True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle J. Lindemann

4/5 stars

What's it about? In this sociological analysis of reality TV, Lindemann examines how the genre represents us as a culture and the values by which we live. An incisive and convincing reflection.

How’d I find it? Multnomah County Library always has the goods. I love “a wormhole day,” in which I relive childhood Saturdays spent at the San Antonio Public Library following the meandering of my interests.

Who will enjoy this book? If you enjoy the writing of Emily Nussbaum, this is a solid readalike.

What stood out? Lindemann dissects the constructs embedded into the likes of The Bachelor and The Real Housewives franchise, teasing out what this media reveals about our thoughts on race, gender, class, and how we relate to each other and ourselves. I rediscovered so many shows to revisit. How could I have ever forgotten Breaking Amish?

Which line made me feel something? From the chapter on “deviance,” which discusses how people on reality TV who break social norms are depicted to viewers: “Like townspeople in an old horror film chasing after a monster with their torches, we are bonded in our collective rejection of the ones who do not belong.”

Mood Swings by Frankie Barnet

4/5 stars

What's it about? Animals finally take their revenge against people, until billionaire Roderick Maeve develops a sound that kills every non-human beast on the planet. Jenlena and Daphne are roommates navigating a post-fauna reality wracked by social and environmental upheaval, influenced by the Moon Bethlehems, a cult rallying against the natural degradation caused by humans. Jenlena starts a fling with Maeve just as he’s developing a time machine to possibly save the world. A smart, funny, and relevant first novel.

How’d I find it? This wild cover caught my eye as I strolled the shelves at Powell’s on a Sunday, coffee in hand.

Who will enjoy this book? Mood Swings echoes many of the themes and plot devices of Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis, another talented Canadian writer.

What stood out? The odd thoughts during sex, the ennui, the self-conscious paranoia—Barnet gets young womanhood and knows how to write it without judging her characters. She also evokes a future all too probable; I can absolutely envision a future in which houseplants replace the lost experience of pets. Reading this book in 2025 hits a special nerve, so I recommend picking up Mood Swings as soon as you can.

Which line made me feel something? How I loved the writing in this novel: “It was dark and Jenlena made out only shapes: the shape of branches, the shape of underbrush, the shape of wanting to do anything he asked her to, the shape of being afraid to do it.”

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

4/5 stars

What's it about? Sometimes actress and full-time sad girl Maria Wyeth is wise to the emptiness underlying the dazzle of Hollywood in the 1960s and can’t unsee it, especially after having a clandestine abortion. The husbands and lovers, the ambling days by the pool, the beloved daughter too complicated to mother, the vapid gatherings—Maria can’t summon the performance to care.

How’d I find it? My husband said I should read this and lent me his copy. He was right.

Who will enjoy this book? Readers of Bret Easton Ellis will recognize the vibes, and those who love Eve Babitz will recognize the Los Angeles that Didion captures so vividly.

What stood out? The ennui of this book absorbs the reader, so much so that one might crave a chaise lounge nearby. Maria moves through her life tearful and without a filter, indulging fixations: her upbringing in an abandoned mining town, the loss of her mother, the L.A freeways. Didion nails setting so completely that it’s easy to forgive the confusing shifts in time. Enjoy the passages describing Maria’s long drives; they’re a particular treat in this merciless novel.

Which line made me feel something? Maria tries to connect to her past, or anything really, during an impromptu trip to Vegas: “By the end of a week she was thinking constantly about where her body stopped and the air began, about the exact point in space and time that was the difference between Maria and other. She had the sense that if she could get that in her mind and hold it for even one micro-second she would have what she had come to get. As if she had fever, her skin burned and crackled with a pinpoint sensitivity. She could feel smoke against her skin.”

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

4/5 stars

What's it about? As bare as they come, this slice of America serves up hard-drinking, hard-loving folks and their myriad violences. Carver lays out these raw tales and doesn’t flinch.

How’d I find it? Some library sale. I may not recall the when or the where, but I remember celebrating the cover of this edition and the smell of its pages, perfectly yellowed and of the pulp variety.

Who will enjoy this book? For fans of the film Birdman and Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, another all-time great story collection.

What stood out? Carver rips out your literary heart and pours himself another bourbon. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a book for writers, a revelation of short fiction. The effortless craft of this book amazed me. Readers, beware: there are no tricks here. If you don’t love the first twenty pages, you’re not going to love the rest of them.

Which line made me feel something? I couldn’t get enough of how the titles of these stories carry so much weight, often some abrupt devastation, exemplified in this parting shot from “The Calm:” “But today I was thinking of that place, of Crescent City, and of how I was trying out a new life there with my wife, and how, in the barber’s chair that morning, I had made up my mind to go. I was thinking today about the calm I felt when I closed my eyes and let the barber’s fingers move through my hair, the sweetness of those fingers, the hair already starting to grow.”

Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard

4/5 stars

What's it about? In the aftermath of a falling out with Pope Julius II, Michelangelo accepts a commission from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II to design a bridge for Constantinople (today’s Istanbul). A dreamy morsel of a novel about desire, inspiration, and the work of creating.

How’d I find it? I was so mesmerized by the English translation’s cover that I bought a copy of the original French during a trip to Paris.

Who will enjoy this book? The tone will be familiar to fans of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and the “Letters from Zedelghem” section in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.

What stood out? Énard makes Constantinople a character in its own right; time and place are beautifully rendered here, an exquisite strength. While the language drips with sentiment and poignancy, the effect happens to work perfectly for its subject matter — a fictional interlude in the life of a Renaissance genius. I also enjoyed the kernels of authenticity sprinkled throughout the tale, like Michelangelo’s lists of ephemera and translated correspondence from the period.

Which line made me feel something? The title comes from Rudyard Kipling and is wondrously evoked in the novel (translation attempt my own): “We conquer them in telling of battles, kings, elephants, and marvelous beings; in telling them of the happiness beyond death, the living light that presided over their births, the angels surrounding them, the demons who menace, and love, love, that promise of forgetting and fulfillment.”

Out There by Kate Folk

4/5 stars

What's it about? Kate Folk’s debut story collection wanders the weird, the creepy, and the obsessive. Populated by characters who throw up their hands and give in, Out There holds a mirror up to the inanity of the 21st century.

How’d I find it? This Electric Lit article. “Dark playfulness:” book-buying catnip?

Who will enjoy this book? Those who loved Karen Russell’s Orange World and Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties will want to pick up Out There.

What stood out? The creativity in these stories makes for a dynamic read. There’s a house that “needs moisture.” A violent Thanksgiving tradition. A clinic for people with Total Nocturnal Bone Loss. Folk writes them all with humor and a touch of Cronenberg grossness. The first and last stories (“Out There” and “Big Sur”), about handsome AI that seduce women in order to steal their identities, are the book’s finest achievements.

Which line made me feel something? This description of dating at 30 really hit home: “Sam slept in a sleeping bag wadded at the center of a king-sized bed. There was a closet in the hallway where he kept his camping gear, and from which he retrieved a spare pillow for me to sleep on, still in its wrapping, as if he’d bought it for this purpose. At the foot of the bed was a Rubbermaid container full of folded T-shirts and socks. On its lid sat an electric kettle he used to boil water for coffee, so he wouldn’t have to go upstairs.” Oh, I have met Sam.

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

4/5 stars

What's it about? Capote dazzles and delights in his short fiction, ordered here chronologically, that captures the angst of youth in the rural South, the loneliness of mid-century American cities, and the intricacies of nuanced sexuality.

How’d I find it? A dear friend of mine knew Truman Capote and dismissed him as a “fascinating drunk.” The comment inspired me to read him all the more, having adored In Cold Blood.

Who will enjoy this book? If you appreciate F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ll love these smart tales. Let’s be real: this book appeals to all short story aficionados.

What stood out? I started reading this book at the end of a New York trip, and it suited the occasion perfectly. Take this collection with you in the bustle of a city. Read it in a crowded bar. These stories of daily failure, from a Haitian prostitute settling down, to a child examining his unusual relationship with an adult cousin, prove Capote’s gift in crafting vivid worlds. “Jug of Silver” and “The Headless Hawk” were standouts.

Which line made me feel something? This horrific little detail from “The Headless Hawk:” “Dusk, and nightfall, and the fibers of sounds called silence wove a shiny blue mask. Waking, he peered through eyeslits, heard the frenzied pulsebeat of his watch, the scratch of a key in a lock. Somewhere in this hour of dusk a murderer separates himself from shadow and with a rope follows the flash of silk legs up doomed stairs.“

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

4/5 stars

What's it about? Set in 1962, this sweet book follows a day in the life of George, a British expat and professor living in California. George mourns the recent loss of his partner Jim and grapples with the realities of aging.

How’d I find it? I’ve known about this book for many years, but finally picked up a copy when I saw this stunning pocket edition at Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? A Single Man recalls the Joycean minutiae of Ulysses and the themes about life found in Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, one of the greatest character studies I’ve ever read. For those who crave West Coast fiction, this is very much a California book.

What stood out? As we follow George to work, the hospital, the gym, and a night of boozing and flirtation, Isherwood slides along the spectrum of existence, from the intimacy of George’s thoughts to the corporeality of the body to the movements of the soul. The result is a powerful statement on the fragility of life and its miracle, a marvel on a small scale. George can be nasty and prone to rants that are infamous among his friends, but he’s a fascinating mind to inhabit for a short while. Look out for some devastating writing about love in these pages.

Which line made me feel something? George drinks in the reflection of his naked body: “The neck is loose and scraggy under all circumstances, in all lights, and would look gruesome even if he were half-blind. He has abandoned the neck altogether, like an untenable military position.”

I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum

4/5 stars

What's it about? Emily Nussbaum sets out her thesis about the unique importance of television via essays on The Leftovers, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Lost, and a myriad of other shows. A page-turning contemplation on television as art and how it converses with and represents culture.

How’d I find it? As a bookseller, I combed through every section to better know our stock, and you can bet Solid State Books has a solidly curated film and television section. I Like to Watch is a book I’ve eyed for years before finally tucking in.

Who will enjoy this book? TV watchers, this book is for you. You’ll be inspired to watch shows you’ve overlooked (Ryan Murphy’s œuvre) and second guess those you love (True Detective has “so much gravitas it could run for president”).

What stood out? Nussbaum folds in such a variety of perspectives on so many TV shows that there’s truly something for everybody. I respect how seriously she takes her chosen subject. Despite the richness of ideas, the essays flow together as if they were written for this book, a testament to their editing and arranging. While published in 2019, some aspects of I Like to Watch already feel dated for a reader in 2024. The mood around the 2016 elections, the overall ickiness of #MeToo revelations—dead horses that have been beat plenty.

Which line made me feel something? From a fabulous essay on Jane the Virgin: “…the soap, the rom-com, the romance novel, and, more recently, reality television. These are the genres that get dismissed as fluff, which is how our culture regards art that makes women’s lives look like fun.”

The Singularity by Dino Buzzati

4/5 stars

What's it about? In this slim tale of horror, Ermanno Ismani accepts a government appointment to a top-secret research facility, so secret that no one seems to know where it is and what the scientists actually do there. When Ermanno and his wife Elisa arrive and realize the truth, it may be too late to save themselves.

How’d I find it? After seeing this incredible cover (drawn by the author himself), I signed up for the NYRB Classics Book Club. Hurray for book mail!

Who will enjoy this book? If you agreed with my review of The Invention of Morel or loved that “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror, you’ll enjoy The Singularity.

What stood out? This great little story feels modern, speaking to the uncertainties around artificial intelligence with which we’re currently grappling. The reveal of the research project delivers a shock, and Buzzati mounts the horror and tragedy with each page. I found that the narrative style lacked cohesion, but the plotting of this tale means I won’t forget it soon.

Which line made me feel something? From a long monologue by the mad, sad Endriade, lead scientist of military zone 36: “No spending limit, understand? Billions, tossed there in front of me like pebbles, as much as I liked. The old dream. But now…Now I was completely uninterested. That’s how we men are, wretched flesh.”

P. S. My curating skills must be improving, because I’m finding so many 4-star books this summer.