I finished my 2017 Reading List, and while it might seem like the path of wisdom to complete my 2018 and 2019 reading lists before I start another… Well, I like to have a lot of reading lists going at once.

So without further ado! The 2020 reading list!

Laura Amy Schlitz - The Winter of the Dollhouse (Schlitz’s newest book. Very excited about this one!)

Elizabeth Goudge - The Valley of Song (per sovay’s recommendation)

Vivien Alcock - not sure what to read next for Alcock. I’ve read everything from the local libraries, so whatever it is will come through ILL. Leaning toward The Sylvia Game just because I like the title.

William Dean Howells - An Imperative Duty

Roald Dahl - The Witches (I tried this book as a child and gave up because it was scary. Time to try again!)

Sveltana Alexievich - Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War

Ruth Reichl - My Kitchen Year (I’m also tempted to try Reichl’s fiction. Has anyone read Delicious! or The Paris Novel?)

James Baldwin - The Evidence of Things Not Seen (pace troisoiseaux's rec)

Gerald Durrell

Llinos Cathryn Thomas - All Is Bright (this is an Advent calendar book so I will of course be saving it for December)

E. F. Benson - Miss Mapp

Nadezhda Mandelstam - Hope Against Hope (this poor book has languished on my ILL list since FOREVER.)

Mary Renault - The Praise Singer

Charles Dickens - haven’t decided which one yet. Should I take another crack at Bleak House? Attempt The Pickwick Papers? Make the acquaintance of Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times?

Gene Stratton Porter - The Keeper of the Bees

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Ever since The Colt from Moon Mountain, I’ve been plundering the archive’s collection of Dorothy P. Lathrop books. The latest was Presents for Lupe, which alas does not feature a surprise unicorn, but does center on an adorable South American red squirrel. The twins John and Joan have just brought her home from the pet shop, and put her in a much larger and more comfortable cage, and give her seeds of all kinds… but when she still seems sad and anxious, family and friends start sending them all sorts of things from South America, until at last a present arrives that makes Lupe feel at home.

This book was published in 1940, and seems to be part of a more general wave of American children’s books about Central and South America. I have no proof that this was inspired by Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, but the timing seems suggestive.

What I’m Reading Now

Simon Sebag Montefiore’s brick The Romanovs: 1613-1918, a mammoth work that took over my life for the past week and bids fair to take over it next week too. I’ve made it to Catherine the Great, which may mean that no one else is going to be impaled? (Not holding my breath on this.) Catherine the Great and her long-time lover Grigory Potemkin refer to each other as Matushka and Batushka/Batinka (Mama and Papa, basically), and also have their younger lovers refer to them as a unit in the same way. That’s one way to do polyamory and/or found family I guess!

Catherine the Great’s actual son Paul just had a nervous breakdown because Catherine suggested that he should go on a tour of Europe and then Paul’s tutor/advisor was like “Hey, you know that time that Peter the Great’s son Alexei ran away to Italy, and then Peter lured him back and killed him? Possibly with his own two hands like how Ivan the Terrible killed HIS son? Makes you think!”

What I Plan to Read Next

I may take a break from The Romanovs to read Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is in the Library as a light and breezy palate cleanser.

We sail onward with Patrick O’Brian’s The Mauritius Command! Before we get to the actual book, a brief pause to note that O’Brian dedicated this book to Mary Renault, in Greek, which (according to littlerhymes and Google translate) means “Glaucus in Athens.” Still not sure what this means but love this further confirmation that Mary Renault loved this series. I presume she was reading it with her slash goggles firmly attached.

After a brief interval at home (Jack has acquired twin baby girls and lost all his money again), Jack is appointed commodore, which means he is a captain in charge of other captains, a big rise in responsibility with no corresponding rise in pay! (Some things never change.) He is going to direct the conquest of Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa currently in the hands of the French.

This of course leads to many exciting sea battles, etc. etc., but what most captured my attention was Captain Clonfert. When Jack and Clonfert were both lieutenants, Clonfert hung back during an action where Jack’s command took heavy losses, then took all the credit for himself in dispatches. Either out of a guilt or gay crush (por que no los dos?, asks O’Brian), Clonfert has been obsessed with Jack’s career ever since.

He is also obsessed with proving his bravery. The rest of the world (except Jack and Clonfert himself) has long since bought that Clonfert is the Most Dashing Captain to Ever Dash, but unfortunately those exceptions are the people Clonfert really wishes to convince, so he continues to make extremely gallant, dashing, strategically disastrous choices, for which Jack is forced to very, very gentle suggest a reproof to him. But no reproof is so gentle that it cannot cast Clonfert into the depths of despair.

In general, Clonfert can’t stand any kind of judgment from Jack, negative or positive. Reproof crushes him, but so do praise/promotions/benefits of any kind, presumably because Clonfert experiences any kindness from Jack as heaping coals of fire on his head for previous misdeeds. (Jack, a simple soul, is just trying to let bygones be bygones.) If Clonfert could make a clean breast of it to Jack and apologize, it might make a world of difference. But also, Clonfert would rather die.

Clonfert also doesn’t get along well with other captains, presumably because the society of equals challenges his meager store of self-confidence. Jack is constantly trying to manage around him.

In some ways it would be easier if Clonfert were simply an all-around bad captain, but awkwardly for Jack, Clonfert in his attempts to prove his bravery really has made himself into a dashingly heroic captain beloved of his crew. His men simply adore him. His officers are aware of his foibles, particularly his pleasure in praise from people who are not Jack, but this awareness is affectionate and admiring: they see his faults and would still follow him into hell. So he could be a tremendous asset, if only Jack could figure out how to manage him - or if only he were being managed by someone other than Jack.

A fascinating character study. ( spoilers )