I am still getting reading done, in between flamenco practices! Here are some of the things that have stuck with me.

FICTION

There are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak. A beautifully-written novel about stories, how they shape us, and how they connect us to the past. One of those books where I promptly have to transcribe a particularly beautiful passage. In fact, the one quoted below:

“We carve our dreams into objects, large and small. The emotions we hold but fail to honor, we try to express through the things we create, trusting that they will outlive us when we are gone, trusting that they will carry something of us through the layers of time, like water seeping through rocks. It is our way of saying to the next generations, those we will never get to meet, “Remember us.” It is our way of admitting we were weak and flawed, that we made mistakes, some inevitable, others foolish, but deep within we appreciated beauty and poetry, too. Each historical artifact, therefore, is a silent plea from ancestors to descendants, “Do not judge us too harshly.” We make art to leave a mark for the future, a slight kink in the rivers of stories, which flows too fast and too wildly for any of us to comprehend.”

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch, Melinda Taub. I listened to this as an audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it.

And the Rain My Drink, Han Suyin. This is an example of the breadcrumb trail that informs my reading. I read Legacy of Violence, a non-fiction book about abuses in the British Empire, which mentioned this classic novel about Malaysia (about which I knew virtually nothing). A tough, clear-eyed, poetic book about colonialism, opportunism, blindness, and desire.

The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman. What happens after Camelot fails? This fast-paced ride through Arthurian legend asks a serious question in an unfailingly entertaining way.

NON-FICTION

The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, Neko Case. The musician’s hard-scrabble upbringing and subsequent discovery of a home in music is told in vivid prose. I loved it.

Sleepwalkers, by Christopher Clark. I also have a “podcast to book” pipeline, and this one came from listening to The Rest is History. The book details the lead up to WWI from the perspectives of the main players, and how each power made choices that pushed them into a war most of them didn’t want.

Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Yeah, Meta probably shouldn’t have taken out that injunction against their former employee because of this book. There’s still a six-month wait for it at the library (I scored mine on a “skip-the-line” offer). It’s a quick read that displays the full weirdness, greed, and blindness of the top ranks of the company.

You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favorite Song, Glenn McDonald and Mood Music, Liz Pelly. I ended up reading these books about music streaming weeks apart, which provided some interesting contrasts. The first is far more optimistic than the second about the impact on the experience of music for both listeners and musicians. As a subscriber to Apple Music who nonetheless still listens to full albums that I own via Sonos, I admit to teetering towards the negative side. But not enough to change.