Reading post: Louise Erdrich in November

November is almost over, just a few more days, so I think it is time for a reading post. In November I decided to read books by Louise Erdrich, who is practically a contemporary of mine. She was born in 1954 and is thus now 70, like Rocket Boy. She is, of course, famous for her books about Native Americans. I had read seven books by her before this, so it wasn't so much a "get to know X writer" as a "get to know X writer better" situation.

Louise Erdrich has published, roughly, 33 books, mostly novels. Many of the characters in her novels are related to other characters in her novels, but you don't have to read them in order. As I get older, I tend not to remember characters' names very well anyway, so even when I read books in a series, I don't necessarily remember what I'm supposed to remember -- and it all works out OK anyway. Mostly.

With help from Wikipedia, I came up with this list of her books. I've put the ones I had read before this month in blue.

• Novels related to her first book: Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks, The Bingo Palace, Tales of Burning Love, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, Four Souls, The Painted Drum
• Standalone novels: The Crown of Columbus (with Michael Dorris), The Antelope Wife/Antelope Woman, The Master Butchers Singing Club, Shadow Tag, Future Home of the Living God, The Night Watchman, The Sentence, The Mighty Red
• The "Justice" trilogy: The Plague of Doves, The Round House, LaRose
• Children's books: Grandmother's Pigeon, The Range Eternal, and the Birchbark series: The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence, The Porcupine Year, Chickadee, Makoons
• Nonfiction, poetry, short stories: Route Two, The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birthyear, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, Jacklight, Baptism of Desire, Original Fire: Selected and New Poems, The Red Convertible: Collected and New Stories

I decided that what I was really missing out on was the Love Medicine series, and her children's books. So I chose this month's books accordingly (they're in gold above).

• The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001): When I was looking around the internet for suggestions on which Erdrich books to read, this kept coming up. Several people said it was their favorite Erdrich. And what a great title, no? So I read it. I liked it, but I wasn't entranced by it. I had to keep reminding myself to go back to it. It's the story of a Catholic priest who is actually a woman. The priest is known to others on the Little No Horse reservation as Father Damien, but also has an inner, secret, identity as Agnes. This is one of Erdrich's magical realism books, with lots of Ojibwe tales included and magical things happening, and I remembered that this was why I stopped reading Erdrich originally. I have very much liked some of her more recent books, especially the "Justice" trilogy, but those books are more realistic. While reading this I kept thinking, I'd follow this better if I read the other "Love Medicine" books -- but the truth is, I don't want to. Oh well. I read this one. It was fine.
  
  
• The Painted Drum (2005): Now this one I really liked! It starts out slow, with the story of a modern day part-Ojibwe woman named Faye Travers who lives in New Hampshire with her elderly mother and runs an estate clearing business with her. Faye has an unsatisfactory relationship with a local artist, and a painful past which we only gradually learn about. I didn't really engage with Faye at first, but then she "removes" an old Indian drum from an estate and the story (and the drum) wakes up. In Part 2, Faye and her mother return the drum to its rightful caretakers in North Dakota and we learn the story of the drum and how it came to be. This is a return to Erdrich magical realism, but it seemed appropriate. In Part 3 we watch the drum in action with a modern day family. I won't say more except that, again, I really enjoyed this book. A lot of tragedy, but a lot of good stuff too. I was glad I had gotten it at the Bookworm, so I can keep it.
  
  
• The Birchbark House (1999): The first in a series of five books, this is supposed to be Louise Erdrich's answer to the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (which I love). Immediately I was sorry I hadn't read this book, and the rest of the series, to my kids when they were younger. The last two books in the series (so far) are about twin boys, and those would have been fun to read to my twin boys. Anyway, The Birchbark House is a very sweet book, with some scary parts and some sad parts, but overall something that I think kids would enjoy. Lots of descriptions of how the Ojibwe family gathers, grows, hunts, and makes its food & clothing & shelter & medicine, which is similar to the Little House books. Lots of good animal interactions, including a pet crow. I enjoyed it and I plan to read the rest of the books in the series, eventually.
  

And the consensus? I guess I haven't changed my mind about Louise Erdrich. As before, I don't love her books that have a heavy dose of magical realism. But also as before, I enjoy her books that have some magical realism. I don't think I can be more clear than that. I think my favorite of her books is still The Round House, but I really liked The Painted Drum and am very glad I read it. And I will continue to read her.

Other reading

I started the month with a biography of Herbert Hoover... and it took me more than three weeks to get through its 614 pages of text. But it was such a good biography. It's called Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times by Kenneth Whyte, and it was just excellent. I had gotten the idea from previous biographies that Hoover was interesting (Hoover was Harding's and Coolidge's Commerce secretary), but I had no idea the man was so complicated. I just knew him as the awful president who preceded FDR, the man who gave his name to homeless encampments: Hoovervilles. Growing up in Palo Alto with liberal parents, I somehow absorbed the idea that we did not like the Lou Henry Hoover Girl Scout House because she was Hoover's wife, and we did not like Hoover Tower because it was Hoover's legacy, and so on.

It turns out Hoover was really a great guy, though not a great politician, incredibly competent, and actually very progressive, even though he later became more or less the father of modern conservatism (not Trumpism). Many of FDR's New Deal projects were variations on things Hoover thought of first. Hoover hated FDR, mainly because FDR beat him, but became very good friends with Harry Truman. Later on in life, Hoover was friends with both Richard Nixon AND John F. Kennedy. Whyte is so good at presenting Hoover's thoughts on things without actually agreeing or disagreeing with him. For instance, describing his work on the Hoover Commission, he says, "Hoover could at least take pride in having helped to clean up what he believed to be Roosevelt's mess." (p. 589). Note that Whyte doesn't see it as "Roosevelt's mess," Hoover thinks that. 

Anyway, it was a very good book, a classic presidential biography. And now I don't have to read any more presidential biographies until 2025, when I will figure out how to tackle FDR. I will probably read more than one book about him.

What else?  

Honestly, I didn't read very many other books this month. It's OK. Nothing to worry about. I'm currently reading the book for the book group (Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean) and a book about homelessness (Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder), but I don't know if I'm going to finish either of them in the last four days of the month.

Next month

One month left in the year -- December. I need another male author. After giving this some thought, I decided to read books by Charles Dickens. I want something Christmassy and I can't think of a better choice. Plus, his books are always about people being cruel and Trumpy to other people, so that will be a good fit too. I don't seem to want to read as much right now, possibly because I'm depressed about the election, possibly because of Rocket Boy being back and me feeling like I don't have as much time to myself. Whatever the reason, I'm not reading as much, so I may only read one or two Dickens next month, but that's OK.