"Trad Wife" by Sarah Langan

Can a terrible book really be a terrible book if you just CAN'T STOP READING IT??

When I first started reading this book, it wasn't long before I was breathing a small sigh of disappointment. I'm not sure what it was that bothered me: maybe the dialogue seemed a bit unrealistic, and the characters were only talking, not doing anything to ground them in reality.

But it wasn't long before I could not put this book down. I don't remember when exactly it happened, but it definitely happened. 

This is the story of Jenny Kaplan, a journalist in NYC who goes viral for a raw and honest autobiographical essay, then suffers the inevitable backlash. Her boss is forced to fire her, but lets her down gently by offering to send her on location to interview tradwife Mia Wright, influencer extraordinare from Black Swan Farm in Pennsylvania. A tradwife is just about as polar opposite from Jenny as you can get, but that's the contrast her former boss is looking for. Somewhat reluctantly, Jenny agrees to go.

At first glance, Black Swan Farm is beautiful and idyllic, and Mia is the perfect wife in a perfect family living a perfect life. Things are just a little weird. It's unsettling, and there's an undercurrent of tension, but these weird things that happen--they're just small things, maybe even misunderstandings. But the small things start to stack up. And by the last fifth of the book, it's become a full-on horror novel. Not my usual fare, but by then I was hooked. 

And I do like the cover! Despite the old-fashioned-seeming title font. It's like it's retro in a bad way. Although come to think of it, that's probably the whole point.

"The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life" by Pam Grout

For anyone who has tired of vacations that involve relaxation on a beach with a novel (which is not me, yet!), this book is full of ideas for unique and fulfilling things to do if you can get a few days or a week off work. It's divided into four chapters: arts & crafts getaways, volunteer vacations, brain retreats, and wellness escapes (though some of the suggestions would fit into more than one of these categories). 

I bought this book years and years ago (possibly almost 20) but had never read it until now. As such, I ignored the dollar amounts it lists for costs and fees. I didn't check on any of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've basically all doubled by now (or worse). 

For a lot of these vacation ideas, I found myself wondering: Why not just do these things close to home, on a smaller timescale? A lot of them are not necessarily location-dependent (as long as you can find people with know-how and supplies). The book does make a good point about this: doing new things while on vacation allows you to focus on them in a way you normally could not, if you were trying to squeeze them in between days at work and dentist appointments and taking out the trash. Also, even if you could do these things close to home, would you? It takes a certain amount of intentionality and motivation. Well, maybe this is how I ended up taking a brief wheel-throwing class at a local art space this summer?

Out of all 100 vacations suggested in this book, though most sounded intriguing and unusual, there were two that stood out to me as ones I might actually want to look into:

• Colby College Great Books Summer Institute: a week-long "in-depth discussion and workshop on six selected classic books" in Waterville, Maine. Alas, Google makes it appear as if 2025 was the final year for this!
• Immersive Spanish lessons at Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. From a satisfied customer: "I learned more Spanish in one month than I did in two years at my local community college." I never had the opportunity to be an exchange student. Maybe it's not too late!

"Une riviere verte et silencieuse" by Hubert Mingarelli

Prepare to be impressed. Rather than spending six years on my second book in French, it only took me just over six months to read this one! (Insert winky face here.) Never mind that at only 124 pages it was shorter than the first one; it wasn't that much shorter. 

I've read three other books by Hubert Mingarelli (all expertly translated into English by my favorite French-to-English translator who also happens to be the best French-to-English translator in the world as well as the best husband I've ever had), but somehow I only managed to blog about one of them. No idea how that happened. But A Green and Silent River is in a similar vein: brief, subtle, intense. Luckily for me, Mingarelli's books are written in simple, almost sparse prose. Unlike the others, however, this one is not associated with World War II. (Yay!)

AGASR (or URVES?) is told from the perspective of a young boy named Primo who lives with his father (as far as I remember, the existence or fate of his mother is never mentioned). The pair have fallen on hard times since the father lost his job at the local air-compressor factory, although they have a plan to make some money by growing and selling cuttings from the climbing rose bush that grows in their backyard. Occasionally the father is hired to do odd jobs like mowing lawns; Primo spends most of his free time roaming in the fields of tall grass behind the houses on their street. He creates a tunnel there for himself, grass stalks meeting over his head, his thoughts his only companion. 

This is a book that seemed so deeply rooted in reality that I wondered if it was autobiographical, or at least partially so. I can imagine a young Hubert as Primo. Unfortunately, Mingarelli's brief Wikipedia entry doesn't answer that question.

I think my next French book is about teenagers and possibly full of slang, so that may be a challenge. We shall see.

"London in Stride: An Insider's Walking Guide" by Jessie Kanelos Weiner & Felicity Fitchard

I quickly and happily made it through last month's impulse buy, which definitely made me wish I could go back to London someday. I already knew that I'd only gotten a tiny taste of the city, because how much can you see in only a few days? And even though this tiny book is an only slightly larger taste, it made it clear that there was SO MUCH that I missed. 

This book has seven London walking tours, and I love the idea of doing every single one of them. The tours are interleaved with pages of information about restaurants, cocktail bars, museums, and the like, which would probably require an additional seven days!

Upon reflecting after reading, I got to thinking: the reality of travel is never as calm and relaxed as this book makes it feel. Maybe this series is actually meant to be used the way I've used them: for daydreaming rather than an actual trip?

I'm excited to see where Jessie Kanelos Weiner goes next! I'll have to keep an eye out for the next book so I can tag along for the ride.

“Slough House” by Mick Herron

Finished this, the second to last book in the boxed set that we have, about a week ago. Then discovered just now: a ninth book in the series (not in the boxed set) was published last year, AND there is a handful of novellas that fit in tangentially. Well, you know me--I guess I'll have to read them too . . . 

While I still enjoyed reading Slough House, I also found it a bit meh. I can see why they combined this one with Joe Country to make Season 6 of Slow Horses.  

This is the one where the Russians get ahold of an old Slough House staff list and use it as a prompt for revenge. It ends with a cliffhanger which I fear will make my daughter (formerly Bookworm Child, now Bookworm Adult) hate it and never watch Slow Horses again. 

"Joe Country" by Mick Herron

Still enjoying the Slow Horses book series, if enjoying blogging about them a bit less (as evidenced by the fact that I finished this one long enough ago that I'm already halfway through the next one). This is the one where Louisa takes PTO and decides to use it to find Min's son who has gone missing. 

Next season is coming out in less than a month. I found out this evening that it will be based on this book and the next!

"New York In Stride: An Insider's Walking Guide" by Jessie Kanelos Weiner & Jacob Lehman

I've just taken an amazing walking tour of New York City . . . in book form! 

We bought this NYC guidebook a while back (I see the publication date was February 2020, so we must have bought it since then; did we buy it for our pandemic-thwarted plans for a grand NYC birthday celebration for Sam that year? Or, we did go back to NYC in 2023, so maybe we bought this book for that trip?). I don't think I'd ever gotten around to reading it before (although I did read--and love!--its sister book about Paris), and at first I thought Sam must have read it (or at least skimmed it), because I remember walking to several of its entries (many of them book-related! Corner Bookstore, Three Lives & Co, The Strand, etc); but digging further into my external memory banks, I see that we went to those shops in 2015 and 2017, so it couldn't have been because they were suggested in this book.

I'm still working on getting rid of belongings that we don't need or love. I came across New York in Stride and Paris in Stride hidden in a basket in our bedroom. My first thought was to get rid of them. While it's relatively likely that we'll end up in NYC again someday, I'm not sure we'll ever make it to Paris again; and if we do, will these books be hopelessly out of date by then? But while I have proof that I've read the Paris one, I had no memory or proof of reading the NYC one, so I figured I ought to do that before getting rid of it. Now that I've read it . . . I'm not sure I can let go of it. It's just too cute, and it was a lot of fun to read. And if I'm going to keep it, I might as well keep the Paris one that matches so well! 

The completist hodophile in me is super tempted to plan a two week trip to NYC just so that I can go on every single walking tour in this book. My realist side says that I saved myself a small fortune by going on this trip in my imagination for the low price of $16.26. (Funny that it didn't cross my mind once while reading NYC that they should have included distances, whereas that was my main complaint about the Paris book. Pretty sure the difference is that I was reading the Paris book before an actual trip to Paris.)

OMG they've done London too. (Hang on while I Add To Cart.) Too bad that it's two years too late for me. Will I ever go back to London? Well, if I do, I'll be ready.

"Hunger & Thirst" by Claire Fuller

WOW. I mean, just            . . . WOW. 

This book GRABBED me and would not let me go. I just HAD to know what happened. It was like critical mass on steroids. Last night, I was about fifty pages from the end and very tempted to stay up late and finish it, but I decided 1) I should get a good night's sleep instead, and 2) I would appreciate having some left to read today. But then this morning I woke up far earlier than I wanted to. On any other weekend morning, I would have drifted back to sleep for another hour or two. But not this morning. This morning, all I could do was lie there and ask myself questions. What about the Underwood had scared John, and made Joy vomit? Where was the baby? What had actually happened?? Sleep was not an option. It wasn't long before I crept out of bed to finish the book.

Now, here I am, book finished, and I only know the answer to one of those questions . . .

Sam had asked me yesterday to give him an idea of what the book was about, but I didn't get very far before he shouted, "WAIT! Don't give me spoilers!!" So I don't know how much I can tell you. But I'll give it a shot. The bulk of the story takes place in England in 1987, although it's being relayed in retrospect from the current day. The main character, Ursula, had spent most of her childhood bouncing from foster home to foster home, but by the age of sixteen she had gained some independence: a room in a halfway house and a job delivering mail at an art school. And maybe she was finally forging the connections she had always hungered for. She had met a friend named Sue, who was charismatic and unpredictable; Sue had a big, messy, chaotic family who welcomed Ursula as if she finally belonged somewhere; and a coworker, Vince, invited Ursula to live in a squat on Barrow Road. So what if the house was a bit creepy? It was rent-free!

I wish I could tell you more, but I don't see how I can--other than saying that the story was compelling and suspenseful and, really, basically a horror book (but also really well written). I think it would be a great book club book--I wish I could discuss it with people who have already read it! 

"London Rules" by Mick Herron

Still enjoying my nightly MI-5 bedtime stories, and still don't have a lot to say about them. They're just pure fun, not much thinking involved. London Rules is the one with the politician and the paint can, and the one with The Watering Hole document. 

London Rules is the last Slough House book that has been made into a TV series so far. Initially I wasn't sure if I would keep reading, or if I would wait for the next season to come out before I read the next book. When I finished London Rules last night, I made my decision immediately: I'm going to keep reading. I'm not ready to give up my bedtime treat. Plus, how much is a literary amnesiac actually going to remember by the time the next season comes around?

“Whistler” by Ann Patchett

I loved this book, really really loved it. And yet I finished it two weeks ago and still haven’t blogged about it. Why do I do this??

The short answer is, I can’t to it justice. I can’t say anything about it. It’s just too perfect. 

I am definitely a fan of Ann Patchett's writing, and have been ever since I read Run (more than sixteen years ago!), although interestingly I did not mark that one as a Must Read. In the past I have tended to prefer Patchett's nonfiction over her fiction. (Although Commonwealth was right up there . . . and also Tom Lake was super good . . . ) Now I think I may have changed my mind. I guess it's possible that I'm affected by recency bias, but I think Whistler might be my favorite of all Ann Patchett's books, and I think I know why. Somehow it manages to seem just like her non-fiction, except that it's not. Like, it seems like it must be autobiographical, but it's not. I think it's because the people and the plot are made up, but the feelings are real. 

The main character in this book is Daphne Fuller, happily married New Yorker who is about my age but whose husband is closer to my parents' age. One day the couple makes a serendipitous stop at The Met (art gallery, not opera house) where they run into Daphne's stepfather, who was much beloved during the year or so that he was a part of her childhood, but who she hasn't seen for decades. It's a beautiful story about the love in friendship (and, as you'll see in reviews everywhere online, "Don't worry, it's not about a horse." Although there is a brief story told about the very horse pictured on the cover.)

There is only one thing wrong with this book. Again with the shiny shiny cover! Maybe it will age well? And I guess it matches a lot of Patchett's other hardbacks. But to me there is something so luxurious about those matte covers, and something so . . . opposite-of-luxurious about this shiny one. 

"Spook Street" by Mick Herron

I'm still treating myself to a bit of reading from the Slow Horses series every night before bed, and I'm still enjoying it. It's still nothing impressive or worthy, but it's still fun. I still think the books are maybe not as well put-together as the TV show, and I still wonder if I might have had a little trouble following the plot if I wasn't already familiar with it. 

Spook Street is the one that starts with the bombing of Westacres and takes us to Les Arbres in France by way of an attempted hit on David Cartwright. I don't really know what else to say about the book, but there's probably no need to carry on. Short and sweet is all this one needs.

“Never Anyone But You” by Rupert Thomson

I hate it when this happens. I don't even remember when I finished reading this book--two weeks ago? Three? And here I am only now getting around to blogging about it. 

I remember that I really enjoyed reading this book; it's very well written, and a compelling narrative. I remember it wasn't one of my favorites of all time, but it also wasn't one of those I found it hard to get into. I also remember being impressed that it's basically a true story, albeit one I had previously been completely unfamiliar with. 

The book is an intimate portrait of Suzanne Malherbe (later Marcel Moore) and Lucie Schwob (later Claude Cahun), but it is also a broader chronicle of life in Europe, spanning the time from before the first world war until after the second. 

Lucie and Suzanne first meet as teenagers, and they immediately feel a powerful connection. From that moment on, their love--facilitated by the fact that they end up as stepsisters--is strong and enduring, even if not perfect or reliably happy. Both artistic in their own way, they spend the interwar years in the exhilarating bohemian circles of Paris. By the beginning of the Second World War, they are living a more tranquil and private life on the Isle of Jersey, but hostilities soon encroach as the Nazis occupy the island. 

The history-driven plot is never the point of the book, though. Its true weight lies in the relationship between Lucie and Suzanne.