Famesick by Lena Dunham

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I’m a fan of Tiny Furniture, Girls, Not That Kind of Girl, and now Famesick. Lena Dunham is the voice of my generation. That might sound crazy coming from someone from the rural west, while Dunham is from the urban east coast, but she so honestly captures a kind of worry, a kind of secret angst, a kind of neuroses that I think is universal–though certainly felt to differing degrees–especially, perhaps, of the modern day heterosexual female.

I was about a quarter of the way through Famesick when it was announced that there would be a Girls reboot, and I am thrilled by that. I hope that Dunham continues to make movies and shows and write books in between. I am especially a fan of the books, naturally, but the movie making and the fame really does seem to offer such fodder for her life and a window for insight.

Now, she is a new mother, I see, and I cannot wait to read what I hope will be a book about motherhood.

Thanatographies by Yanara Friedland

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It’s been a few months since I’ve posted! I read this book, Thanatographies, by Yanara Friedland. I found myself wanting to spend time in the book, to savor the scenes, thoughts, and feelings that the author conveyed, and so I did. I loved the first story and wanted the book to be a novel that is continually based around the room, but alas.

Go As A River by Shelley Read

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I read Go As A River by Shelley Read for research. To me, this book goes in the same category as Where the Crawdad’s Sing. Are women forever fleeing to the forest to survive in peace?

Having spent time in Colorado, and especially around Durango, the sights and sounds were familiar to me, and I think that made me like the book even more. I am also interested in towns that have been wiped out by dams. The imagery alone is fascinating!

I think most readers will like this book–engaging plot line, based in a woman’s experience, set against a stunning landscape. Readers who only read literary prose may not like this one, but for the average reader, even one who likes an elevated level of writing, this book will do just fine.

A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux

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My latest summer read was A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux. Ernaux has been writing for decades, but I feel like she’s having a resurgence, perhaps because of her recent Nobel Prize in Literature, but I can see why.

While everyone is reading Yesteryear, Ernaux’s A Frozen Woman takes readers back to motherhood in the middle of the last century and depicts a stifled life full of daunting work and caretaking as the main character put aside her lofty ambitions and raises two children with a husband who, like many husband/fathers of the time, was largely unhelpful.

Ernaux captures the labor and desperation that sometimes comes along with motherhood, especially a motherhood devoid of support–which is the normal for so many (most?).

For women who are mothers, but who are also ambitions, artistic, and driven, I think this book will resonate. The writing alone is beautifully done. The book is an acheivement for sure.

I Remember by Joe Brainard

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I came across I Remember by Joe Brainard on a list of books to read before you die. And, now after reading it, I think I agree! This is a book composed of short sections that all start with the words “I remember.” Most of these sections are just one or two sentences long, with a few that are more like paragraph length.

At first I thought the repetition would be daunting, and it was for the first few pages, but I quickly acclimated to the words and found myself really liking the book, which is full of remembered things from the author’s life from childhood and on. I found these sections to be funny, lovely, poignant, relatable, grotesque, troubling–basically the gamut of the human condition, which is what all good literature will do.

As I read, I learned that Joe Brainard was a multi-genre artist, a writer and a visual artist and was well known for his comic book artwork. He was a true Renaissance man and lost too soon.

The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

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I read The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing primarily because it is a rare academic book was also supposed to appeal to commercial audiences. This is a gap I aim to bridge in my own writing, but it is rarely done! And that’s because the tone of academic writing is typically not entertaining. So, I was curious about how and if this author was able to pull it off. And, I think this author was kind of able to pull it off, but mostly this still felt like a mostly academic book, I think. The author uses theoretical language that I think will be lost to most audiences and then doesn’t get too complicated in explaining it (because of popular audiences), but then also (usually) doesn’t explain it in depth for popular audiences either. So in the end, I wanted more explanations of, for example, slippery contact zones, or whatever theoretical jargon was on the page. In the end, I think this book will mostly still just appeal to scientists and academics and also some popular audiences who have some background in these subjects and possibly also armchair mushroom enthusiasts. I hope there are a lot of armchair mushroom enthusiasts out there.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

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Although I was not in the right headspace, and although I think that definitely intensified the reading of this book, and although I may never be in the right headspace for this book, I recently finished reading Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. I must say that I did want to set it down several times and never pick it up again, but I persevered. This is a book (and an author) that has gotten a lot of attention in my circles, and so I wanted to read it, even if just so that I could join those conversations. Now I’m glad I did read it of course.

This book is beautifully written and feels a lot like contemporary poetry to me. Line after line attends to the sound and the vocabulary and the complexity of meaning, and so it is rich. It is also about difficult things: war, exile, abuse, survival (the necessity to), the fentanyl crisis, and much more.

Kind of like Schindler’s List, this is a book worth reading, an important book, and an artistic book, but it is an intense and emotionally difficult book. If you aren’t in a good head space, I’d say you can put it off. You don’t need to read it right this instant.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

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Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson is a short, readable, excellently written book that takes readers on a deeply human journey while also layering in historical context. One can’t really ask for me.

It seems like responsibility often skips a generation. One generation scrimps and saves and works to build generational wealth, and then the next generation can relax in that security, and then the next generation is driven to work and save, etc., in order to regain a sense of security, and then their children can relax again, and so it goes. For me, this book captured that.

The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns

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Barbara Comyns’ book The Vet’s Daughter dabbles in magical realism in a way that Our Spoons Came From Woolworths and Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead did not. Comyns is great at magnifying the real, which is evident in Our Spoons. In Who Was Changed, the circumstances are very strange, yes, but, in my opinion, those circumstances remain grounded in possible real events. The Vet’s Daughter, on the other hand, is the first from Comyns’ œuvre that really defies the laws of physics…so to speak.

The Vet’s Daughter reminded me of the recent film (inspired by the book) Poor Things, starting Emma Stone, in that the setting is strange and grotesque. In the case of The Vet’s Daughter, the homes are dark and abusive. The vet’s house is full of sick animals and taxidermied pets, which felt much like the home scenes in Poor Things. I did not love being in those scenes, but I did appreciate their power to convey.

The Vet’s Daughter is another classic novel from the indomitable Comyns. I find myself slowing down to savor my first read throughs of her books.

Strangers by Belle Burden

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Strangers by Belle Burden might be the most written about book in recent memory, so I’m not sure I have much more to add. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and Burden is either lauded as a feminist truth teller or a woman who got a fair divorce and needs to move on.

What do I think? I think women should tell their stories, and I think this was an interesting and important story to tell. I think most insightful relationship stories are engaging, as long as the writer is insightful, and this one is.

I also think the institution of marriage is rife with challenges. Divorce rates are high, and the concept seems difficult to make work. I am jaded! None of the crazy stories surprise me at this point.

As you know, I’ve also been thinking more about the immense privilege in writing and how therefore we get a disproportionate view of that world of privilege. And it is an interesting world! Still, there are so many other stories that can’t get told due to lack of access, and that’s a shame too. This book makes me think of that.

Will I read more from from Burden? Yes. In fact, what’s more interesting, perhaps, is seeing what she’ll do next.