The Curator: everything I read in August
we live for book roundups. We also live for Beetlejuice and spooky season prep.
August. You thought you had me, you with your heat and your fig beetles that torment me every time I step outside (and also embarrassed me horrifically at our staff picnic I may never be taken seriously by these people ever again).
literally me the entire event and every time I step outside wtf
Well, what a month regardless, mostly because I finished seven books, half of which I started not-August but who’s tracking besides three apps and one extensive spreadsheet. I really went for it, picking up one book that has dogged me for some time, one that came highly recommended by Translation Queen
, another to fulfill my Obamacore quota, an almost DNF, a gifted ARC from a loved author, and a backlist title from the used book store that felt like finding traeasure. I haven’t felt this satisfied with a reading month in a while, and I attribute that to my
Will & Testament by Vigdis Hjorth - What a beautiful, surprising book in translation, perfect for August. W&T is about one woman’s struggle to overcome trauma lurking in her family’s past and the devastating impact of silence and shame. When Berglot’s parents will two vacation homes to her sisters, leaving out the two eldest siblings, a bitter fight forces the family to finally face secrets long buried. Tightly constructed and plotted, I was hypnotized by Berglot’s testament of abuse. Hjorth was masterful in her use of repetition, weather elements, temporal confusion, and weaponized emotion to perfectly mirror Berglot’s shattered psyche and sense of self. She is a child, stunted at the age of the abuse, a scratched CD stuck on skip; she cannot move past that groove without some healing. The lack of punctuation brings us deep into Berglot’s head rather than narratively telling us a story - she cannot tell us the story because nobody will listen. Her circular patterns of thought march toward the trauma at the center, getting closer and closer to the truth of her abuse. W&T asks us to consider, what happens to a life filled with guilt and shame? Can good acts erase bad ones? Can we write our own stories? In the end, this novel is Berglot’s own triumphant will and testament. I LOVED IT.
The Vibe✌️: tonal similarities to Anatomy of a Fall, I’m Glad My Mom Died, deep dives into family trauma and dynamics, hypnotizing and ambitious prose.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - Honesty Corner - I dreaded facing the contents of this book. It’s a tough subject for review. Can I really sit here and discuss the merits of a novel about chattel slavery? But it’s important and necessary that I do (and did) face it. It’s about a young slave girl, Cora, who escapes from the antebellum plantation where she was born, the same one her mother escaped from years earlier. With some help and strokes of fate, Cora makes it to the underground railroad, a literal manifestation of its historical equivalent. It is at once deeply disturbing and also like skimming over a large brackish pond, seeing the shadows of things beneath the dark waters that never fully take shape. The writing is simple but honest, not shying away from the gruesome torments of plantation life, yet it almost felt like a parable told to children. Do we require this distance to assuage our tender sentiments? How close does this story need to be to true pain before it becomes trauma porn, entertainment at the expense of Black suffering? It’s an unrelenting whack-a-mole game of horrible people and outcomes, and asks, how many must die horrifically so that one person can survive? Or better, how many must die in the name of power and control? I appreciated the ways Cora moves physically through the landscape but never truly closer to freedom – within the insidiously racist power structures, she actually hasn’t moved at all. “Everyone wants someone lower to shit on.” If it’s a game of value then certainly we all lose - humanity always comes out in the red.
The Vibe✌️: Toni Morrison, deep cuts on American history, This American Life podcast, stories of struggle and small triumphs.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar - In true Obamacore fashion, Martyr! is a lightweight look at the nature of grief, art, culture, and generational trauma. Yes I said lightweight because while our narrator Cyrus may be a recovering drug and alcohol abuser intent on finding purpose in life through death, there is a consistent undertone of humor and self discovery that permeates only those brief years of young adulthood we get to experience before society forces us to get our shit together. The story didn’t hold me right away, but as soon as I settled into loving Cyrus, I accepted the dream sequences and breaks for poetry interspersed between a somewhat fragmented plot and switching POVs. It was full of multigenerational stories in a flashback narrative structure, tightended by the (aptly) poetic language and moments of transcendent clarity only true artists can convey. Myths are stories we tell ourselves to make living tolerable. “The abyss gave me art.” Sacrifice is noble. We should attempt to transend the base needs of the body but also fully acept them and turn them into astronomically expensive art. The ouroboros of it all! It reminds me of how Monarch butterflies migrate - the ones that start the journey are not the generation that makes it to the final destination. Martyr! is like that. I ended up very happy with the final destination, even if I had gone through a few mutations to get there.
The Vibe✌️: Reality Bites mixed with Never Have I Ever but more mature dude problems, Hereditary without the gore, Fleabag, Writers & Lovers.
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam - I am going to be brief with this one because it is not out for another few weeks and I plan on writing a full dissertation on it so for now I will say, this book was unsettling, weird, and deeply thought-provoking. Its about Brooke, a young-ish woman looking to find her place in the world and make a difference through her work. When Brooke is hired by a prominent elderly philanthropist to help give away his money, she becomes closer to her boss than seems appropriate. This one is deep on the themes of race, class, and money as security and power. The prose was stilted but effective, if not always enjoyable. It didn’t surpass Leave the World Behind and I don’t know I would recommend it to everyone.
The Vibe✌️: The Other Black Girl mixed with Luster, unsettling main character behavior, uncanny valley vibes.
The Nix by Nathan Hill - From my summer TBR, this was the perfect book to end August. It’s a decade-spanning messy family drama that is both political and entertaining, also perfect for an election year. One night, seven year-old Samuel’s mother Faye kisses him goodnight and never comes back. Decades later, Faye is caught on TV throwing rocks at a conservative polticial candidate. As Samuel struggles to restore their relationship, write a book on her life, and keep Faye out of prison, we get insight into Faye’s life and the choices that brought her here. The story is also layered with chapters on marginal characters, rounding out the narrative like a choir of human confusion, including Samuel’s hostile failing student and his new friendship with a gaming addict. Clearly I have a thing for chonky multiple-POV people dramas. The novel is hilarious and creative, and heavily reminded me of The Bee Sting. I will read anything Hill writes (Wellness is up next!).
The Vibe✌️: The Heart’s Invisible Furies, the Las Vegas section of The Goldfinch, mixed with The Royal Tenenbaums for flair.
Penance by Eliza Clarke - Penance is a super dark portrayal of adolescent angst in a small UK town and a dissection of what happens when real-life crime becomes True Crime Content. The premise: Three high school girls set their classmate Joan on fire. Years later, a true crime podcaster investigates, collecting first person testimony, co-opting diaries, and linking together media from TV, internet chats, and blogs to paint a picture of small town obsession and hate. The novel implicates us, the reader, in perpetuating true crime culture through an unreliable narrator and salacious details. While this all sounds right up my alley, I struggled with the teenage voice narration - although true to life, I found it nearly unreadable in parts and difficult to endure for hundreds of pages. As an elder millennial who just missed the Tumblr era, perhaps this book was simply not meant for me.
The Vibe✌️: modern teen movies meets Dateline meets your cousins true crime podcast? maybe? For fans of Ottessa Moshfegh or Lisa Taddeo perhaps?
Fallen (Will Trent #6) by Karin Slaughter - I slowed down massively on these audiobooks. I believe the technical term is burnout. They all started blending into one story so that I had to go back and figure out what this one was even about. When Detective Faith Mitchell enters her mother’s house to pick up her newborn baby girl, she finds a dead man in the laundry room and a hostage in the bedroom, with grandma and baby nowhere in sight. Her partner Will Trent and doctor Sara Linton assist Faith in solving the mystery of her missing mother, uncovering secrets from her past along the way. I really enjoyed the plot and getting some background on our beloved characters but it lands somewhere in the middle of the Will Trent series so far.
The Vibe✌️: I mean, it’s Will Trent all the way! With some Dr. Spencer Reid vibes thrown in the mix. For fans of gruesome crime police procedurals/thrillers.
Have you read any of these? Got any on your TBR? You do now!!
reading 📖→
I just finished The Nix, so I don’t have a next read lined up. I have a couple I want to get through before I finish my fall recs, but if there are any spooky-adjacent books you’ve been wondering about and would like me to test for poison first, let me know!
consuming📽️🎧→
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice!!!
The new film sequel is out on September 6th, and I am literally squealing with anticipation. The musical version was one of the best live show experiences I’ve ever had and now all I wanna do is suck up all the awesomeness.
Read this interview with the original Beetlejuice cast before watching
Or This interview with Jenna Ortega who might be the cutest person on the planet
Watch this ask me anything interview with Jenna and Winona
and this interview with all three generations of Deetz women that broke my little black heart
books in my cart🛒→
Free spooky season preview! I went on thriftbooks.com looking for weird mass-market paperbacks of some classic horror books. Here’s a bit of what I got:
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Misery by Stephen King
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
book news and restacks📰→
If Gilmore Girls and co had Substack (I live for Gilmore Girls content) from
(Substack).This Substack Book Group Directory thanks to
(Substack).A new project from
that looks spectacularly creepy (Substack).I always love
s work, but this one felt especially relevant to anyone who has experienced any kind of long-term health issues. Also it’s simply beautiful: Can you control your health? (Substack).Are bookstores just a waste of space? (The New Yorker).
And the Kirkus Prize finalists were announced. Not suprised to see James, and this seals the deal on Prophet Song getting squeezed inbetween spooky reads so I can finalize my thoughts on the Booker Pauls (Bookshop.org).
and cats 🐈⬛→
suspicious
let’s chat 👻→
What was the best thing you read in August? Or this summer?
Are you excited for spooky season or are you not strange and unusual?
What are you reading currently, and is it any good?
in case you missed it 🖤
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See you around the bookshelf!
Be still my beating heart - thank you for such a beautiful boost to my recent post, my friend. I’m so glad it touched you.
And, oh my - this post is chock full of goodies! First off, W&T sounds a bit too painfully close to home for me and yet I’m super intrigued. I’ve said it before, but curse you, McGlocklin! I will never be done with your recs before I buy the farm 🫠☠️.
The only one on here I’ve read is Underground Railroad. I’ve read a few other Whitehead books - Sag Harbor, the Nickel Boys, Apex Hides the Hurt. What I enjoy about him is his topical range. He mixes serious topics with joy and irony too (not always in the same book, but that’s what I like - you never know what you’ll get when you pick him up. As for his writing style/quality, it’s not my favorite, but nothing I’ve ever wanted to DFR.
I loved your “vibe” description of the teen book - cracked me up!
Question: ever read any non-fiction? I’d say I read 75% NF and 25% F. I wish I had the stomach to review books the way you do (so succinct! so descriptive! so succinct!). If I did, I’d write up a review of the one I’m reading now - A Therapeutic Journey by Alain de Botton. Maybe I’ll do a short review in an upcoming post, because it’s definitely health related. Anyway, it is a simply stunning book. It has taken my breath away multiple times. His turns of phrase are just so sweeping and yet so rooted in reality and relatability. Just gorgeous.
Two last things: 1) I am in love with your kitties - please tell them, 2) I’m going to need you to chart your reading time for me, Spreadsheet Sister. I can never wrap my head around your ability to finish so many books and also do life. I can’t be the only one wondering this! Where’s Jenovia?? lol.
Creepy is the name of the game — thanks so much for including Apocrypha!