Book Stack ~ November 2023

A monthly post about what I've been reading.

January 2023
February 2023
March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

My reading this month was a little all over the place--representing my literary split personality. Starting from the bottom of the stack:

Nonfiction

If you swim at all in the sea of memoir writing, one of the books that gets referenced most frequently is Andre Dubus III's memoir Townie. I finally picked it up and gave it a read last month (and, if I'm being honest, which is what memoir requires, bleeding a little into this month). Man, it's a brutal book. So hard to read. I don't, of course, mean the writing, but the experiences of violence and neglect Dubus went through as a child and the violence he participated in as he got older and took on an almost pathological role of defending himself and the people he cared about. I was so mad at his parents, who didn't abuse or hurt their children, but who just did not do what they needed to to make sure they were safe and taken care of--his mom mostly because she was exhausted from working all the time to keep them housed and semi-fed, and his dad because he put his needs--writing, running, and dating college students--ahead of his family. I was also so mad at our society for creating the conditions where so many families fall into circumstances where they can barely survive. It is, ultimately, a triumphant story about overcoming adversity and one's own worst instincts, but it truly takes an extraordinary individual (like Dubus and his siblings) to survive let alone thrive after such an upbringing (many of the other characters in the book, raised in the same chaotic milieu as Dubus do not survive).

On a totally different note, I read Read Books All Day and Get Paid for It by Jennie Nash, which is all about running a book coaching business, something I've been pursuing incrementally over the last couple of years.

Fiction

My sister sent me The Hike by Lucy Clarke, a thriller about four women on a four-day hike through the wilds of Norway that goes horribly wrong. Our day-after-Thanksgiving plans fell through, and so I spent a lot of that day reading, nearly finishing the book in one day. It was a fun read, with a good plot twist, and some interesting characters, each struggling with her own circumstances and her relationship to her friends.

And, of course, I read some Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels. First, I found Legend in Green Velvet, the last book I needed for my collection, at a used bookstore I popped into on a trip to Portland. It's a totally fun and slightly ridiculous caper through the Scottish countryside (similar in vibe to The Camelot Caper/Her Cousin John). Then, because I was working with a friend on the beginnings of a novel she's writing that revolves around antiquarian bookselling, I pulled Houses of Stone off the shelf, because it has an antiquarian books element, and I was curious to see how the great Barbara Michaels made the subject into a thriller. The book doesn't disappoint, with all kinds of gothic elements and quirky characters and a really long chapter that takes place at an estate auction. Finally, I reread Search the Shadows, mainly, I think, because I needed a soothing antidote to Townie. This was the first Michaels/Peters book I read, way back in high school, and it's one of my faves--again, gothic elements, plus Egyptology. Love it!