How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti

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I have a quick follow up after yesterday’s post because I just also recently finished How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti.

Lately, I’ve had a hard time telling if some main characters are intentionally or unintentionally insufferable, and this is one of those instances where I couldn’t always tell. The main character is supposed to be insufferable to a degree, sure, but to this degree? I’m not so sure.

That said, with books like these, I’m always glad they get published. I’m glad this was published. For most, this is worth the read. However, if you are feeling a bit on the sensitive side, maybe skip this one (for now). There is a wandering, an aimlessness, and unknowing that may be comforting, but there is also deep friendship and closeness, which I could imagine may feel alienating to some. There is also some short sections of depravity that may be better left unread by some.

For the average reader, acquainted with and able to stomach what I’ve mentioned above, do read this unique book.

Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder

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I can’t remember how Women We Buried, Women We Burned by Rachel Louise Snyder got on my reading list, but about half way through the book, I realized I was vaguely familiar with Snyder’s work from NPR. I could recall some of difficult human rights stories she reported on, especially surrounding women’s rights abroad.

In that regard, this books nearly reads like two books. First, there is the story of Snyder’s traumatic and tumultuous childhood. Then, there is her life and journey to motherhood, and finally there is the story with Barb at the end. To me these all feel like a cohesive whole.

This is an important book, with a main character that grapples with tough cultural questions, chief among them have to do with women having a right to understand and have control of their own bodies. The painful stories she recounts illustrate these issues and bring to light the ways in which social controls take away basic bodily autonomy.

At times I thought some of the details were strangely specific, without being clear as to why, the book too lengthy. By the end, I was convinced that most of it was necessary. The books is a beautiful and important book. Next, I’d like to see her write more about the middle part, about her life abroad, about motherhood and marriage. About relationships. I hope she does.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl

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I read somewhere that Wendell Berry (and I mostly like Wendell Berry!) was one of Margaret Renkl’s influences, and I could definitely see that as I read, especially in the attention to and elevation of the natural world.

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss is a beautifully written book that does so many important things: it captures the lifespan intimate family relationships, the landscapes that hold them, and the socio cultural aspects of these southern spaces as well.

It is also very clear that Renkl is a trained poet, as this makes the prose beautiful to read. I always love it when writers are able to produce unconventional structures in books AND also get published. Overall–a bittersweet, but life affirming book.

The Best American Short Stories 2024

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My creative writing classes keeps me reading The Best American Short Stories each year, but looking back through my notes, it appears that I don’t typically write about it, which is a shame! This year’s story collection was edited by Lauren Groff, who I have been reading and enjoying lately. (Though honestly I typically don’t have a sense of an editor’s taste from one year to the next.)

This year’s collection was epic and stunning as always. In my opinion, these anthologies are the single best way to get a sense of contemporary writing, although the works remain fairly conservative in their form and approach. These are all typical short stories.

One of the most memorable stories this year had abuse in it. As I think back over the years, I now realize that some of the stories that stand out the most have featured some type of abuse. Not because they are better stories, but because they can be so traumatizing to the reader. I don’t like it and seem to get increasingly sensitive to it with each passing year. I even think the series may need to start integrating trigger warnings. Maybe literary fiction more broadly needs to integrate trigger warnings. And, yet, as I write this, I am aware that the trigger warning significantly changes the reading experience. I don’t have the answers. I think this work should exist. It lends insight into the human condition. Even still, at this point I can’t help but think that the subtler works are the greater works.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller

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Alexandra Fuller’s book, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight offers beautiful writing and insights on living in Africa through the 1970s-90s, amid war and revolution, amid those complicated social dynamics, but also amid the personal dynamics of family, of alcoholism, of mental illness, and parents who offer their children a childhood that is at once amazing and also, probably, negligent.

Fuller’s writing is consistently beautiful throughout. Even in its sometimes stark depictions, the book is infused with a contagious love of Africa. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi have not necessarily been places I’ve ever wanted to visit. I’ve grown up in wilderness areas, and so the great safaris that have drawn others have less pull for me. However, this book made me see some of the other beautiful aspects of the country. After reading the book, I wouldn’t hesitate to go.

This year there’s a new movie out based on the book. From the trailer, it appears that the film follows the book closely. I hope I get a chance to watch it.

I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum

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If you’re an intellectual who also likes to watch bad TV, then I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum is the book for you. Of course, if you also like high quality TV, then this book is also for you. Nussbaum offers nuance, attention to detail, deep insights, but also brings a real love and fandom to the shows to she describes.

I don’t get to watch much TV these days, and I haven’t finished (and in many cases even started) most of the shows Nussbaum analyzes. I still got a lot out of this book. I think TV is so ubiquitous that many readers will appreciate her analysis too.

As short reels and clips and homemade YouTube videos start to take over media consumption, I found myself feeling appreciative, nostalgic, and impressed by the many shows Nussbaum mentions in the book. If you’ve watched some TV, this book is worth reading.

Women and Appletrees by Moa Martinson

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IMHO, some of the earliest Marxian feminist novels came from Sweden’s Moa Martinson, who wrote stories, many of which that were deeply personal, of poverty and life in Sweden around the turn of the last century. Since my great grandmother was born around this time in Sweden, I love getting this perspective on life and culture. Martinson’s social commentary is almost entirely shown instead of told, and so it’s particularly powerful. I am always amazed to see people break new ground, and Martinson does that in her novels. Women and Appletrees is particularly good.

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate

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I used to write more like Little Weirds by Jenny Slate. Maybe I still do. This work is quirky and literary, emotional and smart, and quirky. Did I say quirky? This is a woman who has been given (given herself?) permission to fly with the little weird thoughts and experiences that make up life. The books vacillates between deep heartache and desperate loneliness and also accounts of companionship, unexpected life-affirming experiences, and good people (mostly women), who have stepped in and made her life better, even if only for a short time. There are little weird encounters or weekends or trips that are healing. You can tell that Slate is a reader and surrounded by art and has a literary eye. Her bio says her dad is a poet, and you can tell. This isn’t the type of book that usually gets published. I’m glad it did.

Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik

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Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik is one of the best books on parenting I’ve read. This book is about life, so non-parents will enjoy it too. Fans of the New Yorker will like it for the beautiful writing and deep insights it offers. But, I think parents may appreciate this book the most.

This book reads like a series of connected essays. I can almost see the influence of an editor, trying to thread the themes more intentionally throughout to make this seem more like a novel than separate essays. It really reads like a collection of connected essays though, and it works. Of course it works.

Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

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I found Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro at a blessed Little Free Library after I was on hour two of watching my kids play at a local park. The cover says “novel,” but it really reads like a series of connected short stories. There’s no question that Munro is an excellent writer, especially of short stories. The first story is “The Flats Road,” and the subtle, yet profound sense of place and character development truly puts Munro in a class of her own. That said, and probably because I was expecting a novel, I had a hard time sticking with the stories. I came expecting a cohesive whole, but the novel isn’t that. If you read it, expect a collection of (good!) shorts.