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nothing much redeems November
from the fierce chill and deepening gloom
the expanding dark on both sides of the day
keeps us lingering in our room
where we can light
candles that dance with the shadows
and read books that brighten
our horizon

Love your poems Magdelane: thank you for sharing them--it's a lovely way to start the month!

I love November: of course, I'm prejudice because it's my birthday month! :D

I'm making progress on Birnam Wood and A Death in Tokyo and enjoying them both. I'm excited because Tom Lake just came in to the library and is waiting for me.

I'm also feeling frustrated by how many books I want to read--right now! and, of course, can't. So I'll list a few because even saying the titles feels good:
The Golden Bowl, Henry James
The Wings of the Dove,Henry James
2666, Roberto Bolaño (started a long time ago & liked: I want to finish it)
The Savage Detectives, Roberto Bolaño
Babel, R.F. Kuang
The Devotion of Suspect X, Keigo Higashino
Abraham Verghese..The Covenant of Water
The Fraud, Zadie Smith
The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity, Cynthia Bourgeault

And these are just on my current TBR (asap), not all the others that are calling to me!

And so many others: t

I know, it's crazy. I find I can go quite a while being disciplined about my tbr, and oops suddenly I Crack and throw caution to the wind, like recently when I even cheated by bypassing my GR tbr and going directly to a library hold when it was possible: like with the booker and giller titles. And congratulations on getting the new patchett, I'm sure the list of holds is long. I think I was able to put a hold on it...sometimes it's necessary to wait a bit for new titles.

Surprisingly terrific was Death of Vishnu. I have read another book since, by Debra Levy who I am quickly reading everything she has available; and enjoyed it immensely but I am still missing Vishnu when I wake up in the morning.

Now I have started a posthumous unfinished novel by Francoise Sagan who was an early love of mine. Plus I have ventured in to Myisha Cherry's Failures of Forgiveness.
Thought provoking for sure.

Only one more poem left in
a place called no homeland. I have a big crush on Kai Cheng Thom.
Thanks for your kind words Ellie on the November poem, written on the fly.

Is it too early to wish you happy birthday? Any exotic plans?

Petra hope things are going OK with renos and with step-dad. You are usually quick to respond to the month change.

Ice it was nice to hear from you recently. There seem to be a few details we are missing
Back to Ellies list....should have looked up the few titles I don't recognize BEFORE writing this. Some overlap with mine :>)

Magdelanye, I discovered Deborah Levy a few months ago and have been eagerly working my way down her list. I especially loved her "living autobiographies" (Things I Don't Want to Know, The Cost of Living, and Real Estate)-- those were the kind of books I read and think, "If I could write, this is what I would sound like!" and it would be at my best.

Also, Magdelanye, no plans for my birthday. Katie will be in San Francisco for a conference so it will be David and Antonella (his fiancee) and me. We're all broke so it will be very low-key!

Magdelanye, I like the poem. November is the beginning of a dark time where we can hunker down and read the books to brighten our horizons. I like that line.
Just this morning when I woke and opened my eyes, I thought how dark it was for waking time.

I haven't been reading much.
I had to return The Gene: An Intimate History to the library and am waiting to get it back.
Meanwhile I'm listening to Shift on my jogs. It's a very good continuation of the Silo/Wool story. I'm enjoying it a lot.

I've started the third book of the Aubrey trilogy by Rebecca West, Cousin Rosamund and am enjoying it. I like Rebecca West's writing style. It's warm, intimate, interesting. It's like listening to a friend tell a story.
I think Rebecca is making some point that I may be missing. Some of the choices being made in this book are out of character and not understandable at this point. Perhaps she'll tell us the point at some point. Regardless, I'm enjoying this family's journey through this section of time.

Hi all.

Birthday plans are in place for tomorrow: David and Antonella (my son and his fiancé are taking me down to the Village to see "Orlando, My Political Biography" which is based on Virginia Woolf's novel and uses non-binary and trans actors to enact the title role. Supposed to be good. My birthday is the one time a year they have to see a movie I choose!

I just finished Ann Patchett's Tom Lake which I enjoyed--straightforward narrative, nothing challenging but very sweet. The play "Our Town" is very important in the book and I got a chance to see the film which is streaming on TCM. I enjoyed the film except that they changed the ending which was disconcerting.

I'm currently reading The Transit of Venus (Shirley Hazzard). I'm just at the beginning so I have nothing to say but I've started it several times over the past 20 years and kept getting distracted before making enough progress to know whether or not I liked it. The opening 20 pages are fine. It has such a reputation as a "great" book that I'd like to read it, or at least enough so that I'm can decide if I want to finish it.

Also, I just took out Jessmyn Ward's new book, Let Us Descend. I've loved the other books of hers that I've read, especially Salvage the Bones but also Men We Reaped and collection of essays she edited, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, which includes work by some of my favorite writers. So I'm psyched.

And I'm reading (or re-reading but my original reads were about 55 years ago!) a lot of Ngaio Marsh.

Hope you are both well.

Considering the time difference, this may get to you just in time to wish you a marvelous birthday celebration. Sounds like it will be a brilliant performance.

I have Tom Lake on hold and hope it doesnt come too soon because I got a clump of Giller titles all at once- two weeks each for 6 books, joining the list of books due on the 17. Overdue now obviously. I am barely halfway through The Fragile Threads of Power V.E. Schwab which is just what I needed right now. I need a few extra weeks here!
This book is set in the same world as her previous series and though it was a while back that I read it, I am feeling at home with the kind of fantasy I can get lost in.

Ice I remember recommending the series to you - did you ever get to it?

At another extreme I am trudging through Italy with Jane Christmas and her mother in Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy It's one of those books where you feel terrible for laughing, but gee.

Making slow headway into Beth Kempton's
Freedom Seeker: Live More. Worry Less. Do What You Love.

Then there is Karyna McGlynn. I am sorry to say I am not as entranced with her as you seemed to be Ellie. I am not sure if you saw my rather ambivalent review of Hothouse
I am enjoying 50 Things Kate Bush Taught Me about the Multiverse quite a bit more and its been fun revisiting Kate who I adored and know the music in my bones BUT I find the connection with KMcG rather dubious.

and YES to Jessmyn Ward....was knocked over by both the books of hers that I read

Peace

Hope that the silence here means everyone is busy with projects and not I'll or preoccupied with someone who is ill. Some people get depressed this time of year. Some perk up. My reading currently is not very perky.
Ellie I really would love to discuss Sheila Heti. I am so ambivalent. She can be so insightful and so repulsive.

Just finished An Easy Life, Duras's second novel. Her writing is so evocative but morose. Now reading This Other Eden and that takes morose to a whole other level.
Curiously The Case for Rage, which I also just started, while certainly not conventionally uplifting, is the one with some potential to hope

I have been occupied by a new kitchen installation. It's an "experience" to have the kitchen replaced. We are currently in the quiet period of waiting for our countertops. They should be here on Wednesday. After that, we think the kitchen will be finished soon and we can get back to a normal routine.

congratulations are in order for sure Petra. You must be so thrilled to have it done. May it be the scene of much pleasure

It's not finished yet, Magdelanye. We're waiting for the countertops to arrive. Afterwards, the work can be finished quickly (I hope).

I hope that you have a few of your dinners left!