I'm plodding along rather slowly, but enjoying almost everything I'm reading.
8. Feral City, by Jermiah Moss. When the pandemic hit NYC, it hit extremely hard, with the city flooded with refrigerated trucks acting as temporary morgues. As lockdown continued, and protests following the murder of George Lloyd spread, much of the gentrification of Manhattan (and specifically here the East Village) was undone as the young, monied, mostly white residents moved back to their original hometowns. This is an account of an 'old school' new yorker who stayed, and his observations about that first pandemic year.
I thought this was so, so good. His experience of that year included a lot of joy and freedom, and he felt the 'original' city become more vibrant and alive. I also live in a US city that changed a lot during the pandemic, but my experience of the pandemic was coloured by loss and grief as well as the feeling of a deep change. Nonetheless I appreciated the nuance of loving the wilder side of the city vs the homogenized 'clean' version.
Moss is a psychotherapist and a trans man, and he includes a lot of political, economic and queer theory in among the memoir elements. I don't agree with all of his conclusions - he blames the city's return to 'normal' and the collapse of the protests on the return of rich, white people, while only hinting that the protest movement partly fell apart thanks to infighting. As much as he despises the 'hypernormals' and tourists, the city would struggle without their tax dollars. And I would find some of the anarchy he appreciates (for example the 'performance art' from Crackhead Barney) very threatening. But he's spot on about so much, writes beautifully, and gives excellent first-hand accounts of his experience, particularly how the police treat white vs Black protesters.
This book is not for everyone, but it made me think more than anything else I've read in a very long time.
9. The It Girl, by Ruth Ware. Dual timeline mystery set in Oxford 15 years ago, and present-day Edinburgh. Hannah's college roommate was murdered in her first year at university, and Hannah's evidence helped put the killer behind bars. Having protested his innocence throughout, the killer has now died in prison, and a journalist and podcaster wants Hannah to help him examine whether there was a miscarriage of justice. I like Ruth Ware but am not always fully convinced by how she resolves her plots - no such concern with this one, it was very cleverly done and full of convincing misdirection. Hard to say much more without spoilers but I enjoyed this a lot and flew through it in a couple of days.