The prompt this month for Spell the Month in Books — hosted by Jana of Reviews from the Stacks — is Nostalgia. The Cambridge Dictionary defines nostalgia as “a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past”. It’s all about memories in a sense so that’s the theme I’m going with this month.
All the books I’m listing come with a specific memory. It could be an association with a place, or a time in my life. Or it could be that some element in the book has stayed in my memory for years. Links take you to reviews where they exist (some of the books mentioned pre-date the blog)
N
Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
A brilliant example of a book that has a strong sense of place — in this case a fourteenth century Italian monastery. It’s fixed in my memory also as a book I read in a sunny terraced garden in the South of France.
O
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
The memory here is of lying on the sofa reading this book while recovering from surgery. Here’s my review.
V
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
What I remember most about this book are the final few pages. It’s a deeply disturbing novella about the mental and physical disintegration of a young woman. Review is here.
E
Emma by Jane Austen
It wasn’t until I reached my early 20’s that I finally “got” what people often said about Jane Austen’s wit. This is the novel that became my light-bulb moment.
M
Medea by Euripedes
Classic Greek literature was nowhere to be seen on the reading lists for any of my literature courses at school or university. I decided to rectify that when I embarked upon my first Classics Club list. My first encounter with Greek tragedy, via Medea, blew me away.
B
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Obamas had left the White House by the time Becoming was published and the era of Trump had begun. Reading it brought more than a touch of sadness for a time when incumbents of the White House showed honesty, decency and integrity.
E
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
I’m going back to 2012 with two memories associated with this book. Firstly 2012 was the year I decided to read all the winners of the Booker Prize and I remember being daunted and excited by the prospect of encountering all these literary heavyweights.
The Elected Member was book number two and I was surprised to discover she came from Wales. Sadly it wasn’t a particularly strong book but I remember it because of one scene where the central character suffers a nightmare vision of his room invaded by silver fish. It gave me nightmares also, imagining those things crawling out from the skirting board.
R
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
Those of you who’ve been following this blog for a while, know that I’m not a huge fan of short stories. Carys Davies’s debut work was the first time I read a short story collection and actually enjoyed the experience. I’d never heard of her but saw her mentioned on another blog (now defunct) as a “Welsh author to watch”. She’s been on my radar ever since and I’ve enjoyed all her subsequent novels.
.If you fancy having a go at Spell the Month, you’ll find all the info you need on the website of the host, Reviews From the Stacks. The December theme is “Giftable – Books you would give or would like to receive as a gift