All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews (2014)

So I started reading this book a few nights ago, and it was so good that I was planning on spending my Friday evening curled up on the couch until it was done. Which is exactly what I did, but I had to contend with my roommates having an impromptu get-together with buddies of theirs to eat pie. As in, they showed up at the door, pies in hand, right when I was getting to the saddest part. (All My Puny Sorrows is about a woman who’s trying to keep her suicidal concert pianist sister from killing herself; it’s loosely based on the author’s real life. So yeah, it’s a tear-jerker.) Luckily my roommates’ friends brought two pies (blueberry AND lemon meringue) and they were all pretty focused on those, so I could basically just cry in the corner without anyone noticing. I think.

Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon (1957)

This is the first of the so-called “Beebo Brinker” series of novels, although there’s no mention of Beebo Brinker (a character) in this book. This series, written in the late fifties and early sixties, was apparently one of the first that focused on lesbians, and Odd Girl Out was notable in that it was one of the only books of the time where the lesbian protagonist lives happily ever after, so to speak.

Even in modern-er pop culture, lesbian and bisexual characters are often raped or murdered (e.g. Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), fired or arrested (e.g. the lesbian teachers who were fired in Annie on My Mind), played for laughs or mentally unstable (e.g. serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster), or the characters or their sexuality is written out all together (e.g. Jess and Jules, rather than ending up together, have a crush on their male coach in Bend it Like Beckham). The other option is that the finished, published product is banned or otherwise censored, like The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which I reviewed a few months ago, before it was dropped from a summer reading list in at least one school district. Even though it’s really good!

Anyway.

Odd Girl Out focuses on Laura Landon, a shy, unassuming, unsure-of-herelf first-year college student. Laura develops a crush and starts a relationship with one of her roommates, Beth Cullison, a senior student who’s smart, interesting, outgoing, funny, president of the student union, etc. etc. I won’t give away the ending if you haven’t already read it, but I will say “score one for the introverts!”

The woman behind “Ann Bannon” (a pseudonym) was a lesbian married to a man in the 1950s, and wrote these books as a form of escape. She started writing them when she was only 22 years old. (And what am I doing with my life?) They were some of the most popular “pulp fiction” (cheap paperback novels, often purchased in drug stores, train stations, etc.) ever published, and Odd Girl Out was the second-best-selling paperback of 1957. Bannon wasn’t even aware of this until many years later when they were reprinted, several times over. They were also included in LGBTQ and lesbian-specific anthologies, as well as on university reading lists.

I just stumbled upon this book at my local library, where it was sitting innocently on a shelf. I hadn’t heard of it before, but I picked it up anyway. I’m happy I did, as I enjoyed it immensely. (I stayed up until 3 a.m. reading it.)

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (2014)

This is the newest novel from mystery writer Robert Galbraith (which, for anyone still out of the loop, is a pen name used by J.K. Rowling, of Harry Potter fame). I thought it was excellent. I read the whole thing in one day, if that’s any indication to you.

Here's a picture of me reading with the kitties.