What I've been reading: Books No. 29-30

[sarahmichigan]

Book No. 29 was "The Bishop's Daughter" by Honor Moore. Moore is a poet who grew up in large family (oldest of 9) , and her father was an Episcopalian priest and later Bishop. Bishop Moore was active in social justice including marching in the civil rights movement. He also struggled with being married to a woman but having gay love affairs through his life, something that came out later in his life when Honor was an adult. Moore also explores her own sexuality, taking a 10-year detour into relationships with women before "returning to men." I thought this book was really interesting mainly because it's about people so different than me. I don't know much about the Episcopalian/Anglican church, so that part was interesting. I also find Honor Moore's experience of sexuality to be so different than my own. She was a "political lesbian" in a way as part of the second wave feminist movement. I've slept with and dated both men and women but I have a hard time relating to how she sees her own sexuality, particularly that dating women is "something in her past" and the idea of "returning to men." I just find that totally alien to my own experience as a bisexual/pansexual person. Nevertheless, this was beautifully written, as you would expect from a poet, and deeply moving. Relationships with her parents weren't smooth, but they were deep and loving. I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys memoir and biography.

Book No. 30 was "The Red Parts" by Maggie Nelson. Nelson is another poet who is this time writing memoir! The book opens after she has published a book of poetry about her aunt Jane's murder, suspected of being one of the late 1960s "Michigan Murders" that John Norman Collins was convicted of. But shortly after her book of poetry is published, her family finds out that DNA evidence suggests Aunt Jane was murdered by somebody completely different. The book is about Nelson and her family going through the trial of the new suspect, and how it disrupts their lives all over again. This was beautifully written, and funnier than you'd expect a memoir about murder to be. I also enjoyed places all around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti being mentioned as that is where the trial of the new suspect is held. I really enjoyed this and would like to see out some of Nelson's poetry now.

1. The Two Towers [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)
2. The Argonautika [epic poetry/fiction]- Apollonios Rhodios, transl. Peter Green
3. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care [nonfiction]- Cris Beam
4. The Jazz [fiction]- Melissa Scott
5. Live from Golgotha [fiction]- Gore Vidal
6. Stones for Ibarra [fiction]- Harriet Doerr
7. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot [nonfiction/memoir]- John Callahan
8. The Tresspasser [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
9. The Decameron [fiction]- Giovanni Boccaccio
10. March: Book 2 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
11. Ordinary Light [nonfiction/memoir]- Tracy K. Smith
12. The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal [nonfiction]- Jonathan Mooney
13. March: Book 3 [graphic nonfiction]- John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, ill. Nate Powell
14. The Vegetarian [fiction]- Han Kang
15. First three volumes of the "Bitch Planet" comic series [graphic fiction]- Kelly Sue DeConnick, ill. Valentine DeLandro
16. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal [nonfiction]- Mary Roach (unabridged audiobook)
17. Bad Monkeys [fiction]- Matt Ruff
18. The Book of Negroes [fiction]- Lawrence Hill
19. The Rules of Attraction [fiction]- Bret Easton Ellis
20. How to Grow Up [nonfiction/memoir]- Michelle Tea
21. The Book of Genesis [fiction/mythology]- ill. R. Crumb
22. The Terranauts [fiction]- T.C. Boyle (unabridged audiobook)
23. The Galaxy Game [fiction]- Karen Lord
24. The Chapel of Ease - a Tufa novel [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
25. Aha! Gotcha: Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight [nonfiction]- by Martin Gardner
26. Born on the Fourth of July [nonfiction/memoir]- Ron Kovic
27. My Friend Dahmer [graphic nonfiction]- Derf Backderf
28. The Return of the King [fiction]- JRR Tolkien (unabridged audiobook)

Comments

[airsucker]

I have the book,The Michigan Murders, that I picked up from Early Bird Books. It shows up in their emails occasionally. I haven't read it yet though.

[sarahmichigan]

If/when you read it, I'd be curious to know if they note the fact that Jane Mixer was labeled one of his victims but that somebody else was prosecuted for her death later (her murder deviated from the Michigan Murder protocol in several ways).