Author: Joyce Poggi Hager

What I'm Reading

Favorite Books of 2021

My favorite book of the year was The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. After the Emancipation Proclamation, two brothers find work on a Georgia farm but the community is not as open-minded as their landowner employer. Conflict ensues as the brothers continue to struggle for freedom. This novel has gorgeous prose, memorable characters, and a beautiful ending.

A close second was Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. Set in late 16th century England, a Latin tutor and his unusually talented wife deal with the effects of the Black Plague on their marriage and family. Also beautifully written with a memorable ending.

Other notable fiction I enjoyed include:

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Favorite non-fiction & inspiration:

Taste (My Life Through Food) by Stanley Tucci. A  fun read, especially if you watched his CNN series traveling throughout Italy on gastronomical adventures. While reading the book, I could hear Tucci’s distinctive voice.

Incidental Inventions by Elena Ferrante. A year’s worth of personal essays originally published in The Guardian. I love everything written by this reclusive, talented author.

Devotions by Mary Oliver. The poet curated this final collection of her favorite poems. It makes a calming bedside companion.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. My mother introduced this book to me decades ago. It was a sort of bible to her and I see why. I’ve read it several times and, like she did, I keep it on my nightstand.

What was your favorite book of the year?

Happy reading and Happy New Year!

Family, Home and Garden

Poetry for Rosemarie

Hello sunny skies and warmer weather! The dogwood and magnolia trees planted three summers ago are budding – a perfect sign for the season of renewal.

I’m eager to plant annuals and transplant some perennials. My peonies will burst soon and they’ll need more room. After hours of toiling with a spade, I’ll be lulled to rest on the back porch by the tinkling of the garden fountain and wind chimes. 

I think of my mother while gardening. She said she felt closest to God when on her knees digging in soil. She nurtured hollyhocks, hens and chicks, begonias, impatiens, and more.

Mom appreciated nature’s beauty and hard work. Having grown up during the Depression, she was an industrious and focused woman who frequently told me to “be productive.”

In recognition of my mother and National Poetry Month, here’s a fitting piece by Edgar Guest.

Results and Roses

The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small or very big,
With flowers growing here and there,
Must bend his back and dig.

The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain.
Whate’er we want of any worth
We’ve got to work to gain.

It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You’ve got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses.

Family, Home and Garden, What I'm Reading

Nature’s Balm

Sharing words of inspiration during our time at home in April, National Poetry Month.

Walden Pond, Concord, MA

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Memoir, Writing Life

An Angel Named Ginny

You never know where an angel may appear. I didn’t know what kind of reception I’d get for my memoir, Jimmy and Me. After publication, I spent a year promoting the book at local events and libraries and attending book club meetings.

My friend Peggy graciously hosted me at her book club near the town in Pennsylvania where I grew up. The 20 members gave me a warm reception and asked insightful questions.

A couple of months later, one member named Ginny contacted me to say she was an avid Philadelphia Flyers fan just like my dear brother Jimmy who has special needs. She asked for his address and said she wanted to send him hockey swag.

Shortly thereafter, Jimmy opened a box filled with Flyers t-shirts, hats, a signed puck, a variety of other goodies, and a personal note from Ginny. He called me to share his excitement and expressed a sense of wonder that someone he’s never met sent gifts related to his beloved Flyers.

I’m still in awe of the kindness of someone who came to know Jimmy only by reading about him. Never did I imagine my words would impact a reader who’d feel an urge to do something to bring my brother joy in his mid-60s.

Ginny’s selfless act reminds me why writing the book was worthwhile and it far surpasses any public recognition I could receive.