Works in Progress

I put off posting because I have only one book finished since my last post, but then I realized that I don't have to only post about books completed.

Goals

Speaking of completing books, yesterday I decided to relieve the totally arbitrary pressure I have placed on my reading life, and I reduced by 5 the number of books to be read on my 2026 GoodReads challenge. I am now at a comfortable 60, and with 53 read and holiday books beckoning, I know I will easily make that goal.

Bleak House

Now I can focus on enjoying my reread of Bleak House by Charles Dickens and not feel like I need to spend every possible minute reading/listening to it. I read a particularly good chapter yesterday, chapter 27, in which Mr. George (the shooting gallery proprietor) seeks the advice of his friend and fellow ex-soldier about whether to give in to Mr. Tulkinhorn's request that he provide a handwriting sample from his old army commander, now deceased. The friend insists that his wife provide Mr. George with her advice on the topic, and she says:

... he cannot have too little to do with people who are too deep for him and cannot be too careful of interference with matters he does not understand—that the plain rule is to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing underhanded or mysterious, and never to put his foot where he cannot see the ground. 

Better advice I cannot imagine! I do love Dickens these days. 

Bleak House is a perfect book for the season, as the nights grow longer and colder, the leaves rustle and swirl, and the gloomy day is occasionally brightened when the sun peeps out and makes the golds and reds of the season come to life. It's a book weighed down with mist and fog and mud, mystery, dark deeds, relieved by occasional bursts of light.

The October Country

I'm also working my way through a collection of Ray Bradbury short stories, The October Country. I've found that I cannot read more than a story a day, and often I need more than a few days between stories. Most range between creepy and super-creepy, a few I simply don't get, and a few are thought-provoking and insightful. However, the writing is always a pleasure to read. I am really coming to respect Mr. Bradbury's talent.

From Wikipedia {my notes with some spoilers...sorry!}

"The Dwarf" - The proprietor of a Mirror Maze and the proprietor of a hoop circus at the same carnival observe a dwarf who uses one of the mirrors to make himself appear taller.  {Interesting but a bit predictable. It frustrated me that being able to write wonderful stories wasn’t fulfilling enough for the dwarf.}

"The Next in Line" - A couple staying in a small Mexican town comes across a cemetery which holds a shocking policy regarding the interred whose families cannot pay. {Chilling, but I actually think it would have been more powerful if he had switched who died in the end.}

"The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" - A thoroughly dull man becomes the new avant garde craze precisely because he is boring. {I ended up skimming this one as it made zero sense and was boring and frustrating to read.]

"Skeleton" - A man becomes convinced his skeleton is out to ruin him, and consults an unorthodox specialist. {The best story in the collection so far. Such an original idea to have the skeleton man in conflict with the fleshy man it is inside of. There are a lot of stories, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that have a person with a double identity, and this is sort of like that but different. I thought it was brilliant actually}

"The Jar" - A poor farmer buys a jar with something floating in it for twelve dollars and it soon becomes the conversation piece of the town. However his wife begins to realize that she cannot stand the jar or him. {Another incredible story. Anthropologically it feels like reading about the birth of religion. And the ending is super chilling.}

"The Lake" - A man revisits his childhood home and recalls a friend who drowned in a lake during childhood. {Another amazing story. I actually liked it better than some of the others because it was so sweet and poignant, more sad than creepy.}

"The Emissary" - A sick boy who cannot go outside has only two connections to the world, his dog and a woman who lives in the neighborhood. However, the neighbor dies and the dog inexplicably runs off. {I thought the writing was exceptional--I loved the descriptions of Dog brought the seasons to Martin. I was shocked when his teacher died. Not sure if it was a ghost Dog that brought Miss Haight back to him or if Dog had just been searching for her the whole time he was missing.}

"Touched With Fire" - Two old men make it their mission to push fulfillment on unhappy people. They unsuccessfully try to do so with a woman whose story ends bloodily. {I think it is my favorite so far in that I think Bradbury hit on something I believe. There are people who seem to invite trouble, they go looking for it, and it finds them!}

"The Small Assassin" - A woman becomes convinced her newborn baby is out to kill her. {A new take on postpartum depression. I didn't like this story--skimmed part of it. Too creepy for me. Very disturbing}

"The Crowd" - A man discovers something odd about the crowds that form around accidents. {I figured out pretty early where Bradbury was going with this story. Interesting, but not a wow!}

"Jack-in-the-Box" - A boy lives with his mother in a vast secluded mansion. She raises him to be God after telling him his father, the original God, was killed by beasts outside. {Too weird to be enjoyable. I didn't get it--he had to die to live?}

"The Scythe" - A man comes into possession of a powerful scythe and a wheat field. He discovers that the task of reaping is more than meets the eye. {A grim reaper story--very apt for Halloween. I was surprised at the turn it took, but very thought-provoking.}

I have seven more stories to read in the collection. Should take me another week!

Nonfiction November

 I just started Jane Austen and Crime, by Susannah Fullerton, for my JASNA region's November book club meeting. There is an excellent episode on the Austen Chat podcast with an interview with the author: Jane Austen & Crime: A Visit with Susannah Fullerton Austen Chat | iHeart that sparked my interest in reading the book.

I would also like to make some headway with How the Scots Invented the Modern World and the bio of Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser--both of which have been languishing while I fritter away my time reading novels.

Is there a blogger who is hosting NfN this year with prompts? I haven't been able to find one.

Holiday Reading

I haven't made any selections yet for holiday reading, so I'm looking for some recommendations. What do you love? Reread frequently?