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Just a quick post this week to wrap up 2024 and check in with you all before the new year:
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice - whatever you celebrate! We ended up with three separate Christmas celebrations, and they were all wonderful. First, we went upstate to see some of my family, including my amazing grandma, who will be 97 years old next month! Then, we had a quiet Christmas Eve with my partner’s family. And finally, my immediate family came over Christmas day for brunch. We ate too much at every stop, but calories don’t count at Christmas, right?
Between all the celebrations, I have been working hard to put together an introduction post for The House of Mirth. I’m excited to kick off My Year With Edith Wharton in a few days. I can’t believe how many of you have liked my announcement post. So many new people have subscribed, I can’t believe it! We will have a lot of fun reading her books and learning more about her life.
With all that going on, you may think I was too busy to read, but you’re wrong. On December 8th, a cheeky little reading challenge started amongst some of my book friends, and I have been reading like a crazy lady (especially when you think about how slim my spare time has been lately). It’s honestly too much to go through in my regular post format, so we’re going to rapid-fire through everything I’ve finished since we last spoke.
Are you ready?
Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates is a dark academic, psychological thriller that has been on my must-read pile for at least the last three years, but I never got around to it. I finally picked it up, and I hate to say it, but I was underwhelmed. There are six students at Oxford who play a game that messes with each of them psychologically and, ultimately, results in the tragic death of one of the players. The book follows one of the students years after graduation, and he wakes to find that the game is about to begin again. We alternate between the present and what happened in the first game back at Oxford. It could have been so good, but it didn’t do anything for me. The psychological bits didn’t feel sick and twisted enough, and I felt zero thrills. Maybe there was a reason I kept putting it off.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a must this time of year. I usually re-read Little Women at Christmas, but this year, I thought I’d try a different classic to set the tone for the season. It also helped that
was also hosting a read-along. I usually find Dickens to be a bit tedious, but honestly, A Christmas Carol is perfection. It’s haunting, emotional, and will have you shouting MERRY CHRISTMAS when you finish it. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t already.Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (and translated by Megan McDowell) was the final book from the TBR Lowdown 2024 Reading list, and I can’t wait to talk about it with my co-host Naomi later this week. This short horror novel really packs a punch. The atmosphere is perfectly eerie. Honestly, anytime there are creepy children in a story, it sends a shiver up my spine. Something in the water infects the children in this town, and the fallout is genuinely haunting. I loved this and need to read more from Schweblin.
I read the most recent installment of Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, and of course, I loved it. I could read the webtoon online, but I prefer to read these in the paperback version. I think we get volume eight next year, which might be the last installment (I could be wrong; let me know). I love Smythe’s artwork and how she reinterprets Hades and Persephone. I don’t want this series to end.
I finished the final book in My Year With Jane Austen. Persuasion is hands down my favorite Austen novel, and I love that I got to end this journey with it. I filmed my review, so watch for that in the coming days. I completely agree with everyone who calls this Austen’s most mature novel. Persuasion is also the most romantic of her novels. Wentworth’s letter to Anne makes me all swoony every time.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone is one of those books that’s gotten a lot of hype, and I’ve been scared to read it, especially because of the attention it’s gotten recently. It’s a strange book to summarize, but essentially, two people leave letters for each other in different timelines. Through their letters, they fall in love. Unfortunately, they’re on opposite sides of a battle and should hate each other. Their letters grow more romantic and poetic as the story continues. I loved it and think it’s worth the hype, and I will re-read this sometime soon.
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin (translated by Bonnie Huie) was recommended by a friend, and I’m delighted they did so. Notes of a Crocodile is a cult classic, coming-of-age novel about queer teenagers in Taiwan in the late 80s and early 90s. We follow Lazi as she navigates life and figures out her sexuality. Lazi struggles to understand her sexuality and how others treat her differently because she’s a lesbian. Lazi’s story alternates with a note from a crocodile, the crocodile being an allegory for lesbians, and highlights how the media and homophobic culture dehumanizes anything that isn’t heteronormative.
Notes of a Crocodile was published in 1994 amid a Taiwanese media frenzy surrounding lesbians in Taiwan. There was an incident where a journalist secretly took photos of women at a lesbian bar, exposing them without their consent and pushing some of these women to suicide. Tragically, the author killed herself at the age of 26 while in Paris. I found a fantastic article about Qiu from Making Queer History if you want to learn more about her.
I don’t even want to talk about Blankets by Craig Thompson, but I will. This graphic novel is about Craig growing up in an evangelical home in middle America, falling in love with a girl at Bible camp, and eventually deconstructing his faith. Some of the art is stunning, but some panels didn’t need to exist (IYKYK). I only read this to score points for this silly reading challenge. I do not recommend it.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles is a classic campus novel I found in a box of books I brought back from my mom’s house last year. I’m pretty sure I read this in school, but I couldn’t recall a thing about it. We were at a boarding school in New Hampshire during WWII. Some of the boys are graduating and going off to war. Some are younger and holding onto the final moments of their school years. We’re following two boys who are good friends, and one suffers an accident that leaves them unable to play sports again. The book is tragic, and I can see how this would have been a moving, must-read classic a generation or two ago. It’s well-written, but I don’t know if it resonates with modern readers like it once did. It was okay, but I wonder if it’s still on school reading lists. If it is, we should replace it with something more relatable. There are so many books about coming of age and loss of innocence that finding a replacement shouldn’t be hard.
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes was a strange read for me. The writing is superb, but I expect that from Barnes. There are beautifully executed lines about literary criticism, the writing process, being a writer, and the reader-writer relationship. I loved it! But then there’s the narrator’s OBSESSION with Flaubert. I don’t know much about Flaubert, and I had no interest in him while reading. This made reading about the author for just under two hundred pages tedious. I felt like a stranger was showing me pictures from their vacation. Perhaps I will revisit this if I ever decide to be interested in Flaubert. Barnes provides some funny quips from Faubert throughout, so I might enjoy his writing.
I didn’t know much about Joan of Arc going into Joan by Katherine J. Chen, and now I want to learn more. This is a newer historical fiction about Joan’s rise from peasant to leader of the French Army. Joan feels very grounded in this portrayal. She’s not talking to angels or acting like a mystic. She’s a practical, headstrong woman who understands military strategy better than anyone else around her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t understand the backstabbing that happens at court and how to play the game of politics. This ultimately leads to her downfall. I’m no Joan of Arc scholar, as I said, so I can’t speak to the accuracy of this novel, but Hilary Mantel says, "It is as if Chen has crept inside a statue and breathed a soul into it, re-creating Joan of Arc as a woman for our time." If Hilary likes it, it must be well done.
I finally finished my re-read of Stoner by John Williams, and I still love this book. And I stand by my comments regarding his wife. I feel Williams makes Bill a very sympathetic character, even when he’s doing something wrong we feel for him as readers. Meanwhile, his wife enters as a sheltered, timid woman. They get married, and she’s clearly depressed and feels trapped in a life she didn’t know she was signing up for. One day, she returns home from an extended visit with her mother in St. Louis, and she’s now a villain. I need someone to write her story! There is so much there to dig into. I won’t shut up until someone writes it!!!
And finally, I’m still making my way through Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes. I’m about 70% of the way through. I’m only vaguely sure what is happening in this plot, but I’m still enjoying myself (don’t ask me how). I’m determined to finish this before the new year!
And that’s everything! My fingers are tired from typing that all out.
Just in from publishers:
(Thank you to all the publishers who send me books for spotlight and review. I will never get over how bonkers it is that this happens.)
I was very surprised to receive a package from a publisher just before Christmas. I thought there would be a lull during the holidays, but I was wrong.
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison (Out now from Vintage):
The Source of Self-Regard is a collection of Morrison’s essays and speeches that are just as relevant today as they were when they were written. The collection includes her prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. It also includes essays on female empowerment, the press, human rights, and even critical essays on her own novels. I have been building my Toni Morrison collection for a few years, and I plan to spend a year reading all her books. Now, I can include this wonderful collection on the reading list.
Final Thoughts:
I don’t want to end the year with doom and gloom, but I don’t feel comfortable putting on a fake smile and pretending everything in the world is okay. This has been an interesting year for many of us. Some genuinely wonderful things have happened in my personal life, and I am grateful for every one of them. I’ve also had my share of struggles (and I know I’m not alone). Globally, it's been a hell of a year, and I’m honestly unsure what 2025 will bring. I’m going to focus on the good things as they come. And I’ll be here rambling about books and things for another year because books help bring us together.
Thank you to everyone who’s subscribed to the newsletter. I started this on a whim this year and didn’t know how it would pan out. I love having this space to check in with you every week. I also love reading your comments and all the recommendations I've received for movies and books. Thank you again.
See you in 2025!
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See you next week!
I’m afraid I must reluctantly disagree with your interpretation of John Williams’ “Stoner”. For starters, I don’t find Bill Stoner to be tremendously sympathetic, and I think Williams’ development of his character contains some inconsistencies that prevented me from accepting him as a fully rounded person. We are meant to believe that Stoner is “in love” with literature, as Professor Sloane tells him early in the novel, but I was never persuaded that Stoner had a real passion for books and reading. In fact, the only passion in his life was Katherine Driscoll, though I certainly don’t begrudge him that brief interlude of love and happiness.
I never thought of Edith as being “a villain”. She is the product of a loveless marriage and a dysfunctional homelife, where it was made clear to her from birth that she was an unwanted child, not the son her parents felt they deserved. I don’t view her as being “a sheltered, timid woman”; rather, she’s a child deprived of parental love to the point that she’s emotionally damaged and withdraws into herself. It’s not her marriage to Stoner that’s the trap, it’s her toxic family home that she marries Stoner to escape from.
I think the responsibility for the failure of the marriage rests more with Stoner than with Edith. Stoner’s first meeting with Edith’s parents should have alerted him that there was something definitely odd about the family. But Stoner doesn’t seem to be a particularly perceptive person. Twice during the novel, we are told that he is not very introspective. Another time we are told he feels a certain “deadness”. We also learn that, “He felt at times that he was a kind of vegetable, and he longed for something—even pain—to pierce him, to bring him alive.” Stoner doesn’t sound like the sort of person to be an active and sympathetic listener, someone to help Edith share the burden of her sorrows and fears, and make their marriage work.
Not book-related, but on Friday night, Francesca, my son Mathew and I went to see “Nosferatu” at the local cineplex and thoroughly enjoyed it! The whole film is pervaded by this grim, gray, gloomy, dank, cold, winter twilight mood and feeling. Even though the theatre was well-heated, I was glad I wore a sweater. The filmmakers paid a tremendous amount of attention to details of costume, hair styles, set design and furnishings. The outdoors scenes were similarly impressive, and there were times when I lost my sense of sitting in a movie theatre and became thoroughly absorbed in what was happening on the big screen. I didn’t hear a peep from the audience during the whole screening, as if they were equally transfixed. A great horror film with a sustained mood of unease throughout the whole movie. My only problem with “Nosferatu” is that it breaks one of my own personal rules about horror stories and horror films.