What else was left to believe but miracles?
A reading challenge update for spring + a book/TV show duo
Happy Sunday, travelers. <3
Today is just as good a day as any to be amazed by the literary, the narrative, the spellbinding story of it all. This story of the world, we are all writing together by the essence of each our own lives, down to this very moment.
It just so happens that, with aliases and paper and ink, some of us have the gift, burden, and calling to record them. This is why the books call my name and I hope they are calling yours, too.
Before we move to reading challenge things,
Are you watching We Were the Lucky Ones? It’s a limited series recently released on Hulu. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll be brief: the show follows the wartime experiences of a Jewish family from Radom, Poland. Many of them are separated by the circumstances of trying to survive the Holocaust, so they don’t know the others’ fates. The show is based on Georgia Hunter’s novel of the same name, and the story is based on her family. I’ve read many, many stories from this time because the history of this era is so important, but I’ve still never read one quite like this.1
Reading Challenge Spring Update
April’s theme — A book all about food
My pick — Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
I read this memoir in 2022 and it was one of the best books I read the whole year. Michelle Zauner is an indie musician (a member of the group Japanese Breakfast). Crying in H Mart is her memoir about her relationship with her mother, written as she was grieving her death. The two connected deeply over food, which is a central character in the book. If you ask me, this story has three protagonists: Michelle, her mother, and Korean cuisine.
May — A translated novel
My pick — ?
If you’ve been around here a while, you know translation is my happy place. I have at least ten translated novels in my apartment right now and am so interested in them all that I don’t know what I’ll pick for May yet. Here’s a list to consider:
Aednan, by Linnea Axelsson — An epic poem from Sámi tradition. They’re people groups indigenous to far-north Scandinavia. This book was translated by Saskia Vogel from Swedish and released in English earlier this year. I read the first few lines in the little bookshop downtown and plan to get my own copy soon so I can experience its lyrical stanzas again and again.
Still Born, by Guadalupe Nettel — I shared about this one in my last book post.
when i sing, mountains dance, by Irene Solà — This novel was translated from Catalán (spoken in what is now northeast Spain, including Barcelona <3). I’ve read the first few chapters and am curious to see where Solà will take the story next—it takes place in the Pyrenees, a mountain range that has been a sanctuary through many wars and a borderland.
Beauty is a Wound, by Eka Kurniawan — Set in Indonesia, this epic novel tells a story of a country through the stories of characters I cannot wait to meet. I was struggling to remember its name but could see the cover in my mind and it would not let me go. I’ll take that as a sign—if it’s not May’s pick, it’s going on summer reading.
Anything by Annie Ernaux2 — Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2022 and has many autobiographical novels to choose from that have been translated to English from her native French.
I leave you with this incredible piece of writing in The Cut. It’s an installment from Ask Polly, an advice column.3 When Emily Dickinson said “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” this is what she was talking about.
And with that, I’m signing off until the end of the semester! In a few short weeks, the first half of my degree will be done. It doesn’t feel real, at least until I remember how much work is due in the next stretch…
I’ll see you in mid-May. Until then, I wish you much more sleep than I will be getting and a sanctity to your reading. There’s some kind of magic that happens when you quiet your mind, crack open the cover, and let the story bring you into itself. Don’t overthink it. Just say yes. <3
-Sarah
P.s. Country 31 has been visited and I will have a story here after the break!!!
Today’s title is from Omeros by Derek Walcott and in using it, I’m referring to Hunter’s novel. Again, no spoilers…
I say “anything” because it is never my job to morally prescribe what you read, but I will say this with a caveat that I hate reading anything about affairs or cheating (even though I do make rare exceptions) and this does feature in some of Ernaux’s work.
Content warning for strong language.