Heart Wants Books

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

November 18, 2021

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Amidst the hustle of the season that is already upon us, are you looking to escape? Us too! And we are looking forward to escaping with you! To Virtual Book Club on Friday, December 10 at 7:30 p. m. cst when we’ll discuss A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell #2) by Deanna Raybourn for those who sign up here. Festive beverages and comfort attire encouraged!

Oh readers, this week’s book was the exact right book at the right time for me! Don’t you just love it when that happens? Ashley and I have been a bit off schedule, so we’d just finished last week’s title and jumped straight into today’s hoping it would be something different, and it was perfect!

Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson is a joy of a book, and shocking no one, came to my TBR from Modern Mrs. Darcy. In fact, this type of text is my favorite, it’s one you can just consume (or not, but it’s really engaging) for the surface story or you can dig down deep (or just stay shallow) into the layers of it. This is the story of Lillian, who’s asked by her best friend, Madison, to take care of her two step children who combust. Specifically Lillian is tasked with keeping them out of sight while their father continues to build his political career. There is a complex history of Lillian and Madison, the background of the husband / father, the intriguing employee who helped Lillian with the kids, and the general atmosphere when one lives on an estate with staff and a friend / employer who has more money than you can imagine. Lillian has no filter, and is a dedicated, loyal friend. Madison can filter but doesn’t like to, and the kids, well they’re kids and they’ve been through a lot in their short lives, plus the whole they-catch-on-fire thing.

I was suspicious when I remembered that Nothing To See Here is set in Franklin, TN, just down the road from us, but I didn’t know Wilson lives in Sewanee, so he’s not far and gets it (which is a personal pet peeve of reading about areas I know well). There isn’t really any piece of the story that is place specific, so it could have been set anywhere, but it feels right for Franklin. I do want to know where Lillian’s hometown is based on, because I couldn’t quite pin it down, although I have some ideas.

If you are looking for a fun, over the top read, that is layered and fast-paced, perhaps to make your family feel more “normal” as the holidays approach, I highly recommend Nothing to See Here. I’m giving it four stars for engaging writing, a creative story, and real characters, even with the whole fire thing. I do have some unresolved questions, but the ending feels perfect!

What’s a book you picked up at just the right time and loved all the more for it?

~Nikki

Kevin Wilson from WilsonKevin.com

As Nikki stated above, Kevin Wilson is a Tennessee author who lives in Sewanee where, besides being an author, is an Associate Professor of English at Sewanee: The University of the South. His published works, besides the numerous pieces in periodicals and anthologies, include two story collections: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, and three novels: Nothing to See Here, The Family Fang which was made into a film in 2016 starring Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman, and Perfect Little World. He has won several fellowships and several awards, including an Alex Award from the American Library Association for Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. He is married to poet Leigh Anne Couch and has two sons.

Nothing to See Here was exactly what I didn’t know I needed to read after the disappointment that last week’s book choice had me feeling. Wilson’s writing is clear, concise, subtly humorous, and heartfelt, which makes for a delicious story and a quick read. Of note, this book is dedicated to writer and bookseller Ann Patchett and agent Julie Barer. Both of whom have championed Wilson’s writing career in differing ways. I always love a good book set in my home state, but Nikki is right that it could have been set anywhere as long as the city names were changed. I also love when a writer gives me a specific vehicle to envision a character driving, too. It doesn’t help that I know someone who owns a Miata of the same age, and so I was texting said Miata owner about this book. It also made me think about another series of books with fast cars, bourbon, and Southern gentlemen. Two totally different types of writing, dear friends, but, oh how I love them both differently.

I really connected with Lillian while reading, because here she is, in a private estate’s guest house, keeping her best friend’s step-children alive and free from spontaneous combustion. She is the first person who is willing to love these twins for who they are, bonfires be damned. Lillian feels roped into doing this for Madison, but from the beginning of their time on the estate does things that are best for the kids and not for their father, step-mother, and half-brother. She starts to love these kids easily, loving their weirdness and quirks, things that the world at large would make fun of them for – it would be worse if the world knew that they caught on fire, too. It’s like she becomes more than this governess/nanny figure in their lives and is the BAE they didn’t know they needed. Best Aunt Ever is not a term I throw around lightly, it’s an honor and a responsibility all in one, but Lillian is exemplary, and I’m here for that.

Thank goodness that I’m giving Nothing to See Here a 4 star review. The characters and relationships are just the right side of weird. It was a quick and enjoyable read, but I don’t know if I’ll be reading it again in the future. I will, however, be putting Wilson’s backlist on my TBR posthaste!

What book do you love for the external weirdness of the characters and for how ‘normal’ they truly are on the inside?

~Ashley

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Book Review

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

November 11, 2021

Sometimes I like to read books that make me think, but sometimes, I just want a book to feel like a new visit with an old friend. That is what I’m looking forward to most about digging into A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn. If you and Veronica Speedwell aren’t old friends, please start with A Curious Beginning and then pick up book number two in preparation for our next Virtual Book Club on Friday, December 10th, 2021 at 7:30pm CST. Either way, be sure to sign up here so you get the link to our chat!

Oh readers, you all know that sometimes things just don’t go as planned. Some days you go to the library to select a book from the stacks to escape life, but not completely numb yourself, and you land in the middle of the page, as a character in the story. No? Well, that’s exactly what happens to Zachary Ezra Rawlings in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea. Zachary is our lead protagonist in this epic that includes multiple books within the book as he and a few friends travel throughout this world and the one below trying to unravel the mysteries of Time and Fate, the Starless Sea and the Harbor, and just what the bee, key, and sword mean. Sound confusing? Well, honestly, it isn’t when you read it, at least after you get into it a bit, but explaining is hard. I will preempt Ashley’s traditional bio and say when I read that Morgenstern has a degree in theater, it made all the sense in the world because this book is very dramatic and readers can see the distinct scene changes throughout (although it’d be very challenging to do on stage, for a variety of reasons).

The Starless Sea is the second book from Morgenstern, published eight years after The Night Circus, which just turned 10, and our first from her. I’m not sure that I entirely believe in seasonal reading, but I do know that beach read evokes a specific expectation of fun and easy to put down and pick back up (yes, I did in fact read Shadow and Bone at the beach this year, so my opinions may not be those of others), and I know some books just feel like they need to be read in a particular season, at least they do to me. The Starless Sea feels like a winter book. I can imagine curling up on the couch with a warm beverage (which I do acknowledge I do year round), and looking out on a snowy landscape, then reading late into the night, perhaps so late it’s early even, for days on end with this novel. We don’t get that much snow where Ashley and I live, but if I were to have a snow week again this year (no thank you for all the remote work realities virus-that-shall-not-be-named), this would be a fantastic reading choice. What does this tell you about the book? I enjoyed the writing, the world building, and the story. It isn’t a book that is easy to put down and pick back up because there is a lot going on. (I don’t want to make it sound like you need some cheat sheet to read it, but think about a book that follows multiple story lines at once, and they all tie in together by the end – that’s what’s happening here.)

I’m giving The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 3.5 stars, but I’m only rounding up because Goodreads makes me. I’m still not sure what I think of the story, but I’m very intrigued by it and interested in her debut, The Night Circus (and not only because my beloved Kendra Adachi LOVES it). Will I read this again? Maybe, but maybe not. It is one of those books that will definitely read differently on the reread because of knowing how it all plays out. If I do reread this, it’ll most definitely be during the cold of winter, and just perhaps with some tea, sweetened with honey.

What’s a book that feels like a season to you?

~Nikki

Darling Readers, both you and Nikki will probably be disappointed in me, but not as much as I was disappointed in this book. There, I said it. Phew, the hard part is out of the way. The Starless Sea is the sophomore effort of New York Times (and all the other things) number one Best Selling author Erin Morgenstern was a good book. I had a lot of unmet expectations, but I want to meet your expectations by talking about the author. Yes, Morgenstern is a graduate of Smith College, has a theatre degree, and currently lives in Western Massachusetts – in the forest with no reliable internet. Appropriately, her debut novel, The Night Circus, was written over the course of several Novembers during National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. For more information about the online (but sometimes not) not-for-profit community of and for writers and creatives check them out here. Morgenstern started considering herself a writer in her mid-twenties and The Night Circus sold when she was 32. She admits to being a binge writer; she does not write everyday. Her cat’s name is “Lady Vesper Victoria Sparkles Motorboat Morgenstern-Scott. She is named Vesper after the cocktail, because her mother’s name is Mint Julep and we decided she also needed a cocktail name.” Which is something I find immensely appropriate.

Now, on to my feelings about The Starless Sea, and boy do I have feelings. Let me start with the fact I actually love a lot of the concepts in this book. I love how the characters talk about video games, specifically RPG video games where you as a character get to choose how the story or game plays out for you – multiple quests and side quests and which monsters to fight, etc. I love how the characters speak academically about the concept of story and how theatre and video games and novels are all different media of how to tell a story for entertainment. I totally geeked out on all of that in the first 10% of the book even though at the time I was feeling like it was a struggle to get into it. I was NOT a big fan of the book within a book within a book situation going on from the first page. Was it necessary and relevant, probably. Do I like that it was handled in that manner, absolutely not. I loved the characters. I loved the lusciousness of all the settings – they are vibrant and delicious places, both the ones based on real life and those based in fantasy. I did not love how approximately the last quarter of the book could have gone about twice as fast in its pacing and overall I think the entire thing could be cut down by at least one hundred pages and still have made the same impact. Do I understand why those choices were made because of the structure and concept and academics of the writing? Hundop, Yes. It doesn’t mean I have to LIKE them.

I think The Starless Sea became more about how I was mentally deconstructing the book into the academics of writing and structure and less about enjoying a really good story. Because it is a surprising and intriguing story, I just didn’t like how the way it was being told made me THINK of all the reasons why the author made the choices she did. I’m actually going to give this book a 2 star review, because, as it states on the Goodreads star ratings, “it was ok.” In all honesty, I could justify a 3 star review because of all the things I did like about it, but I had more expectations going into this book and they just weren’t met. It’s not going to deter me from at some point finally reading The Night Circus or from reading any other books Morgenstern publishes. I just will probably not ‘recommend’ her titles to the library before the release date.

Was there a book you recently read that you might feel didn’t justify a place on your holds list?

~Ashley

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Book Review•Resources

Wintering by Katherine May

November 4, 2021

What is a more wintering activity than curling up with a comforting book for an extended period of time and then discussing that comforting title with your very best bookish friends? We couldn’t think of one either, so please make plans to join us on Friday, December 10th, 2021 at 7:30pm CST as we discuss our final Virtual Book Club title of 2021, A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn. Sign up here and don’t forget to let us know what books you’d like to discuss in 2022!

Katherine May is a New York Times Bestselling author who lives in Whitstable, UK with her husband, son, three cats, and a dog. Her non-fiction works include today’s title, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, and her memoir of being autistic, The Electricity of Every Living Thing. She is the editor of the anthology of essays on motherhood, The Best, Most Awful Job. She has several fiction works, including Diving In (Book one of The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club) and Burning Out. All in addition to her journalism, essays, and writing courses.

Nikki brought this nonfiction title to my attention several months ago as we were trying to choose titles from her holds list that we could buddy read – mostly with the intent of posting, but possibly just for us because it seemed to be an appropriate and desirable read for our season of life. Wintering has been an eyeopener of a book for me to understand what happens in a person’s life – but especially what has been happening in mine. Katherine May reminds readers that as humans we are all connected to the earth and her cycles. But, modern, industrial, city life has taken us away from the rhythms our bodies used to experience when we lived by the seasons. We used to have different daily rhythms, like that of sleeping longer in winter, or what household chores were accomplished in which season. Now our lives are not as dictated by these cycles of light and dark, warmth and cold, so our bodies and life have compensated, almost forced upon us, the process of wintering as a coping mechanism for the protection of the self. Wintering is a way to retreat from the world to re-energize for the summer times. (Additionally, cue all the Winter is Coming and Sweet, Summer Child vibes from Game of Thrones.)

Wintering looks different for each person, but it is always a slowing down of busyness and accomplishing only what is essential to survive the cycle of this particular winter. When I look back on some of my recent past years, not even taking into consideration the winter of this global pandemic, there have been many winter seasons, some overlapping, but each expounding upon the other so that I have been in a constant winter season. With rare Indian Summer periods where I could pull out of one layer of winter before realizing it didn’t ameliorate any of the others. May explains that too. She goes from having her husband experience an emergency appendectomy right around her fortieth birthday, to her personal health issues that made her have to leave the employment she had worked so hard to achieve, to her son’s trouble with traditional schooling all during the one winter season she’s writing about. She does go on to connect this winter season with past winter seasons in her life where she learned some sort of coping mechanism that is helping her get past this winter season in a better mental and physical state.

The best part of this entire book is the way she gives us permission, with examples from nature – like honeybees and hibernating dormice – and other cultures – like how to sauna – to actually take the time and efforts we need physically, mentally, and emotionally to get us through our personal winters. That wintering is not a weakness but it makes us vulnerable, but each winter season we grow through prepares us to better accept and survive the next one. I’m giving Wintering 4.5 stars, because I don’t think I’ll re-read the title, but I am most certainly interested and planning on reading the rest of May’s works, especially her nonfiction.

~Ashley

Ashley shared that I brought today’s title to her radar, and, as expected, Anne Bogel brought it to mine. She recommended it on episode #267 of What Should I Read Next Podcast back in January, so naturally, like I do, I recommended it and waited…for months. And readers, during the first cold snap of the year feels like a great time to read Wintering by Katherine May, but also, just the season of winter (either nature’s or your own) is a fabulous time to read this book. Let me be clear here, this is the book I needed last fall, when we were just six months into covid-times and I had another eight months of mostly being in my house with my people. It would have been so SO instructive, but also, it was really helpful now. May carefully describes the process of wintering and the stages with nature’s season as an example of how the experience of a personal winter feels, and I’m so very grateful for her work in this. It feels magical to be seen (although she’s really seeing herself, which I get) and to know that I’m not the only one who’s had an experience (or several, let’s be real) like this, and certainly not the only one who’s had such an experience in the last two years.

One thing that feels essential to know about May before reading Wintering, and which I hope will help convince you to pick up this book, is that job Ashley mentioned she had to leave – the course leader of a creative writing program. Why is this essential information? Because her writing lives up to my expectations knowing that. Her phrasing is melodic and the tone is soothing. This title is a joy to read, not only because of May’s writing, but also because the topic is important. We live in a culture of more, and, as May points out, this attitude leads to more depression and more anxiety. Winter is a time that we’ll all face, whether we want to or not, whether we accept it or not.

“We must stop believing that these times in our lives are somehow silly, a failure of nerve, a lack of willpower. We must stop trying to ignore them or dispose of them. They are real, and they are asking something of us.”

As I have been tip-toeing my way out of a particular winter over the last five months, I’m feeling the thaw in some ways, and yet the freezing in others (and not just outside). Wintering is a great reminder to consider, care for myself, and notice my feelings and my reactions to life. I’m giving this book five enthusiastic stars, I’m looking forward to reading May’s other titles, and I’m likely to reread this title because I think another read through would include a lot of gleaning of the amazing ideas and perspectives May offers readers though this book.

What’s a book that hit you in the feels and left you wanting to dive back in again, even if that is eventually?

~Nikki

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First Monday

No Rules November

November 1, 2021

We’ve teased that December is for comfort reads, as we’ve invited you to join us in reading book two of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries series, A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn. Veronica is a fun, bookish character who would be a joy to have tea with on a lazy winter afternoon. If you’d like to discuss her and her adventures over your comfort beverage of choice on Friday, December 10th, 2021 at 7:30pm CST, sign up here. Even if you can’t make it, leave us a comment or DM about what you’d like to see for Virtual Book Club in 2022, whether that is a different day / time, more / less frequent chats, or genre / title desires, we want to know!

So, if December is for comfort reads, what about November? Dear readers, welcome to No Rules November! Does that mean there really were no rules? Nope, we still worked towards our usual goals of reading (whether or not it’s one of our selected titles to review)some non-fiction and at least one male author and BIPOC author. Really the no rules part is that we wanted to read books that felt right for us (and came off Nikki’s holds list), in this season (both with respect to weather and life). Some may make sense to you, others may not, but regardless we’re excited to bring you four very different titles this November. May they help you prepare for winter, escape into another world, feel like your family is normal, and laugh.