My April and May in reading

Life has been busy lately. I took a trip to New Orleans. My retired and apparently very bored father has come to Louisville multiple times to help me repair my white picket fence. One of my coworkers quit and now I’m doing double work until we replace her. I had friends in town for the holiday weekend. I’ve been wasting time trying to read Roberto Bolaño’s posthumously-published tome 2666 when in fact it is just terrible. Which is all to say—I haven’t had much time to blog, so you’re getting April and May books in one go.

Here Lies by Olivia Clare Friedman

My dear friend Olivia, with whom I spent much of grad school dancing to Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the Line” and Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself,” published her debut novel this year. And it takes place in Louisiana—so of course I took it with me on my trip to New Orleans! It tells the story of Alma, a young woman whose mother recently passed—and in this near-future world ravaged by climate change, the government mandates cremation. Determined to bury her mother’s remains, Alma encounters another lost girl, Bordelon, and together they find a way to move forward. I can’t decide if this novel is more like a poem or an extended short story. I suppose it reads like an extended short story, but has the resonance and lyricism of a poem. It tastes like beer and gas station snacks, and smells like a garden after the rain. It feels like love. I recommend it.

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata

I heard about this novel on an episode of the I’m a Writer But… podcast. Since it partially takes place in New Orleans, I grabbed it from the library before my trip there—but the other part takes place in Chicago, my hometown, which made me want to read it even more! In early 20th century New Orleans, a woman named Adana Moreau marries a pirate, has a son, and writes a science fiction novel. She writes a sequel—but burns it before her death. In early 2000s Chicago, Saul Drower finds a mysterious copy of that very sequel after his grandfather’s death. It’s up to him to return the novel to Adana’s son in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This is a book that turns sci-fi on its head. After all, isn’t a hurricane-mangled city its own sort of alien terrain? It’s tender and funny and adventurous—I really liked it.

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

I bought and read this a while back, but I decided to return to it after I was fortunate enough to see Ilya Kaminsky read at University of Louisville recently. The poems in this book form an entire narrative about a town that protests the killing of a young deaf boy by adopting deafness and forming their own sign language, fighting the occupying soldiers with what those soldiers perceive to be silence. It’s especially poignant given the current crisis in Ukraine, which is where Kaminsky was born. A must-read.

The Sandman Vol. 8: Worlds’ End by Neil Gaiman

They just announced the premiere date for Netflix’s Sandman series today—August 5th! Plenty of time to get through the final two volumes before the show starts. This volume contains a collection of stories told by weary travelers stranded at a tavern at the end of many worlds, waiting for a “reality storm” to pass. Personally, I enjoy the issues of The Sandman that diverge from the main plot of the series, wind through random characters’ dreams. I think my favorite is the story that takes place in a necropolis, but they’re all good.

The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood by Krys Malcolm Belc

I work with Krys at Split Lip, so I was excited to finally read his memoir about experiencing pregnancy as a nonbinary, transmasculine person. Between family photos and legal documents, Krys juxtaposes his own childhood with that of the children he’s raising with his partner, his own pregnancy and birth experience with his mother’s. It’s a stunningly vulnerable book—it’s like he pulled out his beating heart, plopped it into your hands, and asked you to take a look. I’d grab a copy immediately if I were you.

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

In the 1700s, a legendary highwayman comes out of retirement to help a spoiled aristocrat rob his own father—and unexpected romance ensues. What’s not to love?! If you enjoy adventure, class consciousness, and both literal and euphemistic swordplay, this is the book for you.

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

I adored Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy—and as it turns out, this novel couldn’t be more different. Not necessarily a bad thing! I knew No One is Talking About This was about an accidental social media influencer, so I figured it would be a sort of social media satire/critique—and it is that. In fact, at first I thought it was too much that. But what I didn’t know was the meat of the novel: the protagonist’s sister gives birth to a child with an incurable genetic disease, one that dooms the baby from the start. And what is the role of social media when it comes to something as brutally real as that? An escape? A distraction? A pressure release valve? An alternate reality? Heads up: this book was very difficult to read in the midst of the Supreme Court’s assault on reproductive rights. But it was excellent.