November is ostensibly the Month of Writing, and to be fair I did more writing this month than in all of the past year including last November. However life, as usual, had its way, so the amount of time and energy I had available for writing dwindled away to nothing. Unfortunately so did my time for reading, though I did manage to finish two books.
Ivan Turgenev (Charles and Natasha Hepburn, translators), A Sportsman’s Notebook [2025.11.15] – I ordered this book from Books & Mortar back in May of this year, and then promptly forgot about it when life suddenly went sideways. Turns out the book had been on back-order with the publisher for months. I had recently ordered another book from Books & Mortar, and on a whim stopped in to see if it had arrived yet. The clerk said it hadn’t but this one from six months ago had suddenly appeared. And the best part was I had already paid for it!
Todd Goddard, Devouring Time: Jim Harrison, a Writer’s Life [2025.11.20] – purchased from Books & Mortar. I had no idea this book was even in the works until about the end of September, and since then I have been awaiting it eagerly. And here it is.
Reading List
Books I read in the month of November 2025.
Books
Efraín Kristal, Invisible Work: Borges and Translation [2025.11.26] – I will straight-up say I loved this book! Kristal discusses Borges’ approach to translation – his own translations, translations of his works, and translation as a subject in his fiction and nonfiction. I came out the other side of Invisible Work feeling compelled to re-learn Russian so I could finally read some of the books I picked up in Saint Petersburg back in 1994.
Barbara Saunier, There is Room in a Horse for the Whole Boy [2025.11.28] – One of my recent acquisitions from the Grand River Poetry Collective. The poetry within is excellent, and – perhaps because like the author I too grew up on a farm – made me feel a sense of nostalgia.
October was a fantastic month both for reading and for acquiring new books. I had more quiet time than I have in any other month this year, and I also know that November will be exceptionally busy, due to it being the Month of Writing (formerly NaNoWriMo).
And this year has been very stressful, so I indulged in some retail therapy.
