Holiday Reads

Read three books over Christmas break:

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good (by Nancy Werlin) 

A young adult novel about a girl who finds herself through fandom. I found the fandom property itself (a sci-fi show called Bleeders about a virus that causes bleeding) kind of weird but sure, sci-fi can be weird! I loved Zoe and I loved watching her process of self-discovery and realizing that her boyfriend Simon was insufferable. (He is largely an off-screen character but so great and so infuriating.) I also enjoyed that romance was not the endgame here.  Very satisfying.

Subdivision (by J. Robert Lennon) 

For the Tournament of Books. So weird and so intriguing. An unnamed narrator finds herself in a peculiar neighborhood, the subdivision, a dream-logic world that we sense has some underlying "real" logic to it that gradually reveals itself.  I find myself flipping through it again trying to puzzle it out; very excited to discuss in the Tournament and hear others' theories. This one was right up my alley and one I wouldn't have read without the Tournament, always one of my favorite things.

If This Gets Out (by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich)

About two boys in a boy band (one gay, one who starts out thinking he's straight) who fall for each other. Despite having some of my favorite tropes and a good concept, and having really good main characters, I didn't fall in love with this for some reason? (I tried to check out Goodreads to figure out if someone had articulated it, as they so often do, but found a lot of squee about One Direction so had to nope out of that.) Not bad, but not amazing. Extra points for bisexual rep though!

Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 (by Sarah Schulman)

This 750-page history of ACT UP is written by a lesbian who was part of the movement at the time,  and serves to inform as well as counteract the dominance of white gay men in the narrative of AIDS activism.  

I've strongly recommended this book (and even bought it for someone as a Christmas gift, shhh don't tell) so clearly I think its strengths are greater than its flaws; it does have flaws though. First of all, it's based on oral interviews but isn't presented as an oral history.  This means it reads confusingly (is this a quote or is this the author talking) and at the same time, the quotes are often repetitive and not edited anyway. It would have been stronger with an oral history format and some tighter editing. 

Secondly, it isn't organized chronologically and instead thematically, which is interesting and not necessarily a bad choice, but sometimes means the reader is lacking needed context.  There are lots of references to "voting on the floor" and affinity groups, for example, but these are not clearly defined at the outset of the book. You can pick it up from context but it would have been stronger to orient the reader who may be less familiar with the structure of ACT UP.  I still don't have a clear understanding of how a meeting was actually structured, 750 pages later.

So why am I recommending it? It's designed to be a playbook for activism and thus is 100% relevant to the resistance movement of today. (One of the ACT UP actions was a protest at Trump Tower, and Tony Fauci figures prominently, not in the most positive way. Amazingly relevant even decades later.) It is inspiring to those of us who want to effect change. It gives a voice to women and people of color in a narrative that has been dominated by the voices of white gay men.  It's full of fascinating and heartbreaking anecdotes, and truly worth engaging with if you're interested in AIDS activism or activism of any kind.

Schulman is definitely not impartial and doesn't pretend to be; this book isn't the be all and end all. But it's a worthy addition to the canon of literature about AIDS in the United States.

Matrix (by Lauren Groff)

I loved this historical novel, set in the 12th century during the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, centering on Marie of France, a semi-obscure historical figure who lived out her life in an abbey. Groff envisions her as a mystic, a leader, and a writer.

As In This House of Brede shows us, the interior life of a community of women can be fascinating. (In this case, Marie's desire for other women is also a thread running throughout the book.) She uses her position in the abbey to claim power in one of the only ways available to women at the time, and this exploration of female power is the center of the book.  

I also love Groff's writing style, present-tense omniscient, and how she drops in references to future events seemingly without holding anything back. And yet removing the suspense doesn't make the book any less compelling. Looking forward to discussing this one in the Tournament in March!

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (by Alexis Hall)

This is an adult romcom vs. a young adult one, but Rosaline Palmer gets everything right about reality TV that Where There's a Whisk didn't. 

Rosaline Palmer is a single mom and contestant on Bake Expectations, an extremely thinly disguised Great British Baking Show. (There's even a host covering up contestant crying by swearing on camera, which is what Mel and Sue reportedly used to do.) The show itself feels quite realistic and so does the progression of the contest. It's structured like GBBO where Rosaline goes home during the week and the competition takes place on weekends, which gives us a chance to see her home life in addition to the TV show. The writing is clever and the characters are great. This is the first in a planned series based around Bake Expectations and I really can't wait.

I should also note that although she's in a love triangle with two men, she is bisexual and her bisexuality is never glossed over and is an important part of her identity. An early scene has Rosaline telling off her child's teacher for biphobia and one of the main characters is her ex-girlfriend. Extra points for that. Loved this one!