#I’m absolutely up for joining tumblrs premier literary salon for strange women (and adjacent folk) when does it start can I get an invite

[kitcatbookmad]

Jumping on this post since I read and Loved Piranesi and The Weight of Ink (and in general love reading books about books too!)

• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell also by Susanna Clarke (Very Long but cool novel about magic but has academic themes and footnotes and a very big library)

• Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith (bookish but not about writing so much?)

• Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (novel about an Odd seeming bookshop)

•A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (looking at Russian short stories and the art and craft of writing)

• Outline trilogy by Rachel Cusk (narrator is a writer and interacts with other writers but not particularly about books)

•The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer (novel written entirely in letters about a mid war literary society)

• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (fantasy about Stories and their power)

•The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams (novel about mountweazels)

•Square Haunting by Francesca Wade (non fiction about a square in London where 5 female writers lived in the early-mid 20th century)

•Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan (self explanatory there)

I’ll leave it there because I realised I have read a fair few books about books lately but any other additions I’d be glad of and will look at those you’ve both mentioned too!

I am feeling spiritually out of sorts and need to take what I call a Novel Tonic: a deep dive into novels and literary analysis, surrounding myself with literary scholarship in an attempt to soothe my soul. Does that make sense? Basically, I want to read books about books. I want to read mystery stories. I want to read something soothing and interesting at once, that teaches me and makes me think but isn't so outside of my wheelhouse that it blows my mind. Currently I am reading M.R. James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, introduced by Ruth Rendell, and that short essay on the power of James's ghost stories is exactly the sort of thing I need.

So please, you members of tumblr's Premier Literary Salon for Strange Women (and Adjacent Folks), recommend me some books and essays and anthologies. If you need me, I'll be sitting in the lit crit section of my local public library, soaking up the atmosphere.