Quarter 4 Book Haul: Oct-Dec

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome to the final book haul of 2024!

I told you that a book buying ban wasn't going to work for the final quarter of the year, and look at that I was right. This is largely due to my birthday being in October, and of course Christmas. Books and the means to buy books are pretty much the only things I ever ask for, present wise, so I knew that I would be ending the year with another veritable stack of hauled books. I went a little wild in December especially, since I have plans for 2025 and I wanted to get whatever I really wanted before the year ended.

I am also sending off 2024 with some books of my own! Most of them I read this year, but they just didn't make the cut to live on my shelves. When I look at my bookshelves, I want to see a curated collection that fits me, you know? And these books did not. So you'll see the unhaul at the end, as always.

Let's just get into it.

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October

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver

In A Thousand Mornings, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her treasured dog Percy, Oliver is open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments and explores with startling clarity, humor, and kindness the mysteries of our daily experience.

I've been systematically buying everything Mary Oliver ever wrote in the past couple years, and I think I now have her entire bibliography. I know that most of her poems are in the collection Devotions, which I read earlier in the year, but I figured some were left on the wayside and so I wanted each individual collection as well.

Felicity by Mary Oliver

Our most delicate chronicler of physical landscape, Oliver has described her work as loving the world. With Felicity she examines what it means to love another person. She opens our eyes again to the territory within our own hearts to the wild and to the quiet. In these poems, she describes — with joy — the strangeness and wonder of human connection.

Again, I just wanted all of Mary Oliver's works. For some reason I always associate this collection with horses, but I don't think it has anything to do with horses...someone please tell me why I have this association in my brain because I can't make sense of it.

Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
Read in December 2024

Upstream, a collection of essays in which revered poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of the natural world and the world of literature. Emphasizing the significance of her childhood "friend" Walt Whitman, who inspired her to vanish into the world of her own writing, Oliver meditates on the forces that allowed her to create a life for herself out of work and love. Throughout this collection, Oliver positions not just herself upstream but us as well—as she encourages us all to keep moving, to lose ourselves in the awe of the unknown, and to give power and time to the creative and whimsical urges that live within us.

I thought this was fine. There were a few essays that I really connected with and enjoyed, but most of them were just neutral to me. I appreciated her connection with nature but I liked her essays on literature and writers more. However since I adore her poetry, it's nice to have all of her works in my collection.

The 47 Ronin Story by John Allyn

The 47 Ronin Story is the classic Japanese story of Lord Asano of Ako and one of the bloodiest vendettas in Japan's feudal history. In a shocking clash between the warriors and the merchant class of seventeenth century Japan, there emerged the most unlikely set of heroes--the forty-seven ronin, or ex-samurai, of Ako.

I saw this at my local used bookstore and it really just jumped out at me. This is a rather blind buy because I don't know anything about it. I just know that I enjoy Japanese history and literature. I know that ronin are mentioned in The Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa, which is a series I read years ago and really enjoyed, and I was so fascinated by that character's storyline, so I'm intrigued by this book.

Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto vet­erinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

I first learned about this book through the Read Around the World challenge, since this author is from Trinidad and Tobago. When I read the synopsis and learned it had Greek gods in it, I was sold. Do I know anything else about it? No, not really. But I found it at Bookmans for a great price and couldn't pass it up.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

Koushun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan—where it became a runaway best seller—Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world.

I've heard this was the inspiration for Squid Game, which was freaky but ultimately enjoyable (I don't know what season two is going to be like but I'll definitely be watching it). It also seems reminiscent of The Hunger Games, or rather the other way around since this came out in the 90s. I'm excited to read this, and then I'll for sure be loaning it out to Angela since this seems like a book she'll also like.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire
Read in January 2024

Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. When her fellow students realize that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, she's forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise. Along the way, temptations are dangled, decisions are reinforced, and a departure to a world populated by dinosaurs brings untold dangers and one or two other surprises!

This is the ninth book in the Wayward Children series, so it's going to be rather impossible to talk about the plot, really. I have every book in this series and I was just waiting to buy a copy of this one until I found it used, because I'm sorry, but I just refuse to pay 30 dollars for a 150 page novella. It's physically painful for me.

An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson
Read in March 2024

Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.

This seems to be a rather unpopular opinion, but I actually really liked this book! Granted I hadn't yet read Carmilla, which is what this book is inspired by, so maybe my opinion wasn't fully formed, but when I read it I gave it 4.5 stars. I even have a whole review of it and everything. I liked A Dowry of Blood, but I wasn't completely obsessed with it, so maybe that's why I didn't feel disappointed in this book? The most common critique I see for An Education of Malice is that it lacks S.T. Gibson's lyrical writing, but I didn't care about that very much. I don't know. I just know I liked this.

Evocation by S.T. Gibson
Read in June 2024

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society. But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door. Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

If I liked An Education in Malice, I loved this book. I listened to the audiobook, and I was actually squealing, giggling, kicking-my-feet in love. I also read the prequel to this book, Odd Spirits, this month and I thought it was okay. I know that the novella is where this world started in S.T. Gibson's head, and she built Evocation onto Odd Spirits, and that makes sense to me. But this book will without a doubt be making an appearance in my "Favorite books of 2024" list, so that should give you an idea of how much I loved this.

The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss

In The Trojan War historian and classicist Barry Strauss explores the myth and the reality behind the war, from Homer's accounts in The Iliad and The Odyssey to Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of ancient Troy in the late nineteenth century to more recent excavations that have yielded intriguing clues to the story behind the fabled city. The Trojans, it turns out, were not ethnic Greeks but an Anatolian people closely allied with the Hittite Empire to the east. At the time of the Trojan War the Greeks were great seafarers while Troy was a more settled civilization. And while the cause of the war may well have been the kidnapping of a queen—and, more significantly, the seizure of her royal dowry—the underlying cause was a conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks for control of the eastern Aegean Sea.

This is just another nonfiction in my special interest, classical history/mythology/literature. I'm especially excited for this book because it's going to take a look at reality of the city of Troy and how that reality influenced the myth of the Trojan War. 

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Lastly for October is my birthday present from Angela, whom I've mentioned many times in the past. She is my sorority twin (we have the same Big Sister, Jenna) and my best friend. For my birthday she asked me what the most expensive book on my wish list was, which of course was this gorgeous illustrated edition of The Silmarillion, and she got it for me! I'm so beyond thankful. Now I have the entire Tolkien illustrated collection! I talked about this in my birthday reading update, if you want more information.

November

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Read in June 2024

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyeilding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lards and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no man-made metal; a tribe wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win the deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I caved. I talked about this in my review of this book, but I avoided this series for years because I didn't want to get sucked into an unfinished series with the end nowhere in sight. But I caved and well, here I am. I can't help feel sorry for the people who've been reading this series since the 90s and have been waiting for over a decade for the next book. It's even worse because I can't deny that this book is good. Martin knows how to write, damn it. And so I join the masses, waiting for Winds of Winter, which will never come.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Here is the second volume in George R.R. Martin magnificent cycle of novels that make up the series A Song of Ice and Fire. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R.R. Martin stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Since my experience with book one was such a success, I figured why not get the rest of the books, you know what I mean? I'm specifically looking for the big, floppy paperback editions, so it'll be a "collect as I go" type of scenario with this series. I'll probably end up reading the rest of the series (that's out, anyway) next year.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage, alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons left in the world. And as opposing forces maneuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mystical Others - a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords....

There isn't much to say here. It's book three in the Song of Ice and Fire series.

Letters From a Stoic by Seneca
Read in November 2024

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full. Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.

I wasn't expecting much going into this, purely because I've read plenty of ancient philosophy works and they're usually pretty dry and boring. So tell me why this has become a new favorite of mine? I found Seneca so funny and relatable, and I'm not going to lie, there were a good number of letters in here that made me tear up. I want every person in my life to read this book, specifically my own copy with my annotations, so they can understand what I'm feeling.

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
Read in February 2024

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.

It's a rare event of late when a YA book becomes a favorite of mine, but it's happened with As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow. I was very emotional while reading this, my mother can confirm. I was sitting in the den, silently sobbing through the last third of this novel. I loved the Studio Ghibli vibes and references, even if they were a little (okay, a lot) heavy handed. And of course, this helped me learn about something I knew nothing about before reading. That's one of the reasons I love reading books from other countries, because it pulls me into the world of characters that lived lives so different from mine.

The Essential Haiku edited by Robert Hass

American readers have been fascinated, since their exposure to Japanese culture late in the nineteenth century, with the brief Japanese poem called the hokku or haiku. The seventeen-syllable form is rooted in a Japanese tradition of close observation of nature, of making poetry from subtle suggestion. Infused by its great practitioners with the spirit of Zen Buddhism, the haiku has served as an example of the power of direct observation to the first generation of American modernist poets like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and also as an example of spontaneity and Zen alertness to the new poets of the 1950s.

I was obsessed with haiku poetry in elementary school (mainly due to that episode in Avatar: the Last Airbender) and when I saw this I was immediately transported to that time in my childhood. I'm sure the haiku in this collection are leagues better than what I managed to come up with when I was eight, so I'm very excited to read this.

God of Nothingness by Mark Wunderlich

A magnificent book of hope and resolve written out of profound losses, by award-winning poet Mark Wunderlich. Mark Wunderlich was born in Winona, Minnesota and grew up in rural Fountain City, Wisconsin. He attended Concordia College’s Institut für Deutsche Studien, and later the University of Wisconsin from which he received a BA in German Literature and English. Wunderlich earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University’s School of the Arts Writing Division where he studied with J.D. McClatchy, William Matthews and Lucie Brock-Broido, among others.

This poetry collection stood out to me because the author is from Minnesota and so is my father, so I have a special connection to the state. It's honestly one of the prettiest states in the country, with all of the lakes and woods. If this collection captures even a fraction of the beauty that is Minnesota, I am sure I'm going to love it.

Letters in a Bruised Cosmos by Liz Howard

The danger and necessity of living with each other is at the core of Liz Howard's daring and intimate second collection. Letters in a Bruised Cosmos asks who do we become after the worst has happened? Invoking the knowledge histories of Western and Indigenous astrophysical science, Howard takes us on a breakneck river course of radiant and perilous survival in which we are invited to "reforge [ourselves] inside tomorrow's humidex". Everyday observation, family history, and personal tragedy are sublimated here in a propulsive verse that is relentlessly its own. Part autobiography, part philosophical puzzlement, part love song, Letters in a Bruised Cosmos is a book that once read will not soon be forgotten.

More poetry! I love space poetry in particular, even more than nature poetry. Space and astronomy are one of my special interest topics and I love watching documentaries and reading nonfiction about it, so I'm excited to read this collection. It's giving me Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith vibes, so we'll see when I read it!

She Followed the Moon Back to Herself by Amanda Lovelace
Read in November 2024

The tenth poetry collection from Amanda Lovelace deviates from the well-worn path of fairy tales & myths, instead bringing readers face to face with the person behind the poems that have made her beloved. From bestselling poetess Amanda Lovelace comes she followed the moon back to herself, an autobiographical standalone poetry collection that follows a woman who—through heartbreak, bottles of rosé, & the general messiness of life—felt like she completely lost who she was. Each bitesize poem shines a light on where she’s been & how she’s managed to overcome it all, offering a dose of hope & moondust to all who join her on the journey back to herself.

I think I read this at the exact right time in my life. I've always loved Amanda Lovelace's poetry but this one just hit deeper than her previous works, I think maybe because it returned to nonfiction after her fictional collections. This collection was clearly very personal to them, and because of that it ended up being very personal for me, as well. Amanda is, without a doubt, my favorite modern poet.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again. Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them. And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.

My first Octavia E. Butler was The Parable of the Sower, which absolutely blew my mind. If any of her books have been on my radar more than the Parable duology, it's Kindred. I've seen so many people read and love this book. It has a time travel element to it, which isn't my favorite trope, but I'm ultimately optimistic that this will be another winner for me.

December

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Read in July 2020

A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

I've been waiting to find this book (or any in this series) at my local used bookstores because again, they are so expensive at full price. This series also wasn't a top priority for me, simply because I always read them from the library and I knew that I wasn't ever going to have a problem getting my hands on a copy. But I knew that eventually I would want to own this series, and now I've started my journey of collecting them all!

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Read in November 2023

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right? Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit. But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue? And what will become of it when it’s caught?

This is an easy one to talk about, since this year I've really focused on trying to find the Murderbot Diaries so I can read the rest of the series. Unfortunately, my library almost never has these books available to check out. This is book four, which is the last book of this series that I've read. It wasn't my favorite in the series, in fact I took a bit of a break from Murderbot after reading because I was finding myself struggling to enjoy the humor. But now that I took a year off, I think it might be time to pick up book five, whenever I can get my hands on it, that is.

The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff

It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's niece started to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before panic had infected the entire colony, nineteen men and women had been hanged, and a band of adolescent girls had brought Massachusetts to its knees. Vividly capturing the dark, unsettled atmosphere of seventeenth-century America, Stacy Schiff's magisterial history draws us into this anxious time. She shows us how quickly the epidemic of accusations, trials, and executions span out of control. Above all, Schiff's astonishing research reveals details and complexity that few other historians have seen.

I read another one of Stacy Schiff's nonfiction, Cleopatra: A Life, last year and I really enjoyed her writing style. She has also written a biography on Samuel Adams, though I don't think I'll be picking that one up. Revolutionary-era isn't my cup of tea. However, I do have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the witch trials. Anywhere in the world, really, but I know the most about the Salem trials since they are arguably the most famous. I'm looking forward to reading this and learning something new, hopefully.

New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

When Rainer Maria Rilke arrived in Paris for the first time in September 1902, commissioned by a German publisher to write a monograph on Rodin, he was twenty-seven and already the author of nine books of poems. His early work had been accomplished, but belonged tonally to the impressionistic, feeling-centered world of a late-nineteenth-century aesthetic. Paris was to change everything. Rilke's interest in Rodin deepened and his enthusiasm for the sculptor's "art of living surfaces" set the course for his own pursuit of an objective ideal. What was "new" about Rilke's New Poems, published in two independent volumes in 1907 and 1908, is a compression of statement and a movement away from "expression" and toward "making realities."

This is entirely Emma's fault, I want it to be known. She's the one who turned me onto Rilke's poetry, and now I'm reading everything by him. This is my latest Rilke acquisition, which makes it the fourth collection I own. I have a long way to go to read his entire bibliography, but I'm enjoying my pace.

Like: Poems by A.E. Stallings
Read in December 2024

Like, that currency of social media, is a little word with infinite potential; it can be nearly any part of speech. Without it, there is no simile, that engine of the lyric poem, the lyre's note in the epic. A poem can hardly exist otherwise. In this new collection, her most ambitious to date, A. E. Stallings continues her archeology of the domestic, her odyssey through myth and motherhood in received and invented forms, from sonnets to syllabics. Stallings also eschews the poetry volume's conventional sections for the arbitrary order of the alphabet. Contemporary Athens itself, a place never dull during the economic and migration crises of recent years, shakes off the dust of history and emerges as a vibrant character.

More poetry, of course. Based on the description, can you guess why I picked this one up? Yep, it's because it mentions Greek mythology. I really am so predictable aren't I? I will definitely be reading her other work because it seems like everything she's done has to do with Greece in some way...I mean, she lives in Athens, so I would assume so.

All Souls: Poems by Saskia Hamilton

In All Souls, Saskia Hamilton transforms compassion, fear, expectation, and memory into art of the highest order. Judgment is suspended as the poems and lyric fragments make an inventory of truths that carry us through night’s reckoning with mortal hope into daylight. But even daylight―with its escapements and unbreakable numbers, “restless, / irregular light and shadow, awakened”―can’t appease the crisis of survival at the heart of this collection. Marked with a new openness and freedom―a new way of saying that is itself a study of what can and can’t be said―the poems give way to Hamilton’s mind, and her unerring descriptions of everyday “the asphalt velvety in the rain.” The central suite of poems vibrates with a ghostly radioactive attentiveness, with care unbounded by time or space. Its impossible charge is to acknowledge and ease suffering with a gaze that both widens and narrows its aperture. Lightly told, told without sentimentality, the story is devastating. A mother prepares to take leave of a young son. Impossible departure. “A disturbance within the order of moments.” One that can’t be stopped, though in these poems language does arrest and in some essential ways fix time.

Another poetry collection! I honestly love just browsing a store and picking up whatever poetry jumps out at me. Poetry is probably the one thing I buy indiscriminately, and it's also the one type of book that I have a serious amount of forgiveness for. If I buy a poetry collection and end up disliking it, I don't get frustrated in the same way if I did that with a novel. Poetry never feels like a waste of time for me. 

Ice by Anna Kavan
Read in December 2024

In a frozen, apocalyptic landscape, destruction abounds: great walls of ice overrun the world and secretive governments vie for control. Against this surreal, yet eerily familiar broken world, an unnamed narrator embarks on a hallucinatory quest for a strange and elusive “glass-girl” with silver hair. He crosses icy seas and frozen plains, searching ruined towns and ransacked rooms, all to free her from the grips of a tyrant known only as the warden and save her before the ice closes all around. A novel unlike any other, Ice is at once a dystopian adventure shattering the conventions of science fiction, a prescient warning of climate change and totalitarianism, a feminist exploration of violence and trauma, a Kafkaesque literary dreamscape, and a brilliant allegory for its author’s struggles with addiction—all crystallized in prose as glittering as the piling snow.

This was so weird. In a good way, I guess, but also just in a weird way. It was so stream of consciousness, and you never knew if you were in a memory, a dream, or reality. The narrator was pretty insufferable but so fascinating from a character study point of view.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cabas by Machado de Assis

The mixed-race grandson of ex-slaves, Machado de Assis is not only Brazil's most celebrated writer but also a writer of world stature, who has been championed by the likes of Philip Roth, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie. In his masterpiece, the 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (translated also as Epitaph of a Small Winner), the ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and halfhearted political ambitions, serves up harebrained philosophies, and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty, and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to the work of everyone from Cervantes to Sterne to Joyce to Nabokov to Borges to Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world.

I've had Machado de Assis on my author TBR list for a while at this point, this just happens to the first book of his that I've gotten my hands on. I remember Merphy Napier reading this (I'm not sure if it was this year or last year) and her descriptions sounded hilarious. I don't usually like absurdist literature, but I'm willing to take a chance here.

Death's End by Cixin Liu
Read in December 2023

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

The third book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy. I read this series last year and had my mind blown, and since then I've been trying to find these books at a used bookstore. Since the Netflix adaptation was released this year, it became nearly impossible to find secondhand copies of this book. I managed with book two, The Dark Forest, back in June, but it took until a year after I read this book to find a copy! Well, at least now I finally have the entire series on my shelves, and I am content with that.

The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
Read in October 2024

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive. When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick. But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

This is exactly what I was expecting from Erin A. Craig. She is the queen of YA horror Grimm retellings. She knows how to write a lush fantasy world with the darker, horror-leaning undertones and I love her for it. Since I wrote an entire review for this book, I won't harp on and on here. I'll just say that I will keep reading her books as long as she keeps writing them.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray—he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants—Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

This is another case similar to The Count of Monte Cristo (and I hope I have the same success with this book as I did with that one) where I was avoiding it for so long because of the length. I had no idea that this is largely satirical, which apparently is something I like in fiction, who knew? I love the fact that Don Quixote has read so many books that his brain basically melted, I can definitely relate to that.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

In this powerful, labyrinthian thriller, David Martín is a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat. Holed up in a haunting abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, he furiously taps out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated. Thus, when he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes that there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own. Once again, Ruiz Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.

This is the sequel to The Shadow of the Wind, which I read back in 2018 (I think) and I really really loved. It was actually my mom that inspired me to get the rest of the series, because I want her to read The Shadow of the Wind so badly and she said that she was interested in the read of the books in the series as well. That's all the push I needed.

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife, Bea, have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julián, and their close friend Fermín Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city’s dark past. His appearance plunges Fermín and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco’s dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love, and will ultimately transform their lives.

Book three in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. This is the shortest book in the series, but it also comes back to Daniel and Bea, which I'm excited about.

The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents. As Alicia and Vargas come closer to finding Valls, they uncover a tangled web of kidnappings and murders tied to the Franco regime, whose corruption is more widespread and horrifying than anyone imagined. Alicia’s courageous and uncompromising search for the truth puts her life in peril. Only with the help of a circle of devoted friends will she emerge from the dark labyrinths of Barcelona and its history into the light of the future.

Book four in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. This is by far the largest book in the series, which I am very intrigued by.

The Tablet of Destinies by Roberto Calasso

A long time ago, the gods grew tired of humans, who were making too much noise and disturbing their sleep, and they decided to send a Flood to destroy them. But Ea, the god of fresh underground water, didn’t agree and advised one of his favorite mortals, Utnapishtim, to build a quadrangular boat to house humans and animals. So Utnapishtim saved living creatures from the Flood. Rather than punish Utnapishtim, Enlil, king of the gods, granted him eternal life and banished him to the island of Dilmun. Thousands of years later, Sindbad the Sailor is shipwrecked on that very same island, and the two begin a conversation about courage, loss, salvation, and sacrifice.

Anyone who has been here a while knows that I have a weakness for mythology, no matter the origin. This seems to be Mesopotamian in nature, which is exciting because I haven't read much from that region aside from Gilgamesh. The fact that this is translated is just the cherry on top, since I'm really trying to expand my translated TBR.

Cain by Jose Saramago

Condemned to wander forever after he kills his brother Abel, Cain makes his way through the world in the company of a personable donkey. He is a witness to and participant in the stories of Isaac and Abraham, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Moses and the golden calf, the trials of Job. The rapacious Queen Lilith takes him as her lover. An old man with two sheep on a rope crosses his path. And again and again, Cain encounters a God whose actions seem callous, cruel, and unjust. He confronts Him, he argues with Him. “And one thing we know for certain,” Saramago writes, “is that they continued to argue and are arguing still.”

This might ruffle some feathers, but I firmly believe biblical stories fall into the mythological camp. After all, Christianity is just another religion, the same as Greek paganism or Islam or anything else. That being said, I haven't read many biblical retellings that haven't made me want to either roll my eyes or tear my hair out, so I'm hoping this one will give me the same feeling as The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd did (that's my current standard of biblical retellings). I haven't read anything by Jose Saramago, but I know of a lot of his works.

Unhaul

Everyone Knows That Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

Life: Selected Quotes by Paulo Coelho

Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

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And that's it for my 2024 books hauled! As you'll see in my goals for 2025 coming soon, I'm approaching book buying very differently for next year. More on that later.

Until next time!