July Book List

Forster, E.M. Maurice. 1914. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1974.*
I checked this out at the library around the time Amazon pulled it from its ranking system. So yeah, it's a book with a gay character who's unhappy and finds happiness and there's some other stuff in there as well about the shifts in life in England, business vs. landed gentry class, blah blah blah. That part is pretty familiar territory, but I'd never read any Forster before, so that was nice. I enjoyed this, because it's a pretty good book.

Kipinis, Laura. Against Love: A Polemic. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.*
This would have been funnier as an article instead of a full-length book. I remember enjoying it, but I really don't remember much about it.

Lessing, Doris. A Proper Marriage. 1966. London: Grafton, 1985.
I like Doris Lessing a lot and bought this, kind of as a joke, on my second wedding anniversary. It says right on the cover that it's a powerful novel about the disintegration of a marriage and a society. And it is. I was depressed enough to die (not kill myself, just ..... stop living.) after reading this, but I like how she challenges assumptions and types and then challenges and smashes and critiques some more. Since I know you'll never read this, I'll go ahead and spoil the ending for you: the protagonist leaves her husband and daughter for Communism.

Levine, Abby and Sarah Levine. Sometimes I Wish I Were Mindy. Middletown: Weekly Reader Books, 1986.
So what if this is only 32 pages long? I've loved this book since I got it in the first grade, and when I found it in a box last week, I just had to read it out loud to Cody. Yes, I even held it up so that he could see the illustrations (by Blanche Sims, in case you were wondering). Our unnamed narrator wishes she were like Mindy, with a mansion and call waiting and exotic vacations, but she learns to appreciate the things that she does have and realizes that their families are equal in love.

Stone, Brain, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 1959. Middlesex: Penguin, 1972.
I didn't get it. I usually don't comprehend anything in verse form. Blegh. Maybe I'll try again later. It's a nice little ...... thing.