You will of course have realised that November is somewhat over, but in the blogosphere we are pretty flexible – at least I think we are – so I am going to do this final Novellas in November post more than a week into December.
The final theme for the month is that we talk about the novellas we’ve added to our TBR since the month began. I strongly resist adding any new books to my TBR, but my willpower failed me – partly because I am partial to novellas.
So, here goes, in alphabetical order by title, some of the books that captured my attention around the month:
- Rebecca Campbell, Arboreality: Bill Holloway (The Australian Legend) posted on this before NovNov but it is a novel, it attracted my attention and I am in fact reading it right now.
- Michael Fitzgerald, Late: Lisa (ANZLitLovers) posted on this and I also have it in my review pile to read. It sounds right up my alley, and I have bought it as a Christmas gift for a family member too.
- Natalia Ginzburg’s The dry heart: Claire (Word by Word) posted on this one, describing it as “this brilliant, page turning feminist classic, originally penned in 1947”. How could I not be in?
- Margo Glantz, The remains: Claire (Word by Word) posted this before NovNov but it is a novella so I am including it here. She commenced her post by describing it as an “incredible literary masterpiece. A lyrical elegy of tempo rubato.” This and the rest of her review captured my attention.
- Hans Keilson, Comedy in a minor key: Cathy (746 Books) wrote that this is about “citizens risking their lives to harbour Jews in Nazi-occupied Netherlands but deals with this serious theme with a lightness of touch.” I know some readers don’t like a light touch applied to deadly serious subjects like this, but I do. Sometimes a light touch makes a bigger impact, in fact.
- Elizabeth Lowry, The chosen: Bookish Beck reviewed this, not in the month, but, during the month, she paired Thomas Hardy’s wife Emma’s memoir Some recollections with Lowry’s novella. Lowry’s book, says Beck, “examines Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his first wife, Emma Gifford”. I like Hardy, so this of course caught my attention
- Janet Malcolm, The journalist and the murderer: Cathy (746 Books) wrote on this before NovNov, but it caught my attention because I have been wanting to read Malcolm ever since I discovered that Helen Garner admires her. Any one Helen Garner admires is of interest to me. In this book Malcolm apparently explores the relationship between journalist and subject, particularly when that subject is a murderer.
- Joyce Carol Oates, Black water: Lisa (The Short Story Editor) recommended this book on my NovNov week 2 post calling it “the most quintessential novella on my shelf”. I have read an Oates novella, Beasts (my review), but not this one.
Eight books, one of which I am reading now. I’m not sure how many more I will read, but at least I have now got them on my list?
Has Novella November affected your TBR pile this year?
Written for Novellas in November 2023
Whispering Gums 
Ha ha, not much affects my book buying habits but bills for sub-floor repairs and drainage have done their worst. The only book I’ve bought this month (apart from presents) is A S Byatt’s The Biographer’s Tale.
Poor you, Lisa. Those costs aren’t fun. House maintenance eh? Good book buying choIce, though!
Oh, Janet Malcolm is wonderful… and The Journalist & the Murderer is one of my favourites.
Thanks Kimbofo. l think I should spend less time writing blog posts and more reading.
Janet Malcolm did not, that I ever heard, write fiction–though Jeffrey Moussaief Masson may still dispute her account of his statements.
Oh yes, good point George. I agree that her book is not a novella! I’ve had many “arguments” about novellas not including nonfiction in the past, and then let this slip through because I want to read it!
I am all in favor of reading what one wants to read. There are many works that are of novella length but not fiction and are well worth reading. (But what is novella length–a hundred pages or fewer, maybe?)
Yes, agree. Technically a novella is a short novel of 20-40K words but since for obvious reasons that is hard to measure, we usually say up to 150 pages (excluding small print classic editions!!)
“Sometimes a light touch makes a bigger impact” – right on, sister !
“Any one Helen Garner admires is of interest to me” – ditto !
Glad we are on the same page about a few things MR.
???
Like a light touch on serious subjects, and Helen Garner, for example – but not so much Kendrick! (Not anti-him but not gung-ho either!)
Always pleased to get a mention. Thank you. Arboreality is a novella of short stories, and only very mildly dystopian, so right up your alley, really.
Always happy to credit where credit is due! I’ve read two stories now and they are pretty dystopian it seems to me. I’m liking them though … dystopian short stories, what’s not to like!!!
I’ve added the novella they all read together but I didn’t, the one that wasn’t A Room of Her Own, which I already had. Apart from that I remained relatively unscathed by NovNov and NonFicNov!
Ha ha Liz, clever you! I’ve got these on a list but my chances of reading them are minimal
The only things I’ve read by Joyce Carol Oates are short stories and huge, chunky novels. I think the shortest novel I read was Zombie. Actually, that one may be a novella at 196 pages!
Thanks Melanie … I’ve only read one novella by her – 196pp is pushing it for a novella though I’ve been known to argue for inclusion of books of that length.
I think it is pushing it too, but at some point in time, a time I do not remember, my brain decided under 200 pages is a good enough marker. LOL.
I did too some years ago.
Looking forward to hearing what you think of Arboreality. It’s on my TBR 🙂
First two stories I really liked … third one? Not so sure but I’m distracted with Xmas events up to my eye balls so am not concentrating so well 😏
A few years back I stopped “officially” adding to the TBR as well, for the same reasons you cited earlier, I believe, but I find that I’m still adding to it, only more chaotically, so nothing actually changed in terms of my desire to read nearly everything (although I have gotten better with choosing books from the older lists because it turns out those books don’t just read themselves). Black Water is particularly interesting, I believe, to American readers who are familiar with the political figures (or were they simply celebrities, I no longer recall) and how JCO recasts the story in contrast to what was in the media at the time (i.e. centres the woman’s experience and imagines what was behind the headlines). But of course JCO is very accomplished, so I’m not trying to deter you in any way.
I’m keen on Arboreality too – I have a hardcopy on order at work.
I’m enjoying it when I get time to read at this time of year!