My June in reading

My June reading was all over the place in terms of genre—but really, there’s no place I’d rather be than all over the place. Variety is the spice of life, or whatever.

The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes megafan over here, so I was pleased to see this one pop up on the Phoebe Reads a Mystery podcast. Unfortunately, it’s also the last book on the podcast, at least for now. What am I going to do without Phoebe reading me a chapter each day?! In all seriousness, she deserves a break. The Valley of Fear is an excellent entry in the Holmes canon—we get everything from archnemesis James Moriarty to secret criminal societies in working-class America. Definitely check it out.

I’m Not Hungry But I Could Eat by Christopher Gonzalez

I’m so glad I finally got around to this short story collection, which is equal parts hilarious and heart-rending. As the intro makes clear, every protagonist in the collection “is a bisexual Puerto Rican cub with the exception of one—in that story, the narrator is gay.” These queer narrators pine and mourn and love and hunger—their needs are loud on the page, impossible to ignore. Not that you’d want to! I devoured this book—pun intended.

Meaty by Samantha Irby

You simply cannot go wrong with Samantha Irby. She will make you laugh, no matter what. Her essays make her life seem like a mess—sometimes tragically so, other times just goofy. But her enormous comedic talent is abundantly clear; it’s interesting to read this early collection knowing how successful she’s become since then, how that talent pulled her through. It’s also like taking a time machine to 2013 Chicago, which was a trip for me personally.

All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad

I read this novel around the second anniversary of my own mother’s death, which may be why it affected me so profoundly. But even if I’d read it some other time, I suspect I would have been bowled over. All My Mother’s Lovers tells the story of Maggie, a lesbian woman in a new romantic relationship whose mother dies at the very beginning of the book. She travels home to California and finds her family in shambles—her normally put-together father less than useless and her little brother angry and upset. But instead of sitting shiva, she goes on a road trip when she finds several letters from her mother addressed to men she’s never heard of. Maggie gets to know her mother better—too late, of course. And she gets to know herself better, too. Sounds sappy, but it is absolutely not that. In fact, it’s often quite funny. Go get yourself a copy immediately—I can’t recommend it enough.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (narrated by Marin Ireland)

My favorite podcasts all took early summer breaks, so I decided to listen to an audiobook. And boy oh boy, did I choose an unnerving one! Leave the World Behind is about a white, upper-middle-class family who rents a rural summer home upstate, only to have the Black also upper-middle-class owners of that home show up on their doorstep after some kind of blackout—or worse—happened in New York City. Cell, internet, and TV service? All gone. Racial tensions. Potential end of the world tensions. I was basically curled up in an anxious little ball by the end. If you want something suspenseful, look no further.

Little Brother: A Memoir by Sallie Bingham

Recently I joined the Young Professionals Board of Sarabande Books (I should write a whole blog post about that), and one of the membership perks is that we receive copies of each book the press publishes. Given that I’m still new to Kentucky, I was excited to read this memoir by Sallie Bingham, of the Louisville Binghams—newspaper scions, now quite reclusive for the most part. The book is about—you guessed it—her little brother Jonathan, who died in a tragic electrocution accident when he was only 22. Based on letters, diary entries, memories, Bingham tells not only her brother’s story, but the story of a wealthy family in a rapidly changing world. I appreciated learning more about Louisville’s history as well as Bingham’s personal reflections.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (narrated by Carolyn McCormick)

I’d wanted to read Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy for years, so I decided to give the audiobook a try while I was deep cleaning my house. I wasn’t a huge fan of the audiobook narrator—but I think it speaks well of the story itself that I listened to the whole thing anyway. The novel takes place in Area X, the site of an environmental catastrophe (?), where the mysterious Southern Reach organization has been sending expeditions for years. Some of those expeditions make it through fine. Others end in mass death. On this twelfth expedition, the narrator—a surly biologist—becomes fascinated with what she discovers in Area X, despite the many secrets and shocks that bring chaos to the expedition. It’s sci-fi, but spooky and psychedelic. I liked it.