What I've been reading: Books No. 31-32
Aug. 25th, 2021 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganBook No. 31 was " The Sellout" by Paul Beatty. This satire tells the story of the town of Dickens, a Black and Latinx community near LA. The narrator was raised by a father who treated him like an experimental subject, and he grows up to be a maladjusted urban farmer. When Dickens is removed from the map, he gets mad and decides to draw attention back to the community by painting new exit signs and city boundaries and posting stickers and signs around town trying to segregate various institutions from the bus to the local high school. He's helped in his hijinks by Hominy Jenkins, the last surviving Little Rascal.
Like many satiric novels, I sometimes find that the author is trying a little too hard to be funny. But it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in spots and sentimental in others. There is some really fine prose in here when he's not trying to be funny, too. This was sort of more a 3.5-star book rounded up to 4 out of 5, but I liked it well enough that I'd be happy to read more by Beatty.
Book No. 32 was " The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband" by David Finch. In this memoir, David Finch writes about his adult diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and how that spurred him to look at ways he could improve his marriage with "best practices." Each chapter leads with one of his practices, including "Be her friend, first and always" and "Go with the flow" and "Laundry." I had a couple minor quibbles with the writing, the primary one being that his view of marriage and relationships is so heterocentric. But overall, this was a fun read, laugh-out-loud funny in places, like the chapter where he gets competitive with the "perfect" couple next door and their Christmas decorations. He has to ride a fine line of not making his wife look like a harpy out to change her man. She does tell him several times that the goal isn't to "fix" him but to mutually work on making their relationship better. I listened to this as an audiobook read by the author and enjoyed it. Recommended.
1. The Empire of Gold (Daevabad Trilogy #3) [fiction]- S.A. Chakraborty
2. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls [nonfiction/memoir]- T Kira Madden
3. Miracle Creek [nonfiction]- Angie Kim
4. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2) [fiction]- Philip Pullman
5. How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
6. They Called Us Enemy [graphic nonfiction]- George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott, ill. Harmony Becker
7. Carmilla [fiction]- J. Sheridan Le Fanu (unabridged audiobook)
8. Pieces of Soap: Essays [nonfiction/essays]- Stanley Elkin
9. The Space Between Worlds [fiction]- Micaiah Johnson
10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X [nonfiction/autobiography]- Malcolm X and Alex Haley
11. No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America [nonfiction/memoir]- Darnell L. Moore
12. Mostly Dead Things [fiction]- Kristen Arnett
13. Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
14. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower [nonfiction]- Brittney Cooper
15. Delirium [fiction]- Laura Restrepo (transl. Natasha Wimmer)
16. The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3) [fiction]- Rick Riordan (unabridged audiobook)
17. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America [nonfiction/memoir]- John Waters (unabridged audiobook)
18. Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
19. The Mistress Of Nothing [fiction]- Kate Pullinger
20. The Graveyard Book [fiction]-Neil Gaiman (unabridged audiobook)
21. The Vanishing Half [fiction]- Brit Bennett
22. Certain Dark Things [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
23. The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10) - Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
24. Creepy, Stabby, and Mentally Odd [fiction/short stories]- Wednesday Lee Friday
25. Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History [nonfiction/biography]-Yunte Huang
26. This House Is Haunted [fiction- John Boyne
27. An Unkindness of Ghosts [fiction- Rivers Solomon (unabridged audiobook)
28. The Incredulity of Father Brown [fiction/short stories]- G.K. Chesterton
29. Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good [nonfiction/essays]- Adrienne Maree Brown (author and editor)
30. The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) [fiction- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
Like many satiric novels, I sometimes find that the author is trying a little too hard to be funny. But it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny in spots and sentimental in others. There is some really fine prose in here when he's not trying to be funny, too. This was sort of more a 3.5-star book rounded up to 4 out of 5, but I liked it well enough that I'd be happy to read more by Beatty.
Book No. 32 was " The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband" by David Finch. In this memoir, David Finch writes about his adult diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and how that spurred him to look at ways he could improve his marriage with "best practices." Each chapter leads with one of his practices, including "Be her friend, first and always" and "Go with the flow" and "Laundry." I had a couple minor quibbles with the writing, the primary one being that his view of marriage and relationships is so heterocentric. But overall, this was a fun read, laugh-out-loud funny in places, like the chapter where he gets competitive with the "perfect" couple next door and their Christmas decorations. He has to ride a fine line of not making his wife look like a harpy out to change her man. She does tell him several times that the goal isn't to "fix" him but to mutually work on making their relationship better. I listened to this as an audiobook read by the author and enjoyed it. Recommended.
1. The Empire of Gold (Daevabad Trilogy #3) [fiction]- S.A. Chakraborty
2. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls [nonfiction/memoir]- T Kira Madden
3. Miracle Creek [nonfiction]- Angie Kim
4. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2) [fiction]- Philip Pullman
5. How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
6. They Called Us Enemy [graphic nonfiction]- George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott, ill. Harmony Becker
7. Carmilla [fiction]- J. Sheridan Le Fanu (unabridged audiobook)
8. Pieces of Soap: Essays [nonfiction/essays]- Stanley Elkin
9. The Space Between Worlds [fiction]- Micaiah Johnson
10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X [nonfiction/autobiography]- Malcolm X and Alex Haley
11. No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America [nonfiction/memoir]- Darnell L. Moore
12. Mostly Dead Things [fiction]- Kristen Arnett
13. Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
14. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower [nonfiction]- Brittney Cooper
15. Delirium [fiction]- Laura Restrepo (transl. Natasha Wimmer)
16. The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3) [fiction]- Rick Riordan (unabridged audiobook)
17. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America [nonfiction/memoir]- John Waters (unabridged audiobook)
18. Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
19. The Mistress Of Nothing [fiction]- Kate Pullinger
20. The Graveyard Book [fiction]-Neil Gaiman (unabridged audiobook)
21. The Vanishing Half [fiction]- Brit Bennett
22. Certain Dark Things [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
23. The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10) - Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
24. Creepy, Stabby, and Mentally Odd [fiction/short stories]- Wednesday Lee Friday
25. Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History [nonfiction/biography]-Yunte Huang
26. This House Is Haunted [fiction- John Boyne
27. An Unkindness of Ghosts [fiction- Rivers Solomon (unabridged audiobook)
28. The Incredulity of Father Brown [fiction/short stories]- G.K. Chesterton
29. Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good [nonfiction/essays]- Adrienne Maree Brown (author and editor)
30. The Nature of the Beast (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) [fiction- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
