a year of purse books !
ones i loved & where i read them
Welcome to Purse Book, a weekly newsletter about reading hot little books & being a gal on the go. If you haven’t already, you absolutely may subscribe now:
Starting with the one that was the most vulnerable to photograph (on the eastboand 34 Trolley) and the most vulnerable for my heart: Claire Keegan's Foster, which is 5 x 7.5 x 0.31 inches & 96 pages.
Helen Garner's Monkey Grip, from 1977, is 4 x 7 x 0.4 inches & 245 pages.
I read Monkey Grip for the first time in my favorite old apartment that had a bay window and a teeny couch, read for the second time on my current couch which is too deep.
Borealis by Aisha Sabatini Sloan is 5 x 6.75 x 0.35 inches & 144 pages.
Read while I was largely pregnant at a sandwich place before elegant dinner; got sandwich because I was correctly concerned I’d be too hungry to enjoy elegant dinner if I didn’t pre-eat.
Caroline Blackwood's Great Granny Webster, from 1977, is 5 x 0.3 x 8 inches & 128 pages.
Read at home, which means harder to remember my moods, but I do remember this one: I was sulky about something.
Helen House by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is 4 x 6 x 0.2 inches (!) & 74 pages.
Read on the train. This copy belongs to my friend ’Pemi whose new book of short stories, Ghostroots, is as enchanting as it is eerie as it is enchanting. There’s one story that has a haunted house and it’s my favorite, even though they’re all my favorite.
Lore Segal's Lucinella, from 1976, is 5 x 7 x 0.4 inches & 154 pages.
Not to brag, but I’ve read Lucinella a few times.
Bitter Water Opera, by Nicolette Polek, is 5 x 7 x 0.3 inches & 128 pages.
Read at home, wish I’d read on a trip.
I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel is 5 x 8 x 0.4 inches & 216 pages of red hot desperation.
This cover indicates I not only read this book on the move, but it also got squished.
My Lesbian Novel, by Renee Gladman, is 5.5 x 6.8 x 0.4 inches & 152 intoxicating pages.
Read at home, but didn’t mind that.
Mammoth, by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches, is 5.25 x 7.5 x 0.3 inches & 144 pages.
Finished this on the Mammoth back from Idaho, had hours left to re-watch Challengers.
& last year’s favorites:
