Everything I Read This Week & Where I Read It: July 20-27
We’ve been in Jackson Hole this week—unreal!!! Lots of hiking; lots of moose; one baby bear. We’re backpacking the Teton Crest Trail this week—haven’t backpacked in about…six years, so. Wish me luck
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Bateater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
I read this in New York before Scott and I left for Jackson for the week. I’m glad I read this one in New York: the setting is a big part of the book, which I love for any story, but particularly ones set in New York. The subway, especially, was effectively a whole character unto itself.
This one was so weird and so good: lots of blood and gore; an unwell narrator (not unreliable, necessarily, but really going through it); commentary on anti-Asian hate during COVID in New York. In particular, I loved the exploration of OCD in this book. It was compelling because, like so many people who suffered with OCD symptoms brought on or exacerbated by COVID, the things that the main character is worrying about are not, actually, ridiculous. She is facing huge, scary amounts of contamination, both COVID-wise and ghost-wise. I also loved the sister relationship that carried this book. Cora and her sister, Delilah, weave in and out of monstrosity in their own respective ways. So much going on here that I’ll be thinking about for a while. 5/5.
The Wedding People by Allison Espach
A fantastic plane read for our flight. Read in two big sittings: one flight from New York to Chicago, and another too Jackson.
I loved this one, too, for very different reasons than Cora Zeng. This, to me, was a really masterful example of a romance novel without any sex—just chemistry. It was, oddly enough, sort of like a Jane Austen book to me in that way: all pining and societal barriers, no consummation of the relationship. I found it to be really refreshing—often, in other romance novels, chemistry between two characters is really only expressed through sexual chemistry. I liked that this one took a lot of time and care to establish the two main characters as people who felt a spark of…something when they first met, and then took the time to explore where that could go absent sex. 5/5.
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Started in Jackson— DNFed after about 70 pages. I grabbed this one from a Little Free Library so felt no qualms about immediately abandoning it. I was bored from the jump—grandma in small town New York? No, thanks. Elizabeth Strout is the only person I’ll trust to take me on that journey.
Nothing Serious by Emily J. Smith
What a magical reading experience. Getting a latte, walking around Teton Village, sitting in the sun and reading Nothing Serious. Amazing.
This book grew on me so much! I don’t remember where I heard about this book—it was a long-ago Libby request that came through. I went in with zero expectations, which is always best. At the beginning, this was giving Uncanny Valley strongly: disillusioned millennial tech woman in San Francisco, working through life and romance questions. Then, it surprised me in the best way: it grew into a much more twisted, ambiguous novel about death, friendship, and gender relations. There’s a death (a murder?) that involves Edie, the main character’s, long-time male best friend, Peter, and the magnetic woman he starts dating, who Edie quickly becomes totally obsessed with. Actually, more than anything else, I would describe this as a story about obsession. And I love that! The commentaries on male-female friendships and attractions were slow-burning and satisfying: watching Edie come to conclusions about how unequal her relationship is with Peter, then pulling back on them, then revisiting them, then deciding she was wrong…it was relatable, to me, and interesting. 4.5/5—maybe a 5/5? Still processing.