Hello there fellow literary,
I am jumping online to write this entry summarizing the third week of January 2023. Fun fact, according to some sources the third Monday of January is dubbed “Blue Monday” and considered as the most depressing day of the year. Hopefully your Monday was not only fine but fantastic.
Personally, I am happy to report that this week turned out to be quite pleasant and productive.
On the writing front:
I have been outlining details for the novel I am working on this year and managed to get through act one this week. I am very pleased with the progress and am looking forward to moving on to act two in the coming week(s).
Another exciting note is my recent purchase of a 1959 Sterling Corona-Smith typewriter. I await its arrival with excited anticipation. For some reason when I was growing up my parents had a typewriter in our home that I managed to play with a few times, but those days are many moons ago and for all intents and purposes, I am a total newbie and hope that using this new-to-me typewriter will not turn out to be an overwhelming and discouraging endeavor. I don’t think it will be since I am so excited for it. My hope is that it will ultimately prove to be a distraction-free tool that will deliver immediate satisfaction with every completed page I manage to pull from it as I work my way through the first draft of my novel.
In other news I’d like to talk about books I read and completed this week:
Extra Yarn
- Written by Mac Barnett, Illustrated by John Klassen
- Published: January 17, 2012
- Winner of the Caldecott Honor
- Read: Thursday; January 19, 2023
Disclaimer: I will start by saying that I LOVE yarn and am most definitely a crocheter and knitter. My mom showed me the ropes at a young age. So, for obvious reasons this book pulled at my heart strings, and I just had to get it for myself. I am not a mom, and I had no intention of gifting this book to any children (hehe).
A big part of this book’s appeal for me was of course the subject, yarn, but also the illustrations. They are charming and beautiful, it is no wonder the book was the recipient of the 2013 Caldecott Honor, a yearly award that is given to an American picture book for children that is considered top notch.
The world in this book is wintery gray and muted, except of course for the beautiful, variegated yarn that Annabelle finds one day in a black box. The yarn is a beautiful array of pastels that brings a welcome flash of color to this story and its readers. It is a lovely tale about sharing the priceless gifts we discover with our communities. It shows readers the transformative power that their unique gifts can have in a dreary world and reassures readers that no one can ever take their talents away. It is about gifts from the heart, the type that keep on giving.
Meredith, Alone
- Written by Claire Alexander
- Hardcover Published: November 1, 2022
- Started: November 6, 2022
- Finished: Saturday; January 21, 2023
This one took me a bit to get through. I purchased it soon after it was published in November 2022 and I only now finished it, in January. I suppose I could cut myself some slack and acknowledge that the holidays are a busy time of year but, I will also confess that while this is true it doesn’t help that I am also a slow reader. I like to sit with books and let them soak in. I like to think about them and color their pages with highlighter and little scribbles in the margins.
Those points aside, let’s talk story. The book cover is what initially pulled me in. It has bright red and yellow colors with a peaceful image of a woman looking out the window with her cat. Yes, I am a cat lover with one of my own, her name is Vixie and she will be ten years old this year.
The next compelling factor was the ending paragraph on the inside flap. It reads:
“A perfect story for the times we live in…this unlikely heroine rediscovers her life with friends and family one step at a time.”
Meredith is a woman who hasn’t left her home in 1,214 days or 3+ years. As readers, we have all been living with covid since 2020, almost three years by the time this book was published, and I was interested to learn what caused this woman to stay in her home for this amount of time and what would bring her out of it.
The answer to this question is certainly revealed in the book but I will refrain from spoiling it for those of you who have yet to enjoy this moving story. I think readers will certainly find relatable elements in Meredith’s struggle and see how we, like Meredith, can find our way back to normalcy.
I liked that the novel has a lightness about it despite touching on heavy issues relating to mental health. It was an enjoyable read and one that leaves you feeling hopeful for Meredith’s future…except I did have one lingering concern…
The goal of the story is to have Meredith leave her home and begin to live a full social life, free from the restraints brought on by her past trauma. She of course achieves this by the end of the story; however, the timeline gave me pause. The book ends in September 2019 and we all know what happens in 2020. COVID lockdowns.
I couldn’t shake it, I kept wondering what would happen to Meredith during the lockdowns. I worried that all her hard work and progress would be undone. I would like to think that if she was able to overcome once, she could do it again, yet I still can’t help but wonder…
I’m not sure if the timing was intentional for this story. Perhaps the author wanted us to consider the impact of covid on people with mental health struggles.
Aside from navigating the world of online therapy and support groups, Meredith also spends a lot of time working on puzzles and baking sweets. I enjoyed the moments when she is having fun connecting with others through her hobbies so much so that the book got me wanting to buy a puzzle for myself and dive right in to putting one together. In fact, I suspect that I may very well do so especially because January is national puzzle month. I think the universe is sending me a message I must answer.
Puzzles aside, I do wish that the author had included a couple of Meredith’s favorite baked recipes. It would have been fun to try and make one of her sweet treats and enjoy them with some tea the way Meredith does in the story, perhaps eating and drinking as I sat and read a chapter of the book. Of course, this is a little “extra” but it could have added to the charm of the reading experience and after all that is one reason we read, to immerse ourselves in alternative realities.
If you enjoy(ed) Meredith, Alone I would suggest reading Elanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. It’s been a while since I read this Gail Honeyman title but as I recall it hits on similar themes in a similar way. The heroines are different of course as are their situations but there is something that ties them together in my mind. I think it is the subject matter but also something about the tone. Saying this now makes me want to reach for this book again and re-visit Elanor.
Next on my reading list:
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. This is a book I have been aware of for a long time and have been curious about for just as long. The time has come to finally open those pages and read.
Until next time, your fellow reader and writer,
Angelica Sophia
Angelica Sophia 
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