January 2024 Reading

January was a no-TV month for me and also I let myself go nuts reading fiction, so I read (or listened to) nineteen books.

 

Audiobooks first.  I don’t like listening to books I have not read before.  There is something stressful about listening and not knowing what is going to happen.  The four audiobooks I listened to, then, were all re-reads.  I began with The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett because I love that book.  I still love it.  Then I listened to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.  It has been a long time since I read it and I have watched numerous film and TV versions since I last did.  The text is, of course, different and still very, very good.  Then it occurred to me that I could listen to Dorothy Sayers.  The library had Whose Body? available in an excellent reading.  Sad to say, I had forgotten how racist the plot of that particular one was, but it’s still a good puzzle and it’s always fun to hang out with Peter Wimsey.  I then listened to Unnatural Death for the pleasure of both his company and Miss Climpson’s.

 

I was given a novelty book in my stocking at Christmas called How NOT To Become a Little Old Lady by Mary McHugh.  I read it so no one else has to.  Enough said.

 

My nonfiction reading goal for January was to get through the Thieme Atlas of Anatomy:  General Anatomy and Musculoskeletal Systems.  I did.  It has tons and tons of information and really cool pictures.  I learned a lot and a lot went right over my head.  It’s going to be a useful reference on my shelf from now on.

 

My church book group read Love in the Time of Incarceration by Elizabeth Greenwood.  As indicated in the title, the book traces the stories of multiple couples with one or both partners in prison.  It was fascinating and horrifying and uplifting and depressing and prickly.  I learned a lot and had my assumptions challenged at many points.  This coming week, the author is going to Zoom into our book group gathering and I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

 

My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem was recommended to me as a useful resource for facilitating tough conversations.  It is about how to process trauma through our own individual and collective bodies with a focus on recovery from white body supremacy in white bodies, black bodies, and police bodies.  There was, again, a lot to think about as I read.  I’ll be processing for a good long while, which is an indicator that it was definitely worth reading, if not always fun.

 

My leisurely and haphazard reading through all of Ursula Le Guin’s work continued with No Time to Spare, a collection of essays and blog posts from her later years.  The writing is superb, the thinking is provocative, and I loved it.

 

On to fiction.  Let me begin with a disclaimer:  I know Gail Carriger in person.  She is delightful as a human.  I met her before I read any of her books and I am now rectifying my oversight.  This month I polished off the five books in The Parasol Protectorate (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless) and the first two in The Custard Protocol (Prudence and Imprudence).  It is perhaps unfair to talk about them in bulk because each volume has its own particular charm, but I’m doing it anyway.  The writing is fluid and funny.  The characters with all their quirks remain engaging.  Gail has the ability to keep raising the stakes in believable ways (no mean trick in a world of werewolves and vampires!) and (PLOT SPOILERS!) still make everything turn out more or less all right in the end.  It has been a real treat to spend so much time with her lovely creations.

 

A friend passed When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill on to me after she finished it.  What a great read!  At first it read like feminist revenge fantasy, but over the course of the book things got more complex.  I loved it.  Two thumbs up.

 

I always like T. Kingfisher, even when she scares the pants off me.  A House With Good Bones is both hilarious and terrifying, sometimes at the same time.  I made a point of not reading it before bed, just in case.  What’s not to like about a plague of ladybugs?  I won’t spoil it, but suggest everyone just go read it.  Thornhedge is a reimagining of Sleeping Beauty that again manages to be funny and scary and wonderful all at the same time.

 

I am unlikely to keep up this reading pace in February, but you never know.

 

January total:  19

Spring total to date:  19

2024 total to date:  19