Ugh. My June update somehow got lost and I can't for the life of me remember what I read. I was tempted to quit, but I still get periodic requests for updates and thank yous from readers, so I'll keep going, even though I'm demoralized at the data loss. I mean, I'm demoralized at the fucking world right now, so what else is new?
We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled by Wendy Pearlman
These stories are devastating. A remarkable feat of research and empathy.
Victor Tausk's Suicide by K.R. Eissler
The author is completely obsessed and his theories are nuts, but it's fascinating. And it's research.
The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches From Syria by Janine Di Giovanni
Another remarkable collection about the most important issue of our time.
A Hope More Powerful Than The Sea: The Journey of Doaa Al Zamel by Melissa Fleming
The story is astonishing though there were odd elisions.
The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria by Alia Malek
So full of fascinating and tragic detail.
All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan
This book is not only gorgeous, but heartbreaking. The author is unsparing with herself - a requirement of writing honesty about such fraught subjects.
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
I love a long, juicy Rushdie novel.
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
Weird and wonderful.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
I read this in a single day. Couldn't put it down.
Hourglass by Dani Shapiro
Too, too, too close to home.
The Incest Diary by Anonymous
Oy. I don't even know what to say about this. The writing is remarkable. Let's leave it at that.
Real American by Julie Lythcott-Haims
The remarkable Julie Lythcott-Haims is many things: a marvelous story teller, a gifted poet, an indomitable advocate. But above all, I think, she is a teacher, who in this astounding book imparts the most compelling of lessons with a profound grace and compassion. To write with such an open heart about race and Blackness takes great courage. To do so in prose that is at once elegant and raw takes great talent. (my blurb!)
Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki
This will totally knock your socks off.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Brilliant.