July Book Roundup

Everything I read last month

Hello and welcome back! First off, there were two books I read half of in July but did not finish: Already Dead by Denis Johnson and Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark. I found the Johnson to be a mostly painful slog but dutifully made it through 200 pages before giving up on it entirely. I’m a Johnson fan in general, so if you love this book, please don’t hate me. Some of the writing is beautiful but dear god is it meandering. The book is nearly plotless and though I don’t always need a proper plot, all the characters are so utterly spaced-out and rambly that I began to feel like I was at work, dealing with some particularly annoying library patrons. No thank you! On the other hand, the Mary Shelley book wasn’t bad at all, but only the first half is a proper biography. The latter part is a literary analysis of her various works. I haven’t actually read much Shelley, so I didn’t really care to get through all that. I did enjoy learning about her tragedy-packed life, though. Here are all the books I actually finished this month:

Skeletons in the Closet by Jean-Patrick Manchette

This is the second of Manchette’s two novels featuring the rather inept private investigator Tarpon, a French ex-cop who left the force after killing a protester. It moves at a breakneck pace and was the perfect short book to read on a couple of treadmill sessions at the gym. It’s gruesome and funny and bizarre, with corrupt cops, New Age weirdos, and other strange characters careening around making mayhem. Not peak Manchette (for me that’s Fatale, so far), but a fun read nonetheless.

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

Now this is a great book. Here we follow the ruthless nouveau riche social climber Undine Spragg as she navigates the upper-class milieu of turn-of-the-20th-century New York and Europe. Vain and beyond self-centered, she’s never satisfied with anything - her gowns, her husbands, her friends, you name it. Social dominance drives everything this single-minded nightmare of a person does. It’s very funny in a brutal, peeking-through-your-fingers sort of way. Definitely worth reading.

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

My friend Russell recommended Cosby to me recently and I’m so glad he did. This book absolutely rips. It’s a serial killer thriller set in rural Virginia about a Black sheriff whose investigation into a school shooting takes a very bizarre turn. It’s a fast-paced, layered book that manages to explore heavy topics like racism and religion without sacrificing thrills. Some might find it to be a little too message-heavy, but it worked for me. This will undoubtedly be adapted into an HBO show and I hope they do it justice.

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

I immediately felt the need to read some more Cosby, so I gave this one a shot. I didn't enjoy it as much as All the Sinners Bleed, but it’s still quite good. It's about two ex-con fathers, one Black and one white, who team up to exact revenge after their married sons are brutally murdered in what appears to be a hate crime. There’s an absolutely preposterous amount of ass-kicking and murder and I found the story to be more predictable than I’d like, but I still enjoyed the ride. Again, Cosby doesn’t shy away from sticky subjects. Here we find him tackling race, class, homophobia, and transphobia in less-than-subtle ways. But hey, I align with his perspective, and I think that the very popular book might help open the minds of other readers. And again, it’ll make a great TV show.

Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain

I reread this for July’s noir book club. Labeling it noir might be pushing it - it’s more of a melodrama - but I love this book so much that I wanted an excuse to force some other people to read it (I make all the book club selections). Mildred Pierce is a young housewife with two girls and a loser husband, struggling through the Depression in sunny Glendale, California. It opens with her kicking his unfaithful ass out of the house and follows her hard-fought rise from homemaker to restaurateur. Unfortunately one of her daughters is straight-up evil, though, which derails poor Mildred’s entire life. Todd Haynes adapted this into an excellent HBO miniseries featuring Kate Winslet in the lead role, and the movie starring Joan Crawford isn’t half bad either.

I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally

A memoir by the proprietor of the legendary New York restaurants The Odeon, Minetta Tavern, Balthazar and many more. I can see why his hubris and name-dropping would grate on many people, but I found McNally to be pretty charming. The story about being deeply turned off by the oversized luggage a gorgeous actress brings over to his apartment is extremely funny (my friend Jocelyn says that the unnamed woman is Gillian Anderson). It’s nonlinear and the structure can admittedly be a little bit annoying, though. If you follow him online you’ve probably already read the book, but if you haven’t, maybe start with Instagram and see how you feel about him first.

The Met Gala by Bruce Wagner

The Met Gala is published in conjunction with another novella, Tales of Saints and Seekers, and I haven’t read that one yet. But The Met Gala…oh my god. It’s demented and hilarious and I absolutely loved it. It follows a family of deeply fucked-up billionaires as the matriarch stages her own version of the Met Gala in Los Angeles after Anna Wintour disinvites her from the real thing because word gets out that she let her trans daughter have bottom surgery at 11 years old. I can’t overstate how batshit crazy this book is. Shoutout to Theda Hammel of the podcast Nymphowars for the recommendation.

The Blue Room by Georges Simenon

I picked this up at the iconic Bart’s Books in Ojai on a lovely day trip from LA. It’s one of what Simenon called his “romans durs” - or “hard novels” - and I think it’s actually the first non-Inspector Maigret book of his that I’ve read. It’s a slim, nightmarish tale of an affair gone extremely wrong. I remain unconvinced that the highly prolific Simenon could write even a mediocre book - they’re all bangers!

Until next time…