nancyewhite's 2020

I'm Nancy. I was active on LT for a bunch of years and drifted away.

I took stock and realized I read more and, most importantly, enjoyed reading more when I was engaged with this community of readers.

I'm happy to be back.

Best of 2019 -
Fiction
Elevation - Stephen King
Gwendy's Button Box - Stephen King
An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good - Helene Tursten
My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Conviction - Denise Mina
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood
The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

Nonfiction
On Immunity - Eula Biss
Women & Power - Mary Beard

2020 Reading.

January
1. Salem's Lot - Stephen King
2. Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure - Courtney Milan
3. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
4. Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino
5. A Better Man - Louise Penny
6. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
7. Good Talk by Mira Jacob
8. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

1. Salem's Lot by Stephen King - 3.5 stars
Wordy. Not as scary as it is in my memory. King writes working class really well which I appreciate. A good reminder of the achievements of the feminist and queer political movements - casual homophobia and misogyny is rampant. It did nothing to dissuade me from my belief that his more recent books have a much bigger heart than his earlier books.

Welcome back, Nancy!

Happy New Year! Your best of is an interesting mix of new"literary" fiction and genre. I look forward to following your reading.

2. Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan - 4 Stars
I haven't read romance since I stole my mom's books in middle school. I read this novella because of the current situation with Milan and the Romance Writers of America organization. It's a little piece of fluff about two elderly women who discover their attraction to one another while battling a terrible man.

The politics of beauty-standards, class and patriarchal rule of single women were plot-points. What it lacked in subtlety and historical accuracy was made up for in fun. I was unexpectedly moved by the (fairly tame) sex scene and Milan's commitment to describing the details of older bodies with love and beauty.

I'm really struggling to read anything that is emotionally difficult right now. I've started a million things and put them down. Most currently I read 10 pages of The Nickel Boys and stopped. Reading something overtly political that was not unbearably painful was unexpectedly pleasurable.

Romance really has changed since the days of the stolen books of the 80s. And very much for the better. Honestly, I'm not sure I could read and feel satisfied by a novel-length romance, but I'm definitely more open to the possibiity.

Being on LibraryThing definitely made my reading life more fulfilling as well.

I've never been a romance novel reader, but saw the awful RWA news and thought I'd maybe pick up something by Milan. I've been meaning to read a dedicated romance novel just so I've at least read one, but probably smarter to start with a novella!

You have an interesting mix of favourite reads for 2019 there. I'm looking forward to following along this year!

>7 mabith: Honestly, having read this book, I can't imagine not being Team Courtney. It is so warm, charming and big-hearted.

>8 valkyrdeath: Thank you!

3. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - 3.5 Stars

I like Fleetwood Mac. If 'Fleetwood Mac' was a writing prompt, this is the novel you'd get. Easy, breezy, fine. This sentence made me grin though, "I regret the marriage, but I'll never regret that dress."

Hi Nancy, following. Daisy Jones & The Six does sound fun.

The RWA mess is wild. I'll join you on Team Courtney.

>12 RidgewayGirl: I find that whole story awfully entertaining

>12 RidgewayGirl: and >13 dchaikin: It's bonkers, but it is also a microcosm of the cultural battles being fought on a larger scale where folks don't know how to interrogate their privilege and are terrified of making room for non-white, non-straight people to come aboard. That a lot of the participants are smart, emotionally articulate, talented writers makes it entertaining as well as instructional!

4. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino - 3.5 Stars

Feminist essays by a young writer for the New Yorker. She mostly write cultural criticism that focuses on being a woman in today's narcissistic, self-obsessed, online world. She examines reality television, fraternity/rape culture, exercise and beauty, evangelicism and drugs, the wedding industry and a myriad of other social concerns.

I liked this. Tolentino is obviously whip-smart. I'd say I'm older than the target audience so this also feels anthropological to me but wouldn't to readers in their 20s and 30s. There's definitely value in having access to these insights as a person in her 50s who isn't coming of age in this sphere.

In particular, I was taken with the idea that as our culture has grown to give women more academic, financial and sexual freedom, "self care" has become an exhausting and expensive moral imperative that women feel extraordinary pressure to adhere to.

>14 nancyewhite: I'm endlessly impressed with Courtney Milan and her willingness to use her experience as a lawyer to expose this stuff. And I watched an astonishing video by a blonde author, tearfully explaining that X could not possibly be a racist, because X has always been so nice to her, a white lady. Hopefully, having all this dragged out into the light of day will move things forward.

>14 nancyewhite: yes, exactly. And well put.

>15 nancyewhite: this is interesting to me, especially your perspective and the self care irony.

>16 RidgewayGirl: sounds like a little Jerry Springer Show in that interview... ??

>14 nancyewhite: I never heard the phrase "interrogate their privilege" before. Is it original. It's good.

>19 sallypursell: I don't think it's original. But, I also don't remember where I heard it.... so, maybe.??

5. A Better Man by Louise Penny - 3.5 Stars

I hate to say this, but I'm just not loving this series like I used to. Rather than being told a story and given a puzzle, I felt lectured to for the first two-thirds. The last third I really enjoyed.

Just popping in to skim your recent reading. Was interested to read a few words more about your current discontent with the Penny novels.

>10 nancyewhite: Love the quote, Nancy.

The Great Believers was one of my favorite reads from last year as well.

>22 avaland: I've been thinking about A Better Man and the book before it and what about them I found dissatisfying. Mostly, it's that they aren't telling a story with characters that feel remotely like real people to me anymore. I was hopeful for this one because it appeared to be a return to a standard "solve a murder" plot. Instead, though, they feel like an opportunity for Penny to tell rather than show some sort of moral lesson. Gamache is Wise. Gamache is Humble. Gamache is Weary, Loyal, Loving, Empathetic etc.

The same holds true for the other characters as well.

6. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson - 4.5 Stars

A wonderful little novel about a weird woman who becomes the governess of two weird kids who happen to catch on fire when they get upset. It's witty and surprisingly moving. Love among the traumatized.

7. Good Talk by Mira Jacob - 5 Stars

A graphic memoir about being Indian in America, discussing race with your child and the terror of the age of Trump. Amazingly honest and vulnerable. I absolutely loved this.

8. An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena - 2 Stars

Guests are being murdered in a hotel that is shut off from the world due to an ice storm. Since no one can get in or out, it must be one of them. This one is horribly written. I have no idea why I finished it except that it was quite short. Blech. Don't bother.

>26 nancyewhite: This was one of my favorites from last year as well. I love how she layered her drawings over photos. She also did a good job of using humor, I thought.

>27 nancyewhite: Thanks for the warning.

Definitely adding Good Talk to my read soon list. Always good to find graphic works that aren't trying to cram a whole story or memoir into 100 pages too.

>26 nancyewhite: I've been considering reading Good Talk so good to see your review of it. Sounds like one to get to.

>6 nancyewhite:, >12 RidgewayGirl:, etc. Thanks for the education. I took some time to look it up online and was amazed and amused. Maybe amused is not the right word, because authorial diversity isn't an amusing topic. Put me on team Courtney too.

A flare of my Rheumatoid Arthritis has impacted my ability to concentrate and read. It's been pretty rough, but I'm trying a new drug which has given a bit of relief. I've managed to finish a few more.

9. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - All the Stars

A perfectly written memoir of being a young queer in an emotionally abusive relationship. Machado writes gorgeously. Unfortunately, I don't and therefore cannot describe how creative, evocative, moving, cathartic and true this book is.

10. Empty the Pews by Chrissy Stroop - 4 Stars

An anthology of essays by people who have left fundamental and/or invasive churches. More were better written than many in other books of this type and than I expected. I follow Chrissy on Twitter and she is really smart so I probably shouldn't have been suprised.

11. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout - 5 Stars

I love Olive passionately. Your mileage may vary.

12. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides - 3.5 Stars

I checked the publication date not once but twice as I read this because I was convinced I'd read it before. It felt ... familiar but better than many of it's siblings currently popular.

13. Leaving the Witness by Amber Scorah - 3.5 Stars

The memoir of a woman who went to China to illegally convert people to Jehovah's Witness. Ultimately, being there resulted in the dissolution of her marriage and her faith. I really enjoyed this narrative of growing up JW, living in Shanghai and learning to speak Chinese, coming to understand that her lifelong faith is really a cult and that she will need to leave it even though that means giving up everything and everyone she ever knew.

14. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinbourough - 3 Stars

A propulsive thriller with a twist ending. This one kept moving and the twist, while weird, was also unexpected.

15. All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg - 4 Stars

A character driven story of a wealthy family who suffered at the hands of an abusive man. His wife is cold-hearted but addicted to him and his children hate him. He has a heart attack and the story takes place as they wait for him to die.

Of course, it explores their memories as well as the current state of their lives. Attenberg also does this neat trick of openeing a door here and again into the life of the people the family encounters - a bartender, the ferry driver, the medical examiner.

Finally, it is largely set in New Orleans and the city really is a living presence in the story. It is a city I feel a great deal of love for and it brought me great pleasure to be there while I am trapped in my house in Pittsburgh during quarantine.