The flurry of excitement around announcing the summer publication of my novel distracted me a little from reading for pleasure, but I’m back at it, because I can’t help myself. I made a list of these in my store on Bookshop, plus two others (mentioned below) that I’m still reading, and loving.
The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
A sardonic, fun read, The Survivalists resonated with me because the main character, Aretha, has being wrestling with grief while also trying to succeed at her job as an attorney while also trying to date. She finds herself dating a Texan (deeply relatable, again) named Aaron, who also happens to have some, um, interesting business partners and roommates who essentially run guns and also have a gun-themed coffee business. Also: The backyard of their Brooklyn brownstone holds a bunker. Because these quirky Black folks are prepared for the end of the world. Kind of. Without giving anything away, which is maybe the only occupational hazard when it comes to writing reviews of books, I’ll say that none of the things I thought would take these folks down actually did it. And I was worried about Aretha for the first 3/4 of the novel, but I was very satisfied with how things ended.
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation by Camonghne Felix
Enough heartbreaking things happen in the world without me going in search of heartbreaking things to read, but I was intrigued by this slim non-traditional memoir and its episodic-series-of-vignettes feel. This was my first encounter with Felix’s work, but I could see the poetic, visceral origins of her approach to language in this story that details how early trauma shaped her approach to romance and romantic relationships, how it led to an actual disorder related to math or making calculations, and the metaphor that is expertly woven throughout the text. A cheating fiancee, some rebound loving and more are all good reasons to check out this interesting book.
Almost 20 years ago now (!) when I was a reporter in San Francisco, I was assigned a profile of a young writer from Queens who had written a fantastic book of short stories, Slapboxing with Jesus and was teaching in the Bay while writing one of his first novels. And ever since meeting Victor LaValle in Oakland so long ago, I’ve continued to follow his versatile career. His latest, Lone Women, is a fantastic tale of Adelaide Henry, a farmer from California who relocates with a deadly secret to Montana. It is about the truly terrifying things Black women have and do encounter in the West, or in general, but maybe especially the early days of the wild West. It is also about a lot of other things, including how we can make peace with the hardest parts of our past that haunt us, so they are always a part of our present. I love the characters, how Montana and environment are so tangible and richly described that they, too, feeling like characters in the book.
I have a long TBR list coming but right now I’m loving The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin — published in 2014, funny, tender, sweet, I’m glad I didn’t judge this book by its cover AND it was gifted to me from another writer, so I really lucked out. It’s about a grumpy bookstore owner who falls for a witty publishing sales rep. Out this week is Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee, and it is resonant in a totally different way. More on that soon.
Have you read these? I want to hear what you think, if so.