I can’t believe we are already here for Show Us Your Books! In between Thanksgiving preparations, a quick work trip to Indiana, knitting and soap making, I had a solid month of reading and am pleased to share at least one recommendation from a fellow reader and linker from last month!
So, with the obligatory cat picture out of the way, let’s jump right in.
Good Husbandry by Kristin Kimball was my first and one of my favorite reads this month. I’d read her first book, the Dirty Life, last year, which relayed how she, a New York writer, went to an organic upstart farm to interview the owner / operator, and how, subsequently, she fell in love with him. It was a happy and romantic and funny story of uprooting her entire life to marry him and follow his love of farming, the rhythms of the seasons, and the earth to table / good food movements. Good Husbandry is her follow up and it was not as lighthearted as Dirty Life – but that’s partly why I liked it. The bloom is off the rose here, and what we have is an honest assessment of the struggles to make ends meet as a farm family. Kimball writes about not having enough time, money, or hands to balance the dawn to dark work of a small farm with motherhood and marriage. I loved her truthful insights about the parallels of all of those kinds of work, joyful but sober. It reminded me, in spirit if nothing else, of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The First Four Years.
The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan was a recommendation from a fellow linker from last month (I’m so sorry, I didn’t make a note of which of you lovelies read & shared it) but I enjoyed it and will definitely read more of her Cormac Reilly installments. Irish police detective work and thorny family politics made the pages turn (speaking of Irish detectives, anyone watching the Starz! interpretation of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad and if so what say ye?? I’m a bit hooked)
Who Slays the Wicked by C.S. Harris ended up being a satisfactory Regency detective yarn that I didn’t think I’d like as much as I did. The seemingly endless titles – “Marquis” this and “Viscount” that – initially reminded me of the old bodice ripper romance novels I occasionally read when I was a young teenager. But I found myself turning the pages to see what Sebastian St. Cyr could come up with next. Not sure I’d pick up another in this series, though.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson was featured in writer Elizabeth Gilbert’s Instagram a few months ago. I became obsessed with Jansson’s Moomin series when I was a first or second grader spending a few horribly homesick days up north with not-super-close relatives. I still love Moomin and yet had never read any of Jansson’s adult fiction (not that there’s much of it). This slim little novel hangs on the summer a young girl spends with her bohemian grandmother on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. Like all of Jansson’s books, this was ephemeral and riotous and unsettling and sad and philosophical, and altogether beautiful.
Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague by David K. Randall was this month’s nonfiction selection. I never knew that San Francisco was the center of an outbreak of Bubonic Plague around the turn of the century. It’s not only interesting from a medical standpoint, but also from a political and sociological view, as well. It should come as no surprise that when the outbreak starts in Chinatown, fear, hatred, and racism soon follow.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell, sadly, I just did not like at all. This is my first Jewell novel although I know she’s quite popular and I’ve seen her name around a lot. This book just didn’t do it for me and I’m not sure I can explain why. It had the components of something I would like, but I found all the characters unlikeable, the atmosphere creepy and cold and the story, although not as dark as many things I read, felt stifling and unbearably gloomy. Should I try her again or is this a pretty standard offering?
As I mentioned, I had a relatively quick work trip to Indiana and, faced with about eight hours in the car, I brought along an audiobook to keep me company…I never know if it’s kosher to count audiobooks as “reads” (I don’t track them on Goodreads, after polling my Facebook friends, who almost unanimously said that “listening” to a book can’t be called “reading” it) – but hey, a book is a book, so I include this in the spirit of inclusiveness. The Dutch House is my first Ann Patchett novel (although like Lisa Jewell I’ve seen her all over the place). I enjoyed Tom Hanks’ narration, I liked many of the characters, which is important, and although I didn’t necessarily love it, it was a fine companion for my drive. I think essentially it’s the story of a brother and sister and how their relationship sustains when every other primary relationship in their lives falter. And there’s an evil stepmother and, of course, as the title would indicate, a grandiose house in there, too.
I hope your month has been full of great reads – can’t wait to check out some of your blogs and compile some new recommendations to track down. Be well and be kind to yourself during this busy and often stressful season. Sneak away and lose yourself in a book as much as you need to in order to make it through happy, healthy, and joyful.
xoxo and see you next month!
Six Ten 