What to Read in November

Thanksgiving is the one holiday that has an absence of canon to support it, which I have often thought is a bummer. For the past couple-few years, I have been on a search to find and read and watch what is available. It isn’t much. Nevertheless, here are my Thanksgiving season and fall recommendations. Christmas recommendations will be in next month’s list because I don’t believe in jumping the gun. Patience makes the holiday more special. Let’s linger on gratitude and fall, feasts and coziness, friends and family.

The book I have been most enthusiastic about from the handful of Thanksgiving reads I have done is Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. It doesn’t sound like a title that just anyone would enjoy, though it is one that I would jump on because I am an obsessed foodie, home cook and baker. A collection of memoir short stories, this book is not Thanksgiving-specific, but is about togetherness and food, two of the main themes of Thanksgiving, and has a very cozy, nostalgic vibe. Add in Colwin’s wry storytelling brimming with wit, humor, and approachableness, and a dozen recipes, and you have my favorite (so far) Thanksgiving book. If you are into vintage NY City or are a writer in the kitchen, this is your book.

I have also read bits and pieces of things that struck my fancy and I can share with you. A short story that makes an interesting Thanksgiving read is “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s super old-fashioned as a satire and in its humor (and a couple of no longer PC terms), but my reaction was surprise, then curiosity, then resignation, then bemusement. It’s best to find this one online unless you are a Fitzgerald superfan, then you should try to find a used copy of The Crack-Up. My synopsis of the story was “It is very short. It is, as it says, advice on how to deal with turkey leftovers with a handful of attenuated recipes. The recipes get wilder and more unbelievable as you go on, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Let’s put it this way: Fitzgerald is no cook; he is a satirist. And this is no polished essay; it is an entry in his personal notes.” An entertaining poem for the holiday is “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene, 2015” by Craig Santos Perez. A short read that is not my favorite poem ever—in fact, not even that poetic—is a sort of Thanksgiving resistance piece, a crunchy thing that hopes to offend you and make you think. My synopsis: “My main issue with the poem: it concentrates too long on one issue, which is factory farming. Otherwise, it soars through a number of American hypocrisies in moments and comes out the other side with us all with bowed heads around the table, needing forgiveness.” You’ll have to find this one online. I found it at rattle Magazine. And finally, I read a book and then decided that only one chapter was actual Thanksgiving reading, and that is the first chapter of There There by Tommy Orange. I ended up recommending the whole book with some reservations, but for the holiday the first chapter can stand alone as a type of essay and confronts the disturbing reality behind our Thanksgiving observations—the genocide, oppression, and displacement of the native peoples. It sounds heavy because it is, but Orange’s writing is beautiful and he makes important points that are helpful for us to remember, especially at this time of year.

In honor of all the YA I’ll be reading during this season of my writing career (while I’m writing YA), I’ll also recommend some of my favorite YA novels included in Save the Cat Writes a YA Novel, a new book by Jessica Brody that I am currently working my way through. Earlier this year, I read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the first in a trilogy which you don’t necessarily need to continue. In other words, it can stand alone. This romance was written by Jenny Han. While completely YA, I enjoyed this read. I started off a little annoyed and even ended that way, but I was sucked into the story and into the spunky, main character. If you like YA or romance or just a good read, this is a fun one. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is one that you’ll want to read with its sequel, Crooked Kingdom. Bardugo is my favorite new author and I have read five of her books this past year. While I would also recommend the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology has to be my favorite YA reading of all time (so far, anyway, and there are other favorites). And it’s completely interesting to adults, as well. It’s dark and complicated, including six POV characters, aged-up teens, and antiheroes galore as well as crime, passion, and multiple, complicated heists. If anything, the story is admirably twisty and keeps you on the edge of your seat, mostly because of your investment in the characters. And lastly—I’ll skip over the Twilight series because I am conflicted about these but man are they addictive—is the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay). I didn’t expect to enjoy these when I read them, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. I loved them. Plan to re-read them. Despite what is usually an awkward POV (first person present), these books slide down as smooth as butter. They overflow with twists and turns, with action and drama, with characters you get super-invested in, and with fascinating world-building (with perhaps too much costuming for some personalities). You may or may not be satisfied with the conclusion of the love triangle (about 50/50 chance, I think), but the books are definitely re-read material, and the movies are some of the best-made, book-to-movie series I’ve seen.

This month is Nanowrimo, and if you don’t know what I am talking about, see HERE. I talk about it on The Starving Artist a lot and I am neck-deep in it. Which means that reading time will be often usurped by writing time (2000 words every single day if you take the holiday off!) this month. For Nano writing, I am bouncing back and forth between two novels I am at the beginning of. One of them involves Appalachian bigfeet, and the other has a character that is inadvertently a mothman. Therefore, I have ordered a handful of books that involve Bigfoot and Mothman. And since both of the books are YA, I am also planning to read plenty of YA for the next several months. Plenty. Many of which will coincide with my reading of Save the Cat Writes a YA Novel, which uses these books as examples, sometimes with spoilers.

Image from Amazon.com

But I’m going to start with an ARC that I have on my desk and need to get to, ASAP. The Truth About Horses by was published in August, but I just received a free copy in the mail to review honestly for Christy Cashman. Not a horse person, I have enjoyed at least one horse book in my time, and that was War Horse by Michael Marpugo (a middle grades book). But this new book was irresistible to me despite my lack of horse-enthusiasm, and I took it on based on the glowing reviews that already exist and its being YA and ostensibly deep. I am really looking forward to it and to reintroducing it to the world.

Image from Amazon.com

As for Thanksgiving, my read of choice this year is The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. Consisting of a year’s worth of essays on the small joys in Gay’s life, it actually looks like the perfect read for Thanksgiving, for once. People consistently have been enthusiastic about this nonfiction, genre-bending book, though I have also seen people call it “unedited” and “inaccessible.” I’m optimistic, for sure.

As for Bigfoot, this is also an area where there isn’t a ton to read, though I might also hit up the streaming to find some of those old-style documentaries featuring some really into-it Bigfoot enthusiasts who claim to be professors or else have some inexplicable title under their name on the screen. But there are books, some of them novels (which is often what I like to read to get in the writing vibes, instead of straight-up research). I won’t include the nonfiction that I have ordered. The first Bigfoot novel I intend to read is the most popular: Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Ranier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (author of World War Z). An account presented as real and scientific from the mouth of an eyewitness, the novel is more of a mockumentary. And it’s violent and scary, two things I try to avoid, honestly. But I am assured it’s a pretty good read. In the end, my bigfeet are going to be gentler, but I am curious to see how they are treated elsewhere in fiction, even if I have to cringe (in fear) my way through. Then I plan to read The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac by Sharma Shields, which is fiction even though its title might make you think otherwise. This book looks like it runs much closer to my own approach to Bigfoot in a multi-generational story about a family whose figurehead is obsessed with Bigfoot. I’m hoping it might be magical realism, which is what mine is: YA magical realism. At least I think so, so far.

There’s even less regarding Mothman, probably because it’s a much more localized tale with way less enthusiasm surrounding it. (To be clear, my mothman is not based on the Mothman legend, but since they share a name and characteristics, I thought I should be versed in the lore.) I dug deep for these less-known titles. Eerie Appalachia by Mark Muncy and Kari Schultz is a collection of folklore regarding some of the darker legends of the extraordinary fauna of the Appalachian Mountains, which is perfect for what I need. It might include stories of Bigfoot, but at the very least has the quintessential story of Mothman. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton is the first of a series-in-progress. From what I can tell, it’s a bizarre but entertaining, animal-perspective tale of the zombie apocalypse. The second book in the series, Feral Creatures, might have more to do with cryptid creatures, but I’m not totally sure. At any rate, the protagonist is an American crow, and that sounds promising, right?  They’re thrillers? Sci-fi? Post-apocalyptic? Maybe all three. I’m In Love with Mothman (Mothman in Love #1) by Paige Lavoie is a strange mashup of a young, modern woman who retreats to the woods and a love story involving—you guessed it—Mothman. People seem to either love it or not really know what to do with it, but its quirkiness has inspired some happy fans. There is more to the series. It might only be available as an ebook, which will disappoint me, but maybe I can manage just this once… Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes is a middle grades novel about some spunky kids and their haunted town. It’s scary and revolves around Mothman. It has an adorable cover which makes it look like a graphic novel (it’s not) and has people pleasantly surprised. At least one reader was reminded of Scooby-Doo, which means I am on board. Mothman’s Merry Cryptid Christmas by Andrew Shaffer is a children’s picture book. (We have gone way down the rabbit hole, Alice.)  And we have skipped ahead to Christmas reading. This book looks to have not only fun illustrations, but an odd-child, outcast, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer kind of story. Is Mothman misunderstood and just accident prone? Or are those glowing, red eyes really indicative of a sinister nature? And finally, Dear Mothman by Robin Gow is a middle grades novel in verse about a trans boy who loses his only friend and writes letters to the Mothman, eventually searching for him. (And further down the hole we go.) It doesn’t have a ton of reviews, but the reviewers who are there really love it. So maybe we will, too.

Image from Amazon.com

I am currently a few chapters into Save the Cat Writes a YA Novel by Jessica Brody. I am stopping after each chapter to apply it to both novels that I am currently writing, which are both YA. I read Save the Cat Writes a Novel last year, but I thought I could use some more specific pointers, and so far I have really enjoyed this very practical, chatty book. In the book, Brody uses something like 70 books as examples (though maybe half of them are specific to the genre sections). I am hoping to read a number of these books as I work my way through so that the spoilers aren’t too bad. Plus, I had planned to read plenty of the top YA, anyhow, and this is just another list to guide me through. I have already read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (see below) to this purpose, but here are some of the next reads on my radar:

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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is book one of a series (known usually as The Inheritance Games Collection) that has, so far, four books and is a NY Times #1 bestseller. I am astounded by the reviews, too, but I guess people get really excited about popular things. Hopefully it’s more than that. Filled with mystery and puzzles, the series is about a girl who inherits a fortune—but has no idea who her beneficiary is. She must move into the crazy, sprawling mansion of her inheritance, which comes not only with puzzles and clues and whatnot, but with four grandsons who have been disinherited in her favor and, of course, see her as an interloper. Honestly, it’s a fascinating hook and I’ve been eyeing it for ages.

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One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus is book one of a (so-far) trilogy that I’m guessing can be read alone. It’s another mystery, which seems to be dominating YA reading lately (maybe I feel that way though because my college kid likes mysteries and it’s a newer subgenre). After really enjoying A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (see below), I am hoping I’ll be as pleased with this one. Told from four different perspectives, it’s like The Breakfast Club where one of the highschoolers is murdered and we end up finding out everyone has secrets that make them suspect. I don’t know how this becomes a series, but we’ll have to wait and see.

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I have been meaning to read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas for a long while. Now with a prequel (Concrete Rose), this book has been a must-read for several years, for both young adults and adults who read YA. It has also been made into a movie which I am looking forward to seeing. A very relevant novel for the times (arising from the Black Lives Matter movement), it’s about a girl who witnesses the police-shooting of her unarmed bestie and the fallout after that, which includes both her and her family and friends, but also the national media, the cops, her community, etc.

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Scythe by Neal Shusterman is the first in a lauded trilogy called Arc of the Scythe, which I think is a pretty genius name for a series in an era of dumb series names. In a future where death has been conquered, only Scythes are allowed to end lives, and that’s their job. Two teens are chosen to apprentice as Scythes, but there are a lot of dangers that come with the training, including death itself. These books get some seriously good reviews across the series, and I think the premise is intriguing and original.

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I actually read Eragon by Christpoher Paolini years ago. It is now a tetralogy called the Inheritance Cycle. The thing is, Eragon was so popular because the writer was just a teen, and people were amazed with that and his way of getting known, which was to travel around basically hawking the self-published books in local markets. (This was way back in 2002.) I was not impressed with the book iteslf, feeling like I was reading a book written by a fifteen-year-old. Because I was. About a boy and his dragon and saving the world, I am hoping that I am more impressed the second time around. I always meant to read the whole series, but it was a long time in coming out. Now I’ll do it.

I devoured several books while at a writing residency and even leading up to it, but the real stand-out came from unexpected acquisitions that I read while in a pinch. The thing is, I have discovered the hard way over the last year that, indeed, small towns often do not have bookstores and, with online ordering, many of them don’t even have a place to really buy books. I had a plan to drive for a used bookstore while in smalltown Tennessee, but I struck out on not one, but two towns. Desperate, it occurred to me that superstores have book sections (which have never yet impressed me), so I drove to the local Walmart and found several of the YA books that were on my to-read list, and also had a flashback to being a little girl up at Meijers looking for the newest re-released L. M. Montgomery novels. In the meantime, when the woman whose residency program I participated in found out I read ARCs, she showed up at my trailer with an armful of ARCs she had acquired from a friend who had already read them. I stacked them in order of interest, not really expecting much, but… you’ll see.

Image from Simon and Schuster online

The ARC I read while there (and in the vein of my romance-read while on a residency tradition) was Betting on You by Lynn Painter. I haven’t actually reviewed it yet because it’s not out for a few more weeks and technically I’m not supposed to have read it or use quotes from an early copy, though I’m not really sure this is the case since I am an ARC reader and I loved the book (but not about the quotes. That is a no-no). (If I had hated it, I would have just pretended I never read it.) I’ll review it after November. But suffice it to say it was one of my top reads of the month. If you don’t enjoy romance or YA, then forget about it, because it is pretty standard for the genres. However, it’s a real winner for exactly what it is: the characters are lovable, the twists numerous, the setting and side-characters just what you would hope they would be, at least mostly, and the romance sizzles. For someone in their forties, I find I have to kinda age-up characters in YA romances in my head in order to not be awkward (that’s a nice word for it), but often the characters lend themselves to an older interpretation anyhow. It’s an obvious meet-cute where the couple hates each other and has absolutely nothing in common mashed with a pretend-dating scenario and a co-worker bit. But when the writing is engaging, it just is. I would also like to read Painter’s Better Than the Movies and possibly Better Than the Prom.

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The book I found at Walmart was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. I found this book to be engaging and surprising; I couldn’t put it down and read it late into the night while alone, in the dark, in a trailer on a farm in the middle of nowhere, even though I knew full well that was a terrible idea. A YA murder mystery, this book was so fresh and yet recognizable from the perspective of mystery/crime, YA, and even romance (a little). I just enjoyed it, thoroughly. I was guessing (out loud, to my daughter on the phone) about what was going to happen in the like two days that it took me to read it. About a girl who uses her senior project to investigate a hometown murder that assumed the guilt of an older boy who had been nice to her, the poor girl gets caught up in a web of deceit, darkness, and lies that eventually threaten her and her happy, innocent family. Then again, is anyone totally innocent, even if they aren’t involved in a murder? I am told that by book three (which you wouldn’t have to get to; book one can stand alone), the naivety wears off completely. I do plan to head there, which apparently is where Jackson always meant for it to go, though the unconventional turn in plot for book three had people’s eyes popping and hearts stopping.

As far as books I can enthusiastically recommend from October, I’m going to say The Jungle Book(s) by Rudyard Kipling is the only other one, and I wouldn’t even include the whole book. A book of short stories, my favorite stories—the ones with the real charm—are the first three stories, all about Mowgli. These stories would be great to read aloud to your kids or hand to a middle grades kid. Or to read yourself when you need a little calmness, a lighter approach to both story-telling and wisdom.

So, just like with books, there are not a lot—or hardly any—Thanksgiving movies. (Same with Thanksgiving music, but I do have a playlist that I have been working on.) However, there is a Thanksgiving movie coming out this year, at theaters, and it is titled, well, Thanksgiving. There is a big sigh after that, because while I have had my fingers crossed for years that more Thanksgiving-targeted stuff would be produced, this movie is not it. Nope. It is a slasher film. Which is already not a movie I am going to see (although a little bit hypocritical because I was all in for Violent Night, or maybe it isn’t that hypocritical because that was more of a violent action movie mash-up and I won’t be seeing it again even though it was actually pretty good). But it also annoys me that when so few Thanksgiving movies (especially mainstream) exist, this is the one we’re getting?  And that they titled it, Thanksgiving. I mean, Violent Night was a way more responsible, non-hood-wink-y title. Like I’m back in the back seat of the family car in the 80s and I’m about to see a movie about animated stuffies and it turns out to be Gremlins and I have to bury my face in my Strawberry Shortcake pillow and fall asleep but that doesn’t stop me from having nightmares for literal decades. Moving on.

Here are some of the movies that I would like to give a shot this year:

Jim Henson’s Turkey Hallow (2015). I mean, I like Muppets movies, sometimes even love them, so I am happy to watch a puppet movie in hopes of enjoying it, maybe even returning to it. Though I’ve heard very little about it, I have heard that it’s decent.

Pieces of April (2003). What looks to be a family drama with some situational comedy and perhaps even a little romance, this is a lauded film that centers around a Thanksgiving meal and bringing distant family to a shared table, so perfect. I may have seen it years ago, but I don’t recall that I did. This would not be the first time I sat down to a movie I haven’t seen and I realize that I totally have.

Free Birds (2013) is an animated movie with the premise of the pardoned-by-the-president turkey going back in time to prevent turkeys from ever ending up on the Thanksgiving menu. Cute. And well-seen at the time, but with pretty abysmal reviews and many historical errors. (Um. These are time-travelling turkeys, though, so…)  I saw it. I hardly remember it. I’d like to see it again and give it a review.

Grumpy Old Men (1993) is one of those movies that is tied to my growing up. I am sure that we watched this one as a family more than once, and we referenced in in the years to come. Two grumpy, old men (surprise!) who have been grumpy at each other for a lifetime compete for a new neighbor’s affections. There is a Thanksgiving dinner involved in the plot, and I’m guessing plenty of holiday references, but I really don’t remember. It’s a classic.

Curly Sue (1991). Another movie that we watched multiple times when I was a tween (before that was a term) and then referenced around the dinner table (like when Curly Sue licks all of her fingers after eating). About a homeless man and orphaned girl who tag-team to scam people out of survival funds, everybody (read: reviewers) seems to hate this movie, except actual people, who love it. I am wondering how offensive it might be regarding the homeless/unhoused, now that it’s no longer the 90s. Some have called it violent and profane. I can’t say that was our family’s read on it, at the time, and we were a fairly straight-laced family. My sister and I loved Curly Sue herself. We’ll see.

She’s Gotta Have It (1986) is Spike Lee’s first feature film and it’s controversial for its portrayal of a woman who has three lovers, etc., and is trying to balance them. Thanksgiving ends up being the day they all have dinner together, or something like that. The critics love it. I have never seen it, for the obvious reason that I was in kindergarten when it was released.

The New World (2005). I’m pretty sure I saw this legend-based portrayal of the John Smith-Pocahontas story when it came out. Did I like it? …I …think …so? It’s unapologetically unfactual, based more on the legend though these were real people and events (basically), but I think it probably gets at some things regarding that first Thanksgiving. It’s a long movie at 2 ½ hours (3-hour movies were so in), and reviews are absolutely everywhere across the spectrum. It bombed at the box office, but was up for several awards and later deemed one of the best movies of the twenty-naughts.

I really only started digging for Thanksgiving stuff last year (or the year before?), so my list of recommendations is quite short.

As far as reading, I haven’t read enough to recommend more than the few at the beginning of this blog post. So, Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen (Laurie Colwin), “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes” (with reservations; F. Scott Fitzgerald), “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene, 2015” (Craig Santoz Perez), and the first chapter of There There (Tommy Orange). For movies, it’s Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973), and—this is important—for the day after Thanksgiving, Miracle on 34th Street (1947). (I also recommend watching The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) on the day after Halloween, but that chicken has flown the coop this year, already. My hubby and I went to an anniversary, 3-D screening and I tolerated the 3-D to have a good time. 3-D is a novelty which distracts me. Tim Burton rules.