I recently came back from a longish vacation to sunnier climes. Why we returned from here is unclear to me:

We spent a lot of time lounging by the beach or the pool, as you do when this is the view:

Anyway. I read three entire books, finished one, and started another. None of them would be categorized as a “beach read,” but in my opinion if you read something at the beach, it’s a beach read.

All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter: The mood and the world-building were great — there are some wonderful mythical creatures in this one. I did feel the ending was a little rushed, but it was also plausible.

The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Eva Jurczyk: I didn’t like this as much as I’d hoped. There are a lot of academic politics and a protagonist who is sort of just letting herself be buffeted along for much of the story. She finally starts to get interesting at the end.

Bleeding Heart Yard, Elly Griffiths: I never really try to solve the mystery, but sometimes you start to develop a theory, and mine was completely wrong this time, in a good way. This is the third installment in the Harbinder Kaur series. You can certainly read this as a standalone, but you’ll get a little more out of it if you read the other two first.

The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern: Somehow this hadn’t been on my radar until recently, but it was such a lovely read. It was so immersive and I was sad to leave the story and the characters when I finished. I saw a few beats of the plot coming, but that didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment.

The Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor: This is the first pick in Roxane Gay’s book club this year, and it was incredible. Very layered and I liked how you see some of the same events through different perspectives. This is set in Delhi and the city is very much a character as well.

We interrupt your somewhat regularly scheduled cooking programming with a post about things you should read.

This year I read a lot of really good books. Some I rated 5 stars, some I rated 4. Since the star rating really just represents a hot take after I finish the book, it doesn’t necessarily reflect books that stuck with me. So that brings us to this list.

First of all, the best book I read this year was The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. It’s so good and the slow burn of creepiness was perfection. If you are a mystery fan you should absolutely pick this up.

Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki: The description for this will make you wonder how it could possibly work, but it does and it’s so lovely.

Vespertine, by Margaret Rogerson: If you’re pretty sure you’d like The Locked Tomb series if you had any idea WTF was going on, you’ll probably like this and you’ll definitely be able to follow it.

The Rose Code, Kate Quinn: A WWII novel about female codebreakers. Full of wonderful storytelling and characters.

Shit Cassandra Saw, Gwen E. Kirby: A playful and hilarious collection of stories. My favorite was Midwestern Girl Is Tired Of Appearing In Your Short Stories, but A Few Normal Things That Happen A Lot was a close second.

A History of Wild Places, Shea Earnshaw: This caught my attention and kept it. Some may think the twist is obvious, but I figured it out shortly before the characters did which made for a very satisfying reading experience.

Matrix, Lauren Groff: You may think you don’t want to read about a 12th century nun, but you’re wrong.

Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead: This is long but very worth it. My book club really enjoyed this.

Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel: This book is a whole mood.

The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart: People vacation via time travel and have to stay at a giant hotel the night before. What could possibly go wrong?

Strange Practice, Vivian Shaw: Vampires need health care, too. As do mummies and assorted other supernatural beings.

The Women Could Fly, Megan Giddings: What if the witch trials happened today? (shudders)

If for some reason you want to see everything I read this year, here you go.

Once a month I recommend a novel that I’ve recently read and enjoyed. This time it’s the charming start to a new series by one of my favorite writers.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Tom Doherty Associates,
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

Becky Chambers wrote one of my most beloved series, Wayfarers. So of course I came to this, the first book of her new series, with high hopes. I was so happy with what I found. 

The driving conflict in the book occurs well before the timeline that we’re in, when robots become sentient and humans decided that they weren’t going to try and force them into submission and continued labor. The earth is divided between human and robot territory, and the robots retreat into the wilderness. Centuries later, humans have survived and rebuilt civilization into something that looks much like before technology.

That’s something I’m doing. That’s not my reason for being. When I am done with this, I will do other things.

The story follows Dex, who is in search of something more in life and changes their vocation from that of Garden Monk to Tea Monk. As a Tea Monk they travel from place to place, offering comfort and conversation to people, essentially a type of counseling. They enjoy it, but it still isn’t quite enough.

This book is lovely. It’s calm and quiet, philosophical but not in an abstract way. At least one review found some aspects of the worldbuilding a little difficult to believe, but I didn’t find them distracting.

This is a short review because this is a short book, more of a novella, really. If you’re not sure this is for you, I’d encourage you to pick it up anyway. It won’t take you long to read, and you’ll likely enjoy being transported into the world Chambers has built.

Back to School Fiction

Even though I haven’t actually worked on a college campus in a long time, early September still brings some of that back to school energy with it. If that’s the case for you, too, you might find yourself picking up a campus novel. There are plenty of them out there, but here are four I’d recommend. 

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

You’ve almost certainly heard of this one, it’s the Gen X urtext for dark academia. It centers around a group of graduate students in Classics at an elite New England liberal arts college. The story is narrated by an outsider to the group, who is eventually brought in and learns that the tense group dynamics are in part driven by a horrible secret. There’s some blackmail involved and the situation escalates.

It’s long, and it seems to be one of those books that most people love, but some people hate. Publisher’s Weekly sums it up in a short but spoiler-y review. If it still sounds interesting, grab a copy from the library and give it 100 or so pages. 

Bunny, by Mona Awad
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

Bunny has echoes of The Secret History (including the title; Bunny is a nickname for one of the characters in The Secret History). It also takes place at an elite New England liberal arts college, but this time the outsider is trying to break into an insular group in her MFA program. 

But it’s not pure homage. The in-group acts as a single organism, and is making inexplicable things happen at their off-campus gatherings. So in addition to being a psychological thriller, there are elements of magical realism. All of the main characters are women, which adds some threads of competing types of femininity that come into play. 

I think some may find this story to be over the top, but if this short review at Kirkus grabs your attention, definitely give it a go.

The Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

Following the path of magical realism, you arrive eventually at actual magic in The Ninth House. Still at an elite New England college; but this time the outsider is an undergraduate brought in by a dean. She’s offered a full ride if she helps keep the supernatural at bay during the campus secret societies’ occult rituals. (If they aren’t done properly, they attract ghosts.)

This novel also introduces elements of widespread conspiracy. Institutional cover ups, conspiracies of wealth, privilege, legacy, the patriarchy. I thought that worked well with the type of insularity in this novel. This review in The Washington Post sums it up well. 

As She Climbed Across the Table, by Jonathan Letham
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

Finally, we have a wildcard entry; this one is more of an academic spoof than dark academia. Set at a Northern California university, it centers around the faculty. A particle physicist’s lab has opened a void / portal, which they name Lack, and she becomes obsessed with it. Her anthropologist boyfriend is trying to win her attention back while dealing with all the little indignities of academia. 

If you haven’t read any Jonathan Lethem before, prepare yourself for the absurd. His characters can sometimes be a little one-note, but I find that it usually works well for his style. This review in Publisher’s Weekly should give you a sense of what you’re getting into.

Once a month I recommend a novel that I’ve recently read and enjoyed. This month’s combines witchcraft with a high school women’s field hockey team and is set in late-80’s Massachusetts. 

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Pantheon Books, March 2020
Libraries | Bookshop | Goodreads

The Danvers High School women’s hockey team is . . . not great. For the 1989 season, the seniors decide to do something about this. In a notebook with Emilio Estevez on the cover, they pledge themselves to the devil in exchange for the team making it to State. 

For those who don’t know, Danvers (formerly Salem Village) was the epicenter of the witchcraft hysteria in 1692. This, of course, means that their pledge works. It probably doesn’t hurt that one of the co-captains is descended from the family of Ann Putnam, one of the primary accusers during the hysteria and trials. 

We ran off the field like a bunch of frenzied maenads carrying aloft the head of some poor slob that we’d recently torn off his shoulders.

Anyway, this is when the fun really starts. Having vowed to follow their dark urges, they begin playing pranks on their teachers. Each is recorded in the notebook, and the team starts winning. It escalates from there.

The story is told in first person plural, which works beautifully. It captures the bond between them as teammates, while subtly pointing out the possibly malevolent groupthink driving them towards what they hope will be victory. The team is an entity unto itself; while it is made up of individuals (whom you do get to know), they are all acting as one.

I cannot stress enough how fun this novel is, especially if you were in middle or high school in Massachusetts in the late 80s or the 90s. In the book, one girl’s sky-high bangs become their own character (The Claw) and I immediately pictured a specific classmate’s hair.
While I don’t like how the ending was structured, that gripe is outweighed by everything else I loved about this book. If you’ve played a team sport, were a teenager in the late 80s or early 90s, or were ever a teenage girl, you’ll probably enjoy at least one aspect of this novel.