This week: The real monster
Contains no actual monsters
Welcome to EELS!
Here, we’ll give a few weekly book recommendations tailored to readers of all sorts. And by “we,” I mean “me,” Susan Howson—a reader of books, a writer of emails, and a doer of voices when the audience (literally only my child) requests.
We’ll talk about new books, old books, overrated books, and probably a couple cookbooks. If you’ve got recs you want to tell the world (or, um, a very small subsection of the world), hit reply.
My vow to you is to keep it short. You’ve got real reading to do.
This week’s accidental theme: The real monster
👑 Spare
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, 2023
The UK’s most recently famous expat released a hotly anticipated tell-all that’s so well ghostwritten as to sort of make you make unexpected gleeful sounds. He saves his friends from muggers! He proudly tackles his own trauma to help other traumatized veterans! He shoots (pheasants and people) (but, like, for the army)! He scores! He has to make money where he can, now.
Recommended to: Those who don’t care that much about the British Royal Family, but also those who do care that much about the British Royal Family.
Recommended format: Audiobook — It’s read by the author and it’s funny hearing him talk about FRIENDS
According to this book, the real monster is: Journalists 😬
🍹 Lord of the Flies
William Golding, 1954
Sure, we all read this in high school, but if you’re like me, you’ve read all sorts of tripe since. And going back to good literature is like… well it’s like a dip in a lagoon on a punishingly hot day when the shadows are green upon your face and there is no help in sight. Hark! Is that a boat on the horizon, the boat of literature, ready to deliver you from a pretty but deadly island of too much fruit and not enough protein? It is a boat, and that boat is a book, and that book worried me slightly too much about its general lack of sunscreen usage on young skin.
Recommended to: Those who are tired of bad writing and have consumed a lot of that writing in the form of one-note zombie TV shows.
According to this book, the real monster is: Adolescent boys. I mean, it would tell you “The real monster is human nature!” but you and I have been to middle school.
👒 The Annotated Little Women
Louisa May Alcott, John Matteson, 2015 (via 1868)
OK, at this point, Lord of the Flies became too frightening, and I needed an antidote. Enter this copy of The Annotated Little Women, which weighs about as much as a Civil War-era traveling trunk and which I picked up at Louisa May Alcott’s ACTUAL HOUSE last spring in Concord, Mass.
An extra word about this edition, which is not just “Oh it’s beautiful and fascinating with tons of notes and pictures!”—it really does weave its own side narrative of how Alcott used the book to fix a lot of the things for Jo that she couldn’t fix for herself in real life. And also, her dad was a hippie, and by all accounts a difficult hang.
Recommended to: Those who cannot explain why they love a novel full of preaching and goodness and want to be able to explain that love to a group of skeptical friends.
Recommended format: Hard copy or nothing at all
According to this book, the real monster is: Selfishness. Vanity. Scarlet fever. Unannotated versions of anything.
Most overrated book I’ve read lately
🎻 The Ensemble - Aja Gabel, 2019
I flew through it because I was sick and bored and in love with classical music, but I felt nothing.
And now, a bonus recommendation, from a person who had the misfortune to text me about a book while I was writing this
😱 Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff, 2017
Recommended to: Those who read H.P. Lovecraft and now feel a little bad about it, but are still deeply unsettled by the ancient horrors that lie in waiting to consume our souls (racism, in this case, not octopus-headed Elder Gods.
Recommended by: Ross, who writes Good Morning, RVA!, rides bikes, and has recently loved Harrow the Ninth, Lincoln in the Bardo, and Small Game.
Thanks for reading the very first EELS! Send any and all questions, feedback, and shouted book recommendations to me by hitting reply!
– Susan