I read 21 books in January and February and 12 of them were Jennifer Weiner books. As I was off work and feeling low, I needed easy-to-read comfort fiction in January and so took great comfort in my Jennifer Weiner deep dive. I read a book every two days for a while, sometimes one per day.
The only books that brought me out of my little tailspin were some very good historical fiction novels. I also read some speculative fiction for my book club and one good mystery/thriller that I found recommended on Tiktok (“booktok” is a super handy place to get recommendations).
Here’s a wrap-up.
Some notes:
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Rich people. They have feelings too. I usually have trouble caring about them, but I somehow got sucked into this story anyway.
It is the story of three sisters and their families, a clan of one-percenters living in Manhattan. Each sister has chosen a different path in life and the book examines their choices while illuminating differences between the haves and have-nots in society.
The book is well-written and the story is self-aware, which made reading about rich people interesting rather than just tolerable.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
I love Emily St. John Mandel’s writing. This is the second book of her speculative fiction I’ve read, the first being Station Eleven.
It’s essentially a story of time travel and the fascinating ways in which humans try to regulate this new ability to move between timelines. All through the eyes of compelling characters with their own lives and challenges. Eventually, and very satisfyingly, these lives converge. Highly recommend.
The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Pataki
This was a fun dip into the French revolutionary era. It is the story of Desiree Clary, who, as a young woman, falls in love with Napolean Bonaparte. She is courted by him for a couple of years and, in the meantime, her sister marries Napolean’s brother. Much drama ensues, especially once Bonaparte’s military campaigns gather steam.
I enjoyed the characters and Allison Pataki’s ability to bring the world of revolutionary France to life.
The School of Mirrors by Eva Stachniak
Speaking of France, I was also fascinated by The School of Mirrors. This is the story of Veronique, a teenager living in poverty near Versailles. When she is discovered by a scout, Veronique is whisked off to a secret villa in Versailles and becomes part of an operation overseen by Madame Pompadour, the famous mistrees of King Louis XV.
Told they are to serve the needs of a Polish count related to the queen, the girls at the villa have no idea that they are actually serving the king. There is much intrigue in the house, especially when Veronique becomes one of the king’s favorites.
I won’t give away the entire plot, but suffice to say, it’s juicy, tragic, and, in the end, hopeful.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
I don’t know why I avoided this novel for so long. It’s the little-known story behind the genesis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. O’Farrel’s writing is incomparable and I can’t sing the praises of this novel highly enough. Here’s a synopsis if you’re interested.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Another stunning historical fiction novel from O’Farrell. I’m obsessed with this book! I don’t know much about Rennaisance Italy and it was a joy to be taken there by O’Farrell through her main character Lucrezia, the third daughter of a duke who must marry her dead sister’s betrothed.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse between husband and wife, danger and suspicion present in every interaction. It was sad and wonderful and it sucked me right into the story of Lucrezia’s life.
And very quickly:
I thought City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert was excellent on setting, but I found it slightly boring. Not sure why, honestly.
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall was a fun and twisty small-town mystery/thriller. Definitely recommend it.
My favorite books in the Jennifer Weiner deep-dive were The Breakaway and Mrs. Everything (the lone historical fiction novel because of course).
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! I head back to work in March, so it should be a slower reading month and easier for me to keep up with the blogging.
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:Â 63 (Wildly, that’s 44 fewer books than last year.) Fiction:Â 44 Nonfiction: 19Â Female authors:Â 47 Male Authors:Â 16 Nonbinary:Â 0 (I have a poor track record here.) Non-white authors:Â 5 (Yikes. Will do better in 2024.) E-books:Â 22 Audiobooks: 35Â (These numbers won’t add up to the total because I sometimes switched from ebook to audiobook and back, etc.) Re-reads:Â 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!
Did you have a good Thanksgiving? I did and now I’m in full Christmas mode.
But I want to show you this amazing glass turkey I received from my mom as a birthday present. I also turned 43 this month.
**HEART EYES**
And here is a book post in which I use the word “trope” far too many times to see if I can annoy you into never reading my blog again, apparently. Sorry about that.
Let’s get into it!
What Shannon Read in November
I read seven books in November, including one re-read of The Little Stranger.
Some Notes:
The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
This is a gritty mystery about three sisters who grew up isolated in the woods under the care of their loving(?) mother. When the youngest sister gets sick, the two oldest sisters are left alone for a very long time. Supplies dwindle and winter is coming.
This is one of those tropes I graviate towards—I’m into anything that gives off Room vibes.
It was decently-written, had interesting characters, and didn’t get too deep. Just what I was looking for in a weird isolated-girl-becomes-fish-out-of-water-in-society mystery. Which is a thing.
Hell House by Richard Matheson
Did you love The Haunting of Hill House? Can’t get enough of the paranormal-investigators-stay-overnight-in-a-haunted-house theme? Same, same.
That’s what this one is all about. A paranormal team thrown together by a rich old man investigates a house so haunted with 1920s torture vibes that no one dares to live there. Those that have tried have died.
There was more alluding to torture and depraved sexual themes than I care for, but the haunting was excellent. If you can get past some of that dark stuff, this was a good spooky fall read.
This House is Haunted by John Boyne
Speaking of spookiness, I re-read this one because it’s apparently one of my favorite haunted house books.
It features one of my very favorite tropes—historical fiction featuring a governess that takes a job caring for weird kids in a haunted house. (Definitely a thing in literature, I assure you.)
Love the main character. Love the haunting. Love the setting. Love the weird kids.
The haunting culminates in a battle between dark and light forces and things get, um, heated, in the end. It’s very Jane Eyre meets Rebecca. 🔥🔥🔥
Someone Else’s Bucket List by Amy T. Matthews
And now for something completely different: me crying amidst a pile of wadded up tissues.
Maybe it was the jolly cover and the quirky title that made me think this book was going to be more of a lighthearted romp than it was. There is definitely fun and humor, but this is the first book that has made me ugly cry since Lessons in Chemistry.
And, duh, of course it was a tearjerker. It’s about a young woman, Jodie, whose sister Bree, a social media influencer, dies of leukemia. In her last days, Bree contracts with an airline to sponsor Jodie as she completes Bree’s bucket list on her behalf.
Fun bucket list items include recreating the orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally and flying over Antarctica on New Year’s Eve. Oh—and falling in love.
There is grief, romance, friendship, familial love, and much fun to be had in this one. So, categorically not a lighthearted romp. Be warned.
What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill
I know the title is cheesy and sensationalist, but hear me out. It’s about a nanny. So two nanny books in one month for me. I can’t get enough.
This nanny is living in 2008 London, where she’s taken a job with an extremely rich family with four children—two teenagers and eight-year-old twin boys.
The parents both work in high profile jobs in the finance industry and you can guess what happens right around 2008. Shit gets turned upsidedown, but that’s not the only drama in the book.
The story includes some of my favorite nanny tropes: oblivious parents, an overbearing type-A mother, weird semi-spooky kids (the twins), sexually-tinged encounters with the dad, the nanny becoming embroiled in the family drama, and an…*inappropriate* relationship with the teenage boy of the household.
I ate it up and was sad when it was over.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Oh baby, baby…..You bet I read this memoir by Queen Britney. In fact, my whole book club read it as a sort of palate cleanser after The Parable of the Sower. Reading whiplash for us.
First, the writing is obviously helped along by a ghostwriter or team of ghostwriters. It is like that of a remarkably capable teenager, which is to say, straightforward, unaffected, and peppered with profanity. This is not a criticism.
It would read like a college application essay if it weren’t about how a woman was sexualized from a young age, stalked by the media, and turned by her parents into a sexy, dancing, singing monkey-robot.
It’s lonely at the top—especially when your dad imprisons you in body, mind, and soul for years while you slowly lose your personhood and will to live.
This was dark, yo.
But I loved that the book clearly captured Britney’s voice and how that voice, still so pleading and young-sounding, continually asserts her womanhood. Brings that whole “not yet a girl, not yet a woman” thing to the fore and ties the whole book together in an overarching theme.
Bet you didn’t think I had that many deep thoughts about Britney. 😉
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
It’s giving Nick Carraway falls in love with Daisy and also Daisy is not very pretty and also her house is haunted. You know, those vibes.
This is about a doctor in a post-WWII English villiage who forms an attachment to the noble family of the area. The family’s estate has fallen into disrepair and soon odd things begin happening around the house. Objects go missing, weird noises are heard, the older sibling succumbs to madness. The usual.
I love the setting of this book. Give me a falling-down mansion full of ghosts and I’m happy. Sarah Waters’ incredible writing is just icing on the cake.
I shouldn’t say that. I adore Sarah Waters and am now re-reading The Paying Guests. I also decided to dive into one I haven’t read before, Affinity. Will keep you posted.
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 Bagoas, 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.
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.
A witch hunt in the 17th-century Norway town of Vardø. This is an excellent novel that largely tells the story of two Norwegian women. One, Maren, was witness to a storm over the sea that claimed the lives of over 40 men from her village, leaving the women of Vardø to fend for themselves.
And fend they would as a new Commissioner has been appointed to their village. The second woman, Ursa (short for Ursula) of the major city Bergen, is newly married to that Commissioner, who turns out to be a witch-hunter of the most violent order.
While the characters in the book are fictional, the storm and witch-hunting in this area of Norway are real. Both actually happened during this time period.
I found the story truly engrossing, the suspense building to a terrible and exciting climax and ending. I don’t feel my description has done it nearly enough justice. Highly recommend this book.
Ok, I didn’t fully read the cover before I started this book.
So I had no idea it was a sequel to famed novel The Miniaturist until the main character started receiving miniatures on her doorstep…I was reading along like, “Gee, this sounds a lot like The Miniaturist…Wait, is this just a rip-off of The Miniaturist?”
No, smarty, it says right on the cover that it’s the literal sequel to The Miniaturist.
Whoops. I didn’t actually read The Miniaturist, but I did see the movie adaptation, so I could follow along with this sequel just fine.
Unfortunately, this book did what a lot of sequels do—it followed less interesting characters, lagged horribly in pace, and was all around just kind of slow and predictable.
Despite that scathing take, though, I finished it. I had to find out if the main character, the young Dutch-African woman Thea Brandt, got to marry who she wanted in the end. And I did. Meh.
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.
Meissner’s books are what I like to call “historical fiction lite.” I pick them up for the same reasons one might pick up a thriller—because I’m looking for a good atmosphere and a plot that moves along at a good clip.
A Fall of Marigolds delivered both decently. The story of two women in different time periods, the book centers on Clara Wood, a nurse on Ellis Island in 1911 and Taryn Michaels, a woman widowed on 9-11.
As per usual, Meissner excels at the atmosphere in the historical parts of the book and that’s what I’m in it for. I could take or leave the 9-11 story line, but it did, as one would imagine, add drama.
I love Toni Morrison. She is a master of imagery. Each sentence has to be unpacked, dissected, and metabolized before you can know its 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.
I read this baby in two sessions. It’s a queer murder mystery set in 1952.
Former police inspector Evander Mills has just been outed and fired from his job. He’s planning to hurl himself off of the Golden Gate Bridge and stops for a last drink first. That’s when Pearl Velez finds him in a local bar and hires him to investigate the potential murder of her dead wife, Irene Lamontaine, head of the Lamontaine soap empire.
I was drawn in from the beginning. The mystery is interesting, but it’s mostly about the characters and atmosphere for me. Pearl and Irene live/lived in a secluded mansion with a cast of characters.
The only member of the household who isn’t queer is the mother of one of the characters. Even the staff are gay/bisexual. The house has been a haven for all of the characters, though, of course, there’s been a potential murder, so all is not well among them.
I won’t ruin the story with any spoilers, but will say I highly recommend this one.
The Stepford Wives, published and set in 1972, was a fun romp. It’s the second of Ira Levin’s books that I have read and loved—the first being Rosemary’s Baby. He’s so good at building suspense.
This is the story of a woman, Joanna, her husband Walter, and her two children, who move to the town of Stepford for Walter’s job.
Walter immediately joins the Men’s Association and Joanna tries to drum up some friendships of her own but only has success with one other woman in the town. The reason is that all of the Stepford wives look and act the same—like subservient “hausfraus,” as Joanna calls them.
She and her one friend, Bobbie, slowly come to realize that something isn’t quite right with the wives and Joanna thinks the men of Stepford might be responsible.
The build of suspense is a slow, fun burn and the ending is, well, I won’t spoil it for you. But it’s good.
It’s August 1983 and famed model-surfer Nina Riva is about to throw the party of a lifetime. The story of this particular end of summer party spans an entire day, but dips out regularly for flashbacks to Nina’s past and her family’s past. So in the end, we can all see how the story ended up here, at the party happening tonight.
This is a fantastic novel. I loved the breezy and bright Malibu setting—just the sunshine I needed in January—and the historical settings as the story flashes from the 80s back to the 1950s, when Nina’s parents first meet.
This book is essentially the story of a family, Nina and her three siblings and their parents. It’s intense despite the sunny setting and covers a gamut of themes, including familial relationships, parenthood, alcoholism, fame, friendship, loss, and betrayal. There’s some good atmospheric surfing too. I loved it.
Also, I highly recommend the audiobook. Narrator Julia Whelan reads it and she’s one of my favorites.
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.
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.
The Future: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
I’m a late-comer to this book. It got a ton of hype when it came out and for good reason. It’s very accessible speculative fiction.
The story is about what happens to the characters in the aftermath of—this will sound familiar—a global pandemic.
Unlike covid, this pandemic (also a flu, which I found eery and relatable), wipes out most of the world’s population. Within a matter of days, death abounds and human life on earth changes drastically as infrastructure and society as we know it collapse.
This one was an emotional roller coaster and I definitely cried at the end.
Kudos if you made it all the way to the end of that! It’s been a fun year of reading historical fiction and if there’s another challenge next year, I plan to do it again for sure.
Hey, hi, how’s it going? We had a great October and in looking back in my phone photos, I realize it was kind of a whirlwind.
We celebrated my son’s and soon-to-be daughter-in law’s birthdays as well as my niece’s birthday. I hosted a sleepover party for one of my best friends. We carved pumpkins and we hosted our regular crew for Halloween night. All in all, the social scene was jammin’.
Here’s a pic of the crew that went to see the Eras movie together. Special thanks to my amazing sister-in-law who treated!
And the hits keep comin’ with Thanksgiving just around the corner, my birthday party coming up, and Christmas not far behind. Phew.
I’m trying to remember to live it all in the moment, rather than always thinking ahead to the next event.
That’s the brief life update—now on to the books!
What Shannon Read in October
I read six books in October, but Goodreads says I’m six books behind on achieving my reading goal for the year (which is 75 books). I have decided I do not care and will be reading only as many books as I please. 🙂
Here are some notes:
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
This is a modern classic I’ve been meaning to read, so when my newly formed book club chose it for this month, I dug right in.
In a few words, I’d describe it as engrossing, disturbing, and, OK, moderately hopeful in the end. All in all, this is a classic for a reason. The writing surpassed that of all the books I read this month and the story ripped my heart out and handed it back to me on a post-apocalyptic platter.
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
A serial killer strikes a sorority house in 1970s Tallahassee. Bet you can guess what this one is based on.
Great writing and the story was gory and troubling, as one might expect. But it’s grounded and not sensationalist, which I appreciated. It came across as literary fiction rather than murder porn. Knoll is awesome at creating 70s vibes.
Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning by Claire Dederer
There is a dearth of good memoirs about midlife out there, so I, approaching midlife, read all I can get my hands on. I started my midlife crisis early because I’m a go-getter.
In this memoir, an intelligent woman runs out of energy at midlife and is also exceedingly horny.
I sympathize with the way Dederer compares the midlife experience developmentally to that of a teenager. It’s a thought I’ve had more than once myself. Both teenage girls and midlife women go through a lot of similar stuff—figuring out who you are at a crossroad in life while dealing with physical, emotional, and mental changes that offer both limits and opportunities.
I liked that this memoir just laid out Dederer’s experiences without offering a real resolution to the whole midlife crisis thing. She doesn’t claim to have answers, just tells us how she’s coping. It’s very real in that way because, really, no one has a tidy resolution for the big feelings one deals with in this season of life.
The Girls by Emma Cline
I’m late to the party on this one. It came out to much acclaim several years ago. I was in the mood for some reading about cults, as one sometimes is, and this fit the bill. It’s the story of a young woman who falls in with what is essentially the harem of a minor 60s cult leader.
Excellent 60s vibes. I felt like I was reading in sepia. Weird thing to say, but you know what I mean?
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Cheesily titled self-help, but good science on habit formation and change. I liked the information, but I didn’t like Clear’s tone. He’s maybe a bit pompous? Or something. I just didn’t vibe with the voice at all.
Stone Cold Fox by Rachel Koller Croft
This was a super fun romp about a lady grifter, Bea, whose mother taught her how to be a con artist. She pretends to be someone she’s not and traps herself a rich man and marries him.
Meanwhile, she battles with a formidable nemesis, the man’s childhood best friend who is determined to expose and destroy our lady grifter.
I rooted for the con-woman protagonist the entire time and was pleasantly surprised by the wham-bang ending after which Bea very much deserves the description “stone cold fox.” Much fun was had by me.
That’s it for October! See you again at the end of November. 🙂
All this activity didn’t leave much time for reading, so I only read two books in July. Here they are!
What Shannon Read in July
Some Notes:
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
I first saw this book when The Durrells in Corfu aired on PBS while I was employed at the local library. The book was everywhere. It’s a short memoir detailing this quirky family’s move from England to the Greek island of Corfu. It’s fairly short and there are two sequels.
I was reminded of it by Audible and chose to listen to the audiobook, which is narrated by Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey fame. He is a superb reader and I thoroughly enjoyed his engaging style.
The story is both heartwarming and funny, filled with the antics of all the family members and some great dialogue. Also, if you’ve seen the show, you know the setting is beautiful. That really comes across in the book. I’ll definitely be picking up the next two.
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden
You know if there are a governess and a mansion in a book, I’m giving it a try. This book was suggested to me on Goodreads because of my love for Jane Eyre and the whole governess-in-a-spooky-mansion trope. And it was good fun.
Set in 1852, the story centers on Margaret Lennox, a widow who takes a position as governess in spooky Hartwood Hall. The house is your typical forbidding mansion which, Margaret discovers, holds some secrets. Since Margaret has her own secrets, the story builds to an illuminating peak. We meet some interesting characters along the way, including servants who have their secrets too. There may or may not also be a ghost.
Overall, a great fun read for gothic novel lovers.
Since I didn’t have much to report this month, I’ll show you what I’m reading now.
What are you reading? Got any contemporary gothic novel recomendations for me?
Happy June! It’s one of my favorite months of the year because it means sunshine, flowers, and lots of porch time.
I like to take a vodka/soda out on the porch in the evenings and sit there like an old lady surveying my tiny kingdom. Sometimes I take a book, but mostly I sit there and space out, enjoying the birdsong and greeting passers-by.
Highly recommend this method of relaxation if you have a porch/patio/deck.
Here is my favorite flower that is currently blooming in my garden: coreopsis ‘nana’, aka “tickseed.”
My phone camera is awful, sorry.
And, one more—some free marigolds I obtained with purchase at an antique mall over the weekend.
I guess I’m into yellow right now.
Anyway, let’s get to the May books!
What Shannon Read in May
I read four books in May and the themes and settings varied widely.
Some Notes:
Rules of Civility
This was a re-read for me. I read it when it first came out and loved it. And earlier this month, I was in the mood for some fiction that I knew would draw me in. Also, I wanted glamor. I definitely got it with Rules of Civility.
Set in 1930s Manhattan, this is the story of Katey Kontent (what a great name), who, along with her good friend and roommate Eve, meets young and handsome banker Tinker Gray at a jazz bar on New Year’s Eve.
The three form a fast friendship until tragedy strikes. I won’t give the big event away, but suffice it to say that the incident changes everything in the threesome’s relationship.
The novel is an exploration of these relationships as well as the story of a pretty uniquely confident woman navigating the worlds of friendship, dating, and work, among other arenas. I loved the character of Katey and enjoyed seeing what she would get up to next—and how she would handle what came her way.
The setting of 1930s New York was super fun too.
Into the Wilderness
This had been on my TBR for a while and I finally got around to it. It’s a good option if you’re interested in some late 18th-century American history set in the west. I’m just going to say I truly enjoyed it and leave the Goodreads synopsis right here:
It is December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered – a white man dressed like a Native American, Nathanial Booner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, she soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.
How to Sell a Haunted House
I definitely thought this was going to be a ghosty book—I love ghosty books. But, to my surprise, there weren’t any ghosts haunting this house. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say there are some creepy dolls involved.
I know. I didn’t think I would like it either. But the writing was so good and the main character so relatable that I got sucked into the story.
Essentially, a woman’s parents die in a car accident and she returns home to work out the cleaning and selling of their house along with her estranged brother. Ok, tragic, but fairly relatable, right?
The creep factor enters as we learn more about the history of the family. The mother was a passionate puppeteer and the house is filled with her handmade puppets and dolls. As the story progresses, we learn just how “involved” these puppets and dolls were in the life of the family. Weirdly involved. And one in particular stole the spotlight.
It sounds so cheesy, but I really enjoyed the romp.
An Immense World
Finally, I read An Immense World, which is generally about the senses (smell, touch, hearing, balance, echo-location) that animals use to navigate the world.
This was a fascinating look into what it’s like to be some of the animals—as far as a human can tell—using one’s senses, so different from a human’s, to find food, shelter, and maintain relationships.
And that’s it for May!
I am so close to finishing the When Are You Reading? Challenge, but I can’t seem to land on a book set in the 1910s that interests me at all. I’ve been through so many. Let me know if you have any recommendations!
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!
I hope you had as good a January as I did. There’s been some work stress, but mostly I’ve managed to focus on the many good things in life this month, with extra emphasis on coziness and light.
It’s important for me to add light during these dreary winter months after the excitement of Christmas and New Year’s is over.
I’m also big on cozy hobbies right now. I’ve been doing a puzzle and indulging in some coloring while listening to audiobooks. And, of course, lots of collage. So comforting.
A few recent collages:
I share these on Instagram regularly @shannonrooneycreative if you’d like to follow along.
Do you tend to “lean in” to the winter months? I’m curious about how others survive them. Let me know your tricks if you have them!
The House of Fortune (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge): Ok, I didn’t fully read the cover before I started this book. So I had no idea it was a sequel to famed novel The Miniaturist until the main character started receiving miniatures on her doorstep…I was reading along like, “Gee, this sounds a lot like The Miniaturist…Wait, is this just a rip-off of The Miniaturist?” No, smarty, it says right on the cover that it’s the literal sequel to The Miniaturist.
Whoops. I didn’t actually read The Miniaturist, but I did see the movie adaptation, so I could follow along with this sequel just fine.
Unfortunately, this book did what a lot of sequels do—it followed less interesting characters, lagged horribly in pace, and was all around just kind of slow and predictable.
Despite that scathing take, though, I finished it. I had to find out if main character, the young Dutch-African woman Thea Brandt, got to marry who she wanted in the end. And I did. Meh
The Stepford Wives (Read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge): The Stepford Wives, published and set in 1972, was a fun romp. It’s the second of Ira Levin’s books that I have read and loved—the first being Rosemary’s Baby. He’s so good at building suspense. This is the story of a woman, Joanna, her husband Walter, and their two children, who move to the town of Stepford for Walter’s job.
Walter immediately joins the Men’s Association and Joanna tries to drum up some friendships of her own but only has success with one other woman in the town. The reason is that all of the Stepford wives look and act the same—like subservient “hausfraus,” as Joanna calls them. She and her one friend, Bobbie, slowly come to realize that something isn’t quite right with the wives and Joanna thinks the men of Stepford might be responsible.
The build of suspense is a slow, fun burn and the ending is, well, I won’t spoil it for you. But it’s good.
Malibu Rising (Also read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge): It’s August 1983 and famed model-surfer Nina Riva is about to throw the party of a lifetime. The story of this particular end-of-summer party spans an entire day, but dips out regularly for flashbacks to Nina’s and her family’s past. So, in the end, we can see how the story ended up here, at the party happenning tonight.
This is a fantastic novel. I loved the breezy and bright Malibu setting—just the sunshine I needed in January—and the historical settings as the story flashes from the 80s back to the 1950s, when Nina’s parents first meet.
This book is essentially the story of a family—Nina and her three siblings and their parents. It’s intense despite the sunny setting and covers a gamut of themes, including familial relationships, parenthood, alcoholism, fame, friendship, loss, and betrayal. There’s some good atmospheric surfing too. I loved it.
Also, I highly recommend the audiobook. Narrator Julia Whelan reads it and she’s one of my favorites. I’d listen to her read the phonebook.
Breaking up the text with a pic of my mushroom light, also helpful in these dark winter days/nights.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking: “If you have never tried to make conversation with a monarch over the hog-tied body of an evil wizard, it’s very hard.” I feel that funny sentence communicates the mood and tone of this book to a T. I don’t read much fantasy, as you know, but again, I’m leaning into the #cozygirl life this winter and this is definitely a cozy fantasy.
It centers on a wizard girl, Mona, who is also a baker and who can command dough to do minor (and sometimes major) feats. For example, she constantly feeds a sourdough starter named Bob that she accidentally animated and which has taken on a life of his own. She also has an animated gingerbread man as a familiar.
The action starts with a murder in the bakery where Mona works, and which her aunt owns. And the plot escalates from there.
I would say this one was a little slow for me, but I understand that might be typical of the genre. I still enjoyed listening to the audiobook and was glad I dipped into a fun, new-to-me genre. I give it a cozy 3 out of 5 stars.
Lavender House (Also read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge): I read this baby in two sessions. It’s a queer murder mystery set in 1952. Former police inspector Evander Mills has just been outed and fired from his job. He’s planning to hurl himself off of the Golden Gate Bridge and stops for a last drink beforehand. That’s when Pearl Velez finds him in a local bar and hires him to investigate the potential murder of her dead wife, Irene Lamontaine, head of the Lamontaine soap empire.
I was drawn in from the beginning. The mystery is interesting, but it’s mostly about the characters and atmosphere for me. Pearl and Irene live/lived in a secluded mansion with a fun cast of characters. The only member of the household who isn’t queer is the mother of one of the characters. Even the staff are gay/bisexual. The house has been a haven for all of them, though, of course, there’s been a potential murder, so all is not well among them.
I won’t ruin the story with any spoilers, but will say I highly recommend this one.
Station Eleven (Yet another read for the When Are You Reading? Challenge): I’m a late-comer to this book. It got a ton of hype when it came out and for good reason. It’s very accessible speculative fiction.
The story is about what happens to the characters in the aftermath of—this will sound familiar—a global pandemic.
Unlike covid, this pandemic (also a flu, which I found eery and relatable), wipes out most of the world’s population. Within a matter of days, death abounds and human life on earth changes drastically as infrastructure and society as we know it collapse.
This one was an emotional roller coaster and I definitely cried at the end.
Remainders of the Day: This is the third in the series of diaries by Shaun Bythell. I LOVED going back to Wigtown. Talk about cozy and comforting.
Mozart’s Starling: I did not, apparently, know how special starlings are. Did you know they were introduced to the U.S. from Europe in 1890 when a flock was released into Central Park? Here’s a good story about it.
They took over the entire country from there, breeding more quickly than anyone imagined possible and migrating from the East Coast across the country to the West Coast and into Canada and Mexico.
They have become such a menace, taking over and having such disastrous effects on natural habitats, that people have made it totally legal to kill them and destroy their nests.
This book is part history, part memoir as the author tells the story of Mozart and the pet starling he raised, plus raises one of her own. I couldn’t read this and not become compassionate toward starlings and their plight. After all, it was humans who introduced them to the U.S.
Did you know that they can learn to talk? Fascinating. And look—how pretty their feathers are:
Rooted: A lovely meditation on nature and spirituality. I hadn’t heard of this until I received it as a birthday gift from my sister- and brother-in-law, for which I am grateful.
I mostly enjoyed the author’s own story as she describes becoming closer to nature through activities like walking barefoot in the forest. This book made me want to escape to a cabin in the woods and never come back.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: I don’t know why this weird book is one of my favorite books ever. It’s an odd one, but I’ve read it around five times. I guess I love the unlikeable narrator, the idea of sleeping for a year fascinates me, and I love the well-written dialogue. The character of Dr. Tuttle is incredibly funny and I truly enjoyed the scenes in which she appears.
I think Ottessa Moshfeg’s writing just always hits for me. She’s such a talent.
The Mercies: A witch hunt in the 17th-century Norway town of Vardø. This is an excellent novel that largely tells the story of two Norwegian women. One, Maren, was witness to a storm over the sea that claimed the lives of over 40 men from her village, leaving the women of Vardø to fend for themselves. And fend they would as a new Commissioner has been appointed to their village. The second woman, Ursa (short for Ursula) of the major city Bergen, is newly married to that Commissioner, who turns out to be a witch-hunter of the most violent order.
While the characters in the book are fictional, the storm and witch-hunting in this area of Norway are real. Both actually happened during this time period.
I found the story truly engrossing, the suspense building to a terrible and exciting climax and ending. I don’t feel my description has done it nearly enough justice. Highly recommend this book.
That’s all she wrote! If you’ve stayed with me this far, thank you. 🙂 I hope you have a lovely February—turn on the twinkly lights and stay warm!
You know I can’t go into another year without facing a reading challenge. 🙂 Here I am in 2023 ready to attempt, once again, the When Are You Reading? Challenge hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The challenge requires reading books set in 12 different time periods throughout history. Since historical fiction is my jam, I’m eager to get started.
Here are the 12 categories and the books I plan (hah) to read for them.
PRE 1200: Hild by Nicola Griffith
Seventh-ish century Brittain, here I come.
1300-1499: Katherine by Anya Seton
Classic love story? I’ll be the judge of that.
1500-1699: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
1617 in Norway. Sounds badass.
1700-1799: The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
It’s about “the victim of a mysterious childhood trauma that has left her deaf and mute, trapped in a world of silence.” Probably right up my alley.
1800-1899: Freeman by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
A runaway slave returns to the South after the Confederate surrender.
1900-1919: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
1920-1939: Jazz by Toni Morrison
1940-1959: This September Sun by Bryony Rheam
1960-1979: God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam
1980-1999: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2000-Present: Little Scratch by Rebecca Watson
The Future: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Yep, finally getting around to this one. 🙂
And those are my best laid plans. Now we’ll see how they pan out throughout the year.
Are you doing any reading challenges this year? Do tell!
Pillow Fort 