Happy summer solstice everyone!! Just dropping by your inbox to share what I’ve been reading for the past couple months. Mostly good, some meh. If you have recs for me please feel free to share <3 oh and special shoutout to Charlotte for gifting me Big Swiss for my last birthday :’)
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1. Nevada by Imogen Binnie (2013)
262 pages
2.75 “whatever”s out of 5
I’ve been meaning to read this book since it came out, and I suspect it would have hit a lot harder if I had read it back then at the bright age of 18. Pros: Binnie is evidently extremely well-informed, and did a lot of research, to make this book educational without feeling like you’re learning. Maria, the FMC, explains her transness with sincerity and believability; she feels true, as a character, and as a cis person I also felt like I was learning about the trans woman perspective without losing the plot, so to speak. I also enjoyed the bleak literary turn the novel takes in its last 50 pages, when Maria fails a young person and they abandon each other. Cons: this last section of the book should have been an entire second half. The first 200 pages of the book are not entertaining enough to justify reaching the more interesting final fifth. Last thing: the narrator’s voice drove me up the fucking wall. It was a juvenile impression of how young people think and speak, drowning the reader in trite sentence fragments like “Weed rules.” and “Whatever.” Like oh my god please mix things up even a little bit, I can’t stand how hard you’ve committed to this choice and I need to talk to a real person immediately.
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2. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro (1971)
288 pages
5 dead cows out of 5
Speaking of bleak literature, Lives is one of the bleakest, most grim novels you’ll ever read. It follows a young girl named Del as she comes of age in southern Ontario. It’s devastating and anxiety-inducing. I am so thankful that Munro doesn’t fall into the Elena Ferrante trap of the ultra-talented FMC reaching all her dreams; Del’s life is small and bitter in a real way.
As a side note, I fell in love with this book while reading the following passage, so I’ll copy it here:
The eye was wide open, dark, a smooth sightless bulge, with a sheen like silk and a reddish gleam in it, a reflection of light. An orange stuffed in a black silk stocking. Flies nestled in one corner, bunched together beautifully in an iridescent brooch. I had a great desire to poke the eye with my stick, to see if it would collapse, if it would quiver and break like a jelly, showing itself to be the same composition all the way through, or if the skin over the surface would break and let loose all sorts of putrid mess, to flow down the face. I traced the stick all the way round the eye, I drew it back—but I was not able, I could not poke it in. [...] “Day-ud cow,” I said, expanding the word lusciously. “Day-ud cow, day-ud cow.” (Munro, 43)
3. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000)
448 pages
3.75 FutureMiceTM out of 5
It took me a month to read the first 100 pages of this novel, then I read the rest of it in a few days. The thing is that it’s genius, witty, and observant, but I really struggled to get into it, and then the ending was a pretty big let down. Smith creates this massive cast of unforgettable characters, all of whom are round and dynamic and interesting to follow, but there’s too much going on to do them all justice. The result, in my opinion, is a very funny book with serious pacing issues and a frustrating lack of resolution. Still highly original, wacky, and perceptive; if you’re interested in race issues, science and ethics, or family dynamics, this is a home run.
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4. Fourth Wing & Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (2023)
517 and 719 pages respectively
1.5 wingleaders out of 5 / 2.5 throne room scenes out of 5
These books were very silly, and I sped through them in a week. They’re not exactly good; they clock in at about a grade 6 reading level, which is strange given the generous smut scenes.The main character claims to be in danger of dying on every single page despite layers of armor, of both the dragon scale and plot varieties. Her heart races constantly. It’s exhausting. I was giggling and kicking my feet at the campy fantasy romance, even if Violet (or Violence, a nickname I kind of love) and Xaden mostly just fight with each other. Points for disability representation, strong female friendships, and making me blush. I can’t say I would earnestly recommend these to anyone, though.
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5. Gay Girl Prayers by Emily Austin (2024)
72 pages
3 crucifixions out of 5
This poetry collection basically does what it says on the tin: it’s a queer, poetic spin on Christian texts. It’s validating and really resonated with me as a gay raised by an Anglican Reverend and a United Minister; I actually wrote a similar piece in my own poetry zine last year. Quick and dirty, worth a read.
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6. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin (2023)
325 pages
5 indoor beehives out of 5
💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖🍯🍯🍯🍯🍯🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗
Big Swiss is wonder and delight and brilliance and love and humour and possibly my favourite book of the year. I read it in one and a half days and it brought me immense joy, even though it’s dealing with heavy subject matter. The narrator’s wit, the original and spunky voice, the fresh horror tones and their comedic relief, all construct an absurd mad world that made me want to be weirder as a person. Greta’s maturation in the last few chapters, when she finally starts to transcend her trauma, made me cry happy tears; the combination of honesty and frankness from her friends, a skilled therapist, and some “mini donks” (donkeys) beautifully affirms her life at long last. Read this if you want to be healed tbh.
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7. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967)
189 pages
4 monoliths out of 5
I really love gothic/sublime/uncanny/weird/eerie novels, and I’ve wanted to read this one for ages. Written in the 60s but set in 1900, Picnic begins on Valentine’s Day, when a group of girls from an English boarding school go missing on a day trip to Hanging Rock. Lindsay uses the classic tropes: the Rock is a place of great significance to local Indigenous peoples, and the boarders represent its attempted colonization. They become enthralled by the monolith and vanish into thin air. Nature is unknowable and unconquerable, slowly driving the young ladies and their headmistress to madness. That being said, a lot of this book is boring to read (also classic element of gothic lit). There’s courtship and mystery and obsession with social graces. But the horror scenes hit, the descriptions of the landscape are breathtaking, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome at a clean 189 pages. I was able to read Picnic in one very slow day at the office. It also reminded me heavily of Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House, another great novel about man vs nature. My rating is a bit low just because I wish there was a higher horror-to-domesticity ratio. I loved the omnipresence of Saint Valentine, the mostly-female cast, and the unnerving imagery.
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Tragically, I forgot to take photos of the rest of my library books before returning them, but if anyone cares enough I suppose they can google the book to see what it will look like on their coffee table.
Thanks for reading! Love you!
Shan