More travel this month again meant lots of reading time. I’ve been a bit short on non-fiction lately; any recommendations for me? In the meantime, let’s dig in to this month’s stack.
There There by Tommy Orange
I always enjoy books with lots of intertwined perspectives. This is a heavy and engaging read following twelve Native American characters in Oakland each telling their stories and exploring their identities. Not cheerful, but excellent.
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
I absolutely adore the poem “Good Bones,” though the rest of this collection didn’t do much for me. As I wrote earlier this month, I’m not always sure why some poetry resonates with me more or less, though. This short collection focuses on motherhood and nature, and is super readable.
Dolls of Our Lives by Mary Mahoney & Allison Horrocks
I really wanted to like this one! As someone who loved American Girl (the books, the magazine, the play scripts!), this was a fun trip down memory lane. However, the authors didn’t seem to have a cohesive point to make and the pop culture references that started out funny eventually became unrelated and way too much.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
I was very excited to read this since Kuang’s Babel was one of my favorite books last year, and this one was a big hit for me too. The novel has an exciting story, an unreliable and rather cringey narrator, and smart satire digging at racism, sexism, and the rat race of book publishing. Highly recommend!
Persephone Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer
I stumbled across this poetry collection on the Hoopla app (connected to your library card!) and found it so interesting and creative. The book alternates between Persephone’s point of view and the poet’s, tying their stories together. Mateer mixes in zine/collage style art and tarot references, and it all works really well together to create a powerful book.
Under Her Skin: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection edited by Lindy Ryan and Toni Miller
This was another Hoopla discovery; while there were a handful of poems that grabbed me, most of this collection felt somewhat amateur or undeveloped. Still happy to have read it though, because the fact that “horror poetry” exists is super cool and means there’s definitely other genre fluidity I’ve not been exposed to yet.
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
I really loved this novel—it’s a twisty mystery, digs into #metoo complexities, and interrogates how problematic true crime can be, all at once. I wanted to race through it to find out what happened next and slowly savor it, too.
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris (via audiobook)
I’m a longtime David Sedaris fan but had real mixed feelings about this book of personal essays. Some of the humor was very cringey/punching down, and he spends an awful lot of time talking about blowing off Covid. But, the essays about his family and dealing with his father’s death were dark, funny, and touching. I’d recommend skipping this one and finding where the best pieces of it have already been published, like in New Yorker.
Bonus short pieces I loved this month: “Death in Fiction” by Scott Cheshire and “Just You and Me, Now” by KT Bryski
This month Sazerac enjoyed Dolls of Our Lives (he literally nurtures his toys 🥹) and Margot loved Persephone Made Me Do It because she’s always looking for an alibi.
What are you reading this month? Have you read any “fluid genre” books à la horror poetry or non-fiction graphic novels? If Sazerac and Margot started a book club, what would your pets suggest to the group?