I chose this picture as a kind of summary for the past year ironically: 2017 was another year of ease and happiness, with more than my share of good experiences; a year free of troubles and personal turmoil. It's all too much happiness, embarrassingly so, and I can only reply, "Ugh, as if." You know it's been a relatively stress-free year when I make it through a bunch of good books, and as my Goodreads infographic shows, I had plenty of time for reading:
And so, as I post every year, here are my favourite reads, beginning with
The Top Five Books Released in 2017
I just love Sebastian Barry, and this unusual tale of the Irish experience in the days of America's Wild West was the absolutely perfect blend of interesting history and savoury wordscraft. Loved every single page.
Ali Smith's experimental style tends to go over my head, but I connected with every bit of this story - all about the words with this one.
Again, this was mind-blowing, genre-expanding wordscrafting and I was pleased that George Saunders won the Booker for it (any of these top three could have won to my satisfaction).
This was probably the most of-the-moment book I read this year - a speculative, magicky look at the West being forced to accept the refugees we have created by our own actions in foreign interventionism - and Mohsin Hamid got it all just right.
It was hard to choose my favourite Canadian book of the year, but this one lingers the best in my memory; it was a pleasure to read; should have won a literary award. I'd have given it the Governor General's Prize.
And Another Fifteen Favourites Released in Earlier Years
I found this book to be so soul-satisfying (until the maybe imperfect ending) and I think it will stay with me a long time.
Another Irish storyteller and a damaged protagonist - this is everything I love.
This is the second book I've read and loved by Han Kang - I can't believe how little I knew about life in South Korea.
And if I didn't know much about South Korea, this collection of short stories out of North Korea was a true education.
In addition to being a finely written book itself, I think what I liked the best was the intertexuality; the impetus to go to the bookshelf and try to find the original Greek plays this was based upon; an extended experience.
I was fascinated by this book, and at the time, it was one of many signposts pointing towards the Yukon; it had a whiff of fate about it.
Irish storyteller; check. Engaging storyline; check. Less confusing than McBride's first effort; check. Loved it.
My other favourite Canadian book. This is so perfectly Canadian - the French and the Anglo - I'd have given it the Giller Prize.
I'll arbitrarily group together my four favourite classic novels read in 2017:
Simply a perfectly crafted story of a life; this is why I read.
More guilty pleasure than true literary classic, I enjoyed this book immensely.
There's a reason it's called a classic. (And I'm glad to have finally read it so that I could form my own opinion about the legendary Rochester. That cad.)
Another overdue classic that was totally worthwhile.
And my three favourite, unintentionally related, nonfiction:
I guess I was much in mind of mortality and end-of-life care this year, and this book was mind-expanding.
Fascinating and meditative; an education in dying.
And this one is a much cheerier (but still ultimately touching and tragic) memoir of an impending death that tied all of this together for me this year.
A look back at 2017 (in mostly fuzzy cellphone pictures):
With both of our girls in University, it was fun to see Mallory perform onstage at Laurier in Footloose and Kennedy perform at her school in The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade - hard to believe that that will be Kennedy's last ever amateur performance as she graduated this year:
Not one to sit around doing nothing, and pumped to craft a professional career, Kennedy immediately started applying for every theatre-related job she could find. She spent the summer as a camp counsellor for a Summer Theatre Camp, she travelled into Toronto several times to appear in student films, she had a short-term contract with a local theatre as a dramaturge, etc., etc. One of the opportunities that she discovered in her online searches was a six month contract with a theatre company in Whitehorse and the idea of that - living in the extreme North and watching as the days go from 24 hours of night to 24 of day - was fascinating to both her and me. She applied for it in September, had a Skype interview for it in October, and waited and waited to hear back from them. Meanwhile, Kennedy had started working at a children's musical theatre about half an hour drive away, and after making herself indispensable to them, that theatre crafted a five year plan around her becoming their fulltime salesperson. Happily, Kennedy wasn't interested in committing long term to a position like that (she still wants to act, after all), and when she proposed just doing the role for a year to cover a maternity leave, they shook on the new deal. And then the Whitehorse theatre called - and wanted Kennedy to move up in January. As fascinating as that adventure would have been (and as I mentioned around Minds of Winter above, I had never encountered so many references to the Yukon all of a sudden; something felt fateful about this opportunity), the position they offered her was permanent (there was no more mention of a six month contract), Kennedy had already accepted the other offer, and the more we considered the practicalities of it, the more impossible a relocation to the North sounded for her (and her tiny car). So, while Kennedy will not be moving to the Yukon, she is currently considering a move closer to the children's theatre - and that would be an adventure, too.
We saw plenty of live shows this year. In addition to seeing my own kids' plays, we went to a Classic Albums Live performance of David Bowie's songs at the Centre in the Square, I won tickets for an exclusive and up close live taping of a Barenaked Ladies TV special featuring The Persuasions (that's how close we were in the picture above), the GIFT Gala had a performance with both Blue Rodeo and Hedley, and in September we went to the Centre in the Square again to see Brian Wilson (and some other Beach Boys) performing their album Pet Sounds (and other hits). We went to Stratford in the summer to see two plays back-to-back: Timon of Athens (which was wonderful) and The Bakkhai (which was kind of not wonderful). Because she's a big musical fan, we took Ella to see Singing in the Rain at the St. Jacob's Theatre (it was a fine production) for her birthday, and just the other day, we took her to see Beauty and the Beast at the Dunfield Theatre as her Christmas present (it was wonderful - and especially getting to hear all the little kids in the theatre belly-laughing at Lefou's pratfalls). In November, we went back to St. Jacob's (Dave, his Dad, Kennedy and me) to see George Wendt perform as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman - Dave loved it, even if I found the casting of an old sitcom star to be a little gimmicky (the rest of the cast was great; especially the Linda). And because Dave is a Meatloaf fan and I am decidedly not, the girls took him to see Bat out of Hell on his birthday recently, while I got to stay at home. I'd say that's some support for the arts.
This was also the year that I had my eye surgery (described in grotesque and unnecessary detail here and here) and needed to take a month off of work, so went back to rent a cottage at Sauble Beach yet again. Neither of the girls could come for the full week, and it's really not the same without them, but Dave and I enjoyed ourselves all the same. Mallory worked the summer at African Lion Safari and was delighted to eventually also get a second job at Value Village - she seemed to be working all the time, and I didn't really piece it together that she was saving up as much money as she could in order to move in with friends when her University started up again. I'm so dumb that it wasn't until I was helping to move her into her apartment that I asked if she'd ever be moving back home again - and she said no. That's my Baby gone - and while I'm pleased and proud that she's independent and adventurous enough to make that leap, that's my Baby gone. (Mallory got the news that she had won a scholarship essay contest through my work while we were at Sauble, and I'm sure that cash helps, too. Good job, Mal.)
This was also the year of big and amazing trips - Kennedy and I went to Italy in September as her graduation present (related here), and just a couple of weeks ago, Dave took me to Paris for my 50th birthday (as gushed about here). Dave had business trips to Japan and Germany again this year (and he added on a side trip to Amsterdam in order to see the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum; it was a nice related experience for him to come home and see the Van Gogh film Love, Vincent [that brings his paintings to life] just a couple of days later) and for the first time he went to China and was brought to the Forbidden City, viewed Chairman Mao's preserved remains, and climbed a portion of the Great Wall (I'm envious of that last experience, for sure; love me some old rocks).
And this was the year of moving Dave's parents closer to us, which I pretty much wrote about all year - the many weekends spent decluttering their home to prepare it for showings, its quick closure, and the physical move to their new home with Ruthann and Dan. I tried to capture some of his mother's current condition here, and there isn't much more to say about that at this point except to note that this move was a big part of the year that passed for all of us (and is probably why I was so attracted to books on mortality as related above).
The holiday season was crazy busy at work, naturally, and I was delighted to have both Kennedy and Mallory home for Christmas; relieved that Dave took time off work and did pretty much all the cleaning and decorating around the house. We had our usual Christmas Eve party, a brunch the next morning with Dan and Rudy joining us and Dave's parents, followed by dinner across the street at Ken and Lolo's. There was much fine food, good cheer, and thoughtful and loving gifts - an embarrassment of riches to cap a year of particular good fortune. I am grateful for everything, and even if this is the year that finds us with an empty nest, I am looking forward to 2018 and all that it may bring.