Read:
The Mythmakers – John Hendrix (Abrams, 2024)
The Leopard – Giuseppe di Lampedusa (translated from the Italian by Guido Waldman) (Pantheon Books, 2007)
Tyll – Daniel Kehlmann (translated from the German by Ross Benjamin) (Pantheon Books, 2020)
Rainbow Valley – L.M. Montgomery (Seal Books, 1976)
James – Percival Everett (Doubleday, 2024)
The Christian Book of Mystical Verse ed. by A. W. Tozer (Moody Publishers, 2016)
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl (Blackstone Audio, 2004)
Shy Creatures – Clare Chambers (Mariner Books, 2024)
Foundations – Ruth Chou Simons & Troy Simons (Harvest House Publishers, 2020)
Did Not Finish:
Hags – Victoria Smith (abandoned on page 67)
Since I hit my late 30s, I’ve been increasingly interested in how media and our society at large treat women in middle age. I turned 39 in November and thought I’d read this one because the subtitle is “The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women”. Once I started reading it though, I felt much younger than the target audience. I’m not menopausal, I’m not finished raising my children. I don’t really feel invisible in society yet. And the writing didn’t really grab me enough to make me want to keep going. I then did some googling and learned that the average life expectancy for women in Canada is 83.9 years so I’ve got a few more years before I’m technically middle-aged.
Currently Reading:
The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (audio)
The Book at War – Andrew Pettegree
2024 Reading Goals
Goliath Challenge: 21, 432/30,000 (2, 363 in November)
Goliath Books Read: 3 (none in November)
Translated Works: 8/15 (The Leopard and Tyll in November)
Books I Already Own: 12/15 (2 in November)
Pre-2023 TBR: 13/25 (The Leopard (since 2019) and Tyll (since 2019))
Current TBR: 198 (previously 204) I was so surprised that it had dropped below 200 that I counted it twice and got the same number. Wild.
Thoughts:
It was a good reading month! I read 9 books and it was a nice mix of some older titles from my TBR and some new books. James and Shy Creatures were the standouts and I do hope to get out reviews for those two because I liked them a lot in very different ways. I took a break from The Gulag Archipelago which I’m listening to on audio and listened to Man’s Search for Meaning. Which was not really an emotional break at all but the crossover references between the two were fascinating.
What’s Next:
This week I’ve started my annual review of my favourite reads from the year and I’m looking forward to reminiscing over some of 2024’s best reads. I plan to post a category every Monday in December.
December is my busiest month of the year at work, as well as the typical chaos of parenting young children in the lead up to Christmas holidays. So I’m trying to be organized and not put too much pressure on myself. I’m not really sure how much reading I’ll get done or how many reviews. I would like to finish The Gulag Archipelago but I’ve still got 14 hours to go so I’m not sure if it’s doable. We’ll see. I have a book from the library to get started on and I’m plugging away at The Book at War though it hasn’t quite gripped me yet. I need to find something a little more fun to read next, I think.
How was November reading for you? Is this a cozy, plenty-of-time-to-read time of the year? Or are you extra busy in December too?
Karissa Reads Books 
Your comments about Hags are interesting. I’m mid-fifties and can relate. Ageism is real.
I definitely think agism is real and I’ve noticed a shift in how I interact/am treated by the world as I get older. I think this author’s style and approach was not for me and the goal of the book wasn’t quite clear or what I expected. But I still think it’s a fascinating topic.
I’d love to hear what you think of Shy Creatures. It’s on reservation for me at the library but there are 23 other people ahead of me in the queue! December is turning out to be a crazy month this year: term winding down, plus a huge grant project at work, plus we’re flying to the US on the 11th. So although I’ll have a nice long holiday through most of the month, the first week and a half are crammed!
I’m hoping to get a review out for Shy Creatures next week. I really liked it! That’s a lot to cram into the first part of the month! Glad you get some rest after that.
December is busy at first because I’m finishing the semester, and then it seems like there is this big lull during which my brain is convinced I should be doing SOMETHING, so typically I’m miserable and get nothing done. However, this year I need to start getting things around to move to Missouri. “Move.” I had a Deaf woman correct me the other day. I signed I was going to MOVE to Missouri, because to me, taking all my crap and leaving for 15 weeks is moving. She corrected me and signed GO. I’m “going” to Missouri. I wonder if thinking about it differently actually makes any difference.
I curious what led you to randomly (it seems) read Rainbow Valley.
An extended trip to Missouri would feel more manageable in my mind than moving permanently to Missouri. But 15 weeks is still a long time and would require a lot of work! Will Nick come with you for some or all of that?
I pulled out some boxes of books out of the basement recently, all stuff from when I was a kid. My girls are reading so much now that I wanted to see what books I still owned that they might enjoy now. I read a few chapters of random books and just ended up reading all of Rainbow Valley. Montgomery is such a comfort read for me.
I’ll be moving there by myself. He might come visit once or twice, but yeah, he’s staying in Indiana with his job and Kitty. It’s over 6 hours away.
That will be a change for you! I hope that’s not too hard to be apart. Maybe you’ll get lots of horror movies watched?
Here’s a bookstore just down the block from my Airbnb, and they have a horror book club, so I’ll definitely be doing that. Otherwise, I’m hoping to get lots of hours for my internship. I’d like to have opportunities to both observe and actually interpret.
I guess it helps when you’re there for a specific reason and time. A well-placed horror book club sounds perfect for you though!