SANDWICH by CATHERINE NEWMAN
A Gen-X ode to perimenopause, parenthood, and the messy beauty of family life. Set over the course of a single week on Cape Cod, Sandwich is funny, poignant, and sharply observed. It's so refreshing - and unusual - to read about a functioning, more or less happy multigenerational family. An absolute joy - highly recommended!
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by GABRIELLE ZEVIN
If you hate video games, read this book, it'll turn you right around! An epic exploration of the lives of two video game designers and the brilliant art they create. Fantastic!
THE HUSBANDS by HOLLY GRAMAZIO
A multiverse novel in the vein of The Midnight Library, this hilarious, trippy, and unexpectedly moving story follows a chronically single woman as she’s magically thrown into one life after another - each with a brand-new, totally unique husband. Like cyberdating on hyperdrive.
ALL FOURS by MIRANDA JULY
A deep dive into the interior world of a bisexual, perimenopausal, mothering, obsessive, sex-crazed protagonist. July meticulously evokes in bizarre, fine-grained detail the inner workings of a forty-something creative. And the sex...so real you can practically smell it, raw and unhinged. All I can say is - wow.
MARTYR! by KAVEH AKBAR
I’m no poet, and this is a poet’s novel, full as it is of free verse and extended dream sequences. I really had to push myself to get to the end of this one, and the final chapter had me wondering why I’d bothered. Still, the protagonist is well drawn - his experience of being trapped between worlds (neither Iranian nor American, neither gay nor straight) is skillfully portrayed, and his struggles with addiction and grief are visceral and real. Worth the read overall.
MOBY DYKE by KRISTA BURTON
Where oh were have all the dyke bars gone? In Moby Dyke, journalist and blogger Krista Burton attempts to answer this question by going on an epic tour of each and every remaining lesbian establishment in the US of A. Anyone with Sapphic tendencies will be dying for a road-trip by the time they get to the end of this one.
DETRANSITION, BABY by TORREY PETERS
The premise of Torrey Peters' debut novel is genius: Ames, a trans woman who has returned to living as a man owing to difficult life circumstances (not, as current right-wing discourse would frame it, because the original transition had been a mistake), has accidentally gotten his lover Katrina pregnant. Overwhelmed by the idea of fatherhood and the very cis social role that entails, Ames goes to his ex-partner, the trans woman Reese, and asks her if she would become second mother to his child.Â
Will Reese accept? How will Katrina react to this unconventional proposition? Why did Ames detransition in the first place?Â
The resulting story is extremely engaging, at times heartbreaking, and consistently hilarious. Peters portrays the lives of both trans and cis women in vivid, intimate detail, while telling a story so well paced, and so full of wry humor, that the pages fly by.
Highly recommended!
IN AT THE DEEP END by KATE DAVIESÂ
A Fleabag-esque coming out story in which the protagonist goes from mild-mannered straight girl to sex-club-attending-fisting-aficionado within the space of a few adventure-filled months. Engaging and fun, this is a great hardcore lesbian sex-explainer for the uninitiated.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by JOAN DIDION
In 2003, Joan Didion's husband John Dunne had a heart attack and died, just as they were coming back from visiting their comatose daughter in the hospital. This memoir spans the year after his loss - a fine-grained exploration of grief and heartbreak.Â
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by KURT VONNEGUT
I first read this novel when I was twelve, and I think it did something to my brain - I can't help but see time as a Tralfamadorian does, stretching out into the future and past like a great mountain range, unchanging and unchangeable. If you haven't read this poignant and bizarre sci-fi-cum-WWII memoir, do so.Â
Courtney's bookshelf:
