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.

Long Island by Colm Tóibín

4/5 stars

What's it about? In the unexpected sequel to Brooklyn, we find Eilis Lacey twenty years later, living on Long Island with Tony and their two children, surrounded by the Fiorello family as neighbors. Tony has an affair with a married woman that results in a pregnancy, and when Eilis realizes she may be expected to accept this new child, she returns to Ireland for her mother’s 80th birthday and to decide her future.

How’d I find it? I recently listened to an interview with Colm Tóibín about the release of Long Island on The New York Times Book Review podcast and was sold, as I adored both the film adaptation of Brooklyn, with Saoirse Ronan’s outstanding performance as Eilis, and the original novel.

Who will enjoy this book? Readers of Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett will like Long Island. You don’t have to read Brooklyn first, but you really should.

What stood out? Colm Tóibín writes Eilis beautifully, this character who others find inscrutable but whose mind we get to pick through over the course of 300 pages. The complex interiority of her character is the novel’s best feature, as we don’t get far into the actual events of the story. Without spoiling too much, Tóibín leaves the reader wanting, and the place in the action where he chooses to end the book is abrupt and unsatisfying, almost as if he’d written the other half but wants to string this out into a trilogy. Either way, the writing is sharp, and I would revel in another installment.

Which line made me feel something? “Tonight would be the first time she would ever sleep in a house alone, when there would be no one in the bed with her or in the next room. In all her years with Tony, it was something she had often dreamed about, especially at the beginning of their marriage—slipping away, getting a train or even driving to some town and finding an anonymous hotel to spend two nights away from everyone.”

Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

4/5 stars

What's it about? Thirteen-year-old Mary and her little brother Peter are the only survivors of a plane crash in the Australian Outback. Before the elements can overtake the unseasoned American children, they meet an Aboriginal boy completing a rite of passage. A smart novel that challenges prejudice and notions of civilization.

How’d I find it? I will read anything put out by New York Review Books, and I found this title at the ever reliable Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who appreciated the classic Picnic at Hanging Rock or its film adaptation will like Walkabout. A close readalike is The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, as Walkabout also happens to be an all-ages book.

What stood out? Rich descriptions of nature round out the simple story and create the feel of a journey as our characters seek water, shelter, and food. The book’s brevity—125 pages—serves it well, as Walkabout can be gobbled up in one sitting to allow the reader days (or weeks) to digest its heavier themes of intolerance and miscommunication. Culture and experience distance Mary from the stranger they meet; his nudity and dark skin offend her, and the boy interprets her horror as a bad omen.

Which line made me feel something? I won’t soon forget this terrifying forest: “But around them, choking them to death, coiled the dodders - the predatory vines, sucking the nutriment out of their roots, gripping the trees with tentacles like tightening tourniquets. And intertwined with the dodders were the jikkas: headless, tail-less, rootless, vegetable snakes; growing on and on, from either end, wrapping their vampire arms around anything they touched.”

Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limón

4/5 stars

What's it about? U. S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón embraces the beautiful and ugly of our world in this collection about wildness and humanness. Poems of water, mouths, and wending one’s way.

How’d I find it? I read The Carrying in 2020, and it blew my socks off; I extol and weep over “Instructions on Not Giving Up” at least once a month. Sharks in the Rivers has been high on the list ever since. This copy came from the fabulous poetry section at Multnomah County Central Library.

Who will enjoy this book? Readers of Natasha Trethewey, Ross Gay, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil should like this one.

What stood out? Limón knows her voice, and the book has a cohesive quality that allows the through lines of the work to sing at just the right volume. I admire collections that manage to link all the poems without feeling repetitive or monotone. Limón excels at devastating turns in her shorter pieces, and “Crush” is a prime example.

Which line made me feel something? From “Fifteen Balls of Feathers:” “He was reading backward on the couchette / while the world went by and I was / counting the faces of sunflowers. 1,753,285 yellow fools / thinking they’re going to go on forever.”

Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn

4/5 stars

What's it about? Graphic novelist Coral discovers her brother Jay dead by suicide and hides his passing from loved ones as she reconciles with the loss. In her first novel, Blackburn ably finds humor in the grief.

How’d I find it? I heard about this book on the Fully Booked podcast and had to read it after listening to the interview. Thanks to Multnomah County Library for the copy.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who savored The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty or Orange World by Karen Russell will appreciate the craft, wit, and humanity of Blackburn’s achievement.

What stood out? Dead in Long Beach, California is a collage of Coral’s mourning, excerpts from her science fiction series and fan fiction, and the reflections of an omniscient “we” who unpack key moments of Coral’s life and relationship with her brother. Both siblings remain inaccessible as characters, which makes Coral’s choices all the more horrid. But it works for Jay, a canvas for the book’s real focus: how major loss ripples and rocks through lives.

Also, this cover. Bananas. What on earth was the marketing strategy?

Which line made me feel something? A nugget of pure gold: “We have measured the hormones, the chemicals of fright and disbelief, the boil of the blood when a person encounters the dead. As close to one being as all of humanity truly is and pretends to be in their poems and scriptures, there is something different when the dead is familiar, when the corpse is expected to be articulated with a remembered smell, sound, and texture.”

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

4/5 stars

What's it about? Such a cunning little tale that it would be criminal to reveal much. Suffice it to say that a fugitive exiles himself to an island where all is not as it seems. Marvelously executed and funny to boot.

How’d I find it? Thank you, Powell’s! Your generous supply of the outstanding NYRB imprint never disappoints.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Ted Chiang, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, or the film Infinity Pool will revel in this novella.

What stood out? Bizarre and tragic, romantic and creepy, The Invention of Morel builds via fantastic turns that gratify the playful mind. Bioy writes a solid tease and knows when to leave the details murky. I felt that the epistolary format didn’t serve the plot, but this is a small gripe.

Which line made me feel something? Hilarious: “We are suspicious of a stranger who tells us his life story, who tells us spontaneously that he has been captured, sentenced to life imprisonment, and that we are his reason for living. We are afraid that he is merely tricking us into buying a fountain pen or a bottle with a miniature sailing vessel inside.”

CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders

4/5 stars

What's it about? George Saunders mines the human condition in a witty collection with sprinklings of the dark consumerism and theme park background of Westworld. A masterfully executed first book.

How’d I find it? A friend who loves George Saunders gave my spouse this copy. I got to it first.

Who will enjoy this book? What are you waiting for? Saunders is an American treasure that always deserves a read. But, in the interest of following my self-imposed formula, fans of Nana Adjei-Brenyah, who studied under Saunders, will find inspirations for both Friday Black and Chain-Gang All-Stars in CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Watchers of Black Mirror and Neil Gaiman should enjoy the book’s themes and humor.

What stood out? The writing is impeccable: irreverent, funny, and joyfully spot-on. You’ll be laughing out loud and thinking to yourself, “Man, he nailed it.” Saunders intuitively understands when to tickle the brain or strum a heartstring; the turns surprise and delight. The title story and the novella “Bounty” are particular standouts.

Which line made me feel something? The last paragraph of the story “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline” is perfection, but it would be unfair to spoil it. Here’s an excellent tidbit from “Bounty:” “Discipline and other forms of negativity are shunned. Bedtimes don’t exist. Face wiping is discouraged. At night the children charge around nude and screaming until they drop in their tracks, ostensibly feeling good about themselves. ‘We ran the last true farm,’ one of the kids screams at me. ‘Until the government put us out,’ the wife says softly. She’s pretty the way a simple white house in a field is pretty. ‘Now we’re on the fucking lam,’ says a toddler. Both parents smile fondly.”

In Deep by Maxine Kumin

4/5 stars

What's it about? Poet Maxine Kumin talks craft and country living in this volume of essays about managing a farm in New Hampshire while maintaining a writing life. A warm hearth of a book.

How’d I find it? I picked this up at Normals Books & Records in Baltimore, which has the kind of selection that makes me say, “Ooh!” and pluck a book off the shelf that I never even knew existed.

Who will enjoy this book? In Deep is for horse girls young and old, as well as for Mary Oliver and Henry David Thoreau acolytes.

What stood out? In Deep owes much to Kumin’s admiration of Thoreau, whose influence can be seen in essays dedicated to taxonomic descriptions of mushrooms and species of cattle as well as in “The Unhandselled Globe,” which centers on Thoreau himself. Kumin rejects the Freudian links to women who love horses and gendered assumptions about her mares; she and the animals she loves are the focus here, and glimpses of her human family are brief. She writes beautifully about the day-to-day labors of keeping a farm running, from building fences to keeping everyone fed.

Which line made me feel something? From the closing essay, “A Sense of Place,” an outstanding analysis of the stamp of home on Kumin’s poetry: “In a poem one can use the sense of place as an anchor for larger concerns, as a link between narrow details and global realities. Location is where we start from. Landscape provides our first geography, the turn of the seasons are archetypes for our own mortality.”