(I’m posting this preemptively and updating it as I go.)
Novels
In April and May, I read 5* novels.
The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood
“So I’m finally going mad,” she thought, “like everybody else. What a nuisance. Though I suppose it will be a change.”
— The Edible Woman, pp. 134
The Edible Woman is fast-paced, witty, and weird.
“I thought you were the capable type.”
“I am,” she said unhappily. “I was. I don’t know.” She didn’t want to discuss it.
“Some would say of course that it’s all in your mind.”
“I know that,” she said, impatient: she wasn’t a total idiot yet. “But how do I get it out?”
“It ought to be obvious,” Duncan’s voice said, “that I’m the last person to ask.”
— The Edible Woman, pp. 289-290
Margaret Atwood is cemented as my favorite author of all time. It turns out she can effortlessly throw down one of the best surrealist satires of all time; it was not enough to merely craft 500 page meticulous historical mysteries and sci-fi epics.
— 5/5 —
Lady Oracle, by Margaret Atwood
What was the use of being Princess-for-a-day if you still felt like a toad?
— Lady Oracle, pp. 238
Another Atwood book about a sad sack contemplating her sad life, full of miserable, pathetic, quirky characters. I absolutely loved it. It’s not as virtuosic as the The Blind Assassin, and not as bitingly funny as The Edible Woman, but it’s close on both fronts.
— 5/5 —
Bodily Harm, by Margaret Atwood
The first thing he said to me was You look like your mother. And that was the end of him.
— Bodily Harm, pp. 102
Bodily Harm is funny, depressing, relatable, and surprisingly disturbing. While still mopey, Rennie has a bit more fire and bite to her than Iris, Marian, and Joan, which was a nice change of pace.
She doesn’t have much time left, for anything. But neither does anyone else. She’s paying attention, that’s all.
— Bodily Harm, pp. 291
The ending was just as perfect as I’ve come to expect. One more masterpiece for the pile.
— 5/5 —
Surfacing, by Margaret Atwood
At the midway pond the heron was still there, hanging in the hot sunlight like something in a butcher’s window, desecrated, unredeemed. It smelled worse. Around its head the flies vibrated, laying their eggs. The king who learned to speak with animals, in the story he ate a magic leaf and they revealed a treasure, a conspiracy, they saved his life; what would they really say? Accusation, lament, an outcry of rage; but they had no spokesman.
I felt a sickening complicity, sticky as glue, blood on my hands, as though I had been there and watched without saying No or doing anything to stop it; one of the silent guarded faces in the crowd. The trouble some people have with being German, I thought, I have being human. In a way it was stupid to be more disturbed by a dead bird than by the those other things, the wars and riots and the massacres in the newspapers. But for the wars and riots there was always an explanation, people wrote books about them saying why they happened: the death of the heron was causeless, undiluted.
— Surfacing, pp. 150
Many people hate this book, for some reason—it’s one of her lowest rated novels—but it might be the best thing that she’s ever written. Surreal, dense, elliptical, brilliant.
— 5/5 —
Thorn in My Side, by C. J. Skuse
Even multiple murderers like day trips.
Somehow, Skuse’s series is still going strong; I might not even call this one a guilty pleasure! Sweetpea #4 is by far the most consistent entry since book #1, and features some of the best side characters of the series. I’m not a major fan of Raphael, but the rest of his family—and their reactions to the crazy nightmare that is Rhiannon—were a fantastic change of pace.
— 3/5 —
Poems and Short Stories
I continue reading short works in hope of learning how to write and where to submit. Once again a # means I loved it, and I’ve introduced the shebang (#!) for the special case something was so 5/5 good I’d universally recommend it.
Had
- Statement on Violence, by Samuel Day Wharton
Permafrost
- Elevation, by Alfredo Lafarga
- Lick the Knife, by Desmond Everest Fuller #
- Maybe a Deer, by Michael Czyzniejewski #
- Disafiliation, by Donald Pasmore
- Amber, by Erin Rodoni
- Old Couple, by Tara Mandarano #
- Salt & Ice, by Glo Chitwood
- Kith, by Anne Duncan #
- Veneration, by Shannon Bowring
- [Voicemails in Slow Dissociation], by Judy Xie #
- As the West Coast Burns, by Hannah Dierdorf #!
Litro
- Illinois, by Desmond Everest Fuller #
- Chances Are, by John Brantingham #
Carve
- The Road Out of Juneau, by Caitlin Scarano #
Music
Not as many great new albums yet, but the summer looks promising.
Nowhere, CA (2026), song by Hana Bryanne
Hana Bryanne’s album Dollface was my obsession during the holiday months of 2024-2025; I must have listened to it 20 or 30 times while on vacation in Mexico. Her new song Nowhere, CA is just as excellent; hopefully it’s indicative of a new album in the works!
The Killjoy (2023), by Sarah Gross
I’m not usually one for country, but Sarah’s music is a lovely, modern, catchy mix of country with indie folk/pop/rock and progressive lyricism. I can’t wait for her new album in July, the two singles are bangers!
YouTube
I’ve added a section for YouTube because I found some brilliant channels and I’ve nowhere else to shout them out.
Alison (@alisontalksbooks)
Alison is a refreshingly earnest, open, and authentic video essayist. She writes a substack that is equally worthwhile.
Marisa (@largeicedmochalatte)
It took me a litte while to understand the true brilliance of what Marisa is doing with her fast-paced, self-deprecating, over-sharing videos, that she purportedly writes on the subway after work, and films from her one-bedroom New York City appartment, but she is one of the most authentically hilarious people I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.
I think a lot of, you know, the reasons not to kill yourself kind of go out the window when you, when you really are an athiest. I don’t think you should do it, and this is an anti-suicide channel, uhm, because suicide is a lot of work, and why are you doing all that. If I ever die just know I, I am probably happy about it, but I didn’t do that shit myself. That was an act of god… So to speak.
Her channel is a relatable, old-YouTube, sad-werid-person-talks-to-camera vlog, but written, performed, and editied by one of the most talented comedians on the platform. I’ve had to stop listening to the videos in public because I was embarassing myself laughing.