One’s Company (by Ashley Hutson)

I feel like this book was written especially for me. It's Remainder meets Three's Company and even has an unreliable narrator... like, it's the perfect Mo book! Here's the premise: "a woman obsessed with the show Three's Company wins the lottery and replicates the world of the sitcom to live in." As soon as Ian told me about it it was like oh my god, I'm in. I'm so in. 

Of course, I loved it. How could I not? It's an exploration of trauma and is darkly comic but definitely more dark than comic.  And wildly original.  The ending is a gut punch but I think it's the only way it could have gone.  Recommended if this sounds like something you might like.

A Raisin in the Sun (by Lorraine Hansberry)

Read for the RHC category "a classic written by a POC."  I've read so many of the greats, especially by Black American authors: Beloved, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Invisible Man, Their Eyes Were Watching God, etc. But I'd never read A Raisin in the Sun.  (Title from a poem by another of the greats, Langston Hughes.) 

I wasn't familiar with Lorraine Hansberry either, or even that this classic play was written by a young (she was 29 when she wrote it) woman.  It's marvelous, of course, and still so relevant.  It's about a family living in Chicago who comes into some money and considers using it to better their lives. Of course, this isn't without complications.  (Next paragraph will have some spoilers.)

The introduction in the edition I read talked about how easy it is to misread the play, looking at this family as a universal American family and the ending as "oh yay, they move into their new house!"  In fact, race is crucial to understanding these characters, and the ending has echoes in Hansberry's life: her house was firebombed by a white mob and her family had to leave Chicago.

I'm so glad I decided to read this play; it's wonderful.

Weekend Reads and Deep Thoughts

I think I got all the tags for this diverse assortment of reads, which I finished over the weekend. 

Happily Ever Island (by Crystal Cestari) 

Okay, this would have been an instant-DNF if not for the Disney angle; the writing is very tell, don't show and reads extremely young for a romance between alleged college-age adults. The chemistry of the romance pairings isn't amazing (the two leads could have fallen in love, making for a better developed romance, but instead they each have their own underdeveloped love interest).  The suspension of disbelief required for this magical Disney island is off the charts (none of it makes any sense, this review by Abigail on Goodreads nails it). The book is produced by Disney and is straight-up propaganda. But did I finish the whole thing and enjoy all the Disneyness of it all? I absolutely did. But this is for Disney mega-fans only.

Husband Material (by Alexis Hall) 

The sequel to Boyfriend Material and has the same Bridget Jones type of vibe. It shamelessly borrows the structure of Four Weddings and a Funeral, although the throughline isn't as well-established. But still laugh-out-loud funny and an enjoyable read.  

Sad Cypress (by Agatha Christie) 

A Christie that is very good, not mind-blowing, but extremely solid. The characters are compelling, the solution is satisfying.  The racism, while unfortunately present as it is in most of Christie's books, is at least minimal.  (Can they do a "cut back on the racism" edit of these books already?) Recommended for Christie fans.

70. Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (editor Joshua Whitehead) 

A Read Harder pick for "an anthology featuring diverse voices."  I bought this from the publisher on paper to support the editor and authors. My favorite parts were actually the editor's note at the beginning and the final two stories! The editor's note from Joshua Whitehead has been in my head since I read it, for two reasons.  

Firstly, he interrogates the typical notion of post-apocalyptic fiction by asserting that for indigenous people, we have already been living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. And I was like oh my god, of course we have. I realized how deeply my colonialist mindset had been embedded. Of course this is the dystopia. And not just in the "post-Trump-era" way that white people think of it, but in the post-colonial, post-slavery, post-indiginous genocide, post-smallpox and Columbus way. We've been in the dystopia all along. (Whitehead focuses the stories in this anthology on post-apocalyptic hope for native communities, and this is why.)

Secondly, there are a lot of queer stories here, and Whitehead brings up Annie on My Mind as the first queer YA with a happy ending. It was published in 1985, when I was 10 years old. I probably discovered it when I was 13 or so.  And in every other book I read, the protagonists were white and straight and cis.  No wonder I devour queer YA now.  No wonder it took me so long to realize I was bisexual, as I had absolutely no framework to think about it before that. And my child at age 10-13 will be growing up with a world of representation that we didn't have a generation ago. It's really amazing to me.

Anyway, that one paragraph in the introduction made the book worth it, but the stories are also enjoyable all the way through, and I recommend checking it out!

The Cases That Haunt Us (by John E. Douglas)

John Douglas (of Mindhunter fame) discusses famous unsolved crimes, and applies his own profiling skills to each one of them. Yes, he's a bit egotistical (there's a "what would I have done differently" section on each crime and he's real invested in John and Patsy Ramsey being innocent) but still a fun dive into the world of true crime.  And having read up on all of these cases before, I will share John's opinion on each one, and what I, the true expert, think.

• Jack the Ripper:
• John: David Cohen or an unknown person
• Mo: I was convinced and agree with his assessment
  
• Lizzie Borden
• John: Lizzie did it
  
•  Mo: Oh, 100%
  
• Zodiac Killer
• John: maybe, but not definitely, Arthur Leigh Allen
  
• Mo: god, they were so close to catching whoever it was.... agree though
  
• the Black Dahlia
• John: no definite conclusion
  
• Mo: Leslie Dillon, as argued by Piu Eatwell
• the Boston Strangler
• John: not DeSalvo
  
• Mo: he convinced me here too
  
• JonBenet Ramsey
• John: John and Patsy are innocent!!!1!! it was an unknown intruder
  
• Mo: his unknown intruder scenario is definitely possible, but I still lean towards Burke Ramsey (John Douglas doesn't even acknowledge this theory)

I still hold out hope that DNA evidence and geneology will help us solve one or more of these crimes in my lifetime!