What Are You Reading?

Despite piles of books everywhere, I feel like I'm in a reading slump.

“Woman Reading” by Peter Ilsted, 1907.

I’m thinking of making this a regular monthly feature. Of course as soon as I say that a million things will come up next month and it won’t happen for six months. But I like chatting about books, sharing about the books I read with others, and Goodreads is nice for lists and accountability, but doesn’t feel as cozy somehow. Clicking a button that says I want to read a book or that I am reading a book doesn’t let me natter on about my thoughts about why it’s on the list or what I’m anticipating or how it’s going.

1. What books are you reading now?

Unusually, I’m in kind of a slump I keep picking up books, reading a bit, and then putting them down without getting very far. Nothing is gripping my attention. I just started a re-read of Station Eleven by Emily St John Mantel, reading along with the Close Reads podcast. I’m a couple chapters in and wow it’s hitting very differently post-2020. Do I want to finish it? I’m not sure.

I kind of stalled out in my re-read of Viper’s Tangle by Francois Mauriac —also a Close Reads book— which I read and loved earlier this last Lent. I adore this book and am not sure why I’m not finishing my reread— unless it’s just too soon. I usually like a little more time between re-reads. But I want to at least re-read the ending. I love this novel and want to write more about it. If I can figure out how to do so without spoilers.

I picked up a short Penelope Lively juvenile novel, Astercote, but haven’t made much headway with it. I can’t quite figure out why. It’s so short I could have finished it in a day if I’d read with any intentionality.

I also picked up A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambley, after a friend mentioned it. I remember liking the series and thought I might enjoy a re-read; but I don’t think it’s what I’m in the mood for.

I’m still chipping away at the biography of St Charles de Foucauld— getting close to the end and also Sigrid Undset, Reader of Hearts. But I’ve not been as consistent with them as I’d like.

1a. What is your current readaloud?

Pretty much the same as last time. Sophie and I finished Jane Eyre this week (and now I have moved it from my list of books I respect to books I love) and are trying to decide what to read next: maybe Sir Gawain and the Green Knight maybe The Scarlet Letter, I can’t decide.

We are on the third part of A Tale of Two Cities, things are getting real and it’s all coming to a head, all the plot lines converging. Charles Darnay is in prison, Dr Manette has found a purpose that redeems his years of suffering, Lucie is holding on faithfully and still managing to homeschool her daughter, little Lucie.

Surprisingly Ben has decided he loves my Haiku book, The Essential Haiku edited and translated by Robert Haas. We’ve been reading a few haiku every day and he’s using them for copywork. And then writing his own.

2. What book(s) did you just finish?

The Blackbird and Other Stories by Sally Thomas. Excellent collection of short stories. I really loved the handful that featured the same cast of characters, watching their story play out over time. I’m not usually a big short story reader; it’s just not my favorite genre. But I thoroughly enjoyed these for their thoughtfulness and quiet poetry.

The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, audiobook. A Victorian-era urban fantasy ( does that make it steampunk?) homage to the Sherlock Holmes stories. The narrator is a Doctor Doyle who becomes roommates with an angel, Crow, the Angel of London. It’s a magical world with vampires and werewolves and hellhounds. The angels are corporeal beings, more like the fae than like Christian spiritual beings. What they take from the Christian tradition is being the angel of a particular place, and being able to go evil, become Fallen. Like the Doctor Watson of the Holmes stories, Dr Doyle has has returned to London after having been wounded in Afghanistan and is introduced by a colleague to a crime investigator in need of a roommate. In personality and temperament Crow is very much like Sherlock. He’s good at solving crimes, he’s not very good at being personable with people. Inspector Lestrade shows up as well. And a bunch of the Nameless angels function as Crow’s Baker Street Irregulars.

The novel uses the structure of the Holmes stories; I recognized some like The Speckled Band and the Red Headed League and the Hound of the Baskervilles; there are probably others I missed as it’s been a long time since I read the original stories. But in this novel the crimes feel more incidental and less the point. Angel of the Crows is really more about Dr Doyle’s recovery from a wound received from one of the Fallen angels which has some nasty supernatural consequences. The introduction to the world of crime solving supernatural London provides an avenue for the veteran’s reintegration into society. There were a few plot twists I didn’t see coming and in general I liked the narrator and the story. I didn’t love it the same way I loved Addison’s The Goblin Emperor (it was suggested by Audible when I finished yet another listen of that beloved book) but it was solidly entertaining.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is a comfort read for me. When I am feeling restless or when I have insomnia, the audiobook is a surefire way to rest myself. I know the story well enough that I don’t mind falling asleep to it. I can pick up the thread of the plot wherever. And the pacing of the novel is such that it’s never too gripping that I need to stay awake. (The first time I read it in a couple of days, racing to get to the end, but this is the kind of novel that when I re-read it, I’m reading for character, for details, for the experience. I love Maia; he is one of the best fictional characters I’ve ever met. He’s so kind, so thoughtful. And though he’s full of self-doubt, he always does the right thing. Maia’s father, the emperor of the Elflands married his fourth wife, the goblin Avar’s daughter, for political reasons. And then exiled her and her son and then after her death had nothing at all to with his son but committed him to the charge of a courtier who was in disfavor, Setheris, who takes out all his anger and resentment on poor Maia. This abused child suddenly becomes emperor when his father and older brothers are all killed in an airship explosion. Maia knows nothing at all of courtly life, but must somehow survive in a world of Byzantine intrigue. And yet he does, because his goodness and kindness win him allies. It’s a world where there is much evil and pettiness and yet Maia’s goodness prevails. I think that must be why I love it so.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. At my sister’s suggestion, I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. I really liked being able to hear the proper pronunciation of all the names. I did also check out the ebook and re-read some of the sections that I particularly liked in the book, also so that I could see how the names were written. This was a wonderful story. Part exploration of Chinese fairy tales and folklore, part revenge story, part detective story. The narrative alternates between the first person narration of the titular character, the fox wife, Snow, who is looking for the person who killed her child, and a third person narration following Bao, a detective with a power to hear when someone is telling a lie, who is looking for the name of a dead girl whose ghost is haunting the restaurant in whose doorway her body was found. Bao had a childhood experience related to the shrine of a fox god and has an insatiable curiosity about foxes. Snow has a fox’s insatiable curiosity about everything and in her adventures takes on the role of a servant, travels to Japan, and meets up with other foxes from her mysterious past. Both narrative spend a lot of time musing on fox lore, and the mythology of fox gods. The book has a slow, meditative pace; but there is plenty of action and danger as well. It’s set primarily in Manchuria in 1908, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, though it also spends a little time in Japan, an opportunity to examine Japanese fox lore, which is rather similar to the Chinese.

Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik. Let’s be honest, at this point I’d probably buy anything Naomi Novak published; but I did enjoy most of the stories in this collection. The Scholomance story, “After Hours,” was particularly satisfying, a glimpse at what the school looks like after the events of The Golden Enclaves. I liked the title story, Buried Deep, told from the point of view of Ariadne, who is quite fond of her brother, the Minotaur, and not at all approving of his burial in the labyrinth. There’s a Pride and Prejudice fan fic story, “Dragons and Decorum” which asks: what if Elizabeth Bennett was a dragon rider in the Temeraire universe, would she still fall for Darcy? This story had one major misstep, but I thought it was fun. The British Homefront during Napoleon’s invasion of Britain was my favorite story arc in the Temeraire series and it was interesting to glimpse the intersection of that with the Austen universe. But I suspect many fans of Austen will hate it.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles tells the story of a working class young woman in Depression Era New York City. I quite enjoyed A Gentleman in Moscow when I read it last year and this, Towle’s first novel, is almost as good. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it, but the characters hooked me. I liked the frame narrative of the narrator seeing two photographs of Tinker Grey at an art show in the 1960s, which sets off her reminiscences. Yes, it is a major hint which tells you where the novel is going, but I don’t mind knowing the ending because it’s really the journey that’s interesting. This was that kind of novel. Also, there’s a minor character in Rules who ends up in the hotel bar in Gentleman, which is the kind of crossover that I enjoy.

3. What do you plan to read next?

I don’t have any great plans. I’m still wanting to start The Master of Hestviken(aka Olav Audunsson) by Sigrid Undset. (I recently read that it was one of St Edith Stein’s favorite novels and that she would hand copies of it to her students and friends.) This feels like a book I might want to start after the new year. We shall see.

The next Close Reads book is The Great Passion by James Runcie. I’m not super excited by it, but it looks like it could be interesting. I generally enjoy discovering new books and reading in community, so I’ll be following along.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

I’ve backburnered Park Honan’s biography of Jane Austen.

And Winters in the World. (I did pick this one up last week and read a couple of pages— I guess that’s progress of a kind.)

And The Word Hoard Beowulf.

All I have definite plans to finish. Just as soon as I catch up on a few things…

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed. Good news— the Close Reads podcast announced they’ll be doing it with their premium subscribers next year. I can’t wait.

I’d also like to read more Cormac McCarthy, now that I’ve read The Road.

6. What is your current reading trend?

Trying to keep up with the Close Reads podcast, picking up books that look like they might be interesting, and then putting them back down again. What’s been hitting the spot has been lighter fiction, fantasy and lighter contemporary literary fiction. I’ve been neglecting nonfiction and anything that feels too hard. Life feels too crazy for anything that requires too much focus.

And I’ve usually got a bunch of poetry books going.

And you, gentle reader? Feel free to post your own answers in the comments. Or to share a link to wherever it is you chose to write your answers. I adore booklists, chatting about books, and adding new books to my ever-growing to-read pile.