'November days and a bright wood fire'
November Review of great reading, listening, and watching
‘November days and a bright wood fire;
A hearth and a home and the Heart's Desire.’
It’s time for this month’s review of the best reading, watching, and listening! This is an extra end-of-the-month post for all subscribers. If you enjoy this post, please consider signing up for a free or paid subscription to receive weekly literary discussions straight into your inbox.
This month has been one of ups and downs in our household.
I hope my American friends and readers had a lovely Thanksgiving, something we don’t practice in the UK, but I think it’s a lovely concept. I would like to give thanks this month for my wonderful subscribers who often take the time to not only read my essays, but to leave inspiring and insightful comments for us all to share.
It’s at tricky times in life that I think we all need to recognise the many gifts we have, and to spend some time in reflection. I was reminded this week of the joys of losing yourself in reading as an antidote to the outside world, as well as the comfort of cold autumn evenings, staying in and watching some feel-good shows. (I can’t be the only person who gets excited about a cosy night in when it’s cold out, right?!)
So, with this in mind, let’s have a look at what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this month.
Substacks I’ve enjoyed discovering this month have included the recently discovered Matthew Long’s The Books of Our Life, and particularly I enjoyed his post ‘Of Life-rings and Broken Pottery’. I appreciate the way he weaves his family history around the books he enjoys reading, and am inspired by his intentional way of setting himself reading challenges.
I am also enjoying the work of Dr Kathleen Waller and her current project on The Matterhorn where she generously shares sections of her own completed novel A Hong Kong Story together with a podcast discussing the themes you can use for your own writing.
I completed the Essay Camp on Summer Brennan’s A Writer’s Notebook at the beginning of November, which I found really useful in attempting to establish a regular (creative) writing practice. I have to confess that I have fallen behind a little with this in the past couple of weeks, however I have managed to do bits here and there. I am loving Summer’s Essay Series, in which she breaks down the ways in which we can develop our ideas and put them out into the world, and I am hoping to work more on these over the coming months.
Articles I’ve enjoyed this month include this preview of Lydia Davis’ new book of short stories, Our Strangers, reveals that she is still as fascinated as ever with what you can do with the short, short story. If you have never read Davis, she is the queen of miniature prose, and is featured in my recent newsletter on the short fiction of Lucia Berlin.
I was sad to read of the passing of the author AS Byatt, whom I wrote about in this newsletter a short while ago. Now I feel I must tackle her most famous work Possession as a priority. This piece specifically explores where to start if you’re wanting to read her work.
On a lighter note, this review on the third installment of Boy George’s autobiography, Karma, made me laugh out loud in several places! I had the first of his autobiographies many years ago, Take it Like a Man, which was hilarious and shocking, often back to back. It sounds like his third instalment at the age of 62 is no less so!
I was pleased to read of a Crowdfunded project which has managed to secure the birthplace of the Brontë sisters in Haworth, North Yorkshire. Having visited this a couple of times, it is a wonderful homage to the literary family, complete with the family parsonage museum. Well worth a visit if you are in the UK.
For any fans of Jane Austen, a wonderful copy of a book owned by the author herself - complete with underlining and annotations - has been put up for auction. The book, written by Isaac D’Israeli, (the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin D’Israeli), is thought to have related to the themes of her novels. It is a rare find, and gives an insight into the thoughts and ideas which preoccupied Austen and her writing process. It is to go on sale at Sotheby’s auction house on 8th December - together with a collection of first editions of all her writing - just in case you want to splash the cash on a very special holiday gift!
This month I’ve been reading The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim. I loved the ideas Kim explores around the Korean experience and the ways in which women have often been forced to live lives of poverty and disenfranchisement in the US, as well as the effect this has on the next generation. I enjoyed how Kim gives us the mother’s story as an immigrant arriving in the US in the 1980s, having been separated first from her birth family, and then losing her husband and first child in an accident. She then intersperses this with the story of her daughter in the present day, trying to discover the truth about her mother’s death - and her life before she was born. Although I enjoyed learning more about the Korean experience and loved the themes explored, I did find the switching between narratives made the story a little bit repetitive in places.
This month I’ve been watching the new series of Shetland on BBCiPlayer. I was dubious about the recent series as the central character left the show at the end of the last season, but the writing and introduction of a new female detective, together with a return of the other main female character has ensured it is still holding its own.
We have also just finished the second season of Australian series The Newsreader. I haven’t heard anyone talking about this series, the first of which we discovered earlier this year, and which is set in a 1980s newsroom. It features as its backdrop real-life news stories from the 1980s, such as the AIDS crisis and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, and blends this with the relationships of the news anchors on a popular TV news show. Growing up in the 80s piqued our interest in the series, as many of the events are memorable points in our history, but the characters and story lines are original and interesting in themselves.
This month I’ve been listening to this episode of the Ezra Klein show which features Maryanne Wolf, researcher and scholar into the science of the reading brain. It really makes you question the ways in which we have become used to skimming digital content at the risk of losing our ability to partake in deep reading. Fascinating, worrying, and overall, inspirational!
Hope you find something to inspire you here! Feel free to share any Substacks, books or other media that you’ve been enjoying recently in the comments, so we can all enjoy them!
Join me back here next Sunday for a more in-depth literary exploration 🙂
If you have just found this newsletter and love discussions on all things literature, as well as connections to both contemporary culture and the art of writing, please consider a free or paid subscription. Paid subscriptions help me to continue to write and research quality newsletters every week - and the yearly fee works out at less than £2 per month! Thank you for reading 😀
The Last Story of Mina Lee is going straight to my read list, thank you!
Such a great autumnal round up with some wonderful suggestions for the darker evenings.