Something completely different
Three books you have never heard of, thank heaven, am I right?
I keep looking at the various stacks of books in my house and wondering how they even got there, and a lot of them are brightly colored spines I’m tired of feeling like I should read. Probably I’ll get around to this and that hit book of 2019 or whatever, but lately I’m in the mood for weird shadow-lurkers. Send me titles you think I haven’t read, preferably ones I’ve never heard of. I’ll read them.
These three may require a financial outlay—your library probably won’t have them. In fact, the third one is exclusively available only at one place, and the first one sort of is, too. But they won’t lie around your house pouting about some book club or other. Who can tell us what to read! No one! We read what we want! Well, I guess I do sort of tell you what to read. Sorry about that.
Do you have friends who like books? You totally do! Would they like EELS? Forward this to them or share on your socials and let’s find out!
Want to see what I’ve recommended in the past? Guess what—there’s a handy spreadsheet out there with all sorts of helpful info to help you choose your next read, and if you’re an EELS subscriber, I’ll give you access to it.
🥬 A House in the Country
Jocelyn Playfair, 1944
Let me talk to you about Persephone Books, which is a UK publisher of passed over or forgotten or little-known mostly mid-20th century, mostly women authors. I popped into their shop when I was in Bath this summer—imagine neat stacks of books, all in their trademark grey covers (they just like grey, they say!) with custom endpapers (like, designed for each book). Every book has a little description hanging off its shelf, and I read every single one. I wanted to buy every single one. Weakly, tepidly, cheaply, I got two. Ugh. Well, let’s talk about one of them at least, and then you can join me in buying their entire catalog!
Cressida Chance walks purposefully around her House in the Country in the English countryside as the country white-knuckles its way through World War II. She’s taken in paying guests, pulling herself up by her bootstraps, observing how her fellow countrypeople are weathering the storm, and wondering what it is all for. By “it,” I mean war. I also mean fancy things. And society. And love and marriage and pretense and shiny hair and servants—definitely servants. The crumbling of old things and the starting of new. England on a precipice is exactly my jam, and I, too, would gaze out at the war garden cabbages in neat rows before sighing and harnessing my horse to go see about that night’s fish for dinner, stopping for not a single moment to admire my Chippendale chair which once, long ago, someone had offered me a fortune for.
Recommended to: Those who would also do those things.
🕰️ The Bunner Sisters
Edith Wharton, 1916
Two definitely un-gilded sisters in Gilded Age New York run a little trimmings shop and learn some hard lessons about the nature of people and the way of life. That’s about all I need to say. I went on too long about A House in the Country, and longwindedness is, according to Goodreads reviews, the greatest complaint about A House in the Country! What! Not longwinded enough if you ask me!
I asked a tour guide at Edith Wharton’s pad what is an Edie book I haven’t read that I should read and this is what she enthusiastically said. She also pronounced “shutters” with a hard “t” sound, and I am not unconvinced she did not travel via portal to work every morning from the Gilded Age herself.
Recommended to: Those who would do a lot for a sister, and probably you should know what “pinking” is.
🙊 Girls and Boys
Dennis Kelly, 2018
My work pal Scott Nover wrote this Obsession on audiobooks this week, which you should read, and it inspired me to find an audiobook for you that you have never heard of that can only be experienced as an audiobook. In this case, annoyingly, it can only be experienced on Audible. I’m a big, big library fan, so I apologize. But it’s read by Carey Mulligan, and it’s worth it, despite the fact that you will complete this experience and then write me an angry email from the operating table where they will be surgically reattaching your heart into the gaping cavity whence it sprung, screaming, on tiny heart-legs, and ran from the room. (Weirdly, I think our Obsession next week will be on organ donors.)
Really, this is a play. I have cheated.
Recommended to: Those who maybe aren’t new parents.
Recommended format: Audiobook, if at all possible!
And now, a bonus recommendation
“I recently listened to Michael C. Hall narrating Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, which was a quick (2 hour, 50 minute) and really delightful experience. I've never read the book (novella?) nor seen the film (I still pictured Audrey Hepburn), so the audiobook brought the story to me fresh. Michael C. Hall, the voice of the television serial killer Dexter, was a smart casting choice. Hall is exceptional at inner monologue and well-suited for a piece of literature that plays out almost entirely inside a narrator's head. I picked out of Audible's library on a whim and am glad I did. It's a weird little story!”
Recommended by: The above Scott Nover! I, Susan, can super recommend Michael C. Hall reading Pet Sematary. Incredible. Michael C. Hall, if you’re listening, thanks for everything.
That was the twenty-second EELS! I would be just so grateful if you’d share widely with your networks! As always, send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations by hitting reply.
📚 Susan
Oh GREAT now my to-read list is even more bursting at the seams. And yes, I know what "pinking" is, heaven help me.