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Andrew Miller, Averno, books, Braiding Sweetgrass, Colin Dexter, Frankenstein, How to Keep House While Drowning, Joan Didion, K.C. Davis, Louise Glück, Lyrical Ballads, Mary Shelley, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, quarterly wrapup, read in 2023, reading, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sasha Hamdani, Self-Care for People With ADHD, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, The Voyage Out, Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, Winter Recipes from the Collective
July to September was a very mixed quarter for me. July was very busy – end of semester, and I also was on holiday – while August and September were much more relaxed. However, as is so often the case, the level of business did not directly relate to how much I did or did not read. That had much more to do with the kind of books I picked up.
The quarter ended up being a good one in terms of both quality and quantity, but I did read a couple of titles that took much longer to finish than anticipated. It wasn’t exactly a slump, although July and early August were certainly a period where I couldn’t really decide what mood I was in and thus started a lot of titles without finishing them. I do think that part of the problem was also that I – very unwisely as usual – tried to keep track of too many reading challenges at the same time. And I do think that in some cases it was the books themselves that were to blame. Braiding Sweetgrass was a bit too long, and Lyrical Ballads just didn’t keep my attention enough to prioritize it. Well, things started looking up in September, so I’m quite content with the quarter overall.
My biggest success though? The number of books I managed to review!
Let’s get into the wrapup proper:
Books:
Virginia Woolf – The Voyage Out ★★★☆☆.5
I’ve written about this in my actual review, but it turns out The Voyage Out is the one Woolf novel I didn’t love. There was a lot I enjoyed, not least of all Woolf’s skill at rendering minute observations in beautiful language, but I also found the novel – and some of its characters – extremely exhausting, especially in the second half. What is more, it is one of those rare books where I found the ending dissatisfying and rather in opposition to the rest of the story.
William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Lyrical Ballads (1798 First Edition) (library) ★★★☆☆
I read Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner earlier in the year and decided to follow it up with the full collection. It was… alright? I don’t regret reading this, and the experience was educational, but unfortunately my gut feeling that I prefer Coleridge over Wordsworth (and several other countries’ varieties of Romanticism over these English guys) was confirmed. Wordsworth is best when he writes about emotions in relation to the contemplation of nature, but sadly that’s not what most of the Lyrical Ballads are about.
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass ★★★☆☆.5 – ★★★★☆
This non-fiction book about the intersection of science, ecology, and Indigenous knowledge was more essayistic and disconnected than I expected, but still very enlightening and comforting at the same time. I did have a couple of qualms with it, which I elaborated on in my review, but would still heartily recommend it.
Andrew Miller – Now We Shall Be Entirely Free ★★★★★
When I asked for this book for Christmas 2020, I expected to like it. I did not expect it to be an instantaneous entry to my Best Books of 2023 list. What can I say? I loved this book. It’s melancholy, dreamlike, beautifully written, and full of complicated characters who desperately strive to be free. Not a historical novel that takes the reader by the hand and explains everything in detail, but I wouldn’t have loved it as much if it was.
Louise Glück – Winter Recipes from the Collective (library) ★★★☆☆.5
I’m not sure I have much to say about this poetry collection, which I believe is also what I said when I reviewed it. I found it quick and pleasant to read, with occasionally beautiful imagery and turns of phrase, but not something I will remember in much detail.
Colin Dexter – The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (Scribd, audio) ★★☆☆☆.5
Every once in a while, I will try a new Morse novel in the hopes that, as the series progresses, the books will finally get as good as the series. I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t reached that point yet. As usual, the mystery is engaging and complex and Morse’s tendency to run with ideas even if they lead him in the entirely wrong direction charming, but the sexism and attitudes around women are off-putting.
Sasha Hamdani – Self-Care for People with ADHD (Scribd, ebook) ★★☆☆☆
I’d heard about this book on a podcast (can’t remember which), but it turned out a disappointment. Neither very thorough when it comes to explaining why people with ADHD struggle with ‘simple’ adulting things, nor very ground-breaking in its advice. Often, the tips were rather superficial and lacked the necessary step-by-step guidance that is needed for people who struggle with their ADHD more than the author does. Good as a reminder of options, bad as an actual instruction manual.
K. C. Davis – How to Keep House While Drowning (Scribd, ebook) ★★★☆☆
Gentle and encouraging, with a couple of good tips and pointers how to question expectations of ‘normalcy’, ‘productivity’, and gender roles. In the end, though, I didn’t feel like I learned much that I didn’t know; the book did, however, confirm that I’m on the right track.
Joan Didion – Slouching Towards Bethlehem ★★★★☆.5
The second Didion book of 2023, and no less a favourite than The Year of Magical Thinking. I can’t say that I always agree with Didion (especially not about hippies, it seems), but I love her idiosyncratic way of phrasing her observations, and she certainly makes me think – which is really what I want from my non-fiction.
Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1831 edition, reread) ★★★★☆.5
It has been a while since I read this classic of gothic fiction – at least ten years I believe – and I was desperately due a reread. Frankenstein has always been a favourite, but it is one of those classics that fascinate me to no end despite not being as immediately moving as some of my other favourites. Barely 220 pages long, Frankenstein has an intricate structure and very complex characters. During this reread, I also developed an entirely new appreciation of Shelley’s nature descriptions and her treatment of the sublime, a concept that has fascinated me for years. (See also: my interest in mountain landscapes and polar exploration, and the works of Robert Macfarlane.) In a manner of speaking, I’m glad that I left it so long since my last reread; I rediscovered so many details that I wouldn’t have noticed if I’d ‘just’ read it to experience a familiar story and without the several years of reading around the books topics that came in between.
Louise Glück – Averno (library) ★★★☆☆.5
Much like the other collection of Louise Glück’s poems I read this quarter, I liked this but didn’t love it and will likely not remember much. It’s not a bad collection – quite the opposite, actually; Glück’s style is beautiful – it’s just that this kind of poetry is to minimalist for me to connect with.
On the blog:
- My hope that 20 Books of Summer would make me review more books actually worked out! I not only reviewed all the physical books I read, but also wrapped up the challenge in a separate post.
- I made an Autumn TBR! It’s not something I do often, so it’s definitely worth a mention.
Other bookish things:
- I’ve mostly overcome my disillusionment with readathons and participated in both 20 Books of Summer and the Autumn Equinox part of the Orilium readathon (again without spending much time on Discord, which is where a lot of my annoyance seems to come from. I just… do not vibe with most of the people there). The former worked for me better than the latter; I think I need to be able to freely choose which books I pick up instead of following fixed prompts. I also need the more lenient time frame; one month is never quite enough, especially since I usually start my months with a couple of books in my currently reading pile.
Life and other shenanigans:
- I went on a proper holiday in the first week of July! It included so many of my favourite things: art galleries, old cities, dead Romantic painters, hiking and beautiful landscapes, and an opera. (Not that I know much about opera, but I can say that I was thoroughly entertained.)
- I’ve been trying out a lot of new computer games. In addition to Stardew Valley, which I’ve been playing and loving for over a year now, I’ve also tried out Hollow Knight (love the artwork, music and worldbuilding but am terribly clumsy) and Disco Elysium (so weird! Love it!). I may have to introduce a separate category for games eventually.