First up in October was a tremendous memoir, Krys Malcolm Belc’s The Natural Mother of the Child. What a gift this book is. Belc, a trans man, gestated and birthed a child with his partner. This book, like Maggie Nelson’s Argonauts, challenges binary assumptions and simplistic family narratives at every turn. Belc is a terrific writer and balances humor, sadness, anger, and joy.
For poetry, I read The Saint of Everything by Deborah Keenan, which managed to be both luminous and earthy somehow, and fabulous throughout.
Divorcing by Susan Taubes was another book with #NYRBWomen24. I liked it in bits and pieces, especially one chapter near the end.
I listened to Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, narrated by Ian Carmichael. Devoured the poetry in Super Sad Black Girl by Diamond Sharp. For Halloween, my spouse and I watched They Live! by John Carpenter, and then I read a little book on it by Jonathan Lethem.
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson is the latest, and she says the last, Jackson Brodie novel. It’s an homage to Agatha Christie, and it ticks along at a good pace, with the usual panoply of complex characters with tragic backstories. But Jackson’s charm has worn a little thin, and even the presence of my beloved Reggie couldn’t make me love this one as well as earlier entries in this great series. Still, it was a fast, fun read with enough sadness to give the kind of depth and characterization than Christie’s mysteries lacked.
For spooky season, I read Ghosts by Edith Wharton with #NYRB2024. Like any collection, I liked some better than others, but because they were by Wharton, they were all exquisitely written. She was deft at balancing the real and uncanny in these short stories. For those who like ghost stories at Christmas, this would be a good December read.
And my bookseller book group finished the month with Giovanni’s Room, a difficult, beautiful, necessary book. We had a great discussion, and I was so glad for the opportunity to read this again, and to discuss it with thinking, feeling readers. I read it previously with #APSTogether, and my one of my favorite memories was Carl Phillips commenting that the room of the title was haunted by heterosexual wallpaper.
What did you read and enjoy this fall? I know the world continues to go to pieces around us, but has reading given you any solace?
K.J. Boldon 