Insert requisite "I can't believe Summer's over," blah blah blah. In fact, I can believe that Summer is over. The weather has turned, local schools are back in session, and my soul is plagued by a persistent itch to break out all of the Halloween decor early (Not until the 24th! We have it written down in the family calendar already).
Besides, despite the fact that there are still plenty of tomatoes hanging out on the vines outside - Washington has had a miserable growing year for tomatoes - the seasons have officially begun to turn, from "Farmer's Market" to "Wildfire and Spiders." It's a more welcome transition than you might think.
However, more importantly, the onset of September brings to a close yet another year's worth of Summer Reading Challenge Library Book Bingoes, and all of their affiliated distractions.
The official close of the Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts and Lectures series Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo was on September 6th, and I can't say that I didn't breathe a sigh of relief. Not because I wanted it to be over, necessarily, but because I actually managed to up last year's miserable performance, and get three individual Bingoes across my card!
Out of the 25 possible squares, I successfully filled up THIRTEEN squares with the titles of books I read this summer. (There are also an additional five romance novels that I completed that didn't necessarily manage to work into the list, but you've already heard about two of them here.) Due to the nature of this online space supposedly being a Book Blog, and because I've managed very little else by way of updates over the course of this summer, I thought you might like to see what I've been busy reading, and why.
JUNE
Square: A Book with a Blue Cover
Book: The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Unfortunately, I really, really didn't like it.
The Nest follows a family of upper-class New Yorkians, specifically, a family of four siblings and their various spouses and children. The four were promised shares of a large nest egg, bequeathed by their late, wealthy father, that would become available to them all when the youngest was old enough to spend it responsibly... unfortunately, they never get the chance, as their oldest brother's indiscretions and legal trouble have scrubbed the whole thing clean right before they can legally access it. Now, they're forced to grapple with the various ways they've been banking on that money - to shore up failing businesses, to pay for college, to smooth the wrinkled edges of an expensive lifestyle - while contending with their own fragile family relationships.
To break the entire cast of characters down to their bare essentials, everyone in The Nest falls into the following criteria: absurdly horny, morally repugnant, worthy of pity, and positively delusional. And yes, there are absolutely people who fit all four categories at once.
Obviously book characters don't have to be good people. In fact, it's often more fun when they're not! But from a moral / ethical standpoint, these people were all over the place, and it's not fun reading a book where a good 70% of the total cast are making decisions that warrant a response of "What the hell are you thinking?" while shaking the book like you've got a hold on their shoulders.
And then, even in the other characters, you get shades of xenophobia, racism, sexism, etc. For a book that includes two different major queer relationships, some of the other subtext of the book oriented around it carries this weird, mid-'00s flavors of homophobia. I'm sure these kinds of shading were included to round things out, make the entire world of the novel feel more real, but honestly, the overall impact was just really kind of sideways-preachy, like the author was presenting them in a way that made sure no one would accuse the author herself of being racist or homophobic. It was just what the characters were doing.
Also, what the hell was that ending?? I won't detail the specifics, given the nature of spoilers and their associated social no-nos, but seriously? Come on.
It was not an auspicious way to start the Summer's reading.
Square: First Book by an Author (partnered with another square, "Most Recent Book by Same Author")
Book: Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness #1), Tamora Pierce
However, my younger brother, equally set on me meeting him at his level, was so motivated at changing my mind that he ended up purchasing me a boxed set - one that matches my Daine boxed set - with the insistence that I give it another go.
Then, he sat beside me as I read, and listened to all my mutterings and exclamations, in real time. Unbeknownst to me, he was also running the Stopwatch app on his phone as we were taking our time, only pausing it once when I got up to use the restroom. At the halfway mark, he boasted about what good time I was making; once I'd finished, he proudly showed me the score: two hours, sixteen minutes, and 42 seconds.
Alanna: the First Adventure, is the first novel of the first series legendary YA Fantasy author Tamora Pierce first wrote back in 1983. Since then, her multiple series set in the world of Tortall have only served to continue to develop the rich, immersive landscape her many characters occupy. Alanna, a young noblewoman desperate to become a knight, switches places with her brother in order to be allowed to learn... along the way, she makes friends with a Rogue and a future King, squares up against school bullies, and proves her own merit against dark forces. And that's just the first book!
I mean, not only was it worth it to finally get my brother a quarter of the way off my chest about it, but the book itself was quite good. Despite the decades she's been writing across, Tamora Pierce's voice rings incredibly consistent throughout the years, her stories are populated with compelling characters and incredible feats, and she is equal parts sentimental and light-hearted, which is a great juggling act for an author for teenagers. I love the realm of Tortall, and reading this after getting to know Beka, Kel, Daine and Ali already almost makes it feel like a prequel. I especially love seeing how much Alanna's story in turn shapes Kel's, who will always be one of my favorites.
And yes, I'm genuinely excited to read the next in the series. Hopefully my little brother will help inspire the same kind of motivation from the other side of the state once he returns to college.
Square: Debut Author
Book: Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1), Rebecca Roanhorse
The second attempt was actually made in the same location (Sunriver, OR), but in a more positive frame of mind: instead of the End-of-August Scaries (which are kind of like the Sunday Scaries, but with the Pavlovian instillation of back-to-school dread that hangs around from childhood far into your adult years), the only thing I was dealing with was still shaking off the ooze of a Springtime slump, and trying to work my way into a Summer Reading mindset. Because I really wanted to get this novel off of my TBR, I decided that instead of allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the violence, I was just going to push through it until it gave way to plot. And I found it! Also plus more violence.
Trail of Lightning - the first in the Sixth World series - is set in Dinetah, the protected remnants of the Navajo reservation, left after a great flood and the appearance of mystical boundary walls wipes out access to the rest of the world. Maggie, whose monster-killing powers come as a byproduct of her powerful lineage, collects bounties on the heads of strange and terrifying creatures in order to get by. After she teams up with a confusing bigger-city medicine man at the behest of her mentor, the two track a developing evil causing mysterious disappearances, while it quickly becomes clear that someone has it out for her, too.
My feelings on this book are a little confused. It belongs to one of my more rapidly-expanding least favorite genres (Post-Apocalyptic fiction, mainly due to last year's Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which still makes me grimace every time I think about it, and which I hated so much I never pushed 'publish' on the blogpost I wrote about it because I was just so sick of thinking about it). Trail of Lightning really does manage to be both extremely violent and angry - with a lot of that violence and anger perpetrated against the female main character - and really freakin' grim in places. But... the mythology and world-building really IS THAT GOOD, just like pretty much everyone has been saying this entire time.
There just aren't a lot of people out there that are this uniquely adept at translating Native American mythology into such a tangible and enthralling genre landscape. Fantasy names have long held the stereotype of being some keysmash abomination with a few extra Zs, Xs, and apostrophes thrown in, but in Roanhorse's book, she utilizes real Navajo; instead of the familiar and long-utilized Greek and Roman Gods, trotted out of their Pantheon every once in a while for accessible popular effect, she utilizes familiar characters from ancient and American folklore, like the trickster Coyote.
In fact, I've been so completely taken in by the actual world itself, that in the past two trips to Barnes and Noble, I've very nearly picked up the second in the series, Storm of Locusts. Maybe I will, when my stomach is strong enough.
(Oh, and in case you were wondering, while tackling three of the longstanding books on my TBR was absolutely the move and a source of personal pride, I almost immediately added a total of NINE back onto my shelves the same month, thanks to a gift from a family member, a vacation impulse purchase, and a Book Outlet order. Then I bought a ton of books in July for my Bloggoversary and because I love thrifting, and more in August because I went on vacation again. You win some, you lose some, you never learn some.)
JULY (Part One!)
Square: Recommended by Library Staff / Peak Pick
Book: Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
In Malibu Rising, the annual party thrown by the Riva family - helmed by eldest sister Nina, almost-twin brothers Jay and Hud, and overshadowed youngest Kit - is the stuff of Malibu legend, and this year, it promises to be even more over-the-top than ever before. Over the course of one eventful day, each of the sibling's lives will be changed forever, as relationships are forged and broken, secrets are revealed, and ugly truths are confronted. By the end of the night, the party will end in a whirl of police sirens and flames.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is a pro at making her novels evoke a sense of time, style, and memory. Daisy Jones and the Six held fast to the magic of the '60s and '70s music scene of Downtown LA and California sun-soaked rock. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo centered a complex narrative around the glow of Old Hollywood soundstage lights, and a whirling catalogue of fake movie stars. She attempts the same here, by bringing the readers to the beaches of the '80s surf scene in Malibu, where the burgeoning glitterati of media glory intersect with modern perspectives on feminism and family.
Unfortunately, unlike with her previous two books, I feel like Malibu Rising's attempt at a nostalgic, idealized form of time travel fell flat. With so much focus being placed on bringing forth a specific cultural timestamp, she wastes attention on establishing retro collateral - emphasizing how everyone does their hair, what they're wearing, who they're listening to - without making more concrete moves to build out her characters, instead. As a result, plenty of the cast feels shallow and insubstantial, lacking any kind of dimension.
Again, I don't want to dispense any spoilers here; on the other hand, I don't really know if spoilers would altogether change any part of your reading experience... because while each of the Riva siblings does, in fact, find what they've been looking for or deserving, the expectations of them are established so completely obviously within the first 50 pages that their bestowal is less of a revelation than an eventuality. Attempts at foreshadowing are done so ham-handedly it's like Reid doesn't trust her audience to catch any kind of nuance, so she feels the need to hand it to them on a platter instead.
And like I said, I read this in essentially one sitting, as my chronic insomnia and hatred of camping combined to perch me in a folding chair on a well-lit morning at 6am, and have the whole book finished before breakfast. If a bleary, uncomfortable camper can still manage to find your book overly simple while running on four hours of hard-ground sleep with no coffee, then maybe it could have used some more character development.
Yes, I will be reading Carrie Soto Is Back anyways. I don't even know why you felt the need to ask.
Square: Out of your Comfort Zone
Book: Ariel: the Restored Edition, Sylvia Plath
I've also been having a major Sylvia Plath fixation recently - in a "published journals and letters" kind of way, not in a "rereading The Bell Jar yet again" kind of way - so I figured that this would be a knockout way to get both a bookshelf-sitting collection of poetry and a difficult Bingo square out of the way at the same time.
Unfortunately, I still seem to be one of those boring people who more enjoys Sylvia's fiction and journals, rather than her poetry.
As always, she uses beautiful, evocative language, words that call to mind carefully assembled visuals and characters. Making heads or tails of them is kind of like constructing a puzzle very carefully, and in my case, required reading a couple of times over to get the clearest picture, like how we used to slowly tune my grandmother's old TV to sort through the static, in order to get to PBS after the younger cousins had cranked the knob out of focus.
Some of them were really quite lovely, while others felt more jumbled or deliberately inscrutable. Some included antiquated language that made it very obvious what time period Plath wrote in (in a "you definitely can't use those words anymore" kind of way), which I understand, but was still sensitive to in reading.
Common themes included motherhood, with frequent uses of the word "baby," and dual usage of black-red color juxtaposition. Her feminist perspectives are definitely in full-force here, especially in poems like "Lady Lazarus" and "Lesbos."
One particularly notable element of the collection that I read, was the inclusion of Frieda Hughes - Sylvia's daughter, and last living child with Ted Hughes - who wrote both the introduction as well as bonus material in the back. She served as a sobering relative force, who provided a necessary recontextualizing of Plath as a human and mother first, and an artist second; however, by the end of her materials it more appeared that she was foremost motivated by the defense of her father, and promotion of her own artistic views.
I'm still not a Poetry kind of person. But I'm glad I was able to take an afternoon in a hammock to sort and sift through the words and images Plath constructed, almost like a kind of meditational practice. I'll be back to my Wendy Cope soon enough, but sometimes it's nice to riddle things out for yourself a bit.
Book: So This Is Ever After, T. J. Lukens
I've actually already written a review for this one! You can check it out in my "So, You Accidentally Read Three Novels That Were Basically Fanfiction" post from back in July.
With a total of eight books, July will probably go down as one of my greatest reading months out of the entire year, no doubt thanks to a couple of heartily welcome romance novels and two of my favorite childhood middle grade series ever. Hence, this blog post will be divided into several more portions: next up, the second half of July and all of August, and after, the rest of the Romance novels I read!
Did you undertake any reading challenges this summer? What was the hottest read of the hottest months, for you? Let me know, in the comments below!
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