For the first time since The Plague Began in 2020, I’ve actually managed to complete a good number of books! I really struggled through the pandemic with reading- I couldn’t focus, couldn’t remember what was happening, and simply found myself irritated by even trying. For my Goodreads challenge this year, I set out for 39- I’m already at 34, which is, whoa. Here are some of my favorites, halfway through the year!
(Yes, this post is late. I’ve been thinking about it since June. Eep.)
The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
One June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?
Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.
As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter ? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?
From “the reigning queen of magical realism” (Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author), this is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.
So I fell in love with Alice Hoffman with the movie Practical Magic– I had no idea about the book until later, and have voraciously consumed them ever since. The entire Magic series is wonderful (the last book is DEVASTATING btw), but I’m here talking about The Invisible Hour– it was such a strange, surreal kind of book, with a very unique premise. It was one of my first five star books this year!
Circe by Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child–neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
I’m tardy to the party with several of these reads. After attempting to read Song of Achilles twice- once in 2013 and once again this year- I figured out that it just wasn’t for me. However! Circe is magnificent. This audiobook is one of my absolute favorites. This made me fall down the rabbit hole of the “feminist retelling of mythology,” and I’ve enjoyed a few (The Witch’s Heart comes to mind) but this one was oh-so-good.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
I read this book at a time of struggle. I really needed to read this, and am glad that the fates aligned to get a copy in my hands. I was crying by the end. It’s so good, and it really made me appreciate the life I have.
Grimoire Girl by Hilarie Burton Morgan
Since childhood, Hilarie Burton Morgan has felt the call to record, keep, and catalogue life in all its strange wonder. It was a whimsical habit, with no clear goal. And then, when she became a mother, the importance of all that collecting snapped into focus.
In an effort to patchwork together an anthology of traditions, curiosity, and magical thinking that she could pass down, Burton Morgan realized she was crafting a grimoire.
In her most intimate book yet, Burton Morgan shares how she’s creating an inheritance of mischief and magic that will outlive her. What’s more, she shows readers how they too can look at the elements of their lives and collect the pieces into a tangible collection of a lifetime of learning. Because in its purest form, a grimoire was a guide to keep you alive.
Like the grimoires of old, full of life-saving wisdom, these pages record the people, places, ideas and habits that have kept Burton Morgan alive, in her signature voice that is at once honest, witty, and charming. Accompanied by whimsical two-color illustrations by Olivia Faust, the book also includes Simple Spells, which are ways to bring magic into your daily create an altar that delights and inspires, practice candle magic and poetry spells, make an oracle deck, or channel your inner kitchen witch with recipes and potions.
So begin creating your own inheritance, take a long look inward and decide…
What wisdom will be written on the pages of your Grimoire?
This freaking book. I was not really familiar with Hilarie Burton Morgan before I happened to see this and pick it up. Now, I want to lead her fan club, consume all her media, ALL THE THINGS because her ability to tell a story is TOPS. I also read The Rural Diaries this year, and adored it too. There’s something very down-to-earth about the way she communicates, and her ability to find magic in everything is just *chef’s kiss.*
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn’t thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.
This book made me feel a certain melancholy that comes from whimsical, daydream fiction. It was such a great story with unique characters while maintaining a simplicity in its form. It was a perfect length, too- at this point in my life, I’m reaaaaaaally appreciating authors who can nail down the story without 700+ pages in a 5+ book series. (That’s not a dig, but hoo damn, I have tried- and failed- to read certain books like that this year.)
I’d love to revisit this at the end of the year, to see what tales get added. What are your favorite reads this year? Let me know in the comments- I always love book recommendations!
Melody K. Writes Words 
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