The Vaster Wilds is Lauren Groff’s latest novel. It is a beautifully written but bleak story about a girl trying to survive on her own in the wilderness. Compared to Groff’s other novels, The Vaster Wilds is a despairing read.
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For those of you who have never heard of Anne Lister, she was a woman who lived in the early 19th century and who is known today as a very famous lesbian. She kept diaries written in code, and when the diaries were decrypted after her death, they revealed graphic details of her many lesbian relationships. I first learned of Anne Lister when I watched the BBC series Gentleman Jack, which focused on her relationship with Ann Walker, whom she “married” and was her partner until her death in 1840. Gentleman Jack is a fantastic series, and Anne Lister is a fascinating historical figure in how she openly lived an unconventional life for a woman of her time. She is what drew me to read Emma Donoghue’s latest novel, Learned by Heart, which is a fictional account of one of Anne Lister’s earliest relationships as a teenager with a girl she went to school with named Eliza Raine.
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The Dictionary of Lost Words was recommended to me by both of my husband’s parents. I was also looking to read a book by an Australian author (besides Kate Morton) while we were visiting them in Australia. The Dictionary of Lost Words is about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the first edition of which took 71 years (!) to complete, and the gender politics of the time it was being edited and published. It is a very fascinating subject, and The Dictionary of Lost Words is great for fans of historical fiction.
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I can understand why the African American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered an important work of 20th century American literature. First published in 1937, it is a novel written by a Black female writer and it tells the story of a Black female protagonist, Janie, from her own perspective, at a time when stories were seldom told from the female perspective, and if they were, it was from a (white) man’s idea of the female perspective. Their Eyes Were Watching God is also mostly told in the Black vernacular, which makes Janie’s story more authentic, but also makes it a more challenging read. I am usually a speed reader, but I had to force myself to slow down while reading this novel so that I did not miss anything.
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Gods of Jade and Shadow is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s second novel following her debut novel, Signal to Noise, and itself followed by Mexican Gothic, Velvet was the Night and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. I find that I prefer Moreno-Garcia’s earlier works more than her more recent novels, because I enjoyed Gods of Jade and Shadow, a fairy tale based on Mayan folklore, as much as I enjoyed Signal to Noise.
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Michael Christie’s Greenwood made CBC’s Canada Reads 2023 shortlist, which I thought was interesting as it was published in 2019. It is exciting when a great book comes unexpectedly out of nowhere. I don’t think I would have ever come across this novel if it had not made this year’s Canada Reads, and I am so glad it did, even though it did not win the top prize. Greenwood is a compelling story about humankind’s relationships with other humans, and humankind’s relationships with trees. It is a novel about the terrifying future of climate change, but it is also a novel about hope and faith in human resilience.
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The first Kate Morton novel I ever read was The Forgotten Garden, about fifteen years ago now, and I absolutely loved it, which is why I have read every Kate Morton novel since. All of Kate Morton’s novels feature a central mystery told through a dual timeline where a protagonist from the present works to unravel the secrets of the past. The kind of novels that are like catnip to me. My love for Kate Morton’s novels has waned over the years, though, because I find them too predictable and the coincidences a little too neat. But it has taken me reading Homecoming to realize that I cannot blame Kate Morton for me becoming too clever for my own good. For the casual reader, Homecoming holds plenty of surprises. And even if it is on the predictable side, Homecoming spins a good yarn.
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Jeannette Walls wrote one of my favourite memoirs, The Glass Castle. If you have not read, I suggest you remedy that situation. It is a fascinating story about how she grew up poor with highly dysfunctional parents, and how she and her siblings took care of each other and helped each other to become successful adults. Since The Glass Castle, Walls has turned to writing fiction. Hang the Moon is her latest novel, set in Prohibition era Virginia and featuring a resilient protagonist that reminds me of Walls herself. I enjoyed reading this novel and I recommend it to fans of historical fiction.
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I have come to look forward to the release of a new novel by Kate Atkinson. The first novel of hers that I have read is Life After Life, in which the protagonist, Ursula Todd, is reborn every time she dies, and keeps reliving her life over and over again with differences from her previous lives. It is an intriguing premise and a great novel. I have also read A God in Ruins, which features Ursula’s younger brother, Teddy, and Transcription. Life After Life, A God in Ruins and Transcription, along with Shrines of Gaiety, are all set in the years around and during the two World Wars. Atkinson also writes the contemporary mystery series featuring private investigator Jackson Brodie. I have read the first Jackson Brodie novel, Case Histories, and thought it was a good read about three separate cold cases that are unexpectedly linked, but I prefer Atkinson’s historical fiction, with Shrines of Gaiety being no exception.
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I recently read Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, which I think is a great novel. Hamnet is O’Farrell’s last novel before The Marriage Portrait and was published in 2020 to much acclaim, so I decided I had to read it as well. If you were required to read William Shakespeare’s plays when you were in high school, you may recognize the name Hamnet. Hamnet was Shakespeare’s only son and he died at the young age of eleven. Hamnet is a sad and moving story about how the death of Hamnet affects his family.
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