You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince

 Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023--San Antonio

You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky is a gay romance that was on a list of best LGBTQ+ novels of 2023.  The main character is the son of two rich parents.  He is considered to be a lost F*ck-Up who regularly makes headlines in tabloids in a negative way.  He also suffers from GAD (generalized anxiety disorder--a mental disease diagnosis) which is likely part of the reason that so many things go wrong in his public life.  And he runs with the wrong crowd--one that loves to be the center of attention by being seen with him and associated with him in other ways.  Unfortunately, so much of the beginning of the novel is written to make a point of how bad his behavior and his reputation is before any mention of the cause is encountered; I almost quit reading the book because I wasn't enjoying reading about such a spoiled, bad brat.  After a few days of having been sent to his grandparents rural community for the month of December to avoid another scandal in the headlines, things begin to change.  Set during the Christmas season, this is a coming-of-age (at the late age of 21) fairy tale of love and redemption.  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5--2 for the first half and 4 for the second half.  It's not great writing, but anyone who can make it through the 2-star part of the story will begin loving it during the 4-star part.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023--San Antonio

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese is a New York Times Top 10 book of 2023 which was also recommended by NPR, Oprah, and other sources.  It's a saga covering three generations of a Christian family in Kerala, the southwestern state of India that is known for waterways and palm trees and for regularly electing communist governments in modern times.  The book is set in the scope of the early to the late 1900s.  There are many characters, but they all tie together in some way and often leave the story and return later.  Its a story of a mysterious disease that causes drownings over many generations of a family, of corruption, of arranged marriages, of the caste system, of the plight of lepers, and of other factors of life in Kerala.  As a person who has visited Kerala 3 times and spent months there as a volunteer in a school, I could relate to so much of what was happening in the book.  But it is a fascinating story that keeps re-hooking the reader to continue even though it is almost 800 pages long and at times seems as if it has wandered too far off track creating concern that all will not be tied together at the end.  The reader who continues will be rewarded.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5. 

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023--San Antonio

Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry was long listed for the Booker Prize and named a top book of 2023 by many reviewers.  It is beautifully written.  The format is like a stream of consciousness going through the mind of one man which, with so many details, slowed down my reading speed but allowed me to appreciate the beauty of the writing.  It is the story of a man and his family, all of whom had had sad lives.  He is retired and is the only one still alive. He and his wife grew up without parents present.  There are stories of abuse and neglect.  When they meet, he can't believe such a beauty would be interested in him, but their common backgrounds attract each to the other.  He has become an criminal inspector for the Irish police, and she is working in a cafe.  They have married and have had 2 children.  Slowly, the flowing thoughts going through his mind reveal the secrets of what has happened over the years. Central to the story are two priests, one who has abused young girls for years and one who has abused young boys.  The retired inspector is living in a small apartment attached to a small new castle (from the early 1900s).  It is in a remote seaside area of Ireland.  He has maintained a quiet, private existence in the 9 months since he retired.  But he is contacted by two young policemen whose boss (who was a partner on the force with the retiree decades ago and who has remained friends with him) has recommended they visit him to get information about one of the priests.  Decades ago, the retiree and his partner had investigated the priest, found lots of photos of nude young boys, and had tried to charge the priest with crimes.  However, the higher authorities, all good Catholic Irishmen, had given the evidence to the Cardinal and the priest was allowed to continue his misdeeds.  With the church losing lots of its influence in current times, they were trying to find witnesses who would be willing to testify against the priest.  But there is also a complication due to the fact that the other priest, the one who had molested young girls, had been murdered years ago with no clear proof of who had done it.  The two priests had been close friends, so digging into the case against one led to digging into the other, since there is a chance in modern times that DNA could be found on items of clothing that had been retained in storage.  But the book is mostly a slow reveal of the lives of the retiree, his wife who died just before his retirement, and his two children who both died as young adults.  It's the story of how it is hard to escape the past and its influence on the rest of one's life.  And its the story of a man aging who seems to be having memory lapses and maybe hallucinations.  It's a very good book.  I gave it 5 stars out of 5.

Old Babes in the Woods by Margaret Atwood

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023--San Antonio

Old Babes in the Woods by Margaret Atwood is a collection of short stores which was named a Top Book of the year by the BBC.  Some of the stories are very creative.  Some are hilarious.  Some are interesting, but maybe a bit too mundane (or maybe just a bit too long to maintain interest).  My reactions went up and down over and over.  When I really liked a story, I couldn't wait to get to the next one.  When a story seemed to drag on too long, I would count the pages to see how many more until the end of that one.  Overall, I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023--San Antonio

I finished reading Blackouts by Justin Torres last night.  When I was about 25% of the way through the book, it was named the winner of the National Book Award for this year.  It's not a traditional novel; many reviewers have called it an experimental novel.  It is built around a meeting of two men who originally met when they were both in a psychiatric hospital--when one was a teenager and the other was a middle-aged adult.  The older man is now dying in a facility called The Palace and the younger one, who has now middle aged, has come to say goodbye to his friend.  But both men have a need.  They need to share their lives with each other in an attempt to make sense out of what has happened to the two of them throughout their lives and to other homosexual and bisexual men and women throughout time as a result of society's efforts to justify, classify, and treat the existence of the sexual orientations of non-straight people.  Stories of real persons who were actually part of this history are introduced--ones who strived to prove that sexuality differences are normal and ones who tried to connect them to aberrations.  The use of eugenics is discussed.  Ethnicity differences come into the story.  The title of the book comes from two aspects of the story:  1)  From published books that had most of the print blacked out because of the discussion of non-heterosexuality being considered worth censoring, and 2) From the fact that the younger man, of Puerto Rican descent, was committed to the asylum not because he was gay but because he suffered from blackouts that seemed to be a common form of hysteria for people from Puerto Rico.  It's not a book that is easy to read.  But it is fascinating how the author has brought all of this together in such a complex story.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

 Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023--San Antonio

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is centered around the life of a writer for a weekly satire comedy show on TV (like Saturday Night Live).  She is a 38-year-old woman who is happy with her life and her professional success in general, but, although having been married once and had a long-time fuck buddy, she has never had a fulfilling love life.  After working for 10 years at the show, there is a guest star for the week, a singer whose music she doesn't particularly like, who is both the guest host and the musical guest.  In her role as a writer, she finds herself writing skits that he will be in and also helping him with a skit he has been working on and wants to submit.  She is feeling something going on between the two of them, but doesn't trust that it is actually happening.  He may be feeling the same way, but is not communicating it well.  The question is whether they were really both interested in each other or not.  It's going to take time and more awkward encounters to find out.  It was fun to read, but is not great literature.  Still, I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

The One by John Marrs

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023--San Antonio

The One by John Marrs seemed so familiar for the first 3 chapters or so.  Even one of the sentences at the end of one of the chapters made me think I had read it before.  But I searched through my records I keep of books I have read and it wasn't on the list.  And I checked the Netflix filmed version of it to see if I had watched that, but I hadn't.  So I kept reading and it started to seem "fresh."  I'm wondering if I read part of it and quit it sometime in the past.  It is an interesting novel, but I wouldn't call it a very good one.  It is set in the future when a researcher has discovered a mutation in a gene that allows her through gene analysis to match each person in the world with their ideal lover.  People download an app, spit on a swap and spit on it, send that in, and wait for an email to tell them who their perfect match is.  The book followed about 5 couples who have been matched.  It's strange that the "one perfect match" could be anywhere in the world but is often within the same region of a country where they both live, but that would be the only way the stories could be told; otherwise, most people would not have the money to travel travel around the world to meet their true match.  It's an okay book to read with some exciting twists regarding the matched couples.  Then it ends with uncertainty regarding what is going to happen to some of the characters.  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5.