Olive Kitteridge

 

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout was a slow start for me, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Each chapter is like a separate novella introducing different characters that all have had some association with the titular Olive Kitteridge, a crabby but endearing, old woman from Maine. Several of the chapters dig deeper into Olive’s life including her relationships with her stoic husband, Henry and sullen only child, Christopher. 

As I said, it took me a while to warm up to Olive, but by the end I was laughing out loud at her over-the-top reactions to life’s little annoyances. Straightforward and set in her ways with misanthropic tendencies, Olive navigates life like an unyielding bulldozer. A retired school teacher, she manages to touch the lives of a variety of people in her town in both comical and serious ways. 

Now I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, Olive Again, to see what new adventures await the protagonist in her 70s. OMG I’m seeing a bit of my future in Olive Kitteridge! 

New York

I want to read New York by Edward Rutherfurd so bad. So bad that I’m writing about it now, instead of doing school work to prepare for our return tomorrow after a too-short winter break! But not bad enough to actually pick up the enormous hardcover copy I snagged years ago from my cousin Ann Marie and her husband Jeff (who live in the state of New York). It sits in my living room book shelf since 2016, taunting me to resume where I left off at chapter 3 (of 32!) 

Some day, when I’m retired, I envision reading it on a beach somewhere Caribbean-y ☀️🌊 

Fun Fact: My new teaching partner this 2021-2022 school year is a good, old friend of Jeff's.

Add this title to a stack of other unread books acquired from my many Massachusetts Historical Society workshops.

               

And, let's not overlook, the colossal, 777-page Frederick Douglass biography by Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor, If I Survive that I won in a MHS raffle!