Reading ...

books and Substack

My friend, my granddaughter, one of my bookcases in background

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Usually I plan to read fifty books per year. This year I made my goal thirty-three books including the three that make up the Cromwell Trilogy (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror and the Light, all by Hilary Mantel). I’m doing the year-long slow read of the Cromwell Trilogy with Simon Haisell here on Substack.

A few of the books I read in 2023

And I’ve already surpassed my goal of thirty-three books. I’ve read thirty-eight and am just finishing another. Here’s what I’ve read so far in 2025:

1. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 2017 Hachette Book 307 pp. First in a series about a Texas ranger. Enjoyed it very much. Looking forward to reading the entire series. [As of 10/12/25 the second two books are on order.]

2. Royalty-free One-Act Plays Edited by J. Crabb 2007 155 pp. Plays including Trifles by Susan Glaspell one of the first plays by a woman I read before founding a women’s theatre company in 1976. Plays by Chekhov, Strindberg, Boyce, Moliere, and more.

3. Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna A memoir about her young punk life. I read half, but lost interest.

4. In the Game by Nikki Baker 1991 Naiad Press, reissued in 2020 by ReQueered Tales 171 pages. Purportedly the first published lesbian mystery novel. Probably the first published lesbian mystery by a Black woman. Certainly the first with a black lesbian detective. Interesting tale of black middle class lesbian lives set in the late 1980s Chicago. It’s more social commentary than mystery, but a good read nevertheless.

5. Shutter by Ramona Emerson SoHo Press 2022 275 pp. First novel by Emerson, a Native American writer with an extensive background in other writing. The protagonist is a Diné photographer who sees ghosts, and has since she was a child. Her grandmother and medicine man help her deal with the ghosts she sees (and who try to pull her into their world) when she works as a forensic photographer. One case in particular demands she use her skills to solve the crime.

6. Into the Uncut Grass by Trevor Noah 2024 One World 128 pp Illustrated Children’s Book. Though I was expecting another memoir, I enjoyed this wordy children’s book about a young boy and his stuffed bear. More morals than Winnie the Pooh, and not in rhyme, but a lovely more up to date story.

7. Eleven Hours by Pamela Erens 2016 Tin House Books 165 pp. Novel about a woman undergoing labor. Interesting structure allows for weaving in backstory, others’ stories, with the drama and conflict of a difficult birth.

8. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr, 2015 Norton, 784 pp. Complete and complex biography of the playwright from birth to death, with details about the major plays and productions. Thorough index.

9. Memoirs by Tennessee Williams 1972. New Directions. 274 pp. Lots of errors made by TW, corrected later in next edition. Interesting to read his own take on his life.

10. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, Vol. 1 edited by Helena Whitbread 1988 Virago Press, 422 pp. After watching the Gentleman Jack series three times (once on PBS, twice on HBO), I wanted to read Miss Lister’s diaries and found these at my public library. I find them fascinating. Not just her life and loves, but the minutiae of her daily life: what she mended, what she paid for things, how much she slept, what she ate. Can’t wait to start Volume 2. [My TBR stack is still too tall for me to start Volume 2]

11. The Vegetarian by Han Kang 2007 Hogarth/Penguin 187 pages. Perhaps the strangest book I’ve ever read. Yet it is compelling. A short book of a type of horror about two sisters, one of whom becomes vegetarian and gradually descends into insanity, imagining herself becoming a tree. The sister is similarly tortured, becoming the vegetarian’s responsible adult, watching her sister being medically tortured.

12. Exposure by Ramona Emerson 2024 Soho Press 279 pp. Second book in series. I liked the first one better. I’m hoping I’ll like the next one best of all because in the second book she deals with her ability to see ghosts via her Navajo spiritual help. The protagonist is a crime scene photographer. Her ghosts often help solve the crimes, but have become attached to her and are making her weak and sick. She has to go back to the reservation to get help.

13. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos 1925 Liveright Publishing 131 pp The original screenplay treatment as diary, initially serialized and published in Harper’s Bazaar. The diary is by the Lorelei character, a natural blonde who is bettering herself by reading books, and dating rich men, all of whom behave like true gentlemen. Interesting to see how little/how much has changed in the past 100 years between women and men.

14. Sky Full of Elephants Cebo Campbell Simon & Schuster 2024 288 pages. All the white people walk into the ocean. Those left have to create a new world for themselves. Interesting play on Tesla’s invention using magnetic fields to produce energy.

15. Mule Bone by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston 1931 282 pp A play never finished by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston because of a “falling out” according to Hughes. Interesting introduction by Henry Gates, Jr. It includes the original story by Hurston, the play itself, and documentation of the controversy surrounding it. I preferred the documentation to the story and the play because, while their intentions were good and honorable and right at the time, today it is too hard to read the racist stereotypes. At least for me. I understand about honoring the language of a specific site and time, because I frequently invoke my own grandmother in my writings. I find the language of her place and time interesting and colorful. I wish they could have overcome their differences and produced their work in their own time. It could have changed live theater and created evolution of the genre much faster.

16. The Quilts of Gee’s Bend Tinwood Books 2002. 190 pages, beautiful hand-made quilts by poor women, reminds me of my grandma’s quilts, especially the early utilitarian ones.

17. Concerning my Daughter by Hye-jin Kim Restless Books 2022, 162 pp “Prize-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin’s debut confronts familial love, duty, mortality, and generational schism through the incendiary gaze of a tradition-bound mother faced with her daughter’s queer relationship.”

18. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Henry Holt 2009 532 pages. Doing a year-long slow read of the trilogy with Simon Haisell (substack). Loving it.

19. A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. 256 pp. 1995 Signet. The full movie script she wrote herself, but never saw made into a film.

20. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie 612 pp Little, Brown (Apparently the second time I’ve read this doorstopper; Goodreads says I read in five years ago. I loved it then too.)

21. The Antidote by Karen Russell 2025 Thorndike Press Large Print 700 pp. Russell uses a blend of speculative fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction and five character points of view to tell the story of the dust bowl. We learn of the removal of indigenous peoples, the implanting of white immigrants to replace them. Each character has their own story to tell, and every one of them is rich and full. The heart of the book is the Prairie Witch’s story. She is “the Vault,” a person who listens to people’s memories and keeps them locked inside herself, thereby relieving those people.

22. Spent by Alison Bechdel 2025 Harper Collins Signed (to me) First Edition, 272 pp

Another graphic memoir (she calls it autofiction) by the genius Alison Bechdel. Called autofiction because while the Alison character is based on her, many of the other characters are fictious. Including the gang from Dykes to Watch Out For, now in their sixties. Lovely, book based on her own fame and fortune and the feelings that caused in her, the book is also a takedown of greedy capitalism. Perfect book for our times.

23. Happy Endings are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone 1978 Dell Publishing 192pp. This is a young adult book about two young women who fall in love. The language is charmingly 70’s, true to how young people spoke at the time. The sex is not explicit, but it is there, and lovingly described. The young women deal with their own feelings, the parents, their peers, their siblings, the public.

24. This Dream Has Teeth a play by Robin Rice. Greek tale with modern twist. Anonymous was a woman.

25. Simply Slipcovers by Sunset Books 1997 128 pages. Easy to read, fairly thorough instructions with photos, patterns, measurements for making slipcovers for chairs and couches.

26. Egyptian Museum Cairo by Newsweek Magazine, 1969, 169 pp. I wanted this book because in 2005 I visited this museum (there’s a new one now) and wanted to relive the experience somewhat. There are gorgeous photos, good descriptions, and explanatory text.

27. Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 2012 Henry Holt, 410 pp. Second book in the Cromwell trilogy. Mantel’s work focuses on Thomas Cromwell, not Henry VIII, not his wives. Everything is from Cromwell’s point of view. Excellent biography.

28. Seriously? by Kate Kasten 2025 Islet Press 234 pp. This is a book of satire, stories, monologues, and “random stuff.” There are pieces that are laugh out loud funny; pieces to make you think; and brilliant pieces of prose writing that could be expanded to book length. Her “Shakespear Run Amok” kept me laughing throughout. “Daniel” brought me to tears. “A Vacation” shows the protagonist realizing her own faults, even as she is performing them. This one still has me thinking about the protagonist and my own self-analysis as well.

29. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud. 1992 Ecco Press 186 pp. It took me a bit to understand that the protagonist is quite young in this book. This is the tale of a child and her sister being taken to Morocco and other places by a peripatetic mother, and how they lived. It is a semi-autographical novel of the author, daughter of Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud.

30. Van Gogh’s Provence by Universe 1992 63 pp Beautiful full color plates of his paintings, with prose about his life, including things I didn’t know. Each plate has a description of where, how and when he painted it. I have a new favorite: Cafe Terrace at Night.

31. The Wolf Hall Picture Book by Hilary Mantel, Ben Miles, and George Miles 2023 4th Estate 110 pages. Some of the prose by Hilary Mantel included here comes from material she deleted from the trilogy. Most of it is prose from the trilogy. The photos are present day, taken in and around the areas mentioned in the books. They are symbolic of the scenes from the books, versus representations. Reading it makes for a dream-like experience for one who has read the first two books, and is currently reading the last.

32. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown 1973 Daughters Publishing Co 246 pp This was a re-read for me. I first read it about 1977. I thought it was brilliant then. Now, not so much. It is definitely of its time. Back then, I felt her frustration at not being recognized. I wasn’t bothered by her sexual appetite for men, women, even a 16 year old girl (daughter of the woman she was sleeping with!), but today I’m not so tolerant. Her use of the n word is abhorrent. I thought so then, but excused it as being true to the time she was writing about. It’s never necessary, never okay. Gloria Steinem called it “the rare work of fiction that has changed real life.” It got raves from the Boston Globe and many more. It was called a “landmark coming of age novel.” All true, but this novel is far from perfect.

33. Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll 2025 Macmillan Audio 12 hours and 2 mins. A wonderful account of E. Jean’s trials where we sued Trump for sexual assault and the harm it has caused her. The dressing room rape occurred years ago, but from that day on, E. Jean has never had sex. She’s funny, she’s beautiful, she’s a great dresser, a fun and funny writer, but she has suffered for decades because of that horrible person. She continues to be attacked by him in the media, and he continues to appeal the two unanimous decisions against him. Eventually he will have to pay the $100 million she won. Highly recommend both the audio and the book.

34. Pay Dirt by Sarah Paretsky 2024 HarperCollins 375 pp. This is the 22nd book of the V.I. Warshawski, and I’ve been a fan since the beginning. But I found this one a slog. Too many characters, too many details, and it took 100 pages too long to solve. However, I did read it, because I’m a fan. And I look forward to the next one.

35. This Dame for Hire by Sandra Scoppettone 2005 Ballantine Books 290 pp. I just love this character. Female private eye who becomes one because of WWII when the guy she was working for went off to war. Written in the style of 1940s noir, with wise-cracking gals, nefarious guys, and with loveable characters.

36. Lily by Kate Kasten 2025 Islet Press 181 pages. Excellent novel about how an old woman sets about trying to change one man’s mind about climate change, and progresses to creating an intergenerational relationship that changes both of them.

37. Too Darn Hot by Sandra Scoppettone 2006 Ballantine 286 pp Another fun mystery by the brilliant Scoppettone set in the 1940s.

38. The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington 2021 Harper 317pp. Nonfiction, well researched true story about the women who survived (and some who didn’t) Auschwitz by sewing in the Upper Tailor Studio. They sewed for the wives of SS officers. This not only saved their lives, it meant they spent the day indoors in warmth, handling beautiful fabrics, making beautiful things, and were equipped with anything they needed. Because Jewish people and others were robbed of every single thing they owned, and their belongings sorted and stored in enormous buildings in Auschwitz. These women saved their own lives and those of others they were able to bring into the fold by needles in, needles out. The book describes in detail the many horrors of the camp. I first read about the horrors when I was a teen. But I never knew so many details as I do now, from reading this book.

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I’m nearly finished with Dave Barry’s memoir. I have four library books, every one of them with people waiting, so I have to finish or return them in a couple of weeks. There are two more waiting at the library already, and two brand new books on my nightstand (one was a gift, the other I purchased).

My favorite nonfiction book of the year so far is The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington. My favorite novel is Lily by Kate Kasten.

Then of course, there’s Substack. I subscribe to many people, including Sherman Alexie, Elizabeth Marro, Simon Haisell, Mary G., Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Hubbell, Dan Rather, Mary Hutto Fruchter, Jami Attenberg, Jeannette Winterson, Kate Jones, Rona Maynard, Jane Brockett, Ruth Reichl, The Borowitz Report, Dave Barry, Liza Donnelly, E. Jean Carroll, Blake Nelson, Bill Davison, James Crews, Chuck Palaniuk, Kelsey Worth Solomons, David Roberts, Peter Lautz, Andrea Gibson, Amie Stewart, Brooke Barker, Leigh Stein, Susan Wittig Albert, and maybe more. Only two of these do I pay for. If/when I get more paid subscribers, I’ll be able to pay others.

As you can see, I read political analysts, cartoonists, novelists, poets, humor, textile people, and other writers. I first subscribed to Elizabeth Marro, so I blame her for my being here, and the substacks that flood my inbox every day. I read them. If I lose interest, I unsubscribe. (This has not happened often.)

I also read The New York Times, Willamette Week, the Mercury, and newspapers from Missouri. Every day. I spend at least 2-3 hours reading. Sometimes I also listen to books on tape.

I’d love to do another slow read in 2026, but as far as I can tell, no one is offering a slow of the Franz Kafka Diaries. If someone wants to join me, we can draw up a schedule and find related links to supplement the book.

What is your reading schedule like? Do you have books to recommend? Do you have a favorite genre? Fiction or non?