What I've been reading: Books No. 59-60

[sarahmichigan]

Book No. 59 was "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara. I think I saw this on a "best books of 2015" list and have been meaning to read it for a while. I'm so glad I did! The story starts like a typical coming-of-age novel about four college friends, but it quickly becomes apparent that the central character is Jude -- who is very guarded about dark, terrible things that have happened in his past and who prefers to listen to his friends' tales rather than talk about himself. I found myself crying about every 50 pages or so, and with a book that's over 700 pages, that's a lot of crying. I've seen this described by a reviewer as "a big emotional book," and it is. But the author never manipulates your emotions in a cheap way. The emotional response comes less from the horrible things that have happened to Jude than from the permanent damage those things have caused. If you've ever had a traumatized friend or loved one who can't quite believe the nice things you say about them but who immediately believes any negative thing said about them, you will feel for Jude and his friends who can't figure out how to help him out of his self-loathing. I think the last 10 percent of the book is the weakest, but overall, I loved this book so much. Depsite the grim subject matter and the fact that Jude is never really "cured" or "healed," it's a book about love and friendship and it's really beautiful.

Book No. 60 was "A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories" by Flannery O'Connor. I'd read some of these stories in college, but it was a pleasure to re-read them. Her short stories are deceptively simple but stick with you. She's great at both black humor and building up a real, palpable sense of dread. One story I do NOT remember reading back in the day is "The Displaced Person." Wow, what a powerhouse of a novella. Be aware that while O'Connor herself was a supporter of civil rights, many of her characters are racist Southerners, so use of the "N" word is pervasive, including being used in the title of one of her stories.

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)
29. The Bishop's Daughter [nonfiction/memoir]- Honor Moore
30. The Red Parts [nonfiction/memoir]- Maggie Nelson
31. Bury Your Dead [fiction]- Louise Penny
32. Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements [fiction & essays]- ed. Walidah Imarisha & adrienne maree brown
33. On the Move: A Life [nonfiction/memoir]- Oliver Sacks (unabridged audiobook)
34. What Happened to You? Writing by Disabled Women [nonfiction/fiction/poetry]- ed. Lois Keith
35. The Astrologer's Daughter [fiction]- Rebecca Lim
36. Trans/Portraits: Voices from Transgender Communities [nonfiction]- Jackson Wright Shultz
37. The Dew Breaker [fiction]- Edwidge Danticat
38. Blameless in Abaddon [fiction]- James Morrow
39. Wonder [fictoin]- RJ Palacio (unabridged audiobook)
40. The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, Unexpurgated [nonfiction/memoir]-ed. Joan Acocella, transl. Kyril Fitzlyon
41. WARP: The Reluctant Assassin [fiction]- Eoin Colfer (unabridged audiobook)
42. Don Quixote [fiction]- Miguel Cervantes, transl. Edith Grossman
43. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir [nonfiction/memoir]- Haruki Murakami
44. Lysistrata [fiction/drama]- Aristophanes (transl. Sarah Ruden)
45. Black Lotus: A Woman's Search for Racial Identity [nonfiction/memoir]- Sil Lai Abrams
46. The Child Garden - or a Low Comedy [fiction]- Geoff Ryman
47. What the Dead Know [fiction]- Laura Lippman (unabridged audiobook)
48. The Andromeda Strain [fiction] - Michael Crichton
49. Saving Fish from Drowning [fiction]- Amy Tan
50. Little Fires Everywhere [fiction]- Celeste Ng (unabridged audiobook)
51. Full Fathom Five [fiction]-y Max Gladstone
52. Jam on the Vine [fiction]- LaShonda K. Barnett
53. Lottery [fiction]- Patricia Wood
54. The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and Two Not-So-Great Ones) Saved My Life [nonfiction]- Andy Miller
55. Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady [nonfiction]- Susan Quinn (unabridged audiobook)
56. Prodigal Summer [fiction]- Barbara Kingsolver
57. The Princess Diarist [nonfiction/memoir]- Carrie Fisher (unabridged audiobook)
58. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir [nonfiction/memoir]- Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele