I can hardly believe it is November already! Only two months left of 2016. For me that means there are some holidays on the not so very distant horizon. First the four-day Thanksgiving holiday and then thirteen days at the end of December from Solstice to the day after New Year’s. So much extra reading time to look forward to! A very good thing since there are somehow more books on my reading table now than there were at the beginning of October. I just don’t know how that happens.
Currently I am in the middle of The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh. This is turning out to be not your average book about climate change. Ghosh is questioning why literary fiction does not address climate change and why it has been relegated to genre fiction. His arguments are fascinating and I can hardly wait to finish so I can tell you more about it.
I am also reading The Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear. This is the first in the Edda of Burdens trilogy. It was kind of a spur of the moment whim choice and it has turned out to be so good! It begins with Ragnarok and is wonderfully shot through with Norse myth. There is even a character named Astrid and every time she appears I think of my bike. I also have a strange urge to wear my hair in a long braid.
I’ve been reading comics too and have Squirrel Girl volume three ready to go.
But oh the reading piles! I have Elena Ferrante’s Story of a New Name waiting in the wings. Also, Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed. While I know I don’t have to know The Tempest to read it, it has been so long since I read Shakespeare’s play that I want to pull it from my shelf and read it before or along with Atwood.
I also have some recommendations from others on hand. Reader Newsha from Iran kindly gave me some suggestions and so I have Samarkand by Amin Maalouf, a novel about Omar Khayyam, and Khayyam’s Rubaiyat (I have never read it!). And Jenny at Shelf Love recently posted about Blood Done Sign My Name, a microhistory as Jenny called it, about race and civil rights in America.
Then on the way to my hold shelf at the library is The Invisible Library by Genvieve Cogman that seems to be about time travelling librarians. I will let you know! Also on its way to me at the library is Ratf**cked by David Daley. This is a book about politics and elections in America and I am not yet certain given how close election day is and everything that has been going on leading up to it, that I will be able to read this book right now. Or ever. I am so anxious about the election right now that I might be better off just sticking with time travelling librarians.
There are, as usual, lots of other books in the wings, but these are the ones that have my attention right now. I am hoping that by the end of November there will be fewer books on my reading table than there are now. That’s not too much to hope for, is it?
Hey Stefanie, I would love for you to read my post today. It’s about a book that had a monumental impact on the life of the son of a war hero. Books can be important eh? Naramata-blend.com
Would love to know what you think…
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I’ll stop by writerly! yes, books can definitely be important!
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I don’t know…aren’t more books always better than fewer, on the table or wherever? 😉
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Jeanne, haha, you have an evil streak in you! 😀
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I do.
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More books! You have excellent reading ahead of you. I loved Samarkand, and everything else Maalouf has written — I think he deserves to be better known, and I wish he’d write more.
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If only we could have a time travelling librarian for president!
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Ian, oh if only! That would be the most well informed and most organized president ever! 🙂
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Isabella, good to know you like Samarkand and Maalouf so much. I am really looking forward to the book!
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Oh, I have that Maalouf on my reading pile, too. When are you going to start it? I am tempted to go and grab my copy….. As you can see, I too have that problem of books popping up oh so very mischievously! I have had a little influx of ‘new’ books for Nov on my own reading pile. Just out of curiosity, are these the sole books you are reading at the moment, or are there others sitting, in progress, too? And yay for those upcoming days off for the holidays (they are in the back of my mind as well).
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Danielle, I’ll probably start it on a week or so, after I finish the Ghosh. Want to join me? 🙂 heh, no, those are not the only books I am reading right now, there are others in progress that get picked up much less often. You know how that goes!
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Oh, the reading piles indeed! I am just managing to keep my library holds in check, by judiciously pushing back the dates week by week on my suspensions! And I’ve got all these books I bought in the past few months just looking at me like, Well?? We’re waiting!
I want to read Hag Seed too but feel like I need a refresher on the Tempest before I attempt it. Maybe there’s like a 5 minute You Tube version? 🙂
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Laila, I am always too late to change hold dates and so get taken by surprise. Ha! I suspect Hag Seed might end up getting pushed into December since I own it and these others are library books. But I am so looking forward to reading it I know it won’t get pushed off too long!
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Now Stefanie I can almost guarantee you will not get your wish fulfilled. That pile of books on the reading table will be just as big, they will just be different titles because you don’t fool us – we know you can’t resist putting things on hold at the library or buying them….
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BookerTalk, You have been paying far too much attention to my reading foibles and know them so well it is kind of scary! You are, however, probably quite correct in your assessment! 😀
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You “just don’t know how that happens”. I do … and anytime you want advice about reducing your table just come to me (and then, do as I say, not as I do, because my pile is horribly bigger too).
Enjoy your two holiday breaks. They sound perfect, and something I’d love to have before me.
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whisperinggums, ha! I am sure I know how it happens too if I were willing to think about it for one second. However, I much prefer living in denial in this case 🙂
Thanks! I am greatly looking forward to them!
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A life spent in denial is a life worth living perhaps?
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Ha! That’s one to think about 😀
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You have such a great variety of books. I am definitely looking forward to the holidays as well and hopefully a bit more reading time. Granted I can’t believe how quickly the year is going by!
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Iliana, variety keeps me going! The year has definitely gone by fast. I am torn between looking forward to the holidays and wanting them to hurry up and get here and wishing it would all slow down!
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