Here's how March turned out:
As Hans Landa says, that's a bingo!
All the squares I didn't talk about last time:
Been on your nightstand forever: Lives in Ruins by Marilyn Johnson: I've read this author's other two books, one about obituaries and one about librarians, and this was the only one left. It's also quite good and focuses on archaeologists. In true gonzo style, Johnson throws herself into the lifestyle and learns about how they live firsthand. Half travelogue, half anthropology, it was a lot of fun.
First time author: Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang: I followed up "Fortune Cookie Chronicles" with this wanting to read more about Chinese and Taiwanese history in America. I really like Huang's voice and the book is really funny. He talks about his childhood, his foray into criminal activity in his youth, experience as a restaurateur, and briefly appearing on television for a cooking show. It's very engaging and the specific style of his deprecation reminds me of Augusten Burroughs.
Genre you don't usually read: Bitter End by Jennifer Brown: I don't consume a lot of YA romance. I really enjoyed Brown's "Hate List" and her foray into mystery thriller, "Shade Me," but this left me cold. It handles the subject of intimate partner violence and domestic abuse with accuracy and sensitivity, but there wasn't really much else going on. Brown definitely shows her research with the gradual escalation of the boyfriend character's abusive behavior, but in a way, that's kind of the problem. He conforms to an example of textbook abuse too well. The voice is still good, as ever, but I was left wanting.
Written by someone of a different race: Big Machine by Victor LaValle: This was recommended to me by Greg Stolze, one of my favorite authors, saying it was reminiscent of his own style. That's definitely true, and voice is what carries this through. The content's similar to Stolze's too: magical realism in a gritty urban environment. It does a good job with survival horror through strong first person.
Published the year you were born: American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis: This has been on my list forever, and I got around to it this month. A catalogue of music reviews, impossibly gross sounding restaurant dishes, killing, and questions about haberdashery. And I absolutely loved it.
My favorite thing about it is definitely the humor. The increasingly strange subjects on the talk show Bateman watches every day (which may not even exist, honestly) got slowly more insane as time went on, culminating with the host interviewing a Cheerio (complete in a tiny chair) for a full hour. These little details are just thrown in casually in between how many pushups Bateman can do or how much the socks he's wearing cost. While on paper, it sounds like his ceaseless lists would be boring, Ellis knows just when to stop with them.
There's this one part where one of Bateman's friends says he'll meet him at the same bat time on the same bat channel, which I thought was funny, since Christian Bale went on to play both Bateman and then Batman five years later.
About event in American history: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee: I had the good fortune to actually meet Lee in a Chinese restaurant in San Fransisco very shortly after the release of this book. She was just super and showed me and my family some of her notes and research for the project, including some video of her giving people in China fortune cookies to be met with confusion, since they do not originate from China.
This clip would later be incorporated in "The Search for General Tso," a documentary covering much of the same content on Chinese food in America and the history of Chinese people in the culture. Bonus: there's actually a reason to read its prologue, something I've never encountered in a book before.
It talks a lot about Chinese food not just in America, but all over the world. Lee researches every aspect of the cuisine, even tracking down General Tso's village. Very informative and engaging.
And that was it for March. Of course, some things could go in different places: American Psycho was banned or restricted in several areas, etc.
Currently, I'm reading Marvel Comics The Untold Story by Sean Howe: It's an account of the company's history and the lives of the founders and some of the more well known talent at the time it spans. It's a fascinating read and has tons of great detail on not only Marvel, but DC as we, since the two companies' histories are certainly intertwined.
What are you reading these days? How did your bingos go? Any new reading challenges floating around out there? Tell me about it in the comments.
