Anacortes Books

Mina and I took a six-day vacation to Anacortes to attempt to see some orcas (we succeeded!) and I finished three books on the trip.  For once, none of them were for the Read Harder Challenge - I started a fourth book for that, but it's not done yet. 

Famesick (by Lena Dunham)

I'd heard good things and once I picked up this memoir about Dunham and the making of Girls I could not put it down.  She is as annoying and blind to her privilege as you think she is but she's also been through so much (and seemingly was victimized by her former business partner, who I came out of this really hating).  It's well written, full of juicy details, and makes you angry all over again at how the healthcare system (even if you have all the money and privilege on earth) and the entertainment industry repeatedly fails women. Will side-eye Adam Driver forever and will forever root for Lena Dunham. 

Tell The Wolves I’m Home (by Carol Rifka Brunt)

This is from 2012 but I picked it up because of a recommendation on Reddit for AIDS-related literature that mentioned it in the same breath as one of my favorite novels, The Great Believers.  And holy shit is it good. I am sure this will end up on my top five list at the end of the year.  It's a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of AIDS (the 1980s, AZT isn't a thing yet at the beginning of the book), when a girl's beloved uncle dies of AIDS. It's emotionally complex and so subtly written, absolutely beautiful.  Brunt hasn't written anything since then (except there was something supposed to be published in 2024 that wasn't...) and that is sad to me because this book is so amazing. 

Green River Killer (by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case) 

So it turns out that Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly fame is the son of Tom Jensen, a lead detective on the Green River Killer case.  This is a graphic novel written by Jensen and illustrated by Jonathan Case.  I enjoyed it but it was pretty fast and has less depth than I was hoping for. Ultimately the case was cracked by DNA in 2003 even though he was a suspect in 1983 (so many more lives lost...) so this focuses on Tom Jensen interviewing Gary Ridgway and taking him to the scenes of past crimes to try and get closure for the families whose loved ones were killed. But it's only 234 pages and we don't learn a ton about Jensen, Ridgway, or his victims. It's fine but not amazing.

Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? (by Roz Chast)

A graphic memoir by a New Yorker cartoonist about the final years of her aging parents. This was for the Read Harder Challenge category of "nonfiction comic" so I bought it on paper, which I prefer to trying to read a graphic novel on my phone. 

As a person with aging parents (who are getting increasingly frail) this was so relatable and honestly probably arrived at the right time in my life. It handles the topic with sensitivity and humor, and painted such a vivid picture of her parents, and that mix of frustration, guilt, avoidance, more guilt, and everything else that comes up towards the end of life. But again, it's not a depressing read either, it's just very real.

I know this is one I'll continue to think about in the coming years.  

Adult Braces (by Lindy West)

I had to, y'all, I had to. It was in The Discourse and I am a Butt News subscriber and a Lindy West fan, and I have been fascinated by all the hot takes about this book and all the drama surrounding its publication. 

And if none of this means anything to you, go read this piece in Slate which gives a good overview of the book. In addition, if you read the response email from Lindy's husband Aham, calling the author a "shitty fucking person" and a "bitter, untalented, mean-girl" for not making his career sound fancier (?) in a review of his wife's book because she used the word "project" (??) to describe it, you will understand why this book is ultimately the depressing story of yet another woman tethered to yet another mediocre man. (Although in a fun twist, this time he's using white guilt against her because he's not white! Whee!) 

I want to be on Lindy's side and even during the awkward interview in their underwear when they came out as a throuple, I took a very "well as long as she's happy" stance about it all. But reading this book... I don't know, man. It's depressing. I hope my take is wrong. But that email, man. That gross, misogynistic email.

 

Non-Vacation Vacation Books

I almost took a trip to India for work and fun, but I didn't get my visa in time, so I did not go. But I still downloaded a bunch of books for the very long flight, and spent a full day reading as much as possible to still get the binge-reading travel experience I had been looking forward to. So here are the books that I would have read on my trip if I had been on the trip except I wasn't.

 Endling (by Maria Reva) 

This is in the Tournament of Books, and was spoken of highly in the Goodreads group. A metafictional novel about a woman who is trying to save various species of snails in Ukraine, before and during the Russian invasion. It took me a while to power through this for some reason, but it should be fun to talk about. 

Sorcery & Small Magics (by Maiga Doocy)

I read this for my most dreaded Read Harder Challenge category, romantasy with a queer main character. Obviously the queer part is fine but romance and fantasy are my two least favorite genres. But this ended up being so delightful - a slow burn romance between two sorcerers with an interesting magic system - and I need the second book immediately.  This is exactly why I love the RHC - because I would never have given this book a chance without it! 

The Ten-Year Affair (by Erin Somers)

Another Tournament book, and one I personally enjoyed more than Endling. (For true verisimilitude, this book expired while I was still reading it, so I finished the book in airplane mode.) It's about a married women and her married male friend and essentially plays with the idea of them having an affair in a parallel timeline.  I liked the writing style and the exploration of the grass being greener / the road not taken. It's not judgmental about its characters and not melodramatic - feels grounded and truthful.  Oh, and as a bonus, this was on a number of "best book covers" lists, so it's a RHC check also!

16 Forever (by Lance Rubin)

This is a time-loop YA about a kid who loops back to his 16th birthday every year - except he remembers nothing about the previous loops, and everyone around him does, including the girl he fell in love with last time around. Great premise! Uneven execution. I enjoyed the main characters' family dynamics but our main character just seemed annoying. I didn't understand why the love interest even liked him or why they were drawn to each other, and the ending is super abrupt and fell flat for me. 

When You Listen To This Song (Lola Lafon)

I believe this one was recommended by Ian via the New York Times - a memoir in French about a writer (whose family is Jewish) who spends a night in the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam.  It's contemplative, beautifully written, and beautifully translated by Lauren Elkin. The ending really packs a punch. I wrote down "a gem of a book." 

Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs (by Rachel Jeffs)

Trying to hit the ground running on the RHC, so I also finished this book for the category "a book about a cult." And wow. 

I can't believe Warren Jeffs is still alive and probably still perpetuating this horrible situation (he was giving directives from inside prison right up until Rachel Jeffs left). There's the multiple wives and child brides, yes, but also everyone in this "church" is being horribly abused.  Rachel Jeffs was molested by her father and she discusses that, and how it impacted her relationship with the church, but makes sure to state at the outset she's not a victim.

I'm happy she got out with her kids and seems to be living her best life.  I hope that is the outcome for every person, especially girls and women, trapped in this cult.  

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki (by Baek Se-hee)

I heard about this memoir when the author passed away, and obviously the title made it a must read. Unfortunately, the best part about it is the title, otherwise it's very surface level and not interesting. 

It mostly transcribes conversations between the author and her mediocre therapist that don't really go anywhere or explore anything. I only finished it because it was fast and I'm behind on my goal for the year.  I'm sorry that Baek See-hee is no longer with us, however. 

Flamer (by Mike Curato)

I read this graphic novel for the RHC task "read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot’s How to Fight Book Bans guides."  I checked out the ALA list of most banned books last year to find the book, then donated to the Freedom to Read foundation for my activity. There are lots of amazing ways to help, especially during Banned Books Week, coming up in October.    

This graphic novel is semi-autobiographical, set in the summer of 1995 when a boy who grew up Catholic but doesn't quite fit in goes to Boy Scout camp, worries about what lies ahead in his first year of high school, and struggles with some confusing feelings for a friend.  A very quick read but very moving and reminded me of what it was like for my (Catholic, effeminate, turned out to be gay) best friend growing up and struggling with these same feelings in this era.  

An important book that deserves to be read. 

This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something - Anything - Like Your Life Depends On It (by Tabitha Carvan)

I loved this, and not just because there's a whole chapter addressing Johnlock fanfiction. It's a memoir that uses the author's obsession with Benedict Cumberbatch as a lens to explore identity and motherhood.  In fact it's so entertaining that the message sneaks up on you - until you realize you're reading about how the desires, passions, and interests of girls and women are dismissed and criticized in a patriarchal world. This memoir could just as easily be about Twilight, or romance novels, or Disney princesses, or makeup, or Harry Styles, or anything else coded as female and therefore, immature or disposable. 

“When you’re a girl who really loves a thing, it’s never just about you and your thing. Everyone else makes it their problem. You can’t love the thing unseen, not even in your bedroom, alone. You either point-blank love the wrong thing, or you love the right thing but in the wrong way or for the wrong reasons.”

So the book is a great read, but also hits at a really core truth about what it means for girls and women to embrace our passions and how that can be a subversive, feminist act.  Highly recommend!

Swimming Studies (by Leanne Shapton)

It's been a minute! This is another one of the paper books sitting on my shelf - where it had been for probably 10 years - that I always meant to read but never got around to reading because I ignore paper books. Not in 2025, baby! 

This is a very loose, impressionistic memoir that combines stories of Shapton's childhood as a competitive swimmer with her adult life in various pools around the world. It includes amazing artwork and photography, including pages of bathing suits and information about where they are from, and abstract renderings of pools.  And the writing is just, so lovely.  Like this description of a sunset:  “I’m serenaded by sky blue and pink, an intense Tahitian Treat pink. Popsicle, Care Bear, little-girl colours. I’ve never seen sky like this. It’s optical glucose."

Optical glucose - I will never forget this metaphor, it hit me like an incredible line of poetry.  This book is from 2013 so not exactly breaking news, but it's really lovely and I recommend it! 

I reshelved it to keep (especially due to the artwork) but for my next paper book decluttering, I just gave away The Tale of Genji. I have no plans to read it, and if I do change my mind and read it, it can be on my Kindle.  

Number One Is Walking: My Life in Movies and Other Diversions (by Steve Martin)

I love Born Standing Up and Steve Martin's novellas, and of course his films, so I was excited to read this. It's charming but it's also very slight - the most any movie gets is a few panels of a comic, and some only get a sentence. (His sentence about Bowfinger, that Eddie Murphy deserved an Oscar nod, is correct though.)  

I'll be very sad if we never get a complete memoir of all his films. Instead this one just skimmed the surface with cute anecdotes and then is padded out with dozens of one-panel comics (the comics, and book, illustrated by Harry Bliss) that are mildly amusing at best. 

It's not bad, it's just very surface-level, and not exactly what I want from Steve Martin. I could read an entire book about Three Amigos or L.A. Story alone.  Give me more, Steve!

Seattle Books

I visited Seattle for work last week and finished four books, pretty much all on airplanes, as is my wont.  Two for the ToB, one for the RHC, one for fun. Here they are:

The Extinction of Irena Rey (by Jennifer Croft) 

Read for the Tournament of Books, and probably my favorite so far apart from James in this somewhat underwhelming year so far.  It's got a sprinkling of Pale Fire (footnotes of an unreliable narrator who is allegedly translating a book written in Polish by a Spanish translator into English...) and Annihilation (gathering of semi-strangers in an uncanny landscape). This novel is about a group of translators who get together, kind of cult-like, to translate the magnum opus of a Polish author, who disappears, and things get weirder from there. It's one of those gems that the ToB helps me discover and it was a surreal read.

The (Big) Year That Flew By: Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record (by Arjan Dwarshuis)

Read for the RHC category of "a nonfiction book about nature or the environment." This is a Dutch birder who broke the global Big Year record and raised money for the Preventing Extinctions Program. His memoir is equally about birding and observations on conservation efforts (and the impact of climate change and deforestation) that he sees along the way.  I would have liked it to be more linear - he does a lot of flashbacks to his childhood that interrupt the narrative - but enjoyed it overall.

Colored Television (by Danzy Senna)

About a biracial author living in Los Angeles who gets drawn into the television industry.  I loved this until the halfway mark where the main character started making inexplicable decisions and I started getting annoyed because this is not how Hollywood works! I liked the unpredictability of the ending and my annoyance had ebbed by the end. Well written overall and would definitely read more by Senna.

The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy (by Elizabeth Kendall and Molly Kendall)

Whenever I drive by Lake Sammamish I think about Ted Bundy. I dipped back into The Stranger Beside Me and then followed some breadcrumbs to this memoir, which I didn't know had been rereleased and updated in 2020.  Kendall was Ted Bundy's girlfriend for many years and ended up going to the police no less than three times when she started to suspect his involvement in the murders.  Molly was her young daughter, to whom Bundy was a father figure. She first wrote the memoir at a time when she still talks about how part of her will always love him; she's traumatized and still healing.  The memoir is kept intact with a new afterword that talks about how she feels now, decades later. There's also a chapter from Molly that is unforgettably chilling and satisfyingly full of rage. Worth reading for true crime fans! 

Leslie F*cking Jones (by Leslie Jones)

Okay, this is a book that is wildly different in audio vs. print. It's a short book that turns into a 19-hour audiobook because Leslie Jones riffs, expands on her stories, curses a lot, ad libs, and improvs her way through it. She laughs her ass off and also cries when recounting difficult moments of her life. It's completely authentic - she tells stories that include her stealing stuff during the L.A. riots, dealing with debilitating hemorrhoids, and regularly getting high with Kenan Thompson, among other things.

You have to be a fan of Leslie Jones and her style of comedy, but if you are, you can trust and believe (a Leslie-ism you will hear a lot) that this audiobook is an experience. (Also there are multiple shoutouts to John Ritter's comedy skills and so of course I love her even more.)

Belize Books

I'm almost done with a sixth book, but here are the five books I finished while on my vacation to Belize:

Birding Under the Influence (by Dorian Anderson)

I avidly followed Dorian's blog about the Big Year he did on a bicycle. In this memoir, he tells the story of his journey while interspersed with the love story between him and his now-wife Sonia, and his problems with drinking and drugs and general addict behavior. I thought this memoir was terrific - well written, candid, structured well, and generally one of the better blog-to-book books I've ever read. Highly recommended if you're interested in reading about a Big Year!

Journey Under the Midnight Sun (by by Keigo Higashino) 

Another Japanese Mystery, and I think the third one I've read by Higashino. This one is pretty long (I would say overly long) and you figure out whodunit pretty early, but the whydunit and will-someone-ever-catch-them elements propel you to the end. Definitely a motive I should have, but did not, see coming, which made the ending hit hard. Not my favorite by him purely because of the overlength, but good nonetheless.

The Long Run (by James Acker)

Queer YA, you knew it was making it on this list somehow. I wasn't sure an athlete love story would be my jam as they've been hit or miss for me in the past, but this one has so much depth, the characters and their relationship are actually wonderful and lovely and I cried of course. Recommended!

Noah Frye Gets Crushed (by Maggie Horne)

This was, vis a vis the RHC, "a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character." Absolutely adorable, funny and charming. full of terrific characters, although I would have liked to see Jessa developed better. I'm actually not a middle grade fan (Baby-Sitters Club notwithstanding ) but this nails it. Horne has got a sapphic YA debut coming out next month, can't wait for that!

Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet (by Molly Morris) 

Love the premise - every 10 years, someone in this small town gets to come back from the dead - wrapped in a queer YA.  I enjoyed it enough to finish it to the end but was my least favorite of these - I found it to be overly quirkified and aggressively 90s (authors need to stop with this).  I was thrown off at the very beginning by the quirky names. The main characters, Wilson and Ryan, are both girls. Ryan's twin brother is Mark, which makes no sense whatsoever as a sibling set. Wilson calls her mother by her first name, Jody, and Jody's ex, a man, is named Cass.  Wilson is named after Wilson Phillips. I was so confused and also, like, why do all the names have to be quirky.  My biggest issue is that the romance didn't fully work and relationships felt inorganic.  I finished it, I guess, is the best I can say!

A Very Punchable Face (by Colin Jost)

I'm a huge SNL fan, but avoided Jost's memoir fr a long time because I heard there was a lot in there about pooping and I'm not really into scatological humor. But somehow I ended up reading it anyway, and that's really only one chapter. (It is definitely gross, though.)

Very tongue-in-cheek, but insightful as to the inner workings of SNL and Colin's experiences there. How he ended up hosting Weekend Update, why his favorite time was working as a staff writer, why he thinks he'll leave soon, what he thought about Donald Trump, it's all in here.  Highly recommend for Saturday Night Live fans.

Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist (by Sesali Bowen)

I had to commute into the office last week for the first time in years, which made it a great opportunity to finally check out "an audiobook performed by a person of color of a book written by an author of color." This is read by the author, Sesali Bowen.  

Short review: this is great. I learned a lot about trap music and culture, and Bowen's perspective on feminism gave me a lot to think about and unpack.  I tagged this as memoir since she uses her own experiences to guide the reader through her ideas.

This quote from Goodreads captures it well: "If you want to challenge your ideas of what it means to be a feminist, particularly if you are steeped in white feminism that lacks intersectionality, I would recommend reading Bad Fat Black Girl." Same here. It's entertaining, erudite, queer, challenging, enlightening.  

Recent Book Flurry

I finished a bunch of books this weekend, so here's a catchup entry.

I Have Some Questions for You (by Rebecca Makkai)

I loved The Great Believers, and put this on the library holds list as soon as I heard it was coming out. This is a boarding school literary mystery (emphasis on the literary part) in which an adult woman coming back to teach at her boarding school takes a fresh look at the murder of a classmate.  Our narrator comes back again and again to a litany of crimes against women that serve as a backdrop to both the story and the life of every woman. A favorite read of the year, for sure.

Towards Zero (by Agatha Christie)

I'm reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd aloud to my family (Mina calls him "Mr. Altoid") and on a bit of a Christie kick once again.  I enjoyed the characters of this one, and as usual, didn't guess the culprit. You'd think I'd at least have a fighting chance having read so many of these and yet, no.

Murder in Mesopotamia (by Agatha Christie) 

I thought this was the one, I was so sure I had figured it out at 28% of the way into the book! But of course, I didn't, and as usual I enjoyed being fooled. Of course it's in Mesopotamia so it's racist, as usual.  (I had to identify a "guilty pleasure" book and I immediately thought of Christie. I feel guilty reading her racism! Someone edit out the racism!)

Marbles (by Ellen Forney) 

This is the Read Harder Challenge entry of this book flurry. "Read a comic or graphic novel that features disability representation." Ellen Forney has bipolar disorder and this memoir is about her diagnosis, her efforts to get the disorder under control, and its intersection with her creative life as an artist. Even knowing people with bipolar, I learned a lot from this memoir, and enjoyed Forney's visual style.   

Endless Night (by Agatha Christie) 

Woah, this one was different. A very late Christie set in the 60s (the word "sex" shows up a bunch and I'm like o.O) and reportedly one of her favorites. Slow to get started as it's not a typical Whodunit and the murder doesn't happen until more than halfway into the book.  But even though it echoes some of her most famous works, I didn't see the ending coming and it's so well done. 

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.

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman (Alan Rickman)

I read an excerpt from Rickman's diaries in the Guardian and as a fan, was interested enough to read the whole thing. For some reason I got the idea beforehand that he wanted his diaries published; in fact, nobody is claiming that, exactly, but he does seem to be writing for some kind of an audience at times.

This diary is extremely long and also extremely samey - a lot of name-dropping and not a lot of details about anything. Especially disappointing when it comes to some of my favorite films featuring Rickman: Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually. (He does talk quite a bit about Harry Potter by comparison; then again, there were eight movies.) 

I was engaged enough in his voice and the tiny tidbits of his life to keep reading to the end, but I would only recommend the diary for die hard (lol) Rickman fans.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (by Matthew Perry)

I was a Friends fan (of course, I grew up in the 90s) so I was interested in reading this memoir.  There isn't a ton about the Friends years per se, but an honest memoir of his struggles with addiction and other resulting health problems (like his colon exploding and him almost dying).

You definitely feel for Matthew Perry and get a good picture of the realities of addiction.  It's really sad that he has never been able to stay sober and get married and have kids - his dream is to be a father.  The writing here starts off well, but the timelines get confusing and by the end, he's repeating stories he's already told elsewhere.  Maybe some more editing would have helped, because the writing is candid and his voice is strong.

Also the ending seems to vacillate between "addiction will kill me" and "I am cured now" when the truth is, we don't know for certain.  My heart goes out to him and I hope he makes it.

Austin Books

Another trip and another set of books: only two this time, though:

Under the Lights (by Dahlia Adler) 

This is the second book in a series I haven't read, but I gathered it's a standalone (it is) and it's got a Sapphic romance and is set in Hollywood, which made it impossible to resist! The point of view alternates between Josh and Vanessa. Josh is a misogynistic asshole who becomes marginally less of one by the end of the book, and that is not a journey I am very interested in. What held my interest was Vanessa, an American actress of Korean descent who falls in love with her manager's assistant (or something), a woman named Brianna.  The romance is well done and kept me reading, in spite of some over-focusing on Josh as well as a side character who is friends with both of them.

All of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire (by Rebecca Woolf) 

Rebecca Woolf is a "mommyblogger" from back in the day, but I never followed her. I picked up the book on the endorsement of my friend Evany, who knows Rebecca.  This is a brutally honest memoir about the death of her husband from cancer right after they had decided to divorce. She doesn't shy away from talking about either her infidelity or his abuse, and the toxicity of their marriage. The first half of the book, recounting his illness and death and the aftermath on herself and their four children, is incredibly compelling. The second half, where she renounces patriarchy and monogamy, reads more like a string of blog entries than a compelling narrative, and possibly could have used more structure. But it's a good read and a unique memoir, for sure.