What we’re reading: Geoff Dyer, Andrew Michael Hurley, Marcia Hutchinson and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in November

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

I finally got round to Thoreau’s Journal. It is determinedly down-to-earth and soaring, lyrical and belligerent, humane and cantankerous. Walt Whitman thought Thoreau suffered from “a very aggravated case of superciliousness”, but as Walt also said (of himself) the Journal of this brooding, solitary figure is great; it “contains multitudes.”

I’ve also been reading Xiaolou Guo’s My Battle of Hastings. Having moved to Britain and switched to writing in English, the Chinese writer and film-maker makes an impulsive decision to buy a flat by the sea in Hastings. Very funny, as she always is, but also a serious look at Britain and Brexit. It might even be a study of how the historical roots of that decision extend back to 1066.

And Meghan Daum’s The Catastrophe Hour: all credit to UK-based Notting Hill Editions for publishing this latest instalment of pieces by one of American’s finest, wittiest and most scathing essayists.

Homework by Geoff Dyer is published by Canongate (£20). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.