This month I tackled two longer reads: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead and The Binding by Bridget Collins.

Great Circle was a birthday gift last Summer that I finally reached for when it was chosen for my local book club. It is a colossus. According to her acknowledgements, the first draft was over 1000 pages but even in it’s final trimmed down edit just shy of 600 pages there is still so much content in the novel it feels as long as it is heavy. Now that’s not to say it’s not a worthwhile read, but it is a project. Be prepared to keep track of more than a dozen characters and travel through time and across the globe. Be prepared for uncomfortable sex scenes, loneliness, war, and abuse as the characters finding their passion and pursuing their dream. 

Once I finished Great Circle I was eager for a change and some personal events pushed me to look for some escapism which I found in The Binding by Bridget Collins. Although it also has plenty of sad events and heartbreak, but it also has romance and a dash of magic which was just what I needed to disappear into a different world for a little while. This is a thoughtful novel about memory as well as a book written for people who love books as physical objects – the color, the binding, the feel.  Even though it felt short after Great Circle its still over 400 pages so its another longer read if that’s what you’re looking for.

I also borrowed The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray from the library this month. The story of Belle da Costa Greene, the librarian who built J. P. Morgan’s library (and was the first director when it became The Morgan Library & Museum) is not just remarkable because of her passion and skill as a librarian, but also because of her personal life passing as a white woman in the segregation of 20th century America. The story itself is brilliant, but unfortunately this novel version did not engage me as a reader. The authors clearly researched her life, friends, and family but it sometimes left the text with a stilted feeling – especially within the dialogue which often felt like prominent figures quoting their most famous writings or speeches rather than individuals conversing. In spite of this I’m thrilled da Costa Greene’s story is being told and am grateful at how open both Benedict and Murray were in their source materials – I’m sure it will direct my follow-up reading.