I read:
Thoughts:
- The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor: I found these hollow compared with the Frank O’Connor collection I read in November, not that that is bad, just she treats her characters differently than O’Connor does. There’s a pattern to how some of the stories end – a sharp drop. I have similarities in many of my stories’ endings too so it’s helpful to see examples of differentiated sameness.
- Nathaniel Fludd Beastologist: Flight of the Phoenix by R.L. Travers: Tesfa liked this book. I was more meh.
- The Passion by Jeannette Winterson: Not my favourite Jeannette Winterson (still Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal), but a good Jeannette Winterson in any case.
- Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas: I don’t really know what I expected. Actually, I guess I do, I thought I’d be entertained, but for all of the author’s professing how likable and intriguing she is, my goodness is she a braggart and a bore. This is a very dull book.
- The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart – What is the purpose of the whole first half of the book, the part set in New York? Nothing really happens until he goes to Prava, and even then, what happens is just a random collection of musings on former Soviet biznesmen and wealthy yet dim ex-pats. There are echoes of say, Bulgakov, in the second half, but by then I had trouble keeping focused and just rushed through to the end because I felt bad on giving up on the book. As another review on librarything said: Am I supposed to spend the course of the entire book hoping Vladimir gets offed by the mafia? If I am, the book’s succeeding amply, but if not…
-
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay: I had to keep putting it down, or flipping to the end, like Room, because it was stressing me out too much.
Even though there were tonnes of reviews of An Untamed State all summer long, I don’t think I read any of them because I was totally surprised by the plot. Maybe that’s better. Maybe I should read less reviews and just read books randomly. - One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak: Some people are, unfairly, funnier than me.
- Watch How We Walk by Jennifer LoveGrove: We’ve read this story before, the story of leaving a fundamentalist household. There’s nothing new here in terms of plot or pacing. But stories can be told again and again. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with reading a familiar story with variations as long as the variations are enough to keep my interest. The Emily in the now sections aren’t as interesting as the Emily in the then sections. I feel bad for all the characters, so trapped. Their hopelessness shines through in the writing.
- The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan: In the introduction, Anne Fadiman writes that Marina Keegan wrote like a 21 year old. Sure she does but, realistically, I don’t want to read the thoughts of a privileged, white 21 year old at Yale. Other bits I thought were decent, or better than decent, good. I would have liked the underwater one to be a whole claustrophobic novel. Or a movie, although I don’t know how a movie taking place completely in the dark would actually work. It sounds like it could be a James Incandenza sort of film.
- The Treatment Mo Hayder: The cover said it was supposed to be Completely terrifying. I think I’m jaded. It wasn’t terrifying at all. But then again, I tend to get scared more about stupid things like alien abductions, so maybe I’m the wrong audience.
- The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcom: Maybe I would have found this more compelling if I had a background in journalism. It was a quick read but very little stuck.
- Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman: There will be a full review of this up hopefully by the end of the week.
-
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill: So we’re just going to drop the whole child-porn video plot? Shouldn’t they still care about the video once guy got cleared?
And talk about white male fantasy, the young, POC, sexy psychiatrist goes off with the grizzled and deformed old man at the end. Blech. - The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer: Slow, almost tortuous to read with a plot that is essentially, a meditation on the same thing as Common People by Pulp. Worthwhile but tough.
- Paris Trout by Pete Dexter: I saw the movie years ago, and the movie cuts out a lot of the book for the better, because the second half of the novel drags whereas the first half is much more snappy. I actually am struggling to remember what happens in the second half. I spent the last five minutes thinking and came up with it, but the first half is better.
Favourite book of the month:
Most promising book I put on my wishlist:
I want to get this book and do the things with Tesfa.
I watched:
Thoughts:
- Bletchley Circle: This is my new in the background while I wash dishes show.
- Two Lives: liked how they didn’t make it a big twist at the end, but it did get more and more outlandish the longer it went on (the last ten or so minutes especially).
- Wolf Children: Nice but should have been about 20 minutes shorter.
Listened to: Serial, although I feel kinda slimy about it. I feel bad for everyone involved. Maybe it shouldn’t have been an entertainment. Maybe it will help find out the truth. Maybe it’s just voyeuristic with no merit. I don’t know.
I wrote: Proofread Chagall story. Typed spoiled milk story. Thought of my own Wolf Children story in my mind, same with a story about being stuck in time, although I might just be mining a repressed memory of Groundhog Day.
Published: Nil. Rejections though, so people are reading what I write, just saying no.