Some Things I Read in November

A Recap

Dec 20, 2024

Welcome back to this occasional series where I tell you what I read the previous month. Now that it’s halfway through December, that’s the perfect time to recap what I read in November, right? Right.

The fine print: I don’t do reviews here, but I will tell you what these books are good and bad for and give you a brief summary, and maybe a fun fact or two. I read 10 books in November, and they run the gamut from comics to fantasy to memoir to poetry and everything in between. Where I can, they are linked. Without further ado…

The Books

Vox Machina Origins Vol II
Still on my Vox Machina kick. This is the comic origins of a live play Dungeons and Dragons game. Honestly, it’s too complicated to explain, but know that there’s a TV show and it’s a whole thing. The art is also A+.
Vox Machina Origins Vol III
Part dos of the aforementioned comic extravaganza. Great for comic fans and for catching up on my book goal, bad if you have no interest in comics or Critical Role.
Quand tu écouteras cette chanson, par Lola Lafon
As far as I’m aware, this is not translated into English. This will also and forever be known as the book I used to put an insane Verizon store employee in their place. (I also reported them for making highly inappropriate comments to me.)
Anyways, the book itself is Lafon’s experience and exploration of her Jewish heritage. She received a grant to spend a night in the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. The book is a hybrid memoir (my terminology), as it covers both the history of Anne and her family, as well as Lafon’s own personal history and experience in the museum.
There had to be some kind of grant or something of the sort available a few years ago, because this is the second French book that I’ve read where an author stays the night in a museum.1 And as the age old adage goes, if I had a nickel for every time this happened, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice. This book is great if you speak French and have any interest in Anne Frank, bad if you don’t speak French..
In the Garden of Monsters, by Crystal King
I have so much more to say about both Crystal and this book, so keep your ears pealed in the new year. Monsters is about a woman named Julia who has no memory of her past. She’s hired to work for Salvador Dali (yes, that one) as a model, and heads to Bomarzo where the Sacro Bosco, the titular garden, lies in wait. Crystal has beautiful food descriptions, and Dali really did visit the Sacro Bosco, and there’s a whole host of both historical and mythological details combined in this novel.
Great if you love mythological retellings, Italy, and food, bad if you don’t want to read another Hades & Persephone retelling.
Pachinko, by Min-Jin Lee
The book I finished in Wales, and one of the few that I deemed important enough to make the trip to the UK with me.
Yes, the focus is on that very good Pistachio Cream cookie, but Pachinko was there, too.
I wrote a post about Omniscient Point of View in Pachinko, so I won’t go too in depth here, but the TL;DR on this story is that it’s a generational story of a family of Korean immigrants in Japan. Great if you love historical fiction and sprawling family epics, bad if you don’t want to read anything heavy and potentially upsetting.
The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, by Carissa Broadbent
Read for bookclub, but a book I would have read regardless. I went on a whole quest to get the UK edition of this book the day it came out because of a bonus chapter. The vampire adventures continue in this, the 3rd book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, and this time we go to Hell on a quest. There was an absolute banger of an ending, and an actually useful map this time! I also saw Carissa Broadbent in person on her book tour and that was great. Basically I cannot be trusted to give an objective opinion on these books cause I’m going to enjoy myself regardless. Great if you’re already invested in/reading the Crowns of Nyaxia series, bad if you don’t like vampires and don’t know what I’m talking about.
Not Waving but Drowning, by Stevie Smith
Stevie Smith was a British poet that even Sylvia Plath admired. News to me! I had never heard of her before seeing this book in a bookshop in Hay-on-Wye. I got it solely for the cover and I am not ashamed to admit that.
Great for poetry lovers, bad for people who think poetry is depressing.
Mains Libres, par Paul Éluard et Man Ray
1924 is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Surrealism movement, which may seem apropos of nothing, until you realize that Paul Eluard was one of the founders and one of the most preeminent Surrealist poets. And Man Ray was…Man Ray.
This book is a combination of Eluard’s poetry and Man Ray’s illustrations, and was also another one that I acquired while in the UK. For whatever reason, seeing Man Ray’s illustrations next to the poems really compounded the fact that I was reading poems and looking at illustrations that are nearly a century old.2 I’m not the biggest Surrealism fan, me needing too much order and all, but the joke’s on me because my all time favorite poem is by a French Surrealist. (Chant du Ciel, Robert Desnos)
Great if you like poetry and accompanying illustrations, once again bad if you do not speak French.
A Magical Girl Retires, by Park Seolyeon and translated by Anton Hur. Audiobook narrated by Shannon Tyo
While every other book I read this month was physical, I listened to this one on Everand while driving to and from Thanksgiving festivities. One day, a young woman discovers that she’s a Magical Girl. In fact, she’s THE most important Magical Girl - the Magical Girl of time who will help stop global warming. The shenanigans ensue from there. Trigger warnings for suicide and domestic violence. Great if you like short reads, translated fiction, and mimetic fantasy, bad if you don’t like any of those things.
The Other Side of Beauty
And yet another book I acquired on my UK travels (and the last for this round.) I got this book at an accidental discount - I found it in a bookstore in Hay-on-Wye and there was no price tag on it, so they sold it to me for 5 pounds. I mistakenly thought that this was just one essay, but there’s a second one in here. I liked the titular essay much more than the secondary one, as it describes not only the author’s travels in India, but also their impact on him. Great if you like essays about travel, bad if you don’t like any sort of theoretical discussions.