What. A. Month. Taking a few days off at the beginning of March, I had a bit more spare time on my hands to enjoy and relax. I read six books, four of which were sitting on my shelves for quite some time, one being a gift and one our current book club read. Additionally, I listened to four audiobooks, one of which was the first of a new cozy fantasy/mystery series I started recently. With ten books overall, this was an excellent reading month and apart from the DNF of the month, I enjoyed all my reads, even the two ⭐️ ones.
Let’s look at what I found on my shelves this month, shall we? These are my books of March 2023:
DNF of the month: Miranda July The First Bad Man
Let’s put the worst book at the beginning. I know little about Miranda July other than that she’s a filmmaker, writer, and artist. I loved her short story collection No one belongs here more than you and therefore looked forward to diving into her first novel, The First Bad Man (despite it sitting on my shelves for over a year now…). However, this time it didn’t work for me. Seems there’s a reason my edition of the book doesn’t have any blurb. Besides, one should never read anything Lena Dunham recommends. Never.
DNF’ed on page 55. It’s just too much up its own ass (just like Lena Dunham, I guess). Will read something else by July when I’ve recovered.
Meh but kinda ok? Christine Mangan Tangerine and Alexander Andrews Who is Maud Dixon?
I pool these two books under one category because, well, they feel similar. Both take place in Morocco and the US, and both feature complicated female relationships, murder, and identity theft. Moreover, both are Eurocentric/US-centric af despite most of the stories taking place in Tangier and Marrakesh/Semat.
Christine Mangan’s Tangerine has been on my book wishlist for quite a while and when my book club decided it would be our next read, I was looking forward to finally reading it. Researching Beat literature and the Beat authors years (decades?) ago, I love reading about Tangier and especially Tangier in the 1950s, knowing that Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch there, getting help from Kerouac and Ginsberg. (https://www.beatdom.com/in-tangier/) I knew from the blurb that I had to expect a story derived from Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and while I didn’t particularly enjoy that book, I had high hopes that Mangan would find her own way of telling a similar trope.
Alas, she did not. Of course, the setting, characters, and certain features — first and foremost the main story taking place in Tangier and not Italy — are different, but overall, I got the feeling I got a copy of Mr. Ripley with female main characters. Apart from that, Mangan also missed the chance to discuss societal and historical upheavals that were happening just when her characters were living in Tangier — in 1956 Morocco, and with it Tangier became free and a sovereign state again.
Focusing instead on a generic love triangle (or rather, various love triangles) that slowly but steadily leads to one of the main characters losing her footing in any sort of reality and herself — for the benefit of the other, obviously — follows the footsteps of Tom Ripley, but doesn’t do the book any good. Logical fallacies that are just too obvious not to miss, like the fact that the timeline and age of the characters simply don’t work out, add to the overall impression that the author had a decent idea but wasn’t capable of actually implementing it.
Alexandra Andrews’ Who is Maud Dixon? goes in a similar direction, though it’s set in modern-day Morocco instead of expat heaven Tangier of the 1950s. After being fired from her job in a publishing house, Florence Darrow is hired as a personal assistant to star author Maud Dixon, whose real identity is unknown to the world except for her agent Greta. What sounds too good to be true usually is, and this is no exception.
But it takes Florence and us a while to realize just what is really going on with Maud and her life. In the meantime, the women go on a research trip to Morocco, nearly get killed (multiple times, actually), Florence has cliche-ridden encounters with the next-generation surf expats in Semat and the Moroccan police, and we learn more about Maud Dixon’s life.
In the end, everything will be fine. The book has lost three characters, Florence has gained new freedom on different levels, and Morocco is again just a backdrop instead of part of the story. But by then I finally accepted that the Tangier (and Morocco) I wanted to read about wouldn’t be found in these books and so I ordered Paul Bowles’ Travels. As a good friend of mine said recently, if I buy a new book and put it on my shelf, it’s technically part of the challenge as well, and she is right.
The underdog of the month: Rosie Andrews The Leviathan
This was a gift from Wonderguy, and it hardly got any time on shelves. Starting slowly, Rosie Andrews’ The Leviathan gains momentum over the next 200 pages, gradually revealing the depth of deception intended as a good deed but resulting in devastation and loss. It’s a quiet book that unfolds its magic through a clear and unemotional narration that nevertheless is gripping and keeps the reader (or at least me) on the edge. Stacey Hall considered it “dripping with atmosphere,” and I can’t find more appropriate words to describe it.
Reading about the job…? Martin Lindstrom Buyology
Working in advertising and marketing, I know a thing or two about willful deception for the sake of selling shit no one needs. Personally, I’m not a fan of mindless consumption and I’m doing my best to stay informed and learn about how to buy and consume more consciously and sustainably. That’s why I thought a book like Martin Lindstrom’s Buyology would be interesting to read. After having it on my shelves for two years, now was the time to learn about how the big bad guys are manipulating us into consuming bullshit. Alas, that’s not really what I got.
Martin Lindstrom is a ‘branding expert’ and he talks like many of the people I work with. This is probably the reason why he is so successful — selling shit is, above all, a question of using the most suitable lingo. Accordingly, this book is less about how consumers can avoid the tricks of advertisers and more about how advertisers can trick people into buying their shit even more effectively. In it, Lindstrom describes various experiments in neuromarketing he conducted with several research partners.
Therefore, it’s interesting for someone working in marketing/advertising, but not so much for someone trying to learn more about fighting consumerism. Also, I don’t appreciate the anecdotes and lingo of the book, mainly because I work in an environment where people seriously talk like that (which is not the author’s fault) and heaven, could we please get our heads out of our asses for once? (Lena Dunham vibes, again. Not good. Maybe Dunham should go into advertising…)
Wrong kind of book for this kind of reader. Least favorite of my books of March 2023.
The madness of it all: David Diop At Night all Blood is Black
Though I read war literature regularly, most often my focus is on literature from the Vietnam War and the War on Terror, mainly because of my academic work. Having read many WWII books in school, today I prefer to learn more about ‘the Great War,’ maybe because it laid the ground for what happened in Europe in the interwar years, maybe just because it’s the ‘big’ war of the 20th century I know least about.
David Diop’s At Night all Blood is Black tells the story of two Senegalese soldiers fighting for France. Growing up together, Alfa and Mademba are not only friends but brothers. When one dies in the trenches, the other loses more than just a companion.
Told in a confessional tone, we learn about Alfa’s past, present, motivations, and dreams. Apart from that, we read about the madness that was fighting in the trenches, from announcing an attack by blowing a whistle to the graphic depictions of what it looks like beyond epic tales told to promote the illusion of heroism above sanity and individual autonomy. I absolutely loved this book — highly recommended.
The highlight of the month: Gwen E. Kirby Shit Cassandra Saw
I found this collection a few months ago and it screamed my name the moment I laid eyes on it. With the blurb saying “… In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren’t ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach-warrior who snaps back at their catcallers…” I just had to get Gwen E. Kirby’s Shit Cassandra Saw. And I was so right. It’s hilarious, surprising, insightful, and thought-provoking.
Having said that, now go and get yourself a copy. You won’t regret it (and if you do, you can blame it on me 🙂 )
Audiobooks of the month
I got through four audiobooks in March, with two of them being novellas from Korea which were fairly short, one being a rather forgettable bestseller and one being the start of my new favorite escapist book series.
Not sure what to make of this: Ruth Hogan The Keeper of Lost Things
Being the cover whore that I am, I can remember stumbling upon this book several times in my local bookstores. Reading the blurb, however, I wasn’t so sure if Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things was right up my alley. Storytel once again saved the day (and a few euros) and after listening to it on the app, I’m glad I didn’t buy the book.
Following the stories of Anthony, Laura, Freddy, Sunshine, Eunice, and Bomber, we learn about their lives, motivations, and dreams, with the stories of lost objects intricately interwoven in the overarching storyline. I liked Eunice’s and Bomber’s story, even though it doesn’t sound that healthy to me, but who am I to say what’s good or not?
However, the stories moved on slowly and were quite often foreseeable. Many characters were one-dimensional, and I’m also not sure if “dancing drome” is in any way appropriate to use regarding someone with Down’s Syndrome (doesn’t sound ‘right’ to me — native speakers help me out here!). In short, it was okay, but nothing more.
The ones left behind: Kwon Yeo-Sun Lemon
When a crime is committed, often the focus isn’t on the victim but on the perpetrator. We hear this on countless true crime podcasts and YouTube channels. But what about the family and friends of those murdered? What happens to the people in the immediate surrounding of the crime — family, friends, or even suspects? Kwon Yeo-Sun’s Lemon tells the stories of those left behind when someone is murdered.
Over the course of 17 years, from the time 19-year-old Ha-eon is murdered to the present day, we encounter different people who knew either Ha-eon herself or her little sister, Da-on, who hasn’t given up trying to find the perpetrator. Throughout the years, Da-on has to go through a lot to find herself in a world that is more interested in her dead sibling than in her being alive and well.
It’s a story of grief, vengeance, atonement, reflection, deception, and the curse and blessing of being the one left behind. Strange, sad, and fascinating. Glad I found it.
Fear of the future: Kim Hye-Jin Concerning my Daughter
This is a dense story, packed to the brim with important topics, some of which seem to be even more difficult in modern-day South Korea. A mother in her 60s allows her thirty-something daughter to move back in with her so she can save some money. Her daughter, Green, moves into the family home with her life partner of seven years, Lane. The mother has a hard time accepting that her daughter lives with a woman and has no intention of living a ‘normal’ life, getting married, and having children.
What initially seems like a story mainly focused on LGBTQ+ issues, we come to realize that one main motivator for the at time cruel actions of the mother against Lane are rooted in her fear for her daughter being alone in old age. Working as a carer in a nursing home, she sees firsthand how badly old and demented people are treated — especially the ones with no family to look after them and see if everything’s fine. Being the primary carer of a once successful, childfree single woman who is now forgotten and lost to dementia, she concludes that Jen would not be in such a desperate state if she’d had kids, and fears that the same could happen to her daughter — or, probably, herself if there are no grandkids around.
While the situation for elderly people seems to be bleak in Korea, at least according to the narrator, Concerning my Daughter is a depressing and infuriating book. The mother’s refusal to accept her daughter’s LGBTQ identity, blaming Lane for misleading Green, may seem understandable in the context of her worries; this, however, does not make it any more bearable. Furthermore, the book addresses a crisis a lot of us will face at one time or another if we’re lucky enough to reach a certain age: what will happen to us once we can’t live and function on our own anymore? Who will take care of us? After we’ve lived a life on our own terms, are we allowed to leave it on our terms as well?
Heavy read. Difficult topics. Again, glad I found it.
Escapism of the month: Elle Adams A Wild Ghost Chase
After I finished listening to Annabel Chase’s Spellbound series, I was on the lookout for my next perfect escapist adventure and seems like I’ve finally found it. Elle Adams’ A Wild Ghost Chase introduces reaper witch (I kid you not, she’s half reaper, half witch) Maura, who works as a sort of freelance ghost hunter when she needs the money. She shares her life with her ghost brother Mart as well as all the other spirits she can see and who like to bother her whenever they need something from her. When her most recent assignment brings her to Hawkwood Hollow, she’s overwhelmed not only by the sheer number of ghosts inhabiting the place but also by the special charm of her clients as well as a certain detective she has to work with.
Sounds cozy? It is. It’s also hilarious and surprisingly suspenseful, and the narrator has a lovely British accent. Enjoying my timeouts in a cozy English paranormal town and looking forward to some more adventures with Maura and her ‘gang’ (alive and dead).
Ten books is a lot, even for me. As most were between 100 and 300 pages, of course, this helped to reach such a high number (though this is not a contest, it’s a challenge lol). We’ll see if I can keep up the pace in April.
For now, so long, thanks for passing by! Take care and have a good time 🤓