Books Read in November

Quick camping trip in early November

Yes, you read that correctly. While everyone else is posting their year-end summaries, I am just posting my November summary! Ah, well. The good news is that November was an excellent reading month for me, with lots of good books, as I focused on #NonfictionNovember. Here's what I finished reading last month:

• Follow Me by K.R. Alexander (NY) - middle grade fiction on audio 
• White Trash by Nancy Isenberg - adult nonfiction

• Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald (Ireland) - middle-grade fiction
• The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - adult nonfiction on audio

 

 

• When All Is Said by Anne Griffin (Ireland) - adult fiction
• H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (UK) - adult nonfiction/memoir
  

• The Roanoke Colony: America's First Mystery by Chris Schweizer (VA) - middle-grade graphic nonfiction
• The Great Chicago Fire: Rising from the Ashes by Kate Hannigan and Alex Graudins (IL) - middle-grade graphic nonfiction

• No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox - adult nonfiction/memoir on audio

 

I finished nine books in November, which is a really big reading month for me! There were a bunch of middle-grade and a couple of graphic "novels," so those are quicker. I did well for Nonfiction November, with 6 of my 9 books nonfiction. I listened to three books on audio. While I didn't read any YA last month, I did include four middle-grade books and five books for adults. They were all good in their own way, but my favorite book in November was No Time Like the Future. Michael J. Fox's memoirs are always wonderful, especially read by him on audio--warm, honest, raw, and very funny (review and audio sample at the link).

Progress in 2020 Reading Challenges:
You can see all of the reading challenges I am participating in and full lists of the books read for each at the challenges link above. I have some fun ones going this year!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2020 - I read four books from my own shelves last month, bringing my year-to-date total (as of the end of Nov) to 40. So why are our shelves still so full?

2020 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - November was Dynamic Duos, so I chose Cosmo and his grandfather in Back to Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Back to the Classics 2020 - I read another classic! The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois which fit into the category "Classic by a Person of Color."

PopSugar Reading Challenge - this is a unique one. Most of my categories are filled now, so I was surprised to see I filled three more with my November books!

• A bildungsroman - The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Du Bois
  
• A book by an author with flora or fauna in their name (almost missed this one!) - No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox
• A book with only words on the cover - White Trash by Nancy Isenberg
  

2020 Nonfiction Reader's Challenge - Six of my books were nonfiction in November, bringing my total up to 14 so far.

2020 Diversity Reading Challenge - Five of my books were diverse last month, including
The Roanoke Colony: America's First Mystery by Chris Schweizer, which fit into November's category of Native American.

Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge - I only traveled globally to Ireland and the UK in my books last month, where I've spent a lot of reading time this year!

2020 Literary Escapes Challenge - I added two new states, Virginia and Illinois, which is tough to do at this time of year.

2020 Big Book Summer Challenge - Ended in September, with a grand total of ten for me this year.

RIP XV -  Finished, with a total of 16 books read this fall.

And finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Stop by to print out this month's Bingo card and play along. In November, I filled 18 spaces on my bingo card:

 

Spaces Filled:

Follow Me - fantasy novel, not in a series

White Trash - book club read, library book

Back to Blackbrick - time travel, honor lost or found, quest

The Souls of Black Folk - free book, set in college

When All Is Said - family

H Is for Hawk - shelf love

The Roanoke Colony - weapon on cover, warrior

The Great Chicago Fire - read a physical book, in a series

No Time Like the Future - twins, audio book
Free Space

 

What was your favorite book read in November? (if you can remember back that far!)

Memoir Review: H Is for Hawk

One of my Nonfiction November reads was H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, a highly-acclaimed memoir about grief and hawks (yes, an unusual combination) that had been sitting on my bookshelves for much too long.

This is a unique memoir about how the author dealt with her father's sudden death by getting and training a goshawk, known to be one of the more difficult hawks to train. Helen was already an experienced falconer, but training a goshawk was a different experience for her. The memoir follows the parallel paths of her grief over the loss of her father, a photojournalist who died abruptly, and her training of Mabel, her new goshawk. It also weaves in all kinds of history of hawks and falconry, including the experiences and writings of T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King and other acclaimed books, who also trained a goshawk--and wrote a book about it--while dealing with personal emotional pain. As Helen and Mabel tramp across the countryside near Cambridge, England, together, they slowly learn to trust each other, as Helen gradually deals with her staggering grief. It is mostly a solitary journey between the two of them, as Helen isolates herself and focuses all of her attention on the hawk. Here, on her way home from planning her father's memorial service, Helen muses about her state of mind. You can see the thoughtfulness of her prose and the exquisite way she describes and integrates the natural world into the memoir:

"On the way home, I felt a great and simple sadness. I missed my dad. I missed him very much. The train curved and sunlight fell against the window, obscuring the passing fields with a mesh of silver light. I closed my eyes against the glare and remembered the spider silk. I had walked all over it and had not seen it. It struck me then that perhaps the bareness and the wrongness of the world was an illusion; that things might still be real, and right, and beautiful, even if I could not see them--that if I stood in the right place, and was lucky, this might somehow be revealed to me. And the sun on the glass and the memory of the shining field, and the awful laughter, and the kindness of that morning's meeting must have thinned the armour of silence I'd worn for months, because the anger was quite gone now, and that evening as we drove to the hill, I said in a quiet voice, "Stuart [a hawking friend], I'm not dealing with things very well at the moment.""

This memoir appeared on more than 25 "Best Books of 2015" lists and was nominated for several prestigious literary prizes. It is beautifully written, introspective, and thoughtful, and I learned a lot about hawks, history, and T.H. White (I loved The Once and Future King as a child). But it was also a slow read for me, though it was interesting and moving. Perhaps that is as it should be, since it follows Helen's journey through her grief, which is often a slow, difficult slog. I knew nothing at all about hawks, so I learned a lot, but, like Helen, I did lose my father about six years ago, so I could certainly relate to her sorrow. The book is as much about the natural world as it is a personal memoir, and reading it is an immersive experience. This memoir combines contemplation, nature, and history and depicts the resilience of human nature.

300 pages, Grove Press

Blackstone Audio

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, read by the author as she describes goshawks and her experiences in nature, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can purchase H Is for Hawk from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

You can also buy through indie bookstores using Bookshop.

 

Or you can order H Is for Hawk from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: Happiest Season

In the holiday spirit last weekend, my husband and I watched Happiest Season, a different kind of holiday rom-com with an all-star cast that we enjoyed.

Abby, played by Kristen Stewart, hasn't enjoyed Christmas since she lost her parents years ago, but her girlfriend, Harper (played by Mackenzie Davis who we've been enjoying as Cameron on Halt and Catch Fire), loves the holiday. In an inspired moment of holiday spirit, she invites Abby to come home with her for Christmas to meet her family and enjoy a festive holiday. There's just one problem: she neglects to tell Abby that her parents don't know she's gay. Normally a happy couple living together, Abby and Harper must now pretend they are just roommates, though Harper promises to come out to her parents after the holiday. It turns out that Harper's parents are ultra-conservative, "family values" types who are hyper-concerned with appearances now that Harper's dad, Ted (played by Victor Garber), is running for local office, with his ambitions set even higher. Harper's mom, Tipper (played beautifully by Mary Steenburgen), is busy rushing around trying to make sure everything is perfect, with every perfect moment captured on her husband's Instagram account, including their big annual Christmas Eve party. What could go wrong? Add to the mix two sisters, played by Alison Brie and Mary Holland, competing for dad's attention; Harper's old (secret) high school girlfriend, played by Delaware native--our hometown heroine--Aubrey Plaza; and Abby's friend, John (played by Dan Levy as a gay man pretending to be Abby's boyfriend), and chaos and hilarity ensue.

We enjoyed this different spin on a holiday rom-com. It's heartwarming and engaging, with plenty of laughs along the way. The cast is outstanding, and it's nice to see multiple gay characters living their lives on-screen instead of just one gay friend on the sidelines. As you might expect from the set-up, plenty of hijinks occur, as all the secrets and lies are eventually exposed, but the movie has just the right mix of warmth and humor. It's a fun and unique addition to the slew of holiday movies available each year and made for an enjoyable evening.

Happiest Season is a Hulu original, so it is available exclusively on Hulu.

It's Monday 12/28! What Are You Reading?

I hope that you and your family have been enjoying whichever holidays you celebrate at this time of year! We had a very nice Christmas. Our youngest son, who lives locally, came home Christmas Eve and we enjoyed a relaxed night of seafood take-put and rewatching Christmas Vacation. Our oldest son arrived by Christmas afternoon, and we are greatly enjoying their company. We had a very bookish Christmas, and you can see the books we gave and received in this post. Since Christmas, with all the work done, I have been enjoying things even more!

Me with one of my new books Christmas morning

Here's what we are all reading this week:

I finished Finders Keepers by Stephen King, book 2 in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. I read Mr. Mercedes this summer and enjoyed it, and my husband and I enjoyed season 1 of the TV show. He's been waiting for me to read book 2 so we can watch season 2! In this one, characters from the first book--Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson--have now set up a business called Finders Keepers, kind of an unofficial private investigator business. But this novel has a literary theme, as it begins in 1979 with the murder of a famous reclusive author. The murderer, Morris, and his friends take the author's money but also his treasure trove of notebooks filled with writing. He wrote three novels that were highly acclaimed and are still taught in school English programs, but he withdrew from the world. So these newly discovered writings are extremely valuable, though mostly, Morris wants to know what happened to the lead character. Before he can read the notebooks, though, he is locked up for another crime, and the money and notebooks remain hidden for 35 years, until they are found by a teen boy. As with all of King's novels, it was super suspenseful and compelling.

My timing was perfect, and I was able to start one of my new gift books on Christmas Day! I am reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which was high on my list to read this year. Thanks, honey! I love any novel that plays with time - time shifting, time travel, alternate timelines - and my family loaded me up on those for Christmas. In this novel, a 35-year-old woman named Nora decides her life is a wreck, she's useless to everyone, and she wants to die. But instead, she finds herself in a strange kind of library with infinite books and shelves, managed by her favorite school librarian. Here, the librarian explains, Nora can select a book and try a different path in life, to see what her life would have been like if she had made different choices. Since Nora has plenty of regrets, she begins requesting books and living different lives, based on the choices she has always wished she'd made differently or wondered about. It's really intriguing so far. This is what I like about novels that play with time, this endlessly thought-provoking stream of "what if's." In fact, my book inspired a conversation with my husband last night about exactly that.

On audio, I am still listening to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, a new release I have been dying to read/listen to! I've read one other book by the author, City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, a middle-grade novel that I loved. Plus this new adult novel is being compared to The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, two of my all-time favorite Top 10 books! In 1714, a young woman about to be forced into marriage makes a deal with a dark spirit to live forever in a life where no one ever controls her. The catch is that no one ever remembers her, either; she is immediately forgotten by anyone she meets, from her own parents to shopkeepers to men she falls in love with. The action jumps back and forth between her early years after the dark deal, and the present day in 2014, where she has lived for over 300 years but can never leave an impression on the world or even a single person, until she meets a single person who remembers her. It's been excellent so far, and I can't wait to see how it ends. It's been a long audio, and my listening time is limited these days, but I hope to finish it by the end of the year.

My husband, Ken, took a break from his steady diet of thrillers to read something different, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin, a prequel to the A Game of Thrones series. This one book compiles the first three prequel novellas that Martin wrote, which take place a century before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, the first book in A Game of Thrones series. It's about a young, inexperienced knight named Ser Duncan (Dunk, for short), and his small squire, a boy named Egg. The book includes illustrations, but my husband was disappointed there was no map, a standard feature of most of Martin's books! He enjoyed it very much and is passing it on to our son while he's home!

Now, Ken is reading High Country by Nevada Barr, a favorite author of ours. Barr writes a series of thrillers that take place in National Parks and feature park ranger Anna Pigeon. We both enjoy thrillers and love National Parks, so these novels are doubly enjoyable for us. This one takes place in Yosemite National Park, where my husband has visited multiple times (and me, once). Anna is called in as an undercover agent pretending to be a kitchen worker at the famed Ahwahnee Hotel after several young park employees disappear. Her investigation leads to some sinister goings-on, and Anna ends up on her own, backpacking up a snowy trail to the high country in search of answers. Sounds like a good one!

Our son, 26, has returned to a favorite series and is reading Age of Swords, book two of The Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J. Sullivan. We gave him this one for his birthday this summer. He loves this author, and is enjoying this series very much. He also loves The Riyyria Chronicles series by that same author. A fellow book blogger, Beth Fish Reads, told me about these series and this author originally, so thanks to her. He says he hasn't made much progress--no surprise this week! He got a nice stack of new fantasy novels for Christmas, so those should keep him busy for a while.

 

Blog posts from last week:

Nonfiction Review: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903 classic essays from the father of sociology

Memoir Review: No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox - another outstanding memoir from Fox that is warm, thoughtful, honest, and insightful

Bookish Christmas 2020 - see all the books we gave and received!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

 

Bookish Christmas 2020

Lots of books under the tree!

It's always a bookish Christmas at our house, and this year was no exception! My husband, our oldest son, and I are all avid readers, so we always give lots of books as gifts to each other. Here's what we gave and got this year:

My haul:

I made out very well this Christmas, with two new classics and three novels related to time travel, time shifting, or alternate timelines (they know me well!)

My Book Gifts

 

That thin one on top is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - I have never read anything by him or by John Updike, so I am looking forward to those. And I've already started The Midnight Library!

My husband:

My Husband's Book Gifts

As you can see, he loves thrillers, so this stack should keep him busy for a while! He'll probably read some of mine, too ... and vice-versa! Oh, and I also gave him Ready Player Two, which I can't wait to read, also!

Our son:

Our Son's Book Gifts

Our son loves epic fantasy novels (and The Far Side!). Besides these, he also got Red Sister by Mark Lawrence in his stocking (I think he's got it in his room already). He's excited to dive into all of these!

What books did you give and receive this holiday season?

Memoir Review: No Time Like the Future

While I have always enjoyed Michael J. Fox's performances in TV and movies, I am an even bigger fan of his memoirs. I read Lucky Man while visiting my mother-in-law years ago (she also had Parkinson's) and was blown away by his open, honest sharing of the difficult details of his life. Years later, I listened to Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist on audio, and loved every minute. The memoir was even better read by the author in his familiar voice, and while he still shared his life openly, including his battles with Parkinson's Disease (PD), he was also very, very funny. I laughed out loud while walking around the neighborhood with my earbuds in and also cried. Last month, I listened to his latest memoir, No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality on audio and loved it just as much.

As with his earlier memoirs, Fox shares details of his growing challenges with PD, but that's not all this book is about. He talks about both aging parents and being a parent of adult children, topics I can relate to as I am about the same age as him. He also addresses his own signs of aging, which in his case are heaped on top of PD. Alongside his very relatable stories of family life, the empty nest, and aging are often hilarious stories of being a Hollywood star. He covers both his triumphs, like continuing to act with PD in outstanding roles like Louis Canning on The Good Wife, and his failures, as his PD, a spinal cord issue, and a terrible fall kept him from promptly managing a job he'd committed to, plus his growing difficulties with movements and remembering lines. Through it all, that stark honesty shines through, as well as his great sense of humor. And while he referred to himself as "an incurable optimist" in his last memoir, here he shares the times when that optimism failed him. He is very open and real, and it feels like a close friend is sharing his deepest thoughts and feelings (especially on audio, listening to his own voice reading).

I absolutely loved this memoir on audio, as I did his previous one. Fox is both completely relatable and also the Hollywood celebrity we all know and love. Some passages were so good and so funny that I popped my earbuds out, rewound the audio, and played it out loud for my husband. He especially liked the sections on attempting golf with PD and on Fox's experiences playing Louis Canning (we both loved the show and his role on it). At other times, though, Fox's honest sharing of his challenges and pain and of hitting a low point brought me to tears. Any book that can make me feel that much and get so engaged with the author and the story is an outstanding read for me. As always, Fox is captivating, hilarious, and very inspiring.

256 pages, Flatiron

Macmillan Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Note: This blog contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.