Five Tuesdays in Winter

Did you make a resolution to read more in 2022? You might try the challenge over at Book Riot. Or you might create a BINGO board like the one provided by my local library.

I started off the year with a new book of short stories by one of my favorite authors, Lily King. Five Tuesdays in Winter includes a little romance, a lot of adolescent awkwardness, and a fair bit of mother-child angst. King’s characters are reminiscent of friends you had in college or a coworkers’ eccentric aunt. Ones you can look on fondly, yet remain nostalgically detached, while you enjoy hearing about their antics. While the stories touch on realistic themes, they remain sunny enough for even the coldest winter afternoon of reading.

For more short story recommendations, click here. (Or click on "stories" under the Index on the right.)

"it made all the blood in her veins suddenly writhe and coil"

Dear Reader,

As you may have guessed from previous posts, I’m a fan of the epistolary novel – even if it does sound like some sort of hair-removal device.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova didn’t disappoint. The narrator, the motherless daughter of a diplomat, begins the tale with a packet of old letters and even older book found in her father’s study. She then recounts the story her father shares with her on how the book – blank except for a woodcut of a dragon – found him. Letters from his advisor, Professor Rossi, Rossi's daughter Helen, Carpathian monks, and Crescent Guards of the Sultan all add their voices to this complex tale of the hunt for Vlad Dracula’s tomb.

Part travelogue, part thriller, Kostova takes the reader into a world in which librarians are brutally attacked and books hold the darkest secrets. From Istanbul to Budapest, back through Amsterdam and Paris, mouth-watering pastries, luscious scenery, sinister monks, and tons of libraries, this story will have you turning on the light at twilight and stocking up on garlic, just in case.

Judging from the reviews on Goodreads, this one may not be to your taste. If not, here are some other novels to note. 

Yours, Morningstar

Callithumpian Activities

Dusted off this post from December 2018 because, well, keep reading. 

Pick up any women’s magazine this month and chances are there’s an article about how to handle the stress of Christmas. I always assumed this to be a modern phenomenon until I picked up The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum.

 In it he writes, “The Ladies’ Home Journal actually published an article in 1897 that acknowledged [women experiencing stress at Christmas] as a cultural problem.” Although I couldn’t find the actual article, I did come across this gem that reminded me the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Throughout the book, Nissenbaum also makes the case that a commercial Christmas is also not a product of modernity, but was an integral part of the transformation of Christmas from a rowdy, drunken celebration of the annual slaughter to a more domesticated affair that included women and children. As he writes, “there never was a time when Christmas existed as an unsullied domestic idyll, immune to the taint of commercialism…indeed, the domestic Christmas was itself a force in the spread of consumer capitalism.”

If you’re curious to read more about the origins of American Christmas traditions - Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and “personalized” mass-produced presents - add The Battle for Christmas to your list. You know you have one.

Read Harder

So this year’s challenge is complete. Looking back over the list, I can easily spot (the many places) where a book I was already planning to read fit nicely into a category. But as it turns out, several of the most memorable books that I read came from the Read Harder recommendations for the challenge. Success!

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Even though they encompass widely differing genres, these books all focus on characters seeking belonging in a world that has set up very narrow parameters for doing so. 

Looking for a challenge? Here’s one for 2022.

Books We Love 2021

 Looking for your next read? Gift idea? Go to Books We Love at NPR and click on the filters that appeal. Here’s what I’m looking forward to reading from the 2021 list.

Family Matters/Rather Short/Seriously Great Writing

Real Estate by Deborah Levy

"Three bicycles. Seven ghosts. A crumbling apartment block on the hill. Fame. Tenderness. The statue of Peter Pan. Silk. Melancholy. The banana tree. A love story."

Names for Light by Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint

“I do not like to make decisions, to take risks, to assert or involve myself. … I prefer to … keep myself to myself.”

Funny Stuff/Love Stories/Realistic Fiction

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

“Reality as a whole—past or present—just isn’t a good place to hang out.”

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton

“Jethro's flat was in a warehouse that, even from the outside, looked very pleased with its own conversion.”

The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams

“With its symmetry and little dashed isthmus between the two words, ‘hour-glass’ on the page is like the object itself, lying on its side or balanced mid-spin.”

Nudge

Last month, Washington State implemented the Plastic Bag Ban which prohibits single-use bags and charges a fee for bags if you fail to bring your own. During the pandemic, when bringing your own bag into the store was prohibited, I got lazy. But the prospect of paying 8 cents per bag was enough of an incentive for me to start bringing my own bags into stores again. Am I just cheap or is this a case for behavioral economics? I started with this list to try and find some answers.  

I ended up with Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein mainly because my library app had it available. It turned out to be a good pick.

As with any book of this genre, I’m most taken with the real-world examples. I was fascinated by the choice architects chapter which focuses on how design meshes or messes with our human tendencies in decision making. Ever pull on a door that opens out? Ever turn on the wrong burner on your stove? I’m also amazed at how simple changes in things like metro maps or boarding passes can make big differences in efficiency and outcome. The authors also bring up our tendency to make big decisions through elimination by aspects. I recently saw this at play when I, I mean, my daughter was curating her college list.

Ultimately, I’m not sure how legislators decided on 8 cents as a tipping point. But for me, it was the nudge I needed. 

Vampires Suck

When the Twilight books first came out, my sisters were in their early teens. I remember they were so excited, they made t-shirts for the book release party at our local Barnes and Noble. One of them said something like “Bite me, Edward.”

Vampire stories have come a long way since 2005, as evidenced by the anthology Vampires Never Get Old by Natalie C. Parker and Zoraida Córdova. The stories in this collection feature a diverse cast of characters, united in their desperation to seek the possibility of escape through eternal death. At turns creepy and funny, this is one to enjoy not only in October, but anytime you need something to make your heart beat a little faster.