Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown *****

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown after 50 years is still #34 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction on Amazon. So much wonderful is happening in this book, I hardly know where to start. It is a coming-of-age story for Molly Bolt. Molly was born poor to an unwed mother, but she was smart and ambitious. This is a Horatio Alger story. Her family pressured her to marry and have children, but she went to college. When she was kicked out of college in Florida, she hitchhiked to NYC and eventually went to NYU. This is a story of family, her stepmother disowned her but eventually said, “I did the best I could. Don’t hate me, honey, don’t hate me.” Her stepfather said, “It’d kill me to see you buckle under to anyone, especially a husband.” This is a feminist story. Molly Bolt was out and proud in 1973!

Molly Bolt was a lesbian from her first feelings of sexuality. The book is explicit about her many girlfriends.

Molly did her best to fit in. She was student council president and dated a football player in high school. In college, she joined a sorority, but there was always a point when she had enough and quit, usually with flare and panache.

She was vocal about the misogyny of the heterosexual patriarchy and fought back. When in film school, the male faculty and students conspired against her. A final film was required but she wasn’t allowed access to the cameras. She stole what she needed.

Rita Mae Brown is the author of a long series of mysteries co-author with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown.

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Check out https://amzn.to/2SpaDMN to see my books.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations. 

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl **

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl is a magic show. The story is surrounded by entertaining misdirection in the form of long sentences, popular culture, literature references (real and imaginary), metaphorical descriptions, parenthetical digressions, and excessive cleverness – not much physics. The show is so much fun that you might forget to solve the mystery, or even that there is a mystery. The story is about Blue van Meer’s senior year at St. Galway School, where she has just arrived. Thanks to her itinerant professor father, Blue has lived in “thirty-nine towns in thirty-three states, … and … attended approximately twenty-four elementary, middle and high schools.” On page 6, her favorite teacher Hannah Schneider dies. Blue and five students (playfully called Bluebloods) also forget to solve this mystery 500 pages later. I preferred 'The Lady, or the Tiger?' by Frank R. Stanton from 1882.

In the Choose Your Own Adventure tradition, the book asks questions like: Who is Hannah Schneider, How did she die, and Why did Blue’s father leave her? Each question offers alternatives, but that is the end of the book. In 'The Lady, or the Tiger tradition, the author doesn’t have an answer. I found this rather unsatisfying.

 Examples of the writing style…

At one point Blue imagines different Hannahs. There was Haight-Ashbury Hannah (old records of Carole King, Bob Dylan, a bong, tai chi books, a faded ticket to some peace rally at Golden Gate Park on June 3, 1980), Stripper Hannah (I didn’t feel comfortable going through that box, but Milton exhumed bras, bikinis, a zebra-striped slip, a few more complicated items requiring directions for assembly), also Hand Grenade Hannah (combat boots, more knives), also Hannah, Missing Person Possessed (the same folder full of Xeroxed newspaper articles Nigel had found, though he’d lied about there being “fifty pages at least” there were only nine). My favorite, however, was Madonna Hannah who material-girled out of a sagging cardboard box.

Blue’s thoughts on being called a terrible kisser. It was one of the biggest scandals of Life, to learn the cruelest thing someone could say to you was that you were a terrible kisser. One would think it’d be worse to be a Traitor, Hypocrite, Bitch, Whore or any other foul person, worse even to be a Way-out-there, a Welcome Mat, a Was-Girl, a Weasel. I suspect one would even fare better with “bad in bed,” because everyone has an off day, a day when his/her mind hitchhikes on each and every thought that cruises by, and even champion racehorses such as Couldn’t Be Happier, who won both the Derby and the Preakness in 1971, could suddenly come in dead last, as he did at the Belmont Stakes. But to be a terrible kisser—to be tuna—was the worst of all, because it meant you were without passion, and to be without passion, well, you might as well be dead.

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Check out https://amzn.to/2SpaDMN to see my books.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations. 

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves *****

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves is about a pair of murders that happen around the 50^th anniversary of an encounter group attended by high school students. Fifty years later, the students have married, divorced, and grown old. One is a disgraced TV personality, and another became rich. Back around the 5^th anniversary, one couple lost an infant and a lady died accidentally. So with two old deaths and two recent murders, Vera Stanhope and her team attempted to unravel the relationships formed over the past fifty years. “The theme of the novel is hypocrisy, and it explores the lengths some people will take to hide the sins of the past.”

COMPLICATIONS

Rick Kelsall (first murder victim) is writing a tell-all novel.

The two old deaths are called into question.

Eliza Bond’s accusation which led to the downfall of Rick Kelsall was a fabrication.

Teacher Judith Sinclair slept with her students.

Louisa didn’t like her older sister Isobel.

Charlotte (the second murder victim)’s family were gangsters, and her business (Only Connect) was failing.

Annie still feels guilty about the death of her infant.

CHARACTERS

Cops

Vera Stanhope – Inspector

Billy Cartwright – CSI

Holly Clarke – DC, detective constable

Joe Ashworth – DS, detective sergeant

Katherina Willmore – PCC, Police and Crime Commissioner. Partner to Daniel.

Doc Keating – medical examiner

Only Connect encounter-group attendees

Annie Laidler – works at Bread and Olives with Jax. Her infant died which led to her divorce from Daniel.

Charlotte Thomas – Left first meeting early, never returned, Married Rick, divorced

Daniel Rede – Married Annie. Left after infant Freya died just before the first five-year reunion, minted

Isobel Hall – died at the first reunion

Judith Marshall Sinclair – the teacher

Ken Hampton – Has dementia. Married to Louisa.

Philip Robson – became an Anglican priest

Rick Kelsall – famous TV personality, murdered at 10^th reunion

Others

Louisa Hall – Isobel’s younger sister. Married to Ken (with dementia).

Eliza Bond – Katherine’s daughter and accuser who got Rick fired (by accident)

Joanna – Vera’s neighbor

SPOILERS

Dan Rede did it to protect PCC Willmore, her daughter Eliza, and his business.

Holly dies.

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Check out https://amzn.to/2SpaDMN to see my books.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott *****

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott is ostensibly about a nameless author’s book tour for Hell of a Book. He is accompanied by The Kid, an invisible black boy. Alternate chapters feature Soot, a black boy whose parents want to teach him to be invisible to keep him safe. Throughout the tour, the news reports a black boy killed by the police and Soot sees the police kill his father in his front yard. Much of this book is about black parents protecting their children and how they feel when they fail. “Your mama, she wanted to protect you. Protect you from bullets. Protect you from cops. Protect you from judges. Protect you from mirrors that you would look into and see something less than beautiful.”

This book won the National Book Award for fiction in 2021.

“I don’t have much use for reality in my line of work.”

“But it’s only a fall if you think about the ending. Otherwise, it’s called flying.”

“Yeah, the South is America’s longest-running crime scene. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”

“Lastly, a message to the Black boy that was: You are beautiful. Be kind to yourself, even when this country is not.”

Parents give their black children contradictory advice: “Treat people as people. Be color-blind. Love openly. Love everyone.” And then, in the same breath, he would have to say to his son: “You will be treated differently because of your skin. The rules are different for you. This is how you act when you meet the police. This is how you act growing up in the South. This is the reality of your world.”

Comment on healthy lifestyle and nutritional advice: “But only certain tax brackets get the luxury of knowing something’ll kill you and being able to choose not to do it.”

“And every Black parent in the history of this country has tried to stop that monster from swallowing [their children] up and has failed at it. And every day they live with that.”

“Specifically, don’t write about being Black. … It’s common courtesy, really. … So here’s what I want you to do: I want you to make sure that you keep things as light as possible.”

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”

Check out https://amzn.to/2SpaDMN to see my books.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.