June Book Review

I'm writing this review while sitting in a coffee shop. A big storm came through the DC area last night, and we lost power around 1:30am. I heard it go "boom" and thought, "Awesome. Oh well, at least it's the middle of the night; plenty of time to get us back on the grid by morning, right?"

I woke up at 3:00am to throw the blankets off in a sweaty fit, because no power = no A/C. Then I went for my morning walk, and as far as I could tell, there are only a mere 8 houses without power. Every other house had lights glowing from their kitchens and their bathrooms. Street lights were still on. People were going about their well-lit, air-conditioned lives. I took every shining light personally. They mocked me.

Anyway, nothing like losing electricity for a few hours to make you realize how dependent we are on modern amenities. Luckily this #firstworldproblem has a First World Solution: numerous local coffee shops with free wifi. And crepes.

I'm truly suffering here.

Okay, enough about me and my literal powerlessness and onto the reason you clicked on this link: BOOKS!

Here's what I read in the month of June:

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg: I just loved this book. I knew this was historical fiction, but I didn't realize that Mazie Phillips-Gordon was a real person until I finished the book. She was called The Queen of the Bowery during the Great Depression, but she is barely a footnote in history. This is most certainly a novel; Attenberg creates a biography for her that stems from her own imagination. I got totally lost in the time and place of the story, and at times it just sparkled. This is the kind of book where you come across lines of prose and you pause to let it soak in. Saint Mazie was just recently published; I bet it will be popular with bookclubs when it's out in paperback.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll: So I'll just go from my favorite book of the month (see above) to one of the worst books ever. I literally threw this book across the room when I finished the last page and yelled, "UGH! I cannot even LOOK at you right now!". (sorry Arlington Public Library! No books were harmed in the writing of this review, I promise). Look, I realize that any book published in the last few years containing an unlikeable female protagonist is billed as "The Next Gone Girl!!". But I'm here to tell you: NO. Just no. To paraphrase Senator Lloyd Bentsen: "I read Gone Girl, I saw the movie Gone Girl. Luckiest Girl Alive? You're no Gone Girl." This book has appeared on so many lists of "Must Read Page-Turners" that I thought it would be good. I thought wrong. The main character isn't interesting or compelling or even enraging, like Amy in Gone Girl. She's vapid and whiny and annoying, and that's it. Even her name is annoying: TifAni FaNelli. Those random caps aren't typos. I kept flipping to the author bio and picture on the back flap, and it seems like the author IS the main character. So instead of thinking that the author is trying to make some kind of social commentary on this type of woman, I realized that the author wrote all of TifAni's horribleness without irony. I kept waiting for the promised "big twist" and when I got to the end I realized that the plot shift midway through the book must've been it. I guess? (hence the book-throwing). And there were huge plot problems! HUGE! Too many to list here, but I'll just say this: I find it odd that a story that takes place in NYC and Philadelphia, with most of the action happening between September 2001 and November 2001 would happen WITHOUT A SINGLE REFERENCE TO 9/11!! There's no story happening on the east coast at that time that wouldn't be seen, at least partially, through that lens. I see that Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to this book, so I'm sure it'll be coming soon to a theater near you. Maybe if they rework the main character and the plot they can save this dreadful waste of time. (Tell us how you really feel, Denise!)

Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzman: It took me a while to get into this one, but once I did I enjoyed it. I wasn't in love with it. I didn't finish it thinking, "Oh, I will definitely recommend this one!!". To paraphrase Larry David, it was pretty, pretty good. (Lots of paraphrasing today). This is going to sound lame, but I often feel daunted when I pick up a book and there are really small margins and the pages are filled with almost all prose and almost no dialogue. So. Many. Words. Maybe this seems counterintuitive for a book lover, but what can I say? I'm an enigma. Guzman's writing style is beautiful and after a while this book casts a kind of spell on the reader. I'm glad I gave it a chance to click with me; if I wasn't reading it for a book club, I probably would've given up before finishing it. We read this to discuss at One More Page Books & More's Daytime Fiction Group (we meet at 11am the second Friday of every month! If you're local, come join us!). A few people just loved this book and would highly recommend it, others were more lukewarm like me. This is why book clubs are so awesome, of course.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (not pictured): I really wanted to like this book. I am a big fan of essays, particularly when they are social commentary of pop culture, and especially when they have a feminist perspective. Gay starts out with a good premise for this collection: she lays out what she thinks it means to be a "bad feminist". To Gay, this term means being an imperfect woman in a world in which women are expected to strive for (unattainable) perfection at all times. What woman among us can't relate to that? So I had high hopes for this one. I wanted a smart take on the popularity of reality TV and how they portray women, for example. She does address this, but she doesn't have any new insights to add. She often contradicts herself, sometimes within the same essay. So many of these pieces aren't well thought out, or they just miss the mark entirely. Bummer.

In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume: Oh, you guys. This is painful. It kills me to give this book anything less than a glowing review. But I can't lie to you. Listen, Judy Blume is the reason I fell in love with reading. I read (and re-read, and re-read) all of her books when I was growing up. She was my childhood all-time favorite author. I really wanted to love this book, but it pains me to say I didn't even like it. There, I said it. It has a promising premise, but it was just boring. It plodded along, trying to tell a story from 20+ characters' point of view, which meant I didn't feel a connection to any of them. The style felt almost like a reporter telling a story: ("This happened, and then this happened. She felt this way, then he felt this way"). Oh, Judy. I'm so sorry. But I will say this: even though I was disappointed, I won't hold it against her. If she publishes another book, I will totally forget this ever happened and read it, with relish.

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson: Fascinating read! Ronson explores how our Puritan ancestors used public shame (think Scarlet Letter, the stocks, etc.) and then shows examples of modern-day shaming in social media. Some are David-and-Goliath-type stories of little people taking down big corporations via Twitter (using social media for good); others are stories of individuals who made tasteless or insensitive jokes only to have it go viral and have their personal lives destroyed. His writing style was a bit choppy, which I found distracting, but overall I really enjoyed this book.

New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver (not pictured): I very rarely read poetry. This book made me rethink that life choice. Like most of us, I've read (and loved) her most famous poems: Wild Geese, In Blackwater Woods, The Summer Day, etc. I grabbed this at the library on a whim and now I want to own every single book she's every published. It's hard to recommend poetry because it's such a personal genre; what profoundly resonates with one reader may leave another reader feeling flat. But, I mean, she DID win the Pulitzer, so I think most people would enjoy her work, even if they don't think of themselves as poetry lovers. I have so many favorite lines, but I'll leave you with this one, from her poem The Summer Day: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" I mean, c'mon.