The past three months, I’ve gradually been shifting the volume in my stacks so that half of my reading is drawn from my own shelves, but I’m still borrowing lots of good books from the library. April is already a terrific reading month!
The Everyman’s anniversary edition of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1947) called to me from the shelves of my branch library after I watched a documentary on Kanopy. The scenes are rich and densely written, and sometimes required reading aloud to capture the detail therein.
The final volume of Gengorah Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband (2018) is best read leisurely as well. Ironically not because there are so many words, but because there is a lot of emotion behind the few words which present a brother’s grief over his twin’s death. His discomfort with the unexpected arrival of his brother’s lover in Japan, a young man from Canada who was alone with his grief overseas, forces a consideration of his own acceptance and understanding of his brother’s sexuality.
The living brother’s daughter in this series reminds of the titular character in Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&! series. This 2016 volume is the 13th in the series and maintains the largely light-hearted (sometimes fleetingly bittersweet and nostalgic) tone of Yotsuba’s daily life. Food, excursions, games, time spent with the neighbours: nothing much happens, and yet it manages to be charming and optimistic. (She is my antidote to political news.)
Andrea Levy’s Six Stories & an Essay (2014) was a delight to discover on the shelves of the Little Jamaica library branch because I thought I had only two of Andrea Levy’s books left to read. But this is a slim volume, and although the introductions to the short pieces are inviting, more than anything they left me longing for one of her longer works. (More to say about this one in the next Quarterly Short Story post.)
And, finally, a book which is likely to appear on my favourites list for the year: Akiko Busch’s How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency (2019). Although I can see how the very element which I adore – the way she pulls ideas and facts from so many disparate fields (e.g. fine arts, nature, philosophy, film) could annoy other readers, it simply thrills me. Her interconnected musings are such a comfort as winter nears its end.
Vonda N. McIntyre’s Starfarers (1989) was one of the first science-fiction series that I picked up as an adult and also one of the first to challenge my understanding of sci-fi as exclusively male-penned fare.
My first read for #1965Club is Marie-Claire Blais’ A Season in the Life of Emmanuel (1965), her third novel, about a large poverty-stricken Quebecois family (Trans. Derek Coltman,1992), which the focus on the grandmother’s relationship with the children (and some of the sibling relationships).
A longtime shelf-sitter is Anna Brownell Jameson’s Winter Studies and Summer Rambles (1838), one of several volumes of travel-writing which I’ve been curious about since reading Charlotte Gray’s biography of Jameson and her sister, Catherine Parr Traill.
The current volume of my short story reading project, Mavis Gallant’s Home Truths (1981), finishes with the six autobiographical stories which consider Linnet Muir. The next volume is Overhead in a Balloon, which will be a fresh read for me, beginning in June.
My next read for #1965 Club is the sequel to Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy (1964), The Long Secret (1965), a volume which I never loved as much as I loved meeting Harriet for the first time. So I’m reading partly to refresh my memory (I only remember feeling uncomfortable) and partly to see if I can understand why the first story was such a hit for young-reading-me and the second such a miss for that young girl.
The book that I constantly want to sneak a few pages of this month? Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (2014). And the sequel is waiting in the wings.
As for my ongoing MRE authors project, Michael Crummey’s Hard Light (1998) is in my stack, although I’m only reading a few pages in a sitting, so it might well linger into May. (His Galore is a most favourite of favourites.)
I’ve been meaning to read Vonda Mcintyre. I know I read one of her stories in the “Women of Wonder” anthologies, edited by Pamela Sergent, in the’70s or ’80s. And honestly I found her work more interesting than Joanna Russ, another woman of the same time periofd who seems to have been revived.
Harriet the Spy was one of my favorites. I was also fascinated by The Long Secret, though the only thing I remember about it is that Beth Ellen (is that her name?) gets her period. Did you ever read Sport, another sequel? I found it uninteresting, though this could have meant I was simply too grown-up/
A fabulous stack of books!
Yes! I’ve had that series of collections of stories on my shelves for years: essential reading (lest we forget that there were women writing speculative fiction of all sorts for as long as men have been writing it)! Russ is someone whose works I’ve admired rather than loved.
I’m actually going to read Sport soon, but I never read it when I was a girl (it was about a boy, y’know). And there is so much about the girls’ periods (Janie has hers too, but not Harriet, who is a few months younger, so she feels very left out): I’m sure it was rather shocking in 1965 despite the social change of the era.
How To Disappear sounds interesting… especially the “virtual reality goggles that trick the wearer into believing her body has disappeared” – have you gotten to that part yet?
Hard Light is actually one of the ones I haven’t read yet (even though I own it). I agree – I think Galore is my favourite. Either Galore or Sweetland – it’s a hard choice!
That doesn’t last as long as you’d think it would – most of her references only occupy a couple of paragraphs in the book, and then some commentary/musings follow – which is what I love about it, but it could also send you in a hundred different directions, reading up on various bits that piqued your interest. (This book has sent me down a dozen rabbit holes for sure!)
That’s the other Crummey I wanted to add, but I stopped myself because then I wanted to mention one of the poetry volumes too and then and then. laughs But I feel like I love both those novels equally, so maybe they are for rather different reading moods? Plus, I usually end up suggesting Galore though, because it feels like it has a true Newfoundland personality, whereas the elegance of Sweetland is perhaps more universal (which also has some advantages, now that I think about it). Hmmmm. What do you think? Anyway, I’ve only read the first few pages of Hard Light, so you could easily catch up if you’re in the mood…
I would be more likely to recommend Galore to someone who wouldn’t mind the weirdness of it (one of its best qualities in my opinion), and Sweetland seems more mainstream, but still Newfoundland-y.
That’s what I love about it: how matter-of-fact its strangeness is! But, yes, I agree: there is still a NFL-feel to Sweetland too. 🙂
I know I read Harriet the Spy when i was young, but I don’t remember what i thought about it at the time. Perhaps I just wishes i could get back to the Goosebumps and Fear Street series while I was paging through it? Lord knows. Anyway, I applaud the fact that you’re tackling these large tomes, I always tend to shy away from them myself 🙂
If it’s any consolation, I avoided long books (i.e. anything over 500 pages,and only a few over 300 made it into the stacks) when my step-daughters were younger. I dunno if it’s because all the kids’ books made me think that it should take all THAT long to finish reading any book, or if it was a comment on my focus more generally – maybe a bit of both!
ok that does make me feel better, and I think you’re right, it’s a bit of both!
🙂
Sounds like a great month! I haven’t read any Andrea Levy books since Small Island, which I really enjoyed, so maybe it’s time to try another. On another note, I wish I had a stack of real books like that. One of the downsides of travelling is having to read ebooks all the time 🙁
It’s been a good month so far, a lot of progress on reading projects, but also making good on my intention to read more illustrated books this year. (Still have to work on the non-fiction ration though! Lots of good stuff in your March list for that.) Are you moving too regularly to gather even a small collection? That would wear on me too.
I loved Harriet the Spy as a child too and don’t ever remember reading the sequel. I’ve been thinking of rereading Harriet. Perhaps I’ll have to give the sequel a try too.
You have a nice mix of owned and library books. I’m not as good about mixing them in. Maybe I should be more deliberate and choose half from my own shelves and half from the library each month. Those brand new books, though… so shiny…they’re my downfall. I’m still on the “pausing my holds” setting for a few more weeks at least.
That’s how it started for me, several years ago, pausing my entire hold list, then letting them in with a trickle, but I still really struggle with the desire to be up-to-date when the backlist is still so massive. But I’ve tried and tried to balance the two, and it just doesn’t work because the new always wins for me, because I love talking about books, and most people seem to be reading the newer things.
So, in theory, I am reading everything from my own shelves and only getting the odd, very occasional item, from the library (and not reading any new books, only backlisted things) which leads, in reality, to a kinda-sorta-balance. In other words, even when I am trying my most hardest to instruct myself, I only listen to myself about half the time. 🙂
PS Definitely reread Harriet. I think you’ll be amazed. She not only holds up, she’s better! And, not to talk you into borrowing a copy of a book you might already own, but the 50th anniversary edition has some lovely authors’ tributes in the back.
you’ve had more success than I have at finding a #1965 book in my library. I drew a complete blank…..
Some years are like that. There are one year for which I had a single choice. Well, an easy decision!
I had no idea Harriet the Spy had a sequel! Child-me would have been so excited to know that … adult me goes ‘meh’. I have been pondering Becky Chambers’s books and trying to get my book club interested, but some members have enough trouble finishing a 250-page book, so a 500+-pager seems like a non-starter. I still haven’t read Crummey, but I have a copy of Galore on my shelf that I’d love to read soon — maybe for 20 Books of Summer?
There are actually some newer Harriet books, too, I believe, published years later, but I’m not generally pulled in by that not-by-the-author seuquel-thing. Although I’m glad that Louise Fitzhugh’s character is still reaching young readers, other young writers discovering her interest in notebooks! When you get to Galore, be prepared for magical and strange Newfoundland stories!
Ooh I hadn’t heard of that Andrea Levy book, that will definitely be going on my wishlist. Enjoy your library haul.
It’s such a skinny little volume, so I’m glad I still have two of her novels left to read, but the glimpses into autobiography in the stories’ introductions are appreciated.
Quite a month! Of these authors I’ve only read Crummey – I have fond memories of River Thieves – and Levy whose work I’ve enjoyed very much. A sad loss.
He’s one of those quintessential Must-Read-Everything authors for me, because it’s kind of where the whole project started, the idea that an author’s way of looking at the world was so appealing (or, sometimes intriguing, say with Barbara Comyns, whose works aren’t exactly appealing but bizarrely inspiring and clever) made me want to read every single book they published. (Yes, I didn’t intend this as an obit read, but there it is.)
Oooh, glad you’ll be finding some interesting titles for 1965! 😀 My youngest loved Harriet The Spy but we never knew there was a sequel…
Well, Harriet was challenged on several grounds and now that I’ve reread The Long Secret, I can see why it’s even less well-known. Some taboo-topics, especially for kids’ books. Loved it!