Diversity – A WRITER'S GOTTA WRITE

Finished book #130 in 2025

12/26/2025 by John

Book #130	Book: The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall		Author: Cookie Woolner
	Source: Library loan Format: E-book	Pages: 210	Duration: 12/23/25 – 12/25/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, queer, history, Lesbian, LGBT, race, education
📕10-word summary: Academic study of Black queer women in the Jazz Age. 🖌6-word review: Mostly fascinating. Sometimes infuriating. Text-book style.
💭A memorable quote: In 1926, the Black newspaper The New York Age published a front-page article with the graphic headline “Woman Rivals for Affection of Another Woman[,] Battles with Knives, and One Has Head Almost Severed from Body.” The lengthy opening sentence read: “Crazed with gin and a wild and unnatural infatuation for another woman, Reba Stobtoff, in whose Manhattan apartment her friends and acquaintances had gathered for a Saturday night rent party, grabbed a keen-edged bread knife and with one fell swoop, severed the jugular vein in the throat of Louise Wright after a fierce quarrel in which Reba had accused Louise of showing too much interest in a woman named Clara, known to underworld dwellers as “Big Ben,” the name coming from her unusual size and from her inclination to ape the masculine in dress and manner, and particularly in her attention to other women.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: deportment, liminal, dissemblance, interwar, extant, dirk, swains, rent parties, buffet flats, imbricated, specious, inveigling, nances, chorines
Description:^* Black queer women have shaped American culture since long before the era of gay liberation. Decades prior to the Stonewall Uprising, in the 1920s and 1930s, Black “lady lovers”—as women who loved women were then called—crafted a queer world. In the cabarets, rent parties, speakeasies, literary salons, and universities of the Jazz Age and Great Depression, communities of Black lady lovers grew, and queer flirtations flourished. Cookie Woolner here uncovers the intimate lives of performers, writers, and educators such as Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Gladys Bentley, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Lucy Diggs Slowe, along with the many everyday women she encountered in the archives. Examining blues songs, Black newspapers, vice reports, memoirs, sexology case studies, and more, Woolner illuminates the unconventional lives Black lady lovers formed to suit their desires. In the urban North, as the Great Migration gave rise to increasingly racially mixed cities, Black lady lovers fashioned and participated in emerging sexual subcultures. During this time, Black queer women came to represent anxieties about the deterioration of the heteronormative family. Negotiating shifting notions of sexuality and respectability, Black lady lovers strategically established queer networks, built careers, created families, and were vital cultural contributors to the US interwar era.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}
Thoughts: I’m going to count this as having taken a course in Queer Studies, Gender Studies, or African American Studies, because early on in this book, I thought, “This reads like a text book or somebody’s dissertation.” Turns out it was the author’s 2014 doctoral dissertation at the University of Michigan, was adapted into a book published by the University of North Carolina Press, and has been used as a college text book in various courses. It’s extremely educational and a mostly fascinating, sometimes infuriating (i.e., discrimination, hate crimes, police brutality, etc.) look at the plight of queer, Black women in the 1920s and ’30s. The chapter names are: Introduction: Have We a New Sex Problem Here? One: Woman Slain in Queer Love Brawl: The Violent Emergence of Lady Lovers in the 1920s Northern Black Press Two: The Famous Lady Lovers in the Early Twentieth-Century Black Popular Entertainment Industry Three: A Freakish Party: Black Lady Lovers, Vice, and Space in the Prohibition Era Urban North Four: Intimate Friends and Bosom Companions: Middle-Class Black Lady Lovers Crafting Queer Kinship Networks

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

It’s National Coming Out Day

10/11/2025 by John

Everyone in their own time. I took 35 years to get up the courage to do it.

Three 50-word stories about the emotional toll of living in the closet for 35 years.

Keeping up appearances	In the interest of me	To come out—or check out
I’m married to a woman, but I am a terrified, closeted gay man trying to keep up the charade. So, I “ogle” at “big tits” and traveling as a trainer for work, I make sure I refer to “my wife” at least once while introducing myself. It’s kind of exhausting.	I was a young Republican because I believed I was a self-made man—before I learned about privilege. But mostly I identified as such to distance myself from “the gays.” Voting against their interests, I couldn’t possibly be one, right? I’m still embarrassed and haunted by this. I’m so sorry.	Riding home from my $100K job, to my $250K home, in my $40K car, I wonder: “Is there any way to plunge this ‘ultimate driving machine‘ into that ravine and ensure I won’t live with an ‘intended to die’ for the rest of my life?” It’s unbearable living like this.

A hagiography is an idealized or idolized biography. This hardly manifests itself more often and dramatically than in obituaries. Seems like almost everyone who dies was virtually a saint. John Paulk calls out the hagiography in the death announcements about James Dobson.

As a gay man who spent the first 35 of my years on this planet in the closet — also known as not living my authentic life — and coming out only after considering driving my car into a ravine, this post speaks to me on all levels.

John Paulk was once the nation’s leading “ex-gay” spokesperson with Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In 2013, he renounced conversion therapy, apologized to the LGBTQ+ community, and now lives openly as a gay man.

James Dobson’s Legacy Isn’t Family Values: It’s Broken Lives Like Mine.
By John Paulk

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, died today [Aug 21, 2025] at 89. Obituaries call him a giant of evangelical Christianity and a defender of families. That isn’t what I remember. I remember the damage.

Believing the Lie
For five years, I worked inside Focus on the Family. I was hired to direct the Homosexuality and Gender Division and created the Love Won Out Conference, which toured the country and sometimes drew more than a thousand people. From those stages, I introduced “ex-gays” who told audiences that homosexuality was a condition that could be changed if someone was motivated enough.

And I wasn’t just organizing the conferences — I was the poster boy. My story was held up as proof that “change” was real. I was placed on magazine covers, invited onto national television, and interviewed by countless major newspapers and radio programs. I wrote two books and spoke to audiences across the United States and Europe. My marriage, my children, and my faith were showcased as evidence that the movement worked.

But the truth was very different. I lied to the people I preached to, but I was lying to myself the most. I had become brainwashed by the false narrative that sexual orientation was changeable when it was not. Every headline that proclaimed me “cured” drove me deeper into despair, because I knew the truth hadn’t budged.

Behind the scenes, the torment was unbearable. I remember nights alone in hotel rooms before a conference, waiting to go onstage to tell my story of “freedom.” Instead of resting or preparing my notes, I would end up on the carpeted floor, curled in on myself, sobbing until my body heaved and I vomited. The weight of the lie crushed me: the truth I could not change, and the performance I was expected to deliver.

I remember one night in particular. The crowd was already gathering in the ballroom below, the sound of muffled voices rising through the vents like a distant hum. A knock at the door jolted me upright — an assistant checking to see if I was ready. I splashed water on my face, straightened my tie, and forced a smile into the mirror. But just minutes before, I had been begging God through tears: “Please lift this responsibility from me. I cannot do this to myself or others any longer.”

Then I walked out, took the stage, and told the crowd exactly what they came to hear.

That split — between the man on the stage and the man on the hotel room floor — nearly destroyed me.

Breaking Point
Faith had become a weapon aimed at people like me. We were told that “real Christians” must seek to be changed, that obedience meant erasing who we were. And when change never came, the conclusion was devastating: maybe we weren’t “real Christians” at all.

But the deepest harm wasn’t just mine. It was inflicted on young people who sat in those audiences and watched me on those stages and TV programs. Teenagers saw the posters, read the interviews, and thought: If he can do it, why can’t I? Parents brought their kids to us, hoping to “fix” them, only to leave with more shame and less love.

The science has confirmed what our lives were already shouting. The American Medical Association warns that conversion therapy doesn’t work and causes lasting harm. A 2022 meta-analysis in JAMA Pediatrics, covering nearly 200,000 LGBTQ people, found that 12 percent had been subjected to conversion efforts. Those young people reported double the rates of severe psychological distress and suicide attempts compared with their peers. The American Psychological Association likewise concluded in 2009: no evidence of change, overwhelming evidence of damage.

I didn’t need journals. My life was the proof. Conversion therapy didn’t make me straight. It made me ashamed, hollow, hopeless and suicidal.

Living Out Loud
I left the movement in 2003 and became a chef in Portland, Oregon. I never again spoke about my past or its aftermath. But in 2013–ten years later my struggle was to the point that if i didn’t do something to change all of this I was going to take my life. I couldn’t live with myself any longer. When I came out (again) it caused a national stir. After years of intense therapy and numerous national apologies to those for whom my message hurt, things began to mend.

Today, my life could not be more different. I live out loud. I walk in truth and authenticity. I no longer split myself between the man in public and the man in private — I am simply myself. I am a gay man–whole, safe, secure, and loved.

I spend my days being a voice for the disenfranchised and for those who feel lost without hope. I’ve dedicated myself to speaking truth, not lies, and to helping others untangle the shame I once carried.

And I am a joy-filled, loving father and grandfather. My children know me as I truly am — not a façade, not a “poster boy,” but a man who loves them without condition and who is loved in return.

I believe now what I wish I had known all along: that God loves us as we are and walks with us through the difficulties of life. Not as a punisher demanding change, but as a companion offering strength, grace, and love.

Reclaiming Life
When I read that James Dobson is being remembered as a man who cared about families, I think instead about the families torn apart by his message. Parents taught to fear their own children. Spouses trapped in marriages built on self-denial. Young people who looked at me — the smiling “success story” on the magazine cover — and walked away believing they were broken beyond repair because they couldn’t replicate my lie.

Dobson’s empire baptized cruelty and called it love. That is his true legacy.

But those of us who lived through it are writing a different ending. Our story is one of survival. It looks like telling the truth, even when it costs. It looks like acknowledging our complicity while naming the coercion. It looks like building lives where we no longer need to prove our worth.

For years, I parroted a message that broke me as much as anyone else. Today, I live in truth.

James Dobson has died. But we survived.

John Paulk can be reached at:
Johnpaulk9107@gmail.com
503-442-1111

Gendered restroom signs

07/07/202507/05/2025 by John

I don’t know what we’re going to do when the women in these gendered restroom signs decide they’re going to wear pant suits instead of skirts.

Finished book #45 in 2025

06/16/2025 by John

Book #45	Book: Abscond: A Short Story		Author: Abraham Verghese
	Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 38	Duration: 06/15/25 – 06/15/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, short stories, coming of age, relationships, family, death, Indian culture
📕10-word summary: Fate challenges Ravi to find his place in the world. 🖌6-word review: Great author. Compelling characters. Tight story.
💭Favorite quote: “You want to know when I fucking see God, Connor? I see God when Sheryl McGilicutty comes to our pool in her bikini and I see the outline of her coochie. That’s God speaking right there.”
🎓Some new-to-me words: sambar, idli, palaver
Description:^* It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}
Thoughts: This was a bonus free short story First Reads book for June 2025. I was curious to see what an author of often “heavy” and often long books would do with a short story — and what the heck, it was free! I read Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone (560 pages, so intense!) 13 years ago as one of our Mostly Social Book Club‘s 2012 books, and I’ve had my eye on his The Covenant of Water (715 pages!) for a while now, but I’m not ready to commit to that yet. Not unexpectedly, the writing and tale told in this short story was excellent, and the subject matter, while grave, was less intense to me than Cutting for Stone. This is an author whose work I like, so I’m sure I’ll eventually get to The Covenant of Water.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

On this day 31 years ago…

04/17/202504/17/2025 by John

On April 17, 1994, I came out of the proverbial closet.

I like the idea that I’m approaching the year when I will have spent as many years out of the closet as I spent in, which will happen in 2030. I’m currently at 36 years in, 31 years out.

In 2021, I wrote these three 50-word stories about the emotional toll of living in the closet for 35 years and why people say, “It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders when I came out.”

Keeping up appearances	In the interest of me	To come out—or check out
I’m married to a woman, but I am a terrified, closeted gay man trying to keep up the charade. So, I “ogle” at “big tits” and traveling as a trainer for work, I make sure I refer to “my wife” at least once while introducing myself. It’s kind of exhausting.	I was a young Republican because I believed I was a self-made man—before I learned about privilege. But mostly I identified as such to distance myself from “the gays.” Voting against their interests, I couldn’t possibly be one, right? I’m still embarrassed and haunted by this. I’m so sorry.	Riding home from my $100K job, to my $250K home, in my $40K car, I wonder: “Is there any way to plunge this ‘ultimate driving machine‘ into that ravine and ensure I won’t live with an ‘intended to die’ for the rest of my life?” It’s unbearable living like this.

Finished book #30 in 2025

03/30/2025 by John

Book #30	Book: Greek Lessons	Author: Han Kang
	Source: Library loan Format: Print	Pages: 176	Duration: 03/20/25 – 03/29/25 (10 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: literary fiction, Asian literature, romance, Nobel Prize

📕10-word summary: Sight-losing professor and speech-loss adult student connect on several levels.
🖌6-word review: Concentration required: arduous-to-read, Nobel-prize-winning, lyrical literature.

💭Favorite quote: “She has goosebumps on her arm and on the back of her neck from the aggressive air conditioning.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: imperious, hanji, zelkova, inarticulacy, maru, dappled, cryptomeria, fretsaw, paroxysm, philtrum, declensions, iljumun, bunsik, stridulations, hanok

Description:^* In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: I saw this book on BookBub and the description intrigued me enough to check its availability in the library. I liked the plot premise and that it won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2024. Not surprisingly though, that made arduous reading at times. Several times I put it down after reading only a short bit of it. I didn’t discover until a good way into the book that the male protagonist’s storyline was in first person and the female protagonist’s storyline was in third person. Short on dialogue tags, there were times when I could only tell who the speaker was by whether it was in first person or third person particularly in chapter 19, A Conversation in Darkness. I expected to like this book more than I did, but I’m just not a huge fan of lyrical writing, and this book was no exception in spite of being a Nobel Prize winner.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #29 in 2025

03/30/2025 by John

Book #29	Book: Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds	Author: Nancy Johnson James
	Source: Library loan Format: Print (picture book)	Pages: 32	Duration: 03/19/25 – 03/19/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: nonfiction, African American, poetry, biography, history childrens

📕10-word summary: Short, biographical introduction to an African American seamstress and poet.
🖌6-word review: Lyrical prose. Beautifully illustrated picture book.

💭Favorite quote: “What thoughts do you carry when idle with nothing to do? Do you dream of the future? Or of someone who lived before you?”

Description:^* What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity. She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem she called “Sunshine.” She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #28 in 2025

03/30/2025 by John

Book #28	Book: Notes of Unspoken Words	Author: Jennifer S. Alderson
	Source: Free BookBub download Format: Kindle	Pages: 259	Duration: 03/14/25 – 03/19/25 (6 days)
	Rating: ★★★☆☆	Genres: fiction, MM romance, MMM romance, LGBT, polyamory

📕10-word summary: A dysfunctional gay male couple takes in a third partner.
🖌6-word review: Existential angst, self-doubt — to a fault.

💭Favorite quote: “I’d never seen three men together in a committed relationship. Before me sat three groups of them. It was great to see.”

Description:^* Casper loves two things — his guitar and his stepbrother, Reed. Being in a band with Reed is both amazing and torturous. If only Casper could get out of his own way and tell Reed how he feels. The lead singer, Reed’s passion is music, but he’d give it up if it means staying in Casper’s arms. When a new man enters their lives, he could be who Casper and Reed are missing to make them whole. The lost soul, Elic’s world tilts when he meets Casper and Reed. Living on the streets has left scars on Elic, inside and out. He’s surprised to find both men desire him. Their relationship is tested repeatedly. Truths are revealed. They will have to lift each other up and prove their love is worth it if they want to see what their future looks like.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: I’m not a fan of romance novels at all — and after reading this one, I’m still not. The only other gay romance novel I’ve read has the most oddly specific genre I’d seen to date: gay Amish romance, and it was called A Forbidden Rumspringa. I nabbed this book from BookBub back in December as a free download, and finally decided to give it a whirl. One blurb I read about it contained two acronyms I had to look up: MMM and HEA. There was a lot of, “I don’t deserve you,” or “You deserve better,” “I don’t deserve what’s happened to me,” etc. In other words a lot of existential wallowing. Also a lot of thinking the wild sex and intensity of their feelings for each other was going to last forever. Ah, youth!

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #26 in 2025

03/13/2025 by John

Book #26	Book: Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer	Author: Quartez Harris
	Source: Library loan Format: Print (picture book)	Pages: 40	Duration: 03/12/25 – 03/12/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, biography, picture book, art, writing, childrens, African American, LGBT

📕10-word summary: Rare children’s biography about an African American and LGBT person.
🖌6-word review: A lyrical, beautifully illustrated picture book.

💭Lyrical quote: “The first time James Baldwin read a book, the words clung to him like glitter.”

Description:^* Before James Baldwin was a celebrated novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and activist, he was a boy who fell in love with stories. Words opened up new worlds for young Jimmy, who read and wrote at every opportunity. He ultimately realized his dreams of becoming an author and giving voice to his community, and in doing so he showed the world the fullness of Black American life.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I was curious to see how a children’s book would (or wouldn’t) address the fact that James Baldwin was gay, and I suppose it was “age appropriate” that it wasn’t mentioned at all as part of the main story. It is covered in a back-matter section called, “More About James Baldwin,” which noted: “As a young adult, Jimmy began to reckon with his sexual identity. He was queer and felt romantic love toward both men and women, which was an aspect of identity that was rarely spoken about publicly during that time. That silence made him feel alone.” The back matter also contains short “A Note from the Author” and “A Note from the Artist” sections. This book is beautifully illustrated.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #22 in 2025

03/13/202503/07/2025 by John

Book #22	Book: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories	Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
	Source: Library loan Format: Print (picture book)	Pages: 48	Duration: 03/06/25 – 03/06/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: nonfiction, biography, African American, poetry, picture book, childrens, art

📕10-word summary: Author Toni Morrison’s life beautifully honored in poetry and pictures.
🖌6-word review: Brilliant accomplishments. Understandable poetry. Glorious art.

💭Compelling quote: “You, Tony Morrison, first-of-the-first brown-skinned bosses, bringing color to an all-white literary landscape.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: griot, gutbucket

Description:^* From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer who helped change the world. This poetic picture book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With its tender refrain, readers will know how much Morrison’s stories — and their own — mean to the world. She was loved — and so are they!^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, Go tell it: how James Baldwin became a writer, and Dream a dress, dream a poem: dressmaker and poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I didn’t expect this one to be poetry, but thankfully, it was very accessible poetry. I knew that Toni was a Pulitzer Prize winner (1988), but I didn’t know (or remember) that she’d also won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993) and that President Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012). This book is beautifully illustrated.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #19 in 2025

03/13/202503/02/2025 by John

Book #19	Book: The Rules of Fortune	Author: Danielle Prescod
	Source: Free Frist Reads download Format: Kindle	Pages: 293	Duration: 02/28/25 – 03/02/25 (3 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, mystery, thriller, African American, family

📕10-word summary: Family faces hard truths in wake of businessman patriarch’s death.
🖌6-word review: Good story. Good pacing. Hopeful ending.

💭Compelling quote: “Casual dress is a privilege for those given the benefit of the doubt. It is for people who will be accepted without question, and that’s not you.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: senescence, bicker, boater hat, quiddities, bouclé, B-roll, kente, diapason, rubicund, inosculated

Description:^* On their Martha’s Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate. But when the billionaire patriarch dies right before his 70th birthday, the media is quick to question the future of the multi-industry conglomerate that makes the Carters living legends. Amid the succession crisis, his daughter, Kennedy, is questioning her father’s past. Kennedy is an aspiring filmmaker, and the documentary she’d planned to present at her father’s party begins an inquest into the life of a man she never really knew. As a twisted history emerges, the fault lines in the family grow. Torn between morality and the promise of maintaining wealth, Kennedy must decide what’s most important—the Carter legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: I liked how each chapter was from one character’s perspective, and essentially rotated through the members of the family at the center of this story. A scene about “a request form to ensure the chef and housekeeping staff were aware of everything from who liked to sleep with socks on, to who liked their bacon extra crispy,” reminded me of a spreadsheet that my work team created once for an off-site retreat that involved several nights during which some of us would have to share a hotel room: “We’ve started a spreadsheet to note preferences such as “needs white noise,” “likes it cold,” “snorer,” “not a morning person,” etc. Well, it quickly devolved with added columns, such as: “potty-trained,” “litterbox-trained,” “nude sleeper,” “never-nude sleeper,” “needs arm rub to fall asleep,” “needs bedtime story + song,” “needs bedtime story only,” “AM radio,” and “cuddler.” And the memory made me chuckle. I enjoyed reading about “the Black experience” attending Princeton, and a couple of times thought of a book I read last year, The Last Negroes at Harvard,” to which there was an allusion in this book, in fact. There are some good thoughts in this story about capitalism vs. humanitarianism.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #17 in 2025

03/13/202502/26/2025 by John

Book #17	Book: Turbulence	Author: David Szalay
	Format: Print	Pages: 145	Duration: 02/24/25 – 02/25/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: fiction, short stories, travel, flying, interconnectedness

📕10-word summary: The ripple effect on each other of 12 mostly strangers.
🖌6-word review: Quick paced. Nice surprises. Wonderfully interconnected.

💭Compelling quote: “What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: muezzins, fug, tiffin, escutcheon

Description: A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that has also impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. The journalist’s life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn. In this novel, Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet on twelve flights, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren, or nobody at all. Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.^* ^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: During a recent after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen, through Barnes & Noble looking at books, sharing what we’ve read, and trading recommendations, she recommended this author to me. This book of his was readily available at my library, and I loved the premise. As it turns out, though, Jen recommended John Scalzi — and has never read anything by this author! But now that she’s read my review of this book, she’s adding it to her to-read list. Too funny! I loved how each of this book’s chapters was around a flight, whose chapter title comprised the flight’s departure and arrival airport codes, and after the first chapter, how each featured someone who was somehow connected to the person in the previous chapter. There were a couple of nice surprises; for example, when you didn’t know how someone at the beginning of a chapter was connected to anyone in the previous chapter, and it was revealed in such a way that all of sudden you figured it out or it became obvious. I also liked when a character seemed unlikable or unsavory in one chapter, but you found out why they might be that way in the subsequent chapter. (It reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 5th habit: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®.) If I’m remembering correctly, only the first story involved literal and figurative turbulence, the others having just the figurative sense of it — turbulence in the character’s lives. Also, I thought the ending was brilliant. I will probably put this forth as my Mostly Social Book Club book when it’s my turn again to chose one.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #15 in 2025

03/13/202502/20/2025 by John

Book #15	Book: The Answer Is No	Author: Fredrik Backman
	Format: Kindle	Pages: 68	Duration: 02/19/25 – 02/19/25 (1 day)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, short stories, humor, novella

📕10-word summary: Man who doesn’t like people very much overdoses on them.
🖌6-word review: Smart satire. Overdone hyperbole at times.

💭Compelling quote: “Therefore, to avoid your neighbors, you have to make yourself uninteresting, but not too uninteresting, because that makes you interesting.”

Description:^* Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and Pad Thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: Until this book of his, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this author. I read A Man Called Ove in 2017 and with so many metaphors and similes (several of them in one paragraph at times), the writing became distracting enough for me to abandon the book. Then in 2023, our Mostly Social Book Club read Anxious People, and I absolutely loved it! I’m happy to say I really enjoyed — albeit just short of loving — this book. I thought that at times, although it sounds redundant, the hyperbole was over-the-top — to approach being just plain silly. I’m also turned off when (professional) reviewers describe a book, like many did about this one, as “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud funny,” because humor is so personal and subjective. With all that said, it was a short, fun read, and I’d definitely recommend it. I chose this book as my November 2024 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #14 in 2025

03/13/202502/19/2025 by John

Book #14	Book: All the Lovers in the Night	Author: Stuart Turton
	Format: Audiobook	Pages: 224	Duration: 02/18/25 – 02/19/25 (2 days)
	Rating: ★★★★☆	Genres: fiction, Japan, Japanese literature, literary fiction, Asian literature, Romance

📕10-word summary: A glimpse into a mid-thirties freelance copy editor’s inner life.
🖌6-word review: Sometimes great, sometimes excruciating protagonist’s dialogue.

💭Compelling quote: “As long as you’re living on this planet, you have to be serious about something, but it’s better to be serious about a limited number of things.”

Description:^* Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it. As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: I saw this book in my BookBub email, and it sounded interesting, perhaps because the protagonist was a copy editor. I went back-and-forth between not liking and liking this book, and ended up on the “like” side, as per my 4-star rating. Several times, I had to tell myself that I was frustrated with the main character because she was an introvert when she sometimes either took forever to answer somebody’s questions, or just didn’t answer them at all. I found all three of the main people she interacted with during the story — Hijiri, Mitsutsuka, and Noriko — quite interesting. I also liked how this book did not have a “Hollywood ending.”

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.

Finished book #10 in 2025

03/13/202502/07/2025 by John

Book #10	Book: The Storyteller’s Secret	Author: Sejal badani
	Format: Print	Pages: 390	Duration: 02/02/25 – 02/06/25 (5 days)
	Rating: ★★★★★	Genres: historical fiction, India, romance, cultural

📕10-word summary: Deep personal loss leads to self-healing and uncovering family tragedy.
🖌6-word review: “A rich, thoughtfully woven generational tale.”

💭A favorite quote: “Her stories were her only passport to places she had never been. Without them, she would be forever trapped in this village.”

🎓Some new-to-me words: Dalit, ghatiya, salwar kameezes, mangalasutra, puja, lassi

Description:^* Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. ^{*From goodreads.com’s synopsis.}

Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and found it in the library, with no waiting list for it. I love, love, loved this book. It’s the kind of book that while reading, I’m thinking, “How do writer’s come up with this stuff? It may very well end up being the best book I read in 2025, and it’s only January. And it might very well become my next Mostly Social Book Club book recommendation.

See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.