Hilary's Book Blog

No re-reads this month – that’s a little unusual but welcome!

• The Vocation Lectures – Max Weber, 1917-1919 (tr. Rodney Livingstone). My first Catherine Project seminar – I hope to do more. Quotes TBD.
• The Hallmarked Man – Robert Galbraith, 2025. Needed a real editor so badly! But apparently I keep checking these out, even though some of the past ones were so unmemorable that I completely forgot I already read them.
• Orbital – Samantha Harvey, 2023. Second Monday; quotes TBD.
• Raising Hare: A Memoir – Chloe Dalton, 2025. Nature/Enviro; quotes TBD.
• Piranesi – Susanna Clarke, 2020. Massachusetts Center for the Book reading challenge, “A book outside your usual genres or spin the genre wheel.” I wrote “The genre spinner gave me Fantasy, so I finally read this book that’s been on my to-read pile since it came out. I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and this didn’t disappoint – truly delightful and absorbing. I regret waiting so long!”
• Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory – Deena Kastor, 2018. The speaker at the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club annual meeting mentioned this book several times, so I checked it out ASAP. I have mixed feelings about reading memoirs of super-fast people, since I’m so slow, but the mindset aspect was pretty good. My favorite part was Kastor following her coach’s advice for getting ready for an evening run: “Sometimes I was so giddy about it that when I climbed into bed for a nap I shouted out loud, ‘This is my job!’ and fell back into a deep slumber.”
• The Power and the Glory – Graham Greene, 1940. Great Books selection; quotes TBD.
• Book Lovers – Emily Henry, 2022. An Ask a Manager commentariat recommendation; I found it quite charming and enjoyed the mocking of the Hallmark small-town tropes. The setting wasn’t very plausible – only one restaurant but a three-story library with automatic doors and multiple meeting rooms – but I was happy to suspend my disbelief.
• Theo of Golden – Allen Levi, 2023. I heard about this huge bestseller in the Washington Post and was intrigued. Not great writing but I found it much more compelling than I expected, despite its flaws.

Short story

“Don’t Look Now” – Daphne Du Maurier, 1971. Far Out Film watched the Nicolas Roeg adaptation, which generated a great discussion. The story is good too but I prefer the film.

Not many books this month – huge work project and Bleak House is super-long!

• Ulysses – James Joyce, 1922. Re-read, with Amherst Book Club; quotes TBD.
• The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro, 1995. Second Monday; quotes TBD.
• Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human World – Brandon Keim, 2024. Nature & Environment; quotes TBD.
• Bleak House – Charles Dickens, 1853. Great Books selection, re-read, and also satisfying the Massachusetts Center for the Book January challenge, “a book about or set in winter.” I wrote: “Snowstorm Fern was the perfect time to finish this classic, which climaxes in a carriage-ride through snowy London. It takes a while to build momentum but it’s worth the investment of time to meet memorable characters and one of the first detectives in fiction.” Quotes TBD.
• Moominsummer Madness – Tove Jansson, 1954. For the ABC spin-off childrens’ book group; quotes TBD.

Short stories

• “The Dead” – James Joyce, 1914. We read this after Ulysses; probably my 5th or 6th time. A masterpiece! Then we watched the 1987 John Huston movie, which was a disappointment.

• Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly, 2016. For Second Monday. We all hated it – bad writing, lazy premise, offensive execution. I did look up krowki (sic – the book doesn’t even have Polish diacriticals, though it does French!), Satan from the Seventh Grade, and rice with molasses – probably molasses rice pudding?
• Underland: A Deep Time Journey – Robert Macfarlane, 2019. Nature/Enviro – quotes TBD.
• Excellent Women – Barbara Pym, 1942. Great Books – quotes TBD.
• The Star Beast – Robert Heinlein, 1954. Something prompted me to pick up this old favorite – maybe the conceit of the pet that grows up over centuries and is passed down through the family, but I don’t remember specifically. It’s one of Heinlein’s best juveniles, IMO. Was he consciously using “John Thomas” to be titillating/in-jokey, as in Promise Her Anything? Probably!
• The Big Jones Cookbook: Recipes for Savoring the Heritage of Regional Southern Cooking – Paul Fehribach, 2015. For the Massachusetts Center for the Book monthly challenge, “A cookbook or book about food.” I wrote: “Interesting history of Southern cooking with great-looking recipes – I’m especially intrigued by the roux/boiled milk icing. It was enjoyable to read even if I don’t get around to making any of the dishes!”

• My Friends – Hisham Matar, 2024. Second Monday selection; quotes TBD.
• Comet in Moominland – Tove Jansson, 1946. Hurray, a children’s literature group has started as a splinter from Amherst Book Group! Quotes TBD.
• The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration – Jake Bittle, 2023. Nature/Enviro, quotes TBD.
• Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare – Michelle Ephraim, 2024. Massachusetts Center for the Book reading challenge prompt: “A book published by a Massachusetts press” (University of Massachusetts Press in this case). I wrote: “All the blurbs say it’s hysterically funny – it didn’t seem that way to me, but I very much enjoyed this memoir of Ephraim making her way in the academy and earning tenure through devotion to The Merchant of Venice.” She’s funnier on The Moth, though!
• In the Frame – Dick Francis, 1976. Re-read, mostly because of revisiting the George Stubbs and other horse paintings at the newly-reopened Yale Center for British Art.
• The Running Man – Stephen King, 1982. Same as Long Walk: there’s a new trailer. I haven’t seen the movie, but enjoyed the re-read and appreciated the prescience.
• Dracula – Bram Stoker, 1897. Great Books selection (re-read); quotes TBD.
• The Family Under the Bridge – Natalie Savage Carlson, 1958. I remember liking this as a kid primarily because of the Garth Williams illustratations, and because it was set in Paris. It doesn’t hold up very well.
• The Girl in a Swing – Richard Adams, 1980. I finally bought an epub version of this (I’ve owned it in paperback for decades) and discovered that it’s a different edition – I knew from Wikipedia that there had been a change but didn’t realize my paperback was the original version. But there must also have been US/UK differences. I’ve read the book so many times that they jumped out to me – maybe a post someday. I see the movie, which I’ve never watched, is on Tubi now. On the list! Although this book is unbelievable in a number of ways, I really love it and re-read every couple of years. I must have missed a few occasions because it’s not listed here after 2006.
• Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson, 1948. Quotes TBD.
• Watership Down – Richard Adams, 1972. I had to re-read this after Girl in a Swing – one of my all-time favorites that so holds up. I love the epigraphs more and more; one day I might research them all/write them up.

Stories

I suggested these for an Amherst College slow read retreat, which was delightful. We had great discussions about the first two; the Henry James only a few of us talked about, which was fun, but it pales in comparison.

• “How I Became a Vet” – Rivka Galchen, 2023 (this is amazing – I’ve read it four times now and it gets better every time)
• “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” – Flannery O’Connor, 1955
• “The Real Thing” – Henry James, 1892

• A Month in the Country – J. L. Carr, 1980. Second Monday selection; one attendee described it as “a perfect novel” and that’s’not far off. I marked only four quotes/”in this book I learned”s. I haven’t really had a cut-off between monthly lists and what rates an individual post, so maybe I’ll make it five!
  • rulley – Yorkshire term for a flat cart
  • estovers – allowance of wood to be taken from the commons
  • “‘This one either is excessively hot, on occasions, red-hot (in point of fact) or else just keeping itself and no-one else warm.’ And he gave it a resentful little kick. They glowered at one another like ancient enemies.”
  • “If I’d stayed there, would I always have been happy? No, I suppose not. People move away, grow older, die, and the bright belief that there will be another marvelous thing around each corner fades. It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies.”
• The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors – Erika Howsare, 2024. Nature and Environment selection; quotes TBD.
• Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe, 1929. Great Books selection; quotes TBD (I read it as a teenager or young adult)
• Hugh Lofting’s Travels of Doctor Dolittle – Al Perkins, illustrated by Philip Wende, 1967. I embarked on a Dr Dolittle re-read a few months ago and remembered a picture book adaptation I’d had as a kid. It may have been prompted by seeing the movie. To my surprise this is quite rare, but I was able to get it through the Commonwealth library system. The text is enh (thank goodness I went on to read the Lofting books as a kid) but the illustrations are memorable – a bit ligne claire but with visible cross-hatching. I can’t find out much about Wende.
• Kindred – Octavia Butler, 1979. Mass Center for the Book suggestion for September, “A book told in non-chronological order.” I wrote: “Compelling and vivid – it’s been on my TBR list forever and I’m so glad I finally read this classic, but it’s harrowing.” The relationship between narrator Dana and her ancestor Rufus is complicated and fascinating. I might put this on the suggested list for Great Books – I’ll be thinking about this one for quite a while.
• Big Damn Hero (Firefly #1) – James Lovegrove, 2018. Not as good as the one I read last month, but I enjoyed it.

• Sandwich – Catherine Newman, 2024 – Second Monday selection, but I didn’t mark any quotes. I enjoyed it quite a bit but it’s not rib-sticking; cute, funny, slight.
• The Deluge – Stephen Markley, 2023. Nature & Environment selection. The opposite: very dark. Quotes TBD.
• The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton, 1967. Read for the Massachusetts Center for the Book August challenge: “A book with a protagonist who is a teenager or senior citizen.” I wrote “I’ve been meaning to read this classic for decades. Now that I’m 60 I’ve finally gotten around to it. Teenage me would have enjoyed it more, but the emotional drama and relatable characters were appealing.”
• So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson, 2015. Well-written, interesting.
• The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850. Great Books selection (re-read), quotes TBD.
• Spent: A Comic Novel – Alison Bechdel, 2025. I enjoyed this because the character explorations felt like a continuation of Dykes to Watch Out For, and the art is great (especially the goats!), but I liked The Secret to Superhuman Strength more. (Hey, that’s not in my Goodreads list! Thank goodness for the CWMars reading history. Oh OK, it’s in the August list – would have just been left out of the year in review…)
• Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier – Kevin Kelly, 2023. Loved it, will read again. On this go-round I just marked one quote that hit me: “What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.” I have found that to be very true.
• Carnival (Firefly #6) – Una McCormack, 2021. Loved it! Firefly is one of my favorite TV shows ever and I so wish there were more episodes. This novel provided an equivalent way more successfully than I could have imagined – I’m very impressed. I will read the others in the series, and look for more McCormack.

Short stories

• “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1835. Read for Story Club, and it was a great companion piece to The Scarlet Letter. I’m sure I’d read it before, but not given it close attention; what a weird and unsettling piece. Having seen his diamond graffiti at The Old Manse, visited the House of the Seven Gables, and hiked Monument Mountain, I feel surrounded by Hawthorne traces!

A very busy month so not a lot of books!

• The Voyages of Dr Dolittle – Hugh Lofting, 1922. I only read this one a few times as a kid because I didn’t own it, but I remembered it as one of the best Dolittles. The great naturalist Long Arrow and the beetle with the message on its leg stuck with me, and I remembered the giant sea snail from the movie – which I may have seen when it came out, so might have been my gateway to the books. Beginning of a binge, but spaced out because I have so much else to read (Amherst Book Group is reading Ulysses!)
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce, 2015. Re-read – for the Amherst College Book Group as a prelude to Ulysses. Quotes TBD.
• We Loved It All – Lydia Millett, 2024. Nature and Enviro, quotes TBD.
• Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone – James Baldwin, 1968 – Second Monday, quotes TBD.
• Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry – Ben Aitken, 2023. Read for the Massachusetts Center for the Book Reading Challenge – “A book you were drawn to by its cover.” Jonathan saw it on the dollar shelf at Broadside and thought of me, because I am a fun-lover, and the cover did I wrote “A light-hearted account of Aitken’s attempts at dozens of activities from cold water bathing to improv. Not as funny as he wants it to be, but enjoyable.” Two things-I-learned and three good quotes (not quite enough for a stand-alone post):
  • An Idiot Abroad
  • Coasteering – wow, sounds like my kind of fun except for the jumping
  • “We are the sum of what we pay attention to and what we paid attention to. The more we look, the more we see, the more we see again. It’s the again I like. It’s the chance recurrence. It’s things reapparing and their being richer for having a precedent.”
  • “[The butterfly’s] wings are transparent — as mesh. I can see the green of the leaf through them. The wings’ colour is the colour of what is beyond. The wings’ colour is the colour of what they encounter.”
  • “I love the aimless wandering. I love the clueless ambulation. I love losing myself amid the thick and limitless variety of life.”
• The Sea, the Sea – Iris Murdoch, 1978 – Re-read for Great Books. I marked quotes so it will be interesting to compare to my previous post, once I get there.

• Brooklyn – Colm Tóibín, 2009. Second Monday book selection. This is the fourth Tóibín I’ve read with this group, and the first I actually enjoyed. But I only pulled one quote: “They knew so much, each of them, … that they could do everything except say out loud what it was they were thinking.” I’ll try the movie at some point.
• Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell By Shattered Shell – Sy Montgomery, 2023. Nature Enviro selection, quotes TBD.
• The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame, 1908. Great Books selection (multiple re-read), quotes TBD.
• The Head of the House of Coombe (1922) and Robin (1922) – Frances Hodgson Burnett. I’ve read this two-part novel several times, and produced Robin for Project Gutenberg because it was missing. I found a bunch of typos in the first one, which led me to a brief adventure using Github repos to report PG errors, but that’s already rolled back, so I’ll submit the revised files – at least it got me to actually do it, thanks to Jonathan doing the research. I’ve always meant to figure out how to submit corrections, and now I’ll plan on making it a habit. It’s time-consuming but feels very worth it. I marked two things I looked up:
  • Liebig – beef extract
  • Scatterbrained nurse is absorbed in Lady Audley’s Secret. I read that a while back – don’t remember it but it was compelling!
• The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851. The Massachusetts Center for the Book challenge was “A book that spans multiple generations.” I couldn’t think of one that appealed (and my rule is I must not have read it before), so I turned to their suggestions. My writeup: “I’m so glad I finally read this – it’s charming and not as dark as other Hawthornes, although plenty spooky. Hepzibah, Phoebe, and little Ned Higgins, insatiable devourer of gingerbread, are particularly endearing.” I found a bunch of typos in the Gutenberg edition, but fewer than in the Burnett, so they are already fixed for posterity.
• Hereward the Wake: Last of the English – Charles Kingsley, 1866. I picked this up last month because the protagonist of T. Tembarom refers to it. Quotes marked, TBD.
• Talking Turkey – Hilary Caws-Elwitt, unpublished mss (2014). I guess I’ll re-read my own book (it’s middle grade animal fantasy) every few years to make sure I still like it… and I do. I might self-publish at some point, I suppose, not under the illusion that anyone else will read it. (If you want to check it out, let me know!)
• The Long Walk – Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman, 1978. I saw a trailer for the new movie and was prompted to pick this up again. It’s the most memorable of the Bachmans to me, and of course it led the way for the Hunger Games books and Squid Game show. Not great but readable.