“The Fell” by Sarah Moss

With The Fell, Sarah Moss has created a novella that is very evocative of the pandemic we are only just now finding our way out of. It's the story of Kate, who is on the tenth day of a two-week quarantine at home after exposure to a coworker who tested positive for COVID. She's been very good about not breaking the self-isolation rules, but she's accustomed to hiking through the heather on a regular basis and she's been nearly driven crazy with restriction. She finally decides she can't live without stretching her legs and getting her lungs full of fresh air, so she heads out into the countryside without telling anyone. 

This book does not have a complicated plot--in fact, not a whole lot happens--but that doesn't mean it's boring to read. Viewpoints switch between Kate, her teenage son Matt, their neighbor Alice, and a rescue team worker named Rob (because of course Kate's simple, solitary walk turns out to be nothing of the sort), and we get a front-row seat to all their thoughts.

Unfortunately, having finished this book, I am now in the unenviable position of having one more week left of vacation with only one more book left to read…

“The Scent of Flowers at Night” by Leïla Slimani

This slim little volume is beautifully written and impeccably translated, though this is no surprise based on the author and translator. In it, Slimani spends one night alone in the Punta della Dogana museum in Venice and reflects on her life as a writer. It's a little slip of a book, but powerful. 

I read half of this book while waiting for a flight, then slid it hurriedly into the front pocket of my suitcase when they called our boarding group. I ended up having to check my suitcase at the gate (something about it being overstuffed? surely not) and only remembered they’d also taken my book away from me when it was too late. (Luckily I’d packed four other books in the backpack I kept with me, so I survived the flight.)

I think the thing about this book that will always stand out to me is the way that writing takes over Slimani's life when she's in the middle of a book, almost as if she were in a prison. I am glad that writing is not a prison for Sam.

“Writers & Lovers” by Lily King

I loved this book and I hate that I put off reading it for so long. And when I did read it, I started by gulping down more than half of it on a flight, but then I skipped a few days and read the rest of it on a train journey. 

This is the story of Casey, a grieving, anxiety-ridden waitress whose life has seemingly gone nowhere due to her desire to write novels. We hear about her past loves and are introduced to the new ones she is just now meeting. Funnily enough, it struck me on page 91 that I was reading a first-person female narrator--just like the last (terrible) book I read--but THIS was real writing. It's funny to think that this novel and my previous read are both books . . . they can't really be in the same category. 

I must admit that I did become annoyed at the end of Writers & Lovers due to the fairy tale book auction. It's like I was jealous or something, which makes no sense because I haven’t written a book, nor am I planning to. 

“A Stranger in the House” by Shari Lapena

I bought this book by mistake. Well, maybe mistake is not exactly the right word, but here’s what happened. We were browsing in Half Price Books and this title caught my eye. I enjoy a well-written suspense novel, and this one sounded intriguing. I knew I’d heard of the author before, and I even vaguely remembered I’d read a book of hers previously. I figured I must not have hated it or I would have remembered. (Ha.) Did I skip my dip test? I can’t remember that either. 

But now that I’ve read the whole thing, I find it hard to believe that it would have passed my dip test. And of course I have found and re-read my blog post about The Couple Next Door, which I really should have done prior to purchasing this book, because if I had done that I would not be writing this blog post right now and that would be an entirely good thing. 

At my age, I am sure I have already lived half my life (if not more). Lord save me from wasting any more of it on books like this.