Mid-Month Reading Update: A World With Literary Octobers

Plus all the links from around the web that I've bookmarked over the past month.

Hi, friends.

It’s the absolute best time to be a resident of Syracuse, NY. The leaves are stunning, the temperatures are mild, the sun shines often, and I’m doing my best to really soak it all up. I went to the semiannual Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library book sale last weekend (the biggest used book sale east of the Mississippi!), and the hour-long drive to Ithaca couldn’t have been more beautiful. The leaves surrounding my beloved back are also changing — and to paraphrase Anne of Green Gables, how lucky are we to live in a world with Octobers?

I’ve only got a little bit of maternity leave left — I go back to work a week from yesterday — so I’m simultaneously trying to get a few final things off my plate (like 10 book reviews and the 50 baby shower thank-you notes I still need to write) and squeeze in a few more books while also taking care of a 3-month-old. I guess it’s good practice for next week? 😅

Anywho, here’s a mid-month check-in.

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What I’ve read so far this month

As I mentioned, full reviews are coming soon! Keep an eye out on Instagram or my blog.

• The Message by Ta-Nahesi Coates† 🎧: I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed spending new time in Coates’ head — he’s such a brilliant thinker and so good at translating it to the page. That said, I think I’d get even more out of it if I reread it in print.

• A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft*† 📖🎧: This was definitely not bad but also, IMO, not great. Could be worth picking up if you’re looking for something fun and standalone and sapphic, though!

• The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer* 📖: There’s some repetition for readers of Braiding Sweetgrass in this slim little book, but I didn’t mind. Every time I reread RWK’s thoughts on reciprocity, I’m glad I did. And I loved the way she eventually applied that thinking to economics and ruminated on our path forward.

• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake† 🎧: I was a little disappointed by this one, tbh. Five stars for content, three for execution, at least on audio. I just could not keep from zoning out — I listened to the intro three times — and I don’t think I retained much, even though the topic is legitimately fascinating. Maybe I’d do better with a print copy, but the truth is I simply prefer my science books on audio, so I probably won’t.

• The Mighty Red by Lousie Erdrich 📖🎧: Woof. Y’all. Erdrich is a Pulitzer winner for a reason — she just writes characters and real life so well. Here, she spends the book building up to a gut-punching reveal that 1000% paid off, at least for me, and took the book from “liked a lot” to “loved.”

I also DNFed a library book: Unrooted: Botany, Motherhood, and the Fight to Save an Old Science by Erin Zimmerman. It was a matchmaking problem, not a book problem; I had wanted something with a little more nature and motherhood, but this one’s mostly about science, gender inequities, and activism.

Currently reading

• Held by Anne Michaels*†: I started this on audio, listened to the first chapter twice, and then decided to switch to print, which is working much better for me. It’s written in very short vignettes that bounce around in time and topic. Those section breaks don’t always come through on audio, so it can be a little challenging (and distracting) to keep up. Plus, the prose is drop-dead gorgeous — the kind you want to savor on the page.

• Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham: I have this one from the library because

  Traci Thomas
  says we simply must read it. I’ve only just started, but the storytelling is already so good.

Still on my October TBR

• Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse (a reread)

• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman†

• Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

• The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden*†

• Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal† (I started this on audio but got frustrated trying to keep up with the zillions of footnotes, so now I’m waiting for my print copy to arrive)

*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher

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I heard you like links?

• You know how there are approximately one million fall reading lists out there (probably more)? I love the way LitHub combs through them all to tell us which books get mentioned the most.

• Speaking of fall lists, The Millions published their quarterly book preview. I always love reading these.

• And speaking of LitHub, I’ve been enjoying their new podcast. They’re kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall, but I think it’s working? And the length is perfect. Anyway, they recently interviewed a handful of owners about the current boom in romance bookstores, which I thought was timely and super interesting.

• 2024 MacArthur Fellows have been announced, and it’s a great list. Some of the literary folks are Jason Reynolds, Ling Ma, Alice Wong, and Jericho Brown.

• V.E. Schwab interviewed Sabaa Tahir on her podcast and has anything ever been more perfectly made for me?

• New Rushdie is coming!!

• I did terribly on this but it was still fun: a quiz from the New York Times on books that were adapted into Broadway flops (gift link).

• And finally, as we close in on Election Day, a little dose of hope from our girl Ursula.

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As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, too.

Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.

See you on Instagram!

— Deedi (she/her)