March: Reading About Transformation

A mix of Philosophy, Psychology, Memoir and Historical Fiction show how its done

Spring has arrived in the desert, announced by these asparagus death spears sprouting from the hearts of two agaves in my driveway.

These succulents are happy to see you.

Over the next month, these salmon of the desert will convert all the energy they’ve stored over decades into these spikes. They grow at the rate of 9-12 inches a day, enchanting and ridiculous at the same time. Then the entire spear will bloom for several weeks, attracting bats and other pollinators. Reproduction complete, the heat of the summer will dry the whole plant, strange florid tower and all, to a brown crisp. A windstorm or a hard shove will topple it.

The end. But of course, it’s a beginning too.

In the spirit of the season, I’ve created this month’s list with an eye toward the theme of Transformation. I want to read with all the exhuberance of Spring this month, so it’s a bit ecclectic: you’ll find philosophy, historical fiction, memoir, spirituality/self-help and a re-imagined classic.

In reverse chronological order of their release:

James
Percival Everett
Doubleday Books
Mar 19, 2024
320 pp.

Everett’s latest transforms the character of enslaved Jim from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to tell the classic story from a different perspective. A most anticipated book of 2024, likely to be in the running for major literary awards.

In the Shadow of the Greenbrier
Emily Matchar
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Mar 12, 2024
400 pp.

The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, long a playground for President’s and film stars, was transformed during World War II into a diplomatic prison where members of the Third Reich threw Hitler a birthday party. A tour of the resort’s bunker inspired this saga, in which four generations of women in a Southern Jewish family grapple with their place in the resort’s shadow and within their families. Mystery, illicit romance and rich historical detail, plus a beautiful cover: I don’t read much historical fiction but I’m really looking forward to this one.

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story
Leslie Jamison
Little Brown and Company
Feb 20, 2024
272 pp.

“I remembered my first sponsor saying her Higher Power was just the fact that trees could grow from seeds. Her notion of divinity lived not in the spectral body of an old man with a beard, but in the fact of this absurd, stupendous transformation—at once radical and commonplace, happening in plain sight.” This sentence sums up the the mundane and momentous pulse of this highly personal memoir which tells the story of the author’s becoming a mother and divorcing her husband within the year. Emotionally heavy and light at the same time, a meditation on creativity—I’m halfway through it already, my consolation for a bout of insomnia.

Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life
Sharon Blackie
New World Library
Oct 11, 2022

I’ve subscribe to

The Art of Enchantment, with Dr Sharon Blackie

which is one of the Top Ten Literature Substacks. Her podcast The Hagitude Sessions based on this book features interviews with women in mid-life who offer wisdom about “insisting on flowering just when the world expects you to become quiet and diminish.” They include Peggy Orenstein, author of bestseller Girls & Sex, who talks a lot about sheep and knitting, but also Roz Savage, the only woman to have rowed solo across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Menopause is not often depicted as the time to launch a gigantic flowering stalk— but why not take a cue from nature? That might be the point (ahem) of this book.

Transformative Experience
L.A. Paul
Oxford University Press
Oct 1, 2016

Considering a radically new experience means we only learn what we really need to know in order to make a life-changing decision after we’ve already committed. Staying stuck in the status quo is making a choice, too. Paul applies philosophical rigor to the nature of experience, exploring the tension around authentic living in the wake of our woefully uninformed choices. I am here for it in this transitional season.

Anything here make you want to throw open all the windows of the house and turn pages in the breeze?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you’ll be reading as we approach the equinox.

Would you like your own personalized list of reads responding to a different theme? This is my gift, three times a year, to my annual subscribers. It’s my favorite part of running The Booktender, so please let me know if you’re interested in trying a sample before signing up—I’m sure we can work something out.

As always, the links in this post lead to my page on Bookshop.org. If you purchase a book from this list or another book there, I may receive a small commission. Beats supporting Jeff Bezos’s asparagus rockets, don’t you think?