Happy Sunday,
I’ve been a busy little bookworm!
The cruel hand of fate (aka the Toronto Public Library) sent me a full stack of books at once. I had no choice but to hunker down and power through them all, lest I squander my holds.
The TPL is my dominatrix, cracking the whip on my monthly page count.
She giveth, and she taketh away.
She keeps a heel on the neck of my reading goals.
She has me walking around the Beaches like this:
Onto the books
Luckily, I enjoyed every book I read this month!
My mistress is cruel, but she knows me oh so well.
The theme of my April reading was “sex, drugs, and meticulous record keeping,” which are also the markers of a great weekend.
These titles span secret poisonings, public poisonings, secret sex, public sex, addiction, and a shocking amount of bird facts (but not from the book with birds on the cover. That book didn’t really mention birds at all, which was misleading and frankly disappointing)
🧛🏻♀️ Hungerstone, Kat Dunn ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A feminist interpretation of Carmilla, the OG sexy vampire novel.
Finally! Someone has done it. A lesbian vampire novel that delivers!! It only took five tries to find one I liked! I’m overjoyed!!!
⛪️ Fancy Gap, Zak Jones ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A cult-infused, Southern Gothic-inspired novel following three estranged generations in Appalachia
Off the rip, I’m biased. Zak Jones is one of my husband’s pals. This is his debut, and we could not be prouder! This story is dark, batshit, and very vibey (my three favourite words to describe any book). If you liked the first season of True Detective and/or have ever been fascinated by Jonestown, you should pick this one up. Go support a local artist!!! Go read something weird!!!
🤢 Famesick, Lena Dunham ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reflection on illness, fame, and sex from the voice of the Millennial generation…or at least a generation.
Look. I’ve been a proud Lena Dunham apologist for years. I know people find her annoying, but her writing was a formative part of my humour. Reading Famesick has inspired me to rewatch Girls for the third time, and that’s enough to earn it 3 stars!
Now, was this the best memoir I’ve ever read? No. There are some interesting moments about chronic pain, invisible disability, and whatever the heck Adam Driver has going on…Overall, what I've been enjoying more than the actual book is Lena Dunham’s press tour about the book, where she is dropping bars left, right and centre.
📬 The Correspondent, Virginia Evans ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A life told in letters from a kind of bitchy old lady
Every book club in North America has this book on their list, and for good reason! This was so lovely! Sybil is such a memorable character, and who doesn’t love an epistolary novel??? Texting is over! Bring back letters!! All in all, I think The Correspondent is worth the hype, and a rare novel from my roundups that you can recommend at work without everyone looking at you differently. Mom, if you’re reading, this is one you’d like!!
🍎 Flesh, David Szalay ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Snippets of a man’s life over the course of decades.
This is a book I should hate. It breaks literally every rule of writing. Every conversation is banal. Every scene is clunky. Life is happening to this person, and he (and by extension, we) never explores how he feels about anything. It’s a portrait of detachment, and yet I found it hypnotic…
Leah isn’t wrong….but like, in a good way???
Don’t get used to this! This is the one and only time I will ever recommend a collection of slice-of-life moments!!! Many of you know that I’ve long had a personal feud with the movie Boyhood.
Men love that movie.
Men feel seen by that movie.
I think 12 years was a long-ass time to spend on something so boring.
Flesh is what Boyhood could have been if it had literally anything interesting happen in its three-hour run time.... God forbid a story have drama! God forbid we add some stakes to the plot!!
📚 Is This A Cry For Help? Emily Austin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A librarian comes back to work after a mental breakdown, only to confront book-banning crusaders and general debauchery in her workplace.
Mom! This is another one you can read!! Two in one email!!! Holy cow, that never happens!!!
Is This A Cry For Help is a love letter to public libraries. It’s dark, but full of heart and empathy. Emily Austin also wrote We Could Be Rats, which was one of the most memorable novels I read last year. She’s writing a specific kind of quirky, depressed woman fiction that I love. If you’ve ever spent 1:1 time with the Big Sad, you should give her a try! If, somehow, you’re reading my writing and have never been depressed1… how did you get here? What is this doing for you???
Last Thought:
Epilogue
What did you read this month?
Anything I should add to my TBR?
Sorry to attack you, Brian.