During this quarantine I've been watching good movies, eating good food, and reading good books too.
Here's some books I read in the past few weeks:
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
It's a really short novella that satirizes the film industry and I think a lot of film buffs will love it. The characters are really fun and the way the creative process is illustrated is pretty hilarious. This book also takes place against the backdrop of World War 2 and it does a great job of showing
The Woman Without A Name by Laurence M. Janifer
This was one of the vintage paperbacks I had lying around. Before the plague I would usually buy a few vintage paperbacks from Half Price Books because they are legit fun collector's items and the coverart is always so nice.
The novel is short fast paced read and is very much gothic. A governess arrives at a manor to look over the two young girls. One day when she's on a walk she encounters a woman who SPOILER ALERT can't remember her name and the reason for her trauma has to do with the manor. The governess has to decide whether to stay or leave.
It's a fun trashy read that can easily be read in one sitting.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
After reading
Station Eleven, I was really excited to learn that Mandel had a new book coming out. This book was published in like the last week of March I think.
Like
Station Eleven,
Glass Hotel has a pretty big cast of characters and they are all interconnected. But unlike its predecessor, the book doesn't really do a great job of making those connections streamlined. The novel doesn't really have the magic of it's predecessor but it's still a worthwhile engaging read. The characters deal with these pangs of regret (the overall plot is about a Bernie Madoff like Ponzi scheme that destroys the lives of many characters) and their struggles to deal with reality (often having vivid imagings of an alternate life).
I think it's still worth reading if you still remember 2008.
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Holy fuck where do I even begin with this? The only other Yates book I read was
Revolutionary Road and like that novel,
Easter Parade really just breaks your heart into a billion pieces.
The novel is about two sisters whose parents are divorced. They grow up with the sting of the divorce and lead very different lives. One gets married young and starts a family while the other becomes a career woman. The novel spans 4 decades of their lives and shows how they change and what they go through over the years.
The ending is really heartbreaking and was legit hard to read. But this was easily one of the best books I read in the past two weeks. It's definitely going to stay with me forever.
