Bookshelf: Reading While Reopening A Hotel
I did a LOT of reading while getting ready to reopen the Inn. It was a much needed escapist distraction amidst the ten thousand tasks. Here’s some of ‘em:
Made for Love by Alissa Nutting is a bizarre, disgusting, and funny thought experiment about technology, lust, loneliness and… dolphins? I love her short stories, and in some ways, parts of this novel actually felt like a few short stories smashed together. Turns out it also makes a great TV show too which was the best surprise to follow this up with!
Speaking of TV, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab totally read like TV. The French Revolution! Modern celebrity secrets! A deal with the devil! Really I’m just a sucker for all stories time-travel-ish so this hit an easy spot for me.
I read A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet in a day, maybe a day and half. It is SO readable, the language so fantastically precise. The disgust the adolescents feel for their parents for what they’ve done to the world at large through their greed and neglect, what they’ve done to their children because of it is just palpable. It lingered with me for weeks. I say this about a lot of books, but I highly recommend reading it without reading a summary first— it’s a real ride.
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam was frustrating, and I think that was the point. He did such a good job of capturing the minutiae of family vacations, the selfishness and distrusting nature of most people, of what it’s like to be in a crisis as it unfolds. It spooked me.
The Houseguest & Other Stories by Amparo Davila is straight up spooky too. The stories have a very Shirley Jackson vibe— mid-century domestic, psychological horror. (Jackson and Davila wrote around the same time as well— Davila passed away at 92 years old last April.) “Fragment of a Diary” is now maybe one of my favorite short horror stories I’ve ever read. Also, THIS COVER AMIRIGHT?! So good.
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson is such poetry, such a real portrait of young love and the pain of feeling like you don’t belong where you are or perhaps anywhere at all. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more work by him.
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada was moody and odd and I was never quite sure if I could trust the narrator (which for the record is something I love in a book). It’s a slim read, and for how little time I spent with it, it’s lingered with me.
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams was clearly (unsurprisingly!) written by someone who is very taken with obscure words which, depending on your mood, can feel charming or tedious. The introduction made me fear the whole thing was going to be a little too twee for me, but the characters quickly become so nuanced and real and the novel comes together delightfully as much more than its premise.
Steven went to college with Kate Russo and they’re buddies so I was predisposed to root for her but boy did she deliver! Super Host is not a short book (360 pgs), but I read the whole dang thing in just over a day. So freaking readable. I knew I would be a sucker for any portrayal of the strangely intimate ins and outs of hospitality, but I had no idea I’d like reading about painting so much. (Btw can you believe she’s also a brilliant painter??)
I enjoyed Weather by Jenny Offill just as much as I enjoyed Dept. of Speculation. I am such a fan of her sparse but pointed writing, of how she can hold your attention while meandering through what feels like the muck of a very real life. I really wonder what her writing process is like.
Man I wish I could have read Circe by Madeline Miller when I was thirteen and obsessed with Greek gods! Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy it as an adult, I absolutely did. Gods, spells, murder, sex, adventure! It felt like the classiest beach read ever.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee was epic and I so enjoyed settling into this family’s tale over a few generations. Big books like this are called “sweeping” a lot, but it really was in a great way. I learned so much about the Korean experience post WWII and in Japan that I embarrassingly knew so little about. I was sad when it was over and found myself wondering where the rest of the family wound up today, so real did they all feel to me by the end.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead was another epic—family! lady pilots! bootleggers! war! movie stars!—and I also enjoyed settling into the long haul of this one. There were times when I wasn’t sure how it could possibly end in a way that would feel satisfying without too neat, but I think she nailed it. I hope someone turns this into a movie or a mini series!
I dipped in and out of Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, its non-traditional narrative feeling alternately inviting or alienating to me depending entirely on my mood. She’s got a real eye for people and their personal obsessions, and gosh did the whole thing make me miss travel while simultaneously not being too sentimental about it. I definitely want to read more of her work.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro was a fast and interesting read. Told from the point of view of a robot, you have to piece together for yourself alongside her what’s going on in the world around her which can be confusing, suspenseful, tender, and sad. Never Let Me Go is one of my favorite books ever, so anything else he writes will unfairly suffer by comparison for me, but I absolutely enjoyed this one.
OMG OMG OMG OMG No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood is hilarious and COMPLETELY F*CKING DEVASTATING. Goddamn she is such an astute observer of contemporary life, especially all the ridiculousness that is the Internet. I laughed so hard I cried multiple times, and then I just cried so hard so many times and honestly I’m crying right now just remembering it. I think I underlined something on every single page. It is SO. GOOD. I adored Priestdaddy and this book is very different but I adore it just as much, if not more. Read it! Read it now!
Tove Ditlevsens’ Copenhagen Trilogy was a DELIGHT despite being rather dark. I was so taken with her frankness, with her ability to remember and convey feelings from childhood and young adulthood with such precision. She was clearly a one-of-a-kind person and yet there was plenty that felt relatable. I reeeeally want to read her fiction now. Also, these covers are PERFECTION, aren’t they? And each book is so satisfyingly slim. I wanted to carry them everywhere with me when I was reading them.