Jet Lag
Currently reading:
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
Averno by Louise Glück
Books finished this week: 2
★★☆☆☆
Where this book came from: Ordered online from Barnes and Noble, my evil corporate overlords of choice.
Why this book: Booktuber Riley Marie loved this one and it sounded squarely in my wheelhouse. Victorian/Gothic literary heroes remix? YES.
Thoughts: Though most of the characters are beyond their teenage years, this felt firmly like YA. There’s nothing wrong with YA novels as a whole or reading them after you’ve aged out of the target audience; just a note to curious readers. My issues went beyond that, dealing more with structure and characters. On the structure side, the main narrative is being written by one of the main characters in the book, and her work is frequently interrupted by interjections by other characters. This felt like a fun exercise at the start, but very quickly wore out its welcome with me. The asides didn’t offer helpful or interesting context and usually only served to kill any tension or momentum the narrative had built. As for the characters, the reveals of each girl and her backstory are treated like huge revelations when anyone who has read or watched a spooky thing will recognize almost all the names and premises. I also found the main character, Mary (Jekyll, for the record), way too chill given all the chaos and potentially world-flipping reveals happening around her. Sherlock Holmes is also in this book and he and Mary seem to have a bit of a flirtation or mutual interest, but, um . . . how old is he supposed to be?? This was a fun little book, but not worth a reread. Let me put it this way: I was running out of room in my suitcases after AWP and I decided to abandon this book in my hotel room for someone else to find and, hopefully, enjoy.
★★★★★
Where this book came from: Purchased from the Feminist Press booth at AWP.
Why this book: The title and cover caught my attention, and then it just felt like a book I needed to read. Also, Michelle Tea was sitting at the table and said it was amazing, so there you go.
Thoughts: So, I wasn’t a teen mom. But I do love words and witchcraft. Something about this book and the narrative just spoke to me. It’s super stream-of-consciousness and the lines blur between realism and magic and I just went with it. I asked myself once or twice early on if things were actually happening, when things took a bit of a turn. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. I just went along for Ariel Gore’s ride, and I was thrilled to follow her. Excited to have found another amazing author whose bibliography I can dig into and learn from!
Library updates:
I am very tired this week, but it’s nice to have a specific reason to point to for that. It isn’t an amorphous, mental-health-driven malaise; I’m just jet-lagged from spending a week on the West Coast. I woke up with the sun my first two or three days over there; I woke up at 11am my first morning back in New York. I’m still figuring it out.
But, California! It was an incredibly book-ish time, just the kind of trip I like. I was lucky enough to get a pass and travel stipend through school to attend AWP in Los Angeles, where I went to probably a dozen panels over three days and took genuinely unhinged amounts of notes. Walking the conference floor and just seeing how much is out there was enlightening and encouraging: there are so many opportunities out there for us writers!! We just need to put ourselves out there to grab them. I came away from the conference feeling a renewed drive to and excitement about finally putting together submission lists for some short stories. I want my stories out in the world. (I would also love for an agent to find me via my short fiction.)
I also got to meet my best school and writing friend, Meg (hi, Meg! And everyone go follow her writing adventures on Instagram)! That was the most fun and surreal thing about the conference, finally making an IRL friend out of a Zoom one.
Obviously, I also found time to pop into Last Bookstore, because I didn’t buy enough books on the conference floor . . .
After the conference, I spent a wonderful few days with Alyssa (hi, Alyssa!), first with a belated birthday dinner in LA and then down in San Diego, exploring the flower fields in Carlsbad, Seal Rock in La Jolla, and, yeah, more bookstores, what of it?? We both had an equally excellent time doing all those things!!
It was really such an exhausting but excellent week, absolutely worth the jet lag. Booksellers, writers, and readers are the best people, and chatting with so many of them gave me the shot of adrenaline I’ll need to get through the end of thesis semester and into the next phase of my writing career, and I’m so thankful for it.
Closing thoughts:
Talk to book people. They’re the best.
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 140
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 290)
I don’t want to talk about it.
Actually . . . yes, I do. I could indulge any number of vices. If my main one is giving money to cool book people, so be it. The books pictured here were acquired from small presses at AWP (including Feminist Press, Unicorn Press, Two Lines Press, Turtle Point Press, Creature Publishing, and Bloomsbury [not exactly a small press, but still]), Last Bookstore, Ripped Bodice, and Village Well in LA, and Mysterious Galaxy and Warwick’s in San Diego, and I’m happy with all of that. I had a wonderful time finding, selecting, and purchasing each of these books, especially when Alyssa (hi, Alyssa!) and I spent more time than expected wandering Mysterious Galaxy and finding incredible new stories to enjoy. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I also got a text from Bendy (hi, Bendy!) a couple weeks back about how she enjoyed that “moratorium” seems to have a new meaning in this blog. Thinking on that, I like it too. Words have meaning, and I’m choosing to stretch the meaning of that one to suit my needs. This blog isn’t a full “moratorium,” in the accepted sense of the word; a moratorium, to me, is about reining yourself in and keeping track of all the things you do, but it doesn’t have to mean depriving yourself——myself——of joy.
Sorry to basically write a second missive in the closing caption. I just have a lot of feelings.
