It’s still cold: it is January in Boston, after all, though most of our recent snow has melted. I’m switching between getting out in the weather (commuting, running, seeing friends) and curling up inside with good books. Here’s the latest roundup:
The Long Run: A Memoir of Loss and Life in Motion, Catriona Menzies-Pike
Menzies-Pike describes herself as a “gin-addled bookworm” who traded late nights for long runs, to her own surprise. She took up running almost on a whim, and it has transformed her sense of how she moves through the world. I recognized myself (I’m a novice runner) in this wry, insightful, whip-smart memoir about running, grief, moving forward, and the politics of running as a woman. Fantastic, and the perfect book for me right now.
The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley
Novelist Carrie McClelland heads to the ruins of Slains Castle, north of Aberdeen, to research her latest historical saga. She invents a heroine, naming her Sophia after a distant ancestor, but soon finds she’s writing down details she couldn’t have read elsewhere. Kearsley intertwines Carrie’s story with Sophia’s journey and the history of the Jacobites. Perfect midwinter reading – I loved the characters (especially the Countess of Erroll and Colonel Graeme), the romance and the setting.
Moxie, Jennifer Mathieu
I heard about this YA novel from Shelf Awareness, Sarah and Kari. Vivian is a good girl in small-town Texas who gets fed up with the egregious sexism at her high school from male students and administrators. Inspired by her mom’s Riot Grrrl zines, she makes her own – called Moxie – and starts a movement. I loved the fierce girl-power vibe, but also how messy and real it felt: Viv and her friends struggle to take a stand and reach across lines of race, class and cliques. Inspiring, fresh and often funny.
A Fountain Filled with Blood, Julia Spencer-Fleming
This sequel to In the Bleak Midwinter finds the Reverend Clare Fergusson and chief of police Russ Van Alstyne dealing with a rash of hate crimes in their small New York town. We learn more about their respective military experiences, and the plot deals (somewhat obliquely) with homophobia. Not as gripping as the first one, but I like these characters, especially Clare.
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Brittney Cooper
“Owning anger is a dangerous thing if you’re a fat Black girl like me,” Cooper writes. But she owns her rage in these powerful essays, with brilliance, bravery and wit. We need – I need – more voices like Cooper’s, as we grapple with questions about race in this country. She urges us to own our complicity, ask good questions and join the fight for justice. To review for Shelf Awareness (out Feb. 20).
I’ll Be Your Blue Sky, Marisa de los Santos
I adore de los Santos’ luminous novels about family, and loved this dual-narrative one about Clare, whom I know from Love Walked In. Days before her wedding, Clare meets an elderly woman named Edith, who gives her some wise advice (which leads to Clare calling off the wedding) and later leaves her a house and a mystery to solve. Lovely and insightful – vintage de los Santos – and I loved revisiting these familiar characters. To review for Shelf Awareness (out March 6).
Links (not affiliate links) are to my favorite local bookstore, Brookline Booksmith.
What are you reading this winter?
cakes, tea and dreams 
Winter Greetings KatieLeigh,
As we layer and unlayer, waiting for mud season to arrive, I’m reading a lot. I believe I found Nancy Spring through your blog, but couldn’t locate a mention. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased to know about this author. It is a supreme pleasure to find a good book by an author who has written a slew of them. Nancy Springer has penned a set of terrific YA stories for girls. In Enola [backward it spells Alone] Eudoria Hadassah Holmes, she has created a delightful, delicious character–both smart and clever, likable and independent, fundamentally feminist–in the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. I picked up what turned out to be the last book in the series, The Case of the Gypsy Good-bye.
It is typeset set in Cochin, a lovely lyrical ornate text face and it only took me 2 hours to read it, but it was completely cohesive. Often I find mysteries get distracted into implausible territory or they get so convoluted and muddled it can be hard to follow. This book was neither. The story, the mystery, the action and plot, the characters, everything works impeccably.
Springer has described 1889 London with great clarity and brilliant accuracy [at least I think so!]. The descriptions of the clothing evoke serious fashion-envy and when she writes about the poverty and filth characteristic of the City in this era, I felt myself wrinkling my nose at the imagined odor and shuddering with revulsion.
I learned about things I have never heard of before–such as the ingenious operational details of a Hansom cab and a word puzzle, a skytale [pronounced “skitalley”] was astonishing and entirely splendid–I can’t wait to try it! Seriously, how many books have you read recently that introduced such unknown marvels? That alone is enough to get me to pick up a new book! I hope you enjoy these tales as much as I enjoyed the first one I read.
below references from Wikipedia
In cryptography, a scytale (/ˈskɪtəliː/, rhymes approximately with Italy; also transliterated skytale, Greek σκυτάλη “baton”) is a tool used to perform a transposition cipher, consisting of a cylinder with a strip of parchment wound around it on which is written a message.
Hansom cab
The cab, a type of fly, sat two passengers (three if squeezed in) and a driver who sat on a sprung seat behind the vehicle. The passengers could give their instructions to the driver through a trap door near the rear of the roof. They could pay the driver through this hatch and he would then operate a lever to release the doors so they could alight. In some cabs, the driver could operate a device that balanced the cab and reduced strain on the horse. The passengers were protected from the elements by the cab, and by folding wooden doors that enclosed their feet and legs, protecting their clothes from splashing mud. Later versions also had an up-and-over glass window above the doors to complete the enclosure of the passengers. Additionally, a curved fender mounted forward of the doors protected passengers from the stones thrown up by the flying hooves of the horses.
I read the first Enola Holmes book a while back – it was fun! And yes, very informative.
I’m so glad you enjoyed The Winter Sea! I started The Shadowy Horses last night and every time I start one of her books, I never want them to end. Susanna Kearsley is magic! I’m looking forward to I’ll Be Your Blue Sky!
I’ve got two other Kearsley books on my stack, thanks to you!
A new Marisa de los Santos novel! Can’t wait! 😄
It’s always cause for celebration!
I also LOVED The Winter Sea. My girlfriends and I do a blind date with a book for our Galentines Day every February, and right after I read that one, I made sure to get a copy for my ladies. Such a great winter read. I just finished Lucy Grealy’s “Autobiography of a Face,” which was excellent, but definitely a very different vibe.
Oh, that’s really fun. And yes, it’s a perfect winter read.