All Boys Aren't Blue

All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir Manifesto by George M. Johnson is about a boy who felt he didn't fit in who become a young man trying to figure out who he really is. I picked it up as part of the Velshi Banned Book Club, not really sure what to expect. 

It's not a book written for me, but I could certainly appreciate the heart and soul he puts into to creating a... hmm... not sure what the word would be. It's not a guide book. But it is a book to offer guidance and comfort to others going through a similar crisis of self that Johnson went through. His story is about a queer Black boy, but it would work for anyone questioning his or her sexuality.

Which I suppose is the reason why this book has been banned. Why this very much needed book has been banned. People, it's not a "how to" book. But I can imagine reading George's story might make a kid questioning where they fit in realize that others have gone through what they've gone through. They are not alone.

Johnson was truly blessed to come from such a loving, accepting family. I was pleased that he knew that. And I wish that for everyone.

I have my DVR set to record Velshi tomorrow morning. I really want to hear what the author has to say.
 

Milk Fed

I do my own sort of doom-scrolling probably about once a day and while I'm scanning the headlines for (mostly bad) news, I often come across literary reviews and articles with book recommendations. Milk Fed by Melissa Broder came up on several of those lists in the spring and early summer. I requested it from the library and it became available shortly after I got home from vacation. Judging from the blurb on goodreads, it didn't sound like a perfect fit for me, but I was intrigued. 

Here's the blurb:

A scathingly funny, wildly erotic, and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex, and god from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today.

Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.

Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.

Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche—both sacred and profane.

 

There were parts of the book that I found interesting (like when discussing the Palestinian issue with Miriam's family). There were other parts where I wanted to scream to Miriam and tell her what to do - or what to not do. Many issues were resolved within the novel but with no explanation at all of how they were resolved. That's what I found most lacking.

It was a quick easy read. I enjoyed Broder's writing style. 

Next...

City of Girls

I'm sure I'm not alone in having read Elizabeth Gilbert's blockbuster memoir, Eat, Pray, Love and then never picking up an Elizabeth Gilbert novel. I'd heard mostly good things about City of Girls, I enjoyed Gilbert's earlier writing, so I requested this one from the library and waited. It sounded like something I'd like. 

Copied from goodreads.com: 

"Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love."

New York City, 1940s, theater, sex... I'm there!

I'm still not sure about how I feel about this novel. I did find the story very interesting. Once again, I enjoyed Gilbert's writing style. But... Did you see that "but" coming? This novel was way too long and felt very dragged out to me. That's what made it possible for me to put  aside City of Girls and pour through I Will Always Write Back in the middle of my reading. I knew I'd come back to it because I wanted to see where Gilbert was heading, but I needed a break. Was the novel too long? Perhaps. Did it include details that didn't move the story forward? Perhaps. Did I enjoy Gilbert's writing style? Yes. Was it very repetitive? Possibly but probably not. Was character development suburb because of how dragged out  it was? Yes. Would the characters have been more likeable had they not been so well developed? No... that's just silly. However, I didn't find many of the characters at all likeable, and the few that I did like weren't likeable until the final 25% of the novel.

Would I recommend City of Girls? I'm really not sure. There are so many great novels out there and this  was simply a good story.
 

Girl, Woman, Other

I was very engaged in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other. It's the January choice for my community book club. I probably should not have read it so far in advance since it's a book with lots of characters, lots of nuance. I hope I remember enough to be able to discuss it intelligently two months from now. I'd love to be discussing it now. There's just so much meat to it.

Now, how to describe this fictional title. Is it a novel? Is it a compilation of related short stories? I'm not even sure how I'd categorize it. Evaristo's writing style is unique. It's a combination of prose and poetry.

But what is is about? It's about the intersecting lives of several women. Mostly in England. Mostly women of color.  It explores their relationships with their parents, their partners, their friends. It examines their sexuality. It dissects career choices. It's about identity. It's about how to fit into society. Like I said, there is so much there.

What can readers relate to? What can readers learn from the characters in the book?

I found a great blog post that with some notes written down now should help me remember some of the things I'll want to bring up at book club  in January. I need to explore that website to see what they have for other books I might have read.