Hi Bookworms. How is everyone? Are you caught up in the East Coast snowstorm? We are getting a few inches of snow here but nothing too major.
Earlier in the week we just had brown fields, which you can see from the photo. We like to walk up this hill that’s a street away from us and see the sunset. It’s peaceful and the dogs like to get out. It’s good for my knee rehab to go up and down stairs and hills. As long as it doesn’t swell up, I’ll keep at it.
Meanwhile last week I finished this puzzle with some contributions from my husband — large and small — along the way. It’s of a bookstore called The World’s Best Books where some books of children’s classics can be seen through the window. Books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Travels of Babar, Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver Travels, The Jungle Book, The Wizard of Oz, and many others guided me through piecing it together. It was fun and kept me away from doomscrolling the news too too much. I particularly like that there’s a bicycle outside the bookshop.
And now I will leave you with a couple reviews of what I finished lately.
The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill / Holt / 288 pages / 2025
3.75 stars. I soon learned that this debut novel is not set in Ireland but on Long Island, N.Y. The title refers to the act of leaving a location or event without saying goodbye (duh on me). It’s about an Irish-American family (the Ryans) that is rocked by a boating accident that kills one of the son’s close friends, which happens when the kids are teens at the onset of the book. The victim’s family sues the Ryan parents since they think their son (Topher) was responsible.
Decades later — the story begins in earnest when the three sisters in the Ryan family are grown and headed to a big family gathering during Thanksgiving week at their childhood home on Long Island where their parents still live. The sisters are all in different situations: Maggie, a teacher, is gay and bringing home a new girlfriend; Cait, a lawyer who lives in London, is divorced with twins; and Alice, looking to pursue interior design, is married with two sons. Their brother Topher’s absence is felt and you soon find out what’s happened to him.
Once home it turns into a tumultuous Thanksgiving week with the siblings all affected by the past and secrets they keep in their lives in various ways. Then when Cait invites to Thanksgiving dinner an old high school boyfriend — who is the brother of the boy killed in the boating accident — things about the painful past come to the forefront and get dished out.
The Irish Goodbye is a family domestic tale in which the chapters alternate narration among the three sisters, whose relationships with each other, their parents, and their spouses are delved into. The sisters are a bit flawed but their tale is a winding tragic and redemptive one, and the audiobook narrated by Kristen Sieh kept me fairly engaged throughout. Just don’t send me on a dicey family Thanksgiving week like that, lol.
A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton / Scribner / 1934
4 stars. A fascinating, complex lady was author Edith Wharton … fluent in various languages, she was a truly gifted writer, a bookworm, an avid traveler, a dog lover, an adventurer, a gardener, and aide worker in WWI, and also very socially connected to her intellectual well-to-do friends … as well as much more.
She started her life in New York City in 1862 and was “born into a world in which telephones, motors, electric light, central heating (except by hot-air furnaces), X-rays, cinemas, radium, aeroplanes and wireless telegraphy were not only unknown but still mostly unforeseen.” Those changes all happened during her life — some of which she talks about.
I hoped to find out all about her in her autobiography … but much of it I found was lists of friends and acquaintances and little anecdotes about her travels, particularly adventurous was the four-month Mediterranean chartered cruise she took with her husband in 1888 at the cost of $10k. But at times I seemed to read more about her good many friends, especially her good friend author Henry James than I did about Edith herself.
Still there’s also small nuggets of info I gleaned about Edith along the way including her years up until WWI, where all she lived, and how she started her literary career. For years, her family lived in New York (or for months in Europe) and then would summer in Newport, Rhode Island, and then later she bought a house in Lenox, Mass., which she called The Mount. How she loved The Mount, which was her country home where she lived for 10 years from 1902 to 1911. Her and her friends would motor all about the countryside in their new motor cars. She was most happiest at home there amidst her garden, and it is where she wrote her acclaimed novels The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome.
Edith probably would’ve stayed at The Mount but her husband’s declining health (apparently from mental health issues) affected their lives together. She divorced him in 1913, which she doesn’t talk about in the book, and moved to France to start a new life. There she became involved in aide work during WWI and made a hefty contribution to helping war refugees.
She was an active lady. It’s amazing all what she did — half of which is not mentioned in her autobiography including that she went on to be the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921 for her novel The Age of Innocence. Still I was glad to read a bit about her life and her world back then in her own words. She died of a stroke at age 75 just three years after writing A Backward Glance in 1937.
I figured her autobiography would be good background for the online class I’m taking this Friday on her novel The House of Mirth, which I’m in the midst of reading. It also counts for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge I’m doing. And don’t you love the cover of this edition of A Backward Glance (above) with her dog. So sweet.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these authors and what did you think?
Thank you for that gorgeous sunset. Glorious!
I’m intrigued with Edith Wharton. I wonder if there is a good biography of her life.
That puzzle is great. I like the bicycle outside the shop, and I like the children’s books inside.
Thanks Deb. We will keep on the lookout for more sunsets and puzzles.
And yes JoAnn mentioned there is a good biography of Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee … who has written biographies on Virginia Woolf and Willa Cather as well as Wharton. Her book on Wharton came out in 2007. I will look for it!
I will add that to my list!
Whew! I just looked it up, and I had to pop back to share that this biography is 1285 pages. Maybe a summer big book…
Wow — can’t believe it’s that long, yikes! I wish she had edited herself (a lot) more. I looked on Amazon and it says the hardback is 880 pages. But I’m sure with all the end notes etc. your info is accurate. Too much. I can borrow the ebook of it from the LA Public Library. But that would take me a long time to read. I’ll hold off for now. But good to know it’s available. Thx for the info.
I love that jigsaw puzzle! And The Irish Goodbye book sounds really good. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Becki, thanks for stopping by. I think during winter & these troubled times I need to keep on with doing a puzzle, sort of like your Lego.
The Irish Goodbye was a pretty good family drama but I think I thought it was going to be set in Ireland, lol. Have a good week.
Very lovely picture! I do enjoy those. Glad the walking up and down the hills is helping your knee rehab. We’re having cold and ice and sleet this weekend and I’m having to keep myself from obsessing about checking the weather. Our weather people here get way too excited about horrible weather like this. Ha! I’m ready, so very ready, for spring. I had heard a little about that first book you mentioned – The Irish Goodbye – but had not seen any reviews of it. Sounds a little depressing and probably not one I should pick up right now. Ah well. Off to find a nice crime novel to start. That will cheer me up!
Hi Kay, thanks I keep searching for the sunsets. I can imagine how freaked Texans are of the ice & sleet … I was in university in San Antonio when it snowed once for a day and it was Agamemnon. Lol. And I remember we went out to lunch and had a pitcher of sangria during the snowstorm …. I think that’s the only time I’ve ever had it.
The Irish Goodbye has a bit of tragedy to it — but luckily is more of a family drama in the wake of the past, so wasn’t too deep into the depressing part. Enjoy your crime novels! & Have a good week.
My husband and I just started a puzzle this morning! It really is a nice way to slow down and disconnect a little bit. The Irish Goodbye sounds interesting!
Hi Karis, thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying your puzzle. It is good to disconnect a bit right? I plan to start another puzzle this week maybe.
The Irish Goodbye was a pretty good family drama. Enjoy your week.
What a wonderful sunset, a glorious punctuation to the day. Keep up with those walks and keep strengthening those knees. My doctor talked to me about knee surgery when I went to see him recently but I’m holding off on that for as long as I can.
I love the cover of that Edith Wharton autobiography and I agree with your assessment of her. She was indeed fascinating.
Hi Dorothy, thanks I will keep looking for the sunsets on our walks. Did your doc think you needed knee surgery? Oh no. Are you able to walk without pain? I’m a bit glad to have had my knee surgeries early before getting much older. That way I could recover easier. I dont know how people in their 80s do it.
And I’m on a big Wharton kick all of a sudden. We will see what more about her I will discover. Enjoy your week.
I loved reading A Backward Glance. Edith Wharton is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read almost everything she wrote. And I wish we could get some snow where I live. But it’s been very dry here in Utah this winter. Fingers crossed that changes next month.
Hi Lark, it is so cool you are a Wharton fan. I can see now that she’s one of my favorite classic authors too. All I can say is she was a whiz. So astute, so smart. I would like to read all of her novels. The House of Mirth will be my second.
And I hope you get snow there. I heard the mountain ski resorts there are like dirt. That’s terrible. Fingers crossed February is a big snow month! Have a good week.
I visited the Mount a few years ago. Well, it was winter and it was closed, so I visited the grounds and peeked in the windows. I have two Whartons on my read pile but know very little about her so even though this isn’t complex, the nuggets sound fun.
That puzzle! I love it — it looks really tough but loads of fun. Did it take forever?
Hi Jeanie, that’s wonderful that you visited The Mount (too bad it was closed then). I would love to go & see her place. I really got into Wharton after reading her novel Ethan Frome … my parents had gone to the Mount in like 2016 and they brought back the book, which I gobbled up when visiting them. It’s good.
And the puzzle was a fun one … it took about two weeks to finish … but we weren’t doing it everyday. Just here and there. Luckily it was too too hard.
Enjoy your week.
That’s a cute puzzle; I find that sometimes doing jigsaws featuring books in a scene just leaves me feeling a little torn…I start by being in a “puzzle mood” but then I start thinking about books and wonder “maybe I should be reading not puzzling” hee hee. I had mixed feelings about something I listened to about Wharton too; I think she must have been very careful what she discussed in public and what she kept to herself. Which kind of makes sense, given her heroines, I s’pose? I’d never heard of an Irish goodbye: interesting.
Hi Marcie, thx for stopping by. Yeah sometimes when I do puzzles I listen to an audiobook so it’s like you get both a book & a puzzle. It’s sort of nice, so I don’t regret not reading.
I’m a bit of a newbie to Wharton — just finishing my second novel of hers, but I’m on a kick right now. I hope to read all of hers sometime. And I might read the Lee biography on her after that. lol.
Good to know others don’t know the term an Irish goodbye … also they say it’s like a French leave. Hmm. Now I know. Wishing you a great week.
I’m fairly sure I’d be happy to read about Edith Wharton. So fascinating to learn about writers I admire.
My heart is heavy this week: https://headfullofbooks.blogspot.com/2026/01/sunday-salon-minnesota.html
Hi Anne, yes Wharton was quite unique I think, what a life! I’m on a Wharton kick these days and hope to read more of her novels.
I plan to stop by your site soon. Cheers!
It would be worth the walk up and down the hill to get that view, plus getting outside is like a balm to the soul (mine, at least!). I’m sure it’s good for your recovery.
What a lovely puzzle! I love the ones that incorporate books in some way. Yes, puzzles (with an audiobook going) have kept me from doomscrolling, too. Mostly.
I didn’t know that’s what an Irish goodbye meant either! Sounds like a messy, but engrossing drama.
Hope you have a lovely week, Susan!
Hi Rachel, yes I love the outdoors too so the hill walk is always refreshing. And glad you like the puzzle. You are the puzzle expert …. luckily this one wasn’t as hard as that other I did months earlier of the rescue dogs. With all the bad news, I hope to start another puzzle this week. I’m curious if you ever do the same puzzle twice? Like years apart. I might be doing that.
And good to know — an Irish goodbye is not a term everyone knows — I didn’t … It was a bit of a messy family drama … the kind that keep you listening.
Cheers. Enjoy your week too.
An Irish Goodbye reminds me of the old categorization of two types of people: ones who leave without saying goodbye and ones who say goodbye but don’t leave (i.e. they stand at the door and talk for another half an hour).
Ha Mae, I like that. That’s a good people categorization. I think I’ll remember that … though I’m not sure which type I prefer.
Enjoy your week & reading.
What a glorious picture! That view of the sunset is stunning. Lovely puzzle too. The Irish Goodbye sounds good; Wharton’s autobiography even better. She was quite accomplished, but then again, she was a lady of means. In poverty being accomplished is more an indulgence than a necessity. It’s great that you are exercising your knee and getting some recovery done. Happy reading this week and good luck with your class!
Thanks Carmen, glad you like the picture. I guess I’m stuck here this winter doing knee exercises – which is sort of boring along with the snow & ice outside but I must keep on to be better by spring. sigh.
& Good point about Wharton — she was a lady of means … and probably snobby too? but had some interesting observations. & often seemed to be on the go. I think the class on her might be good. I will keep reading “Mirth.” Let you know. Hope your reading is going well. Anything great? Have a good week. & Did you get a lot of snow? Stay warm.
Raja the Gullible is hysterically good. We got about a foot of snow and are likely going to get another 5-6” on Sunday. This winter has been brutal, with the temps and the snow! Let us know how the class went. Happy reading!
Wow Carmen, that’s a lot of snow! You must be shoveling out. I saw that the second storm is headed there – another 5 or 6″ eh? Oh my. I guess it’s good for reading right?
I don’t think I’ve taken a class since 1997, lol. I’m a little excited but I need to keep reading Wharton. I’ll let you know how it goes … and thanks for the word on the Raja novel. Hmm. I might need to check it out. Cheers.
I love that puzzle. Anything with a bookstore and books on it.
The Irish Goodbye appeals because it is a family story and I like alternating chapters with different points of view. But maybe too sad?
I need to read something by Edith Wharton before I read about her life, but the book sounds promising.
I hope you continue to have opportunities to exercise your knee.
Hi Tracy, yeah the bookstore puzzle was up my alley too. Wasn’t too hard either.
Luckily The Irish Goodybe wasn’t too sad or depressing… it has some tragedy to the story, but it’s more about the drama of the family in the present — how they get along or not and what’s in their future. So I thought it pretty good and the narration of the three sisters keeps you invested.
And I’m finding that Edith Wharton had quite a life! Now I’m on a bit of a Wharton reading kick. We will see how that goes.
I will try to get my replaced knee ready by spring. I get a bit tired of exercising it but I must keep it going. Have a good week. & happy reading.
Such a lovely photo and view you posted. I bet the dogs love walking there. Glad the knee is doing better, walking helps!
You have me sold on the Edith Wharton book and I now think I would like to add more of her work to my classics list.
Great puzzle! I was thinking of strating one today while we are inside for the week. For Florida it’s cold – lows in the twenties all week and gusty winds. Yikes. I’ll be inside reading, puzzling and making bread.
Hi Tina, thanks. I will try to keep up the hill walking as I find it helps.
This Wharton autobiography wasn’t really my favorite of her books, but I got a glimpse of her life. I have liked her since reading her novel Ethan Frome. The House of Mirth isn’t as streamlined as Ethan Frome but we will see if I can get through it. So far, I’m getting into it.
Sounds like you definitely need to be inside with those cold temps. Do you have another puzzle? I’m actually thinking of starting one we did years ago.
Enjoy your week. I hope to email later. Cheers.
It’s good that you are doing hills to get your knee back in shape and you get to see beautiful sunsets; what a bonus.
You had some good reading this week; mine has been slow because I’ve been binge-watching The Closer. It’s a good show, but not great, and yet, I cannot tear myself away from it.
Thanks Helen. It’s good to get out and walk. So glad I’m over the initial surgery part. Hopefully the knee will be ready by spring.
Is The Closer an older show? I haven’t seen it … but now I’m going to look it up. Sounds pretty good. I’ll check it out. Thx for the tip. Seems like you’ll need to finish The Closer. lol. Have a great week.
Such a pretty puzzle. We have snow just shy of a foot.
Hi Hena, Wow that’s a lot of snow! Are you in New York? I guess it might require some shoveling. Good luck getting out on the roads. Stay safe.
That is a beautiful puzzle. And yes, we all need to stay away from the doom-scrolling. Glad to hear your knee is doing okay. $10K in 1888! What an astounding amount of money that would have been then. Have a great reading week!
Thanks Olivia. I might need to start a new puzzle to help with the doomscrolling. You’re right about Wharton’s big $10k trip in 1888 …. it was a big deal to her family about the $$$ and others at the time they went. They tried to change her mind — but it seems she & her husband went anyways, according to her autobiography. It was mostly thru the Aegean Islands & Greece, & Turkey. Crazy.
Enjoy your week & reading too.
The puzzle is so pretty!
I really know next to nothing about Edith Wharton, it sounds like she was quite an amazing woman. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on her autobiography.
Wishing you a wonderful reading week
Hi Shelleyrae, thanks. The puzzle was a good one. And I’m just learning about Edith Wharton myself … quite a life and writer. I’m planning on a couple of her novels this year. Hope you have a good week too.
That is a lovely bookish puzzle!
Have a great week!
Thanks Marg. It was a good puzzle … and I think I might start another one later this week. Wishing you a good week too. Happy reading.
Hi Susan, Congratulations on completing the puzzle and what a lovely picture of the bookstore.
I have heard that the definitive biography of Edith Wharton is by Hermoine Lee. I never read it but it got raves when it was published.
Hi thanks Kathy. The puzzle was a fun one. And not too hard!
You know JoAnn … also told me that the Hermoine Lee biography is the one to get on Wharton. I am interested to read it … though Amazon says it’s 880 pages. So I’ll have to figure out when would be a good time. Thx for letting me know. It seems her life was fascinating with various travels and homes and friends and books! Enjoy your week.
Pretty photo! We only got a few inches of snow, but it’s been extremely cold. I hope you’re having a good week.
Thanks AJ, nice you stopped by. I can relate on it being cold and not too much snow. Sort of what we have. I will stop by your site soon and see what’s up & if you have any good book suggestions. Cheers.
Goodness, your posts sure do generate a lot of conversation. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I always enjoy reading the comments once I’ve read a post.
No snow (or rain) here. We had a little drizzle, but not really a measurable amount. At least I can get my walks in! My poor daughter lives in Franklin (near Nashville) and lost over ten trees from the ice storm. Thankfully, none fell on their roof!
How’s your knee feeling? I’ve been working out with a new app (Ladder) and doing a lot of leg work that seems to be strengthening my quads and glutes. Just need to be careful with my knees, although the squats are getting easier!
Fun puzzle! We’ve done one or two that look a bit like yours. We’re working on one right now that’s pretty challenging. We’d probably get more done if it were raining…
The Irish Goodbye sounds like something I’d enjoy. I didn’t know what the title meant, either, so don’t feel badly! The book brings to mind one I read and enjoyed last year–The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. That was a winner!
I’m sure I’ve read A Backward Glance since I went through a period of reading A LOT of Edith Wharton’s books. Maybe a review will turn up in my book journals when I finally get back to posting my Looking Back posts. Somehow got off that project, but should resume… When I think of Wharton, I lump her in with Cather, another author I’ve enjoyed over the years.
Thanks for the stunning photo. You have a good eye!
Hi Lesley, thanks glad you like the photo, & good comments. It’s nice to spark a conversation once in a while. I enjoy all the bloggers who stop by … who often leave great insights or thoughts. We have a good group of bookworms, eh?
And sorry to hear about your daughter’s ice storm, wow that’s bad. That can really be dangerous … with all the trees falling. I hope residents are able to recover there.
My knee is doing okay but the recovery has been much slower than the first replacement I had on the other one. Sigh. Still I keep on. Next week will be three months but still have a ways to go. Good you are doing strength training.
I hope you will take a photo of your puzzle once done. We might start another one soon. Though February looks to be busier ahead.
And yeah I think you might like The Irish Goodbye. The audio flows and the three sisters’ perspectives make it a bit interesting.
It’s cool you’ve read many Wharton books … I seem to be on a new kick of hers. A Backward Glance wasn’t as good as I had hoped since it listed most often about her friends’ lives but I got some stuff out of it. It is interesting that Cather and Wharton were contemporaries of one another and had some themes a bit alike though apparently they never met or were affiliated with each other. Maybe they had a bit of a rivalry. I like both authors. They were different in ways.
Wishing you a great week. It’s warm here now and we’re having mud season in January? Crazy.
The book shop puzzle is wonderful. I love that book covers helped piece things together.
The Wharton book looks interesting. I hope you enjoy the on-line class about her work.
Hi Joy, thanks. Yes the puzzle was a bright spot in our January. We might need to start another soon.
And I’ve had one Wharton class so far. It was very informative. Did you know her maiden name was Edith Jones? It doesn’t seem to have the same popular ring to it as Wharton right? Much more to read of her debut. Have a great week.
Love, love, love the photo–feels like home 🙂
Also, I love the puzzle. I would do that one, for sure!
The Irish Goodbye sounds great–if in the right mood. Family dramas can be absorbing, if they aren’t too close to home.
A Backward Glance sounds fantastic. I know a bit about Wharton–her marriage was very troubled, but at least she found space and time to write. I’m currently watching The Gilded Age about the world in which she was a young woman.
Hi Jane, thanks, the puzzle and the view were great and helped me get through long January.
The Irish Goodbye was pretty decent — it’s not my typical read but I got caught up in it. The three sisters narration made it lively.
And yeah I think you’d like Edith’s memoir A Backward Glance. It captures some of her active days traveling and enjoying rides in her “motor car.” She seemed to love her journeys. She was so astute — that she blows the lid off most writers lol. I’m going through an Edith kick. I need to start watching The Gilded Age. thx for reminding me. It looks good & fits Edith’s time frame. perfect. Have a great week.