I bring you another week’s worth of reading recap as November continues! After feeling some motivation after last week’s reading, this week I got to two titles that were big on feminism. They featured powerful female characters and powerful messages. Or perhaps I should say “warnings.” Both were extremely satisfying.

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November continues with another week of reading #inthebooks #reading #recap #review #books #booktok #historicalfiction #lostapothecary #sarahpenner #thefraud #zadiesmith

♬ original sound – Halliday Nelson

1. The Lost Apothecary – Sarah Penner

The synopsis of this book hardly does it justice. Truth be told, I get very tired of reading about women examining their unhappy relationships. There are two deeply intertwined narratives in this book, and according to the summary, at least one of the storylines has a lot of that. I’m really glad I decided to give this title a go anyway, because I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I couldn’t stop turning the page.

In addition to modern-day Caroline who is questioning her marriage post-betrayal, she and the reader alike are uncovering the story of Nella and her young new acquaintance. Nella makes her living in secret by helping women achieve relief, freedom, or revenge through use of pharmaceuticals she provides. Caroline’s unsatisfying relationship becomes a less important piece of the story until it juxtaposes the stories of the women Nella helps. Caroline gets to contemplate divorce. The women seeking out Nella in her time don’t have that option.

In case anyone needs to hear this, all poisons mentioned in the book are easily detected by modern forensics.

2. The Fraud – Zadie Smith

This one deals with a lot more than only feminism. It crisscrosses through a number of marginalized and varyingly privileged groups with dizzying speed that somehow still paints a vivid portrait of each. The narrative jumps around quite a bit in chronology, during which the protagonist’s circumstances change. The reader also gets the perspective of a couple different characters through monologues. Those characters also describe changes in status. The rapid transitions across class lines highlights how arbitrary those divisions really are.

No matter their position, none of the characters are satisfied. They have happiness for sure, but it’s never truly enduring. Everyone is constantly striving for something more, something else. It leaves the reader wondering what vague concepts like “freedom” and “power” even mean. Everyone is hiding something of themselves, a shame that they can’t share if they’re to reach their ill-defined goal of enduring gratification. Yet everyone continues striving forward and pushing the goalposts onward. How free are we, if we cannot be our authentic selves?

As you may have guessed, the book is very character-driven. Extremely short chapters show only flashes of their lives at a time. I was approaching the halfway point before I could have given any description of the plot that didn’t come from the book’s jacket. That didn’t matter though, because I was turning page after page just to spend more time in the presence of these characters. I was that entertained by watching them interact with each other and their world before I even noticed any goals or progressions. I’ve spent a lot of time over a lot of years in workshops for writing and/or literary analysis. I love when a book is captivating enough to make me forget about theory and techniques for a while.

November Continues On…

November continues on next week as well. At the time of writing this, I haven’t decided yet which book will come next. I finished reading The Fraud early this morning before falling asleep. It’s a difficult decision every time I pull a new title out of my TBR pile, there are a lot in there that I’m really looking forward to. I know that I’m a fast reader, but it’s never fast enough to read all that I want to!

As always, I want to hear from you! What have you been reading lately? Are you having fun with it? Have you read any of these titles, and if so, what did you think of them? Tell me everything, and follow along for more!