My Winter Reading Mojo
on books, escapism, and what to read next
January in the Midwest is tough. The holidays are over and spring feels far away. My morning walks with Hazel are bone cold and dark. The snow has turned to muddy slush. Did I mention spring feels far away?
But, silver lining, this winter has been good for reading. I’ve enjoyed one good book after another. Even books I wasn’t too enthused about starting, I ended up loving.
Take Hamnet by Maggie O’Ferrell. I’m not a big reader of historical fiction and I’d had this book for years, started reading it once only to find I wasn’t in the mood. This time around, I devoured it. And The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. I’m not sure why I was resistant to this one, since it is written by and about a scientist. Maybe like when doctors watch The Pitt and roll their eyes when unrealistic events are portrayed on screen—I thought I’d be too close to the material (and I did roll my eyes over a few things). I was prompted recently to pull this one off the shelf when the Women in Medicine and Science group on my campus chose it for an informal book club. I found myself fully invested in the romance tropes and STEM story line. (Side note: this is why I never get rid of books. You never know when one is going to call out to you!)
My recent favorites, Hamnet and The Love Hypothesis (and The Correspondent - love!) couldn’t be more different. What does this say about my mindset right now? I think my reading list reflects my longing for escapism in any form. Entertain me, distract me, pull me in with a good story so I can forget the world for a moment. Please.
After an entire year of feeling like I was in a reading funk, I have my reading mojo back! This isn’t to say that I’ve loved everything I’ve read recently. One book in particular had a thoroughly depressing ending, but the characters were interesting and I made mental notes about the way the story fast-forwarded through decades of time. I’m glad I finished it…but that ending? Not cool.
I’m always on the hunt for a book I can’t put down—one I carry from room to room, plotting and scheming to find 10 more minutes with the pages, the characters knocking knocking at my thoughts. That, my friends, is the dream.
Here are a few books vying to be my next great read (three novels and a memoir). Have you read any of these? Have you read something unputdownable for me to add to my list?
And finally, anyone planning to watch Wuthering Heights? Emily Brontë’s novel has always been one of my favorite books. Perhaps I need to read it again before seeing the movie…
Thanks for reading Work in Progress!
Hamnet was my favorite read of 2020, so glad you loved it! And the movie, incredibly, is its own glorious work of art- so rare but wonderful when the movie lives up to the book. As for your next read: I really enjoyed Sonia & Sunny without loving it. Emily Nemens teaches in my MFA program and I'm excited to read Clutch, so if/when you read that, I'll be curious to hear what you think. I'm almost scared to read it because it sounds very close to the most recent novel I was working on (which I've basically abandoned, three drafts in).
As a fan of Wuthering Heights, I recommend Layne Fargo's "The Favorites," which is a rewrite of Wuthering Heights with a love/friendship triangle in the world of professional ice skating, with a Tonya Harding-like protagonist. I thought of this novel as a guilty pleasure, because it's cheesy but really enjoyable. My most recent can't-put-down read was Marie Bostwick's "The Book Club for Troublesome Women." I also loved "Culpability" and "What Kind of Paradise."