The Stack | Fall '19

Another Stack post a little late and a little short, but better than nothing, right?

This fall, my theme was apparently Women Living in the Mountains By Themselves, which may or may not be my future, time will tell. I also threw a little Ryan Holiday in there to shake things up (nothing says spice like philosophy, amirite?) and, well, here’s the list:

Deep Creek, Pam Houston. I love this book dearly and took my time with it. The love story of a woman and a piece of land. It is brutally hard to read at times — Houston weaves in a lot of her personal history to her essays about her ranch, which involves a lot of sad/painful things, and I had trouble swallowing how casually she presented some of it. As I’ve said a million times before with authors — very different worldviews. However, the book as a whole is so beautiful and so vulnerable that it feels brave in its presentation, and if you’re someone who loves nature at all, I think you’ll feel understood by so much of it.

Stillness is the Key, Ryan Holiday. Modern-day philosopher and all-around smart guy, I’ve enjoyed reading Ryan Holiday’s writing over the last few years for its simplicity and practicality. This is his most recent book, and if you’ve ever needed an argument for less in a world of more, here you go. (Side note: So much of this book lined up with principles of my own faith that I found myself skimming it — it was great, but definitely familiar. Super interesting to me how mind-blowing others found it. It made me thankful for a foundation of those principles, even though I still have to work on them in so many ways!)

The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah. Have you ever thought, “I want to read a book about Alaska, but that will emotionally traumatize me for years to come”? No? Well neither had I, but my best friend told me that this book was about Alaska and left out the second part and I read it in basically one go on the way back from Israel and it was gorgeous and horrible all at the same time and I loved it. A fictional love story that captures the completely non-fictional majesty and severity of Alaska in an incredible way. 10/10 would recommend. Also, I am a little mad at my best friend.

Rough Beauty, Karen Auvinen. In some ways, this felt like I was suddenly reading the nonfiction version of The Great Alone when I first started it — the author shares some painful childhood story similarities with the main character of the above book. She also shares a lot of similarities with Pam Houston, come to think of it, as this is basically an examination of her own life living alone in the mountains, though she’s approached it in such a different way with such a different perspective that they feel like utterly different stories. Again, I don’t share much worldview-wise with this author, I’m sure; but I do share a deep love for beauty in small things, and I know how it feels to love a landscape so much, and the way she structures sentences can take your breath away. Another great read for my outdoorsy ladiez and gents.

And there you have it! My very specifically-themed stack for Fall 2019. I’d say I’ll play some catch up and diversify some on this next one, but we’ll see — it may be a few months before you see me reading like I normally do! Either way, let me know what you read and loved this fall so I can add it to my own list.