Yeah, I’m sorry. There was a wedding last week and I didn’t get as much read as usual. All the good stuff I read last week is already earmarked for other posts or I’ve written about too recently and I can’t write about stuff that I don’t really feel enthusiastic about – it’s just not my style. Normal service will be resumed next week! In the meantime, here’s some stuff I’ve written previously about Lumberjanes the graphicnovels and the Lumberjanes novelisations and about Jill Shalvis . And there’s a wholebunch of posts aboutTrisha Ashley too.
A busy week in reading last week with lots on the list. You’ll be hearing more about some of them (yes I know, I keep saying that but look – you had a Recommendsday post last week and that was worth it right?) but as it’s Halloween this week this seemed like the obvious choice.
Written by Rainbow Rowell and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, Pumpkinheads tells the story of one night in the life of Deja and Josiah. They are seasonal friends.- they’ve worked at the same stall at the same pumpkin patch together, every autumn, all through high school – but never see each other between Halloween and next September 1. But their last year. And more specifically their last night. Josiah wants to be melancholy, but Deja wants him to seize the moment and let go of his quest to be the employee of the month and enjoy their final shift together. To that end she’s traded their shifts at the succotash stall for something closer to where Josiah’s long-term crush works, in the hope that she can persuade him to finally ask her out. But what actually happens ends up being a mad chase around the patch to finally see all the sights and taste all the snacks.
I’m not a horror reader, so Halloween themed reading is always a challenge for me. But if you’re like me and need some low stakes, low peril Halloween reading, this may be exactly what is required. This is funny and sweet and not at all scary, but it is very, very Halloween-y. We don’t really have pumpkin patches over here – or if we do it’s a very recent arrival – so it’s not something that I’m familiar with, but that didn’t matter because the art did all the work for you. I loved the visual style of this – the colour palette is gorgeously autumnal and the characters are all really expressive. There’s so much detail here too – I loved the runaway goat and the troublesome teens. Read this curled up on your sofa with a seasonal beverage whilst hiding from trick or treaters.
My copy of Pumpkinheads came from my local comic store – your local should be able to get hold of it too. Otherwise it’s available from all the usual sources. I’ve also written about some of Rainbow Rowell’s books before – here are my reviews of Carry On and Fangirl. I also finished Wayward Son – which is the sequel to Carry On – last week. It’s really good, but you need to have read Carry On to get the most out of it. And there’s a third book coming too. Exciting times.
A week of finishing books and starting new ones. I nearly finished the Cormoran Strike on Sunday night, but it’s not exactly bedtime reading and I had to switch to something different last thing to try and avoid nightmares. I know, I’m a big child.
The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser
The Christmas Invitation by Trisha Ashley
The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis
Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
Still reading:
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Bonus photo: a cache of books from my childhood, rediscovered in some boxes from my parents’ garage (delivered to me to deal with now we’re in the new house). And yes, I was reading Agatha Christie at the top end of primary school, at the same sort of time I was reading Narnia…
As I mentioned yesterday, was a bit of a week last week and there nearly wasn’t a BotW post this week – until I finished this on the train home on Sunday evening. And after a long spell without an essay collection as a pick, we’ve now had two come along in quick succession. Such is the way of reading. Or more accurately, such is the way of library hold queues. This also continues a bit of a theme of things that I discovered through Jon Stewart, which includes previous BotW Jim Henson: A Biography (and you could argue Born A Crime as that’s where I first saw Trevor Noah – when he was a correspondent before he got the gig when Jon left) as well as a whole host of books people, shows and music I haven’t written about here, although the list here will expand further tomorrow. Aren’t I a tease?!
Anyway, you may know John Hodgman for his turn as Deranged Billionaire* on The Daily Show in the Jon Stewart era. Or as the PC in the apple ads in the 1990s. Or for his Judge John Hodgman podcast. Anyway, he’s carved out a bit of a niche for what he calls in the book “Privilege Comedy”. This is a book of essays which form a memoir about his travels through two states – Massachusetts, where he spent his childhood holidays and early adult summers and Maine, where his wife spent her childhood holidays. It’s also about losing a parent, realising that you’re a man in your forties, actually a grownup and that you need to learn to deal with it, and that freshwater clams are scary.
My life is really quite different from John’s, but I found this funny, reflective and thought provoking. It’s also a lot more real than I was expecting given John’s stage personas. I saw him do Judge John Hodgman live a couple of years back, and while it was very funny, it was definitely a performance of a character. This is not that. I came away feeling like I had more of a handle on who he is behind the act, and what makes him tick. He’s also very aware of the position that he is in, as a well-off white man and points out all the things that he is able to do (and tell you about) in this book because of that and that is refreshing in itself.
And as someone whose knowledge of New England comes almost entirely from Rich People novels and biographies or cozy crime, and of Maine specifically mainly from Murder, She Wrote, I felt like I came away knowing a lot more about that part of the American coast, what it looks like, how its economy work and what it really means when little towns in Maine or Massachusetts pop up in novels.
My copy of Vacationland came from the library, but it’s available in Kindle, Kobo and audiobook, as well as in hardback in the UK and paperback if you’re prepared to order in from the US. Foyles don’t have any available as click and collect, but say they can have the hardback to you in a couple of days, and Waterstones found one London branch and a brighton one with stock for click and collect so it is probably an order a copy job rather than a pop in and pick it up one.
Happy Reading!
*John in Deranged Billionaire mode on his final Daily Show appearance
Bonus picture: A terrible iPhone picture from when we saw him live!
It has been a week. I mean if you live in the UK I’m sure you’re well aware, but for those of you in the rest of the world, let me tell you, it has been a ride. And I’ve been at work for a lot of it. Consequently not a lot of reading has happened and I’ve had trouble finding stuff to read that fitted my mood, but a bit of stress-related book-buying has happened. Tant pis. On the brightside, I’ve started the Christmas-themed reading, which makes me somewhat better organised than I was last year. Or better organised *at the moment* at least.
Read:
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev
The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan
Vacationland by John Hodgman
Started:
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
Still reading:
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro
My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Two books bought. One more pre-order arrived – after some aggressive chasing of a certain multinational mega-company who took my order in June, emailed me last week to say it wasn’t going to dispatch until November and yet had it as available with Prime on their website on release day. Colour me unimpressed. I like to pre-order books from authors that I really like because it helps them with their publishers. But I really wish the aforementioned company did their pre-order price guarantee on ebook orders because it would be so much easier all around.
Bonus photo: Sunday night dinner, as prepared by Him Indoors – the dish we call Coq O’ven – because it’s Coq au vin done in the oven. The recipe is from The Roasting Tin which, along with its two sequels, is in frequent rotation chez nous.
It’s definitely starting to feel distinctly wintery here, and I’m being drawn to books about sunnier climes to counter act the gloom of the days shortening and the lack of sunlight. So this week’s BotW pick is one that took me away from the damp of a British late-autumn and to the warmth of Cuba – but don’t worry, this isn’t a sunny beach read.
Marisol Ferrera is on her way to Cuba for the first time. She’s grown up on stories of the land her grandmother was forced to flee. Now with the easing of travel restrictions for Americans, she’s on her way to the country she’s heard so much about ostensibly to write an article for tourists, but with her grandmother’s ashes hidden in her luggage to fulfil her dying wish to return home. But Cuba has changed a lot in the 60 years that have passed, and there are family secrets waiting to be uncovered. Back in 1958 Elisa Perez was a debutante, the daughter of a sugar baron and sheltered from the unrest sweeping the nation. But that all changes when she starts an affair with a revolutionary who is fighting alongside Fidel Castro.
I liked both women and I was swept away by Cuba – in both time lines. I do love a bit of last-days-before-it-all-comes-crashing-down society sometimes – all that doomed glamour and obliviousness; but actually modern day Cuba was just as intriguing – a country held in stasis, where you had to know the right people and say the right things to get on or else survive by your own ingenuity and cunning. Which ever way there’s a lot of personal risk involved. I will admit that I was a little worried that there was no way for there to be a satisfactory resolution to Marisol’s story, but actually it really pulled it off. I finished the book really wanting to visit to Cuba – but even more conflicted about doing that than I had been previously.
We all know that I love a dual timeline novel and I’ve had a fancy to read this since I first first heard about it, which I think (like it often is) was when Chanel Cleeton was a guest on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books podcast back on episode 284 in early 2018. And yes, it’s taken me this long to get around to getting hold of a copy and reading it. In between it’s become a Reese Witherspoon book club pick and was a Goodreads choice award nominee for historical fiction last year. And actually it pretty much lived up to the hype, which isn’t always the case with books like this and as my Goodreads reviews will attest. It was a period of history I don’t really know a huge amount about – beyond having studies the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis during GSCE history and it was nice to be swept up into a different era and a different culture – I’ve read a lot of European-set dual timeline novels (particularly recently) and it’s not often that I venture as close to the present day as the 1950s for novels like this so it was a refreshing change all around.
My copy of Next Year in Havana came from the library, but you can get hold of a copy on Kindle, Kobo or in paperback from somewhere like Book Depository. I’m not sure how easy it will be to find in stores, Amazon say they can despatch it really quickly but Foyles say they can order it but it will take about a week, which makes me wonder if it’s an American import. I’ve already got Cleeton’s next novel on hold at the library.
A real mix of reading this week – with everything from graphic novels aimed at middle graders to prize winning translated fiction with romance and Hollywood history in between.
Read:
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
The Castle on Sunset by Shaun Levy
Lumberjanes Vol 10 by Shannon Waters et al
Backstagers Vol 1 by James Tynion IV et al
The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer
The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard
Meet Cute by Helena Hunting
Started:
The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Still reading:
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
Four books bought, no ebooks. And one of the books was a book that had been recommended to me earlier in the week and that I then spotted in the charity shop serendipitously, so I can hardly be blamed for that right?
Bonus photo: my first attempt at flower arranging. I need help. Is there a book for that?
I had a really lovely week of reading again last week. And there were difficult choices for book of the week this week, but actually I haven’t picked a book of essays in a while and this one was just delicious.
I wrote about American Housewife back in 2016 and I’ve been waiting for more from her ever since. American Housewife was a short story collection though, and this a bit different. Across more than twenty essays, Ellis examines what it means to her to be a Southern Lady – and in particular what it’s like to be a Southern Lady living in Manhattan. Her mantra is “If you don’t have something nice to say, say something not-so-nice in a nice way” and there are a lot of laughs to be had because of this, but there are also ghosts, retro buffets, cleaning as a method of keeping the spark in a marriage and how to shop for a formal event. It’s funny, clever and true – or at least mostly true. Probably. But basically Helen Ellis makes me laugh. I’m not a Southern lady, and I’m a bit younger than Ellis, but there was so much here that amused me and spoke to me.
If you like wry sideways takes on American life, this would make a great addition to your autumn reading list. It was definitely worth waiting two months in the hold queue for it.
As you might guess from that, my copy of Southern Lady Code came from the library, but I’ll be buying myself a copy when it’s out in paperback here. It’s available in hardback, kindle and kobo.
I’m really trying hard to ration myself and read Wayward Son nice and slowly. Really slowly. Make it last. This was derailed this week by the arrival of my signed, special edition hardback, which has caused me no end of problems and worries – because I ordered it so long ago it was going to the old house, and Waterstones don’t let you change delivery addresses. Nightmare. Luckily our old house and our new one are so close together that we have the same postman and he is a Good Guy. Phew.
Read:
The Allingham Minibus by Margery Allingham
Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis
Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood
Asterix in Britain by Goscinny and Uderzo
Asterix and Caesar’s Gift by Goscinny and Uderzo
Lumberjanes Vol 9: On A Roll by Shannon Waters et al
Who Is Vera Kelly by Rosalie Knecht
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Started:
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer
Still reading:
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
Bonus photo: my lovely copy of Wayward Son. Isn’t it pretty…
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 