Hello. Here’s what I read in November. It was a hectic sort of month. I’m dealing with a move and that has taken up most of my brain these last handful of weeks. Still found time to read, though, because otherwise I would have certainly gone insane. As my bio says, escapism is kind of my thing, etc.

“On the First of November, the Ghosts Arrive” by Nina MacLaughlin. Not at all fiction, but wanted to highlight it because it’s a wonderful, gorgeous piece about death, remembrance, and the waning days of the year. The closing paragraph, in particular, took my breath away: 

It’s November now and there’s something different afoot. In November, when the nights get long and the days get cold, as we approach the long dark that is winter, we feel that hand following us down the hall. We feel death’s presence and are therefore more alert to our own. November makes us know, at the edges of our mind, that for each of us, looming winter will one day stretch into eternal darkness. So we welcome the dead among us, remember them, invite them back, and we eat and drink and let the boundaries dissolve, and we are more certain that we’re alive. That’s what’s on offer in November. It makes us know, at the edges of our mind, that we still cast shadows, that we are still bones and blood, that for now, for now, our heft is still heated. Feel it?

I want to set a reminder to read this every November. 

“Some Other Animal’s Meat” by E.M. Caroll. This comic served as the basis for “The Outside,” an episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. My Culture Chronicles email reminded me I had watched it on that given day a couple years back, so I figured it was only appropriate to look up the original and read it then. Stunning work by Carroll, as per usual, although I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the ending. (As much as I love Carroll’s work, I’ve noticed they do tend to struggle with endings. But then again, so does Stephen King, so I suppose there are worse problems to have.)

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. It’s no secret that the film Knives Out is essentially my lodestar when it comes to mystery fiction, so I’m always on the lookout for clever, self-referential crime stories. I’ve read some fine ones that meet this criteria, but I don’t think any of them were as loaded as this one, full of fun asides and references to the act of writing a mystery story itself. It’s all delightfully meta, and I was very into it. The conceit does end up somewhat overstaying its welcome, though, thanks to a whodunnit that’s convoluted from the start and only grows increasingly more complex and absurd as the novel goes on, leading to an ending that, while entirely fair and adheres to every single rule laid out by the author at the beginning of the book, falls a little bit flat. But I enjoyed this enough to still want to read the sequel (it’s set on a train!), and immediately purchased the third to read during the holiday season—because of course there would be a Christmas mystery in this series.

“The Three Monarchs” by Anthony Horowitz. A fun, if inconsequential, Holmes story. I don’t think Horowitz captured Doyle’s voice nearly as well as he did Fleming’s, but he is undoubtedly the finest of craftsmen.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. Enjoyed this one a bit less than the other two books, but I’ll be damned if it still didn’t make me cry more than once. I just wholeheartedly love these characters. The main mystery, while fun, wasn’t really my favorite, though I did like that it showcased the individual skills of the club members better than their previous cases. The plot is secondary in this series, anyway, used by Osman as a means to throw more and more ridiculous, outrageous, and instantly endearing characters into the mix—and I am absolutely all for it. 

By sheer cosmic coincidence, I happened to finish this on the same date as I did the first novel in the series three years back, and I think that’s neat.

A Very Perry Wedding by Marie Landry. I had read and enjoyed A Very Perry Christmas a couple of years ago, so I figured I would have a good time with this fall-themed follow-up as well—and I was correct. I quite like the Perrys and the friends who orbit them, finding them perfectly endearing and believably flawed characters. 

This one follows Jasper, who was a fairly insufferable character in the first book but gets to absolutely shine here. I found myself relating to his struggles with anxiety quite a bit (while at the same time wishing I had his organizational skills). Willow, our lively, vivacious narrator, is a charmer, and I really liked the chemistry that formed between these two polar opposites. 

A Very Perry Wedding is a slow burner of a romance, but it’s also cozy and charming as hell—at least right up until the final act, when we’re suddenly met with a very forced conflict and given an equally forced resolution to accompany it. Slightly disappointing, given how grounded the rest of this novel was.

Still, I didn’t hate reading this, and would be perfectly fine following this family on further forays.

Up next, properly: Christmas.