Sag Harbor

Sag harbor by Colson Whitehead (2009) 332pp

I was fortunate to spend some time on the far reaches of Long Island this fall and in conversation the book Sag Harbor was brought up. Being vaguely familiar with all-black towns such as Nicodemus, Kansas, formed in the post-civil war era and more recently all-black beaches, I checked it out. Very much the traditional coming-of-age story with the usual hijinks and the expected teenage humor. Colson does more as he interweaves the founding of the community and the travails of being the other in a very exclusive enclave, and the varied and complex characters who end up on a spit of land at the end of the Eastern seaboard. But this is not sociology wrapped in a memoir, it is a humorous read with just enough pathos to make you think and connect with the author and his community.

Among the Thugs

Among the Thugs by Bill Buford (1992) 313 pp

An absolutely frightening read. While riding the tube in London, journalist Buford observes loutish behavior by football fans and decides to find out what all the fuss is about. For the next several years he immerses himself in the tawdry fan base of a number of British club teams as they rampage across the country and the European continent. Buford seems to be channeling Hunter Thompson’s wild ride in the book Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga and George Orwell as he explored poverty in Down and Out in Paris and London. In his defense, Buford would never have been able to embed himself if he hadn’t embedded himself. His deplorable subjects were reluctant to go on the record. Not only were they involved in criminal activity, they were also proud of their bigotry and claimed to be maligned by the press. Hence the only way to report on the clubs was to become one with the fans. So, rather than take the “high road” of a traditional reporter – neutrally observing and filing a story – Buford plunges into the raucous behavior, cozying up to the team supporters. In too many examples to recount, he attempts to match their drinking habits and interacts with the thugs: drunks, Nazi sympathizers, skinheads, outright criminals, and other riff-raff as they disrupt civil life in the name of sport. Ethically it is hard to justify this style of reporting and indeed his observations are bleak and pretty simplistic. He recognizes and explains the frightening nature of crowd behavior (including getting severely beaten himself) and how otherwise good citizens can slip into anti-social, self-destructive behavior. Nothing good happens in this saga.

Bury Your Gays

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, 294 pages

It's a longstanding Hollywood trope that LGBTQ characters don't get happy endings. So when the suits at the studio behind Misha's long-running TV show tell him to either cut the queer storyline or kill off the characters, Misha's disappointed, but not particularly surprised. However, Misha also has an Oscar nomination, which gives him a bit more leverage (just a bit though, as it's for live action short, not one of the big categories). Or so he thinks. But before long, the monsters from Misha's horror movies are coming to life and stalking him, and Misha's trying to save not just his beloved show but also himself and his friends. There is definitely something strange afoot...

Somehow this horror novel manages to have complex relatable characters, skewer the entertainment industry, and comment on the threats of emerging technology while being truly scary and also funny? I don't know how Tingle managed to swing it, but this is quite the feat, and I absolutely loved it.

The God and the Gumiho

The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim, 397 pages

Long exiled to the mortal realm, fallen god Seokga must send 20,000 unruly supernatural creatures back to hell before he can return to the realm of the gods. He's about halfway there when he picks up the case of a particularly problematic and powerful demon that is threatening to end humanity. At the same time, the long-dormant serial-killing gumiho the Scarlet Fox has resurfaced, and Seokga strikes a new bargain — kill these two menaces to society and his debt is paid. Unfortunately, the Scarlet Fox also happens to be the alter ego of Kim Hani, an annoying (yet alluring) gumiho that's been assigned to assist Seokga in his investigations. While she tries to throw him off her track, their mutual dislike morphs into something much more pleasant (and steamy), even as they hunt the humanity-killing demon.

While I appreciated this Korean-inspired, action-packed fantasy novel, I felt like the execution wasn't quite where it deserved to be. It felt almost like young adult writing in an adult-centric novel. Not bad if that's what you're looking for, but nothing that particularly wowed me.

The Lion Women of Tehran

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, 327 pages

When the death of her father forced 7-year-old Ellie and her mother to move from the lap of luxury to a tiny, downtrodden home in downtown Tehran, Ellie finds solace in her new friend, Homa. As they grow up, Ellie and her mother return to a comfy lifestyle, while Homa's rebellious father languishes in prison, keeping Homa's family in poverty. Reconnecting as they prepare for university, Ellie and Homa have very different goals for their college years — Ellie wants to get an education, sure, but mainly find a husband, while Homa is determined to bring on a feminist revolution, becoming a judge and helping promote women's rights in Tehran. When political turmoil erupts in Tehran, a betrayal drives the two friends apart for decades, and both must come to grips with their past and their role in Iran as it is.

This is a wonderfully written story of Iran in the second half of the 20th Century, as seen through the eyes of two very different women. They're both relatable, complex characters with understandable motivations and fears. I loved this book and will be recommending it widely.

After Annie

After Annie by Anna Quindlen, 285 pages

Annie wrote an excellent review of this book here, and I'm going to direct you to read that instead of writing my own review, as she says what I want to say better than I could phrase it. My only addition is that I listened to the audiobook (wonderfully read by Gilli Messer) while baking cookies, which is just about the only thing that kept me from bawling the whole time I read it. A lovely book, if not always the easiest to read.

99 Percent Mine

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne (2019) 342 pages

Darcy's photography ambitions have been shelved indefinitely; now she spends her time working as a no-nonsense bartender. Her salary only pays for her health insurance, essential since she has had heart trouble for her whole life. She and her twin, Jamie, have inherited a cottage in poor condition from their grandmother, with the proviso that they have it renovated and sell it, splitting the proceeds. A quarrel has left them estranged. They've hired a longtime childhood friend, Tom, to renovate the house. The trouble is that Darcy has always had a crush on Tom, but snubbed him in order to travel the world, and when she came back, much later, he had a girlfriend. In order to assuage her unhappiness, Darcy has had some relationships, but never with anyone who merited permanence.

This novel serves as a dance between Darcy and Tom, as they spend time together handling the renovation, each figuring that the other is unavailable to them. There are a number of unrealistic details that just don't seem to fit properly, except to be more important later as the plot develops. How will all the connections between the characters work out? I had to suspend my disbelief, but in spite of that, mostly enjoyed the story.

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi

 How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi edited by Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski, 320 pages.

This book consists of bite-sized bits of knowledge on all sorts of STEM topics adapted from pop-science presentations given over two decades. It includes section headings such as "Mmm...Brains," "Creature Features," and "Tech (High and Low)." Most of the topics aren't more than a couple of pages long, and include a cute little comic or drawing of some sort (the book blurb describes these as infographics, but I didn't see anything I would describe as such flipping through the physical edition after I finished the audiobook).

Unfortunately, I found this book to be pretty much all style with little substance. It does a great job making the reader feel like they're learning something in a fun and easy way. Unfortunately, with how tiny the chapters are, by the time I got through the introduction and opening jokes there was essentially no time left to actually learn much. This feels like it's intended to be picked up and read a handful of pages at a time, but it's not actually efficient enough about presenting information to be very good for that. Unfortunately I don't know that I can recommend this extremely stylish book, there are better choices for books of general curiosities.

Most Wonderful

 Most Wonderful by Georgia Clark, 432 pages.

The three adult children of Hollywood star Babs Belvedere have all worked hard to get out from under their mother's shadow in one way or another. But when showrunner Liz, comedian Birdie, and hopeless romantic Rafi all manage to self-destruct their lives in their own unique ways just before Christmas, the whole family ends up spending weeks together in their mother's house in the Catskills. Unfortunately, many of their problems follow them home. Fortunately, many of those problems may be less problematic then they initially seem, and soon each sibling is falling in love. 

I am honestly very impressed by how well Clark managed to balance three love stories in a single, normal-length novel. All three of the Belvedere siblings felt like equal protagonist, and each story was unique enough that I wasn't reading the same thing three times. This was a sweet story, although a little heavy for a Christmas book, which I think put me off of it a little. My only other real complaint was that the conclusion of the novel didn't feel like it could keep up with the rest of the book. I was a little bored for the last 100 pages or so, which is not ideal for the payoff of a romance novel, but perhaps inevitable when three stories are trying to have their big conclusions at once. While I don't know if this is my favorite Christmas book, it is overflowing with both queer and familial love, and I am glad I read it. I think fans of Alison Cochrun will likely enjoy this book as well.

How to End a Love Story

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, 372 pages

When she was 16, Helen Zhang's sister, Michelle, killed herself by jumping in front of a car driven by the homecoming king, Grant Shepard. When Grant showed up at Michelle's funeral, Helen and her mother threw him out, and that was the last Grant and Helen saw of each other. Thirteen years later, Helen's a successful young adult author and her wildly popular series is getting a TV adaptation. One of the lead writers on the show? Grant Shepard. So now Helen has to figure out how to deal with seeing Grant on a daily basis in the writers room for the show while simultaneously figuring out her increasingly confusing feelings toward him.

I'll admit that this setup is not at all something I would expect to find in a romance novel, yet somehow Kuang makes it work. There's good character arcs and a spicy love story to satisfy any romance reader. My one quibble is that the awkward dislike/hatred between Helen and Grant shifts to sexy attraction pretty rapidly, considering there was no previous interest shown between them beforehand (maybe an unrequited mutual high school crush would've helped?). However, their complicated relationship is well handled, and that makes me less concerned about the steep on-ramp to the relationship.