Posted 11:31 a.m. Friday, June 14, 2024
The Summer I Turned Pretty Sober
The first time I ever got drunk I was 18 years old at a friend’s birthday party. After the first few gulps of a sickeningly sweet concoction of the coconut variety, I thought to myself, “This is awful.” A few hours later when we were all tipsy, standing in the drive-through of a Taco Bell, being yelled at by some poor employee about how you must be in a vehicle to be in the drive-through and our fearless leader answered, “Sir, my body is my vehicle,” I thought, “This is great.” When my dad picked me up from this party and I went to bed that night, I, problematically, thought, “I want to feel like this forever.”
Forever, unfortunately, was very short-lived. By morning I was throwing up birthday cake in the shower while getting ready for church service. The good time of drinking is always done on borrowed time; a hangover is the universe’s way of collecting its debts. I remember sitting in a pew at Christ Episcopal Church, my head perched on the back of the pew in front of me, when my father elbowed me and told me that it was time for communion. I raised my head and weakly said, “No wine, no wine.” As you can see, the seesawing ways of alcohol consumption was something I knew almost from the jump.
I was 19 the first time I sought help with drinking, talking to a professional at the Family & Children's Center. I am 41 at the time of writing this so most of my adult life has been in this torrid, complicated relationship with alcohol. There have been many peaks of sobriety over the year followed by many valleys of wallowing in vodka.
Coming to work at Murphy Library, after spending years toiling away at the Valley View Mall, I had been sober for a year and a half. It was like being home in a way, as both of my parents had worked at UWL as professors. In the words of Madonna, this used to be my playground.
Sometimes homecomings can be very fraught, though. I had come back home, and I immediately felt the creeping dread of imposter syndrome. I looked around and thought, “Oh no, I’m out of my depth. These people are all smarter with more degrees than me. What am I doing here.” I’ve heard it said that people, no matter how hard they change, often return to their factory settings. What I was unsure about (the job, my future, etc.), I knew what I could “depend” on: whiskey.
So, I know you’re thinking, “Okay, thanks so much for trauma dumping on me, I thought I was going to read more about how much you hated The Summer I Turned Pretty.” As much as I could write a dissertation on that topic, to know this leisure project is to know my own struggles, dear reader. I got sober again shortly before I started on this reading venture, and I know with absolute clarity and certainty that there is no way I could have done this project without sobriety. Reading 101 books in 106 days takes a certain level of commitment, an amount of regimented living that could not be accomplished if my whole life was still centered around happy hours.
To be frank, sobriety is not fun. The same way that eating healthy and exercising aren’t exactly high on my list of favorite things to do, sobriety is just one of those unfun but necessary things. That’s life. Sometimes it’s just about making do. You don’t relish eating healthy food but find the right recipes, the tastiest salad dressings. You don’t want to exercise, but you find the right exercise bike, the perfect cardio routine. I don’t love sobriety itself, but I love all the opportunities it has given me like this project. I like to think that every day that ends with finishing a book and not a bottle is a victory.
41. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Keywords: Science fiction, time travel
Synopsis: Read this book.
Review: No seriously. Stop reading this list, go check out this book without reading the back cover and prepare yourself to go on a wild trip that spans 500 years but less than 300 pages.
42. The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn
Keywords: Science fiction, workplace
Synopsis: Structured as a series of interviews, The Employees delves into the various factions of human and humanoid employees as they discuss their hopes, dreams, and fears and the goings-on on the spaceship.
Review: Science fiction has a history of asking “What makes us human” and The Employees follows neatly in that tradition as workers, both human and humanoid, sit for interviews after their spaceship takes on mysterious objects that seem to be influencing all those aboard the ship. Lean in its prose, Ravn’s novel is equally intellectually stimulating as it is unsettling as it builds to its appropriately downbeat conclusion.
43. The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
Keywords: Romance
Synopsis: A longtime married couple tries to reconnect with each other while planning their daughter’s upcoming nuptials
Review: I imagine people read Nicholas Sparks novels for the same reason I eat the lemon poppyseed bread from Murphy's Mug: both sweet, both comforting, both predictable in their quality and taste.
44. Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Keywords: Nonfiction, memoir, essays, being Asian American
Synopsis: Using a series of essays, Hong details their life as an Asian American woman as well as a creative and how those identities affect each other.
Review: Funny, incisive, and eye-opening are just a few of the words I would use to describe this memoir by Cathy Park Hong. A must-read would be another set of words for it as well.
45. Joy at Work by Marie Kondo
Keywords: Nonfiction, tidying, workplace
Synopsis: Kondo instructs readers how to bring the KonMarie tidying method of sparking joy from the home and into their workspace
Review: The KonMarie Method gets a 9-to-5 in this further brand extension as Marie Kondo discusses how to have a neat and efficient workspace. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure to come by my cubicle will know that I did not take any of these lessons to heart.
46. Open Throat by Henry Hoke
Keywords: Fiction, LGBTQ, mountain lion
Synopsis: Told through the first “person” perspective of a mountain lion living in the of the hills around the Hollywood sign, the novel details the lion’s misadventures, his interactions with the greater world, and what it means to belong to a community.
Review: No discussion of a book started with “Okay, just go with me” more than this great novel all about the inner thoughts of a gay mountain lion as he lives his life along a hiking trail in the Hollywood hills. What could’ve been either too cute or too ham-fisted in less capable hands, Hoke’s deft writing crafts a story that takes a high concept premise and grounds it in a reality that makes it resonate deeply.
47. The Talk by Darrin Bell
Keywords: Nonfiction, graphic novel, coming-of-age
Synopsis: In his graphic novel, author Bell explores his life as a Black man in America, his career as an editorial cartoonist and where we are as a country when it comes to race.
Review: Often, the medium in which a message is delivered is even more critical to the success of the message getting across than the message itself. Editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell’s book The Talk, with its sharp writing and evocative drawings, does an excellent job of discussing what it is like to be a Black person in America that could feel preachy in less capable hands.
48. Dairylandia: Dispatches from a State of Mind by Steve Hannah
Keywords: Nonfiction, rural Wisconsin
Synopsis: A collection of essays, Hannah offers glimpses into the quirky lives of various Wisconsin residents he’s had the pleasure to write stories for his newspaper column “State of Mind”.
Review: A perfectly quaint collection of human-interest stories that personify the word folksy in the mold of a less sardonic Garrison Keillor.
49. Going Zero by Anthony McCarten
Keywords: Thriller
Synopsis: An assorted group of Americans have 30 days to outrun a Facebook-like company trying to secure a surveillance contract with the CIA.
Review: A slow burn of a thriller that takes off midbook and then really is quite the wild ride until the end. Extra points must be given to the fact that one of the 10 Americans who are participating in this game of high tech hide and seek is a librarian!
50. I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Keywords: Coming of age, romance, mystery, LGBTQ
Synopsis: High school senior Chloe Green has never been a fan of popular girl and academic rival Shara Wheeler, even less so after Shara kissed her and promptly disappeared. Partnering with Shara’s boyfriend as well as her neighbor, it’s up to Chloe to find the missing Shara, one pink envelope at a time.
Review: It’d be easy to dismiss I Kissed Shara Wheeler as YA Gone Girl. And to be clear, there are several books/media properties this book owes a debt to (and occasionally tips its hat to within its pages) but what works the best in this book is not the overarching mystery but the way it nails the angst of growing up, adult pressure and trying to carve out your own identity.
51. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
Keywords: Contemporary fiction
Synopsis: An interpreter is plunged into a world of mystery, thrills and romance when gets a job working at The Hague as a part of the International Court.
Review: On its surface, the premise of Intimacies would make you think that you’re in for a Tom Clancy-style espionage political thriller filled with double crosses and intrigue. That, for better or worse depending on your vantage point, is not this book. Instead of cloak and dagger machinations, Intimacies is far more concerned with the complexities of human relationships. It makes for a tense, thrilling read that works without showy bombast.
52. Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Keywords: Poetry, Covid-19, lockdown
Synopsis: A collection of poetry that tackle topics of grief, love, Covid-19, the book also includes the poem “The Hill We Climb” which Gorman read at President Biden’s inauguration
Review: If I said, “Hey, do you want to read this book of poems that, in part, talk about the Covid pandemic?” I’d probably have to follow-up that question with, “Hey, why are you walking away from me so fast?” And I get it! Poetry is the cilantro of literature. I went into this book fully prepared to not like it, but Gorman’s poems, tackling a wide ran of topics that are both deeply personal yet very universal, won me over in a way that even surprised me. And, to me, that’s the power of a good book.
53. Big Feelings: How to Be Okay When Things Are Not Okay by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
Keywords: Nonfiction, mental health
Synopsis: This illustrated book is a guide on how to navigate all the “big feelings” that can hamper a person’s life.
Review: The thing about a lot of self-help books is that they, at their core, do not offer that much different in the way of advice. Instead, a lot of what people connect with is not necessarily the substance but the style in which that substance is delivered. Big Feelings does an excellent job of being an engaging book with the way the text is married to the pages of drawings that help highlight each point. Is it revolutionary? Not particularly. But does it give helpful tips in a colorful, compelling way? Most definitely.
54. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Keywords: Historical fiction, juvenile justice
Synopsis: The story follows two young Black men who become friends at a brutal reform school in 1960s Florida.
Review: Sometimes the most effective horror story is just a recounting of historical facts. And while The Nickel Boys is not a horror tale, it is horrifying as a fictionalized telling of what happened at real life reform schools. Though the book does not shy away from the darkness of the situation, it does not wallow in it either and is able to tell an incredibly moving story of friendship and survival that will stay with the reader long after they’ve put the book down.
55. Babysitter by Joyce Carol Oates
Keywords: Historical fiction
Synopsis: A 1970s housewife, stifled by her life, embarks on a dangerous extramarital affair all while the Detroit area is in the grips of panic over a serial killer known as Babysitter.
Review: If you looked at the book cover, with its faux newspaper headline and deep red cover, you would think you were in for an exciting retro thriller. There are elements of that floating around the book, but this book is less a traditional thriller as much as it more o a mediation on upper middle-class malaise, privilege and toxic relationships with a serial killer looming in the background.
56. No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy
Keywords: Nonfiction, workplace advice
Synopsis: An illustrated guide on how to create a happy, successful work environment and non-toxic coping mechanisms to deal with work conflicts.
Review: If it ain’t broke, why fix it so Fosslien and Duffy take their Big Feelings-stylings to the office environment to equal success giving tips on creating a healthy work environment.
57/58. Milk and Honey/The Sun and the Flowers by Rupi Kaur
Keywords: Poetry
Synopsis: An Instagram sensation, Kaur’s two books of poetry deal with the triumphs and tribulations of modern life and dating, all in easily digestible, social media ready poetry.
Review: No one inspires heated literary debate on Beyonce’s internet quite like poet Rupi Kaur. Google her name and you will find scores of articles debating the merits of her work. Mocking Kaur and her style of poetry (simple, often accompanied by a drawing, Instagram post ready) and her highly emotive way of performing said poems plus its popularity among young women has become its own cottage industry. So, what of the poems? They’re . . . fine? And I write that with all due respect. Nothing I read in either book would provoke a strong reaction, either positive or negative, out of me so the discourse around Kaur remains a mystery to me. I will say this though. We do tend to come down harder on things with a primarily female fanbase as though that makes the work inherently less worthy of praise, and it’s a bias that I try my best to interrogate myself about.
59. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Keywords: Young adult, dystopian future
Synopsis: Set in a dystopian future not that far off from our present day, a girl searches for her activist mother who disappeared from the family years prior.
Review: Dystopian novels with plucky young protagonists have reached a “Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking” level of ubiquitousness that makes a reader question any writer wading into that genre what new thing they are going to bring to the table. Our Missing Hearts doesn’t break any new ground but does effectively use our own timeline and pandemic to extrapolate a scary, not out of the realm of possibility future. I did find myself entertained the whole way of the book and do hope the somewhat open ending points towards a future sequel.
60. Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman
Keywords: Contemporary fiction, writers writing about writing
Synopsis: A writer wrestles with the wounds of his past, his identity, and his family history when he returns to his hometown.
Review: A novel that reads like a memoir, Monkey Book functions more as a collection of recollections than a traditional novel with a traditional plot structure.
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Column One: Once Upon a Time...
Column Two: Life, Death and the Pages In-Between
Column Four: (101) Books of Summer