What We’re Reading, Vol. 16

January is truly the beginning of all things around here, and more than anything that means the start of ambitious new reads. Catching up on holiday gifts, new discoveries as we sift through literary end of the year highlights, and embracing every last moment of freedom before the business of everyday life seizes us once again. We can't wait to set goals and meet them this year, and so we kick off the new year as valiantly as possible. Here’s what we’re reading this month...

Corinne Elicona

Some of my favorite Christmas presents to receive are books. I love when my friends come across something they think I will like and recommend it to me. The vast majority of the time they are correct. Admittedly, when I walk into a bookstore I often feel very overwhelmed, so many new titles, so many options to choose from. I have a hard time picking out something I know will pique my interest. So when a book comes hand-delivered to me by some of my closest friends, I just have to start reading ASAP. One of these gift books I received this year was Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Food, Politics, and Romance Became our New Religion and What to Do About it by David Zahl. Interestingly enough, Zahl is an episcopalean minister, so he has a unique take on the performancism of modern day living.

I am not a religious person, so I definitely turned my head at a book that told me on its cover page that I was. In Seculosity, Zahl talks mostly about how people need to feel as though they are “enough”--that they are doing the things that make them appear as though they are filling that spiritual void. And, instead of God, they fill it with promotions, exercise routines, dating apps, and diets. At first I was a little turned off by this blatant dismissal of the things that many people find bring them joy, however Zahl makes it clear he’s talking about a certain type of performancism and not necessarily these things in general. If the goal of embracing, say… crossfit, is to signal to other people that you are functional, healthy, and “holier than thou” then perhaps one is not embracing these things for the right reasons.

On a separate note, I have just started The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters, a wonderfully written story about a woman and her mother, bruised and battered by WWI and their newfound role as landladies to a recently married couple upstairs. Now, I haven’t gotten very far yet, and supposedly it’s explosive so you’ll have to check back in with me later. But for right now, I am enjoying this vividly descriptive 1922 world Waters has created.

Raquel Reyes

As promised in my New Year’s Eve reading list, I kicked off January with She Regrets Nothing by Andrea Dunlop, though I ended up putting it down about thirty pages in to read and review E.J Koh’s debut memoir The Magical Language of Others. (You can read more about that here!) Koh’s words are still ringing with me and I hope to get my hands on a copy of her poetry collection as well soon.

She Regrets Nothing was an interesting, if not seemingly endless read. At just under four hundred pages, I found myself both wishing it was about a hundred and fifty pages shorter but also perhaps fifty pages longer. Following a young Midwesterner as she moves to New York City and reunites with her wealthy family, it does have all of the trappings mentioned on the back cover likening it to The Great Gatsby or even Edith Wharton, but I’m afraid that caliber ends there. More than anything, it reminded me of Gossip Girl, with its episodic scenes, multiple narrative storylines, heavy attention to New York landmarks and designer name-dropping, and with its final act twist of a sudden death and the mystery around it, a lot of last year’s runaway hit Social Creature. I would definitely recommend it to fans of either or both of these, though I would say brace yourself for the slow start and don’t expect a clean finish.

Next up I’m jumping into my pre-planned January reads; the new tradition of picking up Edith Wharton in January with finally starting Twilight Sleep, and aptly following with Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. If I can’t get my sleep routine in check, at least my reading list will be.

Sam Cohen

I recently finished my first book of 2020, which I devoured over the course of three days. I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell is a beautifully written memoir where she recalls seventeen times she has brushed against death. The stories range in severity from actual tales of horror to stories of near accidents, but each chapter is riveting in its own right. O’Farrell writes in a way that is devastatingly human and she perfectly captures the way it feels when we inevitably become aware of our own mortality. I read this book in chunks of sixty or so pages at a time, and I found myself staying up late the past few nights to squeeze one more chapter in. This memoir is compelling, raw, and emotional, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a completely real human experience within the context of three hundred odd pages. It was the right book to start off my 2020 reading challenge because it was engaging, inspirational, and profound.

I am currently in the middle of reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, which is equally compelling. The Muse was one of my favorite books in 2019, and I wanted to read Burton’s other work heading into this new decade. The Miniaturist has such a unique premise, and I love the way Burton crafts her characters because they are vibrant and complex. The story follows Petronella Oortman, a young woman who has recently become the wife of a wealthy merchant in 1680s Amsterdam. Shortly after their wedding, Petronella—more affectionately referred to throughout the novel as Nella—receives a gift from her new husband that sets the course of her life completely off kilter. I’m about halfway through the book now, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. The story is layered in mysteries, and I’m a sucker for anything related to Dutch history.

And because I can never just read one book at a time, I have recently picked up Outline by Rachel Cusk after receiving a recommendation to read the entire series. The novel is the first in the Outline Trilogy, a series of books that is known for being incredibly well-written and exceptionally perceptive. So far, I’ve only read a handful of pages, but I’m excited to take this journey and report back on what I find.

Zoë G. Burnett

Sometimes reading is hard, even for people who love it. I habitually fall victim to reading ruts when no work of fiction will do and I can’t get worked up enough for nonfiction. This happened during 2019’s busy holiday season when my quiet time was even more precious than usual, and instead of rewatching the film adaptation, I picked up my hardcover copy of Interview With the Vampire. It’s been over a decade since I read the Vampire Chronicles, and it’s been long enough since the end of the vampire media craze for me to revisit the subject. Last weekend I finished The Vampire Lestat, remembering a surprising amount but still being enveloped by Anne Rice’s lavish prose and surrealistic storytelling. Rereading these first two was revelatory, if anything it partially explained why I’m so intense and extra all of the time. Queen of the Damned is on deck following a couple of memoirs, and I’m anticipating the discovery of other ways in which Rice shaped my overexcited preteen/young teen brain. The most striking observation so far is that I’m actually glad to not have been “turned” during my teenage years as I so fervently wished; I’m far more attractive now and very much appreciate the sun.

Lauren Olmeda

I didn’t hit my reading goal of 40 books for 2019, and I have only one thing to blame: knitting. Normally I spend the entirety of the Christmas holidays reading, but this year I was knitting non-stop and hardly even opened a book while I was at my parents’ house!

I’ve upped my reading goal to 45 books for 2020 as penance. I read Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett first, and I really wanted to enjoy it more than I did. I was very interested in the premise – a young woman who was essentially her father’s apprentice in his taxidermy shop finds her world turned upside down when he commits suicide – but I just couldn’t stomach it. I wasn’t sure exactly what the plot was supposed to be, and I kept waiting for an over-mentioned character from the protagonist’s past to show up and she never did. Even though I have a pretty strong stomach, I also wasn’t a fan of the vivid descriptions of taxidermy (but that’s my own problem, not Arnett’s – she is an incredibly skilled writer).

I’m now reading Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane which has been on my to-read list for ages. It follows two NYPD officers and their intertwined families – I love a bit of familial drama, and I’m enjoying it so far!

For Christmas I received Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout and I can’t wait to start it; Olive Kitteridge is one of my favourite books of all time. I also visited my local library and picked up two collections of essays I’ve been dying to read: Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamison and Notes To Self by Emilie Pine, as well as Bunny by Mona Awad and The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life by Anu Partanen. To hit my 2020 goal I’ve got to read four books a month, so things are looking good!

Tariq Hoosen

I’ve been interspersing some heavier research-related reading with quick, lyrical little books I can lose myself in for an afternoon. Recently, I revisited Angifi Dladla’s exquisite poetry collection Lament for Kofifi Macu. Dladla is one of South Africa’s most respected poets, and I had the great honor of meeting him on a few occasions, and (full disclosure) working with the press who published this collection. He’s one of the most humble yet quietly dignified people I’ve ever met, and this shows luminously in his writing. His work is finely controlled but deeply heartfelt, touching things gently when that is called for, and bursting into righteous fire when it is not. The collection is a mix of poems about childhood, love, everyday wonders and visions, and about South Africa’s current political climate. I always walk away from his work feeling like I’ve had my eyes opened by a wise and deeply kind mentor, onto something vast moving under the surface of the world .

I’ve also been dipping into Philip Pullman’s wonderful collection of essays on craft, Daemon Voices. It’s refreshingly readable while also being a richly considered, intellectually and ethically rigorous, passionate collection of lessons on writing and storytelling. I have already bookmarked several essays to give to my students, and I feel like I’m learning something valuable every time I read it.

Finally, because I’ve been terribly stressed out lately, I’ve found the audiobook version of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle narrated by Jenny Agutter incredibly calming to listen to before bed. Since the source of my stress is my second book I’m supposed to be writing, I find myself sympathizing with James Mortmain and his agonizing and bizarre second-book tribulations more than I ever did before. It really does make you look at haddocks and carpet bags with new, desperate, frenzied eyes.

M.A. McCuen

One of the wonders of teaching is Winter Break, which allowed me to happily read for two weeks. I aimed for fun and cute books to read, ones that would allow me to relax after a busy semester. I read 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston. It was a perfectly sweet holiday YA read about a girl who gets dumped right before Christmas and spends her break going on dates that her quirky family sets her up with. It was an ideal read for the holiday season. I also read Birdie and Me by J.M.M Nuanez, a middle grade novel about a young girl grappling with the death of her mother and trying to care for gender-creative brother. I love that inclusive books like this are being published for young audiences. I imagine so many kids will feel less alone after reading it.

One of my favorite reads this month was Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston. This book is seriously so adorable. Like—The Cutest Ever! It’s the story of the son of the United States President who falls in love with The Prince of England. It is packed full of all the best tropes: enemies to friends to lovers, fake dating, forbidden love, and modern royalty. The dialogue was hilarious and the characters nuanced and likable. It had such a lovely, imaginative, and hopeful vision of the US’s political future which I really appreciated.

I’m currently reading Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen, a novel about a young regency woman who loves Jane Austen books and is trying to find her own Austen-esque romance. It’s cute and inventive and oh so addicting to read. I’m enjoying it so much and I’m hoping for more regency YA novels like this soon.