Reader's Choice: Books on My TBR For Years
Your options: 'The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, 'In Memory of Memory' by Maria Stepanova and 'The Actual Star' by Monica Byrne
I started a journal recently where I’ve listed all the physical books on my TBR piles. It’s five pages long, and growing. Here’s a peek at the first two pages:
I’ve also begun to transcribe my annual reading-challenge lists from GoodReads, which I began in 2013. I started those in the back of the journal, moving forward each year toward the front. My plan is to continue to track my TBR moving from front to back, and once I select a book to read, I’ll record it on the annual lists moving back to front. Both lists eventually will meet in the middle, when I’ll move to a new notebook. Make sense? Well, as I was working on this project, I was reminded that some books have been languishing on my bedside pile forever. It’s time to finally get to them, and you can help me. Remember to scroll down and vote on which I should review first.
‘The Lying Life of Adults’ by Elena Ferrante
There was a time when I was obsessed with Elena Ferrante. It was early days for BoG, and I ripped through all four Neapolitan novels and ‘The Days of Abandonment.’ I then added novels by Domenico Starnone, who’s long believed to be tied to the mysterious Ferrante. After I bought ‘The Lying Life of Adults’ at Strand Book Store in 2021, I expected I’d dive right in, but:
According to the back cover blurb, ‘fourteen-year-old Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which wears a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of carnality and passion, where her guide is the unforgettable Aunt Victoria.’ That doesn’t tell me much, but maybe it’s finally time to return to Ferrante.
‘In Memory of Memory’ by Maria Stepanova
‘In Memory of Memory’ by Maria Stepanova is another book that’s been on my pile since 2021. I have no memory (no pun intended) of why I bought it at Greenlight Books in the first place. Seriously, I’m looking around in my brain for the reason, and my brain is looking back at me like:
Here’s what the back-cover description says: ‘With the death of her aunt, the narrator is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia.’ … ‘Dipping into various forms—essay, fiction, memoir, travelogue, and historical documents—Stepanova assembles a vast panorama of ideas and personalities and offers an entirely new and bold exploration of cultural and personal memory.’ This sounds really interesting.
‘The Actual Star’ by Monica Byrne
Compared with the previous two books, ‘The Actual Star’ by Monica Byrne is a relatively new addition to my TBR—I’ve had it only for almost two years. Byrne is an author I’ve been following on Instagram for a while. She leads a fascinating and itinerant life, bouncing from country to country. She’s currently in New Zealand, I believe, but she’s seemingly been everywhere, including Ireland and Tunisia. When Lofty Pigeon Books opened in 2023, ‘The Actual Star’ was one of the first books on their recommendations shelf, right next to my recommendation: The Fish Book. I was like:
The back cover says that the novel ‘takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents—telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle.’ Ooh! Donna and I are planning a vacation in Belize! It continues: ‘Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne of a Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change.’ Wow, there’s a lot going on here! This could be a fascinating read. What do you think of these books? Have you read any of them? Let me know in the comments, and tell me which to review first by taking this poll:
Books on GIF does not solicit or accept review copies. We feature books we purchase at independent bookstores around New York City and on our travels, or were borrowed electronically from the Brooklyn Public Library.
Thanks for reading, and thanks especially to Donna for editing this newsletter!
Until next time,
Mike
This post came up in my Google notifications, and I admit, I voted for my own. BUT also Ferrante is amazing no matter what she writes :)
One question and one recommendation.
The question: Did you organize either list in any way? Finding an organizational structure that works is always what stymies me when I try to write a list of books. Or is it chaos because it's ongoing?
The recommendation: The World According to Garp is a novel that surprised me, because it feels like nothing happens and then BAM, it gripped me. It's not as good as A Prayer for Owen Meany, but it's the first of his that I've read, and I adored it.