Slightly Off Center

Last month, I had a lot of time to read books!

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany

I started this in November but finished it on the First. I liked it less than Triton and found it harder to read, but parts of it would’ve made an incredible romantasy premise. Imagine there’s a guy who’s the only survivor of a catastrophe that destroyed his ENTIRE PLANET, and he’s your soulmate, and you’re his soulmate… This could totally work as a romantasy premise. I did enjoy the examinations of culture and imperialism and knowledge as power and gender and labor and all of those things, but it was very dense and kind of difficult to get through.

Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian

Love triangle between a grad student, her thesis advisor, and her thesis advisor’s husband. Could’ve been gayer, but I liked the meta layers of the story.

An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991 by Adrienne Rich

Well, the title did include the world “difficult,” so perhaps it was on me for expecting to understand these. I ended up skimming some of the poems and then feeling guilty for skimming. Like, they’re poems! It’s not that many words to read! But I don’t think I vibe with Rich’s style. I May Be Stupid.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Insane how much evil these people got away with. I was excited to read this one because I enjoyed Say Nothing so much, and I enjoyed reading this one too, but also I just felt so… aghast, the whole time I was reading, that all of this was allowed to happen, that the pharmaceuticals industry was so corrupted from every direction, and that every single person involved in engineering the opioid crisis is convinced they did nothing wrong?? I like how PRK structured the book.

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

If this was a fanfiction I would have hit the back button about two paragraphs in, but since I checked it out from the library I read the whole thing and was not impressed.

Blue Nights by Joan Didion

Ashamed to admit this was actually my first Didion and since I was constantly referencing her Wikipedia page/her daughter’s Wikipedia page/googling various namedropped friends and associates, I feel like I probably should’ve started with something else. But this was the only ready to borrow Didion book at my library, so I read it and it was quite sad.

Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu

Reading this book felt like being trapped in a cardboard box. A closeted lesbian married to a gay man has to watch her best friend with benefits also go through an arranged marriage in the Sri Lankan immigrant community in Boston. Bleak and miserable! But good.

Leap by Simina Popescu

Graphic novel about lesbian contemporary dancers in Romania! I enjoyed it.

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer

I think this book was about twice as long and covered about twice as much time as it needed to. The pitch– Devil Wears Prada meets Talented Mr. Ripley – made me expect a lot more Intrigues and Schemes, but the protagonist presents herself as kind of an incompetent alcoholic who occasionally does something horrible for no reason whatsoever. I think she’s supposed to be an unreliable narrator, but her narrative voice is more annoying than fun to follow. The rich people subplot was extremely depressing and kind of undermined the Ripley side of things to me.

Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake

I couldn’t get through a page of The Atlas Six, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the narrative voice in Girl Dinner. Like, it was fun! It was a fun read! But I was also surprised that Blake called it a “satire” in the afterword, because it didn’t really feel like it was making fun of Sloane or Nina, it felt like the reader was supposed to empathize with them, not mock them. There were some lines that struck me as kind of satirical, but mostly it was just an occasionally funny book. I think it should’ve been picked up by a litfic imprint instead of Tor, though. I feel like it could’ve been a sharper and more interesting critique (or even, like, actually a satire lol), if it’d been edited by a literary editor instead of an SFF one. The SFF element (which is obvious from the title) was probably the weakest aspect overall. The ending felt kind of… unnecessary? Out of nowhere? I didn’t love that part. But I liked it more than I thought I would overall.

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Fine. I like the publishing inside baseball bits and the thriller bits were also fun. The chapter titles bit was very funny.

The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm

Really interesting. Checked it out based on some post I saw on here that mentioned it, and I really enjoyed reading it. Inspired me to read more Sylvia Plath poetry.

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

I don’t think I like Highsmith’s writing style overall, but I did enjoy… how easily Ripley got away with so much nonsense somehow. Watched the movie with Matt Damon in it also and was amused the movie made him both gayer and more sympathetic/less of a cold-blooded freak. He is much more committed to the bit in the book.

Work Nights by Erica Peplin

Kind of boring, kind of funny, at least it’s gay I guess? Doesn’t seem to be saying anything interesting about anything, but at least it’s about lesbians!

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

This took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to finish reading, but I did enjoy it. I mostly read it because Rebecca was not available on Libby and this was Ready to Borrow lol. Gothic romance set in the 1800s, very… moody, ambiguous. I thought it was fine.

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb

I really loved the art, I thought Tim Sale’s use of spot blacks was really innovative and interesting and the paneling was creative and stylish. However, as I was not inoculated into Cape Fandom as a child, I found it difficult to buy into the basic premise of the Batman rogues gallery. I am trying to be a responsible Comics Person and get Into Capes, but it’s hard, because most cape comics kinda suck in various ways.

Everybody (Else) Is Perfect: How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes by Gabrielle Korn

Kind of interesting, but I think the parts where she was talking about broader societal trends were weaker than the parts that were just about herself and her life/work.

Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton

Maybe if I was an obsessive Beach Boys fan this would’ve worked better for me. I found the epistolary framing confusing and unnecessary. Just write the book in second person, you don’t need the letter framing!

Penitence by Kristin Koval

Unfortunately mostly felt like Beartown but worse, because Backman has a very intentional and interesting writing style and Koval does not. Backman also builds atmosphere and environments very effectively, so that it really feels like all of Beartown is telling you its story together, and Penitence develops… some characters a bit. Didn’t like how we stayed out of Nora’s head pretty much until the last page. Also I guessed the endgame reveal ten pages in, while the characters didn’t even think of it as a theory until two-thirds of the way into the book, which annoyed me.

Absolute Martian Manhunter, Vol. 1: Martian Vision by Deniz Camp

The Martian Vision pages were great and I loved the visuals and colors, but overall… I dunno. I understand why my friend who really liked it really liked it, because it’s the same friend who got me a copy of The Crying of Lot 49. I think reading this so soon after The Long Halloween made me tired of comics about men neglecting their families to fight crimes.