So, here we are, into the last month of the year – again. I must be getting old because a year doesn’t feel like a year anymore. I have even started thinking about my books of the year list – but that won’t get posted till New Year.
After a pretty terrible reading month in October, November has been much better – thanks in part to #novnov which gave me a great excuse to read several very little books. I feels good to have clocked up a few more reads in November. In fact I think all but two of my reads in November fitted into one challenge or another.
So I read eleven books in November which is less impressive than it sounds when you consider how short some of them were.
I began the month with a delightful book that I was sent by MadamBibliophile In Pious Memory by Margery Sharp (1967) – it is probably not strictly speaking a novella – not having that feel of a novella. However a short novel coming in at around 180 pages – sneaking in under that 200 page limit – it got my #novnov reading off to a fabulous start.
All Gods Children Need Travelling Shoes by Maya Angelou (1986) was my first of three excellent reads for nonfiction November. The fifth volume in her autobiography, this volume takes us to Ghana where Maya and her son spend some time living.
My next nonfiction read was the stunning debut Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh (2021) a book that blends memoir, history and nature writing in a personal and very honest exploration of trauma and healing.
Murder in the Dark by Margaret Atwood (1984) a slim volume of prose poems was my one contribution to this year’s #MARM. It also ticked the #novnov box too by virtue of its size. I am a big Atwood fan – so glad I joined in again this year, albeit with a very slight read.
The Story of Stanley Brent by Elizabeth Berridge (1945) another novella – and one of my favourite reads of the month. Berridge’s depiction of an ordinary man’s life is extraordinary for how she manages to give the reader the feeling of this man’s whole adult life in just eighty pages.
A Peirene Press book I have had ages – probably a couple of years at least – caught my eye. Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda (2011) translated by Adriana Hunter a vivid portrayal of pre Gaddafi Tripoli in the 1960’s – it is a coming of age story narrated by an adolescent boy. Hameda is a Libiyan writer, poet and musician who grew up mainly in France and now lives in Holland.
The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark (1974) was one of the Spark novels I didn’t get around to during the Muriel Spark centenary read-a-long in 2018. Spark is always a good choice when looking for quirky novellas. This one was fascinating, a comic satire of the Watergate Scandal. I need to get back to reading the rest of the Spark novels I missed in 2018. I am actually desperately trying to find the last couple of Polygon Collected Muriel Spark hardbacks – I foolishly didn’t buy them all in 2018. So now I have eighteen out of twenty two shelved, two more tbr, and two more still to find.
On my kindle I read The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman (2021) over one weekend when I wasn’t very well. The longest book I read this month at something like 400 pages, it didn’t fit any challenges but was a perfect poorly read – fun, undemanding and a page turner.
Next up was Pulitzer prize winning The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973) I claim it for #novnov as it just slips into the page limit at 180 pages. In this novel a woman finally comes to an understanding of herself and her past when she returns to her family home of Mount Salus Mississippi – where her father Judge McKelva was a pinnacle of the community. Ten years after her mother’s death the Judge had married again, silly, Fay a woman younger than his daughter. For his daughter Laurel this was a betrayal she could never understand.
Another Kindle read was courtesy of Dean Street Press who sent it as a review copy – The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning (1930). Set in New Orleans it is a gripping mystery in which eight people are invited to a surprise party at a penthouse. The guests have no idea who their host is – and once they are all assembled they find themselves at the mercy of an anonymous host who intends to murder them all. Published nine years before And There Were None by Agatha Christie it is suggested by some that it was where she got the idea (ooh controversial) – a real entertaining, page turner – but Agatha Christie was a better writer. At a little over 200 pages it doesn’t quite qualify for novellas in November – but it is a quick little read.
My next read also just fails to qualify as a novella – but as it is really a memoir I will claim it for nonfiction November. The last one of her books I had left to read Out of the Red Into the Blue by Barbara Comyns (1960) felt like a massive treat – reading a favourite author always does. It is the story of Barbara’s time living in Spain with her family – at least the story of the beginning of their time there. I am not very objective about my favourite writers, and I just loved this, and read it slowly to make it last.
I have finished the month reading Watson’s Apology by Beryl Bainbridge (1984) which I am enjoying enormously, but as I am only halfway through that can go into December’s round up.
So, on to December – and I have absolutely no plans at all really. I will clearly have several of my November reviews still to write up and post – all in good time. I am going to try and read Maya Angelou’s book six – and I have a book of Christmas mysteries which look very inviting. I would quite like to read at least one of the Persephone books I got last Christmas – but as they are both quite chunky that might have to wait till we break up for Christmas (roll on December 17th!). I do like a Christmas book or two so I may have to look to see if I have anything else that will make me feel rather more Christmassy than I do at the moment.
Tell me what brilliant things have you been reading in November? – and what are your December plans?