A Cure-ation of Spoiler-free Suggestions for Some Escapism in Self-Isolation :)

Since all of us are stuck at home and some people have asked me for book recommendations, I thought it was a fitting time to post my very overdue book review blogpost! It’s been a hot second (like 4 months, oops) since I’ve last posted so I’m not going to review every single book I’ve read for fun and for my course, but I will be giving some highlights and recommendations. Please feel free to send me recommendations and/or attack my opinions on the books below, I would appreciate some more literary diversion to my life at home.

Before I begin, I thought I would share how I procure my books for cheap (and sustainably?). All of the books in this review I bought secondhand (all were between £2-5 ) or borrowed from the public library. I highly recommend worldofbooks.com, which I perused for both my for-fun and course bibliomaniac needs (although, I haven’t really checked the prices of science and maths textbooks... I’m not sure about those, as I know those can be expensive). They have a wide collection in good condition and cheap prices, and for UK residents shipping is free (and sent in recyclable packaging!). Also- use the voucher code WORLD10 for orders above 15 pounds to get 10% off. I love treating myself at Waterstones occasionally, but usually not unless I can find an alternative copy online or in a secondhand bookshop (check my blogpost for some London bookstore reviews).

EDIT: I realized that worldofbooks is NOT accepting new orders in some EU countries such as Germany because of the Covid-19 outbreak, but the UK shop still seems to be accepting orders.

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Kathleen Ann Schaffer

Historical Fiction, Romance, Books about Books. 5/5. 291 pages

“That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you onto another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive—all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”

Set in post-World War II London/the Channel Island of Guernsey, this novel follows a blossoming young author, Juliet Ashton, through her letters. I was drawn to this book because I have a soft spot for Books about Books- and the unique presentation of the narrative intrigued me. GLPPS did not disappoint! Dawsey Adams, who lives on Guernsey (a channel island under the German occupation during wartime), comes across a book that Juliet had once given away- and writes to her, opening up their correspondence and close relationship. He’s also a founding member of the Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society, a gathering of eccentric individuals who share their favorite literary discoveries. A mouthful of a name for a book club, you say? You have to read the book to find out the backstory (hint: it has something to do with a pig). Books bringing people together is a major theme in this novel, and one that I loved- the idea of someone contacting you because they picked up a book you once owned and enjoyed?? ˙ɔᴉʇuɐɯoɹ os s,ʇI (Does this mean I’m going to start writing my name and contacts on the books I donate from now on? The answer is obviously yes.)

More importantly though, I felt that this was a theme that was particularly fitting for the timing of this blogpost. Like how the curfew-bound islanders of Guernsey came together in a time of war to read and share their favorite novels, I feel like there's so much more sharing of and bonding over art, books, music, and films in this current time of uncertainty. I live for that- and that's what I'm doing right now, I guess.

Juliet's correspondences to her close friend and publisher, Sidney, reveal the pressures of writing under the public eye as well as the struggles with her American sweetheart Mark Reynolds, while the letters to the Guernsey islanders bring each and individual character to life in a way that can’t be accomplished through normal prosaic narrative structure. Every character has their own writing style, which is a highly commendable effort on the part of the author- it must’ve been difficult to develop individual writing voices. However, most of the time the characters are presenting themselves, which leads the reader to question if their self-perception is accurate or reliable. Some details of the characters’ actions in real life, as well as their pasts, are carefully hidden, and one of the joys of this novel is connecting the clues found in the letters.

The omission of this letter style in the movie adaptation was something that disappointed me, but then again it’s very difficult to translate letter-writing on screen. On its own, the movie is absolutely wonderful. Admittedly, I spent a large portion of time marveling in Lily James’ beauty, but the actors and cinematography were superb.

Overall, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was most definitely my favorite book of the year. Highly recommend, I loved every second of it!!

2. 84 Charing Cross Road / Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

Non-Fiction (wow! Me reading about rEaL tHinGs?!), Books about Books. 5/5. 220 pages altogether

“They told her to write an essay in Early Anglo-Saxon on any-subject-of-her-own-choosing. “Which is all very well,” she said bitterly, “but the only essay subject you can find enough Early Anglo-Saxon words for is ‘How to Slaughter a Thousand Men in a Mead Hall’.” - Did Helene Hanff write this, or was it me trying to analyze Beowulf?

I picked up 84 Charing Cross Road because I loved Literary Guernsey and Potato Peel Society, and Helene Hanff’s book is also about... you guessed it, an international correspondence between two bibliophiles post-WWII. Except these are real correspondences that actually happened; Helene Hanff actually published her own letters as a novel! I found the framing of an entire story based upon conversation that actually happened incredibly intriguing. That being said, if people start writing novels in text message form I think I’ll lose it. Don’t get me wrong, the majority of my communication with my friends (especially now) is through messaging, and I appreciate the technology that can keep us in touch, but there’s just something so intimate about reading letters. You know someone went to the trouble of expressing themselves in coherent (and sometimes poetic) words with ink and paper, put a stamp on it, and delivered it.

Helene, who lives in New York, is... well, I’ll let her introduce herself: ‘I'm a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books’, and she "[equates] 'antique' with expensive" (What. A. Tragic. Mood). She writes to the owner of a London bookshop on 84 Charing Cross Road, Frank Doel, requesting an affordable copy of Hazlitt essays (because American books are composed of "dead white paper and the stiff cardboardy covers"). The edition I bought actually had The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street on it- it’s a diary based account of what happens after the letters into 84 Charing Cross Road finished, and it’s just as good- I highly recommend reading them both, Duchess after 84 (this review covers both publications).

If you can’t tell by now, I fell in love with Helene’s niche bookishly-dark humor and ways of expression. Helene was so relatable for me, as someone who is an American-accented foreigner who live(s/d) in London:

“Nobody over [in England] says 'six-thirty' or 'seven-thirty', they say 'hoppussix' and 'hoppusseven'. And 'in' at home is 'trendy' here and 'give it up' is 'pack it in' and 'never mind!' is 'not to worry!' ... and as Shaw once observed, we are two countries divided by a common language. I am now going to bed because it's quataposstwelve.”

‘[In London] The ambulance sirens go BlooOOP, blooOOP, like a walrus weeping under water.”

And my favorite:

“Found three wrong churches, a Goldsmith’s Hall and a lot of interesting alley but no St Mary’s LeBeau’s... They drove down into the old City of London and showed me St. Mary LeBOW’s Church, it now turns out you spell it. Only the English could tack ‘bow’ onto ‘le’. Too dark for me to see where I went wrong.”

Reading her reactions to her experiences in London was entertaining, and it was especially cool because she visited places I frequent (when she mentioned the Charles Dickens Museum I almost dropped my book on the bus in excitement!) Being able to recognize places she was describing made me feel like Helene was a close friend updating me on her day. I actually visited where the bookshop once was, and felt like I was in the set of a movie or something. Speaking of movies- the movie adaption, I haven’t watched it properly, I started it one Sunday evening and fell asleep because I was so tired and I have a reputation for leaving movies and shows half-watched. Will update on comparative analysis shortly.

Overall, this was a close contender to GLPPS for my Novel-est Novel of the Year, and I’ll definitely be checking out more of Helene’s work soon :)

3. The Winternight Trilogy (The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower, The Winter of the Witch) by Katherine Arden

YA, Guilty Pleasures, Fantasy. 3.9/5, about 300-400 pages each

“There are no monsters in the world, and no saints. Only infinite shades woven into the same tapestry, light and dark. One man’s monster is another man’s beloved. The wise know that.”

This is going to be a short and sweet review- I read this YA trilogy to keep myself sane while I arduously learned Old English grammar and read Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto for my course. The Winternight trilogy delivered what I expected- a fun, light read with plenty of fairies, angst-y young protagonists, and the appearance of a mysterious, frosty love interest that I, as someone studying oh-so-pretentious English Literature at university level, should probably have grown out of by now. But alas, here we are.

I found the juxtaposition of pagan and Christian religion in this series interesting. Vasya, the main character, lives in a village in northern Rus’ (Russia) that still clings onto the traditional beliefs of the house spirits (domovoi) and nature spirits (such as the frost-demon Morozko). However, with the arrival of the Christian missionary Konstantin, villagers eventually convert to this new religion, and the pagan spirits start to fade away. As many YA books, this series isn’t a deep exploration of religion and spirituality, but it does prompt those questions in a light and accessible manner (frankly, sometimes a gal's gotta let her brain rest).

Arden also presents the idea of witch-burning and witch-drowning, which actually prompted me to consider the tradition of witch-accusation/persecution when women were ‘abnormal’ or suspected of promiscuity. Combined with a scene in David Copperfield (which I was listening to via audiobook around the same time- review below), this made me actually latch onto the topic of ‘Drownings of Fallen Women’ for one of my tutorial essays on Mill on the Floss... So if this isn’t an excuse to keep spending precious time reading for pleasure during an English degree, I don’t know what is.

Overall, this series delivered what it said on the package- I would recommend this for those looking for some light, fantastical escapism!

4. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Classics, Bildungsroman. 3.7/5. 882 pages.

Haven't watched the movie yet, but will definitely get to it soon!

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

Ah, Charles Dickens. What a talented, witty, and morally questionable man. I started reading David Copperfield, gave it a few months’ break because I was distracted by other things, then resumed it when I started my shifts at the Charles Dickens Museum because I knew it was a very loosely autobiographical novel. David Copperfield is about an orphan named David Copperfield (shocker!) - nicknamed Trot - who, under the sponsorship of his aunt, climbs the social ladder, gets continually screwed over by his childhood bully, falls helplessly in love multiple times, and meets various persons whose money-managing matters are subpar at best.

This was my first time listening to an audiobook for the majority of a book, and although I feel like it’s very different from being able to focus on the words on the page (as I remember more quotes by actually reading the words), it definitely is a good alternative when you don’t really have time to read or you’re reading multiple things at a time. I would listen to a chapter or two in the mornings while I made my meals, took the bus, or got ready for the day, and I ended up finishing David Copperfield in about a month or so. Furthermore, classics like Dickens are usually free- both in ebook form and audiobook form! I listened to the LibriVox recordings on Apple podcasts, and it let me download it in advance so I could also listen without draining my data outside.

The thing to keep in mind when reading this, which makes this work so questionable for me, is knowing the way Dickens treated his wife Catherine Dickens (who he labelled as mentally ill and left at home while he gallivanted away with her sister Mary and one or more French ladies), and comparing it to the frivolous and condescending way he presents David’s wife and blames her for the eventual deterioration of their marriage. Not to mention, Dickens also names one of his daughters the name of David’s wife a year after DC’s publication?? Which is just so ironic, for reasons I can’t really disclose or else this review will be riddled with spoilers. Please, if any of you have read/ever read this book, let me know and we can discuss the ethics of Dickens’ undeservededly-sympathy-invoking account of his life.

That being said, I wouldn’t read Dickens if I didn’t like his writing style- the way he is able to transition between the resigned grown-up narrator and David’s childlike naivety is superb. He really is good at manipulating the reader’s sympathies and frustration for his characters. I admit though, it wasn’t as good as A Tale of Two Cities. Maybe I need to pick this up again, because I only really got into TToTC after I reread it.

5. Beloved by Toni Morrison

Historical fiction, Race Issues, Reconstruction America. 5/5. 324 pages.

"This is not a story to pass on"

"She was my best thing." ... "You your best thing, Sethe. You are."

This was a book on my course, but I thought I would give it a review because I felt like it’s also a book that could be read for personal contemplation/outside of academia. In Reconstruction America, a family of emancipated slaves is haunted by the ghost of a dead baby. Throughout the novel, Morrison reveals the backstory behind the mother - Sethe - and how she is haunted by the ghosts of her past on the ‘Sweet Home’ property. Overall, I found the presentation of motherhood interesting, and how social rules and expectations govern something so personal and intimate. What are the ways in which a mother expresses love? How does a woman’s relationship with their mother affect her relationship with her own daughter? What happens when a daughter loses a mother, and vice versa? Can you have too much maternal love?

Morrison is also so apt in her use of recurring symbols- I would look out for mentions of trees, sweetness, color (especially red and blue), smiling, and fabric, plus probably many more I’m missing. I felt that all of these hints represented how slavery still haunts African Americans even after abolition, and sheds light on the way in which non-white authors are somehow expected to explicitly explain what race issues mean, or even refrain from writing about race. The events in this novel may shock you in their slight absurdity and persistently phantasmagoric nature, yet they shed light on the often convoluted experience of ‘rememory’ (the recall of Sethe's painful memories), and the way in which grief and fear drives people to extreme measures.

Overall, this wasn’t a novel I had a lot of "fun" reading due to the amount of grief and pain engraved into its pages, but it was definitely one that opened my perspective on BAME authorship. I’d also learned about slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction in the US since I was young, but I’ve got to say that reading this was probably one of the most jarring immersions into the realities faced by freedmen and freedwomen. I highly recommend it, Beloved was a novel I appreciated finishing my first year of university in the otherwise underwhelming and sudden end to the school year.

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With that said, I better wrap up this blogpost- I’ll definitely be reading more in the next five months, so I will hopefully update with another round of reviews and recommendations soon :) Stay safe everyone, hope we can all come out of this confusing and scary time soon <3