What I've Been Reading Lately: November 2022

 Here are the books I read in the month of November. The beginning of the month was a bit chaotic but we ended with a lovely Thanksgiving. My daughter was home from college for a few days and we did a little Christmas shopping and decorating. 

November is not my favorite month but I made the best out of it with these books.

Frankenstein in Baghdad

by Ahmed Saadawi

This book was *chef's kiss* perfect. It was all the creepy vibes you want in spooky reading. It was a retelling of the classic story with a smart twist and in a completely new location and time so it felt fresh but recognizable. It was a book in translation that wasn't clunky or difficult to read and it still felt authentic and true to the people and culture of Iraq. Don't sleep on this novel.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

I've heard The House in the Cerulean Sea described as a warm hug and that description fits it perfectly. 

I read this one during a stressful, busy week and it felt like coming home every time I opened it. I wanted to retreat into this world when the real world was too loud, busy, or scary. And that is just what we all need sometimes. 

This is the story of Linus, a man who inspects "homes" for magical children. He gets sent on a special assignment and discovers the most magical children and their caretakers. I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but if you're willing to suspend your disbelief and go along with Klune as he invites you into a world not so different from ours you will be greatly rewarded. 

My only frustration with this book was that there were a few too many speeches for my taste. I didn't need so many grand expositions by various characters. But the plot kept me going, kept me wanting to see what would happen next for Linus and the children. And in the end, the speeches didn't bother me enough to even consider setting the book aside. I loved it. 

City of Girls

by Elizabeth Gilbert

To start off I hated City of Girls. 

But then...I kept reading. And I found myself falling in love with the characters. I got invested in the story. I imagined what it would have been like to navigate NYC with Vivian. And then...the ending!!!

I cried. It was so good. So sneaky good. And so true. 

My initial frustration was that Gilbert frames the narrative as a letter to a young woman named Angela. The reader does not know who Angela is until the end. As Vivian, the author of the letter is outlining her early sexual explorations she keeps stopping to remind us it's a letter by re-addressing Angela. I was annoyed because it seemed unlikely that Vivian would include so much about her sex life in a letter to Angela, someone she didn't seem to know that well. But I pressed on, rolling my eyes every time I was pulled out of the story and reminded that this whole narrative was a letter again and again. 

But ultimately, I saw the importance of the frame, how the conclusion depended on Angela knowing Vivian's full story, and why Vivian would trust Angela with all that information. 

So if you pick up this book (you should) and you start to get frustrated by the letter...please know that there is a reason for it and when you get to the last pages of the book, you will be stunned in the best possible way. 

The Night Singer

by Johanna Mo

This book was the selection for the FictionMatters book club. I was so excited to dip my toes into the Nordic noir genre that seems to be getting so much buzz these days. The Night Singer also turned out to be a police procedural with a cast of officers that I was immediately drawn to. 

The detective the reader follows is Hanna, a young woman returning to her old hometown. There is a larger mystery involving her family that continues in future books. But in this book, the main plot has Hanna solving a case involving her high school best friend.

I was here for the moody landscape, the emotional rollercoaster, and the resolution which was tragic and realistic. I can't wait to read the second installment of this series.  

The Thursday Murder Club

by Robert Osman

I had a feeling I would enjoy The Thursday Murder Club when it first came out but I never got around to it until this month. I wanted a cozy-adjacent book and this novel in which a group of four elderly protagonists solve a murder seemed perfect for the vibes. 

It was good but...I thought it was longer than it needed to be by about twenty percent. Also, it was really pretty morbid sometimes for a book that has been billed as lighter fare. And, though I loved the characters, the mystery seemed like it was written by someone ticking off a "how to write a murder mystery" to-do list. 

I'm not opposed to reading the second one but I'm also not in a rush. 

Talking Back to Purity Culture

by Rachel Joy Welcher

This book took me a long time to work through. It was not because it was long or the writing was obtuse. It was because every chapter resonated deeply and I needed to take my time to think and feel my way through my past before I could continue. 

I grew up in the heart of the 90's evangelical purity culture. I read I Kissed Dating Goodbye and other books like that. I was encouraged to make purity pledges and was taught to shame people who were "impure."

Talking Back to Purity Culture targets the theology and cultural moment that bred purity culture and re-examines the messages evangelicals sent and are still sending to young men and women about sex. 

It's not overstating it to say this book was a revelation to me. It has given words to things I've felt for a long time. It has changed how I parent. And, it has given me a much-needed measure of grace for my past self. 

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

Years ago my oldest daughter read this book and raved about it. My middle daughters wanted nothing to do with it thanks to that phenomenon where you are turned off to something because someone else raves about it. But when we made travel plans to go to Paris I figured I could get my son to join me in a read-aloud of this tome. 

It is a tome, but there are LOTS of (incredible) pictures that help the pages fly by. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is about Hugo, an orphan living behind the clock in a train station in Paris. He steals food and trinkets and this gets him into trouble and leads him on an adventure that ends happily for Hugo. There is a movie that is based on the book, but we haven't watched it yet. 

We were engaged every time we read a section. We did a little googling about the train station, which is now the Musee d'Orsay. We visited the museum on our trip and had so much fun exploring the hallways and stairs behind the clock. Definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book to read with a kid or anyone going to Paris soon. 

So...what are YOU reading?