Month in Review: November 2023

Literature

November is a busy blogging month! At the beginning of the month, I participated in Witch Week – a very full week indeed. My contribution was an interview with Kiyash Moncef, author of the wonderful fantasy Once There Was.

Then it was time to focus on nonfiction for Nonfiction November. My posts:

My Year in NonfictionBook PairingsWorldview Changers: The Sixth ExtinctionNew to my TBR

Reading-wise, I went on a bit of a Dani Shapiro jag; I’d read her fascinating memoir Inheritance a couple of years ago, and thought I’d get caught up on the earlier parts of her story. It’s a bit strange to read those earlier books, because Shapiro is lacking important information about her own parentage (revealed in Inheritance), which surely plays into her lost, disoriented feelings. Her spiritual questing was especially interesting in light of my Spiritual Memoir Challenge. How much of our searching is actually fueled by what we don’t know about our ancestry?

I also joined in a readalong I came across at Consumed by Ink: the two books featuring Sara Stanley or “The Story Girl” by L.M. Montgomery. The books had a very different tone, and it was illuminating to learn that one was written just before and one after her marriage. This might account for what I found a more cynical and bitter tone in the latter.

I had back to back reviews at Shiny New Books this month: The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper, and Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. I was especially happy to see the latter, one of my favorite books, get some attention and a lovely new edition from the Folio Society.

Finally, I announced plans to start an “Ozathon,” reading the 14 Oz books by L. Frank Baum, in company with Deb from The Book Stop.

Have you read any of these, or what are your highlights this month?

After by Bruce GreysonThe Story Girl and The Golden Road by L.M. MontgomeryLandlines by Raynor WinnDrinking: A Love Story by Caroline KnappOne Hundred Saturdays by Michael KnappSlow Motion, Devotion and Hourglass by Dani Shapiro

Find my reviews at The StoryGraph

Language

On the recommendation of my German tutor, I’ve started reading Die Wand (The Wall) by Maren Haushofer, in which a woman staying at a house in the mountains wakes up to discover an invisible wall has appeared and everyone else seems to have been destroyed by some mysterious catastrophe.

I read very slowly, so not much has happened yet. The narrator is still in shock and not wanting to think much beyond the present moment.

How will she survive? Perhaps next time I’ll have some news.

Life

The last weekend of November was very busy with the Advent fair season beginning — I had to spend all of Saturday at one for work and all of Sunday at one for my son’s school.

I do not feel ready for the holidays! But they will soon be upon me, nevertheless. I’d better get off the computer and do something about it.

How is your month going?

Linked at The Sunday Post at Caffeinated Book Reviewer, the Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, and the Monthly Wrap-up Round-up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction