985 – Always Coming Home (Ursula Le Guin)
1984
1983
1982
1981 – The colour purple (Alice Walker)
1980 –
1979 – Sophie’s Choice (William Styron)
1978 – Beauty: a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast (R McGinley
1977 – A morbid taste for Bones (Ellis Peters)
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
1991- Regeneration (Pat Barker)
while you're ahead... 