Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Lisa

A different kind of historical fiction: Review of All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner

There’s a “famous” quote in Christendom by ancient mystic Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” I love this quote, and it’s where this book by Susie Finkbeiner gets its title and theme, but that’s not what drew me to the book. To be honest, I didn’t make the connection right away. 

I first heard about All Manner of Things because of social media. The author is a friend of a writing friend (and now that we’ve met in person at a writing retreat, I consider her my friend, too!) so I’ve been following her on socials for a few months, and this, her latest book, came up as a review possibility through her publisher’s blogging program. I said yes to a digital review copy without really knowing anything about the book.

Let me fill you in:

Annie is an 18-year-old living with her mom and brothers in Michigan in 1967. Her father, a veteran of the Korean Conflict, left the family years ago and they haven’t heard from him since, and Annie’s older brother Mike, is about to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War. There’s the chance for family reunification as Mike discovers their father’s address.

If that plot sounds simple, it is. But it’s also not. I’ll try to explain.

First, I can’t remember ever reading a historical set in this time period. It feels weird to call it historical because the events happened only a decade before I was born, but I liked reading something set in a time period that wasn’t early 20th century or late 19th century, even though I enjoy stories set in those time periods as well. I’d love to hear from someone who lived through the late 1960s if the story is well-represented. (I trust the author so I suspect that it is.)

Second, it doesn’t feel like a lot happens during the story, but don’t take that to mean it’s boring. Far from it. The war is always looming in the background of the everyday back-at-home events. All Manner of Things is, to me, a beautiful illustration of what it’s like for families with loved ones serving in a combat zone. Life at home doesn’t stop, but it’s always shadowed by thoughts of war. The story doesn’t drag. It moves at a comfortable pace and reflects what I assume were the ordinary goings on of a teenager’s life in the 1960s.

I’m already a fan of the author as a person and now I’m a fan of her writing as well. I can’t wait to read more of her stories!

This one moved me to tears and left me lifted with hope at the same time.

I’d encourage you to give this one a read.

Disclosures: I received a free digital copy of the book from the publisher. Review reflects my honest opinion. And this post contains affiliate links, which simply means if you click the link and make a qualifying purchase, I receive a small percentage of the purchase which costs you nothing extra and helps support my writing.

We needed this

Our vacation ended nearly two weeks ago, and I’ve been struggling with how to tell you about all that we experienced while we were there. I started with food because that was easy. I don’t want the rest of it to be like someone whipping out their vacation slideshow at a family get-together and then you’re held captive (not in a good way) for the next hour. I suppose that’s not possible here anyway because you can just click away.

I am going to show you pictures, mostly of us, not just of the things we saw. Because I want you to see us as we experienced vacation. We needed this trip after several stressful months, wrapping up the end of the school year and dealing with the tree that fell on our car and other events that had our emotions on a roller coaster.

So, here goes.

Look how tired we are at the start of vacation. We left after Phil got off work for the day, it was around five o’clock, I think by the time we were officially on the road, and I’d been stressing for days about whether I’d packed all the things we needed while imagining bad things happening to the rental car we were taking with us.

BUT THEN New York! After hours of driving north through Pennsylvania, we finally crossed the state border and were immediately rewarded with mountainous views. (Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you’re really on vacation until you’re in another state.) We spent more time than planned at this welcome center, partly because a family was trying to take portrait shots with this sign. The “I <3 New York” isn’t just a clever slogan, as we would find out. For me at least, it was love at first sight.

This is us after a mediocre night’s sleep in a hotel near the Erie Canal and an early wake-up to catch the trolley to the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. Baseball is energizing for us, plus we were riding an actual trolley not just a shuttle bus that called itself a trolley.

We will proudly wear our Cubs’ gear anywhere, but it seemed especially appropriate at the Hall of Fame. One neat feature we discovered while waiting for the museum to open was a listing of the current standings, updated daily.  “We’re Number One!”

Our son selectively wants to be in pictures, so when he says “take a picture of me!” we usually comply. Before we left Cooperstown, we wandered down to the water because the Susquehanna River starts here (and we live in the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania). I don’t know if we ever found THE spot, but it was still fun to be at the source.

This is Monday morning, for those of you keeping score at home. We checked in to our cabin in the Finger Lakes on Sunday night and went to the grocery store Monday morning, to settle in for the week ahead. But we still wanted to do some exploring, so we drove south to Watkins Glen State Park. It was about an hour drive and you can see what happened on the way there. Usually, this is our sign of a successful vacation, when both of our kids are passed out in the backseat. Phil and I had to laugh because it was only our second full day of vacation!

It was raining, and not lightly, but we hiked the gorge trail anyway. There weren’t a lot of people out and about, which maybe was a good thing, but one woman offered to take a family picture for us. I think she’d done this before because she crouched down and lined everything up so that we were in the picture with a waterfall. It was not the only act of kindness we experienced on vacation. (More about that in another post.)

A word about these pictures. It has been a long time since I have looked at pictures of myself and not cringed. And I say this not just because my body has undergone some positive changes. It’s a reflection of internal work, too. When I look at the woman in these photos, I see genuine joy and a zest for life. Of course I don’t feel this 100 percent of every day, but more often than not. It’s the result of a lot of hard work. But also, water and nature are two of my happy places.

Windy, much? Between historical sites on Tuesday we ate lunch at a park on another one of the Finger Lakes. (We think we visited three of the lakes altogether, and definitely the two biggest ones, but you could spend weeks in the Finger Lakes and not see everything!) The water draws me and I make no apologies.

Our kids getting sworn in as junior rangers at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. They “solved” a mystery to earn their junior ranger badges. I need to pause here and tell you about our visit to the birthplace of the women’s rights movement. Going in, I thought this was about women winning the right to vote. It was so much more than that, and votes isn’t how it started out at all. This was a movement about giving women options outside of marriage and motherhood, about giving them personhood apart from their husbands. I nearly wept as I sat in the pews of the building where the first convention was held, thinking about the work these women had put into this fight and how we are still fighting for equality today. I was moved by the significance of what they had done for without their convictions, I would have a very different life today. And I was shocked to learn that some of the events toward equality have happened in my lifetime.

That is the long way of saying, if you have the chance to visit Seneca Falls, N.Y., do it and go to the Women’s Rights park.

We are at the top of an observation deck in a wildlife refuge, and this picture was taken as quickly as possible so I could go back down. I have a complicated relationship with heights. I hate to miss out on breathtaking views, but I also have a legitimate fear of falling. I did go up a second time so my husband could show me some nesting birds through the long-range viewfinders.

Another day, another waterfall. If we’d had more Internet access, I would have tagged our vacation #allthefalls because that was a theme. This was Taughhannock Falls, on our way to Ithaca. We didn’t find the overlook we were looking for, but we hiked a bit of a gorge trail. (That was another potential hashtag #GORGEous. I’m clever and I know it!)

Our last night at the cabin, chillin’ by the campfire. There was a lot of togetherness on this vacation. I mean, what family vacation isn’t there togetherness, but we shared a one-room cabin for five days and we all survived. I’m doing my best to cherish my kids at this age because they still mostly like us and still need us a little bit. I know we’re in for some rough days in the future when spending time with family won’t always be fun. For now, we take selfies because we like each other.

Friday morning, it was time to clean out the cabin and pack the car for our next leg of the adventure. Cabin 14 will always have a special place in our hearts.

Niagara Falls. American side. I don’t have enough words for all the feelings. I was much younger the last time I visited the falls, probably about the age of my kids. I don’t remember much about it. I hope they have more lasting memories.

I’m not sure what compelled me to take this picture except that sometimes I’m standing next to my husband and I just want to take a selfie. Plus, I love this jacket I bought before the trip. It has intentional tears in it and was on clearance. I don’t know what to think about who I’ve become.

We weren’t planning to pay for a lot in Niagara because it was the end of our trip and we would be eating out at every meal, but Journey Behind the Falls is worth spending the money on.

This is me having the time of my life. The horseshoe falls was *this close* and I got drenched and it was the best. One of my favorite parts of the trip. Ordinarily, I don’t like getting wet like when it’s raining or if I step in a spot of water while wearing socks. This was not ordinary circumstances, though. We could have spent a lot of time behind and next to the falls. So much history to learn.

We could have spent a lot more time in the tunnels. Definitely a highlight for me. And we got to keep the ponchos as souvenirs.

Whether it’s this summer or another season of year, I hope you take the time you need to slow down, relax and refresh.