My December in reading

Ah, December—the month where I cram in as many books as I can to make up for a perceived yearlong laziness due to Catholic guilt. This year wasn’t too bad, actually—I only read five throughout the month.

Rambles in the Mammoth Cave by Alexander Clark Bullitt

When my friends and I visited Mammoth Cave last November, I bought myself the most “me” souvenir possible: this slim volume that Alexander Clark Bullitt penned about the cave in 1845. (Although according to the introduction, he plagiarized a few other sources.) The idea behind the book was to draw more tourists to the cave, and apparently Bullitt was successful. I can see why: the text is entertaining and easy to read, assuming you enjoy history and historical writing. If you want to learn about how great the “M'Adamized” roads were surrounding the cave, you’re in for a treat. I’m jealous that so many tourists got to eat inside the caves back then, but it was probably horrible for preservation. Rambles in the Mammoth Cave probably isn’t universally interesting, but if you’ve been there, or if you’re more generally fascinated by caves and American history more broadly, you should consider reading it.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

I read this book when I was about 14 years old and hated it. However, I recently watched the AMC television adaptation and loved it. So I decided to give Rice’s novel another try. You know the story—there’s this young reporter, and he’s interviewing a vampire named Louis about the vampire who made him, a cruel-but-handsome bastard named Lestat. I enjoyed the book more than I did when I was 14, but it still fell flat compared to the TV show, which added moral complexity to the characters and was a whole lot more openly queer. I’m glad I gave it a second chance, though.

Model Home by Rivers Solomon

I always have to steel myself when I pick up one of Rivers Solomon’s novels, but they’re such a phenomenal writer that it’s always worth the effort. Their 2017 novel An Unkindness of Ghosts was space-opera-but-make-it-trauma; their 2021 novel Sorrowland was sci-fi-political-thriller-but-make-it-trauma; and their 2024 novel Model Home is haunted-house-but-make-it-trauma. This is all a compliment, by the way—I really do believe Solomon is one of the finest writers of our generation. In Model Home, Ezri returns home to Texas after the death of their parents. Together with their siblings and their kid, Ezri has to determine whether their parents died of natural causes, or whether it was the house that tortured them throughout their childhood and has finally taken its ultimate revenge. It’s a brutal, frightening book—but there are really tender depictions of family as well. I recommend it.

The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley

I had this book sitting on my shelf for ages, and now I wish I’d read it earlier. (Although I did end up reading it between Christmas and New Year’s, which is when most of the plot takes place, so it was very fitting.) This excellent feminist retelling of Beowulf sets the ancient tale in the American suburbs and has a much more sophisticated understanding of PTSD and financial inequality than the anonymous author of the original displayed. (This is not a critique of the original—obviously that Old English author did not share our modern concerns.) I loved this novel. Easily one of the best books I read all year.

Aseroë by François Dominique (translated from the French by Richard Sieburth and Howard Limoli)

I picked this novel up years ago at an independent bookstore in Punta Gorda, Florida, of all places. When I finally got around to reading it, I initially felt it was pretentious—but then it started growing on me, much like its namesake fungus. It’s something of an experimental text; I would say even its structure was evocative of fungi, and the fact that Sieburth finished Limoli’s translation after his death adds another spore-like layer. It is definitely a Book Written in the Twentieth Century by a Critically Lauded White Man, if you know what I mean. But I still enjoyed it.

And that’s a wrap on 2024 reading. I’ve already started my 2025 reading, of course. Stay tuned.