What I Read: November 2021
Here's the short list of what I read this month.
November always feels like the shortest month of the year. I know February technically gets to keep that crown, but Thanksgiving seems to shorten November by a week instead of just a day or two: all the prep, an attempt to make the whole four-day weekend into an actual weekend and not let work creep in, the onslaught of Christmas everything almost as soon as you set the leftover stuffing in the fridge. It’s a month that feels so clipped, a placeholder between autumn and the main attraction of December. Poor November.
My reading life this month felt clipped, too. I read only three books, but they were all excellent.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
The Scorpio Races
by Maggie Stiefvater
I read this book in a single stretch starting after my kids went to sleep and it was both the best and worst decision ever. Was it fun to get so sucked into a book that I forgot that sleep was a prerequisite for parenting? Yes. Was I very tired the next day? Also yes. This is young adult fantasy, which will always have a special place in my heart (hello Hunger Games / Divergent / Matched / All the Trilogies of late high school/early college years). When I tried to describe it to Scott, I said something about blood-thirsty horses that get entered into a race and he did a double take. “Blood-thirsty horses?” Yes. You heard me correctly. Shy away if you can’t stand a bit of violence, but the story is honestly worth suspending reality for, and the main characters are a delight. It gives five stars from me because it absolutely delivers on what it is supposed to be: a completely absorbing race from beginning to end.
To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies for Parents
by Kayla Craig
I’ve been slowly reading this for a couple of months now and it is just as gorgeous inside as it is on the outside. Kayla is an internet friend who I hope to meet in real life someday, and I can tell you that these prayers come from the most genuine heart. I do wish some of the prayers were shorter or lent themselves more to memorization, but there are a handful of shortened versions of prayers specifically placed in there to pray with your children, and they are perfect. Would make an excellent gift for the parents in your life!
I pre-ordered this with my own money, but I did serve on Kayla’s launch team to help promote the book as well.
Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers
edited by Natalie Eve Garrett
This was the perfect time of year to pick up this book! Full of stories about food, I read it in the week leading up to and on Thanksgiving Day, and I think it was the exact right time. The book is divided into sections like “growing up” and “grief” and hit all the notes from humor (Anthony Doerr’s essay made me laugh-out-loud and read several sections aloud to Scott) to heart-wrenching. The short essays are just right for appointment-waiting and pick-up lines, and would be a joy to read in the month of December, too.
What I’ve been reading with the kids…
I’ve been trying to rotate in seasonal books as the year goes, both in an effort to live more fully in the season itself (when the entire last two years feels like a time warp), and also to cut down on the amount of books I’m picking up off the floor everyday (jury is still out on whether or not it is working).
We saw our first real snow flakes last week, but I wasn’t ready for all the questions that the Christmas books might bring (how many more days? will there be presents? is Santa real?), so I grabbed some wintery books out of a box in our basement. Here’s a list of several that we love. I picked up the two books on snow and snowflakes to add in this year now that Arthur is a little order and getting more interested in how the whole world works.
Arthur received Small Walt and Mo the Tow last year in a mystery book box from Red Balloon Bookshop in Minneapolis, courtesy of my friend Ashley Brooks and her kids, and we were both delighted by it. It’s “just” about a little snow plow and a tow truck working together to free a car from a ditch, but the illustrations are gorgeous and the prose is fun, full of onomatopoeia. It makes total sense that it was written by a Minnesota author! I saw Small Walt at the library a week or two and grabbed that, so now we’ve read Walt’s origin story and love him even more.
I’m going to be pulling out The Shortest Day as we get closer to the Winter Solstice, and December 6th is St. Nicholas Day, so we’ll be reading this one before then.
Ready for full-on Christmas everything? Here’s a list of many of the Christmas books we’ve loved so far!
What I’m reading next…
Maybe a re-read for December! Anne of Green Gables? Harry Potter? Fangirl? I almost always reach for something comforting this month.
I’ve also got a few library holds that came in that I probably need to tackle: Laundry Love, 12 Tiny Things, and Fair Play.
Need to buy a gift for a loved one but don’t know which book? Email me!
I’d love to help you pick it out. Hit ‘reply’ to this email and tell me who you are buying for and what they like and we’ll dig in and find the perfect book for them.
That’s a wrap for November 2021. What are you reading lately?