Months with hard endings and exciting beginnings

What I read in November

I made it through November and that’s about the nicest thing I can say about this month. The election (much less the results) severely taxed my system and I was already running on reserves. I am happy to report that this last week of the month has been much kinder than the first three and I am finally starting to feel like myself again.

And THAT is how I found the mental space to do what I’ve been wanting to do for months which is make this Substack the home of not only my reading life but also my traveling life!

Welcome to By Plane or By Page!

The joy of my life is recommending books and travel ideas and now I can do both here on Substack. I’ll still share what I’ve been reading but I’m also making this the home of our travel itineraries.

For those of you who don’t already know, we are BIG travelers in our family. We love big overseas trips in the summer and national park trips in the spring and fall (with lots of NYC in between!). When we get back from a trip, we write up our itineraries with every lesson learned, restaurant discovered, and anything else we have to share. Nicholas and I work hard on these because we want everyone to know travel - especially with kids - is easier than you think and more rewarding than you can imagine!

In fact, we just finished our itinerary for Yellowstone and the Grand Teton if these two incredible national parks have been on your bucket list!

Now, on to the reading!

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.

I completed my slow read for 2024! I knew next to nothing about Don Quixote when I started, except that it was considered the first modern novel, and the new translation by Edith Grossman was supposed to be fantastic.

However, it only took a handful of pages to become acquainted with Don Quixote and his madness. The madness comes from Don Quixote’s obsession with tales of romance and chivalry, which leads him to believe he is a knight and must seek adventure and honor. Hijinks ensue!

I found Don Quixote charming, even at his most confused, and his long-suffering squire Sancho Panza hilarious and surprisingly insightful. Don Quixote felt wildly relevant for a novel written in the early 1600s, and I always enjoyed checking in to see what Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were up to now. The best part was an entire world of literary references that opened up to me and seemed to follow me on our travels throughout the year, from the aesthetic of a famous Cuban restaurant in St. Pete to one of the biggest retailers in Japan. I would see Don Quixote still making his mark on the world every where I went. 

The Village of Eight Graves by Seishi Yokomizo

But in this world, it is never so clear-cut what is happiness and what misfortune.

Anything related to Japan is an easy sell after our recent trip, so I was all in when my friend Smith picked this book for our book club. Plus, reading Japanese mystery master Seishi Yokomizo was perfect for spooky season.

Featuring Yokomizo’s famous detective Kosuke Kindaichi, The Village of Eight Graves deals with horrific legacies whether inheritances are curses, blessings, or both. I loved the mix of history and modern-day adventure, and Yokomizo kept me guessing until the end. 

The Aeneid by Virgil

Do the gods light this fire in our hearts or does each man's mad desire become his god?

The Aeneid was the October selection for Well-Read Mom this year. I chose the Robert Fagle translation that tells the story narratively instead of sticking strictly to the Latin hexameters. I’m so glad I did. 

Instead of struggling through the verse, I was swept up in the action as Aeneas flees Troy with his father on his back on his long journey to become the ancestor of Rome. I also chose to read each book’s summaries in my version’s introduction instead of trying to follow the action on my own. So, I was free to enjoy the characters and soak up the symbolism instead of trying to figure out what the heck was happening. 

I loved the tragic pairing of Aeneas and Dido and Aeneas’s trip to the underworld to see his father. The military battles at the end would have been tedious had I not understood that Virgil was writing the story of Rome and Augustus - not just Aeneas and Turnus. Plus, the epic trolling by Juno is the ultimate reminder that men battle for empires but goddesses rule the world. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Only cells that had been transformed by a virus or a genetic mutation had the potential to become immortal.

I can practically hear y’all and, listen, I can’t believe I hadn’t read this book yet either. Everyone told me I’d loved it. Everyone was right.

Turns out I needed a book club deadline to finally read Rebecca Skloot’s famous nonfiction book on the history of Henrietta Lacks, the source of Hela cells that have fueled biological research for decades. The way Skloot tells both the stories of the medical revolution and family tragedy is a master class. The book was also an exquisite reminder that our society’s current distrust of the medical industry is deep, wide, and founded in a long, complicated history.

My God and My All: The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by Elizabeth Goudge

The November pick for Well-Read Mom. Last year, November we read another saint-focused work. I haven’t spent of time reading up on the saints and it’s been an unexpected and interesting addition to my reading life.

I didn’t know much about Saint Francis, except the love of animals and the well-known prayer. Learning about his life and impact on the Catholic church was fascinating and put a lot of historical pieces in place for me. A poverty-embracing friar approaching the king-like popes of the middle ages was revolutionary and still has impact today with the current Pope Francis, choosing his name specifically to honor the Saint from Assisi.

So tell me, what did you read in November ?

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