IOUs, Book Reviews & Exciting News
Well, well, well…look what the cat dragged in! (Me. The cat dragged in me.)
I’m so sorry, loyal readers. I’ve been terrible of late - all but disappearing, with no warning or explanation. You didn’t deserve that. To try to remedy my wrongs, I present you with the following excuses for consideration:
Recently, I’ve been reading just for the sake of reading, without thinking about what I’m going to write about the things that I’m reading, which has been refreshing.
I have been thinking a lot about this blog more generally - what I read, what I write about, how much I write, and how often, etc., and there are some changes (upgrades) in the works. More on that later.
I’ve been busy with work (booo) and busy having fun, and enjoying life, and soaking up the PERFECT fall weather (both the unseasonably warm and the deliciously nippy).
I know this alone is not enough to reverse the hurt I’ve caused, but hopefully understanding my absence a little better will act as a balm. To continue the healing, I will now commence step two of my plan to get myself back into your good graces: six quick(ish)-fire reviews of the books I’ve read since you last heard from me. Without further ado:
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
I picked up To Paradise at a time when I was in the mood to be absolutely ROCKED by a book. If you’ve read A Little Life, you will understand why I thought Hanya’s newest novel might be just the ticket. That being said, I wasn’t expecting To Paradise to be anything like A Little Life because I have also read Hanya’s other novel, The People in the Trees, which has got to be one of the strangest books ever. Disturbing on pretty much every level, but still good because the moral ambiguity/depravity within was interesting, and it was well written. This is not a review of A Little Life or The People in the Trees - thank god because I honestly don’t know how I could review either (for very different reasons) - but I want it to be clear that I was going in both with expectations and with an open mind. Unfortunately To Paradise neither met my expectations nor pleasantly surprised me.
It was almost 800 pages long, which I love, but disappointingly, instead of being one long novel, it was three normal-length novels thrown into a book together. The first part is set in the 1890’s but not as they really were - for simplicity’s sake, in this story, the civil war ended differently, with the United States broken up into several different regions/nations, and the northeast, where our story takes place, is known as “The Free States.” The main freedom afforded to its citizens is that of sexual orientation. There are of course gay people because Hanya is obsessed with writing from the gay male perspective (I say that blithely because she has offered no real justification for why she thinks she’s equipped to write from that perspective OR explanation for why she does it). Anyway I enjoyed Book I quite a bit once I was able to make heads and tales of what was going on geopolitically.
Book II took place in the 1990’s, during the AIDS epidemic, without any huge variation on reality that I could pick up on. It was the most boring of the three. Book III was set in the 2090’s in a dystopian, pandemic-ravaged world. It was in some ways the most interesting portion of the book and in other ways the least interesting - and both of those things for the same reason. It was quite close to home. I’m going to be a bit lazy and not go into much more detail than that, but I have a lot to get through. The writing was mostly very good, but the three separate stories told within To Paradise shared nothing more than a very broad theme of the human instinct to yearn for something better and character's names (which was honestly confusing). I don’t regret reading it, but I wouldn’t read it again.
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
This book came to me recommended by two different people, so I could put it off no longer. Thank you to VR Eskridge and to Peter Melhado for turning me on to this delightful little read. It’s the story of Sally Jay Gorce, a young American living Paris in the 50’s, and it’s extremely funny and full of youthful energy. In Sally Jay, there are certainly bits and pieces for me to recognize - feelings or urges or even specific actions that I’ve witnessed in and from my peers (friends or otherwise). She is a very honest character - sometimes going wrong and not always terribly sympathetic, but always likable at the base of it. One can’t help rooting for her as they read.
Dundy has a sharp wit and writes captivating dialogue. I was always waiting for Sally Jay to talk to someone or for someone to talk to her. Part of that is owed to the skill with which Dundy crafts her peripheral characters. Her portrait of the “it crowd” of 1950’s Paris (or rather “it crowds” because there were multiple, as there always are) is skillfully painted. Sally Jay’s simultaneous participation in and separation from the Paris scene is what makes this novel so interesting. She is free and wants to have fun, and so she will. But she knows, most, if not all of the time, that it’s all corrupt. The ending of the novel is immensely satisfying.
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Everything about this book was interesting. It is roughly the shape of a postcard held vertically - just barely not a square. It’s 130 pages long, but would be less if it was shaped like a normal book, so it’s short. It has a pretty cover. Also it has like 15 pages of praise at the beginning (only a slight exaggeration), so I wondered if everyone had heard of this book except for me. All of these things resulted in my being intrigued enough to purchase Ghost Wall during one of my raids at The Strand. It was worth the money.
The basic plot of this little novel is that Silvie (a high school aged girl) is participating in a living archeological/anthropological experiment with her abusive father, meek mother, the archeology professor who set the whole thing up, and three of his graduate students. The goal is to live like the Britons did during the Iron Age. To be totally frank, I don’t remember the exact setting and I’m chugging along, but it’s somewhere where bogs exist, and therefore bog people (look it up if you don’t know). It’s a spooky, psychological slow burn, and it is written with a nuance that keeps the story simple and complex at the same time. I read it, like many of the praisers mentioned above, in one sitting.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Yep, I finally caved and entered the realm of Colleen Hoover. I was told by trusted sources that I should dive in with It Ends With Us, and I’m so glad that I followed that advice (thank you Maddie & Kathryn <3). This book was highly entertaining. Before I go further, I will say that this book deals with domestic abuse - both physical and sexual - and it does so in earnest and with a degree of nuance that some (closed minded literary elitists) might not expect from an author frequently featured on #smut BookTok. I obviously do not think that abuse in any form is funny.
However, this book was funny - to ME - on many occasions. The book opens with our main character, Lily, siting on a roof ruminating about suicide. She would never do it herself, but doubts that anyone who attempts suicide by jumping regrets it on the way down. WHAT?! First of all, it’s common knowledge that suicide survivors are generally glad that they survived. I Googled this to double check and according to Harvard, 70% of people who survive a suicide attempt don’t try again. Second of all, which person at Simon & Schuster approved these opening paragraphs?? Suicide ideation is NOT hot! Whatever. Later on the page (still page 1), Lily identifies Brooke Shields’s eulogy for Michael Jackson as profound enough to make history (insert eye roll). As a staunch hater of Michael Jackson, pedophile extraordinaire, I knew from this point that I was never going to fully connect with this book, but I carried on.
On page 2, when Lily describes herself as “that strange girl with the erratic red hair who once fell in love with a homeless guy and brought shame upon her entire family,” I was on the edge of my seat about where this could possibly be going. I was kept entertained through the remainder of the novel (once things became more serious) by the fact that young Lily’s diary entries, which are interspersed with the present-day action, are BIZARRELY addressed to Ellen Degeneres. I was warned about this element of the text, but I would have been seriously flabbergasted if I hadn’t known to expect it. So you’re welcome for the warning - if you’re not in possession of one of the four million copies of this book that have been sold.
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
This is classic example of a novel that I somehow missed in high school. It is simply very, very good. If you, like me, missed it in school, I highly recommend picking up a copy. It isn’t long, and the language is simple and unassuming yet packs a serious punch. It is also a book that, even before I read it, always reminded me of my friend, Bea, who I love and who loves My Ántonia. Now I know why she loves it, and I love it too! That’s a lot of love. But My Ántonia is filled with love, so it all makes sense.
It’s the story of pioneer life in Nebraska, told from the perspective of a young boy, then man, named Jim Burden. The focal point of the novel is Ántonia, a bohemian girl who arrives (in Nebraska) at the same time as Jim, and who becomes an inextricable part of his life. In his own words to Ántonia (or Cather’s I suppose), he says “The idea of you is a part of my mind; you influence my likes and dislikes, all my tastes, hundreds of times when I don’t realize it. You really are a part of me” ( Cather 321). It just absolutely slaps. It’s a story about the human spirit, both in terms of perseverance against harsh odds and in terms of the way our spirits touch each other. It’s not long, but I recommend reading slowly and making sure to savor. If you’ve already read it, here’s your sign to re-read. It’s one of those.
So there. Something for everyone, I think. This post turned out more fun than I initially anticipated because it shows my range. I have range!
And, finally, before I go, I must execute the final step of my plan to make you love me again. Effective communication and setting clear expectations are the cornerstones of any good relationship, and so I must tell you that this is the last you’ll hear from me in 2022. The changes alluded to above are going to take me some time to execute. I don’t know why I’m being so mysterious about it, I’m just migrating the whole shebang over to Substack (which my mom told me to do from the very beginning - you were right, Mama). All you really need to know is that it will become more of a newsletter or “reveiwletter” (haha), that you’ll be able to read my posts in their entirety in your inbox instead of navigating to a separate website, AND that it’s going to be wonderful.
While you wait for my return, here are a few things you can do:
(I don’t know why but I’m in a list-y mood right now)
Send me book recommendations!
If you really want me to read your book, send me a physical copy (I will provide my address to non-strangers or strangers with references) (yes, this is a shameless effort to curtail my spending on books, which is hopeless, hopeless, hopeless).
Subscribe to my blog in it’s current form! I will be migrating the mailing list, so if you join now, you won’t miss my glorious return in January.
Until next year! Love you.