Books in October
Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash
October was endless. Beautiful withering nature outside, lots of rain. The 2-year-old was sick for a week every second week, which puts me into a caregiving trance, and opens up lots of mental space. I somehow managed to gulp 10 books this month. It was a surprise to me too when I checked my Goodreads account where I track my reading.
It seems I have found my reading sweet spot this year. I abandoned paper books which tied me to lighting, and space and stillness. I have so few of those moments in my life. Instead, I move between audio and ebooks, always having something to play on my phone, and always something waiting on the Kindle. I make good use of the local library, which has a marvellous ever-updating collection. Would be lovely to see you as a member there too, supporting equitable education.
I’ve been lucky to be on quite the reading spree, which I presume will reduce from November on since my studies will start. Grateful for the time I had to read all I wanted this year.
Here are the books in October.
The highlights
My favourite book this month is “Her body and other parties”. This is a debut story collection, written by Carmen Maria Machado. Machado creates a haunting atmosphere all through the book. She takes on magical realism to talk about everyday women’s lives. We constantly traverse spaces and narratives where not all is being said, and so much of that is left to feel. The stories a beautifully queer, strange and chilling.
I think I was especially drawn to this book as I feel that the author is taking chances, pushing limits with the kind of writing that is not immediately popular, and not always easy.
My runner up for the favourite position is “Want”. This is the last book I read this month, and it’s still fresh on my mind. “Want” is a novel, written by Lynn Steger Strong. The author is one of those authors that are great at picturing emotional landscapes. When we meet the characters in this book, the main or even marginal ones, we really meet them. We follow a snapshot in the life of Elisabeth, a mother of a 2 and a 4-year-old, an academic balancing multiple jobs, getting ready to file for bankruptcy together with her husband. She is in a place that a lot of us mothers of small children know - the fight to keep yourself existing between the overwhelming demands of parenting. Although it is a strong topic, the narrative is much larger than that. We also meet Sasha, Elisabeth’s childhood friend, and follow their stories diverge and collide. The book also examines class, race, mental health, friendship and family relations. It’s layered and thoughtful, but not overly ambitious or saturated.
More awesome books
How lucky we are that Zadie Smith published a small collection of short essays on 2020, named “Intimations”. It’s sharp and observant, taking on community and resilience in the context of our current, confusing times. I felt like she took me out on a walk through her life, and I could learn about me from what she showed me about her(and her dear neighbours and friends).
Ross Gay’s “The book of Delights” I read by the recommendation of Yan Palmer and her thrilling work on finding joy in the last couple of months. On his birthday, Gay decides to document all the delights happening in his life throughout the upcoming year. My favourite essay on delight was “Joy is such a human madness” in which he tries to differentiate between joy and delight, and explores the co-existence of terror and delight. It ends with the words:
“Because in trying to articulate what, perhaps, joy is, it has occurred to me that among other things - the trees and the mushrooms have shown me this - joy is the mostly invisible, the underground union between us, you and me, which is, among other things, the great fact of our life and the lives of everyone and everything we love going away. If we sink a spoon into that fact, into the duff between us, we will find it teeming. It will look like all the books ever written. It will look like all the nerves in a body. We might call it sorrow, but we might call it a union, one that, once we notice it, once we bring it into the light, might become flower and food. Might be joy.”
“Exit Racism”(in German) is a comprehensive entry book if one wants to start reflecting on racism. It is aimed at white Germans, but anyone white and living in Germany will benefit from it. “Exit Racism” is written by Tupoka Ogette, an anti-racist trainer, activist and author. With endless patience, she offers introductions easy to grasp and exercises to reflect and deepen awareness. We go through time all the way back to Germany’s colonial past, till the challenges of the present.
I finally got the chance to read something from James Baldwin. I read “The fire next time”, composed of two letters to his nephew. It is a powerful, direct account of the Civil Rights movement, everyday racism and his early life. It is an absolute must-read for anyone.
“The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality - for this touchstone can be only oneself. Such a person interposes between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes. And these attitudes, furthermore, though the person is usually unaware of it (is unaware of so much), are historical and public attitudes. They do not relate to the present any more than they relate to the person. Therefore, whatever white people do not know about N****** reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”
A few other books
“My Body, My Home: A Radical Guide to Resilience and Belonging” is a beautiful little collection of questions and an invitation to reflect that I am thrilled to have finally in my hands this month. I pre-ordered it and waited for it patiently. This one has it’s own blog post. Read about it here.
Among others, I also read “Land in sicht” which wasn’t too much to my liking, “Das Leben ist eins der Härtesten” that was quite interesting and worth the read(you can read my short review in German here), and finally, after what seems to be months, finished “Non-violent communication”. It was a paper book, and it’s astonishing how this absolutely doesn’t work for me at the moment.
