October Spooks

Ostensibly, this is an EOM book wrap-up post, but let me tell you, like many of you, I am ricocheting around my life like a small child hopped-up on Halloween night sugar. Except in my (our?!?) case, it’s election panic that I cannot manage with any decorum. I think that’s ok when the rights of women, gays, trans people, immigrants and black/brown individuals are at stake? Like, it would be bad if I was just shrugging and saying “whatever will be, will be” 🤷🏼‍♀️?!?

Anyways, most of my days go something like this:

3am: Wake-up in an existential panic

5am: Fall back to sleep with just enough time to drift into REM again, so I can feel like my brain is hovering outside my body when I am jarred awake by my alarm

7am: Try to convince myself that eating a healthy breakfast is some magical portal to sanity, but really AM food is just a gateway to greater caffeine consumption (a noted calming agent)

8am: Head outdoors for lots of miles because I can *definitely* outrun my feelings, right? (N.B. The plausibility on this does not climb when I am simultaneously streaming political podcasts nonstop in my ears.)

1pm: Berate myself for not getting more work done in the morning, but then text 8-12 friends funny lil’ memes about how stressed we all are to make sure they are not getting any work done either

3pm: Made it through most of the day, I deserve a lil’ treat. Unfortunately, the treat is doom-scrolling and everyone is telling me every thought I’ve ever had in my entire life is wrong

5pm: Reading Happy Hour! Except now, it is “Stare at the markings on a page that I have to go back to 16 times because I still haven’t retained what happened” Hour.

7pm: Make Dinner (probably popcorn and wine)

8pm: Watch two hours of Dexter, hoping it will feel like a surrogate catharsis for the pain of enduring all the clowns running this country

10pm: “Read” until I fall “asleep”

Anyways. Feel free to share how you’re coping! Here are some books!

A Sunny Place for Shady People (Mariana Enriquez, short horror stories, translated by Megan McDowell): I wrote about this in my last post. I loved it. It is witty, it is dark AF and it is real. Favorite of the month!

Bitter Orange (Claire Fuller, thriller): A summer gothic read is different. Moved a bit slow for me, and there were maybe an excessive amount of dangling threads, but

FictionMatters

Book Club convinced me with the discussion of it that I’d read more Claire Fuller.

Modern Poetry (Diane Seuss, poetry): Diane Seuss seems like a bad ass, and I was into a lot of these poems. There were also a lot poems that I did not get straight-away and with my schedule above you can see how I don’t have the bandwidth to figure them out right now. Will return! National Book Award Poetry Finalist.

This Boy’s Life (Tobias Wolff, memoir): The writing style is nostalgic and very conversational, and I mostly enjoyed this vivid dive into Wolff’s 1950s boyhood. However, there are some problematic elements (particularly, misogyny) that I wish my California Book Club, for as much as I love it, would bring up in its discussions with authors. (This isn’t the first time we’ve read an older book with some problematic portrayals.) We should be able to have conversations that aren’t attacking an author, but *are* discussing how we might view certain content in a different light.

Entitlement (Rumaan Alam, satire??): I was excited to read this takedown of philanthropy and middle class longing, but WOOF, it fell flat for me. The POV was disorienting (purposefully, I think) in a way I found distracting to a fault, and we never get enough of insight about the protagonist’s life to care about her arc. Bomb of the month.

The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates, memoir/essay): I appreciated this reflection on Coates’ perspective on what it means to incorporate who you are and what you believe into your life’s work and how that belief can evolve. This book has been everywhere, and I encourage you to read it before you are swayed by the discourse (much of which I have found off-center). Best book for discussion!

[…] (Fady Joudah, poetry): This collection on genocide, repression and humanity is surprising at every turn. Joudah is a doctor who has done relief work world-wide and his perspective is both broad and specific in this slender collection. National Book Award Poetry Finalist.

The Wedding People (Alison Espach, romance??¹): This book is mostly fluffy and fun (though begins with the serious subject of suicidal ideation) and extremely predictable. I liked Espach’s Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance better. However, if you need some comfort reading about how it all works out ok, you could do worse.

Mother (m.s. RedCherries, poetry): Technically fiction but inspired by Indigenous family separation in the U.S., this collection is a powerful reflection on the disruption of community and the search for belonging. National Book Award Poetry Finalist.

Woodworm (Layla Martinez, horror, translated by Annie McDermott & Sophie Hughes): I thought this story of a “haunted” house that has seen a lot of tragic class warfare started strong, but despite the fact that it’s quite short, it became a bit repetitive for me after the first 1/3. National Book Award Translation Finalist.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson, horror): Shirley Jackson is a master at creating page-turning works and subtly creepy AF characters. I blew through this story of two sisters living in the decaying house of their murdered family, trying to hold onto to each other while their “idyllic” community condemns them. Classic!

Ghost Wall (Sarah Moss, thriller): This novella was not quite what I expected. I thought it would be more early British history spooky discoveries and less child abuse/domestic violence, so I didn’t get what I came for, but it was still a taut read.

Ghosts (Edith Wharton, short stories): Wharton’s stories capitalize on class difference, fear of the “other”, female aging and loneliness, and I enjoyed how she doesn’t waste time trying to justify ghosts to us. We are all haunted, ok?? Roll with it. Classic!

That’s it! I have no idea what I’ll write about in the coming weeks. I am thinking I might watch some dumb movies and do recaps?? Humor seems important right now? But, I don’t know if I will feel funny (funny haha, that is, I will definitely feel funny ick)?!? Hoping your election stomach is coping better than my election stomach and that you pay/paid attention to down ballot races because local politics seem like our best option these days.

I am glad we have each other! I am also glad we have books. I am giving you a hug and if you don’t like touching, I am giving you a good read to hide under the covers with, ok? Hang in there.

1. ??? because the romance community has rules and I don’t totally understand them, so I am not sure how they would identify this book. But, a lady is getting divorced and she has chemistry with a new guy that you are supposed to want her together with and the ex is a brief complicating factor and I dunno, that feels like a romance to me but I am a person who also believes romance is a fallacy so…????