reading lately: September roundup

My September reading included a number of pleasant surprises: Lady Tremaine was a successful foray into fairy tale-ish stories, not something I usually love; Into the Blue was quite an enjoyable read from an author whose first book I didn't love; The Dentist is the start of a British detective series that I think I'm going to really grow to love; The Land and Its People wasn't at all a surprise in being 5 stars (it's David Sedaris after all), but the audiobook format was a fun format that enhanced the reading experience even more. Reviews of everything below!

Contemporary/literary fiction

Into the Blue: AJ Graves dreams of getting out of her small Massachusetts town to someday be a writer on SNL, but her college prospects are unsure and she's pending the summer working at a video rental shop, whiling away her downtime watching a cult favorite sci-fi improv TV show from the 1970s. One day she's introduced to her new co-worker - Noah Drew, youngest of an acting dynasty, come to stay with his aunt Eudora Drew, a reclusive local and one of the stars of this show AJ is so obsessed with. They connect over their appreciation of it, and then their connection goes even deeper as they start taking acting/improv lessons together; as this electric bond between them starts to develop as well into a romantic one, Noah disappears from her life suddenly. We meet them next just after AJ's college graduation, and after Noah has returned to Hollywood and become a major heartthrob, when they are both involved in a reboot of the sci-fi improv show. AJ is still angry over the abandonment, but their undeniable connection is still there. The reason for their separation finally comes out, and while Noah still believes he is protecting AJ by not committing to a romantic relationship, their lives part again, but keep coming back together... The subtitle "A love story" is the correct indicator - this is not a romance with its traditional arc and tropes; it's the story of a friendship that turns quickly to an artistic bond and from there to an electric and unshakeable connection, love that both is passionate and feels like belonging or home, one that remains strong even when the characters try to sever it for various reasons. I'd call it a mash-up of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow + Deep Cuts + Me Before You, as it has this longtime creative partnership (improv/acting rather than video games, but just as in-depth and nerdy) with one of the pair hitting it big and becoming famous their while the other remains a bit in the shadows, along with an emotional illness/caretaker/end-of-life considerations aspect. I would definitely recommend this read even if I had a number of quibbles that keep it from being 5 stars: While I liked the behind-the-scenes of improv/acting/comedy writing, I sometimes struggled to care about the nitty-gritty of the characters and the lore in this cult favorite (fictional) series - especially the sci-fi of it all - so it made the book feel overly long at times. And the back and forth on AJ and Noah's relationship felt self-indulgent at times, as their inability/unwillingness to commit to each other for various reasons makes them miserable and also hurts the other people in their lives (such as the various other people they end up dating). Plus Noah's insistence that they can't be together because he wants AJ to have a "normal" life, which manifests in having no contact unless they run into each other and then he is soooo nice and swoony, and then goes back to radio silence - that got a tad old! And made the middle section drag a bit. But overall I cannot deny how wrapped up I got in this story and its characters, and I couldn't put it down for the last third. I don't always love a "sweeping" book in terms of covering multiple decades, but this worked well to get depth to the characters and their story and their chemistry, plus they were approximately my age, so the decade-specific references landed well for me. The reading experience felt immersive and emotional in a way that other love stories haven't quite hit for me recently, aside from things like Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (though this one a bit less literary) and also the smart and touching under-the-radar book Love Is an Algorithm, published earlier this year. ★★★★.25

Royal Spin: I love a British royals drama/rom-com, so the premise of this one - following a White House press officer who is reeling from an awful breakup and escapes DC by taking a job with the communications team at Buckingham Palace - caught my attention, and I was even more intrigued when I saw that it is dual authored, by an author whose YA work I have enjoyed, along with a royal biographer/journalist. Lauren is thrown right into the deep end in her new job, with various lesser royal family members making faux pas that need handling via press releases and hiring a diversity officer; fusty, set-in-their-ways royal aides who resist Lauren's ideas; the rabid British journalism scene (and maybe a bit of fraternizing with one cute and charming journalist...); and a very handsome, newly single nephew of the queen who has returned to the fold after living in New Zealand for years. Overall I found it a very fun read with the (fictional) behind-the-scenes look at a group of behind-the-scenes palace employees, down to how unglamorous and mundane their office spaces are, for being in a royal household. Would recommend for fans of the recent book The Heir Apparent, especially for the angle on the royal family member who has opted out and has to consider whether to come back to royal duties. But I would say that while fun, this one was not pulled off nearly as successfully as a whole. It might be partly because it doesn't quite work as a rom-com in terms of tropes/story arc; it's a lot more focused on Lauren's journey to building up her life and career and female friendships after leaving DC, but it's also too much of a "brain candy" kind of book to really be a character-driven book. And for all of the love triangle and royal drama and such, there's really not all that much plot to speak of - while I was enjoying the reading experience, I kept feeling like the plot wasn't going anywhere and some things were kind of repetitive. Maybe a result of having 2 authors? In any case, if you need some royal-adjacent drama in your life and you've already read The Royal We, The Heir Apparent, and American Royals - this is a good cozy up with option. ★★★.5

Mystery/thriller

The Dentist: In this first installment in a British detective procedural series, George Cross, a detective sergeant who is on the autism spectrum, turns his attention to detail and his persistence to the case of a homeless man who was killed in what the other officers think of as a random act of violence - but George can see there is more to this mystery than meets the eye, and he eventually connects it to a cold case despite his colleagues' skepticism and/or exasperation at his methods and mannerisms. It's a fairly standard procedural in terms of plotting, (not super fast) pacing, and (sometimes a bit spotty) writing, but in terms of character development it felt just as much about this as it did about the mystery. His Asberger's (not what it is called any longer, but it is in the book) is in many ways his super power in having an extremely high solve rate - amazing memory capacities, strong ability to spot patterns in data, absolute belief that things must be done correctly, so he will pursue correctness until he finds the answer. But it doesn't make him into some kind of rainman character. It also shows the difficulties he has in working in the department, whether it's from sensory overwhelm that makes him need to leave the room, or whether it's difficulty in working with others because he doesn't well understand social/emotional cues. He's had to teach himself to adapt to all of this, having gone through mean treatment by others in the department in his younger years; we also see how his partner Josie has learned to adapt to George as well, despite some legitimate frustrations in being "stuck" working with him. I liked that while this detective has some of the hallmarks of a stereotypical detective - like loner qualities and/or difficulty getting along with others, and a single-minded obsession with his work - these qualities are not anti-social or self-destructive behaviors, but instead are a result of his being on the autism spectrum. It gives a detective story a different angle, which makes it more interesting, and also a bit more empathy-inducing. Despite mentions that George himself doesn't particularly feel empathy... While less comedic and caper-ish, I would say this could be for fans of the Thursday Murder Club series for it being a puzzle type mystery without much suspense or gore, and a character with some idiosyncrasies. Plus the development of side characters like detective partner Josie and department assistant Alice that make it clear that they will become more major players in subsequent books, in ways that play nicely off the protagonist. I will definitely look to read more in this series when I'm looking for an easy yet satisfying detective read. ★★★.5

Historical fiction

Lady Tremaine: I'm not much of a fairy tale/fantasy reader, but a retelling of a classic tale that reframes the woman at the center of it and gives her agency (if not power - it's a man's world after all) is usually intriguing - Circe being my favorite entry in this subgenre. So I was willing to try this retelling of the Cinderella story that is narrated by the stepmother commonly thought of as "evil" - but when we see the story from her perspective, we can see her actions in a whole new light. The publisher tagline calls it Bridgerton meets Circe (which I actually didn't see until after I read it), and this feels like a decent comparison, capturing how it feels more like historical fiction than a fairy tale in the telling of the manors and ball, and capturing how this seemingly vengeful woman was actually just doing what needed to be done for her family's wellbeing and safety out of female fierceness/resourcefulness and strong maternal instinct - but not by any means doing it perfectly, as a flawed character who sometimes lets this fierceness get in the way of relationships in the here and now. This is not the Disney version of Cinderella with fairy godmothers and pastel colors; it's more of the dark forests and sinister undertones vibe. Ethel can feel a cutthroat or conniving at times, but seeing things from her perspective, we can see her as a victim of circumstances - having lost two husbands and left pretty much penniless to raise 3 girls in a crumbling house, she has had to toughen up and take matters into her own hands, from hunting for food to doing whatever she can to secure husbands (i.e. financial security) for her daughters. We can see why her relationship with the stepdaughter might not be nearly as good as the one with her daughters, as in this telling they all need to pitch in to survive (and keep up appearances of being a genteel family in the meantime), but Elin refuses, thinking that chores are beneath a lady. Cleverly, the author brings the "cinder" part of it when the invitation to the royal ball arrives, as they have to figure out some way to pay for dresses and Ethel insists that if Elin is going to be allowed to attend the ball she must finally do her part to earn some money by collecting the ashes from their fireplaces and selling them. It starts out a bit slow, but it lays the stage in an interesting way, pulling threads from the Cinderella story we all have in mind and placing them in this new context, but then about 60% in the story takes a darker turn when it goes beyond where we usually think of Cinderella ending, and it actually becomes pretty action-packed. When Elin and the prince become engaged, Ethel discovers a sordid secret about the royal family, and ends up at a crossroads - let Elin be married off into this problematic situation but reap the benefits of proximity to the palace and thus a future for her other daughters, or try to protect Elin but incur the wrath of the prince and the queen... Drama ensues. I was pretty hooked by Ethel's voice from the beginning but wasn't sure how a whole book could be made out of her until the plot part took up any slack created by Ethel starting to feel too dislikeable - and I was riveted. Some of the characters felt a bit caricature in villainy, but Ethel's character had depth and growth, and I appreciated the growth and changes in her relationship with Elin too. ★★★★.25

City of Girls: Starting in the 1940s when she is kicked out of Vassar for never going to class, Vivian tells the story of her formative coming-of-adulthood experience being exiled with her parents to live with her "spinster" aunt and a cast of bohemians and actors and showgirls in a ramshackle but boisterous New York City theatre (of course unbeknownst to her proper and wealthy parents what she was getting up to with drinking and carousing in these circles). It's narrated as a letter to a younger woman, Angela, who has asked about Vivan's relationship with Angela's father. So there's a tad bit of narrative mystery that has us wondering through the many years that Vivian discusses, the early wild and partying times, the bleak but professionally hardworking WWII years, the post-war experience of building her own career and found family, what man in this story is Angela's father, and why she would be asking about Vivian's relationship with him. But the story is really about Vivian's life and how all of her experiences and what she took from them convinced her that she could be a good person without being what society would consider a "good girl" - and how she came to own this about herself rather than capitulate to the expectations of a respectable woman of her age/class. In her unacknowledged privilege and her teenaged selfishness/cluelessness, not to mention her general debaucherous lifestyle when she first moves to New York, Vivian was not my favorite character for quite a while there... but that's a benefit of this type of "look back" narration, a fictional version of a memoir where the person has had time to process all of the events and their actions/reactions in the situations, to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes, and to show maturity and growth over the story arc. While a woman's sexual expression and freedom were one of the themes in the book, I really could have done without a couple of particular scenes - and honestly, I almost quit the book quite early on, in the section where Vivian describes how she went about deciding to lose her virginity, her experience gave me so much ick - so that took it down a notch in my estimation, but overall I'd say it's more raucous than explicit. Generally would recommend this book for any readers who like historical fiction that showcases a woman ahead of her time in terms of forging her own way in the world. I liked Vivian's strong narrative voice, and while I thought it was overall a tad on the long side, the book read quite quickly. ★★★.75

Nonfiction/memoir

The Land and Its People: What an absolute pleasure this listening experience was! I pre-ordered the hard copy in time for its summer release, but then when it came to it I really just had to wait in line for a library copy of the audio version. If you're a David Sedaris fan, you know how great it is to hear him in his own voice, and this audiobook was even better because it was made up of live recordings of him doing readings for audiences. Made me feel like I was at an event in person - so fun. This book of essays, like many Sedaris books in the past, lets you see the world through his observational and endlessly curious eyes (the way he collects stories is something else!), and the humor about the absurdity of the world, the playful approach to relating to others and to the world, always makes me laugh out loud but also manages to get at some profound things. These essays in particular seem to be Sedaris at his most (hilariously) curmudgeonly and inflexible about interactions with others, as he nears 70 (yet seems willing to acknowledge his own faults as much as he points out the flaws and foibles of others), but at the same time maybe his most poignant as he reflects in some about things like people he has lost (the one about the names he just can't make himself delete from his contacts made me tear up) and about family relationships. I might not be remembering well enough his previous collections to compare accurately, but it also felt like it was him at his most acknowledging of his current position of rich and famous. It's clear he still works incredibly hard at his writing, not to mention touring, but there's quite a bit about the people he has been able to meet, the multiple homes he has and the obvious means to do whatever he'd like with them, the many countries he visits to add to the "Countries I Have Visited" list he keeps on his computer, and the invite he got along with a bunch of comedians such as Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan, Jimmy Fallon, and Julia Louis Dreyfuss to meet the Pope at the Vatican. I didn't see this as bragging in any way, but instead a really interesting behind-the-scenes, and a compelling story arc from the mentions of moving to New York in his early 30s with no prospects to what he has accomplished along the way with his hard work and talent (plus, all of his super not rich person seeming habits that he still maintains, like obsessively logging his step count and Duo Lingo streak, and picking up roadside trash near his home in England). If you've never read Sedaris I might start with earlier work to get to know him and then work your way through chronologically, but if you already know and enjoy his writing, you should know that this one is great. ★★★★★

American Men: Journalist Jordan Ritter Conn details the lives of four American men in portraits that feel very complete and intimate and vulnerable, written in a narrative style that really reads like a story, one that is meant to examine what it is to be a man in America, and to look at the relationship that different men have with the concept of "masculinity", how it shapes them or how they shape their perception of it, at different points in their youth, teens, and adulthood. I thought it was really well written in terms of being engaging and compelling; I listened on audio and thought it was great in this format because the narrative alternated among characters, so the sections were fairly short for listening, and the way the author paused the story created some narrative drive/tension (though admittedly on audio I did have trouble keeping track of their various backstories and family members' names at first). At the general human experience level, I appreciated this book as an in-depth look at the lives of ordinary people, the kind that don't have some big achievement or whatever that would make them the subject of a published biography, especially in how it brought so many experiences different from my own by covering men who are trans, gay, straight, white, Black, Native, military veterans, and who had different levels of education and socioeconomic status and childhood struggles/traumas. Their life stories left me thinking a bit about what it means for an ordinary person's life to be a good and worthy one - as in, what do we do with what we've been dealt in life, if we're lucky enough to be able to make some choices about how we're going to respond to our childhood experiences and adulthood bumps in the road, to make a life that matters to us and others. And then on the male-specific level, I appreciated this sort of behind-the-scenes in how these men approached their lives, and the assumptions they made or insecurities they had. As a woman my concept of "masculinity" is shaped by my own vulnerabilities or experiences, and I haven't often gotten quite this clear of a picture of what it's like to live with societal expectations/assumptions about masculinity. I did wish that the author delved into this a bit more in specific, or added some social commentary, but he really doesn't editorialize on the experiences of or attitudes of the men in the story (his introduction to the book actually examines these things a bit more, and I really found the introduction compelling) - so to be more informative in a generalizable way, I think this book is a good jumping off point for discussions. I am hoping my husband will read it, and then find openings for conversations about whether he faced some of these issues as a kid, or how he feels about them now. As far as being a mother of boys, I think that it is a bit less compelling in terms of relating their experiences of being a boy/man in America; as best I can tell, the men portrayed in this book were born in the late 70s/early 80s, and I think (hope?) there's a big generational difference for childhood in terms of social media and smart phones, attitudes about LGBTQ issues, and so on - but it would still be a useful jumping off point for some conversations with my teen about how he perceives expectations of masculinity among his peers and whether he feels pressure to conform to any particular ones. ★★★★