A Delicious New Novel About Marie Curie
A few weeks ago, I received the nicest email from a woman who works for Paul Dry Books, a small publishing house in Philadelphia. She was asking if I’d be interested in reading an advance copy of Luminous Bodies: A Novel of Marie Curie by Devon Jersild, scheduled to be published on February 17th.
Of course, I said yes.
Emails like this are rare for me (I buy 99.9% of the books I write about with my own money) and feel especially refreshing right now, since I spend way too much time each week trashing numerous pitches and solicitations from bots. (I can tell they come from bots because they’re always sickly sweet, super long, unrealistically complimentary, and touting ridiculous promises about how the “person” on the other end can make me famous—no, thank you.)
When Luminous Bodies showed up in my post office box a week later, I was so excited to dive in. I devoured it.
It’s a gorgeous, delicious story about the woman Marie Curie (not just the scientist), her personal trials, her self-doubt while navigating motherhood as a working professional, and the double standards she had to navigate both before and after her husband’s death—all extremely relatable, in my opinion.
According to the interwebs, it’s. . .
“. . . a colorful re-creation of an incomparable life”
“heartrending and intelligent. . . “
“a tender exploration of the vulnerable woman behind the legend. . . “
I completely agree. During each chapter, I had to keep reminding myself the book isn’t a biography—it’s seriously that good. I loved it, and I highly recommend it.
⊹⊹⊹
Admittedly, I’ve been reading more than usual lately. Stories have become a coping mechanism of sorts—and rightly so, if you ask me, for any woman navigating the uncertainty of our world right now, a winter that’s been far too cold and dark, and on top of that, in my situation, whose youngest child turned 18 today and is deep in the throes of deciding which college he’ll attend next fall, something she has very big feelings about and can’t deal with 24/7 at the moment.
Here’s a list of a few good books I’ve been reading lately:
Supercommunicators (a non-fiction primer on connection)
Luminous Bodies: A Novel of Marie Curie (of course!)
Flying Solo (a Maine summer-flavored adventure)
Plain Truth (an old Jodi Picoult mystery)
Happy Place (a comfort re-read, again)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (my current read!)
A Spark of Light (next up!)
Sandwich (next up too!)
I’m Wearing Tunics Now (a non-fiction goodie I’m starting on audio this week because I’m turning 44 on Tuesday and I feel especially in need of womanly advice from someone who’s been here before)
I hope you’re taking care of yourself, friend. I hope there’s plenty of extra hot coffee (or tea, if you prefer), extra hugs (even if they’re courtesy of yourself), and some extra-good news of some sort sitting in your mailbox, text messages, email inbox, or at your front door this weekend.
If you’re looking for book-flavored coping mechanisms, like I am, I hope this list helps—and should you want to chat about any of it, all of it, I’m here.
Always.
💛
Celeste
did AI write this? nope, this lady did ⤴ always💛