From the Director’s Desk
One of my joys as both an English professor and as the CCFW director is that I get to read and watch things “for my job.”
Every week, I spend time with book reviews and podcasts and Substacks and social media, trying to keep up with all the great material that’s coming out.
I thought it might be fun to share a small sampling of what I’ve got on my TBR (to be read) and TBW (to be watched) piles.
TBR
All the Jane Austen
I get to teach a Jane Austen class this semester, and I make it a practice to always read along with my students, even when I’ve read the text many times before. What a delight to get to read Austen’s incredible work in her 250th birthday year—and with amazing students, who always find new things for our discussions.
Jen Hatmaker, Awake
We got to host Jen at the 2018 Festival of Faith & Writing—where I had the opportunity to have a lively conversation with her. Her new memoir is getting a lot of attention, so I’m eager to see the latest from her.
Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King
Katherine Rundell, the brilliant English writer of books for adults and children, is one of my dream “gets” for the Festival. Her biography of John Donne was incredible—as was the first in her series for children, Impossible Creatures. Now the second book has arrived, and I can’t wait to read what Rundell’s prolific imagination has produced. As Rundell herself would assert, children’s books are for all ages!
R.F. Kuang, Katabasis
I’ve been intrigued by Kuang’s previous books. She’s a bit of a phenom as both a writer and a PhD student. Here she brings both together with a dash of Dante, one of my favorite writers: graduate students in hell. Yes, please!
Samin Nosrat, Good Things
I’m an inveterate collector of cookbooks and books about food and gastronomical culture. My collection is now around 400 books. So why not add a couple more? Nosrat’s first book, Salt Fat Acid Heat (2017), contained wonderful principles for how to cook, instead of a more standard recipe layout. This new book is a bit more traditional, it seems, but it still has much to say about how food creates welcome and warmth.
Bee Wilson, The Heart-Shaped Tin
I have a number of Bee Wilson’s food histories, but this one examines things on a more personal level. After her unexpected divorce, the baking pan she’d used for her wedding cake clattered out of the cupboard, evoking all kinds of emotions. The book investigates all the way that kitchen items function in our lives.
Mysteries
Richard Osman, The Impossible Fortune
Anthony Horowitz, Marble Hall Murders
Anthony Berkeley, The Poisoned Chocolates Case
I adore a good mystery, so I’ve got a number awaiting me, including the new Thursday Murder Club offering from Richard Osman. The Netflix adaptation was fine, but the books are much richer. I’m also a big fan of Anthony Horowitz’s series that started with the Magpie Murders, so this last entry looks fun. Finally, a classic from 1929 that I purchased at the British Library this summer. One of their reprints of British mysteries, it features a detection club all taking turns trying to solve the murder.
TBW
It feels like I don’t have as much time to watch all the things, but perhaps that’s because a lot of my screen time has been taken up watching my beloved Seattle Mariners as they move into the baseball postseason for the first time in twenty-four years. Maybe this year, they’ll finally make it to the World Series! Baseball: the sport that most encourages the virtue of hope.
Otherwise:
Lilith Fair Documentary
I lived for most of the 1990s in Seattle (see: Mariners above), where I got to see many fantastic shows. One of the most memorable was getting to go to Lilith Fair. So I’m eager to see the back story.
More Mysteries
I’ve begun to watch the current season of Only Murders in the Building. I’d like to start the current season of PBS’s Marlow Murder Club, and I’m way behind on three shows that I enjoyed but have fallen behind on: AppleTV’s Severance and Slow Horses and PBS’s Unforgotten (where I only got through the Nicola Walker’s seasons and would like to see what has happened.)
Maybe when baseball is over, I can catch up during the long winter! There’s always more stories.
