Making it Up As I Go

Catching up, catching uuuuuuuuup!

Here’s what I read in August.

Zelda: A Biography by Nancy Milford is an excelllent biography of Zelda. It is also the book that made Z declare that I’m “always reading about Zelda Fitzgerald”. Zelda is truly a fascinating person and her relationship with Scott was so very interesting.

Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald seemed like a natural choice after the biography, especially after reading Scott’s statement that  Zelda could have been a genius if she had never met him. She wrote this in one big burst while in a mental hospital, and there are points where you can see the rushedness of it, but there are some gorgeous images and sections.

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest was a wonder of a find. The premise is, what if the reason Lizzie Bordon “gave her mother fifty whacks” was because her mother and father had been taken over by Lovecraftian eldrich horrors. That’s really all you have to tell me for me to be totally in, and it lives up to its potential- creepy, well written, and one of the few Lovecraft inspired books to really capture the feeling of a character going slowly mad.  I loved it.

Chapelwood by Cherie Priest is the sequel to Maplecroft, and takes place a long while later. Strange and horrible things are happening in Louisiana, and Lizzie Borden gets called in to help. It’s part Lovecraft, part True Detective, and I loved it.

Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton is really good. Glennon is a brutally honest woman, and she has some great things to say about life. I liked this one a lot.

The Determined Heart by Antoinette May is about Mary Shelley (who wrote Frankenstein), and it sent me down a crazy rabbit hole of books that you’ll see in the next post. But as to this book- it’s a novel about the life of Mary Shelley, and whoooo boy, she had a life. It’s the best kind of historical fiction, the kind that pulls you in and teaches you about the whole time period, not just about the main character. It’s a super great read, and I really enjoyed it.