February Book Review
When my family of origin gathers, they tell stories. My grandparents sit on their wide porch swing, my grandma’s legs crossed at the ankle and dangling in the air, my grandpa gently rocking the bench, big boots firmly planted on the ground. They tell stories from their childhoods, and from their parenting years, moments and snapshots of an accumulated experience that spans from the 1950s up until their breakfast meetup with friends that very morning. There is a distinct bias toward stories that provoke laughter, so sometimes humor is drawn from a situation that might be more bleak if told less colorfully, but the color is what makes the shadows bearable, and laughter shared lightens a heavy load.
As an only child who lived a thousand miles from those grandparents, when at home I honored their culture by retelling my mother every book that I read, in glorious detail—such detail, in fact, that she can accurately reference them, years later, despite never having read them herself.
Recently I had the opportunity to share a personal story with some in-person people, to recount a childhood experience. I shared it with a small group, then one of those people asked me to share it with a larger group. One piece of feedback I received afterward was that the person “felt as though they were there.”
That’s the wonder of storytelling, to me. The telling part. When I write I have to use a lot of extra words to convey something that could be more easily indicated through a gesture, an expression, an intonation. Some of the expansiveness and possibility is lost when a wild tale is subdued into the shape of letters and made to march across a page.
I’ve been trying to practice storytelling more. It’s easiest with other people’s stories, either true ones, or ones I’ve read. My eldest loves anything about Loki, and also usually demands a retelling of whatever I read for bookclub (often heavily edited for age appropriateness). But I’m also telling my own stories; how it’s been, and how it is, and how it could be. To not only recount the mythology of my own origin, but also daring to believe that I can speak a beautiful future into being.
“That’s the joy of myths. The fun comes in telling them yourself—something that I warmly encourage you to do, you person reading this. Read the stories in this book, and then make them your own, and on some dark and icy winter’s evening, or on a summer night when the sun will not set, tell your friends what happened when…” —from Neil Gaiman’s introduction to his Norse Mythology
Hekate, Goddess of Witchcraft by Courtney Weber, nonfiction. History of and rituals associated with the deity Hekate.
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, fiction. A fireside retelling of select Norse myths. (I have both the physical and audio versions of this, so it was very much a relisten.)
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, fiction. Chloe Brown’s chronic illness has prompted her to prioritize safety and control in her life. But a jarring experience inspires her to set out with a list for adventurous living. Bookclub read.
The Sky is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words edited by Virginia Trimble and David A Weintraub, nonfiction. Essays by women astronomers on their lives and experiences.
The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell, fiction. A police detective uncovers the seedy secrets of London’s poshest while trying to solve a murder.
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall, fiction. Emma’s life abruptly crumbles, forcing her to return to the home her parents died in, the sisters she’s estranged from, and the town that’s still convinced she’s a killer.
Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes, nonfiction. An overview of the goddesses of Greek mythology, considering the ways these stories have been shaped by the (primarily) men who have told and translated them.
Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson, fiction. An aspiring author exchanges notes with an anonymous editor on her dropped romcom-in-progress.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, fiction. A woman-focused retelling of the Trojan War myth.
Let’s Go to the Mall: an ’80s seek-and-find by Sally Nixon. A visual journey through a weekend in middle America in the 1980s.
Reading adjacent, Neil Gaiman’s Storytelling masterclass, borrowed from the library and watched one lesson at a time.
Total books read: 20
Fiction: 10
Nonfiction: 10