Books to Buy Eventually

Or maybe your summer reading list?

I one time promised never to write to you about books I haven’t read yet, but 4.75 months of not buying any books at all does something to a woman. I now maintain a comprehensive list of books that I will buy when I’m allowed again. This whole year of deprivation may prove to be counterproductive when the flood gates open and I, like when a child whose mother doesn’t allow sugar in the house ends up at a birthday party at Dylan’s Candy Bar, enter a bookstore for the first time in a year with INTENT to BUY.

A bridge to cross. In the meantime, I figured some of the books that have piqued my interest might pique yours too. If you end up reading one of these in the next 7.25 months, let me know how it goes so that I can move it up my list or remove it entirely. Kisses!

Child of Light by Jessi Bender

Discovered at Afterword Bookstore on East 6th, obsessed with how amateurish the cover design is, set in 1896, main character named Ambrétte who’s interested in spiritualism and electricity? Done. Mabel Capability Taylor this feels like it could be right up your alley (even though it was published in 2025, which does count against it).

Riders by Jilly Cooper

I’ve never read anything by Jilly Cooper. My cousin Elias texted me back in January “Read Riders by Jilly Cooper,” and then a follow up: “It’s very bawdy.” Points for cover design, would love to be reading this on the subway.

Love Life of a Cheltenham Lady by Dinah Brooke

I guess this came onto my radar because of the relatively recent McNally Editions reissue, described as “searing tale of a young woman's unravelling beneath the unforgiving Tuscan sun.” Sounds like a young couple travels to Italy, the husband is unexpectedly called away, and a young Italian man shows up and sets the wife aquiver.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe

This book is the archetypal gothic novel. It’s also the go to novel to reference when you want to telegraph to your reader that your 19th century heroine reads too many silly novels and might have an overactive imagination. Jane Austen lovingly pokes fun at the Udolpho’s melodrama in her funniest novel, Northanger Abbey. It’s time for me to read it.

Saplings by Noel Streatfeild

I’ve had my eye on Persephone Books for a while now, but have yet to purchase anything of theirs. Streatfeild of Ballet Shoes fame also wrote novels for adults. This one follows a middle-class English family in the years before WWI, and proceeds to track “in miserable detail the disintegration and devastation which war brought to tens of thousands of such families.” Probably not an uplifting read, but I’m intrigued nonetheless.

Tollbooth by Bud Smith

I love Bud Smith’s writing and am eager to read more. If you haven’t read anything by him, read Teenager!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Tattoo Murder Case by Akimitsu Takagi

I cannot for the life of me remember where I read about this book. Originally published in 1948 it’s a classic Japanese locked-room murder mystery. If reading Dune (more on this in a couple weeks) reminded me of anything, it’s that I need to be reading more GOOD genre fiction (see Jilly Cooper above, same same but different).

The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje

The Remembered Soldier was one of the best books I read last year (Huffines family recommendation). It was definitely the best book I’ve read in a while that was written in this century. Don’t even know what this other one is about, saw it would be published in English in August, will read anything Anjet Daanje puts out.

A Parish Chronicle by Halldór Laxness

From NYRB (love), a “shrewd commentary on how history bends to the quirks of certain individuals,” centered on Mosfell Church in Mosfellsdalur Valley, Iceland. I trust.

House of Fury by Evelio Rosero

Read Martha Adams predictably enticing review here, and join me in wanting to read this one (and maybe some others too).

Do Not Go Gentle: The Case Against Assisted Death by Kathleen Stock

A lowkey fixation of mine ever since I found out that everyone in Canada is trying to kill themselves. Comes out in July.

Constable’s Year by Susan Owens

Love Constable because I love clouds and I love how many poems there are about him. Saw a copy of this one at Three Lives and added it to my list

Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown by Alan Watts

I want to read it because of the Van Morrison song. Kathryn is also really into Buddhism at the moment, and I think she’s great.

---