AJ Dunn Reads

  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly By Jean-Dominique Bauby  4 stars.

  Alphabetical Diaries By Sheila Heti   4 stars.

  Sociopath: A Memoir By Patric Gagne, Ph.D.   4 stars.

  I'm Glad My Mom Died By Jennette McCurdy   3.5 stars.

  Holding the Man By Tim Conigrave 3 stars.

  Wild Swans By Jung Chang Wild Swans recounts the histories of Jung Chang, her mother, and her grandmother in China and their harrowing lives under communism, the Cultural Revolution, and the rise and fall of Mao Zedong. It is sweeping in scope with difficult and often brutal descriptions of what the three women, their family, friend, and neighbors had to endure for decades. I have to admit the writing style was not my favorite, though I found the history interesting. There was a lot of telling, and hopping from place to place and event to event in jarring ways. Though there was some good and often beautiful descriptions, they were interwoven in contexts that often felt displaced. I didn't get on with it. Perhaps a different style would have made it more compelling for me because the torment and struggle Wild Swans recounts should by definition have interested me and kept me glued to the page. But I had a hard time wanting to pick it up. I can only give it 3 stars, unfortunately...

  How We Fight for Our Lives By Saeed Jones This memoir traces Saeed Jones's journey from being a young closeted boy knowing he is gay and attracted to men to his coming out experience with his single mother and beyond her death. It is a riveting and unflinching portrait of what it is like to know who you are as a young queer black man having to hide those parts of yourself that make you who you are. This memoir explores what it means to be young and gay when you have nowhere to turn for answers to your questions, which leads you into sketchy, even dangerous, situations in the quest to connect to others like yourself in your search for touch, closeness, and love. It also explores the ways in which closeted queer youth make themselves numb to violence, and how they (we) turn ourselves into perpetrators of violence or danger out of self-preservation. I could relate to this book on a soul level. I've lived some of these experiences and could picture myself in the others, acting in...

  Julie & Julia by Julie Powell Julie & Julia tells Julie Powell's year long adventure story cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking . It follows the ups and (mostly) downs of this venture while Powell tells her blog readers about her experience. Powell is a secretary adrift in her 29th year, feeling that she has not really done anything to show for her life, other than marrying a man who supports her no matter what she does. The blog and cooking project is, for Powell, a way to revitalize her life. The prose is very funny, with Powell refusing to sugar coat the fact that she is self-absorbed, selfish at times, and prone to crying fits on the kitchen floor. She never glosses over her failures or her shortcuts, and takes us through the ways she navigates relationships with her husband, mother, and friends along the journey. It's not pretty! This was a fun companion piece to the film, though written before, obviously. It is different...

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff Tobais Wolff chronicles his young life through adolescence in this memoir, which follows him and his mother after she leaves Florida for work in the west and a "better" life. Tobias takes on the name "Jack" and follows his mother through her various hopeful relationships with men who either just want to use her or who want to control her. Which is how they end up with Dwight, a seemingly-unassuming middle aged man who fancies himself to be a great hunter and fighter. Jack moves in with Dwight in his mill town before his mother joins them, where Dwight's real nature shows itself. He bullies the boy, hits him, and makes it clear that Jack is a nothing and a nobody, and should be grateful for the life Dwight will give him. When Jack's mother arrives, there marital bliss quickly devolves into Dwight's possessiveness and control. It becomes clear that Dwight wants Jack out of the picture and is pleased when Jack turns out t...