For the 2023 Reading Glasses Challenge I had to read the favorite book of someone I’m close to. I was surprised, when I asked my dad what his favorite book was, by how emotional and candid he was talking about One Summer and how it helped him deal with his cancer diagnosis 10 years ago. This isn’t my typical kind of book (being pretty Nicholas Sparks-y and conservative in a mostly inoffensive but very pro-military way), and I honestly never considered reading Baldacci until now (and probably won’t read more of his work). But I can see why this story of a widower getting a second chance resonated with Dad. Not the worst way to spend a couple of afternoons of reading.

Slice-of-life yuri about an established couple, one of whom is a screenwriter and the other, a rookie voice actress. Cute without being too coy about sex, and I like the fun mixture of art styles. Will continue this series for sure.

Stretched my credulity and empathy to the breaking point and then some. I had to read this for my work book club, otherwise I might have bailed around halfway through. Not recommended unless you enjoy books where no one acts like a human and everything works out simply because the author needs it to and can’t get there in a way that feels realistic.

I love Grady Hendrix, but I always consider his books to be more funny and entertaining than scary. This isn't a criticism; I tend to be a hard scare in general, and I'm much more likely to come away from a horror novel feeling excited or disturbed than actually afraid.

But apparently all it takes to scare the shit out of me is possessed puppets.

I'm not sure why exactly How to Sell a Haunted House creeped me out so much when other books just... don't. There's just something about the emotional setup, the interlude with Mark and the puppet collective, Pupkin's unnatural little voice, that part with the garbage disposal... It all added up to a full-body shudder of a book that I hated having to put down but dreaded to see what would happen next.

It toes the line between chilling and ridiculous, and if it doesn't work for you, it's really not going to work. But for me, it held together.

A hit-or-miss collection for me. Some pieces seemed like they would be more effective heard performed than read on the page, and I liked the more personal and family poems the most.

A decade ago, when I was a brand new librarian determined to keep abreast of book trends, I read a Colleen Hoover book because New Adult was the big thing. I did not like the book, and I decided that I didn’t need to read any more Colleen Hoover books.

But then I kept hearing about Verity because of BookTok, and a friend of mine said that she devoured it in one night. And, needing a new audiobook to listen to on my commute, I decided to give Colleen Hoover another try.

Is this a good book? Absolutely not.

Is it absurdly entertaining? Fuck yes.

Will I read a third Colleen Hoover book? Nah.

I am forging ever forth in my goal of reading a Pulitzer Prize-winning work of fiction each month in 2023, even though the waves are getting pretty high and I think my boat is starting to take on water. (See what I did there?)

There are some moments that shine in The Shipping News. I liked the aunt. I liked the idea of having the protagonist be the least intriguing person in the entire book. But I admit that when I saw a review that said that reading this book is like reading a bowl of cold pea soup, I had to agree. I struggled a lot with Proulx's style, particularly the longwinded stories every character was eager to launch into, and the long lists that served as descriptions. And by "struggled with" I mean I heaved a great inward sigh and settled myself in with resignation and no small measure of resentment.

I don't know! Maybe I'm learning from this project that I don't care that much about prestigious awards! But then I think about how much I've loved Less and The Goldfinch and The Grapes of Wrath. And I can't bring myself to say, okay, this isn't very fun, I'm finished.

I got my bearings pretty quickly in this book; holding onto them was the struggle. But the epilogue wrapped everything up with all the gentleness of a sword through the heart and left me certain of two things: I will undoubtedly come to appreciate Nona more upon rereading, and it’s going to be a long wait for Alecto.

Reread 03/23/23
As I predicted, I liked Nona a lot more this time. I find that TLT books are better on second readings, because then I know the shape of the narrative and my brain is less occupied with wondering wtf is going on and can soak in the details. My first reading was breathless, impatient. This time I listened to the audio and let myself take breaks when needed. Because this book is heavy, with lots of thoughts about love, devotion, and grief that really hurt, and there were some days I got in my car and just couldn’t do it. But I’m glad that I went on this journey again.

I kind of wish this book didn’t have to exist, but I’m glad that it does. If we’re going to face down the constant attacks on trans people’s rights and safety, and if we’re going to win, we need allies. And one of the best-selling authors of women’s fiction teaming up with a trans woman to write a book that educates cis people who need hand-holding through trans 101, and tricks them into learning with a tense courtroom drama/family saga? That seems like a way to get some people who’ve never thought about trans people before on the good side. If it can get some soccer moms with Moms for Liberty and Fox News in their ear to pause for long enough to develop empathy for trans kids and decide to stand up for them, great! That needs to happen!

I could sit here and discuss the parts of Mad Honey that I didn’t think were perfect, but… I’m not the target audience. I’ve been in a relationship with a trans woman for years. I’m in a queer book club. I’m probably annoyingly loud about trans issues on a daily basis. So the things that I might point out are not going to register for the ideal reader of this book, who is a straight cis woman confused about what puberty blockers are. That woman is not thinking “Hey, this book doesn’t represent the experiences of all the politically engaged trans lesbians I know!” She doesn’t know any trans lesbians, politically engaged or not! She’s not thinking “I might have dialed this back a little because there are already so many depictions of trans suffering out there.” She probably hasn’t seen that many.

So I appreciate this book’s educational focus, and I appreciate the afterword, which explains the genesis of the book in a dream Jennifer Finney Boylan had, addresses some of my concerns about this being yet another story about a dead trans person, and establishes that Jodi Picoult has no time for TERFs unless it’s to rebuke them.

And focusing purely on enjoyment, I found the plot really compelling! There’s a lot of emotion and tension that kept me reading, and I plan to try another Jodi Picoult. What can I say? I love reading about characters with problems.

I've read this book twice now, and I'm not sure what even to say. Maybe that it's the most beautifully-written book imaginable about an incredibly ugly subject?