Minnesota Reads

And it's another edition of Books Read in Airplanes and at Airports! This was a brief trip to go birding and have a meeting with a vendor in Minneapolis (complete with a pilgrimage to Birchbark Books to get Ian a signed copy of The Sentence.)  And here is what I read:

The Book of Goose (by Yiyun Li)

This made it to the finals of the Tournament of Books and may or may not have won (no spoilers here) and I decided to read it once I realized it might just go all the way! I'm so glad I did; it's beautiful. There are so many Tournament judges who articulate its beauty better than I can - and some commenters who point out the lesbian erasure in the judgments - but the short version is, it's about a complicated but passionate female friendship (yes, Ferrante has come up in the discussions) and its impact on the life of our author, Agnes. A worthy ToB finalist and/or winner. But not my favorite read of the trip....

The Wrong Kind of Weird (by James Ramos) 

Contemporary YA with a central love triangle that is, for a change, not queer at all. (Background characters bring the queer rep, though, no need to worry.) It's pretty predictable but I did enjoy the clear passion the character (and author) have for anime and anime culture, and I love reading about nerds, particularly nerds of color, and seeing them represented in YA books! Fun read.

A Pocket Full of Rye (by Agatha Christie) 

I don't remember why I picked this one up but it's a Miss Marple and I realized at the end, once again, that I do not care for Miss Marple and her "oh dearie me, I'm just an old lady who loves to knit!" vibe. Give me the Thursday Murder Club anytime.  The mystery was fun though and as always, the solution surprising. Not a must in the Christie ouvre but not bad either. And of course, as with all Agatha Christie, there's some throwaway racism. 

It’s Not Like It’s a Secret (by Misa Sugiura) 

A young adult novel from 2017, and the thing that struck me most is that it already feels very dated in how it talks about sexuality and race. Like, kids in 2020 young adult novels are way more woke than our main character, Sana, and pretty much all her friends.  Of course I went to read the Goodreads reviews and this was called out in some of them back in 2017 so maybe it's not all YA books but this one in particular. (The thing that bugged me the most is that Sana (who is Japanese-American) says horrifically racist stuff to her Mexican-American girlfriend's Mexican-American friends and it's not really addressed? Her girlfriend is like "oh I know you didn't really mean it" and they move on?  Like it's REAL RACIST, Y'ALL.   The Goodreads reviewers are more up in arms that this book involves cheating but that kind of messiness seems authentically teenage to me and I can't be mad at that.

Life Ceremony (by Sakaya Murata) 

A book of short stories by the author of the wonderful Convenience Store Woman and oh my god I loved this book. I'm not usually a short story reader but I love Murata's work and for the Read Harder Challenge, I needed to read "a book of short stories." These are somewhat indescribable, but I will try. For example, the first one is about a world in which turning human bodies into clothes and furniture are a custom. Many of the stories have body horror elements like this (especially the title story) but also leads us to ponder human culture and customs, how they can evolve both away from and towards different practices, and how society is in a way an agreement to be bizarre and horrifying in generally acceptable ways.  I didn't love every story equally but I loved the collection as a whole and will definitely make sure I check out Earthlings next.

Out of Character (by Jenna Miller)

Yay, a young adult book about a fat, nerdy, fandom-loving lesbian! (And "under 500 Goodreads ratings" so it qualifies for the RHC to boot.

There is a moment towards the beginning that stretched my suspension of belief to the breaking point (the thing with her mom) but otherwise I liked the real messiness of this and the fact that it didn't completely hinge on misunderstandings or other YA tropes. I guess Cass not admitting her involvement in fandom might qualify, but I understood why the character felt the way she did. I also have never seen such a realistic portrayal of fandom being used as escapism before, and I loved that.

Mostly, a really enjoyable YA that isn't perfect, but I wholeheartedly recommend anyway if it sounds like something you'd like. 

Really Good, Actually (by Monica Heisey)

This was a really fun Read Harder Challenge category: "Read a book you know nothing about based solely on the cover." I selected it by wandering through Barnes & Noble and looking at book covers. It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of browsing around a bookstore, so that was fun! And I ended up liking this cover, both the design and the book title. Dutifully, I restrained myself from reading jacket copy or anything about it.

Speaking of which, I caught myself wanting to look up the description of the book halfway in to see if there was a "plot" to speak of.  I stopped myself from doing so but turns out there kind of wasn't. This novel is written by a comedy writer, I found out later, which makes sense - there are funny lines and the narrator is full of sarcastic witticisms, but the plot is very desultory. Her husband breaks up with her, she's a mess, the end.

The actual end, I thought, redeemed it quite a bit because it wraps up satisfyingly. But there's a lot of filler that's meant to be funner than it actually is. At moments - like the lists of Google searches - you get a flash that it could be very entertaining. But as it is, it needed tightening up.  Still, very fun category and a fun experiment to read a book blindly.

 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (by Gabrielle Zevin)

So much buzz for this book and it's a Tournament of Books contender, so I had to give it a go. 

It's about two friends, Sam and Sadie, who bond over videogames and ultimately become video game designers. Their friendship waxes and wanes through the years, mostly because of dumb misunderstandings or Sam being a jackass.  (I loved Sadie throughout the book.) (I did not love Sam.) 

I loved the Pioneers chapter, which may or may not be an unpopular opinion - I'll find out when the ToB discussion happens, I guess! I really did not like "nice guy" Sam by the end and I think I was supposed to feel more sympathy for him but he was really awful towards the end.  Overall a really good, very human story about flawed characters (okay maybe Marx could have had a flaw or two) and an enjoyable read. 

Gender Queer (by Maia Kobabe)

This was the most banned book of 2022, so qualifies for the category of "one of the most-challenged/banned books of the year by a queer and/or BIPOC author." A graphic novel memoir about the author coming to better understand eir gender and sexuality, although it ends with the sense that this is a lifelong journey.

It does have sexual references as the author talks about eir kinks and whatnot, and so I understand the brouhaha to an extent.  But no doubt it's the rejection of the gender binary that's causing the most panic in conservative communities.  This is a quick read but very well done, enlightening, and soul-bearing. Very much in the mode of Alison Bechdel except more frank about sexuality. 

Worth reading for sure, and sharing with older kids and young adults in your life.