New York Reads

A little bit of everything, read on my travel days to and from New York. I finished the first two in June (traveling to NYC) and the second in July (traveling home).  I do so love an airplane read.

Finna (by Nate Marshall) 

First up, a Read Harder Challenge book for the category "a book of poetry." I learned about Marshall because he joined the creative writing staff at UW Madison and a writer friend of mine runs the program.  Loved his exploration of language and the juxtaposition of AAVE with more "literary" flourishes.  Some very powerful pieces here and I am betting listening to him read his poems is even better than reading the poems myself on a plane.

Our Year of Maybe (by Rachel Lynn Solomon) 

The first book by Solomon that I've read and haven't really cared for.  Not bad of course (I finished it happily) but I kind of hated the characters? I thought Peter sleeping with Sophie while not telling her he was bisexual or into another guy was pretty unforgiveable, even though Sophie was also toxic and codependent. Not for me.

The Thursday Murder Club (by Richard Oseman)

The start of a series.  Not perfect (too many red herrings for me) but overall very charming and entertaining. Loved the focus on the elderly residents of a retirement community (who are fully rounded characters, not just "cute old people").  I have obviously downloaded the sequel (thanks, libraries) so will keep you posted as the series progresses.

The Jaws Log (by Carl Gottleib)

I love Jaws, so I enjoyed reading this nonfiction account of the making of the film, written by one of the writers who also played Harry Meadows (and wrote himself out of the script as he went along). I think this is the expanded 30th anniversary edition from 2012, but Gottleib's notes seem to be from the original 30th anniversary edition from 2005. It's a fun time capsule. The original text references Waldenbooks for instance, then the footnotes bemoan that now bookstores have been absorbed into big conglomerates like Borders. There are a lot of references to the "men" who make movies. A lot. A lot.  So yes, it's dated, but it's of its time the footnotes, at least, are a little better about it than the original text.  The one thing I really wanted was more information about the various plotlines they scrapped and changed for the movie. I have read the book so many times (it's trashy but fun) and since Gottleib was one of the writers of the film, I was hoping he'd got into more detail.  Why does Hooper live in one version and die in another, for instance? He never explains. But otherwise, this was an entertaining read about a great film.