I already said why I skipped last week, but here’s a reminder because I love this cat.
I don’t know if I can even express how good The House of Impossible Beauties was. I was not expecting to love this like I did. I guess I need to watch Paris Is Burning someday, because I didn’t even realize that this was based on real people. Regardless, since this was about trans/gay culture in NYC in the 80’s, there were definitely some things I should have seen coming ahead of time. This is a heartbreaker. The thing I loved most about this book was the writing style. This guy is truly a phenomenal writer. This is a style that looks deceptively easy; a lot of people might read this and think, I could write that. Spoiler: you can’t. I’m in love with this one. Five million stars.
Pretty impossible to follow that one, but I think I would have been disappointed by A Female Persuasion no matter what. This is a frustrating one. It’s so close to being something great. There really is a fantastic book buried in here just waiting to get out. There was plenty to love here; it’s a very insightful and unflinching look at feminism and its various waves. (I don’t know which wave we’re on or which wave I’m supposed to be, sorry.) The story is perfectly fine, but it’s too disjointed and disorganized, and the characters are all a bit flat. And I could not have cared less about Cory’s story, or whether the main character would get back together with her high school boyfriend. Greer’s parents were hilarious though, and I wish there’d been more scenes with them. This is pretty much the same way I felt about The Interestings, so maybe Meg Wolitzer isn’t for me, BUT, if she got some kickass editor she could earn my love. I’m sure she’s dying to!
She Regrets Nothing was a pretty fun and juicy read. It’s a really specific niche for me, but I love novels about super rich families, especially if a plot point is about some of them potentially losing their money and scrambling to stay rich. Very specific preference of mine. There was one plot point that didn’t do it for me, but overall I enjoyed this a lot and it would be a terrific vacation read and I will definitely read more from this author and hopefully run into her someday because she lives in Seattle. Call me!
I finished The Wife this morning, and all day I’ve had “Dance Ten, Looks Three,” from A Chorus Line in my head because I am old. Oh, and also because, as a thriller, this was a real page turner that took some surprise turns and didn’t disappoint. And I am always disappointed by thrillers! But, the message of this book was pretty screwed up. I kept thinking it wasn’t going to go in a certain direction, because that would be super misogynistic and beyond problematic. But it went there and then some. So, for twists: four, for morals: negative one million. Link to my review which is kind of spoilery.
The perfect antidote to that turd is We Are Never Meeting In Real Life. I am not usually all that drawn to bloggy essay collections, but many of my friends have raved about this one. In fact, a friend gave it one million stars, so you know it’s going to be good. This still isn’t totally my thing because it feels a little repetitive, and a little too memoir-ish for me, but she is genuinely very very funny. Of course, now I feel like I want to go to a reading so I could really meet her in real life. Challenge accepted!
