Booknotes 4.2

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, published 1855, fiction, read for book group. The writing is so good! While the story itself is heavy enough in places that I don’t think “enjoyed” is quite the right word, I’m glad I read it and I’m looking forward to reading Gaskell’s other work, including her biography of Charlotte Brontë.

The Grief of Stones, by Katherine Addison, published 2022, fantasy. Second in the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy. It’s a crime novel with some seedy, uncomfortable parts, but overall I really liked it — I love this world, with its long, elaborate names (which feel authentic to me in a way fantasy names usually do not) and interesting sociocultural manners. Very much looking forward to The Orb of Cairado and The Tomb of Dragons. I hope Addison writes many, many more stories set in this world.

Verdigris Deep, by Frances Hardinge, published 2007, fantasy. My first time reading a Hardinge (I’ve seen several rave reviews over the years) and I rather enjoyed it. Delightfully weird and dark, well written, vivid characters. I didn’t expect to ever return to reading middle grade or young adult (I don’t know which category this book falls into, nor do I care), but here I am. I’m planning to read the rest of Hardinge’s work, and I also need to return to Susan Cooper’s books and start rereading Diana Wynne Jones.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson, published 2010, nonfiction. Compelling, haunting, powerful. (Wilkerson’s Caste is also very good.) Some repetitive bits here and there, but still strongly recommended. Learned a lot about the Great Migration and life under Jim Crow. (Spoiler alert: white supremacy is awful.) Throughout, it kept striking me how the gospel of Jesus Christ truly lived — no facades or hypocrisy — changes people, scrubbing out their natural tribalism, selfishness, hatred, and violence, filling their souls instead with real and abiding love for all their fellow humans, and how so much pain and suffering could have been averted if people had had that love.