A couple of days ago I finished reading Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes. It was a book I’ve had on my shelf for awhile (that I took when a friend cleaned out his books prior to a move) and had put it on my rack for books to go out to my Little Free Library. Tired of genre books I’d been reading, it caught my eye. It is very literary and fairly short, so just the palate cleanser I needed. And it was a delight.
 
The story follows George Braithwaite, retired doctor, widower, and Gustave Flaubert obsessive. There is not really a plot line and each chapter has a different format, but what we get is an introspective look at the life of the famous Flaubert and insight into why Braithwaite is obsessed with him. Which, turns out, is fascinating. During the conversation, for that’s what it feels like, Braithwaite talks about irony, art imitating life and vice versa, whether or not a work of art should be viewed through the lens of the artist’s life.
 
It’s been years since I underlined so many passages in a book. There were some wonderfully clever insights into book lovers and about mourning. The idea of viewing art through the lens of an artist’s life is one that I think a lot about—especially when we find out that so many creatives have histories of being horrible.
 
But the following passage about whether or not mistakes in a work of fiction matter really intrigued me:
 
“’Does it matter?’ As far as I can remember Professor Ricks’s lecture, his argument was that if the factual side of literature becomes unreliable, then ploys such as irony and fantasy become much harder to use. If you don’t know what’s true, or what’s meant to be true, then the value of what isn’t true, or what’s meant to be true, then the value of what isn’t true, or isn’t meant to be true, becomes diminished. This seems to me a very sound argument; though I do wonder to how many cases of literary mistake it actually applies.”
 
This is an internal struggle I have. I tend to notice mistakes. Mistakes like the time not adding up correctly or ages not matching or clothing changes when there was no opportunity or people not in the room when they were a paragraph before. I try to let these mistakes go and sometimes I can, but if they build up enough then it really colors my appreciation of the story. In the quote above, George is trying to understand if it matters or not that Flaubert, in Madame Bovary, gives three different eye colors for the heroine.
 
I read a book recently that I wanted to like but the mistakes were so blatant that by the time I found a mistake in the crux of the story, I just couldn’t like the book, as nice as it was. The book takes place in Larchmont—a subsection of Los Angeles. The author kept referring to the area as East LA, which by no definition could it be. It’s firmly in midtown. The author also called the West Side, everything west of the 405 freeway. Again, untrue. The author then referred to Cal Arts as being in Pasadena. As a Pasadena resident, this was particularly annoying as it’s the Art Center of Design here. Cal Arts is north, in Valencia.
 
So when we got to the part of the book where the heroine will remeet her soon-to-be lover and the fantasy the author was relying on to make it happen seemed unrealistic, I couldn’t overlook the machinations of it.
 
As the quote states: “If the factual side of literature becomes unreliable, then ploys such as irony and fantasy [or the meet cute] become harder to use.”
 
I feel like the mistakes earlier in the book should have been caught in editing and proofreading (especially the one about Cal Arts), so that just makes it harder to overlook them. I know that this says more about me than the book, but if you can’t rely on the factual stuff being true then how can you rely on the imaginative parts being authentic?

February was an oddball month for reading for me. I had trouble liking many of the books I read and doubled down on the love for others. I feel like I didn’t read all the much either. March is seeming like that too, and now that I’m self-isolating, I feel like I need to read more than I am. Crazy times we’re living in.
 
Jane Austen’s Ghost, by Jennifer Kloester
Jennifer Kloester wrote a biography of Georgette Heyer and a book about Regency England that is super helpful when reading Heyer books. This is her first novel and wasn’t widely published, so I wanted to be supportive. Good news, the book was a lot of fun. A bit of romance, a bit of mystery, a love letter to reading. The premise is that Jane Austen was cursed at her death by a rejected suitor. She has remained a ghost in Winchester Cathedral for 200 years. When Cassandra’s aunt tries to reverse the curse, she is almost killed and Cassandra winds up getting a psychic connection to Jane. The best parts of this book are Cassandra and Jane exploring modern life. It’s very well imagined and truly delightful.
 
When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller
This was a good book. Solid writing and storytelling, but it didn’t really catch me. I think I may not have connected with it because I’m not ten and the audience is firmly meant to be 8 to 11. When Korean-American Lily moves with her mom and sister to a small town in Washington to be with her ailing grandmother, she discovers that her grandmother’s tales of tigers and magic may be true. Her halmoni (grandma in Korean) always told Lily amazing folk tales from Korea. When the tiger from those tales suddenly starts stalking Lily, she knows that the tiger is after her grandmother’s life and she takes steps to keep the tiger away. Really, this is a story about losing a loved one and learning to understand the loss. Good story for kids.
 
Murderbot Diaries novellas, 1-4, by Martha Wells
I reread these four novellas between other books. I love Murderbot so dang much. There is no human more human than this cyborg killer. For a while, after reading A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, all I wanted to do was reread that. Now it’s Murderbot. What can I say? I love space families.
 
The Sound of Stars, by Alechia Dow
A YA novel set a few years after an alien invasion of the Earth. Ellie Baker is one of the last surviving humans in NYC, living in a skyrise with her fellow survivors that is completely controlled by the Illori. They have banned anything creative or inspiring, so Ellie runs a secret library. That’s how she meets M0Rr1S, an Illori who has come to love human music. When Ellie is going to be killed as a traitor, M0Rr1s rescues her, both becoming fugitives. This book should have ticked all my boxes, but it really didn’t do anything for me. I think it was because the pacing was uneven and there was a lot of “oh no we’re captured, and now we handily escape” going on. While Ellie was an interesting character, M0Rr1S was kind of boring and one-dimensional. Plus, the book ends where the second one should start. Just give me an ending already.
 
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte
Heavens to Betsy, why have I not read this book before?!?!?! I’ve been reading Wuthering Heights since I was 12 and have loved Jane Eyre since I was 14, so why did I never get around to reading this one? It was so dang good. I probably would not have appreciated as much as a teenager (just like how my views on Wuthering Heights has significantly changed). It was a solid story (with maybe a pinch too much proselytizing) with wonderful characters. I enjoyed the fact that it was part epistolary and part diary—a unique way to tell a story some 20 years after it happened. I find it interesting that both Anne and Emily told their single novels through an unusual voice. Anyway, I will be reading this one again.
 
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
This book had a lot of buzz when it came out and it was definitely worth it. The jacket copy labels it, “lesbian necromancers in space.” But it’s a lot more than that. Mystery, adventure, bones … so many bones. Gideon is a master swordswoman and trapped on the Ninth world that values darkness and the macabre. When she has a chance, she goes with her nemesis, Tamsin, a necromancer, to compete for immortality in a decaying castle on a remote world. And it is so much more bizarre than that. I enjoyed this book a lot, though sometimes I found myself rereading paragraphs because the author is very fond of semi-colons and referring to a number of people as he/she within the same paragraph. Still the story very much worked. Gideon was delightfully foul-mouthed and belligerent. Though, I don’t feel like the main characters were in love with each other, which was a main advertising point. I felt that they had a solid friendship built on mutual respect, despite being pitted towards one another as enemies their whole lives. There was a lot of great world-building too.  
 
Hey, Kiddo, by Jarret J. Krosoczka
I’ve been meaning to get to this graphic memoir for a while as Krosoczka wrote/illustrated one of my all-time favorite picture books, Punk Farm. This memoir explored his family relationships—having been raised by his grandparents, with a mom who struggled with a heroin addiction. It was sad, but uplifting too. He didn’t get to know his mom well, but his grandparents were solid stand-in parents and really encouraged his creativity. It’s aimed at teen readers and I think, if I were a teen struggling with absent parents, that I would find a lot to identify with here.
 
Not the Girl You Marry, by Andie J. Christopher
My one audio book last month. I’ve come to find that “literary” books on audio are hard for me to listen too. Romances is the best, because I can tune out for 20 seconds and still know what’s going on. Not the Girl You Marry was a perfect listen. Sweet story about two people trying to advance their careers by pretending to date wind up being really attracted to one another. Plenty of misunderstandings and a satisfying end make this a delightful read. Both Hannah and Jack have their dating issues, but they both grow so much over the course of their interactions, that they feel like real people. Some very excellent character development.

The beginning of January seems like months ago, yet at the same time the month went by fast. Crazy times we’re living in. My reading was all over the place last month—a little bit of everything. So let’s get to it.
 
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten
I picked this up when I was visiting the excellent Left Bank Books in St. Louis in December. It was a staff recommendation. This delightfully macabre little book was a perfect start to this year’s reading. Octogenarian Maud’s life is just how she likes it, so when other people interfere and create disruption, of any sort, she takes the matter in her own hands. Maud is deceptively spry and makes sure no one knows by using a walker that she doesn’t need. Her mind is sharp, but she pretends to be a confused old lady to get her way. And her way is usually deadly. The book is a series of short stories by a famous mystery writer from Sweden and I highly recommend it.
 
Polaris Rising, by Jessie Mahalik
In December I listened to the audio for the second book in this series, Aurora Blazing. I couldn’t resist continuing my space princess obsession by reading the first book in the series. So.Much.Fun. This book follows the story of Ada (the younger sister of Bianca from Aurora) as she accidently gets involved in a high stakes game of political intrigue between her family and another powerful family from the Consortium. She also accidentally gets involved with the most wanted criminal in the universe, and the sparks fly as they try to prevent galactic war. This book was a blast. I liked Aurora Blazing a little more, as I identified more with Bianca, but Ada has her own brand of kick-ass that’s just as great. I’m looking forward to the third book in the series which will feature both ladies’ youngest sister.
 
Diana, Princess of the Amazons, by Shannon Hale
Shannon Hale is a rock star among the under 9 crowd. Her books are always so fun and empowering, for kids and adults. In this one, our future Wonder Woman, Diana, is a little girl on an island full of adults. Taking the story of her own creation to heart, she builds a playmate out of clay and suddenly life is a lot more fun. But her friend has an agenda of her own and is probably up to no good. A fun, quick graphic novel, this has a good lesson about doing the right thing without it feeling like a lesson. Highly recommend.
 
Love Lettering, by Kate Clayborn
I listened to this on audio and it was just what I needed. Meg is a hand lettering phenomenon in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but her success in business seems to cause a decline in her personal life. Her best friend since high school—also her roommate—has begun to shut her out and suddenly announces she’s moving out. Her friend is her only real connection to the world. Enter Reid, the year before she had created his wedding program and turns out the wedding never happened—partially due to a secret message she’d hidden in it. Reid looks her up to find out why she put it in. Finding that Reid hates New York, Meg invites him to walk the city with her to discover hand-painted murals and signs. I think that’s enough to get you started, I don’t want to spoil the story. Suffice it to say that Reid has his secrets and Meg has to learn to demand what she wants. What I really liked about this book was Meg’s unique way of looking at the world—through lettering and fonts. Another thing I really liked is that Reid was on the autism spectrum, but it’s never brought up because Meg notices, but doesn’t care. For a nice comfort read, invest in this one.
 
Foiled, by Jane Yolen
This is a graphic novel aimed at middle-schoolers. It was alright. Aliera is a competitive fencer but doesn’t have much else going on in her life. When she’s asked out by the cute new boy, she thinks her life is going to change … and it does. She discovers that she is the chosen defender of the fantasy realm. I feel like it took too long to get into what it was really about. As this was the first of two books, it just didn’t catch me enough to read the second.
 
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
I couldn’t wait to get my hot little hands on this. Network Effect doesn’t come out until May, but I got an ARC. Since you probably aren’t as obsessed as I am, this is the first full-length novel of the Murderbot Diaries. The first four books were novellas and some of my favorite books of the last two years. Murderbot is such a great character and Network Effect did not disappoint. We learn more about Preservation, the world where Murderbot’s favorite people come from, and we get to meet up with ART again. (If you know, you know.) We also get to see just how shitty the corporations can be and what havoc they can cause when they fool around with alien relics. So good. So good, I might just reread it now.
 
Rogue Princess, by RA Myers
This is a YA novel that did not quite satisfy my space princess obsession but was pretty good. It’s a gender-bent retelling of Cinderella. Set in a part of space called the Four Quadrants, Princess Delia doesn’t want to be forced to marry a prince from one of the other quadrants. Aiden, a poor kitchen worker, wants to get enough money to get off planet. When they come together, sparks fly, but they also find that there is a secret plot against the monarchy that could destroy their world. I liked this one OK, there was world building, but not quite enough, the characters were likeable, but just not enough. The plot twists felt like deus ex machina—that they were thrown in so that the story would work, not grown organically. It was a fun read and would probably be more liked by someone who hasn’t read a ton of space princess stories.
 
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
So, this book. Really long, with such a slow build and an ending that’s devastating, yet kind of hopeful. I read a lot of Margaret Atwood in the 1990s, but not much since. It was nice to catch up with her again. The Blind Assassin is two different stories. One story is told by Iris at the end of her life who tells about her upbringing with her long-dead sister Laura up until she gets married and leaves her husband. The other story is “The Blind Assassin,” a novel about two star-crossed lovers, who meet in dingy rooms. I loved Atwood’s ability to really get into the mind of the characters—Iris is a pretty unlikeable, but I grew to love her. Then, when we get to the end, with the big reveal, my heart broke for her. It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished and I’m still haunted by the trauma. I guess that’s a pretty good way to tell that it’s a really good book.
 
Watch Hollow, by Gregory Funaro
I picked up this early middle grade “horror” at Vromans when it was about to be returned (as no one had bought it in a year). It was a lot of fun! It owes a lot to The House With the Clock in Its Walls, but brought a lot of new stuff to the table. Lucy’s father is a clock fixer and is paid a lot of money to go spend the summer in a remote Rhode Island mansion and fix the clock that powers the house. Lucy and her brother Oliver go with him and soon find that there are evil forces at work that want the clock to work, but for nefarious reasons. Also, there are carved wood animals that come alive a night and help Lucy figure out what’s going on. This is a good book for the seven and up crowd who like things a little bit scary. I enjoyed it.

I read a whopping twelve books last month. Several of them I’d started in November, a couple were graphic novels, and a couple were audiobooks, so probably not that big a deal. I’m really enjoying audiobooks, so there will likely be a lot more of those in the future.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold
This is one of the standout books of 2019. Rubenhold does history, particularly women’s history, a huge service here by becoming biographer for the five victims of Jack the Ripper. She sets each woman’s story in the events of their time and brings humanity to their lives and especially their deaths. This is not a book about the Ripper, it’s a book about the very human circumstances that brought each woman to be exposed to the murderer’s inhumanity. I cannot recommend this book enough. (See earlier review.)

The Glass Woman, by Caroline Lea
I listened to the audio book of this novel. Set in the 1600s in Iceland—a harsh, rural environment—it follows the story of Rosa who marries, a man she knows little about, in order to stave off the death of her mother and the starvation of her village. But her new husband has secrets that could mean her death. I liked this one all right. The blurb promised a Jane Eyre or Rebecca. It started out that way then changed into something very different. Dark and brooding, definitely, but I got the feeling that the book didn’t know what kind of book it was. I probably wouldn’t have read it as a book, but the audio version was very well done.

Dear Reader, by Mary O’Connell
I seem to be reading books about wandering New York City with some frequency. This story follows Flannery from her Connecticut private school throughout Manhattan as she tries to find her favorite teacher. A teacher who’s copy of Wuthering Heights has become a real-time diary allowing Flannery to follow her tracks as she revisits places important to her in the city. Flannery meets Heath Smith, who might actually be a come-to-life Heathcliff. Both sad, thoughtful, and a delight, Dear Reader was a good read. It was as imaginative as it was fun. Probably not a book I’ll pick up again, but one that I’ll think about from time to time.

Venetia, by Georgette Heyer
This was a second read for this Heyer. In the fan forums, this is usually one of the favorites. It hadn’t been mine the first time I read it as I found the idea of the debauched, yet reformed nobleman gross. I mean the first time we meet Dameral is when he attempts to rape Venetia because he thinks she’s a servant. Gross. However, what I did like about it is Venetia’s agency. Unlike most Heyer heroines, who tend to be passive in romantic matters, Venetia has true agency and makes decisions based on her own happiness without regards to society. I liked it better on second reading. It has some of the best love-to-hate secondary characters in any Heyer.

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, by Alice Munro
I hadn’t read any of Munro’s short stories and thought it was time. (I hadn’t read any Grace Paley either and found that her lack of structure made it unbearable for me to read.) I really enjoyed these stories. How Munro really dives into the deeps of what people think, what makes them take or not take action, is mind altering. I don’t often read short stories—those these were practically novellas—but I’m sure I’ll read more of her in the future.

Merton of the Movies, by Harry Leon Wilson
The copy I have was a centennial reprint of one of the biggest books of 1919. It started out as a series in the Saturday Evening Post and apparently was made into movies and plays. Merton is a young clerk in a small town in Illinois with huge dreams of being a serious movie actor. Merton has zero sense of humor and no sense of sarcasm. When he shows up in Hollywood ambitious to act along with his favorite stars, he’s put out to find that Hollywood is all sets and stunt actors. He still vows to bring something “real and true” to elevate the commonness of the films being made. Even going so far as to nearly starve as he crashes at nights on the movie lot when he turns homeless. But a young, flippant actress takes a shine to him and gets him a starring role in a comedy—but tells him it’s a serious film, so everyone but him is in on the joke. I enjoyed this a lot—although some of the scenes dragged, the author having a little too much fun with descriptions. It is definitely not a love letter to Hollywood despite the author being an obvious fan.

(Full disclosure: I got this book as a review copy. LARB are reprinting some fascinating-looking books from the same era. Check them out: https://larbbooks.org/books/classics/)

Love, Death, and Rare Books, by Robert Hellenga
I read an ARC of this one, the book comes out in March. It was pretty good. Book porn for sure. Gabe Johnson, is a third generation rare book dealer. He spends his life in love with a woman who does whatever she wants, regardless of how it hurts other people. When Gabe’s father dies and he loses the lease to his bookstore, he relocates to a small town on Lake Michigan to open a smaller store. I liked it overall—I mean they talk about books constantly. My main issue was that even though the book spans decades, the two main characters don’t grow or change at all. I found that off-putting once I finished, realizing that it was just OK, but I’ll always read a novel about books.

Aurora Blazing, by Jessie Mihalik
The space opera, political intrigue, action-packed, kick-ass princess book I didn’t know I needed. I listened to this one, the second in a series. It wasn’t a bad place to start as I never once felt I didn’t know what was going on. When Bianca’s brother, Ferdinand—the heir to one of the three most powerful families in the universe—is kidnapped, she is in a unique place to find him. Only her father wants her to leave it to the family’s security. Running away and soon being captured by her love/nemesis Ian—head of security—Bianca gets the information they need to find her brother. Together Ian and Bianca travel galaxies and commit daring rescues to return her brother home. I’ll reiterate here, I didn’t know how much I needed this until I read it. So much fun!

Get a Life, Chloe Brown, by Talia Hibbard
So this probably shouldn’t count as I read the book last month, but this time I listened to it. Still great.

Sheets, by Brenna Thummler
This was a Christmas present from a friend. I’d seen it before but hadn’t really looked into it. It was a fun quick read. Not really much to say about it. A girl whose mother recently died and whose father has checked out, runs her family’s laundromat while facing the threat of a shady spa owner. A ghost comes to the laundry and at first really messes up, but then he helps the girl save the store. Artwork was nice, story was OK. Fine read.

Thornhill, by Pam Smy
I’ve had a copy of this for ages, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Boy. Wow. Part diary, part graphic novel, this is a dark story about a girl, thirty years ago, who was severely bullied while living in group home. The graphic novel part of the story follows a girl who recently moved into a house next to the derelict building that used to be the group home and begins to see a girl on the property and lights on in the attic. Creepy and devastating, this is a hard story well-told.

Hollow Dolls, by MarcyKate Connelly
This is a middle-grade novel set in Connelly’s Shadow Weaver world and follows the story of a secondary character from the original two books. In this world, kids born when a special comet passes are blessed with talents. Simone is a mind-reader, who was controlled by the evil Lady for a time unknown. She has no memory of her early life or even for how long she’s been alive—kept young through other talents. The person with the talent of “body walking” or being able to control other people, seems to be looking for her, so she and her friend set off to escape the body walker and to try to discover information about her family. I really enjoyed the Shadow Weaver duology. This one was a nice addition, but I didn’t care as much for Simone as I wanted to.

Over the holiday, I finished a few hats. I tried a couple of new-to-me techniques and had a lot of fun.