Reviewed: Everything I Read in November

Happy December! I had a number of odd reading experiences last month--seeing the list of books below made me feel a little trepidation. What can I find to say about this list of moody, left-of-center books? I don't know but let's find out together! Shall we?

Reading Riches: Everything I Read This Month

Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner

Let’s start with an easy one. Crossing to Safety sits on my personal Mount Rushmore of books, right alongside Jane Eyre, Little Women, and She’s Come Undone. These are four of the books that have shaped me most, the favorites of all time, and the ones that I still feel fingerprints from in my life. Even seeing those titles gathered together makes me think, Such riches! I can’t express how much these books mean to me.

Crossing to Safety is a semi-autobiographical novel following the decades-long friendship between two couples—Larry and Sally Morgan, and Sid and Charity Lang. Their story stretches over thirty-five years, from their first meeting at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 to their final reunion in Vermont in 1972. As readers, we walk with them through the in-between: childbirth and illness, career uncertainties and marital tensions, seasons of abundance and seasons of loss. At its core, this is a book about the profound impact that loyal, lasting friendship has on the human experience.

The novel is quiet, thoughtful, and weighty in the best way. I’m in love with it. The language is witty and just so gorgeous, the vividly depicted settings make you see the green and feel the rain, and the characters feel so alive that I genuinely mourned reaching the final page. In my eyes, Crossing to Safety is the perfect novel.

My rating: 5/5

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

I made a promise to myself this fall, to stop putting off reading this book. It's a promise I'm happy to say that I kept! For this one I read and listened to the audio book at the same time, a trick I often employ for classics that I think might be hard to get into. Once again the trick worked like a charm and I read the book in just two days.

That’s not to say the novel doesn’t have its quirks—the biggest being the rather vague explanation of how Doctor Frankenstein actually created the creature. (And as a side note, I truly spent my whole life thinking the creature was the one named Frankenstein!) But once you suspend your disbelief on that point, it’s surprisingly easy to get swept into the rest of the story, which is told in such an inventive and layered way.

Frankenstein really has it all: a touch of science fiction, sweeping travel adventures, a bit of a love story, a tense and dramatic climax, and an ending that left me as uneasy as the rest of the book.

My rating: 4/5

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk

This is one that everyone argues about! What am I going to say?

Just this:

My rating: 3/5

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

This is the first Shakespeare play that I've ever read of my own accord and I actually enjoyed it very much! (Despite it being incredibly creepy and I usually try to avoid creepy things.)

Macbeth is the story of a Scottish general who conspires, along with (and because of, if my guess is right) his wife, to murder the king and seize the throne. He is told by three witches that he will succeed and takes that as some kind of divine permission slip to proceed. What he never considers is the emotional and spiritual cost of becoming a murderer. 

After he kills the king, Macbeth is haunted, in a sense. He is bombarded with insecurities, increased pride, and paranoia, which sets off a new series of events. At the center of it all is Lady Macbeth, a woman who I would not like to meet in a dark alley if you know what I'm saying. That lady is cray. 

I listened to the audio of a performance as I read Macbeth, then listened to The Play's the Thing to get more context and insight. Maybe my most rewarding reading experience in November.

My rating: 5/5

 

Babel, by R.F. Kuang

This historical fantasy novel has been sitting on my shelf since shortly after its release three years ago. Every time I picked it up and read the back, I thought, This sounds so good! But it also felt like a commitment—like I’d need a solid stretch of time to fully step into another world—and I never quite felt up to it. So back on the shelf it went, only to be forgotten again for another six months.

Finally, I just went for it.

Babel is the name of a fictional department at Oxford, where linguists study the art of manifesting lost meanings in translation. They do this through enchanted silver bars—objects that can store, charge, and release power derived from the gaps between languages. These bars become incredibly valuable commodities, sought after by nations and individuals who want influence, wealth, or control. And as is always the case with highly profitable enterprises, the deeper you read, the more you discover corruption, secrecy, and morally problematic happenings simmering beneath the surface.

Speaking as someone who only reads a handful of fantasy books each year—because the genre just isn’t usually my thing—I found Babel well worth my time. It’s well written, layered with mystery, and set in such a richly imagined world that I think it would appeal even to readers who don’t typically reach for fantasy.

My rating: 3/5

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

Another one I've had on hold for a while! This book started with Never Ending Story vibes because it includes an old man in a book shop and a story that transports you from the real world. Then it took a turn.

In The Thirteenth Tale, Margaret Lea is hired by famed and mysterious author Vida Winter, to write her biography. Vida has told bits and pieces of her story to reporters throughout her career, but it becomes evident that most of what she shared was made up. The truth, it turns out, is bound up in the missing thirteenth story from one of Vida's previous publications. 

I was completely taken in by Vida's complicated and unexpected story. It reads like a twisted fairy tale. There are content warnings in this book, but I'll say that it was one of the most interesting stories I've read in a while. 

My rating: 4/5

Library Additions: The Books I Bagged in November

I found TEN used books from my TBR list in November! Well—I found nine, and my friend Kristin found one. 😉

I’m especially excited about The Winter’s Tale and the memoir she brought me, When Breath Becomes Air. Both happen to be on my Winter Curriculum list, which makes the finds feel even more perfect—like the season is already nudging me toward what I want to read next.

Marked Passages: Thoughts That Made Me Feel, Think, or See Things Differently

"He died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he owed as ‘twere a careless trifle." 

- from Macbeth

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"Times are made simple by loss." 

- paraphrased, from “Directive” by Robert Frost

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Below is one of my favorite passages of all time. I've re-read it probably dozens of times. In it, Stegner details precisely how powerful and precious it feels to be adopted after a lifetime of loneliness. (It makes me think of the Powers family, who changed my life forever. These words perfectly explain what their love felt like to me.)

"I have heard of people’s lives being changed by a dramatic or traumatic event--a death, a divorce, a winning lottery ticket, a failed exam. I never heard of anybody’s life but ours being changed by a dinner party.

We straggled into Madison, western orphans, and the Langs adopted us into their numerous, rich, powerful, reassuring tribe. We wandered into their orderly Newtonian universe, a couple of asteroids, and they captured us with their gravitational pull and made moons of us and fixed us in orbit around themselves. What the disorderly crave above everything is order; what the dislocated aspire to is location.

Both of us were particularly susceptible to friendship. When the Langs opened their house and their hearts to us, we crept gratefully in.

Crept? Rushed. Coming from meagerness and low expectations, we felt their friendship as freezing travelers feel a dry room and a fire. Crowded in, rubbing our hands with satisfaction, and were never the same thereafter. Thought better of ourselves, thought better of the world.

How lovely it is to be chosen, how flattering to have such bright eyes on you as you divide the light from the darkness."

-from Crossing to Safety

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See you same time next month?