WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW.WEDNESAY asks us three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here.

 
1. What are you currently reading?  

 Joe Biden's Promise Me, Dad. I admit it: I love Joe Biden. His humanity touches a chord with me, because he has allowed his pain to enoble him. He overcame a stutter to become a successful lawyer and politician. He fell in love over spring break and married her, only to lose her and their daughter when they were killed in a car accident while out to buy a Christmas tree. And then, in 2014, after becoming one of our most popular Vice Presidents, he got devastating news about his son Beau and cancer. These tragedies give Joe the sensitivity to connect with the people he serves with empathy and authenticity.

So even though I just opened this book, I know I will love it. Expect no objectivity when I'm done and review it.

2. What did you recently finish reading?  

The Astonishing Thing by Sandi Ward. The best book I've read in 2018 is a moving and inventive novel about mental illness and the impact it has on the lives it touches. Our narrator is a shelter rescue, a housecat named Boo. Through Boo's eyes we see a Boston family and how post-partem depression drives them apart, and ultimately brings them back together. The family is not the same as they were before, but they go on.

As the book begins, Boo has adores Carrie -- aka Mother. They are so close that the cat sees no reason to pay more than cursory attention to the other members of the household. One day, Mother packs a bag and disappears. Everyone -- Father, the three siblings, the Not-a-Cat (aka the family dog) and Boo -- is confused, heartbroken, and angry. Their pain and struggle changes everything. Relationship evolve and they all come closer together as Boo tries to understand what is happening to her humans and does what she can to help.

I suppose it helps to be a cat lover to enjoy this book. As I read, I looked into the eyes of my own feline roommates and wondered what they are thinking. But the story is universal in its reach. If you have loved someone who is suffering from bipolar disorder, or if you have been bedeviled by depression yourself, you know how confusing it can be to understand what's going on, to regret what you've done or didn't do, to want to just love your way out of this, the way Boo tries to.

 

This warm, wise and at times very funny book touched me. I recommend it highly.

3.  What will you read next?  
Probably a mystery.