6 Life Affirming Summer Reads
A good book entertains; a great book transforms. Long days, relaxed schedules, and travel plans invite passionate readers like myself to celebrate summer with a thick stack of books. I read to learn as much as to be entertained, which is why most widely marketed summer reads don’t hold my attention. I like writers who write eloquently while telling a cracking good story. Furthermore, during sunny summer months, I don’t want to be depressed by books that offer little hope or joy. I seek life-affirming books, and because this is a music blog, each of these books offers breathtaking writing about music.
The books on this list aren’t formulaic. They don’t offer easy answers to plot twists and turns, but they all shimmer with hope and love, even in the midst of life’s darkest moments. They’re gentle reminders that, as author Louise Penny writes, hope exists, that people are capable of great acts of kindness, and that beauty can be found everywhere if we look for it.
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
What it’s about
A futuristic dystopian novel, I Cheerfully Refuse is the story of a grieving musician sailing Lake Superior in search of his deeply loved, departed wife. His private quest grows into something bigger, full of friend and foes alike, eventually leading him to acceptance, safety, and community.
Favorite quote
“We stayed with the blues and Francie sensing a vein of covenant sang in her scratchiest aching voice, the reason we cajoled her into the band to start with, and it began to resemble what I once imagined church might be like, a church you could bear, where people laughed and enjoyed each other and did not care if they were right all the time or if other people were wrong.”
Why I like it
This heartfelt retelling of the Orpheus myth stares unflinchingly at the worst of humanity yet never loses its connection with grace, beauty, and hope. It reminds me that even in the worst of times, good people exist and we can choose to be one of them.
This is Happiness by Niall Williams
What it’s about
This is Happiness invites the reader to Faha, a small, frequently overlooked Irish village at the moment when electricity comes to the community. In each long-spun story and eloquent description, we come to know the beauty of the land, the inner lives of the people, the enduring power of story, and the beating heart of community.
Favorite quote
“And in that playing another time would be summoned, the time of dancing masters and traveling pipers, because in it was a threshold, across which it was still possible to pass and be at the races on the sands at Spanish Point or the fair days and football matches along road and across fields and time and still be where, in the playing now of Junior Crehan and the like, was recalled the soul of a people, the pulse of a place, and a hundred years of music.”
Why I like it
This is masterful storytelling and one of the most poetically eloquent books I’ve ever read. In its pages I’m reminded that even the simplest moments contain wonder and happiness if I’m willing to open myself to them.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amour Towles
What it’s about
The story begins in 1922 when a Bolshevik tribunal declares Count Alexander Rostov an unrepentant aristocrat and sentences him to house arrest in a grand hotel. There, forced to live in an attic room, Rostov creates meaning for himself and builds a life of community, purpose, and emotional discovery.
Favorite quote
“Jazz seemed a naturally gregarious force—one that was a little unruly and prone to say the first thing that popped into its head, but generally of good humor and friendly intent.”
Why I like it
This story contains unforgettable characters, erudite thinking, and laugh out loud moments. As Rostov lives his life in gentile captivity, the 20th century history of Russian politics swirls around him in the people he meets and the ways he chooses to open his heart and mind to change without ever losing himself.
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
What it’s about
A monk is found murdered in the monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups, hidden deep in the wilderness of Quebec, where two dozen silent cloistered monks live in peace and prayer. Ironically, these monks are also world-famous for their recording of Gregorian chants whose effect on listeners is known as “the beautiful mystery.” Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Sûreté du Québec are sent to investigate, and there they discover discord and beauty in the community and in themselves.
Favorite quote
“The point isn’t to transcribe the chants, it’s to get to know them, live inside the music, to see the voice of God in each note, each word, each breath.”
Why I like it
I’m an avid fan of all 20 of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries, but this 2012 winner of the Agatha Award for best novel is one of her best. It’s masterful storytelling by a writer who writes about music from the inside out and understands the beauty and brokenness that lurks in us all.
Mink River by Brian Doyle
What it’s about
Set in a small fictional town on the Oregon coast, this is a book about love, mystery, Salish stories, mud and humor. There’s a policeman addicted to Puccini, a talking crow, beer, love affairs, deaths, and life. In the lives of the citizens of this town, Doyle tells the story of community in language that is both mythical and heartwarmingly real.
Favorite quote
“Right here in the world, where every living thing dies, a fallen tree’s integrity remains so literal that if a luthier adds strings to it, we can turn the departed tree’s sun-yearning and thirst-quenching into sounds we call live music.”
Why I like it
In long, joy-filled, sometimes rambling sentences that can stretch into paragraphs, Doyle creates a world that is grounded in the grubby realities of life as well as the mythical possibilities that remind me to open my eyes wider to the magic that exists all around me if I’m only willing to see it.
Beauty by John O’Donohue
What it’s about
This book is a a wake up call to open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the wonder of our relationship with beauty. In this book, O’Donohue reminds us what beauty truly is: a homecoming for the human spirit. Drawing from art, music, literature, nature and language, this book offers a way to find the invisible embrace of beauty even in uncertain times.
Favorite quote
“In great music, the ancient longing of the earth finds a voice.”
Why I like it
Drawing from Celtic traditions, philosophy, and spirituality, this is a book to be savored. O’Donohue’s eloquent language is an invitation to enter into the world of beauty. It’s a reminder that each of us can choose to live noble lives if we allow ourselves to sink into the arms of the beauty that surrounds us.