Monday Miscellany: Completely consumed by this mystery

Notes from December 2 - 8

Dec 10, 2024

Hello, friends! It’s the start of a new week and I’m riding high on December energy. We bought a Christmas tree yesterday and I’m looking forward to decorating it

But first, I do have some books to talk about and some general delight to share!

Currently reading

I’ve been saving my early copy of Private Rites by Julia Armfield because I enjoyed her previous two books so much (discussed one of them here) and knew this one would be great as well. But I finally picked it up just before release day (December 3) and as expected, it was a moody, unsettling, and memorable experience.

Armfield is reimagining King Lear, but you don’t need to be familiar with the Shakespearean source material to understand or appreciate this story. It’s set in London during a more advanced stage of the climate crisis—everything is wet and flooded, it’s always raining, and the city’s infrastructure is struggling against the water’s effects. We follow three sisters, all queer, daughters of a famous architect, who learn of their father’s death early in the novel and are then forced together to grieve and process and handle the logistical particulars of his passing. Meanwhile they are each navigating their own careers and love lives and internal states, and as the story progresses, it becomes clear that something is happening with the house that their father left behind. I don’t know that the ending quite worked for me; the pacing really picks up in the last few chapters and I found myself a little confused with everything that was going on. But! That didn’t change how I felt about the book overall. Julia Armfield is SO good at creating atmosphere and building unease, and I know I will remember the slightly foreboding feeling of this novel for a long time to come.

Speaking of “something isn’t right here” feelings, I found Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker on Libby last week, checked it out on a whim, and read it right away, tearing through the last hundred pages or so this morning with my coffee. What a page-turner!

It’s about a thirty-something woman named Clove, who has a husband and two young children, an obsession with her local organic grocery store, an online shopping problem, and a very dark past. During her childhood, her father was abusive toward Clove and her mother, and they both suffered his violence and intimidation for years, until things finally came to a head and he was pushed over the railing of the family’s apartment balcony to his death. Since then, Clove has completely reinvented herself, trying desperately to escape the shadow of this horrible event, even to the point of changing her name and keeping all of this history a secret from her husband and kids. So when the past shows up looking for her, she completely panics and everything starts to unravel and fall apart. I won’t spoil anything, just… man. The tension! I guessed one of the twisty bits, but there were other revelations that surprised me, and even if you see what’s coming, it’s still really delicious to watch it all come together. The vibes reminded of Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder mixed with something like Gillian Flynn or Liane Moriarty. If you’re into psychological spiraling and long-simmering emotional suspense, I recommend this one.

A legally-required heads-up: if you purchase a book through the bookshop.org affiliate links in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. ♥︎

Currently listening

At one point this week, I was having a conversation with Jordan about I don’t remember what, and he jokingly said “forget about her, Joey!”, to which I responded, wait, what is that from again? And we ended up down an internet rabbit hole trying to sleuth a ridiculous boy band parody song we used to be into like eighteen years ago. Turns out it’s called “Forget About the Girl” by I.S.S., and it was immediately familiar when we listened through it. But we didn’t recognize the rest of the album, just this one track, and the band is obscure, basically a side project for a multi-instrumentalist songwriter guy named Tim Smolens, and we still can’t figure out how we ever knew this song in the first place. Did one of my high school friends discover it and show it to me? Did one of my exes put it on a mix CD? I have no idea but I am now completely consumed by this mystery!!

The inn across from work, dusted with snow and bathed in morning light

And another thing

This week has really activated my wintery feelings and holiday excitement, and I’m especially happy about that because some years I have a hard time getting in the spirit. Here’s a list of seasonal things that have brought me joy in recent days:

Waking up to a surprise bit of snowfall on Tuesday and chatting with all the coffee shop customers throughout the morning about how delightful it was
Temperatures in the 20s most nights last week
Going out for pizza Wednesday evening and then seeing a sold-out showing of a zany film I’d never heard of but really enjoyed, the audience laughing and reacting together the whole time
Painting my nails the perfect frosty light blue
Watching a new-to-me movie that might become a new seasonal favorite
Browsing a holiday art market for gifts and leaving instead with a couple of handmade mushroom ornaments for our own tree
Visiting the library on Saturday morning to find youths with instruments playing holiday carols next to the circulation desk
Having lunch at one of our favorite local spots, the closest thing we have to Luke’s Diner, all warm and cozy and decorated for the season
Walking across the Old Salem pedestrian bridge under the moravian stars
Picking out a Christmas tree with friends and then spending the rest of the day in their home: helping to set up and light their tree, eating dinner together, and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas with one of my favorite four-year-olds