Sublime Cities
A December Spent Between
Books Read:
Kings of This World (Elizabeth Knox)
Fire (Kristin Cashore, narrated by Xanthe Elbrick) *
Seven Steeples (Sara Baume, narrated by Aoife McMahon)
French Braid (Anne Tyler, narrated by Kimberly Farr)
What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) (Stanley Tucci, narrated by the author)
The Witches of Eastwick (John Updike, narrated by Kate Reading)
Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City (Anna Quindlen)
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Satoshi Yagisawa, trans. Eric Ozawa)
Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)
The English Understand Wool (Helen DeWitt)
On the Sublime (Longinus, trans. H.L. Havell)
The Means of Escape (Penelope Fitzgerald) *
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Looking After Your Books (Francesca Galligan)
Flèche: Poems (Mary Jean Chan) *
Books Bought:
Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age (Sara Wheeler)
Every Day Is To-Day: Essential Writings (Gertrude Stein)
Twice Born: Finding My Father in the Margins of Biography (Hester Kaplan)
These Days (Lucy Caldwell)
Andromeda (Therese Bohman)
The Girls (John Bowen)
Bear (Marian Engel)
A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir (Emily Wells)
Bookends: Collected Intros and Outros (Michael Chabon)
Warrenpoint: A Memoir (Denis Donoghue)
The Easter Parade (Richard Yates)
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (Luis Sepúlveda, trans. Peter Bush)
In the Country of Men (Hisham Matar)
An Imaginary Life (David Malouf)
Love, Love, and Love (Sandra Bernhard)
The Rural Life (Verlyn Klinkenborg)
Tropical Classical: Essays from Several Directions (Pico Iyer)
Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer (Richard Holmes)
Readings (Sven Birkerts)
Novel Violence: A Narratography of Victorian Fiction (Garrett Stewart)
Find Ireland: A Poet’s Explorations of Irish Literature and Culture (Richard Tillinghast)
A Writer’s Journal (H.D. Thoreau, ed. Laurence Stapleton)
Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue (Yoko Tawada, trans. Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda)
Putting Myself Together: Writing 1974– (Jamaica Kincaid)
The Witch of Exmoor (Margaret Drabble)
The Tortoise and the Hare (Elizabeth Jenkins)
Blaming (Elizabeth Taylor)
Broken Colors (Michele Zackheim)
Books Libraried:
Seven Steeples (Baume, narrated by McMahon)
French Braid (Tyler, narrated by Farr)
What I Ate in One Year (Tucci, narrated by Tucci)
Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now—As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It (Craig Taylor)
“The coping mechanism I ultimately went with was to devote my life to sleep. Even I was surprised by how sleepy I was. I know it was probably my body’s way of helping me avoid reality, but once I buried myself in my covers, I would fall asleep right away.” (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop)
Have road trip, will audiobook—the motto of this December.
As the end of the year barreled toward us, I became less discerning in my reading. Or: my more eclectic streak won out, as I raced the clock to fulfill my reading goals. I sampled Stanley Tucci (who I’d been avoiding due to a grad school-related feud—not with Tucci), charged through popular fiction, and returned to long-standing favorite YA authors.
I also attended a much-anticipated wedding, crossed state and country borders, spent less than twelve hours in New York City, and continued to practice weight-lifting (by hauling entire tote and duffel bags crammed with books through airports unaided). All in all, a very full and surprisingly busy December.
Longinus’ On the Sublime is a fun read for anyone enamored by the Ancients, and also a fascinating look at how writing “rules” have changed—or not—in the last couple thousand years.
A Tale of Two Cities arrived heavily recommended and did not disappoint. Apparently, the BBC is releasing a tv adaptation in 2026, reaffirming this as the year I accidentally read several Classic novels with film/series versions in production (and, thus, on their way to being available for my enjoyment/judgement).
Both the Dickens and the Quindlen offered an appreciated glimpse of earlier forms of London, reminding me of the shifting nature of cities. A topic I keep meaning to return to and expand upon; a desire reinforced by reencountering Penelope Fitzgerald’s short stories set in Istanbul, which juxtaposed my memories of the modern city against her older, fictional version.
The personalities of cities (and their specific neighborhoods—from Baltimore to Tokyo’s Jinbōchō district, a Rhode Island enclave to Oxford’s libraries) ran through other books this month, and the rootedness of place was interesting to observe, particularly as I flung myself into various corners of North America.
We have crept, somehow, to the rim of the year—are peering over the edge, into 2026. I’m free from my self-imposed bondage of two-Classics-per-month, and the reading clock will reset, giving me some much-needed breathing room (where did I go so wrong? I ask, knowing full well it was in July, and to a lesser extent March and April, that I flagged).
The particular style of these missives will shift, as well, as I’ve not enjoyed this year’s writing as much as last’s (something the erratic publishing schedule, combined with a wild end-of-year run attests to). We shall see what we shall see.
In the meantime, looking forward to a few more days of empty-headed holiday bliss. I have a brick of a library book waiting for collection, some recipes on deck for this colder weather, and new bookstores scheduled for exploration.
A 2025 Reading Wrap-Up will appear, in due course. Until then, Happy New Year! Pick up a book for me.