Intro + October Reads
Dear friends,
Welcome! This is the first entry on my new blog/newsletter.
I’m calling this The Bookcave because if you’ve been to my place, you know I’m running out of physical space to put books. There’s a scraggly tree blocking light coming into the window closest to my books, and cavelike is the right word to describe it. As I write this, fall is sneaking in the way kids steal cookies intended for Santa when they think you aren't watching: with lots of squeaking. It rained here a few weeks ago, and it has drizzled here a couple times since (which is what passes for rain according to overly optimistic weather forecasts). But enough about the weather. I've started this blog/newsletter/Nebulous Internet Thing to talk about books. I haven't decided on an update schedule because I don't know how long these will take to write, but at least monthly is my goal.
I'm also not sure if Substack is the best place for this either, so there might be a move in the near future to another platform. I have a deep fondness for the letter format—it helps me imagine that there will be people reading this other than myself, but this kind of post might be better suited to a run-of-a-mill blog.
Here’s what I read and enjoyed in October:
Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva
This is a collection of short stories about Ukraine immediately before and immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The short stories are interconnected—some characters reappear in different stories. They’re funny in a dark way—the depths the characters will go to survive and how they rationalize it made me laugh when I didn’t expect it. Zaya, the orphan who appears in three of the stories, and Konstantyn the poet are both standouts.
The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth by Michael Spitzer
Moving on to nonfiction reads, I learned a lot from this thick 480-page book. In college, I did pretty much every music history class offered, and there was one class I took on the history of the symphony orchestra and conductors where I had to write about and present on the origins of music in humans. I wish this book was around when I did. Spitzer has taken lots of research on music, history, and society and put it in one nice place. One thing I found particularly interesting was how he talks about how modern Western music is so different from most other musical cultures—how Western culture is unique in that music is seen as a skill only certain people can have instead of musical ability being an innate trait. Anyone with an interest in music history or human evolution will enjoy reading this.
Everyone You Hate is Going to Die by Daniel Sloss
When I heard Daniel Sloss had a book coming out, I got very excited. And it's finally here! Everyone You Hate is Going to Die is great, but I recommend it only if you're a Sloss fan already. If you've seen his specials on Netflix and HBO, this book expands on what he talks about in his specials. It is funny. Very, very funny. I bet my neighbors think I've lost it after laughing too hard reading about how Sloss believes all Americans are like sitcom characters. His footnotes are half the fun of the book. If you're intrigued and aren't familiar with him, I'd recommend starting with Jigsaw, the special that caused hundreds of thousands of breakups and had people thanking him for it. Jigsaw's on Netflix with two other of his specials.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
I read this in November and not October, but since most of this post is dedicated to nonfiction, I’ll throw this one in too. I have a secret confession to make: I was a rabid Mary Roach fan in high school. I’ve read most her other books, and they all approach serious science with humor in a down-to-earth way. Fuzz is no different. I was lucky enough to spot it at the local library, and I grabbed the book off the shelf faster than a bear going after food in a trash can—something she devotes a whole chapter about in this book on human-wildlife interactions. I had minimal interest in this topic until I picked this book up and laughed my way through it. Did you know elephants are responsible for deaths every year in India? Or that farmers in the Netherlands hire college kids over the summer to scare away crop-eating birds from their farms? Or that the Vatican uses what amounts to basically a laser light show to repel seagulls for special events? Now you do.
That’s all for October! I’ve been reading more fiction lately, so next month is going to have to more on that front. Happy early Thanksgiving, everyone 😃 Please take care of yourselves during this holiday season—it’s unbelievably the second holiday season during this pandemic. Can you believe it’s been almost two years?
Until next time,
tina