Let’s start in the summer because it feels like it was just the summer even though it’s somehow into the second half of October already.

August 2025:

Beloved (Toni Morrison) – Along with The Bluest Eye, this had been on my to-read list for a long time. I have a vague memory of the adaptation with Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover kind of scaring me as a kid, which makes sense given the heavy subject matter and the ghost element to it all. When I’m in the mood for a serious movie maybe I’ll give it another go. I added this to my recommendations at the bookstore. I’d give this one a 10/10, definitely an “everyone needs to read this” title.

Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood) – This is one good author, in that universal everything she writes/wrote is really good. I loved this novel, I don’t mean to “Homer Simpson as a food critic” all of these, but I’d say another 10/10. It’s suspenseful like any thriller would be, and you’re left to make so many of your own conclusions, and it’s based on a true story but is of course fictionalized to a degree. This was a book club book so it was really fun discussing it with others. As it so often is. I know there’s an adaptation on Netflix with Anna Paquin as Nancy but I haven’t seen it, not having Netflix because I get personally aggrieved over how many streaming services its assumed one wants to pay for.

Gone with the Wind (Maragret Mitchell) – Okay this one is really hard. Because this is a great example of form vs. content. Because this is one wonderfully written book with a compelling cast of characters that you’re really rooting for all at the same time somehow and there are some remarkably memorable scenes and Scarlett O’Hara is possibly the perfect anti-heroine. And then. There’s the many, many things wrong with this novel that in every way outweigh the good things it has going on. I’m not going to lie I got a copy off of a free books shelf that the bookstore has in the vestibule. Then I listened to it on Audible during a 3-month free trial that I cancelled before it cost me any money. I argue that it’s not a bad thing to do when the people you’re depriving of royalty money are literally the Catholic church. I think they have enough money. So I still possess the paperback and am thinking I’ll hold onto it until someone I know wants to borrow it. Because in my experience borrowing someone a book translates exactly to you never seeing it again. I have this whole annoying memory of straight up telling a guy I was dating that I hated borrowing books to people (for that reason, you never see it again) so I bought him his own copy of The Plague (Albert Camus), because I knew he wanted to read it. Then, when he was at my house, without asking, he snatched MY copy of The Plague and proceeded to take it with him when he left, again without acknowledging he’d done so. So I actually asked him, “Why are you taking my copy when I gave you your own?” He said, “This one is more aesthetically pleasing.” YEAH. I KNOW. That’s why I kept it for myself because I was nice enough to buy him his own fucking copy. Why wouldn’t I keep the cooler one? I for some reason let him proceed to take it home. Then, one of the many mornings I left without his even waking up to say good-bye, I took it back. I still have it; it’s up in my attic in a reusable bag with a bunch of other books I can’t bear to part with. He died almost five years ago now. Which is still pretty crazy to think about, that it’s been that long. Also it’ll always feel a little odd that he and my dad died within three months of each other. That’s just weird. But, also, it’s actually really not, given one usually has a type and it’s usually just like dad whether you like it or realize it or not, and mine is alcoholic and that’s why they both died, more or less. So. It’s also the least strange thing in the world. Also isn’t it funny, this memory I have associated with an aesthically pleasing copy of The Plague? Is it even irony anymore that that’s the book? Of all of my books. I don’t even like Camus.
ANYWAY, I give Gone with the Wind, which is I swear what this was about at first, a 5/10. Because despite all of my earlier positive comments, it is also such a grotesquely racist book with such deep sympathy for the poor newly-impoverished southern gentility with an absurdly racist omniscient narrator (not just racist characters, of which there are plenty) it needs to be given its own explanatory content warning.
But, if you can come across it say through a library, I think it’s worth a read. But also, you are going to be subjected to descriptions of Black characters that always, always liken their appearances to animals. I’m not going into further detail because I’m sure I don’t need to. Also there are literally emancipated slaves that go north and come back to Georgia because they want people to take care of them like their old owners did. Yeah. Pork tells Scarlett she’d do a lot better in life if she could treat other white people the way she treated Black people. You know, the people she and her family owned and treated like property. But she gave Pork her dad’s gold watch so. Things like that. I have of course seen the movie adaptation, and I have both childhood and adulthood memories of watching it. But as ever the book is far better. Also Clark Gable doesn’t do Rhett Butler justice.

September 2025:

Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers) – I know. This is probably the only time you’ll find me reading a book with this strong of a “religion is here to save and redeem you, wretched one” bent. I mean. It’s beyond clear. So I guess you can’t say its subversively Christian. What happened was I kept seeing clips of the movie adaptation on TikTok. So then I watched it on Amazon because we do have Prime, and it rarely has anything I want to watch that isn’t behind a paywall, so I was like oh I need to take advantage for once. I do keep a running list of movies to watch. It bums me out to add or subtract from it, not because of the act itself, but it reminds me of other lists I used to keep in my Notes. Lists of places I wanted to go with someone. Now it’s just painfully embarrassing to admit how much you used to like that guy.
Also, McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, Eric Dane, if you will, is in the movie adaptation. This is probably one of his last big roles, along with whatever he was in Euphoria.
So, watching the movie had me wondering if the book was any better. And I saw people pointing out ways the book was different online, on those TikTok clips I kept seeing, you know the ones who present a small snippet of a movie so you end up watching the whole thing out of order?
The book was listened to, or I never would have gotten through it. It’s long. And the plot is weird, there’s so much back and forth. And the main guy character, the one we’re supposed to be rooting for, thinks he can have direct back-and-forth conversations with God. So. Start with that idea and keep thinking along those same lines.
I’d give this one a 4/10 for just not being that good. And I tend to like historical fiction about the Gold Rush because as a kid I weirdly had Yukon Trail and not Oregon Trail on the family computer.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe) – Was this better, as far as the racism goes, than Gone with the Wind? Yes, I suppose. But this is the second Stowe book I’ve read (The other being the lesser known Dred that I really only read because it was for a grad school class then when we were supposed to be discussing it, it became painfully clear no one else had actually finished that behemoth and I was deeply annoyed but not enough to call people out, but I’d pushed myself to the brink and for naught) and both feel like well-intentioned but still problematic works.
I’d give this a 6/10. Certainly nowhere near GWTW levels of racism. But it’s also not nearly as good of a book. Again, I think only the audiobook got me through.
Also. I will say. Lady St. Claire is the single most irksome and terrible and godawful human being who has ever been invented for the sake of fiction. HBS definitely knew someone like her, a spoiled, pampered narcissist who gave no love but demanded it in heaps of those around her, who thought only of herself and was unspeakably cruel to her slaves and who was always the victim no matter the situation. So, I do have to mention it when I notice something like that. When you’re just like oh which relative of yours was like this? What personality disorders were formative and inescapable parts of your childhood?

The Housemaid (Freida McFadden) – I needed a break. I listened to this in a day, because that’s a good thriller. BUT. I don’t quite understand why everyone was shocked by the “many” twists. I kind of saw it coming. Still good enough to keep my attention though.

I’ll be Gone in the Dark (Michelle McNamara) – Another one I’ve been meaning to read for some time. I feel like this book has a higher place in the cultural zeitgeist because of the star power, and therefore more widespread attention and knowledge of, the author’s husband, and then of course her tragic and unexpected death. She was really the first of the true crime girlies. Truth be told any time I read non-fiction I hate it. I also don’t like true crime. I find it grotesque. I don’t need more causes for anxiety, thank you. So I’d give this an 8/10 if you like this sort of book. Also it’s worth a read/listen because of the way it is a part of a much larger story, namely Patton Oswalt from King of Queens and Veep was married to the author and they had a young daughter when she died in her sleep as a result of medication complications and a heart condition no one knew she had. But, books about serial killers are far too filled with facts, more boring than anything else, for my liking. Dress it up as a story or I’m not feeling it.

October 2025:

Carrie (Stephen King) – I’ve only read a few King novels (The Long Walk, Rose Madder, Desperation) but, I will say I think Carrie is my favorite of what I’ve read of his so far. I’m actually waiting for The Shining to transfer into my library because for some godforsaken reason the Stephen King books on Hoopla are in German. And only German. I’m sorry I thought I lived in America. I also want to read Pet Semetary at some point.
But Carrie is REALLY good. This was for October’s book club. It was a great horror, a fast read, a rather X-files-esque epilogue. For whatever reason as a tween my friends and I really liked the movie Carrie, the one from the 70s with Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. I know it aired a lot on cable so it might have just been the availability. The remake with Julianne Moore and Chloe Grace Moretz is meh, in my opinion, like did we need to remake this with a slightly more modern vibe? Also is JM a good actress or is she attractive? I think the book does the best job at making you feel bad for Carrie, and it’s not like the movie fails at that. For one, book Carrie doesn’t look like Sissy Spacek or even close to her beyond being a young white woman. Book club managed to keep picking books with fatphobia this year. Maybe it’s a sign everyone used to be that way.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRude (V. E. Schwab) – this was recommended by a fellow co-op bookstore member-owner, and I think it might now be my favorite example of magical realism. No longer will we have to all answer “One Hundred Years of Solitude” when asked what’s a good example of magical realism. In both undergrad and grad school I swear that was the only answer anyone had to that question. But have I ever met anyone who read it? One and a half because I know someone who gave up on it because it was complex and rather boring. Fair enough. Yes, I am the exact sort of person who will slog through an awful classic for the sake of being able to say I’ve read it. But I am also the last person who would ever think they were somehow superior to others for having done so. I’m sure this same thing happens with visual artists, it’s not their fault they enjoy a hobby that nurtures and creates intellectual and creative pathways in their mind. Not that a person can read a lot and take up watercolors and suddenly become a different, better person, but depending on what you read and what you’re trying to express…you could be onto some sort of self-improvement. That’s my theory, at any rate.

I’d give Addie LaRue a 7.5/10. It would be 7 but again, excited if I ever need to tell someone what magical realism is without sounding like a Marquez fangirl (I actually do really like Love in the Time of Cholera, though, as it is much more interesting although Solitude does a smashing job of explaining itself, if you can pay attention for that long). But this book does get draggy at times, with all the back and forth keeping secrets from the reader etc etc. I get doing that but it annoys me when its so damn obvious. Like when a child gets object permanence and you can’t hide things behind your back anymore.

1984 (George Orwell) – Somehow, I was never assigned this or Animal Farm in high school or college. So I always meant to read them. I came onto a free copy of Animal Farm and read it last winter, this one I listened to via Hoopla. Which is kind of funny, using advanced technology to absorb this guy’s general ideas about what humanity is like. Not that I disagree. I’d give this book a 7/10, it’s really not my cup of tea but like Animal Farm I think it’s important to read this. If nothing else it’s fun to make insider references and then see if anyone chortles about it because then you’re probably looking at a likeminded person. But that’s all literature.

Very fun random fact – after I’d grown bitter and completely gave up trying to be a part of the drama department (not a euphemism I mean putting on plays/musicals as an extracurricular) my high school did 1984. As a play. How in the actual fuck does this book translate to a play? The narrator talks SO MUCH. I never went of course so I didn’t see the production. And honestly. I know coming from a self-described bitter teenager I’m sure you won’t totally buy this, but the director/teacher that put on that play and many others was the absolute definition of a pick-me turned teacher who still very much relished in the attention and flirtation of teenage boys. She was very close in age to us as well, probably 23? So what did she do? Picked the popular boys for the leads. And they ruined it. They literally just never learned their lines because I’m sure it hit them a few practices in that this was actual work and was a great deal like school after school and wasn’t for a grade and wasn’t getting them the kind of attention they hoped. I know because someone I was good friends with then was in the play, I can’t remember her role, I know she wasn’t Julia. But this friend was somewhat prone to acting dramatic and I once saw a doodle she’d made in her script for 1984, a body hanging from a noose, the noose was “The lines they won’t learn” and the body was “The play.” I’m sure she had a point.

So. I think of funny high school drama when I hear about 1984. Now, I suppose, I’ll think of the fall when I was 37 and I listened to it on Hoopla while biking in my kitchen. Life is fun like that.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Bram Stoker) – I feel the need to elongate the title. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’ve owned a Barnes and Noble classic edition of this book for decades. I saw the Francis Ford Coppola movie as a kid and liked it, of course. Even though. Okay, I get he’s a great person and all, but Keanu Reeves was fucking stinking awful in that adaptation. THAT was the best you could do for Jonathan Harker? The Nosferatu adaptation with Lily-Rose Depp really does him far more justice, but maybe that’s just because I’ve like Nicholas Hoult in everything he’s ever been in. Also it took listening to Dracula to realize that he was Harker in that adaptation and he was Renfield in the so-named Renfield movie. Range. Also I liked Renfield if for nothing else than Nicholas Cage as Dracula. He’s super good as Dracula. But he’s rumored to be super into the occult so…sure. I remember a friend saying the movie adaptation was “Gary Oldman giving everyone else a master class in acting” and that’s about right. But also I’m a big enough tool to be impressed by such a star-studded cast. Also Steve Buscemi was offered Renfield and turned it down which saddens me, he would have been great. Maybe I’ll watch the movie again. I own it. It was one of the DVDs that belonged to my dad when he died. Which I’m sure sounds like a trivial possession to come into, but his DVD collection was literally one of the only things he had left to him when he died. So. I suppose I have an odd emotional attachment to dusty DVDs purchased, I’m sure, on a credit card and on impulse. I have a copy of The Cove still in its cellophane. Weird.

My rating for Bram Stoker’s Dracula the novel is a 6.5/10. It is nearly appalling how long and detailed and drawn out and pointlessly minute the ending was. Think of where the movie goes after Lucy dies, after Minna and Jonathan marry. At that point in the novel it was just a little over halfway done. Almost HALF of the novel is their convoluted and multi-step plan to destroy Dracula once and for all because Minna was slowly becoming a vampire. It’s so stupidly drawn out. You’re like were you pulling a Dickens and getting paid by the word? Because that’s what it feels like. Also, Minna being the reincarnated soul of his lost love was totally made up for the movie. Part of me was like oh is this huge portion of the book left taken up by a flashback where we hear more about his life? There’s some about the kind of warrior he was, and a little about how vampires came to be, but nothing about him loving and losing a woman. Disappointing. The ending feels like he didn’t have an editor. Or a friend.

Next I have to read White Teeth (Zadie Smith) for November’s book club, and I still have the copy I used in undergrad. I thought that was fun and emailed the professor who taught it because if I were her I’d find that interesting. I’m a little screwed because it’s 450 pages and I have 7 days. 6 really because I’m going to go to bed soon. So. We’ll see. And Hoopla can’t bail me out of this one.  

Keep reading, friends.

-CM