Then I celebrated my other possessions, the modular-design furniture and sleek electronica and the mid-1950s Corbusier-inspired dresser stuffed with mementos of past relationships, some pretty racy and scented with nether regions, others doused in the kind of sadness that I should really learn to let go.
Lenny Abramov, Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
27. In Zanesville, Jo Ann Beard
The novel opens with the unnamed narrator and her best fried Felicia nicknamed Flea babysitting the kids of a biker gang couple and one of their charges set the house on fire. What an interesting way to start a book right?
Set in the 1970s, the narrator and her best friend are 14-year-olds, they are called late bloomers, which they really hate and live in small town Zanesville. Both of their Moms work hard and yell a lot. The narrator’s father is a house siding salesman who is going through depression spending his time drinking and bird watching. It describes the minutiae of that awkward adoloscent life through the narrator’s perspective. From joining the marching band then quitting, getting detentions figuring out boys and the surprising sleep over invite from a cheerleader.
Growing up can also mean growing out of things and bonds.
5/5
26. Blue Nights, Joan Didion
- Joan Didion writes about the Death of her only daughter Quintana Roo. Didion and her husband adopted a baby girl, whom they named Quintana Roo, after a place they saw in a Map while in Mexico. Reading this memoir, you’ll realize how really painful it is for a parent to outlive her child. She also mentioned close friends of theirs, who are already deceased, including, Natasha Richardson, Liam Neeson’s late wife, who died due to a ski accident. It wasn’t supposed to happen to her, Joan wrote. You see, months before the death of Quintana, Didion’s husband also died. It was a double tragedy for her. This memoir is a beautifully written book of someone who has to live with the grief of losing a loved one.
5/5
25. Moons of Jupiter:stories, Alice Munro
- A series of stories about women usually in their forties and having their own share of domestic troubles. One tells the story of the old maids from both her father’s and mother’s side of the family. The former, Aunts living a hermit like existence in a farm, the Latter, cousins who visit them every summer coming from different cities, all unmarried.
Another story, about a high school music teacher, Frances having an affair with her co teacher, Ted. After a tragic accident that killed Ted’s son. He soon left his wife and married Frances and years later they have their own kids. Frances ponders about the accident. If it didn’t happen, Ted would not leave his wife and they won’t be married at all.
All stories are set in Munro’s home country, Canada.
3/5
24. Just kids, Patti Smith
-The book delves on Patti Smith’s Relationship to artist, Robert Mapplethorpe. Unique and unconventional bond is what they have. Patti at twenty, moved to NYC with little money. Wandering the city homeless and then she met Robert, an aspiring artist. The first moments of their relationship was spent crashing into their friends’ apartment. They were both young and both have this incredible thirst to create art, and for Patti write poems as well.
All throughout the book they have met interesting people from the art world and music world, poets, writers, actors. They eventually got to live in the famous Chelsea Hotel. Patti soon veered towards a musical path while Robert, now able to socialize with Factory People(Andy Warhol’s Circle) slowly climbed upward into the art world, which he had been struggling to do so from the start. Along with his growing sexual confusion, and just fate leading them to different paths. They parted yet both remain dear friends with each other up until Robert’s Death.
5/5
23. Bossypants, Tina Fey
- Very funny and feel good book to read! Advices ranging from how to be a good boss, to motherhood. We learn of Ms. Fey’s humble beginnings. From being a teenager with older gay friends. Her middle class upbringing, to impersonating Sarah Palin and all of it culminates on how she came to be who she is now. I especially enjoyed the part where she responds to hate comments from various entertainment sites like TMZ and Perez Hilton. I wonder how those People hiding in Usernames such as Centaurius, will feel when they read her response?
4/5
