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Year in Review

 Driving to Rosh Hashanah dinner, my husband became reflective.

"I think you can say this was a genuinely awful year for our country," he remarked. "Regardless of your political beliefs."

He said, "There is a Jewish tradition that if you die on Rosh Hashanah, it means God really loved you. God had such a hard time subtracting you from the Earth.....He waited until the very last moment, the very end of the year. So people are saying that about Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Marc's irreverence: "Of course if you die right AFTER Rosh Hashanah....right at the START of the new year....it means God didn't care about you very much......JK!"

My own year has been a blur. It would have been a blur regardless of Covid. It's a great deal of baby time. The other day, I passed by the Irish Pub in our neighborhood, and I saw a sign: WE'RE HALFWAY TO ST. PAT'S DAY 2021! And this told me that lockdown has lasted for a half-year; we were already in lockdown for St. Pat's Day 2020.

Half a year? If you had said, "Two months," I might have said, "Yep, that seems right."

Well, let's hope for better things in the coming months. At the end of the year, in a reflective mood, Roxane Gay hands out Weird Book Awards--and, in that spirit, I'm handing out mine right here:

*Biggest Disappointment. "Likes," by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. I thought this was pretentious and boring. What happened to "Ms. Hempel Chronicles"?

*Happiest Surprise. I've become obsessed with Jerry Pinkney, and I find it's therapeutic to stare at the wordless, magnificent pages of "The Lion and the Mouse." Who would have guessed?

*Best Non-fiction. Alex Trebek's memoir continues to keep me afloat. Folksy wisdom. "Show up early, practice, help people feel good, be sure you yourself are having a nice time." Trebek could have been writing for anyone, in any job.

*Most Hopeful Novel. "The Grammarians," by Cathleen Schine, didn't really get adequate attention. I was a fan.

*Purest Dose of Fun. "Wild Things," by Sieruta et al. This is two hundred pages of gossipy writing about children's literature, by people who know their stuff. Jimmy Fallon was an insufferable guest to the world of Picture Books. It's possible E.B. White never won the Newbery because one very powerful critic disliked his work. Arnold Lobel thought Sendak was slightly ridiculous. And the book goes on and on.

Here's to a happier year ahead......
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