Books Will Never Leave You

Reading what would become Book #175, I came across this wonderful sentence: "Books can break your heart, but they never leave you."

I would tattoo that on my arm, if I could stand the thought of being tattooed.

As I continue to read through 2018, the number of books breaking my heart is growing. The latest accounting contains some that fall into that category:
168. Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living by Karen Auvinen (this memoir, which opens with a cabin fire that destroys the author's laptop containing all of her writing, made me want to sell everything and move to Colorado. Seriously)
169. Once Upon A Farm: Lessons on Growing Love, Life, and Hope On a New Frontier by Rory Feek (the title caught my eye; Feek is a country songwriter and singer, now raising his young daughter who has Down Syndrome, moving forward in faith and love after the death of his wife by cancer)
170. One Beautiful Dream: The Rollicking Tale of Family Chaos, Personal Passions, and Saying Yes to Them Both by Jennifer Fulwiler (I wrote about this book here; I have resurrected my manuscript and begun again on it on the strength of Fulwiler's story)
171. Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh (I cried; this memoir is exactly what it says it is)
172. Domestic Affairs: Enduring the Pleasures of Motherhood and Family Life by Joyce Maynard (I'm a longtime Maynard fan; this collection is sometimes hard to read because those of us who read her memoir know that she was writing a gloss over a domestic life that was unraveling even as she wrote)
173. Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-Class Metropolis by Sam Anderson (this book is everything the title promises and more: a wild ride from first to last)
174.Making Things Right: The Simple Philosophy of a Working Life by Ole Thorstensen (imagine a Norwegian version of Tracy Kidder's classic House, written not by Kidder but by the carpenter; this was enchanting)
175. The Lost Chapters: Reclaiming My Life One Book At A Time by Leslie Schwartz (Schwartz spent 37 days in the Los Angeles County Jail system for assaulting an officer (among other things) when she relapsed into alcoholism and drug use after being sober for decades; this is a hard read of jail life, of institutional racism, of institutional brutality, and of the books she managed to read while incarcerated saving her life literally and figuratively)
176. A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science and Cancer by Mary Elizabeth Williams (Williams was diagnosed with melanoma, which rapidly metastasized into Stage 4, then became one of the first individuals cured of the disease thanks to cutting edge therapy)
177. The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly (this WONDERFUL novel is based on the premise that the March family was real, and that Jo March's great-great-granddaughter is tracing the family's story through letters Jo wrote; devotees of Little Women will relish how cleverly Donnelly wove the story and lines of Alcott's classic into this work)
178. The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have To Be Complicated by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack (if you read one book about personal finance, it should be this one)
179. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams (Williams' memoir turns on the catastrophic rise of the Great Salt Lake in the 1980s, wound through with the resulting impact on the migrating bird populations and the deaths of her mother and grandmother by cancer during the same time period)
180. all american boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kieley  (I have no words for this YA novel about racism, loyalty, silence, and making a stand; after a African-American teen is brutally beaten by a policeman, Quinn, who is white and a longtime family friend of the policeman, wrestles with whether to stay quiet as to what he saw)

Truly, books can and will break your heart, but they never leave you.