This is the first – and most likely only – “blind date with a book” that I have purchased. A Hero of Our Time is apparently “whip smart with biting humor” but I did not find it humorous at all. It actually kind of made me feel sad – when it wasn’t making me feel so bored that I wanted to DNF it.
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I came across a collection of Maggie O’Farrell’s novels in the bargain book section of my local independent bookstore, and since I have read and enjoyed O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet, I decided to read one of her more contemporary novels. After You’d Gone, O’Farrell’s debut novel that was first published in 2000,sounded the most intriguing out of the collection. I found After You’d Gone to be just as interesting as both The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet.
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Ottessa Moshfegh is the author of the darkly funny and bizarre My Year of Rest and Relaxation, which I read back in 2022 and enjoyed. This inspired me to read Moshfegh’s Death in Her Hands, which I came across in the bargain section at my local independent bookstore. I did not enjoy Death in Her Hands. It is one of those books where the idea is better than the execution.
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The Break is the first in a trilogy of novels by Katherena Vermette that are set in Winnipeg, Manitoba and feature a recurring cast of Métis characters. The Break is a good novel that tells a powerful story, but its frank depictions of sexual assault make this novel difficult to stomach at times.
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House of Leaves is a horror novel that was first published in 2000, but somehow I had never heard about it until recently. When I saw how absolutely bonkers the formatting of this book is, I knew I had to read it:
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The only reason I would bother to read a novel about a group of 7th century Irish monks who sail to a remote island to start their own monastery is because Emma Donoghue wrote it. Haven is a well-written story, but it is one of the most infuriating novels I have ever read. I have never wanted to reach into a novel and bitch slap a character as badly as I did while reading this book.
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Prep is Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, published back in 2005. Prep is an agonizingly authentic portrait of a teenage white girl’s high school experience. Its authenticity is so remarkable that I had a hard time getting through this book because of my own painful memories of high school, but it is such a well written novel that I am glad I read it.
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I came across Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano in Indigo’s list of the Top 100 Books of the Year (it is number one on the list). Hello Beautiful is a homage to Little Women (ugh, I just love Little Women), so of course I had to read it. Do I think Hello Beautiful is the number one book of 2023? As affecting a story that it is about familial relationships, I am not impressed enough by Hello Beautiful to think it deserves top honour.
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The Vaster Wilds is Lauren Groff’s latest novel. It is a beautifully written but bleak story about a girl trying to survive on her own in the wilderness. Compared to Groff’s other novels, The Vaster Wilds is a despairing read.
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For those of you who have never heard of Anne Lister, she was a woman who lived in the early 19th century and who is known today as a very famous lesbian. She kept diaries written in code, and when the diaries were decrypted after her death, they revealed graphic details of her many lesbian relationships. I first learned of Anne Lister when I watched the BBC series Gentleman Jack, which focused on her relationship with Ann Walker, whom she “married” and was her partner until her death in 1840. Gentleman Jack is a fantastic series, and Anne Lister is a fascinating historical figure in how she openly lived an unconventional life for a woman of her time. She is what drew me to read Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, Learned by Heart, which is a fictional account of one of Anne Lister’s earliest relationships as a teenager with a girl she went to school with named Eliza Raine.
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