Whistler by Ann Patchett

Daphne, a creative writing teacher, in New York never thinks about her past. When she suddenly encounters her former stepfather at the Met, whom she has not seen in forty-four years, a chain of events follows.    

Daphne had spent her formative years with him and admired him profusely. Eddie liked to read and do unpredictable things. Once, while visiting a raspberry farm in winter at night, a horrible car accident occurred.   

Her mother and stepfather broke up shortly afterwards. At the time, Daphne did not question it. Only now, forty-four years later, is she able to revisit this painful time. 

Daphne and her stepfather Eddie share a deep bond, a love of books, reading, and writing. Her mother remarried twice after marrying Eddie, but Daphne was closest to Eddie. So, when he re-enters her life, they crash into a heady catch-up game. Eddie ends up sharing his most guarded secrets.  

The cover drew me immediately--a riderless horse staring vacantly into the distance. The horse, it turns out, plays an important part in the story. As an editor, Eddie received many book proposals. A book about Mary Carter's survival story and her dedicated horse, Whistler, is the one book he regrets not publishing. 

The Whistler story resonates with Daphne and her sister, as they excavate their past. It reminds them of their own search for truth. After the accident, Mary Carter survives in a feverish state. Daphne questions Mary's story:

"Did she see things she really didn't see...The only  thing anyone can be sure of was that the horse came back to get her, then brought her to the ranch. Whistler was real."

Daphne is also in the process of re-examining her past and asking questions. What if her parents had not divorced?  What if Buddy had given up his love for the sea? What if Eddie had kept his promise and had given up his first love? 

I love that this book focuses upon the ambivalent relationship Daphne has with her father and the many stand-in fathers in her life. 

Buddy, her biological Dad, hardly ever saw her because he was devoted to the sea and fishing. She does remember that he always packed a survival kit in the car, which ends up helping her on the fateful day of the accident. 

Lucas, her stepfather who writes advice books, is not someone she particularly admires. She ironically calls him "Mr. Positivity" because he writes self-help books but does not take his own advice. She recognizes, however, that he is the father of her half-brothers.  

Daphne honors her two stepfathers and her biological father by returning when they needed her most. She is like Whistler who "exceeds expectations" by returning to Mary as she lies dying on the ground:

    "She was in the space between life and death when you can see the people who died before you. I guess that's a kind of bardo, too." 

Whistler courageously enters this "bardo" to save Mary's life.  

In the end, Daphne is Whistler. She comes back for the fathers in her life. But if she comes back for them, it's only because Eddie preempts her. He is the first "Whistler," the one who finds her at the Met, after all those years, and helps her reconcile with the past. 

Goodkeeping chose Whistler for its June 2026 Book Club Section. 

If you like Ann Patchett's Whistler, you may also like Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures.   

The Gift of Animals by Alison Hawthorne Deming

 

Alison Hawthorne Deming (Science and Other Poems) has compiled a collection of 90 poems that rings alarm bells, reminding readers that the world is losing animals and their gifts at a horrifying rate. The poems are written by a wide range of contributors—some well-known, some relatively new. Some writers based their work on oral traditions. 

 

With topics that range from praise to the future of animals to companionship, the poets consider the grandeur of animal life, the grief of impending loss, and hope for future generations. 

 

Some of the animals that are in peril are seen as protectors; in “Tecolote,” Jose Hernandez Diaz expresses his thanks for owls, the “protector(s) of the moon and sky.” While, arguing against the idea that snakes are sinister and sly, Denise Levertov writes, “Come into animal presence. / No man is so guileless as / the serpent.” 

 

In nature, there are no hard lines, and Nickole Brown’s “A Prayer To Talk to Animals” sums this up beautifully, “Am I not an animal / too?” 

 

A thought-provoking collection of poetic gems that will inspire and remind readers of the importance of connecting with the natural world.

https://medium.com/@chantal.walvoord

This is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara

 

https://medium.com/@chantal.walvoord

In ten stories, Vara describes the gamut of human predicaments and their corresponding emotional states: grief, isolation, obsession, shame, courage, and rage. 

Each story exists in isolation, but numerous stories mirror each other. Grief in response to losing a sister is apparent in “Hormone Hypothesis” and in “Eighteen Girls.” The unnamed character in “Hormone Hypothesis,” who is unconsciously looking for a sister figure, finds Fernanda. Though this stay-at-home mother is the narrator’s opposite, the two bond and find strength in their shared grief. 

A complementary story, “Eighteen Girls,” features two sisters, one of whom is slowly dying of cancer. The “eighteen girls” of the title are the same girl—the healthy girl reacting to her sister’s forceful personality. 

“The Irates” and “I, Buffalo” deal self-hatred and shame.  In “The Irates” a teen finds the world irretrievably altered after her much-loved brother dies. She works a job she detests—telemarketing—and becomes a person she hates—an “irate.”  Sheila, the main character of “I, Buffalo” has lost her high-stakes job after an embarrassing incident. Vara brilliantly describes emotional states, especially isolation.  

In “This is Salvaged,” a man has the lonely experience of trying to build a replica of Noah’s ark and in “Sibyls” a woman with a movie star’s name dies unnoticed. 

This is Salvaged is a compelling short story collection that visits aspects of the human condition with humor and nuance. 

Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen

Readers who likes eccentric characters and strange twists of fate will love Harry's Trees. 

Oriana and Amanda live near the woods in the Endless Mountains area of Pennsylvania. Life is ordinary until Amanda's perfect husband and Oriana's perfect father dies. 

 Dean dies sprawled out like a snow angel in a snowy field. His buddy, Ronnie, is convinced there are feather impressions in the snow. He believes Dean has become some sort of  winged creature--a red-tailed hawk--who can interact with the townspeople after his death. 

But its more than feathers that take on a larger significance. The lottery ticket Harry bought is piece of bad magic, an unlucky talisman.

Amanda Jeffers, Oriana's mother, doesn't believe in miracles, fairy tales, or magic but nonetheless she shelters Harry. She lets him rent out her tree house because they are in the same club--both having survived a year after a spouse's death.

Amanda thinks Harry is safe--that he is a "bland, levelheaded bureaucrat who understood rules." Little does she know that Harry is the opposite of what she thinks.

Harry is just like the "grum" in the story Oriana loves from Olive Perkins' library. He is the catalyst that will change everyone perspective; this is, if his brother, Wolf, doesn't catch up with him first.

Wolf is appropriately named because he is greedy and destructive--the villain of Harry's childhood. His greed is the opposite of Harry's altruism. 

Wolf is drawn to the only other character who is extremely voracious--Stu Gipner. Will Wolf and Stu bring destruction to the fairy tale world Harry and Oriana have constructed? Will Amanda, who is jaded and practical, believe in the fairy tale? 

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (part 1)

Though she is an expert who has trained many raptors, MacDonald feels compelled to train a goshawk after her father's death. Known to be the most difficult of all to train, the goshawk is a suitable challenge that allows her to grieve and escape from the world.

MacDonald's father, a photojournalist, viewed the world through his camera lens. He taught Helen to be a watcher and that is what she does while training hawks. 

For the first few weeks she "watches" them; she allows herself to become invisible while feeding them from gloved hands.

The next stage is "manning" the hawk. Manning the hawk means uncovering its head in public. Up to this point, the hawk wear a hood in public.

In this wildly original work of non-fiction, MacDonald also confronts her younger self and her disdain for fellow hawk-trainer and legendary author, T.H. White.

His loneliness mirrors her own though she does not appear to recognize this. As an adult, MacDonald comprehends White's troubled soul and his loneliness. 

MacDonald is an academic so much of the writing comes across an a beautifully-written academic essay. She is also a poet which explains the work's formidable imagery: "The hawk was a fire that burned my hurts away."

Since she is also historian, MacDonald often engages in interesting asides, like her discussion of the Pastoral movement that occurred in Britain in the 1930s. 

Mostly, though, she shares her triumphs and failures as an austringer. Though she trains Mabel to land on her fist, inexplicably, her goshawk stops doing it consistently. MacDonald feels she has failed her hawk.

Much of this non-fiction treatise reads like feral therapy. MacDonald is afraid to let Mabel loose of the creance as she is supposed to do: "I'm convinced that Mabel will rocket away from me and disappear for ever." 

This isn't a bond she takes lightly. During her time of grief, she has frequent angry outbursts. She finds it particularly hard to learn to trust again:

 "Flying a hawk free is always scary. It is where you test these lines. And it's not a thing that's easy to do when you've lost trust in the world, and your heart is turned to dust." 

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Lost and Found by Brooke Davis

Brooke Davis is a vibrant new voice in fiction. She gives the viewpoints of three characters--a lonely old man, a crochety old woman and a seven-year-old girl who contemplates death. Her father has just died and her mother has abandoned her in a department store. 

Davis mixes just the right amount of pathos and humor when she gives voices Milly. When her mother does not return for her, she imagines that one of the manikins is her friend. She record dead things in her dead things journal. She leaves notes that will supposedly help her Mum find her: "In here Mum."

She also befriends Karl, a touch typist who writes messages to his deceased wife in the air. By accident, Karl joins Milly and Agatha on a bus journey to Kalgoorlie. 

The bus trip is followed by an outlandish train trip through Nullarbor Plain. The three of them are determined to find Milly's Mum or, at least, a relative to take care of her.

Lost and Found is completely different from anything else I've read. Very few novels, after all, feature a seven-year-old who run away with two octogenarians. Very few novels features a seven-year-old who is obsessed with death. 

What makes Milly so unique, however, is her ironic innocence and intelligence.She nearly meets her match though on the train when she meets another little boy who calls himself "Captain Everything."