by Junot Diaz

The first section is about Oscar as a young boy – Dominican immigrant, nerdy, overweight, cannot attract a girlfriend. This is the story that grabbed me.

The second section is about his sister Lola – tough, raped at the age of eight and nobody cared, steely, strong, mother hates her, they fight, she rebels. Now I was REALLY into it.

The third section is about the mother’s backstory in the Dominican Republic. It’s all about how the mother has big tits. She has an affair with a general. I couldn’t wait for this section to end, and was starting to feel bait-and-switched. The footnotes were growing thicker and harder to read.

Thankfully, we do come back to Oscar, from the perspective of his erstwhile college roommate and erstwhile boyfriend of Lola. I really liked this character. From here, we bounced around the various characters until the big climax that led to Oscar’s life being so brief.

There was a great deal of violence. I hated how men treated women and how women treated themselves. It did not end up being the book I signed up for and I would not recommend it.

by Ann Angel

A big picture-book bio of Janis for kids or young adults. Knew it all, probably seen all the pictures too; but gave me an excuse to spend time with her. Love, Janis.

by Oliver Burkeman

I subscribe to Burkeman’s email list, so I had kind of already read a lot of these.

I can’t believe he gave a shout-out to someone who advocates the mantra, “I choose to live in Easy World, where everything is easy.” I get the spirit of what he was trying to say; but I went to that woman’s website, and talk about woo-woo out the wazoo.

One of my favorite topics, arguing with myself about how bad a person I am, is covered (on Day 17). “Does anyone imagine that Vladmir Putin lies awake at night, worrying if he’s really as caring and thoughtful a person as he’d like to believe?” See? You’re better than Vladmir Putin. Reducto at Putinum.