Poetry
1. Everything by Jane Wong
2. A Blessing by Luci Tapahonso
3. Mothers by Nikki Giovanni
4. [A straight rain is rare…] by Lyn Hejinian
5. Anna May Wong has Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Sally Wen Mao
6. Meta-A and the A of Absolutes by Jay Wright
7. The Day Raisiny by Shamsher Bahadur Singh translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
8. What Carries Us by Emily Jungmin Yoon
Prose
1. Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
2. The Son of Man by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
3. So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan
4. The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Welcome welcome we are here today to talk about May. When I opened up this post I remembered feeling like I was in a bit of a slump during the month, but I still read four books so who knows.
Up first we have Let Us Descend, which was our ACLU book of the month. This was a tragically beautiful story about the transcendent journey the protagonist faces while enslaved in the American south. There are elements of magical realism that accompany intense and heart-wrenching realities. I loved how Ward uses ancestral spirits as true guiding yet mysterious forces along the way.
The Son of Man was a bit of a drag for me in the beginning and that’s why it took me so long to read. This was the Service95 book from February but I finally buckled down. This is not a read a chapter at night type of book because it doesn’t really grab you and make you want to pick it back up each night. I think this would be more of a one day or a few afternoons in a row sort of book. The second half or last third of the book I really did start to understand the story and feel like it was something to unpack and digest. A man takes his wife and son into the woods to live in a beat up old house but he has been absent for a while. We get his backstory on why he’s fucked up, but the author doesn’t make us feel sympathetic towards him. I appreciated that bit. It’s a sad story. There’s moments where you aren’t sure whose POV we are reading from, and that just shows how influential our parents can be whether we like it or not. You also may be uncertain when they are as we. The dangerous and thrilling tone is what keeps you on your seats edge. This book asks the question: Is violence in men inherent? Generational? Unstoppable? You tell me.
The actual Service95 book for May was a short collections of stories by an Irish writer that you could read in an hour. So Late in the Day didn’t open my eyes or change my perspective but it was relatable, interesting, and poignant.
I wanted to like this last book more than I did. The Compound has potential, it has pace, and then it doesn’t follow through. Discussed with a friend, but we agreed that the concept was really good but she didn’t know what to do/where to take it. 50/60% of the book was good, then it lost us. I was annoyed that the MC was a dumb blonde and some of the other characters had more depth but they aren’t explored enough so it just feels superficial without any lesson. Also the set up is for the outside world to be fucked up, yet we don’t hear a peep about it so it doesn’t hold any weight. So if Rawle is going for a character study/anthropological take, then why not fully give us some tough questions.
Thanks for your time, happy Sunday!
Book Goal Tracker: 23/40
Genre Challenge Tracker: 2/10
Reads the World Tracker: 3/10
Madeline Daily 