Hi folks, thoughts below on my reading from July 2022. However, before I get into the books just a quick comment on two small process changes.
First, I'm going to open each clearout post with a note on whether any book from the month made it to my book of the year shortlist. What does that mean? Reader, there is no method to this madness, but I'll try to explain - if a book appears on the shortlist then you'll know it's among my top ten to fifteen books from the year. Although I won't go so far as to say a book on the shortlist is a recommendation, I'll admit that (for now) it's the closest I'll ever get to suggesting reading material.
Second, I'm going to continue tightening up these summary posts. As longtime readers know, the quest for TOA efficiency is an ongoing and never-ending endeavor. I'm not quite at the point where I'm willing to just say "I read it and it was fine" - I still think it's useful for me to come up with some reflection on each reading experience - but the other side of this argument is that each additional word I write about a book is one less word I write for something original. (Stay tuned for more developments on this utterly fascinating situation.)
OK, without further admin - here's my reading from July 2022, none of which made it onto my 2022 book of the year shortlist.
High Risk by Chavi Eve Karkowsky
Karkowsky details the many aspects of pregnancy and childbirth in this wide-ranging book. Many of the chapters are organized around stories from her career as a high-risk pregnancy doctor. I think this book is a good fit for a reader seeking information on the topic, but please note that it doesn't quite read with the same ease which might be anticipated by those whose previous medical reading has centered around popular bestsellers.
Nothing specifically from High Risk has stayed with me over the past few months but I did find a couple of nuggets to highlight from my reading notes. First was the possibility that people who wish to talk about something years later may still be processing the grief, fear, or anger of that incident. The desire to discuss could be partly explained by having been unprepared for the emotions faced during that experience. In some ways this note (which I feel also applies outside the specific context of the book) describes why Karkowsky wrote it - to prepare people for some of the potential complications of pregnancy and to help them from being emotionally blindsided. I also noted the commentary connecting treatment with publicly-funded healthcare - when taxpayer dollars are closely connected to the medical system, the care someone receives can be thought of as a net gain for everyone in the sense that a healthy person is likelier to make a larger contribution to future tax revenue.
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
I believe Grand Union was Smith's first short story collection. Though I didn't think of it as highly as I've done with short fiction by other authors, I suspect I'll still seek out more of her work in the future. I think anyone who has previously enjoyed Smith's work will like Grand Union, but from scanning reviews it doesn't seem like it was anyone's personal favorite. From these twenty or so stories, I marked "For The King" as a reread.
As usual with short fiction, my reading notes are a scattering of one-line insights into the meaning of life. I pulled out two to highlight here - first, that one of the costs of racism is distraction by the way it forces people to stop and justify their existence, over and over again, to those who are free to continue unimpeded with their lives; second, that people can seem brave when they just don't recognize the risk.
The Winter Father by Andre Dubus
At some point during the pandemic I decided I would reread all of Dubus's short fiction, which in hindsight was an excellent yet somewhat time-consuming decision. The Winter Father is the second of three collected volumes spanning his full career, containing work previously published in The Times Are Never So Bad and Finding a Girl in America. I noted the stories "The Winter Father" and "A Father's Story" for future rereads.
Longtime TOA readers will know that I've previously had much to say about his work, so perhaps there is nothing I can add today that would influence your interest in reading his stories. But for those unfamiliar to these parts, perhaps a refresher will be helpful. You should know that Dubus tends to write on the long side of short fiction (some of these works are appropriately classified as novellas). His stories generally center isolated, middle-aged men who might defend their worldviews as being "a product of the times", but most of these protagonists recognize deep down that such words walk the fine line between explanation and excuse. Much like how Haruki Murakami's characters inevitably find themselves in a jazz bar, Dubus's subjects regularly cast their shadows over the Merrimack. Somehow, all of these details are the hallmarks of a master at work, whose writing illustrates the world as it is experienced by one person and leaves the reader with a slightly richer understanding of other lives.
The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker, Jim McCormick, and Gary S. Topchik
This was the rare book that I checked out of the library after noticing it on a shelf. I almost never make such an impulsive "purchase" - I usually look for a bit of information online to get a sense of the work before placing it on my reserve list. I believe the official reason I chose The First-Time Manager, first published in 1978 and described by Amazon as "a true management classic", was because someone in my team had been recently promoted into a managerial role. I thought this was potentially a good recommendation to help her prepare for the transition, but since I hadn't read it myself I knew I should give it a try first.
Of course, in life there are official reasons and then there are real reasons. The real reason I checked out this book is that I've been toying with the idea of writing a book. My idea is to help people who are taking on managerial responsibilities for the first time. For me, one consideration in this process is to get a sense of the competition, so when I saw this book I also saw it as a good place to start assessing the options currently available in this area. Let's just get straight to the outcomes - I thought overall this was a decent read containing some helpful advice, but I didn't recommend this book to my team member and I think I can write a much better book myself.
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Roll your eyes if you must but by now we should know that I'll never pass up a chance to put a title like Then We Came to the End as the final section of a post.
Ferris's 2007 novel intrigued me for the clever gimmick of it being written in the first-person plural, describing the experience of a downsizing office through the collective eyes of its remaining employees. I think I enjoyed this book slightly more than the average reader, which might be more a reflection of how my work experiences made this book relatable to me. I don't think anyone will consider this a literary classic but I can recommend it as a light read for winding down before bedtime.
