Happy New Year! I bet that, as the clock struck midnight, you were thinking to yourself, well, now that the year is over, I’d better check in with Shannon to see how many books she read in 2023.
And you’re in luck! After drunkenly swigging champagne at midnight, and ok, a recovery day in between, I have put together a post of nerdy book stats. What a way to start the year! Let’s go.
Reading Wrap-up with Nerdy Book Stats
Total books read: 63 (Wildly, that’s 44 fewer books than last year.) Fiction: 44 Nonfiction: 19 Female authors: 47 Male Authors: 16 Nonbinary: 0 (I have a poor track record here.) Non-white authors: 5 (Yikes. Will do better in 2024.) E-books: 22 Audiobooks: 35 (These numbers won’t add up to the total because I sometimes switched from ebook to audiobook and back, etc.) Re-reads: 12
Most-Read Genres
No real surprises here, to be honest.
Historical Fiction: 14 Books
I completed all 12 books for the When Are You Reading Challenge?, which I mostly finished early in the year. It was so fun picking out a book for each category.
Despite being historical-reading-based, I found that the challenge actually encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and read more widely. If Sam hosts it again this year, I’m in.
These are some of my favorites from the year:
Memoir/Autobiography: 9 Books
Some of my favorites:
Litearary Fiction
I read very few other genres this year and mostly stuck to literary fiction. Again, some of my faves:
Nature/Outdoors/Gardening: 12
I also read heavily in this category where I’ve lumped all outdoorsy topics together. Some of these also fell into memoir and literary fiction.
I particularly enjoyed these:
New Year, New Books
My reading goals for the year include:
1- Join the When Are You Reading? Challenge if it’s hosted again. 2- Reading more diversely, with a focus on books by Black authors. I’m aiming to read at least 20. 3- I’ve set my Goodreads challenge goal at 52 books for the year. Totally attainable based on years past. But, honestly, I don’t care too much about this goal. It doesn’t matter to me whether I read 20 books or 100 in a year. The point is to enjoy and to learn from what I’m reading.
Got any reading goals for the year? I’d love to hear them!
April was a bit of a time. We had some warm weather, some awfully cold weather, some flowers, and I was off of work the whole month, which gave me a welcome breather from the frenetic pace there.
Here are some of the tulips on our little plot. They give me hope that warmer days are just around the corner.
Most recently, we celebrated our grandon Ames’ first birthday! What a little king. I can hardly believe he’s a year old now!
That’s it from the homefront. On to April’s books!
What Shannon Read in April
I read seven books in April and went on a bit of an Elizabeth von Arnim bender. I love reading her books in the spring.
Some Notes:
The Enchanted April, Father, Vera, and Love:
I think von Arnim must be one of my favorite authors. Every spring, I come back to reading The Enchanted April, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (read last month), and Love.
I did re-read and enjoy those this year, but I then realized how large her catalog is and delved in head first. I liked Father the best and Vera was good, but not my favorite.
I then saw that von Arnim’s collected works were available for a pittance via Kindle, so I’ll be reading more of her in May.
Aside from the writing and good stories, one reason I love von Arnim’s books so much is that she focuses on women and their roles in relationships and society, especially when those roles are unexpected and fly against the sort of standard patriarchal assignations.
The Day Job:
Mark Wallington wrote a book called 500 Mile Walkies, which I first heard about when reading The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. I couldn’t find a reasonably priced copy of that book, so I pivoted to The Day Job, which is all about Wallington’s work as a jobbing gardener around London.
I truly enjoyed his storytelling and meeting all the characters he comes across in his work. Do recommend, especially if you’re interested in gardening and fellow gardeners.
Bookworm:
I was worried that this book was going to be “cute,” but it definitely wasn’t. In fact, it had definite thriller vibes. It is about a woman who is unhappily married to a controlling man who doesn’t see her for who she truly is—and who doesn’t allow her to be herself at all, really.
Victoria, an avid bookworm, regularly visits her favorite café to read and ends up falling in love with a man she meets there.
There is intrigue as she begins a relationship with the new man and also begins to defy her controlling husband. I found the plot surprisingly suspenseful.
Note: This is the book I chose for the “2000-present” category of the 12-book When Are You Reading? Challenge. Just one more book to go for that challenge!
How to Catch a Mole:
Mark Hamer is a wonderful nature writer. I thoroughly enjoyed his descriptions of the English countryside where, in this book, he works as a mole catcher. What a job to have. I didn’t even know it was a job.
There are some kind of gory bits involving the moles he catches, but those are few. The rest is an interesting history of the animal and the work of mole-catching, plus much about the nature that surrounds him.
That’s it for April! May has started out rainy and cold, but I’m looking forward to some upcoming warmth.
It’s March and that means that spring is just that much closer! We’re not safe from crummy weather here until around May, but the sky is lighter in the morning and it’s giving me life.
Also giving me life was our recent trip to New Orleans, where Ben and I spent four days with our good friends eating, drinking, and enjoying the 70-degree weather and sunshine. It. was. amazing. And I want to go back immediately.
I literally forgot that flowers existed…
On to the books!
What Shannon Read in February
I read six books in February, including three books for my When Are You Reading? Challenge. This means I’m actually only two books away from finishing that challenge—that went fast. I now only need to read books for the 1900-1919 and 2000-present categories.
It was a slower month for reading and I certainly didn’t fit in as many books as I did in January. I think that’s mostly thanks to The Persian Boy and Katherine, both of which were long, intense novels that took me awhile to read.
Some Notes:
Little Deaths:
This is the reimagination of real events that took place in Queens, New York in 1965. It’s the story of a woman, Ruth Malone, whose children are murdered. She is put on trial for murder and, thanks to a botchy job by cops who have it in for her, and the prosecutors lambasting her for her reputation as a “loose woman,” she is convicted.
This story is told from several perspectives, including Ruth’s and Pete Wonicke’s, a rookie tabloid reporter who believes Ruth is innocent.
The reader wonders whether Ruth is innocent right up until the end of the story when the murderer is revealed.
Jazz (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge):
I love Toni Morrison. She is a master of imagery. Each sentence, it seems, has to be unpacked, dissected, and metabolized before you can know it’s meaning. I listened to the audiobook of this classic, read by Morrison herself, and it was a whole experience. Her reading voice is incredible. I’m so glad I finally read it.
Here’s the Goodreads synopsis if you’re interested in the story:
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.
My Happy Life:
I needed an audiobook to listen to before bedtime, so why on earth did I choose this one? This is the story of, ironically, a not-so-happy life narrated by a woman who is locked by herself in a of mental hospital ward when the person who brings her food suddenly stops coming. She whiles away the time telling the story of her incredibly traumatic life.
The writing was excellent; the was story riveting but very hard to get through. Not a relaxing bedtime read at all, but I couldn’t stop listening. *shrug*
A Dangerous Business (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge):
This was a very enjoyable read. It’s the story of a woman, Eliza, whose new husband takes her from her parents’ home in Kalamazoo, Michigan to live in Monterey, California during the 1850s gold rush. Right at the start, we find out her husband has been shot dead in a saloon in Monterey and Eliza then takes on the world’s oldest profession to support herself.
She and a new friend, Jean, who is a lesbian and also a prostitute in Monterey, stumble into a murder mystery after women begin to disappear from the town.
I found the setting fun and the story fascinating as Eliza details the characters she meets in her profession. The issues of the day (gold rush, the possibility of a cross-country railroad, slavery and an impending civil war, religion) are touched on with caution and reverence, but they are not the focus of the story. Sexual orientation and gender identity are also themes.
The Persian Boy (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge):
This looong book kept me busy for almost half of February. It’s the story of a boy-turned-eunuch in ancient Persia. I don’t want to give too much away, but significant plot points include protagonist Bagaos, um, “servicing” the needs of the Persian king Darius and then, when Alexander the Great rolls into town and conquers everything, Bagoas serves and falls in love with Alexander.
It’s a great reimagination of these historical events. Most of them are true and the character of Bagaos is real. He is sympathetic from the beginning and I loved following his life, and Alexander’s, throughout the book. That’s all I’ll give away. Here’s the Goodreads synopsis if you’re interested.
Katherine (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge):
Katherine by Anya Seton, one of my favorite historical fiction writers (sadly, now deceased), is about Lady Katherine Swynford, who lived 1349-1403.
This is the epic tale of her life, which begins with her leaving the convent where she was raised to go to the English royal court. Katherine marries a night, Hugh Swynford, bears children, suffers many trials as Lady Swynford and then, when Hugh dies of supposed dysentery after fighting in Spain, Katherine begins her romantic attachment to the Duke of Lancaster.
The story is a romanticized version of her life, of course, and it is quite romantic as she falls in love with the duke. It’s also an incredibly well-drawn-out look into the distant past, where laws of chivalry, feudalism, and Catholicism ruled people’s lives. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
That’s it for February! Happy March—hope you have tulips and daffodils peeking out of the ground like I do. I can’t wait for real spring to hit. Take care!
Somehow, another year has gone by and here I am writing yet another reading wrap-up post.
It’s been a fun and eventful year, with the most notable event being the birth of my first grandchild Ames in May.
Celebrations were had, selfies were taken, and collages were made.
These pics only tell part of the story.
And how did the 2022 reading go?
Well, I read a lot of books, though not all, for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. Here’s a challenge wrap-up if you’re interested in a looong post about that.
And, generally, here are the year’s stats.
Reading Wrap-up with Nerdy Book Stats
Total books read: 107 (25 more than last year!!) Fiction: 64 Nonfiction: 43 Female authors: 89 Male Authors: 19 Nonbinary: 0 (Geez, must work on this ASAP.) Non-white authors: 24 E-books: 51 Audiobooks: 40 (15 fewer than last year) Re-reads: 24 (I leaned into the re-reads this year and re-read comfort books to my heart’s content.)
Fiction vs. Nonfiction: I’m not surprised to see that I read more fiction than nonfiction this year. I needed some serious distraction in the later half of the year, so I went on a fiction rampage, diving into all the stories I could. Sometimes, you need to be anywhere but here, amirite?
Female vs. Male authors: I am also not surprised to see the number of female vs. male authors. A couple years ago, I got decidedly tired of men telling me things, so I tend to avoid their books unless they are a person of color or happen to be writing on a subject I really want to know about (usually, it’s a nature book).
Non-white authors: I did make more of a point to read books by authors who are not white, but it’s a challenge. Like a lot of other people, I tend to want to read books written by people like me and those, of course, are white cis women. But there are more books written by people of color than ever available right now, so I want to work on getting my numbers up. How else will I learn from other perspectives?
Most-read Genres
Historical Fiction – 20 books
I really delved into this genre, one of my favorites. Here are 10 of the best historical fiction books I read this year. I really can’t pick a favorite!
Memoir/Autobiography – 16 books
No surprise that this is right below historical fiction. It’s obviously another favorite genre. Learning from other perspectives, right?
These are eight of my faves.
Classics – 15 books
Ok, almost all my classics were re-reads of Edith Wharton books. Wharton is my summer reading. I go back to her every year after having first read The Age of Innocence two summers ago.
I did sprinkle in a few others. Notably, a new Elizabeth von Arnim and a new modern classic favorite, The Women of Brewster Place.
These were my top six.
Nature – 10 books
I tend to read nature books in the spring when the world is coming back to life, but this year, I read them throughout and mostly in audiobook form. I love to listen to a soothing audiobook at bedtime or while walking or collaging. And books about nature, at least the ones I’ve chosen, are often soothing. I include books on flora and fauna in this category, as well as general books on the effects of getting out into nature.
Here are my top few from 2022. The Inner Life of Animals is a re-read.
Mystery/Thriller – 5 books
This is another favorite category, but I had trouble finding good ones this year for some reason. Does anyone have any recommendations? I usually like stories focused on women and I tend to avoid the grizzled detective (male or female) trope. Let me know if you have thoughts!
3 Outliers
I wanted to make mention of three books I didn’t categorize above as they were three of my favorites this year and include two I wouldn’t normally have picked up.
One, The Wild Iris, is an incredible book of poetry that uses flowers as metaphors. I’m re-reading it this year for sure.
Two are books of essays, which I wouldn’t normally dip into.
I read The Lonely Stories, a moving series of essays on loneliness, for the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. And I read Bad Vibes Only on a whim and enjoyed it thoroughly.
General Fiction
Another category that hit for me this year was general contemporary fiction. These are a few books I loved.
Do you pick a favorite book each year? Or a top 10 or top five?
I couldn’t pick a favorite. I tried. I could maybe be forced to pick a favorite from each category.
At any rate, that’s what I read in 2022! Overall, it was a hugely successful reading year. I enjoyed so many books, including some I wouldn’t normally choose to read thanks to the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.
Hello there! Whatta’ ya know–another month has gone by. It’s been full of good books for me, as well as good family and friend time.
We hosted and attended birthday parties for Jacob and Desiree’, went to a Halloween party and pumpkin carving, and enjoyed having folks over on Halloween night to pass out candy to a couple hundred trick-or-treaters.
Front and center is me in my cat ears.
Here are Ben and I in our Halloween party costumes. He’s a sinister occultist. I’m a regency princess.
At work, I helped host a photos-in-the-stadium event at ND Stadium. Here’s mine.
How about you? How was your October?
On to the books!
What Shannon Read in October
Some Notes:
Hester: This was good, solid historical fiction. It features a young Scottish woman, Hester, who is brought to the U.S. to live in Salem with her doctor husband Edward. She ends up meet Nathaniel Hathorne there and forms a relationship with him. She is also a talented seamstress and descended from a woman thought to be a witch. Salem is the perfect place for all of these themes to come together. I enjoyed this one.
A Fall of Marigolds: I usually stay away from sentimental historical fiction like this, but for some reason I’m attracted to Susan Meissner’s books. I enjoyed this one. It was, as these kinds of books are, quite cheesy at times, but I overlooked that in favor of the ever-moving plot and historical setting. Everyone deserves a guilty pleasure, no?
The Book of the Goose: I don’t quite know how to explain this one. This is probably the most unusual book I read this month. It centers on two young girls growing up in the post-WWII French countryside. The protagonist, Agnès is best friends with Fabienne. She tells the story of their friendship and that makes this book sound sedate, but it’s not. In fact, Fabienne is as unusual a girl as one could imagine, a person (a possible sociopath?) who does things for her own entertainment and enjoyment and damn the consequences. Agnès is loyal to her to her own detriment.
The real action of the story takes place when Fabienne begins dictating stories to Agnès and they begin to write books together, then solicit the help of a local man to get them published. Fabienne wants to remain in the background, so Agnès becomes the “author” and face of the books and no one ever hears of Fabienne.
It’s complicated to explain without just narrating the whole plot for you. Here’s the Goodreads synopsis, which does a slightly better job than I’m doing. Anyway, I loved this book. It’s about friendship, but also art and memory and moving on from one’s past. I recommend it if you’re up for something unique.
Breaking up the text with a pic of my Halloween mantle.
Zorrie: This was a short one that I randomly stumbled across at the library. It’s the story of a young woman living in Depression-era rural Indiana. When Zorrie’s aunt dies, she becomes homeless and penniless and ends up traveling to find work. During her travels, she finds friendship in a clock factory where workers use radium to paint clock faces. I actually thought this was going to end up being the primary action of the book, but it wasn’t. In fact, Zorrie leaves the factory because she misses Indiana. She returns and works on a farm, where she meets a loving couple who help her out. She marries their son…and the story continues until Zorrie’s death.
This was a lovely look at the full life of a character who endures difficulties, love, loss, and great pain, but who also lives a somewhat ordinary life at the same time. For a short book, it was kind of epic.
Small Things Like These: I’ll just give you the Goodreads synopsis for this one. “It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.”
It was another short one that kept me wrapt. It’s understated with work-a-day language, but it felt lyrical. Maybe because of the setting, but the excellent writing played a part too.
Bastard Out of Carolina: Another one that sucked me in. This book has been in my awareness for a long time, but I somehow just got to it. It’s the story of a young girl, called Bone, who grows up in a large family in the rural South. The story explores in depth the family dynamics and place of a young girl in that family. Bone suffers incredible hardship and experiences great love all within this insular community. It’s a heart-wrenching novel and a classic of Southern literature. Well worth your time.
I’m Glad My Mom Died: This memoir by iCarly star Jeanette McCurdy has gotten a ton of buzz and for good reason. It tells the story of her rise to stardom, with a focus on her relationship with her abusive, now-deceased mother. McCurdy is not a writer–she is telling a story. So I wouldn’t look for writing that blows your socks off. I skimmed some portions of the book. But the story is intriguing, if terribly sad at times.
The weather has taken a turn for the fall-ish here and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been a long, hot summer. Time for sweaters and falling leaves and definitely no more watering of the garden. To be fair, I gave that up in August.
Knitting: This is a novel about an unlikely friendship struck up between two Australian women, one who loves to knit and one who is a textile historian at a university. The two meet when they are walking down the same street and encounter a man who’s fallen over and they arrange to get him some help. All three remain in contact and the two women embark on a project for a textile exhibit. Through this plot, a wealth of themes are explored (from the death of a spouse to mental illness) and, as the two women face conflict with each other, it becomes a sort of discovery of what friendship means, especially between two such unlikely friends. I enjoyed it immensely.
We Do What We Do in the Dark: A college woman has an affair with an older female professor. This read like someone’s MFA project. But I found it an exceptional example of someone’s MFA project, so I read the whole thing.
The Custom of the Country: A reread and one of my favorite Whartons. I now tend to think of Wharton as summer reading because last year, when I began reading her, I plowed through around 6 of her novels and novellas in the summer. That became locked in my brain, so I reread several novels this summer too. Sadly, it is fall and Wharton Summer is over again. On to other things!
My Notorious Life: I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but I wish it had gotten more hype because it is a slam-banger of historical fiction with all the themes I love: a woman’s story, love, friendship, hardship, rags to riches, illicit activity, and overall incredible exposition against a background of the past. It’s a long one, but I was glued to it. Hugely recommend.
Here’s a happy dog to break up the text.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: An exploration of therapy by a therapist who is, herself, in therapy. I found this both insightful and affirming as someone who’s been in therapy before. Recommend!
Mirror Girls: On the recommendation of an old friend who commented on a Facebook post asking for suggestions, this was my selection for the Read Harder Challenge category “Read a horror novel by a BIPOC author.” Mirror Girls is a gothic-y YA novel set in the South at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. It centers on two sisters, one Black and one passing for white, who have just found out that they are sisters. Drama ensues. It’s good, but I don’t know that I was in the mood for the breeziness of a typical YA novel. It wasn’t too scary and it didn’t delve deeply enough emotionally for my tastes.
Move the Body, Heal the Mind: An easy read about the power of exercise to affect the brain. Recommend!
Fatigue: Jennifer Acker writes about a painful period in her life when she came down with (is that how you’d say it?) chronic fatigue syndrome while, at the same time, her husband developed two frozen shoulders. She explores what it’s like to contract a mysterious illness and put her life on hold to deal with it. I myself have had some mysterious fatigue crop up in my life recently, so this was investigative as well as affirmation reading for me.
One More Croissant for the Road: I enjoyed this one so much. Special thanks to What’s Nonfiction? for bringing this one to my attention. Her review is much better and more thorough than mine, so definitely check that out if this one interests you.
It’s an excellent memoir by foodie Felicity Cloake, who cycles throughout France on a culinary tour. She travels through each major region seeking out the foods for which a particular region is most known. She also grabs a croissant in each, rating them on a scale from 1-10, which I found fun and cute.
I enjoyed travelling around France with her, getting nerdy about the food, meeting some of the people, and dealing with the cycling foibles. This book also made me very, very hungry.
That’s all she wrote for September. I’m now moving on to spooky fall reads, so do let me know if you have ghost/creepy/gothic story suggestions!
A not-so-happy June just ended with the horrific news of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Devastating news for women’s rights. I find I’m unable to care about much else right now, so there is not much of a cheery update for June.
I am still collaging though. Creative work is a balm to the angry soul.
And the garden is giving us more blooms as we head toward mid-July, when it’s at its best. Here, interestingly, is some lettuce I allowed to bolt (didn’t harvest it, then it bloomed). I’d never seen lettuce flower before and the blooms are so pretty.
On to the books!
What Shannon Read in June
Photo galleries continue to be somewhat wonky in WordPress. Sorry about that.
Some Notes:
I read five great books this month, including one reread, which I’m counting for the Read Harder Challenge. Here are my thoughts, none of them all that coherent…
That Kind of Mother:
This was…interesting. I enjoy reading about experiences of motherhood that give you the gritty side of things. As other moms know, motherhood isn’t all kittens and roses and this book was written from the perspective of a woman who devoted her life to her children when they were born…and had some qualms. I appreciate that kind of honesty.
I admit that I trusted the main character’s point of view less when I opened the back cover and saw that it was written by a man. May be my own bias, but I couldn’t trust a man’s view of motherhood as much as that of a woman who’d actually been a mother.
At any rate, I really enjoyed the style of Alam’s writing. It gave a weird sort of distancing effect. I felt involved in this family’s life, but also like I couldn’t quite get close enough to the details. He reminded me of Laurie Colwin’s writing, if that means anything to you.
I haven’t said anything about what the book is about, but read the Goodreads synopsis. It’s a pretty interesting storyline.
Greenwich Park:
I love a British mystery. This one features a not-totally-reliable narrator. It’s set in contemporary London and revolves around a circle of friends and siblings, a few of which have dark secrets…my favorite kind of secrets. The writing was solid and the mystery was good enough to keep me reading.
The House of Mirth:
This is my fourth or fifth reread of this classic by Edith Wharton. I’m counting it for the Read Harder Challenge category: Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat!. The category is “Re-read a favorite.”
I like to read Wharton in the summer, but I think that’s just because I started reading Wharton one summer and it was, like, the best summer of reading I’d had in a while. It’s now become a tradition.
This, of course, is Wharton’s classic novel about protagonist Lily Bart set around the 1880s. Bart is a New York society woman who is ousted by her friends. She’s “past her prime” as far as marriagability and therefore in some danger. Having been raised in a society that sets only the goal of marriage for women, Bart’s fight to support herself becomes her main struggle. It has a tragic ending. Essentially, I think this is a book about what happens when women are raised to be men’s ornaments rather than given the independence they need and deserve.
Silver Sparrow:
This is the fascinating story of a woman whose father is a bigamist. Dana is the daughter of James. James is married to Dana’s mother, but he is also married to Laverne. He has daughters with both women and married them in different states. So, this is Dana’s story, but also the story of her disjointed family. It’s complicated because James’ first wife and daughter know nothing about Dana and her mother.
Highly recommend this one. It’s great writing and an in-depth, character-driven story about family.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan:
I am late to the party on this one, but finally read it. It was excellent. Check out the Goodreads synopsis here. It was an interesting look into 19th-century China, but I’m sorry to tell you that the most memorable part for me was arguably the most disturbing. Since foot-binding was still a thing, there is a somewhat excruciating description of that process as the girls in the book suffer through it. *shudder*
And that’s what I read this June. How about you? Got any recommendations? I’m especially interested in reading more for the Read Harder Challenge, including these categories:
Read a political thriller by a marginalized author (BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+).
Read a book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character.
Read a memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary.
Read a “Best _ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice.
May started off with a bang when Baby Ames was born on the first. We are all totally in love, of course. (Side note: he is over a month old now and he is officially a smiler. Ahh!)
For us grandparents, the month soon settled back into the usual day-to-day routine, then finished with lots of fun when my brother and sister and their spouses visited over Memorial Day weekend. We had lots of fun eating on restaurant patios and visiting one of the local botanical gardens.
That hour or so in nature really soothed my soul. And so did being with the people I love. Here are some scenes in the gardens.
That’s about it for May. On to the books!
What Shannon read in May
Excuse this weird-looking gallery…the quirks of WordPress prevail.
Gertrude, a mother of four, is striving to save her daughters from starvation after freeing herself of an abusive husband. Retta, a first-generation free slave, has built a life with her beloved husband and makes her living working for the prominent Coles family, which includes keeping their appalling secrets. Over the course of the book, Annie, a.k.a. Mrs. Coles, is estranged from her daughters thanks to her appalling husband, and eventually learns he is keeping a pretty disgusting secret.
I found the book both riveting and sensationalist (shrug) and would give it about 3/5 stars. Spera excelled at writing in the three women’s voices, with the best, in my opinion, being Gertrude’s.
But the content was a bit rushed at times, the writing just OK. Other times, the story flowed and the writing was quotable even.
So, a mixed review of this one from me.
To Marry an English Lord
This was a reread. I just rewatched Downton Abbey and saw both movies, including Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Definitely recommend A New Era if you’re interested! It’s good fun.
Being immersed in that world again made me want to reread this book, which centers on the era when cash-poor English gentry went looking for rich American women to marry.
This was the situation for Cora, Countess of Grantham, an American who married the Earl on the show–and brought gobs of money with her.
The synopsis on Goodreads says this book is filled with gossipy stories and I’d agree. It’s got fun tales about people like Consuelo Vanderbilt and the famous Astors, along with a lot of English gentry I hadn’t heard of.
I found the most interesting bits to be the view into daily life in the Edwardian Era as the book discusses the family’s home lives after the couples are married. Would recommend!
Falling Angels
I find that Tracy Chevalier’s novels fall along the lines of “historical fiction lite.” They’re something to fill in the gaps between other books. Reliable storytelling in well-researched historical settings, her novels always pull me right into the story, and I’ll usually finish the book in about a day or so.
That was the case for this one, the story of two girls growing up in the middle- to upper-middle class in early-20th-century England. I don’t have much to say about it except that I enjoyed the setting more than the story, but I never had much interest in any of the characters and how their lives turned out. I’m not totally sure why.
Unf*ck Your Brain
I found this mildly helpful book to be spoiled by the author’s use of swearing as a crutch. I don’t mind a lot of swearing in general. I do mind it when it’s employed in the guise of being “conversational,” which typically means it’s used in place of actual good writing. Wouldn’t recommend this one. There are plenty of other good brain books out there.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
This book counts as my selection for the category “Read a romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40” in the Read Harder challenge.
It’s the charming story of the Major (68), who falls in love with the Pakistani woman who runs one of the local shops in his English village. Romance and foibles ensue. There is also a story line about his son with whom the Major has a rocky relationship, which I found interesting. The characters, story, and tone come across with depth and wryness—a tough combo that author Helen Simonson masters. Would recommend.
Belgravia
Another Julian Fellowes special! He is, if you do not know, the creator of Downtown Abbey. He also wrote this novel and created a TV series to go along with it. I saw the series first and enjoyed it, then decided to listen to the audiobook version of the novel. Here’s the Belgravia Goodreads synopsis if you’re interested.
I really enjoyed the story and characters. A novel in which “the aristocracy rub shoulders with the emerging nouveau riche,” it’s chock full of class and family drama. It’s a little slow and subdued, so if slow historical fiction doesn’t work for you, you may want to skip it. I loved it and will probably rewatch the show soon.
That’s it for May! What are you reading this summer? Do tell! I need some ideas.
Spring (aka second winter) has descended on the Midwest, which means wildly unpredictable weather.
One morning it’s snowing and that same afternoon it’s 50 and we’re drinking wine on the porch. It’s…a lot…for a person to handle.
Exhibit A: Some gorgeous daffodils on the university campus where I work
Exhibit B: We took an urban hike to this cool historic cemetery in our city and it straight up hailed on us.
But my favorite thing about spring, aside from the fantastic flowers, is reading spring-y books. I’ve found it the best way to combat the blues that hit along with second winter.
Thus, I give you my list of faves to reread in the spring.
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
You know by now that I am obsessed with this book. If you like a little feminism and humor thrown in with your garden reading, this one is for you.
Duh…The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I need hardly go on about this one. It’s obvious. I like to read the book, then watch the 90s film adaptation, one of my personal childhood faves.
The Enchanted April by–who else?–Elizabeth von Arnim
I mean, she’s just so good at spring. Read this and then watch the 90s film adaptation. The film is a bit slow, but I honestly don’t care since the characters I love so much come to life in it.
Here they are in their 1920s glory:
Any Gardening Book at All
This is my recent haul from AbeBooks. Don’t sleep on used books from Abe–I got all of these for $12.
Jane Austen–Preferably Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion
Then, of course, watch the movie adaptations. I just watched the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version for the first time a couple of weeks ago! I know I’m late to the party, but most definitely better late than never because this is a classic for a reason.
Sigh…
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Ahhh, pure comfort reading. I relax just thinking about this one.
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Hah! Snuck in some contemporary fiction on ya’. I read this for the first time last year and really fell for Waxman as a writer. She writes stories about women in many difficult situations (single mothers, widows, women looking for love, etc.). The protagonists feel contemporary, as if your best Millennial friend was really going through something and you’re along for the ride.
This one, about a woman who’s lost her husband and has two children, centers on the creation of a garden and the strangers who become a family because of it. It’s also a story of loss with a hopeful ending. Hope is an excellent theme for spring.
The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
And here’s some incredible poetry for you. I haven’t finished reading this one yet because every poem kills me and I have to take them in very slowly. Gluck writes with a theme of flowers and begins with the flowers that bloom in early spring. Many of the poems are from the perspective of the flowers themselves. Divine.
Anne of Green Gables, Jane of Lantern Hill, The Blue Castle
Really, read any L.M. Montgomery in spring and you won’t regret it.
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
I love Wohlleben as a writer. His books are bound to become classics of nature writing, as I’ve said before. This one, about trees, is my favorite.
I’ve just realized that this list doesn’t include a single author that isn’t white. I will work on that for my spring reading in general.
Do you have a list of books, or just one book, that you like to read while the snow and sun and hail and flowers fight for precedence? Do tell!
Meanwhile, I am going to work on my summer list. Stay tuned for all of Edith Wharton. 😉
I leave you with a bad picture of a gorgeous magnolia on campus.
March was a thing that happened. It had nowhere near the pizazz of the February baby shower or Vegas trip, but it happened.
There were a few sunny days that allowed for some porching and drinking of drinks. And, thanks to Fall Shannon, there are about 50 tulips (and lots of daffs) coming up this month. No blooms yet. You know I’ll keep you posted.
That is my somewhat boring life update. Chugging along. Nothing new.
To the books!
Some Notes:
I read 10 books this month, including one reread and four—count ’em four!—books that count toward my 2022 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. Whoop! Here are some thoughts.
The Secret Wisdom of Nature
Peter Wohlleben’s books are bound to end up classics of nature writing. I loved listening to the audiobook version of this. Lots of fascinating stories about plants and animals.
Washington Black
This is my entry for the 2022 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge category “adventure book by a BIPOC author.” It’s fantastic and heartbreaking and deserves all the hype it gets.
The Genius of Birds
More wonderful nature writing. This book lulled me to sleep each night for a week as I listened to interesting stories of robins, jays, corvids, and so much more.
Boy of the Painted Cave
I ordered this via interlibrary loan from my library because I’m pretty sure it’s the book my sixth grade teacher (oh hey, Mrs. Czynowski) read to my social studies class. I fell in love with it as an 11-year-old and found it just as good as a 41-year-old. Was it written for children? Absolutely. Did I get absorbed in the hunting and cave painting adventures of a prehistoric boy just as much as I did when I was a child? Absolutely.
The Bookshop on the Corner
I can’t help myself. I love Jenny Colgan. Her books are comfort reads for me. This one, which fits the Read Harder Challenge category “Read a book set in a bookshop,” was no exception. After being let go from her library job, a woman moves to Scotland, fixes up an old van and turns it into a roaming bookshop, and falls in love. This may read like a Hallmark movie, but it couldn’t be more on brand for me.
Maybe I’m being unfair though. Colgan is a talented writer who does more than scratch a character’s surface (as in a Hallmark movie). There is depth to her characters if not to her plots. Regardless, I love them as they are.
Beast
This is my entry for the Read Harder Challenge’s category “Read a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth.” I don’t like retellings. Fairy tales and related fantasy stories are not my jam. But I boldly searched through many of the selection at my library (I tried to start five other books that would fit this category) and eventually settled into this one. I’m glad I did. I think I liked it because it was a realistic retelling with no elements of magic or magical realism in sight. I liked that.
If you like YA and themes of identity around sexuality and just in general, you may like this one too.
The Fire Never Goes Out
This is my choice for the Read Harder Challenge category “Read a nonfiction YA comic.” It’s a wonderful memoir in graphic format which explores issues of gender identity, creativity, and young-adulthood.
The Benefactress
Elizabeth von Arnim has quickly become one of my favorite authors. After I first read Elizabeth and Her German Garden about two years ago, it became one of my favorite books of all time, and then I snagged her complete novels on Amazon.
The Benefactress explores that relatable topic of a woman’s lack of options back in the days when women were raised solely to become wives and mothers. What happens when a woman doesn’t become a wife or mother? What happens if she doesn’t become either and also has no money?
Here is one option according to the story of a woman with a generous uncle and peculiar ideas about helping others like her. It was fascinating.
The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology
I very much enjoy reading books about alternative ways of living and this one was excellent.
The Maid
This book is home to one of my favorite kinds of protagonists: undeniably quirky and a flauter of social conventions. There is a good mystery too.
And that’s that! I had the pleasure of reading some great books this month and I look forward to an equally fun April, after which I also hope to report the arrival of a grandchild! Woo!
Pillow Fort 