Another Year

Currently reading:

Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver [ongoing]

Books finished this week: 2

★★★★☆

Where this book came from: I actually have two copies of this book (lol whoops). But the one I read is a signed (fancy!) copy from an event at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square.
Why this book: I loved A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility
Thoughts: I’ll admit that I was a bit disappointed when I found out that this was a short story collection. I’ve spent most of my life thinking I’m “not a short story person.” But this book certainly proved me wrong! I definitely enjoyed some stories over others—”The Bootlegger” was my favorite; I personally could’ve done without “The DiDomenico Fragment”—but I largely enjoyed the novella that ends the book, Eve in Hollywood. (I foresee a Rules of Civility reread in my future.) Towles has such an envy-inspiring way of building a character and explaining a setting, and I feel smarter for having read this.

★★☆☆☆

Where this book came from: Pre-ordered from Kew & Willow
Why this book: I’ll admit that I didn’t love Brooklyn, but when I saw the news about this sequel——and that it was going to be set in Lindenhurst——I immediately ordered it. I also read a good majority of it on various trips on the Long Island Rail Road.
Thoughts: I just don’t think Ol’ Colm is for me. He writes fiction that feels incredibly true and real, and he presents life as it probably would unfold for this cast of characters. Plus, no one makes me feel secondhand anxiety and stress like this man. But the book was just so slow. And while I felt for Eilis in Brooklyn, I found it harder to feel sympathy for her this time around. No one talks to anyone about anything, almost everything that happens is terrible, and they’re barely even on Long Island. Pass.

Library updates:

I had every intention of getting a post up last week, but I’m kind of glad I didn’t. I was away with my parents for my mom’s birthday—happy belated birthday, Mom!!—and ended up not having basically any time at all to do much of anything. Which was lovely! We walked on the beach and in various state parks and along perfect Main Streets out on the East End of Long Island, and I stayed up after my parents went to sleep to sneakily put up decorations in the living room of the hotel room we rented. The semester ended a couple Sundays back, too, so I really didn’t have anything I had to do but celebrate my mom and make sure we all had a good time.

It’s nice, not having much you have to do. Sure, I torture myself with what I want (and feel I should) be doing—mostly reading and writing. But it was nice to take a weekend off.

I know I’m posting this on Mother’s Day, which, in theory, I should be giving myself a pass on, but I want to catch up on a few things. Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrate, in whatever way that looks like, and have a wonderful day even if you aren’t in a celebratory mood today.

Anyhow, I had planned to put up the usual Sunday Missive last week, and to maybe also do a separate post commemorating our anniversary here, because it has now officially been two years of the Moratorium Library! And I am so thankful for it. I love having a place to dump my thoughts, be they book-related or just general life stuff, and I also love having a reason to be more mindful about what I write, what I share, and what photos I take in a week (or two, or three, as the case may be). Sometimes it feels hard to keep up with this every week, but I love seeing all the posts I’ve generated in the last two years and being able to look back on even the tougher memories and the terrible books. I’m glad I’ve gotten to share all of that with whoever’s reading these posts, too.

At this point, I think we all know the ground rules of the Moratorium Library, so I won’t bore you with another deep dive into all of that. Yes, I’m supposed to be reading only books I already own. No, I’m not supposed to be purchasing other books. Yes, I have largely failed in both of those rules. But we’re having a good time, right? And I could be spending that money on drugs, so there you go.

A few stats in this, our second year, because stats are fun:

Total books read from the Library: 79
Books read in the second year (from May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024): 43

Table for Two was just a day late, so will be counted next year!

Total books purchased: 161 (uh oh!!)
Books purchased in second year: 115 (oh no oh no oh no)
Most read authors this year: Lauren Groff and Bret Easton Ellis, tied at two each

Just like P. D. James and Taylor Jenkins Reid last year.

Average Goodreads rating this year: 3.58 stars

Higher than last year’s 3.44—progress!

Favorite book of this year: Phew, there were quite a few contenders this year! I’m going to shout-out The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, Mrs. S by K. Patrick, and Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu.

A special award to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which was technically a reread but was counted toward the Library because I love it and had such a good time revisiting it.

Least favorite book of this year: The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, hands down. Blegh.

Also calling out my two biggest disappointments of this Library year: Megan Abbott’s Beware the Woman and Elizabeth Hand’s A Haunting on the Hill.

As we head into the third year of the Moratorium Library, I pledge to read more books, to purchase fewer books, to continue to share my thoughts and feelings with the void that is the internet, and to maybe actually finish writing some fiction.

(That last bit isn’t really part of the blog’s mission statement, but if I say it on the internet, then I have to make sure I do it. Thanks for the accountability, Reader!)

Closing thoughts:

Keep at it and enjoy what you make.

Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 80

(Total books added to the Library: 163)

Had a delightful little Sunday afternoon a few weeks back, including a stop at Terrace Books!

(And then we saw Civil War, which opened up a whole can of conversational worms.)

Also picked up these preorders from Kew & Willow this week, as mentioned above.

And then also saw Challengers (hot) at the iPic in the Seaport with Britt (hi, Britt!) and, yes, we of course stopped in at McNally Jackson.