Reading post: November

It's almost the end of November, and I really don't think I'm going to finish another book before midnight tomorrow, so it's time for a reading post. 

November, for me, is a serious month, and I always feel as though my reading should match that. It's a month to read about Native Americans and American history in general. So, instead of randomly drawing books from my "Briefly Noted" envelopes this month, I went through them and picked out books that seemed related to my preferred November themes. I chose about eight books and only read three of them, but that's OK. I might read some of the others in December.

Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa (2024). A memoir by a Native American woman who was raised partly on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation in southeastern California, and partly in Farmington, New Mexico, on the edge of Navajoland. Her father was Quechan (Yuma) but also partly other tribes, while her mother's family claimed to be Mexican-American but was probably Indian as well. I thought it was a disturbing book, but satisfying, as the author gradually comes to terms with her complicated background and her family's complicated history. The story of Indians in this country after white people got here is such a depressing one, but watching one Indian woman work through all of that is life-affirming.

A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power (2023). In this story, by a Dakota author, a series of dolls help support the members of one Dakota family dating back to around 1900 (told in reverse order, from the most recent girl back to her mother and grandmother). Finally we return to the present, where Jesse, at age 50, reconnects with all the dolls of the story and learns something about herself and her family. It was an interesting idea, but I didn't feel like the book really worked, maybe because one character, Jesse's mother, was so badly damaged (from her experiences in Indian boarding school, but maybe other things as well, it's not clear) that she's nasty and unsympathetic. Still, it kept my attention. A sad story.

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (2023). So fun. A murder mystery set in 1922 in an alternate reality where Indians (the descendants of those who built the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, across the river from St. Louis) have managed to maintain a kingdom which has since become a state, called Cahokia, consisting of parts of Illinois, Missouri, and some other states around there. (Also, Utah and some of the lands around it are a separate country called Deseret, while Navajoland is a state called Dinetah.) Spufford is not himself Native, he's British, but he's obviously an admirer. Rocket Boy took us to see the Cahokia Mounds on one of our trips to visit him in St. Louis, so this book was really fun for me to read.

 

Best books of the 21st century so far

In November I planned to read a few more books off the New York Times list, those that related to US history if possible, and otherwise just any that appealed to me. I only managed to read one book from the list, though -- too many other things I wanted to read.

Erasure by Percival Everett (2001). OK, I'll admit it: I did not like this book, but at the same time I really liked the author. It's the story of a Black writer, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, of mostly unread, highbrow fiction, who decides to write a fake stereotypical Black novel (under a fake name and identity) about Black people in "the ghetto." The novel, Fuck, is included within Erasure, and it's actually pretty well written, but at the same time dreadful, and painful to read. Anyway, Ellison gets a huge advance, the movie rights go for $3 million, it's a bestseller... and Ellison goes to pieces. And I couldn't wait for the book to end. But I was impressed by Everett (who also wrote James) and would read more by him. 

So I've now read 57 of the books on the list. Getting close to having read all the books on the list that I want to read. To be honest, I'm tired of this list. A few of the books have been great, but a lot haven't. I probably won't get to 60 after all. I'll see. Maybe a couple more in December.

 

Other reading

Shadow of the Solstice by Anne Hillerman. I saw this at the library and grabbed it -- the latest in the mystery series. And since it's about Native Americans (specifically Navajo), it fit right in with this month's reading. I'm always underimpressed by Anne Hillerman's contributions to the series -- her father was so much the better writer. But I keep reading them. I read some reviews that claimed this was a weak addition to her series, but I actually liked it better than many because of the new character of Mrs. Raymond, who was delightful. Agree with others that it was full of typos and continuity mistakes. Still fun.

The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich. Last year I read the first book, The Birchbark House, in the series that is Erdrich's answer to Laura Ingalls Wilder. I planned to read the rest of the series eventually, so this month I read book 2. The trouble with these books (based on the author's ancestors), of course, is that really crappy things happened to Indians. I mean, the Ingalls family had a rough life, but the entire American government wasn't out to get them. The government was, however, out to get Erdrich's ancestors. Inconvenient historical facts like that make these books hard to read, but they're still really good. I liked this one a lot, including how it ended, even though it was sad.

Truman by David McCullough. So, having finished with FDR back in September, it was time for Harry S Truman. Rocket Boy bought this gigantic biography at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri a few years ago, read it, and then gave it to me. I've had it sitting on my bedside table a long time. The book is almost 1000 pages long, so I assigned myself a chapter a day and finished it in 18 days. It was a lot of reading, but McCullough is such a wonderful writer. I'd never given much thought to Harry Truman before. But as someone who believes strongly in doing the right thing, being honest, helping people, etc., I found myself falling in love with Truman, who also believed all those things and (unlike me) acted on his beliefs. What a great guy! Not perfect, but tried so hard. And the comparison with the current incumbent... OMG. Oh well. Truman was an accidental president -- maybe we'll accidentally get another one like him one of these days. Next up (next year): Eisenhower.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. This was my book group's choice for the month, and it fit right in with my theme. Such a good book! I know it sounds like the topic is depressing (how ugly white people murdered hundreds of Osage Indians for their oil money in 1920s Oklahoma), but the book is so great. So interesting, easy to read, thought-provoking, important. Highly, highly recommend. I'm going to make Rocket Boy read it too. My only unhappiness is that I can't see the movie, because it's an Apple original movie and they don't allow their stuff to be put on DVD in this country. I'm not going to subscribe to Apple TV+ just to watch the movie, but I'm bummed. Oh well.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Nothing to do with my themes, but rather a book that Teen B was assigned to read for language arts, so we read it together. It was OK. I don't think either of us thought we'd ever finish it, but we did, a few days ago. I like Ishiguro, and the book had an interesting concept, but it was a little dull. Klara is an Artificial Friend, a robot companion for a lonely child, Josie, whose life she ends up saving. A lot of interesting stuff about how we view technology -- from the technology's point of view, since Klara the AF narrates the novel. 

 

Next month 

In December I like to read Christmas books, of course, and children's books, and maybe some classics. It's also my last chance to read books off the NY Times list, since after this year I think I will be done with that. So it'll be a bit of a mishmash, I expect. But that's fine. It's a busy month, and I'll just read what I can.