Books, September-October 2025
Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook - Alice Waters with Cristina Mueller and Bob Carrau [This is exactly what the subtitle said it would be - the making of, not the career of - but it turns out that even with ghostwriters I would have rather just read some cookbooks.]
Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees - Patrick Horvath [I strictly limit the number of ALA freebies I take home (n.b.: written while wearing an Authors Alliance tshirt), but…cute animal cottagecore serial killer?!? okay, fine, at least for one reading. (Though my actual best ALA conversation was with Sarah Myer, about their process for drawing TMNT. While I care about TMNT as turtles not at all - it was for a friend's kid - they absolutely nailed keeping the signing line moving while also being informative and making the whole thing feel personal)]
Proper English - KJ Charles [I didn't much care for this the first time around, and what was I thinking???? It's delightful.]
Tam Lin - Pamela Dean [the theme of this post was not intended to be "I must reassess!" but here we are. For many years I adored these characters - perhaps unsurprisingly, because we were, after all, trying to speak in the same ways about our discoveries of so many of the same things (not the fairies, though). For almost as many, I found almost all of them - except Tina - more and more screamingly irritating on every rereading, until eventually I downright disliked Janet and refused to pick up my copy at all. Now it seems that I'm old enough that they're all endearingly, foolishly, impossibly young - even Nick, especially Janet, while the last 50 pages hit harder than I can remember them ever having done. Serendipity, bestowed by grace.]
The Arm of the Starfish - Madeleine L'Engle [rereading mostly because it was a convenient size to take to a protest. Things I remembered: Joshua, plus vibes. Things I hadn't previously clocked: Adam Eddington is Sixteen. Years. Old. Sixteen! Which explains so much about how deeply dumb he is about girls (and also almost everything else).* Things I misremembered: I thought it was Bach because I like him better, but of course Joshua's singing the more thematically-appropriate An die Freude in the plane. Things I am nearly certain L'Engle did not intend: on reading him introduce Arcangelo as "his very dear friend," for me to think "wait, are you trying to tell me Joshua is not only a spy who hangs out with angels (Biblically accurate!) but ALSO a deeply-closeted State Department employee???" The fact that the Bad Priest says something about disapproving of his conduct of life does not disabuse me of this suddenly firmly-held conviction.**]
* To be clear: 16 going on 17, and I think that really was meant to be a Sound of Music reference, because if the curtains fit...
** Is it obvious that I think Joshua's the most interesting character in this book, perhaps because although he's a thinly veiled Christ figure - also theologically appropriate - he is, thankfully, not 16? (16!!!))
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