100 Books Like Belonging

I’m not sure why this Oprah’s Book Club pick is named Long Island since most of the crucial scenes take place in Ireland, the homeland of forty-three-year-old Eilis Lacey. I read this book because it is the sequel to Toibin’s previous book, Brooklyn, which was made into a movie starring Saoirse Ronan.

I often wonder what happens to couples after their romantic and enthralling beginnings, and life between two cultures interests me. It shows the differences that develop between two people from different cultures who fall in love and try to make a life together. In this second half of their lives, the couple have more than the usual problems. The unending plot-twists led me to finish the book in a day. A good read, but I’m sure the ending will be controversial.

This story of the Cubs football team of the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, left me in awe. Their team won the championship of their eight-man football league in Southern California in 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

The book is as instructive as it is inspiring. Creative play-by-play descriptions like “…bounced off defenders like a pinball…” provide a clear visualization of the sport of football. This was especially important for a novice football watcher like me. Through the author’s prose, I could see the plays and feel the excitement of the games. 

Even more importantly, I understood how the deaf community interacts with the hearing-dominant world, which is often oblivious to their existence. The football players worked as a unit because their differences banded them together and gave them strength.

Few things delight me more than being immersed in a world where a character is searching for where he/she belongs, such as in the world of closed adoptions. From the first page to the last, the book absorbed me in the highs and lows of an adoptee’s search for her biological mother and father.

Julie perseveres in her hunt for nearly a decade. The author’s vivid descriptions of her intense emotions during her quest made me aware of the painful consequences of keeping adoption information secret. I felt her sorrow, disappointments, and tension. The depictions of her Collie companions, her garden, and Chicago make them characters that add authenticity. This book is a heartfelt memoir—with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it.

I read with fascination this study of how quality, environmentally sound, and satisfying lives have been achieved in two intentional communities in two distinct cultures: the Kankanmori community of Tokyo, Japan and Quayside Village of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The author’s observations about how humans are becoming more isolated rang true to my experiences in California. I was encouraged by how both these cohousing communities developed bonds through play, work, and frequent interactions at common meals. I would have thought the strict structure of the living arrangements in Japan might have counteracted the desired feelings of belonging. But they bonded just as well as the ‘hang-loose’ Canadians. I was convinced that living in cohousing, especially as I age, is the way to live more happily and less isolated.

I loved the main character Paddy Meehan’s voice in this series. Paddy is a lowly copygirl at a Glasgow newspaper with dreams of becoming an investigative journalist during a time when girls are expected to marry out of high school and have babies, not unlike the way things were when I entered the work world. Paddy is intelligent and driven and so outside the mold that her family and boyfriend, indeed the Scottish community, cannot understand her drive to be more than what society demands she should be. She’s someone I rooted for every step of the way as she navigates the old boys’ club in the 1980s and 1990s. Combine Paddy with Mina’s brilliant writing, realistic dialogue, and compelling plotlines, and this series is one to be savored. 

Brilliant Bylines is more than a historical narrative of women in journalism, as it also includes samples of the women's writings.

My favorite is Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, better known as "Nellie Bly." She was not unknown, but she was mysterious in her own way and certainly was intriguing. Not only did she travel around the world in 1890, but she also feigned mental illness in order to get the inside scoop on an insane asylum. I named another cat after her, as well.

From the country’s capital, the city’s journalists translated political power and social news – as well as a thriving social scene. They covered stories that were shared across the country. A mix of men and women, big names and freelancers, these journalists reveals behind-the-scenes reporting and relationships. The stories reveal how and why news is made. These watchdogs of government were often intertwined with politicians professionally and sometimes personally. This book offers a helpful understanding of Washington, D.C. journalism – and is highly entertaining.

What I love about this book is the journey it takes you on, from despair to hope. At the start of the book, Mark is at the height of anguish with his depression. You read about what he did to start his recovery process; what worked and what didn’t, what he did wrong and what he got right. It gives you hope that you can make a similar journey and hope is the antidote to depression because it’s the main thing it takes from you, so it’s the main thing you need to find and cling on to; even the smallest amount of hope helps.

It’s not often you read the opening chapter of a novel (in this case the Prologue) and go back to read it again before continuing with the rest of the novel because you’ve never read anything like it before. And the book just gets better from there. Combine an African culling song with a tortured journalist investigating crib deaths and a heroine real estate agent who sells haunted houses, then put that all in the hands of Chuck Palahniuk, and you have a supernatural horror dark comedy/satire unlike anything you’ll ever read. Except maybe another Chuck Palahniuk novel. After reading this, I was inspired to write Breathers.

Whatever your take on politics and elections, I thought this was a truly original addition to the zombie world. Funny, and often true-to-life in an alternate reality, this book offers another interesting and sometimes horrific view of the crazy world of politics in a year that was far from the norm.