Mrs Blackwell’s August Reading Log

This month I recorded my reading log at the incredibly elegant FlyLeaf Bookstore and Bar in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. I’ve followed this shop on Instagram since they opened and as they’ve created a truly ambitious mixed-use location - blending a bookshop with a cafe, bar and event space. Thank you to Lani and the team for letting me make this month’s video in your beautiful shop.

So, right now its Booker Prize season - like the Olympics for literary fiction fans like me. The Booker Prize announce their long list of 13 books in July, and it’s known as the Booker Dozen. I particularly like the long list period as there’s always an interesting range of stories to choose from at this stage.

I think the Booker retains its place as the premier literary prize because it is open to such a wide range of authors: any book written originally published in English (there’s a seperate prize for translations), and available form a registered publisher in the UK or Ireland is eligible.

The other major prizes for fiction that you have probably heard about are the Pulitzer Prize $USD15,000 and it’s available to an American author telling an American story. The Women's Prize is £30,000 and as the name suggests, is available to a female writer published in the UK. Locally, our 2024 Jann Medlicott Acorn Fiction Prize is a generous $NZD65,000 for a New Zealand author.

A lot can be said about awards programs and whether they always choose the very best story, but for today I’ll just say that I personally have faith in the Booker Prize judges and I enjoy the chance to explore a range of high-quality fiction that might not otherwise be on my radar. 

I selected four books from the Booker Dozen - it would have been five, but I’d already read and reviewed James, by Percival Everett earlier this year. If I’d had a bit more time I would have included Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment, but I may still get to that before the end of the year.

Stone Yard Devotional, by Charlotte Wood

While I generally make my selection based on books that sound interesting to me, I’ll make an exception for any Kiwi or Australian author who makes the long list - even if their book doesn’t sound all that appealing. I’m going to give it a shot regardless.

Geographic allegiances aside, Charlotte Wood’s book sounded good to me for it’s own merits.

It follows an unnamed, middle-aged female narrator who leaves her marriage and goes to a Convent-based retreat in the Monaro Plains in New South Wales. She later returns and becomes part of the Convent workforce.

The remains of a nun who died in Thailand many years ago are discovered during a flood and they are to be returned to the Convent by a nun that our narrator had known and bullied as a schoolgirl. 

Also in the mix is a plague of mice wreaking havoc on the Convent - these plagues are not uncommon Australia and are supposedly getting worse due to climate change.

It wasn’t until after I purchased this book that I noticed a quote on the back from the Guardian UK comparing Charlotte Wood to Elizabeth Strout - with this, I agree. Of the long list I’ve read so far, this one is my favourite.

Orbital by Samathan Harvey

Closely followed by Orbital by Samantha Harvey. This short book follows four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they circle earth on a scientific mission.

You won't find any aliens or near death space experiences here, but you will see space and the lives of astronauts in a whole new way.

Written with assistance from NASA, there’s no strong storyline here, but more a glimpse into what it’s really like to be in space on a longterm mission. How much exercise they need to do to stop their muscles from atrophying, what they think about in all those hours, how the deal with trash and waste, and what it's like to see whole countries and major weather patterns from the spaceship’s perspective.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

This story follows 34 year-old Sadie who has been kicked-out of the FBI for messing up her last case - and probably because she’s a bit of an alcoholic.

Now she’s working as a private spy and her unnamed employer has sent her to southern France to infiltrate a farming commune, suspected of eco terrorism.

The commune has a reclusive leader - Bruno - who lives in a cave and communicates with his followers only by email and these emails appear as low-key rants every few chapters.

Jumping about between Sadie’s story and the letters from Bruno made the pacing feel a little bit off for me in the first half of the book, but the second half becomes smoother and by the end the book reads like quite a contemporary / mainstream spy thriller (at least by Booker Prize standards!)

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Over on LibroFM I enjoyed a bit of a rare treat - a work of literary fiction that is narrated by the author* - and in the case of My Friends by Hisham Matar it was extra-lovely to hear all the North African names pronounced by a native speaker.

In this story a Libyan student leaves home to attend the University of Edinburgh. He impulsively agrees to attend a protest at the Libyan Embassy in London with friends, but it gets out of control and our protagonist - Khaled - is seriously injured in the mayhem.

We learn about his pressured relationships with his parents back home, and that he can't tell his parents what’s been happening for their own safety - knowing that the phone lines are monitored by the government. 

Later he has a chance encounter with an author named Hosam Zowa, writer of an impactful short story Khaled heard read aloud on the radio as a boy and this friendship becomes critical to the rest of the book.

The story examines friendship, loyalty and belonging.

*Subsequently, Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake was also released on audiobook, narrated by the author.

Your Table is Ready - Tales of a New Your Maitre D by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

My last book of the month and only work of nonfiction was Your Table is Ready - Tales of a New Your Maitre D by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina. I’d saw this in a number of bookshops last year when it first came out but never had the chance to read it when it was new.

This is the front of house version of Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential or the American version of A Waiter in Paris. Also narrated by the author this one is filled with predictably foul-mouthed waiters and chefs, sex, drug-use, entitled customers, and celebrity clientele.