Books in 2017 /// February
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer- The Wall had been on my reading list for a long time and I’m glad I kept it on. It was an amazing book. The unnamed main character, a middle-aged woman, finds herself alone in the Austrian mountains after an invisible wall has isolated her from the rest of the world and seemingly killed everyone on the other side. Her only companions are a dog, cow, and cat, and she must learn to live a more natural way of life to survive. It is sad and wonderful and interesting to read. The book can be interpreted a number of ways, and the woman’s fate is ultimately unknown (a point that is addressed at the beginning of the book). It was incredible how engrossing a book about growing food, maintaining a shelter, and keeping one’s animals alive could be. I also wasn’t aware that this book was originally published in 1963 until about halfway through. It truly transcended time.
Hocus Pocus in Focus by Aaron Wallace- TOTALLY AWESOME. Holly got me this book for Christmas and it was super cool. Lots of fun facts and analyses and whatnot. The chapters on horror movie tropes and virginity were favorites of mine. If you love Hocus Pocus, you’ll definitely enjoy this book.
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules- So this is a book of short stories compiled by David Sedaris, who is one of my favorite authors. I was a bit on the annoyed side going in because I thought that they were short stories actually written by him, but I trust his judgement. The stories flowed pretty well, with regards to length and tone and subject matter. The ones I liked best were probably Gryphon by Charles Baxter (in which a weird substitute teacher basically introduces the concept of “alternative facts” to elementary-school children), Half a Grapefruit by Alice Munro (in which there is a very Southern Gothic-vibe despite the author being Canadian and you know I’m about that shit), and The Girl with the Blackened Eye by Joyce Carol Oates (I like Oates).
Honorable mentions- People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk by Lorrie Moore and Irish Girl by Tim Johnston
There is abduction, violence, and rape in the Oates story.
Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, Farmer Boy, and On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder- I decided to re-read the Little House on the Prairie series for the first time since I was a little girl. When I was younger, I actually only read the first four and a half out of the nine books, but I think I’ll appreciate the later ones more now that I’m older. I adored the ones I had read, though. And I still do. Little House in the Big Woods was my absolute favorite, and it was still as charming and cozy as ever. Reading these books made me feel like I was eight years old again. They were so familiar and comforting.
Charles (Pa) is pretty much the ultimate “get you a man who can do both”.
The chapters with the Indians in the second book were probably my favorite when I was younger. Little me thought the Indians were cool. But rereading it now, I’m just like, “Yo, can everybody stop being racist?” There was also a stingy unpleasant man in one of the chapters in Farmer Boy, and when I turned the page, he was clearly coded as Jewish in the illustration and I’m like “C’MON”.
Farmer Boy takes place in Malone, NY, and where the Wilder family lives about five miles away. Malone is about an hour from where I live, so it’s super cool to hear the names of places and rivers and whatnot that I’m familiar with in this little American classic.
There are literally so many things that happen in these books that I love, though. Like every other chapter, I’m like, “Mom, guess what’s happening now?!” Christmas or going to town or Nellie Oleson being a little bitch, or whatever...
I might watch the TV series after I finish the books. I’ve seen a few episodes here and there but never really watched it. My mom would love to watch that all over again from start to finish. That could be fun to watch.
Stay tuned for next month in which I will finish the series and read the ones that I never read as a kid! I’m kind of excited for this!
