Reading Update: October

Let's all pretend this went out a week ago

Hello, it's me, Laura King. October was an absolutely hectic month for me, as evidenced by this newsletter going out a week late (with a croaky voice over)! When I decided to lean in further to my recent love of romance books I found great comfort in reading some predictable yet fun and refreshing stories. I am drafting a separate substack more generally on romance fiction, but for now I will finally let you know what I read in October.

Run Out and Read

In an extremely enjoyable 24 hours in a very stressful week I went from barely knowing who Ali Hazelwood was to absolutely going to bat for The Love Hypothesis online and requesting 6 more of her books from the library. This book, about graduate student Olive asking the infamously bad-tempered (seeming) Adam, a wunderkid professor in her department, to pretend to date her so her friend knows it's ok to make a move on Olive's would-be ex. It's really fun, and witty, and so heartfelt. I really rooted for the characters, and even more importantly the fact that I didn't mind a 75 minute bus journey taking two hours because I was reading it and not paying attention to traffic, and that when I realised that the book was 20 pages shorter than I thought I nearly screamed that same bus down, should hopefully convince you, particularly if you're already a romance reader, to give this book a try before the film comes out!

Highly Recommended

I have no excuse for not having read James Baldwin sooner, all I can say is Notes of a Native Son confirmed everything I had heard before - a once in a generation (or more) talent, incredibly sharp, somewhat prophetic as well as poignant - and now I really look forward to reading his novels. Notes of an Eldest Son was Baldwin's breakthrough, a collection of essays published in 1955, but concerned with the 1940s in Harlem and his more recent residency in Paris. The title essay is one of the most moving I can remember reading, and is incredibly powerful particularly in relation to race and the Civil Rights movement, and more generally in terms of grief, trauma and generational memory.

In Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, Elsie first meets Jack while pretending to be Jack's brother's girlfriend, a pretty innocent part time hustle while she tries to land her dream academic job - which is how she meets Jack again, a very different version of her meeting him as part of the interview board. Elsie has dreamed of being a theoretical physicist for as long as she remembers, and for a good while of that has been plotting vengeance against the experimental physicist (also Jack, would you believe) who showed up her mentor many years ago. This took a longer time for me to get into it, and I didn't realise that I would warm so much to the characters once they get to know each other - I found myself delighted at one point that there were 200 pages left, which is unusual for me!

Check and Mate is Ali Hazelwood's novel for young adults, about 18 year old Mallory, who works in a garage to support her family instead of going to college, and who used to be a chess prodigy until mysterious circumstances turn her away from it . She begrudgingly agrees to enter a tournament, where she shocks herself, and the chess world, by beating the world champion, 20 year old Nolan, in the first round. Mallory may have thought she could walk away from chess once, but after she flees the win that shakes the global chess community, she is made an offer she can't refuse: a lucrative chess fellowship that will change her family's financial situation in exchange for facing down the previously unbeatable Nolan, who for his part can't wait to face this mysterious girl again. Now, you'll never guess, but Noah is very handsome and something of a heart-throb! He is very clearly obsessed with Mallory! They are rivals, but maybe they could become more! And I ate it all up!

Recommended

Memoir of my Former Self by Hilary Mantel was a long but rewarding audiobook listen for me, short essays ranging from the biographical, to the historical, to pop culture. The same themes come up again, as with her previous collection Mantel Pieces: the lives of historical figures who make up her novels as well as some lesser known people and stories who caught her interest, the royal family (past and present), and her love for reading. It ended up being a bit of a slog just because it's supposed to be leafed through, but I remain incapable of doing that!

In Farthest's Seas, Lalla Romano's memoir, was my introduction to the popular Italian novelist, who has recently been rediscovered. The book was written after her husband Innocenzo died, and it is a moving elegy to the man himself and their long life together. The book moves between their early years together and the final months of his life, from their early attraction, to the acceptance and reflection at the end of his life. There is a real innocence to her early memories of him, a handsome stranger in a walking group in the Alps, and how their conversation and walks fit in the pristine backdrop of this scenery. She writes sparingly, yet beautifully, of her coming to terms with this loss. This is a very short, powerful book, and while I wasn't gripped by it, or wholly obsessed, I was still very taken by it, and given that Romano's novels are compared to Natalia Ginsburg, I am eager to know more!

American Fantasy by Emma Straub, out May of next year, is about Annie, a woman in her fifties, freshly divorced and about to lose her job at an opera magazine to a TikTok making intern, when she embarks on a cruise meant to be a celebration of their youth with her sister Katherine. At the last minute Annie finds herself alone on a ship with hundreds of frenzied women her age, and the five men that make up Boy Talk, the once teenage sensation pop group that are now a nostalgia act. On the American Fantasy, anything seems possible, despite the regimented schedules, strict deliniations of space, endless queuing, waiting, and wanting. It is an exploration of fandom, sure, but its also an exploration of the feeling of desire divorced from purpose and reality. I was surprised that the book didn't resolve the way I thought, and that it didn't really seem to commit to a particular expected plotline, but instead it charts a weekend and how three different characters experience it in totally different ways, what they are escaping from on a brief hiatus before they move into unknown futures.

The Fall Risk and Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez are two novellas I flew through on kindle. She is still such a talent, but these two weren't up to the standard of some of her others. Still, they were a fun time, and are cute easy reads set around Valentine's Day, if seasonal reading is your thing!

Not For Me

I feel bad mentioning The Deal by Elle Kennedy here, because it genuinely got me through a week where I wasn't feeling the best, and I enjoyed it well enough while reading it, but in recent weeks I keep forgetting about it. It is a university romance about a cocky college hockey player and the studious singer who tutors him (and maybe more, etc). I believe there are lots in this series, and the more you read the more you might like them, but I think I'll wait for the tv show.

I am so, so sad that I can't really recommend We Love You Bunny by Mona Awad. This was going to be one of my books for the end of the year! I loved Bunny so much and thought it couldn't go wrong! I don't know how to give any synopsis for this book, as it's a prequel to Bunny but to tell you what it's about would kind of spoil the ending of that first book, but it follows the women in Sam’s writing class before she gets to know them. There's a section 75% through where these four women finally meet their idol, who misunderstands them and criticises their creation in a way that really mirrored how I was feeling about this book - “zany, wacky, plotting problems, plausibility feels stretched..” and says that the “underlying creative crisis is very common.. you made a thing, but it wasn't perfect, because it was difficult to shape and control or because it was beyond you.. it escaped you and now you're trying to fix it.” This feels true of this point in the book, and I do think Awad is making a statement about this work when she says “everything feels like a pale shadow of your first attempt for all its flaws” - and must this not be directly about the problem of following up her cult book? There's a lot of interesting stuff about creation and authenticity and ownership here, but not enough to really convince me.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you will join me again soon for another installment of LauraEatsBooks.