Another slowish month for reading. I’m in the middle of two very good books right now, but I knew I wouldn’t finish them even close to the beginning of June, so they’ll be coming atcha in the next recap post. One thing I noted as I wrote my recaps this month is that the content is heavy on things like wistfulness, affection, kindness, and what it means to be human. I don’t know why that is, though perhaps it’s about my own life being in such flux with the cancer diagnosis and all the physical and mental ickiness that goes with it. In any event, while they weren’t all winners this month they were all worth reading for one reason or another. Enjoy!

And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK – Henry Louis Gates Jr. – I began reading this back in February when I was in the rehab facility trying to learn to walk again.  It’s not that it’s dull, far from it.  But it’s dense with information about how black America changed in the last 60 or so years.  There’s no editorializing here; Gates even writes about himself in the third person.  Rather it’s a detailed chronology of black Americans in politics, entertainment, business, sports, and every other public arena from which they’d been systematically excluded in the previous centuries.  Gates is a clear-eyed observer, and an excellent writer.  If you want to know more about the world of black Americans, you can’t do better, in my opinion.

The Paris Bookseller – Kerri Maher – This was a gift from friend and neighbor, Linda.  She knew I’d want something to read when I got home so she gifted me with two lovely books, one of which I reviewed last month (The second Thursday Murder Club book, title escapes me.  Currently waiting for the first of the series to drop at the library.)  This one was, I thought, non-fiction about Sylvia Beach and her Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, and how she and the store helped to reshape fiction between the wars.  But it’s a novel, and a decent one as well, touching on Beach’s relationships with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and most importantly, James Joyce.  Beach ventured everything on getting Ulysses published and into the hands of readers in countries where it had been banned as obscene. Her difficulties with Joyce (he was a difficult man) and her long-term relationship with writer and bookstore owner Adrienne Monnier, are both central to the plot, so if you’re into literature, particularly early 20th century, and queer romance, this is the book for you.

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World – Benjamin Alire Saenz – I read the first Dante and Aristotle book last year, I think it was, and I adored it.  I love this one even more.  Why?  Because Ari is growing up, he’s becoming less isolated and discovering that he actually has friends who love him.  He’s finding that his relationship with his family is deeper and more loving than he suspected.  He’s learning what love really means to an adult, and it’s quite wonderful.  If you read and enjoyed the first book, you need to read the sequel.  Honest.

Hôtel Magnifique – Emily J. Taylor – This sounded better than it read.  It’s decent brain candy, but nothing really new or special.  Read it for fun, don’t look for anything deep.

Less – Andrew Sean Greer – I picked this up because it was the choice for an online book club I joined, and devoured it in two days.  It’s hilarious and sad, smart, kind, and thoughtful.  It’s the story of a man who understands nothing much about himself, but in the process of fleeing from his broken heart, learns a great deal about how loved he is and always has been.  He starts to understand exactly who he is as he turns 50, and it’s a wonderful thing to share with him.

Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel – How did I ever forget that I read this a couple of years ago?  Even as I was reading this time around, I found both familiar and unfamiliar passages, and finally I looked up my review, which was short but positive (July 2019)  What I would say now is simply that it’s a book that never quite goes where you expect it to.  Yes, there’s the usual post-apocalyptic threats of violence, but that pretty much comes with the territory, doesn’t it?  Much of it revolves around relationships, who the characters know, whose lives are entangled with their own and how.  Don’t look for action and terror because what you’ll find instead is sadness and the determination to survive intact as a human being.

See you all next month. Have a great summer.