The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

I loved everything about this book.

Portals, stories, the story of the self, self-determination and self-discovery, the crafting of a life of meaning.

It’s beautifully written and, as El-Motar said, “unbearably beautiful.”

I love stories about the power of stories, and I think story is somehow inherently linked to the idea of freedom, and how we write the stories of ourselves, and how we reclaim that space and power when we have let others write that story, and why and how that matters.

Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews

I have loved horror since I was a teenager, the weirder the better, especially when it allows us to give voice to the ways in which we don’t fit the world, and the ways in which we might. 

This book came into my life when Geo pressed it into my hand and said “I love this book so much; you have to read it,” and so of course I did. 

 

The Keeper by Tana French

In her third and final installment in the Cal Hooper series, French unspools the ways of being that create community ties, identity threads, and the fabric of life in a place. The result is the antithesis of the oft-overused and too-hip idea of “placemaking;” French shows how the community bends us to it, and all the ways that bending around a community is what makes it real, and how we, in turn, are made real by the effort. This is a picture of co-constructed reality. It’s an anthem against fast-anything, corporate profit-grabbing, and the idea that a place can be for sale. 

I’ll miss Trey and Lena even more than I’ll miss Cal. 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

If you liked Tartt's The Secret History, you'll love this. It's just as immersive, and as Dickensian, as ever, and Tartt does a masterful job of weaving deatils and cognition into everything. It's a long book, with sentences built on reflections, and some sentences spanning a page or more. I didn't read this book so much as I inhabited it, or, more accurately, let it inhabit me. 

This is another round of David Copperfield, and while the original tale came from England, we in the States seem to eat it up mightily, perhaps becuase twenty-first cetury America is so neat a parallel to nineteenth century England. 

The power of found family, the power of the truth, and the power of being seen ring through with authenticity and brilliance. Ultimately the power of a life of substance holds the key to the whole novel, and Tartt couldn't have chosen a better painting on which to hang her tale.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I received The Alice Network as a Valentine's Day gift from Geo, part of a pair of wrapped up Blind Date With A Book selections. I was intrigued by the description of "Queen of Spies" and WWI/WWII, and the first chapter had me hooked.

This is a beautifully rendered novel. The sotry that Quinn overlays onto the history is everything you want in found family and self-discovery. I don't even mind the happy ending. 

The backdrop of WWI and the Alice Network is just riveting.Quinn gives voice and shape to the past in a way that feels true, never schmaltzy or pat. The details of history are revealed with care and precision; I swear I could feel the texture of the prison robes, or smell the coffee wafting up in the cafe.

This novel introduced me to the concept of a morally questionable hat, and now I must own one.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

2025

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Knopf, 2022

I was so fetched by Zevin’s Fikry that I scooped up this work. It’s nothing like Fikry, of course, and it’s just brilliant.

I was consumed down into the investigation of friendship and trust and confidence and parallel play and gaming, especially gaming together, that I read this book without stopping. 

Truly, I love each of the characters, and I felt the struggles and victories as they played out, winced as each one made terrible decisions, and actually held my breath during a particular scene. 

It’s a compelling work, and delightful.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry By Gabrielle Zein

Published in 2014.

I stumbled across this book, wanting something that spoke to the many beautiful bits of language and my love of books and bookshops. It was a surprise, a delight, and a heartwarming emotional ride that I adored. 

Family, found family, and the ties that bind are all on display, as well as the various ways in which life gains and loses meaning. And of course, there are the snippets of literature, the love story to books and fiction itself, that threads through the work. 

This might very well be the feel good book that you’re looking for. I know it certainly was for me.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Published by Tor, 2018

The second in the Murderbot series, Artificial Condition brings us more deeply into the issues of identity, autonomy, and friendship. 

These novels are jaunty and light, and yet they deal with some of the most important, and timely, themes of our day. Each of the volumes I’ve read so far has been the perfect book to take with me on a vacation, and the situations and mishaps—and personalities—that populate each offering have stayed with me in a meaningful way. 

Pack this in your suitcase and enjoy the ride.

The series has been brought to the small screen by Apple TV+, and I hear that’s delightful too.