This month I have been commissioned by my Curatorial Overlords at the CSOWG to recommend some curl-up-by-the-fire reading. Naturally, we operate under the assumption that this includes a cat (or dog) dozing at your feet, a crocheted afghan on your lap and a piping hot toddy next to your low-burning reading lamp. If not, I hope that you at least get a toddy to keep you warm.
Speaking for myself, generally reading involves a lot of fantasy/sci-fi/horror and non-fiction. Understanding that most people do not share my proclivities, I combed my shelves looking for books I love which are not centered on monsters, time travel, outer space, supernatural deities, ghosts, history, art, architecture or mythology. It left quite a hole in my library, but I was happy to find that two of my favorite novels fit the bill. Both kept me awake nights in my hurry to read them, so I hope you find them as compelling. (Given that everyone I know who’s read them had the same response, the chances are good.)
The Secret History
The first novel by Donna Tartt, friend and contemporary of Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho and Less Than Zero), is the story of Richard Papen, student of ancient Greek at a small college in New England. (It does contain history and mythology, but that is definitely not the focus of the story.) Having abandoned his family in California for a more academic life he is drawn into a circle of friends, also Greek scholars, who are exceptionally bright, wealthy and privileged—and keeping some very terrible secrets. Suspenseful, intelligent and witty, this is the book I recommend to everyone who asks me for a recommendation.
The City & The City
Chine Miéville is my favorite living author. He is most well known for writing fantasy (his first novel of the Bas-Lag series, Perdido Street Station, is the best novel I’ve read in ten years), but his newest book The City & The City is a crime novel, his ode to Raymond Chandler. A murdered woman is found on the outskirts of Beszel, a fictional city that resembles Communist eastern Europe, and veteran Inspector Borlú is sent to investigate. The course of the inquiry takes him through Beszel to the border of its sister city, Ul Qoma, divided arbitrarily and bitterly from each other and policed by an invisible boogeyman known as Breach. That’s about all I can tell you without explaining too much, but if you like whodunits this is an excellent one.
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The secret history seems interesting. When it comes to supernatural deities i like to read Anne Rice´s books. I love your expression “Curatorial Overlords at the CSOWG ”
Cheers!
T
But if you had to pick some with, “monsters, time travel, outer space, supernatural deities, ghosts, history, art, architecture or mythology,” which ones would you pick?
Interesting that Mieville’s new book is a mystery. Will have to go on the wish list after I finish “Inherent Vice” and “2666″.
Erik,
Well if we’re including those, my favorites are At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, the Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station/The Scar/Iron Council) by China Mieville, City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer, and the His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman. In non-fiction, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.