What I Read in March, 2026
Apr. 4th, 2026 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado1 Total: 11 books
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler;
- This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff;
- The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell;
- In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff;
- The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes;
- The Trial of Charles I by C.V. Wedgwood;
- Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid;
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith;
- A Light Amongst Shadows by Kelley York;
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
- The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.
The worst book was easily "A Light Amongst Shadows," but that feels almost unfair to say. It's a Kindle Unlimited gay romance. It comes very close to being ... like, built for me. Historical gay romance? Love it. Creepy boarding school, incest, CSA -- FUCK yes. Ghost children? Favorite horror trope. Yes please.
But no, it didn't work. Biggest problem was with the character voice. It's told in first-person by an upper-class teen living in 1870-1880, but he speaks like a modern-day teen who happens to be a teaboo and is desperate for his classmates to think he really spent the summer in London. Other big problem was that it didn't really work either as a romance or as a horror. Like, the horror element definitely took the backseat to the romance, but the romance itself was insta-love, so it wasn't interesting enough to justify side-lining the horror so much. (At one point, the main character casually tells us that he's been seeing ghosts every day and just didn't think to mention it).
Tobias Wolff really dominated my month. Really love his books. I downloaded a third book of his, a novel, but got distracted by a sudden strong desire to read about British kings. So James I and his son Charles took over the rest of my month. The thrillers and mystery novels are for my Detective & Mystery Lit class, and I enjoyed most of them, but couldn't really get into Raymond Chandler (I like his writing on a sentence/paragraph level, but I think structurally he struggles).
Annie John was excellent. Definitely the strongest novel I read all month. The Ox-Bow Incident was fun, but dragged BADLY in several spots. It follows a cowboy in 1885 who gets swept up in a lynch mob, and goes along with it despite his conscience screaming not to; much of the book concerns the men who DO speak up, and why they do it, and how they fail. The actual lynching scene is long -- detailed enough to be deeply uncomfortable but not gory. And there's a mean, depressing twist at the end that crushes one of the few good men even further. But it's a twist that feels necessary. Because right away, the characters with consciences start blaming the lynching on a scapegoat, a very easy scapegoat -- a wealthy rancher and ex-Confederate named Tetley. They convince themselves they had no way of stopping the mob because Tetley is just a monster; he loves cruelty and violence; he has no feelings. Then they find out Tetley has killed himself, and their excuses and justifications are swept away.
It feels cruel, like the author's decision to do this feels cruel, because the character most affected by Tetley's death is also the only guy who actively tried to stop the lynch mob. But I do think it's necessary, because that character might have done more than anyone else, but he still allowed it to happen. He admits he thought of ways to stop the mob and refused to take them. And three innocent men died as a result.
Anyway. Very fun book. Haven't seen the movie yet.
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler;
- This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff;
- The Six Loves of James I by Gareth Russell;
- In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff;
- The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes;
- The Trial of Charles I by C.V. Wedgwood;
- Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid;
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith;
- A Light Amongst Shadows by Kelley York;
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad;
- The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.
The worst book was easily "A Light Amongst Shadows," but that feels almost unfair to say. It's a Kindle Unlimited gay romance. It comes very close to being ... like, built for me. Historical gay romance? Love it. Creepy boarding school, incest, CSA -- FUCK yes. Ghost children? Favorite horror trope. Yes please.
But no, it didn't work. Biggest problem was with the character voice. It's told in first-person by an upper-class teen living in 1870-1880, but he speaks like a modern-day teen who happens to be a teaboo and is desperate for his classmates to think he really spent the summer in London. Other big problem was that it didn't really work either as a romance or as a horror. Like, the horror element definitely took the backseat to the romance, but the romance itself was insta-love, so it wasn't interesting enough to justify side-lining the horror so much. (At one point, the main character casually tells us that he's been seeing ghosts every day and just didn't think to mention it).
Tobias Wolff really dominated my month. Really love his books. I downloaded a third book of his, a novel, but got distracted by a sudden strong desire to read about British kings. So James I and his son Charles took over the rest of my month. The thrillers and mystery novels are for my Detective & Mystery Lit class, and I enjoyed most of them, but couldn't really get into Raymond Chandler (I like his writing on a sentence/paragraph level, but I think structurally he struggles).
Annie John was excellent. Definitely the strongest novel I read all month. The Ox-Bow Incident was fun, but dragged BADLY in several spots. It follows a cowboy in 1885 who gets swept up in a lynch mob, and goes along with it despite his conscience screaming not to; much of the book concerns the men who DO speak up, and why they do it, and how they fail. The actual lynching scene is long -- detailed enough to be deeply uncomfortable but not gory. And there's a mean, depressing twist at the end that crushes one of the few good men even further. But it's a twist that feels necessary. Because right away, the characters with consciences start blaming the lynching on a scapegoat, a very easy scapegoat -- a wealthy rancher and ex-Confederate named Tetley. They convince themselves they had no way of stopping the mob because Tetley is just a monster; he loves cruelty and violence; he has no feelings. Then they find out Tetley has killed himself, and their excuses and justifications are swept away.
It feels cruel, like the author's decision to do this feels cruel, because the character most affected by Tetley's death is also the only guy who actively tried to stop the lynch mob. But I do think it's necessary, because that character might have done more than anyone else, but he still allowed it to happen. He admits he thought of ways to stop the mob and refused to take them. And three innocent men died as a result.
Anyway. Very fun book. Haven't seen the movie yet.
