3 Books a Month – July (Summer Reading)

Happily continuing the three-books-a-month challenge, and getting halfway through some fantastic summer reading, I actually tried to be a little more ambitious than the three book-minimum and hit the four-book mark (proud as I was to have been able to do this last month) – alas, this was not meant to be – apparently, I was a hell of a lot busier in July than I was in June. Thinking back on this, I'm going to say this was true – at one point I found myself in over my head with a graphic design project while on a plane heading to a horror film festival – the very plane I was supposed to have been reading that elusive fourth book of the month. I decided at that point it would be alright to save the book for the flight back, the same flight in which the novel (Ian Banks' “The Wasp Factory”, if you're interested) wound up in the elastic-strapped back pouch of the seat in front of me while I watched Daddy's Home 2 all the way back to Vancouver; and despite even having a couple of hours to kill at LAX, most of that time was eaten up chatting with a couple from Philadelphia who had a ten-hour layover coming back back from a cruise. It was a nice chat, though. So, the three books I had managed to finish before that last week in July were my requisite three for the three-book challenge. The first book, “Cosmopolis” by Don DeLillo, was a fanatical and sexualized ride through the poetry of finances, global economic breakdown, and revenge. It was also a novel I had thoroughly wished that I had read a few years ago, before filming Odissea della Morte. The next one, a recommendation from last month's challenge, was Shirley Jackson's “We Have Always Lived in this Castle”, which turned out to be laced with unyielding philosophical insights into the good and the bad of human nature, and what, sardonically, might really be the actions behind what makes us “good”. This novel ended up being one of the best pieces of literature that I've read in a very long time. I had to return that one to the local library, but I'll be on the lookout for it now to purchase. The last of these three books was a Roberto Bolano book I'd found totally by fluke at the same library (and at the same time) I was returning the Shirley Jackson novel to – my eye caught it on the way out, and I picked it up before leaving the library; it was a Bolano book I'd never heard of before, “Una novelita Lumpen” – but reading it reminded me of how much I loved Bolano's “The Skating Rink” and “The Woes of the True Policeman”. “Una Novelita Lumpen” is a very quick read, and almost as good as “The Skating Rink”. It's bright and engaging and mysterious as it delves into the slightly enigmatic psyche of a young woman who, as a novice to sex and crime, ends up wildly involved in both.