Recent reads: December 2024

I’ve spent the past two months reading a lot. I’ve had a book to hand and have picked it up rather than my phone much of the time when I have free moments. It’s advice I saw on Mandy’s site and it’s a great idea, highly recommend. To that end, Mandy wrote something else about reading and rereading that I found really profound in a recent newsletter (apologies for no link, but this one isn’t online and was only via email).

The more our media fracture and splinter into a million sharp and targeted blades, the more I want to read and reread. I’m convinced it’s more than an escape; it’s both fortification and fight, both a refusal to accept things as they are and the power to change them—one page, one sentence, one steel-toed word at a time.

Books, and stories, are powerful and I try to start my day with some nonfiction and end it with fiction and in between read whatever strikes me. I’m not a huge rereader, but this winter I very well may pick up some favorites and read them again. Here’s to a 2025 filled with books and stories.

Real Tigers

Book three of the Slow Horses series and it didn’t disappoint. I really love the way Mick Herron always has Jackson Lamb seeming like he doesn’t really know what’s going on, but the ending shows you just how much he really sees. I didn’t fully see this ending coming; the cat and mouse between the Slow Horses and the rest of the service is so well done.

If you only knew how much I smell you: True portraits of dogs

G went to a different branch of our local library system to look through their photo books and he picked this up for me. It was so good and exactly what I needed to make me laugh and smile. The photos are by Valerie Shaff and Roy Blount Jr does the text which made me laugh out loud several times. Highly recommend if you can find it.

You think it, I’ll say it

I really loved Romantic Comedy and when I saw a used copy of short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld I grabbed it. These stories are all just a touch uncomfortable at times, so real in how people act in relationships, and the prefect length. I enjoyed it, even though I often found myself squirming and wanting to shout out to the characters, maybe that’s what made it so good.

Here

While watching the World Series, a movie based on this book was constantly being advertised. I then found out it was based on a graphic novel and the library had it. I didn’t love it, but the concept is super interesting, the same living room over time and glimpses of people as they live there.

Wide Saragasso Sea

A classic book I found through the lists at the end of The Sentence and then put off reading for quite some time. How did the woman married to Rochester in Jane Eyre become who she is? That’s what Jean Rhys imagines and it’s a doozy of a book, showing how much the people with power abused and made her into the woman she became. A really interesting idea but also a difficult read.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost

This was my nonfiction reading for the past several months as I slowly read the essays. I love Rebecca Solnit and this book was no exception. Solnit draws on her life and experiences to talk about loss in a variety of ways, from way finding to grief. I particularly enjoyed some of the ways in which she tied in historic stories of loss.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

How can an old octopus and an older woman save each other? That’s what this really great story set out to answer. I loved this book and flew through it, I guess it was popular for a reason. In particular the way in which Tova and Marcellus come to understand one another was so lovely. A perfect book to look at relationships in a new and different light.

The Marriage Portrait

I loved Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and have been waiting for the hype over this book to die down to get it from the library. This story was so surpising and so good. Lucrezia is such a rich character and yet the story shows her growing up and realizing what life is like for a young lady in her time. Loved this one and have been thinking about a lot of different bits of it since I finished.

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

I loved reading these thoughts on each week of the year, going through it by seasons. Renkl is great at noticing the small things that I love to think about and it’s made me take a longer look at what’s happening in our backyard, even though it’s winter and a bit quiet. The art work that went with each week was a pleasant surprise, I didn’t realize it was in the book and I loved that as well.

The Appeal

A mystery told entirely through the correspondence of the peopled involved and it ended up being super fascinating. How does one solve a mystery when reading emails sent between the key suspects, all of whom are involved in a small community theater group. It reminded me of the satire I read told entirely through office memos, it works and I ended up really enjoying this book.

Melmoth

I enjoyed The Essex Serpent so had this novel on my list for a while. Perry tells the story of Helen living in Prague who is friends with a man who starts to research Melmoth, a ghost like figure who follows people and sees all they do. As Helen’s friend becomes more obsessed and seems to go a bit mad, she starts reading about Melmoth and she too starts to wonder about what’s happening to her. All the while we learn Helen’s story and why she feels Melmoth may be watching her. I didn’t enjoy this as much as Perry’s previous novel, but my curiosity drove me to the end.