Books I read in August 2024
Sep. 1st, 2024 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado1Total: 17 books
— Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie;
— Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights by Granand;
— Loverboy by Irwin Hasen;
— Crash by J.G. Ballard;
— Rainbow Man by M.J. Engh;
— It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman;
— Boy by James Hanley;
— Endless Fall: A Little Chronicle by Mohamed Leftah;
— Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume;
— Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan;
— Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville;
— The Clown by Heinrich Böll;
— Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
— The Melting by Lize Spit;
— White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky;
— Henry Henry by Allen Bratton;
— Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.
Still reading:
— Silence by Shusaku Endo;
— Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
— School for Barbarians by Erika Mann.
So many good standouts this month.
Knife:
Salman Rushdie's memoir of the assassination attempt a few years back, including his recovery and his decision not to speak to the assassin.
Berlin Garden:
A long out-of-print collection of short slice-of-life stories about gay men in the Weimar Republic, written by a German author.
Loverboy:
The only graphic novel I read this month, a memoir about Irwin (born premature, doomed to be eternally Very Small) and his midlife obsession with women who are much taller than him. Surprisingly poignant and absolutely gutting at the end, with plenty of heaping doses of 70s Penthouse sleaze.
Crash:
Finally read this one, still haven't watched the movie. It follows protagonist James Ballard after a near-death experience leaves him sexually obsessed with car crashes, and searching for like minds.
Rainbow Man:
A sci-fi novel about a woman raised on a spaceship who makes the fateful decision to leave her ship forever and settle on a new planet. On the new planet, her gender is reclassified as male, and her love interests cannot be with her due to their religion's restrictions against homosexuality. It's actually less a meditation on gender and more a meditation on religion, but excellent.
It Waits in the Woods:
Absolutely dreadful horror novella by the Bird Box guy.
Boy:
A 12-year-old boy is forced to leave school in early 20th Century England, and after a gang rape on his first job at the docks, he becomes a stowaway on a ship. The sexual violence and power imbalance leads to a tragic end. There is an excellent scene toward the end of the book where the titular boy briefly finds himself in a position of power over someone else -- for the first time in his life -- and does terrible things with it. Almost compulsively, like he can't help but take control now that he can.
Endless Fall:
Mohamed Leftah's short memoir of a time in the 60s, when he and his entire class witnessed a gay classmate's suicide. Melancholy and loving.
Hi Honey, I'm Homo!:
Nonfiction analysis of American sitcoms and how their portrayal of gay characters mirrors strides made in real-life gay rights.
Last Night at the Lobster:
A working-class novel about the last night at a Red Lobster that is shutting down.
Billy Budd:
Melville's gay-ass novella about an amazingly beautiful, simple young man who becomes the obsession of another sailor, again with tragic results.
The Clown:
Maybe my favorite read of the month? A professional clown in post-war Germany injures his knee and spends the next few nights reflecting on Catholicism and his common-law wife, who recently converted and left him. A great takedown of groupthink.
Heart of Darkness:
My other favorite read. A very racist young gentleman tries to find his fortune in the Congo, and instead finds a dark mirror that shows him what he will become if he stays.
The Melting:
A harrowing literary novel about how puberty tears apart three friends in a very small Belgian village.
White Nights:
Dostoevsky's novella about the nature of love. Despite the rave reviews (White Nights is currently trending), this didn't hit me near as hard as the other books I read this month. I don't know if it was the translation I read or if the narrator would strike me as creepy in
Henry Henry:
A gay retelling of the Henriad where Prince Hal is an incestuous relationship with his father.
Kitchen:
Three short novellas about love, loss, and hope, featuring a trans woman as one of the central figures, and an unrelated crossdresser in the last tale. Dated, for sure, but very moving and worth a read.
— Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie;
— Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights by Granand;
— Loverboy by Irwin Hasen;
— Crash by J.G. Ballard;
— Rainbow Man by M.J. Engh;
— It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman;
— Boy by James Hanley;
— Endless Fall: A Little Chronicle by Mohamed Leftah;
— Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume;
— Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan;
— Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville;
— The Clown by Heinrich Böll;
— Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
— The Melting by Lize Spit;
— White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky;
— Henry Henry by Allen Bratton;
— Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.
Still reading:
— Silence by Shusaku Endo;
— Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
— School for Barbarians by Erika Mann.
So many good standouts this month.
Knife:
Salman Rushdie's memoir of the assassination attempt a few years back, including his recovery and his decision not to speak to the assassin.
Berlin Garden:
A long out-of-print collection of short slice-of-life stories about gay men in the Weimar Republic, written by a German author.
Loverboy:
The only graphic novel I read this month, a memoir about Irwin (born premature, doomed to be eternally Very Small) and his midlife obsession with women who are much taller than him. Surprisingly poignant and absolutely gutting at the end, with plenty of heaping doses of 70s Penthouse sleaze.
Crash:
Finally read this one, still haven't watched the movie. It follows protagonist James Ballard after a near-death experience leaves him sexually obsessed with car crashes, and searching for like minds.
Rainbow Man:
A sci-fi novel about a woman raised on a spaceship who makes the fateful decision to leave her ship forever and settle on a new planet. On the new planet, her gender is reclassified as male, and her love interests cannot be with her due to their religion's restrictions against homosexuality. It's actually less a meditation on gender and more a meditation on religion, but excellent.
It Waits in the Woods:
Absolutely dreadful horror novella by the Bird Box guy.
Boy:
A 12-year-old boy is forced to leave school in early 20th Century England, and after a gang rape on his first job at the docks, he becomes a stowaway on a ship. The sexual violence and power imbalance leads to a tragic end. There is an excellent scene toward the end of the book where the titular boy briefly finds himself in a position of power over someone else -- for the first time in his life -- and does terrible things with it. Almost compulsively, like he can't help but take control now that he can.
Endless Fall:
Mohamed Leftah's short memoir of a time in the 60s, when he and his entire class witnessed a gay classmate's suicide. Melancholy and loving.
Hi Honey, I'm Homo!:
Nonfiction analysis of American sitcoms and how their portrayal of gay characters mirrors strides made in real-life gay rights.
Last Night at the Lobster:
A working-class novel about the last night at a Red Lobster that is shutting down.
Billy Budd:
Melville's gay-ass novella about an amazingly beautiful, simple young man who becomes the obsession of another sailor, again with tragic results.
The Clown:
Maybe my favorite read of the month? A professional clown in post-war Germany injures his knee and spends the next few nights reflecting on Catholicism and his common-law wife, who recently converted and left him. A great takedown of groupthink.
Heart of Darkness:
My other favorite read. A very racist young gentleman tries to find his fortune in the Congo, and instead finds a dark mirror that shows him what he will become if he stays.
The Melting:
A harrowing literary novel about how puberty tears apart three friends in a very small Belgian village.
White Nights:
Dostoevsky's novella about the nature of love. Despite the rave reviews (White Nights is currently trending), this didn't hit me near as hard as the other books I read this month. I don't know if it was the translation I read or if the narrator would strike me as creepy in
Henry Henry:
A gay retelling of the Henriad where Prince Hal is an incestuous relationship with his father.
Kitchen:
Three short novellas about love, loss, and hope, featuring a trans woman as one of the central figures, and an unrelated crossdresser in the last tale. Dated, for sure, but very moving and worth a read.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-01 08:16 pm (UTC)"Hi, Honey, I'm Homo!" sounds like a great book. I should keep an eye open for it.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-03 02:57 pm (UTC)You'd like "Hi Honey, I'm Homo!" It was a great survey and analysis. I was surprised that Frasier wasn't covered, though.