The boards we hath trod
Three novels with lots of drama.
I’m back from my UK travels, where I visited a ton of bookshops—Mr. B’s Emporium and Persephone, both in Bath, were my favorite—and bought all of the books above. Whatever, there are worse things than buying a ton of books and having to ship all your clothes home separately.
Thanks a ton to Archie DiNunzio and Sudie Simmons (and Gabriela Riccardi) for handling the last two issues of EELS while I flitted about! Catch up on books approved by a tween and books with endings you will not predict.
Would you help spread the goodish word of EELS? Forward hither and yon! Post about it on your socials! Let us get more Book Pals into the fold!
And now, I shall raise the curtain!
🎭 🪖 The Whalebone Theatre
Joanna Quinn, 2022
I wanted a Very British Book to read while I was Britishing, and, thanks to
and her rec from several weeks ago, I ended up with this one. It’s a decades-spanning tale focusing on a few women powering through the changing world of the British aristocracy in the first half of the 20th century.Towards the start of the story, fierce, neglected child Cristabel Seagrave bemoans the fact that all the books she likes have no good female characters. I see what you did there, Book. Cristabel and her sister Flossie are some of the most interesting characters I’ve welcomed into my life in a long time. Besides Demon, of course.
Recommended to: Those who love a good description of a dissipated, champagne-soaked, party in a crumbling English manor house, and those who love a good World War II underground network story. If you liked 1. Life After Life, 2. The Alice Network, or 3. The Nightingale, this is the book for you—on the scale of amazingness, it lies somewhere between 1 and 2.
What’s playing: The children of Chilcombe construct an oceanside theater out of the bones of a whale. Productions ensue.
🎭 👹 All’s Well
Mona Awad, 2021
Mona Awad books are like listening to a friend who is searingly funny but also clearly unraveling at the seams. I love this vibe. Sort of like Kevin Wilson and sort of like Hex with shades of White Tears (a book I mystifyingly can get very few people into).
It follows a theater professor who also dabbles in witchy herbs and extreme paranoia. My only complaint is that it’s very similar to Awad’s previous book, but I absolutely freaking loved Bunny (their small small hands!), so more of the same was not unwelcome.
Awad’s tone is so unique that it’s the basis for her lawsuit alleging OpenAI must have trained ChatGPT on her books without her permission in order to generate such a good imitation of her.
Recommended to: Those who can handle very dark, very absurd humor. And Shakespeare fans. And, I imagine, people who were involved in the college drama scene.
What’s playing: All’s Well that Ends Well, obviously, which I immediately read after completing this book. I learned that this is one of Shakespeare’s problematic plays because it’s not clear whether it’s a comedy or a tragedy, or even who is in the right and who is in the wrong. I also see what you did there, Book!
🎭 🤒 Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel, 2014
Do not pass this over because you’ve heard it’s a pandemic book. Station Eleven is a lot more than that. Plus, I sort of like pandemic content written before 2020, because now I get to LOL about how wrong all the stuff is—your superflu killed most of the population in a couple of days? Har! That short of an incubation period doesn’t make a very hardy virus! It’s funny how the idea of a disease that sends your body from “cough” to “dead” mere hours after infection used to scare the tar out of us. These days, we know all too well that it’s the ones that take forever to manifest that will bring humanity to a screeching halt. People, we are geniuses now! And, we remember damage!
Really, the virus part of this story is just a sort of prologue before the often beautiful, almost always difficult post-pandemic era begins. A traveling theater company delights communities of survivors, while the main character obsesses about a spaceguy comic book she was given as child, when the world was falling apart. The circumstances and relevance of this comic book are what you’ll find out as you go.
Recommended to: Those who like a gripping plot, but also love finding the moments of delight within a turbulent time. There’s lots of violence and death, though, so it’s not for the squeamish.
What’s playing: Shakespeare again, sorry. But, like, the man hasn’t been famous for 400+ years because he’s a hack.
Secret recommended format: I cannot imagine I have ever done this before or ever will again, but if you feel like it, you could skip the book and watch the truly excellent HBO series of the same name. It’s the best book-to-film adaptation I’ve seen, I think.
Another TV show you should get into if you can find it
🎭 🇨🇦 Slings and Arrows - 2003-2006
This three-season, six-episodes-a-season show was recommended to me by an old boss (hi, Susan!), and I was transfixed. A struggling Shakespeare company puts on a different production each season, and the offstage action somewhat mirrors the plot of the play. A very young Rachel McAdams stars in the first season!
Enough Shakespeare for now! Here’s something completely different…
Edit this Dusty Stack™!
Take a look at this nonfiction fan’s stack and tell them what they should really pass over in favor of a gripping novel about theater—or what they should move to the top and start reading! Leave your thoughts in the comments, or email to me by hitting reply, and I’ll pass them along.
That was the thirteenth EELS! Again, I would absolutely love it if you’d share widely on your socials or through a bossy text to a friend! I’ve got some cool new features rolling out soon! As always, send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations by hitting reply.
– Susan