April 2015

I read:

Thoughts:

• The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro: I go back and forth on Alice Munro: I find her overrated, then I get to a story I really like, then it goes back to being overrated or dull or not my style or whatever you want to say. Of course, I can only recall everything about the stories I didn’t like and very little of the stories that I did. I guess she always surprises me. I can say that at least.
• Canada by Richard Ford: I try, but American novels, so American. I don’t care about white male problems. Plus such a slow moving structure (50% of the book goes by before they even get to Canada) and each chapter seems the same – a minute movement forward of the plot, followed by a paragraph of self-reflection or summary that stays the same for large chunks of time and which I feel like yelling I know your parents robbed a bank because you tell me every other page. My anger is a shame because the writing is good but there is no purpose to anything that happens. I know I am rapidly approaching old age and nihilism so maybe when I’m in my seventies, nothing mattering will all make sense, but right now, don’t put the gun on the mantel unless you’re going to do something with it, you know? Besides, the guy goes to Saskatchewan and doesn’t say bunny-hug even once.
• Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer: So, an ecological Roadside Picnic/Stalker then, eh?
• Ellen in Pieces by Caroline Adderson: That’s right, I read a book I put on my most promising list ages ago!
• Uzumaki 3 by Junji Ito: Not as creepy as #2
• Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. Lafevers: Tesfa liked it, I found it tedious.
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen: Reviewed earlier this month.
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers: Oh my, Mary Poppins is so vain and strict and grouchy in the book. Also, for the fact that Travers rewrote a chapter because of racist undertones, the book doesn’t seem to think that calling people Arab and Red Indian as an insult is also worth excising.
• Little Birds by Anaïs Nin: Some tingly in the nether-regions stories, some dull ones.
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: The introduction talks about how the work doesn’t feel dated, and it’s true. It doesn’t feel like it’s written in the 1960s. It could have been written now. It’s really good.
• Someone Is Watching by Joy Fielding: Reviewed earlier this month.
• Elle by Douglas Glover: I read one of his short story collections last year and it didn’t gel for me, but I really liked this. It was something else.
• Viviane by Julia Deck: What’s this? A second book I put on my most promising list! Meghan reading lists FTW!

Favourite book of the month:

I have a new favourite book to read and re-read. But oh is this book decadent, like a really fancy dessert with cheese and chocolate and cream; I can only read about twenty pages at a time before feeling ill.

Most promising book on the wishlist:

For the name alone.

I watched:

I wrote: Re-did a start of the wolf children story. Faerie work. Slush pile work. I wrote a poem today.