Book Haul: October 2020

 

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Welcome to Stacking the Shelves and Mailbox Monday, where I get to show off the books I’ve gotten recently.

 

 

 

⛄ October 2020 Book Haul 🍁

 

 

 

In The Shadow Of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

 

Young Adult Historical Fiction

 

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?

 

Why I want to read it: There doesn’t seem to be much difference between 1918 and 2020. Americans are still roaming the streets in masks! The ghost boyfriend is intriguing. I’m ready for some spooky adventures.

 

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Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

 

Adult Historical Fiction

 

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

 

Why I want to read it: I love family sagas that follow generations of characters. Usually family sagas are fat books, so I was surprised at the scrawniness of Homegoing. How is the author going to pack this story into a tiny book? I’m interested to find out.

 

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The Thing With Feathers by McCall Hoyle

 

Young Adult Contemporary

 

Emilie Day believes in playing it safe: she’s homeschooled, her best friend is her seizure dog, and she’s probably the only girl on the Outer Banks of North Carolina who can’t swim.

Then Emilie’s mom enrolls her in public school, and Emilie goes from studying at home in her pj’s to halls full of strangers. To make matters worse, Emilie is paired with starting point guard Chatham York for a major research project on Emily Dickinson. She should be ecstatic when Chatham shows interest, but she has a problem. She hasn’t told anyone about her epilepsy.

Emilie lives in fear her recently adjusted meds will fail and she’ll seize at school. Eventually, the worst happens, and she must decide whether to withdraw to safety or follow a dead poet’s advice and “dwell in possibility.”

 

Why I want to read it: I haven’t read much YA contemporary this year. I decided to change that by going on the hunt for under-hyped YA books. This book doesn’t have a ton of reviews, but the ones I’ve seen are very positive.

 

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Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón

 

Adult Historical Fiction

 

Máni Steinn is queer in a society in which the idea of homosexuality is beyond the furthest extreme. His city, Reykjavik in 1918, is homogeneous and isolated and seems entirely defenseless against the Spanish flu, which has already torn through Europe, Asia, and North America and is now lapping up on Iceland's shores. And if the flu doesn't do it, there's always the threat that war will spread all the way north. And yet the outside world has also brought Icelanders cinema. And there's nothing like a dark, silent room with a film from Europe flickering on the screen to help you escape from the overwhelming threats—and adventures—of the night, to transport you, to make you feel like everything is going to be all right. For Máni Steinn, the question is whether, at Reykjavik's darkest hour, he should retreat all the way into this imaginary world, or if he should engage with the society that has so soundly rejected him.

 

Why I want to read it: For mysterious reasons, I’m very interested in the 1918 flu pandemic right now. This is a translated novel from an Icelandic writer. That’s not a perspective I’ve read before. I’m also interested in how the main character uses movies to escape from his life. That sounds relatable.

 

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American Fire: Love, Arson, And Life In A Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse

 

Adult True Crime Nonfiction

 

Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain.

 

Why I want to read it: I’m interested in rural America because that’s where I’ve spent my life. Books that focus on crime in rural settings instantly get my attention. I’m always searching for well-researched true crime stories, and this one got some award buzz when it came out.

 

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Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?