I was going to start this saying that my reading has been split between research and pleasure lately, but it’s not quite right. There’s no separation between the two.

Recent nonfiction books I’ve finished: South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion, We Are What We Eat by Alice Waters, and Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm.

I had an odd thought to read all Jane Austen’s novels before the end of the year. So far I’ve finished Lady Susan, Emma, and Northanger Abbey. I’m listening to them on audio while I clean the kitchen, drive to errands, and distract myself from intrusive thoughts. Northanger Abbey was so much fun to read after reading The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, the novel that Austen’s heroine is obsessed with and mentions frequently. I read Udolpho after reading Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney last year, which gave a lot of context about Austen’s influences and the, already active, world of English women novelists. Left to read are: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and my favorite, Persuasion.

I’m also reading an early copy of Diego Gerard Morrison’s Upflow (out from Split/Lip on Oct 27) for a review. Diego’s work is a favorite of mine, both Pages of Mourning and Myth of Pterygium are wild, moving, and compact stories. When I interviewed him I remember he mentioned he was working on fiction about the water system in Mexico City, “the costliest and most absurd on the planet.” I’m excited!

Other current reads that are stashed around the house and I’m moving through slowly: All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh, Triage by Claudia Rankine, Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg, and Perfection Salad by Laura Shapiro (a re-read for Alicia Kennedy’s upcoming book club.)

Tell me what you’re reading / watching / listening to — I really want to watch A Poet and Clarissa.

xo Devin

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