This month went by in a bit of a blur. It was stressful a lot of the time, but we made some time for fun. The best times were had towards the end of the month when our elder child came home for the first time since leaving for college in August. At one point while both kids were bonding over video games, my son looked up at me and smiled in the most joyful, least self-conscious way I’ve seen him smile in months at the sheer bliss at having his sibling home again. (The arguing started about three minutes later, but it was nice to see their connection in that moment.)
We also had a progeny-led family games tournament, which I’m sad (but not surprised) to say that I lost dismally, even Big Boggle. In my defense, the family put a pretty wicked handicap on me for Big Boggle, which I usually rock.
December has started off chilly and with a big line-up of events, including music performances, work celebrations, and social gatherings, and culminating in a full week off for every family member, during which I hope to find time to ignore everyone and read.
November’s Completed Books:
Once again, most of my reads this month were mystery/thriller/suspense.
My favorites from this bunch:
- Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie* (a retelling of Sophocles’s Antigone, a story with which I’m unfamiliar, this one surprised me a little. Often I find that novels with a message are peopled with paper dolls the author manipulates through the plot, but the characters in this one are complex and real and often maddening as I watch them make what from the reader’s perspective are very bad decisions.)
- Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele* (short story collections are hit-or-miss for me, but this one is definitely a hit, especially the stories by Rebecca Roanhorse and P. Djèlí Clark.)
- Nestlings by Nat Cassidy* (the organization of this one could be a little tighter, but it’s creepy and tense and Cassidy really sticks the landing, which is a joy for me!)
- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due* (sometimes the story unfolds a little slowly and some of the tension diminishes, but the story and characters still drew me through to the end. Due, as usual, does an excellent job conveying setting.)
- Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers* (the last novel I finished in November, this one unfolded very slowly and circuitously, almost losing me at a couple of points (why is it we’re reading so much about punting?), but the interactions between the characters are expertly written. I’m definitely going back to read more of Sayers’s novels.)
The rest of the list:
- Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
- Cackle by Rachel Harrison
- The Angel Maker by Alex North
- Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
- Girl Unknown by Karen Perry
Stats (pretty charts thanks to The StoryGraph):
Currently Reading:
- Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
- Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
- Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson
To-Read for December:
In addition to my StoryGraph, you can see my Litsy profile for status updates throughout the month and my Instagram (@ImperfectHappiness) for mostly not-book-related photos.
Imperfect Happiness 