february reads

short on month, long on brilliance

While January was a bit light on quality, February was exactly the opposite. So. Much. Goodness.

Alas, because of my greedy little library habit (which is to say, a lack of self-control in the putting-of-books-on-hold department), I ended up with a rather abundant stack to get through. Because a couple of those were high-demand books and so couldn’t be renewed, I was under a bit of a time crunch. All things considered, not a bad problem to have, though I am really trying to be more intentional. Again, mixed results on that score. Thankfully, a couple of them were quite short.

Let’s review my TBR stack (as it stood at the beginning of the month)

To that, I added two more books as they came in from holds I’d placed.

Ahem.

Let’s just dive in, shall we?

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War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

Still soldiering on with this (see what I did there?). I’m enjoying it even more this second time around….I’m able to appreciate the way Tolstoy draws out his characters with every subtle word and gesture — he was clearly a great student of human nature. As before: tiresome male characters, sympathetic female ones and genuine distaste for the posturing and corruption of the Russian military commanders.

A Book of Silence - Sara Maitland

This is my non-fiction read of the month, one I’ve had my eye on for ages so I used a Chrimbly book token to get myself a copy. I think I was hoping for more of her own experiences and a little less of the “history of silence” but it’s fascinating nonetheless. As an aspiring hermit and great lover of silence, I’m always looking for books about monks, hermits and other practitioners of such behaviour. What I found particularly interesting was the differentiation of what she calls “religious silence” and “romantic silence”. Religious silence is that which encourages an emptying out, an eradication of ego, ostensibly with the aim of inviting in the Divine. The romantic-inspired silence is the silence of the creative…whereupon one retreats from external ‘noise’ in order to access one’s own, unique self-expression. What made it interesting is that the author wishes to have access to both…but realizes perhaps she cannot? That was never made quite clear, though it seems she decided that the writing of fiction isn’t possible for her when practicing her preferred version of silence. I think. Like I said, that wasn’t entirely clear. I was left disagreeing with her on some points (I don’t believe communion with the Divine can be accessed only within the context of self-abnegation) though absolutely agreeing on others…

This confirmed for me a validity in the romantic claims for silence as a deep well of creativity, provided, of course, that you accept the underlying premises — that our ‘inner self’ is more ‘true’ and more ‘real’ than the socially constructed persona (mask) that we put on in social circumstances and that great art is the exploration and exposure of that hidden self.

I think I could spend the rest of my days exploring that concept.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers

I have to confess that I’ve avoided this book for a long time. Why? Robots. I’m just not that into them. I was initially drawn to it by the fact the main character is a tea monk (I mean, obviously), but then because it’s sci-fi and there’s robots and not-Earth and well, I evidently have biases so I didn’t pick it up. I’m glad I overcame those biases because I LOVE THIS BOOK. If you only take one recommendation from this month, read this book.

It’s a story about what happens when humans make the right choice — when they’re facing catastrophe and do the right thing. It’s so full of hope and warmth and possibility and it’s a superbly clever twist on ‘what happens if the robots achieve self-awareness’. Utterly, effing, gorgeous. Go on, read it.

Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice

I didn’t set out to read post-apocalyptic fiction this month — it’s kind of not really my thing, given the state of the world and the state of my nerves — but there it is. This, too, is a book that’s stayed with me, though for very different reasons.

At first pass, there’s lots you might criticize about this book. It’s very spare and there’s not a lot of characterization — two points that many reviewers seemed to struggle with - and that’s also something that gave me momentary pause. BUT, this is a book written by an Indigenous author….a storyteller. And so it’s written as it’s meant (or so I somewhat arrogantly assume it’s meant¹) to be received — a fable, a cautionary tale, a solution. If you look at it through that lens, it’s brilliantly done. Absolute genius. He even includes a traditional Indigenous tale within the narrative — for the clueless white man’s reference, I’m sure ;)

This is the story of a First Nations reserve in far northern Ontario. For reasons never explained (and really, despite reviewer indignation, it doesn’t matter) the power goes out. Then all radio and satellite communication. Word travels, via the return of two young people who were at college in a distant city, that it’s a widespread issue. What happens next is how the community copes (or doesn’t). A white man arrives, a refugee (?), and is made welcome…I won’t say anymore, but what unfolds is powerful stuff. It could be categorized as alternate history and not be misplaced.

“The world isn’t ending,” she went on. “Our world isn’t ending. It already ended. It ended when the Zhaagnaash came into our original home down south on that bay and took it from us. That was our world. When the Zhaagnaash cut down all the trees and fished all the fish and forced us out of there, that’s when our world ended. They made us come all the way up here. This is not our homeland! But we had to adapt and luckily we already knew how to hunt and live on the land. We learned to live here…But then they followed us up here and started taking our children away from us. That’s when our world ended again. And that wasn’t the last time."

There’s a second book which picks up the story ten years later….I’ve got that one on hold.

A Spell of Winter -Helen Dunmore

From spare prose to the truly luscious, this one’s a corker. “Spell” is the perfect word to describe this book…there’s some absolutely gorgeous imagery and lyrical writing that really does weave an enchantment. It’s deliciously gothic — old, gloomy, mouldering house, stern grandfather, absent parents with hints of scandal and madness. Secrets! Oh, so many secrets and unspoken things. Without spoilers, I will say that there’s a rather confronting relationship (I don’t like to throw the word ‘trigger’ around too casually) that surprised and shocked — as it was meant to, I’m sure and we’re left grappling with that all while the multi-layered spell is woven.

In the end, spells are broken and there’s a measure of redemption but not complete resolution which left me wondering about so many things; not in an ‘unfinished story/plot arc’ sort of way, but the wondering that comes when a book is so full of intricate, nuanced characters and their individual storylines - things hinted at but not spoken - much as the secrets in the story itself.

A really brilliant book — I feel like I could read it again and get still more out of it.

Miss Buncle’s Book -D. E. Stevenson

I got a beautiful Persephone edition of this book for Chrimbly. This was an absolute delight - I really can’t think of any other, more accurate descriptor. This is the story of Miss Buncle, a single woman who, facing some financial hardship, decides to write a book. She writes about a fictional village -based on her own village - and fictional characters — based on the people she knows. Hijinks result when her neighbours realize that the fictional very closely resembles the actual…except they don’t know who wrote the book. A self-deprecating heroine, plenty of humour and wickedly astute observations make this recognizably D.E. Stevenson.

A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab

In one sentence: A rollicking adventure. This was a very fast-paced book that sort of picks you up and carries you along, full of action and adventure. It has an intriguing premise — parallel universes connected by a magical city, London. The MC -Kell - is one of two people who is capable of moving between these worlds as the doors were ‘closed’ following the magical corruption of the London known as Black London. Kell inadvertently smuggles an artifact of Black London into his own London and the story revolves around him trying to right the damage that causes. There’s court intrigue, magic, betrayal, rather a lot of violence, as well as some really well-drawn characters. I feel like Tara Sim could have gleaned some tips on brevity and world-building from this book :). This, I believe, is the first in a series…trilogy? Will be following along with the next ones.

Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo

I actually saw the second book in this series at the library, picked it up (because I’ve enjoyed Leigh Bardugo’s other books) but then put it right back down because the cover was off-putting. Tsk. Tsk. Judging books by their cover and all that. It’s a thing. We do this.

Anyway — if you read the Goodreads reviews there’s a lot of wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over this book, precisely because it’s not like her YA novels. For the very simple reason this isn’t a YA novel. It’s an adult book, with grittier, darker themes and some potentially confronting subject matter (rape/sexual assault, drug use). The thing is, though, (and this is what drives me mad about the pearl-clutchers) is that because it’s so well-written, because the characters are so very well done (brilliant arcs!), none of those things are out of place or gratuitous in any way. In fact, they’re what drive the characters to do what they do — it’s called motivation. The main character - Alex - is deeply flawed and deeply human and, thus, so very believable. Yes, there are some visual and mental flinches, but with a thorough understanding of what a story requires, what a story needs for development and what a character needs for a reliable and believeable arc, then those flinches work. It really is a masterful piece of writing. Building worlds and the characters who move around in them, and among each other, is something that Leigh Bardugo does very, very well. Add to all of that, because it’s full of references to classical literature, takes digs at the elitism of the Ivy League and the systemic corruption of the patriarchy in general, well, it’s a bloody good time.

Here’s the blurb…I couldn’t hope to summarize it myself:

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive

I know, right?

Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo

Well, you just know I had to go back and get the second one, off-putting cover notwithstanding²

Did. not. disappoint.

Once again, full of the twists and turns one expects from Ms. Bardugo. Some fantastic character development for all of the key players and some amazing further world-building and lore. I feel like this is setting up to be a deep and rich series.

The Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese

I was 84th in line for this book from the library (they have 12 copies) so I panicked a bit when I picked it up —it’s chonky. I then lost several afternoons and had many a late night reading it. At first, I was applying myself so diligently because I knew I wouldn’t be able to renew it, but then it was because I was just so utterly enthralled in the story. What a gorgeous, gorgeous book. It follows three generations of a family from Kerala, in southern India, starting in the early 1900s. But it’s not just a story of the family, it’s one of the land, a way of life…all of them connected by the covenant of water (which teaches us that everything and everyone is connected). Truly, it was something wonderful, and despite the seemingly relentless tragedies, it was a story of hope and resilience. It was also a kind of history of medicine as well, which, seeing as how the author is a doctor, isn’t surprising but it’s an interesting scaffolding upon which to rest the story.

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Right. Phew. That’s that then.

So yes, limiting my reading time wasn’t a great success in February - but given it’s such a dull and gloomy month, what better way to while away the free hours? March is already shaping up to be much lighter in volume, though not in quality (mostly), as I head into the home stretch with Project Hazel.

Next month, I shall be able to share my thoughts on A Court of Thorns and Roses…..(if you know, you know 😜). I feel like that one could be a post unto itself.

How about you? Have you read any of these? Thoughts? Opinions? Recommendations?

~m. xo

1. Strictly my own analysis here…your mileage may vary

2. From a distance, it looks like an albino laboratory rabbit curled into the fetal position, possibly soaked in formaldehyde. Maybe that’s just me.