The Astrology Book Club: What to Read This Month, Based on Your Sign
With all the good books that come out each month, it can be hard to decide what to read (or, if you’re anything like the people in the Literary Hub office, what to read first). There are lots of good reasons to pick one book over another, but one reason we’ve never really explored before here at Lit Hub is . . . astrology. So in December, we started a new series, in which every month, we’ll give you a literary horoscope guaranteed to come true: a good book to read, based (sort of) on your zodiac sign. Now we’ve made it to February, the shortest month, which gives you a great excuse to blow off your other plans and read, no matter what your sign.
AQUARIUS
Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf
I hesitate here, because it’s not your sign that’s really going to determine whether you fall for Marlon James’ new fantasy epic—it’s whether you grew up on Tolkien, Delany, Martin, etc. and want to see them exploded into something entirely new (or even just that last part). But still, if you’re an Aquarius—curious, progressive, independent-minded, born explorer, hates anything that doesn’t take brain power to digest—you’ll find this wild novel particularly captivating, history of fantasy or no.
PISCES
Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End
Compassionate, maternal, melancholy Pisces: this is your book. But be warned: you will cry. The premise is simple: in a place out of time, a mother has conversations with her 16-year-old son, whom, in the real world, she has lost to suicide. Insightful and heart-wrenching are words too often used to describe sad books, but Yiyun Li is a modern master, and this is where they deserve to be used.
ARIES
Whitney Scharer, The Age of Light
This story begins when young Lee Miller, after years spent as a model and muse, decides to go to Paris to become a photographer. “I’d rather take a photograph than be one,” she says—something any Aries will understand completely—but of course, in 1929, it’s not that simple. She meets Man Ray and becomes his student. They change one another’s lives.
TAURUS
Ross Gay, The Book of Delights
No one loves the good life more than your friendly neighborhood Taurus. Practical and responsible, yes, but also in love with beauty and pleasure—your typical Taurus loves cooking, gardening, and fine fabrics, good conversation and good wine. So perhaps they would also enjoy this book of essays, which began as an experiment: Gay decided to write an essay, every day, on something that delighted him. Though the things he chose may not always be what a typical Taurus would enjoy, they will definitely understand the compulsion—and admire the result.
GEMINI
Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias
A Gemini knows what it is two be of two minds, to change at a moment’s notice—though of course what Wang details here is much more than that. Her essay collection covers her own mental illness, her family, the complicated medical system that she must navigate, and the special trials and triumphs she has faced. The content of the text aside, Wang is an insightful, gorgeous writer, which is something else that artistic Geminis will particularly appreciate.
CANCER
Han Kang, tr. Deborah Smith, The White Book
Highly intuitive, imaginative, and emotional, a Cancer will likely get the most out of Kang’s enigmatic new book, a spare, fragmented meditation of loss, grief, and the color white.
LEO
Elizabeth McCracken, Bowlaway
Warm-hearted Leo loves a laugh, and is sure to get one—along with some profound insights into humanity—from this novel, a family saga that begins when a woman named Bertha appears in a Massachusetts cemetery with a bowling ball in her purse. Another plus for Leos: everyone will be wanting to talk to you about this book, and having read it first will give you some serious cachet. Your favorite!
VIRGO
Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard
Practical, analytical Virgos love nonfiction, especially, given their deep sense of humanity, collections like this: a selection of essays, lectures, and other reflections from Toni Morrison, one of our most important—and humane—living writers and thinkers.
LIBRA
Sandra Newman, The Heavens
Libras are all about balance, and this novel is all about balance slipping through its characters’ fingers, leaving the world a mess. So it may read a little like a horror story—but a damn good one. Kate dreams of the past, of a strange room in Elizabethan England; she keeps returning to it in her sleep night by night, until, one night she wakes up in her dream, and eventually begins to realize that what she does there may have an effect on the world she lives in. Unless she’s simply insane. What’s not to like?
SCORPIO
Morgan Parker, Magical Negro
Clever, passionate Scorpio can always get interested in poetry, but especially poetry like this: fierce, inventive, funny, caustic, elegiac, triumphant. Read: some of the most vital work around, and extra perfect for Scorpio, who loves to be right, and will get to know for sure that she’s right when she champions this book.
SAGITTARIUS
Mariana Dimópulos, tr. Alice Whitmore, All My Goodbyes
For the wanderer of the zodiac, the story of a life in pieces, and a woman who always leaves—friends, family, countries—as soon as she starts to feel safe. She can always start again, with a new name, a new place, until she can’t—and it’s exactly then that she’s forced to.
CAPRICORN
Janet Malcolm, Nobody’s Looking at You
Love her or hate her, Janet Malcolm is a force to be reckoned with: a brilliant journalist and writer with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue. Strict, intellectual Capricorns probably already know exactly who she is (and love her, which is the correct choice—Caps always make the correct choice), but either way, they’ll enjoy this collection of pieces and profiles from the last few years of her work.
