I don’t have a very large pile of books to show for my January reading. I have been reading quite slowly, and I am continuing to really struggle with blogging – though I know I don’t want to give it up. I find it hard to read, no matter how much I want to when I am very tired, and the one thing I can always guarantee to be is tired – no matter what time of day or night it is. I have decided to embrace the slowness of my reading, to enjoy spending more time than I once would have with a set of characters, and to appreciate the reading time I do manage.
I began the month and the New Year, reading a book on my kindle – The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante (2019) translated from Italian by Anne Goldstein. It was the book my book group had chosen for January, and having enjoyed some other books by Ferrante I had looked forward to it. The first half of the book I did enjoy, only it then became rather a drag. Too much introspective teenage angst, too many toxic, uncomfortable relationships. I ended up quite disappointed.
Next I read the first of two green vmcs for the Librarything monthly themed read. For January it was nuns, teachers, and governesses. I Will not Serve by Eveline Mahyère (1958) translated from French by Antonia White. It’s the story of Sylvie; a seventeen year old schoolgirl due to take her Baccalaureate at the convent school of Sainte-Thérèse. Three months before her crucial exams she is expelled from the school, for Sylvie has fallen passionately in love with her teacher, Julienne. Refusing to forget Julienne she writes her imploring letters while exploring the bohemian world of jazz clubs and bars in 1950s Paris.
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo (2021) was one of the books I bought with Christmas book vouchers, and wanted to read straight away. I really enjoyed it. It is a novel about a woman’s search for her identity, at a time when her life is in transition following separation from her husband and the death of her mother. Finding her father’s diaries from when he stayed with her mother and her family in London, she travels to a small country in West Africa to find him. He is a complex man, once a political activist he became the country’s first president – some would say dictator – a position he held for almost thirty years.
Spinster by Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1958) was the second of those vmcs I read for the Librarything themed read. Based loosely on the author’s own experiences, it is the story of a teacher of mainly Māori children in a small New Zealand town, and the psychological approach she developed in the teaching of reading.
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins (1873) is that satisfying thing, a fairly fat Persephone book that makes you want to turn the pages. It is also that rare thing a Persephone novel written by a man. Testament perhaps to Collins’s treatment of women that Persephone decided to reissue it. I had read it before, many years ago, I read a lot of Wilkie Collins once upon a time. There’s nothing quite like settling down with a Victorian sensation novel, and this one has many of those ingredients. Thoroughly enjoyable. I shall be reviewing it soon.
Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou (2013) was the final book in the seven set of autobiographies that I have been reading with Liz and our friend Meg. In this volume the story of Maya’s life is left where it finished in book six. This volume is about Maya’s mother Vivian Baxter and the relationship Maya had with her, after having grown up in Stamps, Arkansas for several years. It is a fascinating and affectionate portrait of an extraordinary woman.
Anna and her Daughters by D E Stevenson (1958) was absolutely the right book at the right time, this is a fully satisfying DES novel – that spans quite a number of years, and sees characters travelling the globe. It was a real joy to spend time with, the ending was just right I thought. I bought this nice old 1950s edition some years ago and had almost forgotten I had it. Thankfully, for the rest of you Dean Street Press have just reissued it.
I don’t have any big plans for February yet – but Karen and Lizzie are hosting #ReadIndies and I hope to join in with that. The Librarything Virago group’s themed read is North American authors – lots to pick from there, so I hope to join in with that too. My book group will be reading The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, which I am looking forward to. What I actually end up reading will depend largely on my mood though – watch this space.
As ever I would love to know what you’ve been reading, and what you plan to read in February.
Happy reading.