During the month of October, I’m posting brief reviews of some of my favorite books from the past couple of years: those that really touched my heart, gave me a new perspective, taught me something, or were just plain fun. Hopefully you will be inspired to add something to your to-read list. 🙂
I read Wendell Berry’s excellent non-fiction work Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition back in 2012, and then decided to try one of his novels, Hannah Coulter. This is what I wrote about it:
Berry knows how to relate an “ordinary” life in an extraordinarily beautiful way – he really does believe that “life is a miracle” (the title of the first book that I read by him). Even in relating the more intimate moments of Hannah and her husband he maintained a reverence for the mystery and beauty of marital love. I did have some quibbles with how he used (missapplied) certain Bible references. He has a strong idea of the importance of “place”, which I respect and even agree with to some extent, but I think he carries it too far sometimes.
Last year I started, but did not finish, his collection of essays Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food – what I read was very good, but I got sidetracked. 😉 His novel Jayber Crow is also reputed to be excellent, and I hope to read that in the not-too-distant future.
I also have "Bringing it to the Table," but haven't worked on it at all. Most of the Berry I've read is I have a book of his Sabbath Poems that I read from now and again. Someone I mean to read when I have more brain power.