Five books for the week

October 22nd-29th, 2023

People often make the mistake of thinking I am a fast reader. I am not. I am probably a pretty average or maybe even a slow reader. I am also a wildly uncontrollable mood reader. Is mood reader a thing outside of bookstagram? I’m not sure, but you get the vibe. I may think I want to read something and then I just don’t feel like it at the time. I’m pretty good at anticipating whether a book is for me or not so it isn’t really a matter of not liking it or not being able to admit I’m not liking it, but more that the timing just isn’t perfect. This means I start a lot of books and I don’t always finish them right away. You want proof? According to Goodreads, I am currently reading 32 books. Oops.

Unrelated to reading - well, mostly, anyway - I got a new bed recently which has shaken up the entire bedroom situation. With the new arrival, I reoriented the furniture and now the table I was using as my bedside is a bookshelf and the chair that I was using to pile everything I didn’t want to put in a proper place has taken over as the destination for my sleep needs: eye mask, lip balm, and, of course, my current reads. It’s my nightstand, I suppose.

As any book lover knows, it’s really easy for any surface to get overrun with books, but especially when you have no self-control and have to switch one book out for another when all the stars have not aligned for a particular title.

So, when I rearranged all the stuff and ended up with less space than I was used to for books, I went around and looked at all the ones I’ve started or wanted to and I formed a neat little pile of five. I put it on my chair/nightstand and looking at it several times over several days, I really grew to like it. I had the idea that each week, I’d identify five books and just try to roll with them. That way, if one wasn’t my jam, I could switch to another without having to face an entire wall of unread possibilities.

I don’t know that this resolves the moody reader dilemma, but for now, it feels good so I am going with it.

Here are my five books for this week, three of which are carryovers from past weeks.

The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong - This is one of the books that was shortlisted for this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize and one of the longlisted titles that I had been most curious about. I spent last weekend at the Whistler Writer’s Festival and attended a couple of events where Kevin Chong was moderator and panelist and hearing him speak inched his book up on my priority list.

The Double Life of Benson Yu is described as “A fresh, unique work of metafiction that follows a graphic novelist who loses control of his own narrative when he attempts to write the story of his fraught upbringing in 1980s Chinatown.”

Huge by Brent Butt - I received a copy of this book from the Whistler Writer’s Festival team because Brent Butt was the guest for their event Saturday Night Special: A Killer Night of Comedy, Murder and Mayhem. Before seeing his standup performance and reading, I was aware of who he was, but was largely unfamiliar with his work. I learned that he’s a pretty versatile and experienced writer. I can also confirm that he’s also pretty funny.

Huge, a book that I started a few weeks ago to prime myself for the performance last weekend, is funny, but also pretty dark and eerie. The tagline on the cover reads, “In comedy, killing is a good thing.”

Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel - I randomly picked this title up at the library a couple of weeks ago. I’m fascinated by the conversations women have around motherhood and each individual’s decisions related to it. This complex story of two friends with evolving opinions and choices intrigued me and I decided to borrow it immediately. Still Born was longlisted for the International Booker Prize this year, a fact which, I will admit, I didn’t know at the time I acquired it.

This is the current read getting the majority of my attention right now. I started it this morning and struggled to break away from it. It was originally written in Spanish, Still Born was translated by Rosalind Harvey.

Your Body is a Revolution by Tara Teng - This book was a gift from the team at Dundurn Press 🙏 and one I’ve been working on for a little while now. The introduction recommends reading with a friend and, though I recruited two of mine to read it with me, the practice of working through it together stalled in both cases. A guidebook to reconnecting with our bodies and learning to accept ourselves and prioritize our wellbeing is thoughtful and well-intentioned, but it is probably more suitable to a younger or less experienced audience that may be just learning to identify the importance of these actions. Most of my friends and I have been at this for a while so, while it’s inspiring, much of it is not new to us. What makes me really excited about this book is the opportunity to share it with the younger women in my life who may be embarking on that journey.

Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo - This book was also a gift from Dundurn Press, from their Rare Machines imprint, which has published some of my favourite books over the last couple of years. A compact little book, the quick synopsis of Naniki offers this: “Through luminescent light, ancestral paths, and a Caribbean spirit-inflected world, Naniki explores the musings and inner workings of the deep blue — the Caribbean Sea — and its shape-shifting sea beings.” A quick look inside reveals some interesting choices in prose and

Naniki will be published on January 23rd, 2024.

What will you be reading this week?