March Books

​As is evident from my reading rate being cut to 1/3rd of previous months, I am distracted by COVID-19.  So, for March, two memoirs is the total of completed reading.

Both of these are enjoyable reads, even as they contain a lot of sadness. A couple of things to know:  In the Dream House is written in an experimental form--very short chapters that all start with "Dream House as X". Some readers found this distracting and hated it. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, and I found it less distracting than I might have if I were reading it off the page. 

I will say that the book felt like an MFA thesis to me because of the ways the idea of the Dream House is put through the grinder, the way the author is constantly placing the text she wrote in context with other literary and pop culture texts (and I include movies as "text" here). So, if you try this one, be ready to give up expectations for structure and go with it. You will find things here that you recognize from your own past relationships, I suspect. I sure did.

With Maupin's memoir, realize that if you are a fan of Tales of the City that you won't get much of that here. The book is very much about Maupin's pre-fame days. The book is rich with photos of Maupin as he grew up, and he paints a portrait of his earlier life that does shed light on where his characters like Mary Ann Singleton and Michael Tolliver originated.

I was reading a New Adult novel by a writer whose thrillers I love, but it was too simple and nothing seemed to be happening in the plot. It is the start of a series, so I gave it as much chance as I could manage to set things up, but in the end I made it 50% of the way through and skipped to the last chapter. I'm not going to name it, as I am sure in a different time I would blaze through it. As it was it was slow plotted enough that it helped ensure I drifted off to sleep fairly quickly.

I hope everyone is well and can find something to hold your attention other than the news and the terrible unfolding of the pandemic.