Guest Post by Janie Isackson: A Book List to Share

Retired educator Janie Isaackson is in the “Me, Myself and I” memoir class I lead at the Chicago Cultural Center, and she generously agreed to share this list of favorite books as she and her fellow memoir writers shelter at home. Notice how it reads as part book list, and part memoir:

by Janie IsacksonMy older sister Merle was an avid reader. When she was young my parents would say that if she didn’t have a book handy — those were the days of libraries and before paperback books were accessible or available — then Merle would read the telephone book or a dictionary.

Merle was not only an eager reader, she was an insightful one. Many decades later she was never without her Kindle. When she died (sounds like the beginning of the song “Papa was a Rolling Stone”) family members and friends said, “How will I know what to read? Merle always told me what was good.”

When they told me this, I promised that while no one could replace Merle’s reading wisdom, I would try to be a reliable source. I, too, depend on the kindness of readers, family, and friends offering both reading incentive and invitation. In the past two years I have jotted down some recommendations of novels and nonfiction that pop with enthusiasm:

• One of the suggestions is a trilogy beginning with Old Filth (an acronym for Failed in London Try Hong Kong) by Jane Gardam whose characters are so authentic that, because it is the beginning book in a trilogy, reading friends are also present in her next two books. Fans of Anne Tyler books will know what I mean by growing fond of characters.
• Another trilogy is the Golden Age book series by Jane Smiley, where each chapter beginning in 1920 represents one year up until 1980. A true page turner, this is my favorite kind of novel that prompts me to read as soon as I awaken, read as I fall asleep but cannot put the book down, or even choose my mode of exercise based on being able to read a juicy trilogy like this one while I’m working out.
• Another favorite is We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Jane Fowler. When a friend suggested I read it, she said “I can’t even begin to describe this.” I agree. And the fact that much of the story takes place at my alma mater Indiana University connects me even more to a terrific novel.
• And speaking of Indiana: I so appreciate the novel Escape from Assisted Living by Joyce Hicks. The novel is set in Northwest Indiana, a place I lived for six months while student teaching (and drove a Studebaker!)and the characters in it think the way people really think, the way people truly are, and the way folks honestly act. Plus there’s this: reading it made me feel like I was reading the senior version of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!
• One of my nonfiction favorites is Life Animated (later made into a documentary nominated for an academy award) by Ron Suskind. When I read Ron Suskind’s earlier book A Hope in the Unseen, I found a favorite new author. He selected a young man from a neglected neighborhood in Washington, D.C. and followed him through his senior year in high school and freshman year in college.
• Love That Boy by Ron Fournier is another non-fiction favorite. Ron Fournier is a journalist whose wife reminded him that his adolescent autistic son needed to spend quality time with his dad. His son learns to navigate through the world by watching Disney movies, then identifying with characters and situations. The boy loves history, specifically Theodore Roosevelt. As a journalist Ron Fournier had access to the White House, took his son to meet Bill Clinton, and because both former President Clinton and Ron Fournier’s son are Teddy Roosevelt enthusiasts, Bill Clinton never stopped talking about T Roosevelt. However, when Ron Fournier took his son to meet George W. Bush, Bush listened intently, and as father and son were leaving (perhaps the Oval Office) while still at the door, George Bush hollered out to Ron Fournier, “Love that boy!” hence the chosen title of the book.
• Another favorite non-fiction book is Never to be Forgotten, a profound narrative by Beatrice Muchman about her own experience as a Jewish-German child hidden by two Catholic sisters in Brussels during WWII and what “the kindness of strangers” can mean during wartime. I was tearful as I read and re-read much of Never to be Forgotten, but the book gives us a sense of hope that people have persisted, and there are people in the world who offer others the original meaning of sustainability.
• To my way of thinking, the novel An American Marriage by Tayari Jones is a marvel. A newly married couple, the husband is falsely incarcerated for rape, and while he is in jail husband and wife write letters to each other. The challenge of an author writing in two distinctly different voices while writing in one voice creates the kind of book that as I read I just shake my head in awe.
• James McBride is an author (a tremendous one) and musician. Four people gave me copies of The Color of Water, his autobiography describing his life with a Black father and a Jewish mother. (I only mention this because, as a reader, folks routinely do not give me books.) When Author McBride asks his mother, “What color is G-d?” She replies, “Water doesn’t have a color. G-d is the color of water.” If that encourages a reader’s interest, then ready, set go with James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird. where the author tells of a slave (dressed as a girl) who joins John Brown’s abolition movement. How McBride makes this era and period of time amusing is a wonder.

In her 80s my mother, a loving, talented, and charming woman, became a bit more eccentric, and these next two books give new meaning to family foibles. They are creepy, the families dysfunctional. Still I could not stop reading either one:

1. The Lonely Doll is based on a series of children’s books, a series that many grew up reading. Author Jean Nathan, an enthusiast of the books, tried to find the author, and when she succeeded, the author allowed her seeker access to her life, the life of family, especially the mother’s invasive control over her daughter…..scary! Still a proverbial page turner.
2. The true circumstances surrounding The Sisters Antipodes by Jane Alison are creepy. Two families in Foreign Service in Australia are quite close…so close that the parents switch partners and eventually remarry the other partner. Since my favorite kind of book is one about a dysfunctional family these two books were made to order.

Any books or authors to recommend while we shelter in place? Please share descriptions and titles here – books can provide a sensational escape when you need one!