What I'm reading

I’ve been reading a lot lately, even though the weather has started to improve. Reading while it was snowing out side was good, but reading in the late afternoon sunlight is even better, I’m finding.

Charlotte’s Web, by TH White. This is for a banned books discussion. Charlotte may or may not have been banned or challenged in either Florida or Oklahoma or both (lots of google citations but hard to pin down origins). I hadn’t read it since I was a kid and it was lovely to rediscover it. Great first sentence: “’Where’s Papa going with that ax?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.”

The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert. Essays, often focusing on disasters (tsumanis, 911, the Yosemite caldera, accumulation of nuclear waste, global warming). In spite of this it isn’t a gloomy book; very well written and engaging.

No One Can Pronounce My Name, by Rakesh Satyal. Novel set in a suburb outside Cleveland, it focuses on members of the Indian-American community, in particular, Ranjana, who has aspirations to be a writer, and Harit, who, in order to help his mother through her grief at his sister’s death, dresses up in the sister’s clothes and impersonates her. I don’t remember who recommended this to me, but whoever you are, a big thank you, because it is wonderful and I loved it. Also loved discovering a Cleveland writer I didn’t know of (although he’s no longer a Clevelander - now lives in NYC).

Miss Southeast, by Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers. Essays, described as an exploration of being queer and female in the South. I heard her read part of the first one at a bookstore reading (shout out to the great Loganberry Books) and bought the book so I could finish the rest of it.

Glance, by Chanda Feldman. Poems: written in straightforward language which is also deep and tender, about motherhood, about identity, about finding the self in the world. I heard Chanda read at the same reading at Loganberry – it was a dynamic night!

My Inconvenient Duke, by Loretta Chase. A historical romance, by my favorite romance writer. I’ve been reading Chase forever, and I’m never disappointed by her books (although of course I have favorites, for Instance, Lord of Scoundrels and Mr. Impossible).