• THE MANOR OF DREAMS by Christina Li. This is a very good contemporary Gothic and intricate family drama set in Los Angeles, specifically against the backdrop of Hollywood (the industry), so it's a pretty good comp for my forthcoming DREAMLAND in addition to being an excellent read. This one is more nightmarish—this is a haunted house book for sure, with generations of wrongdoing woven into the family's history and wealth. It's also a multi-generational sapphic story, and though I typically avoid books that could be described as "lush," I do think that applies here. When casting my mind back to the experience of reading, I can vaguely smell an evil garden, so "lush" it is.

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• THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine. I wanted to read this book prior to its being crowned the winner of the National Book Award because of the "and his mother" parenthetical, which I found amusing. Then obviously it won, so, I picked it up. It's very good, and while this is certainly not the most accurate comp—this book is very rooted in Lebanese politics, culture, and history, so that aspect really can't be ignored or adequately compared—it reminded me in its narration style of THE IDIOT by Elif Batuman, which is one of my favorite books. I guess what I'm saying is this book made me laugh in the particular way where everyone in the vicinity is A Character. It's a very enjoyable read that I would recommend pretty indiscriminately. 

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• HERCULE POIROT: THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES by Agatha Christie. I have been asked a couple of times to write a mystery novel; conversely, I have said many times that I think the only thing I am not interested in writing is a mystery novel. It's hard to pants your way through a tight mystery, and as we know, if I can't pants my way there, I'm not going. But I do enjoy murder mysteries in film and TV, and for Reasons, I thought it was time to explore the very odd character of Poirot: his egg-shaped head, his "little gray cells" (gross), his order and method, his dim-witted golden retriever best friend. I also needed these particular tropes for part of the manuscript I just finished (again, for Reasons), and one thing I enjoy as an apparent constant is the dislike that mystery novelists have for their own detective creations (Conan Doyle for Sherlock Holmes, Christie for Poirot). I wonder if Rian Johnson specifically tried to create a Benoit Blanc he could stand. 

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• THE TEN YEAR AFFAIR by Erin Somers. This has been high on my TBR since it released, based on various reviews it got in periodicals and newsletters that I devotedly read. I think what particularly intrigued me was the concept of it being defined by its generation—a "specifically millennial novel" is what I've read about it several times, and I was curious to know what that meant. When I think of a literary millennial novel, I tend to think Sally Rooney, but much of her work up to this point focuses on the experience of falling in love, which means it typically lives in the ennui of its twenty-something characters. Basically, what I'm saying is that I keep forgetting that I am getting older, because the beginning of this book rings a lot more similar to GIRL DINNER than, say, ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER, which I think of as a millennial novel because I, a millennial, wrote it—but of course, were it to be, let's say, adapted for film (ahem), it would necessarily be packaged for a Gen Z audience, because that's what stage of life it focuses on. Interesting thought experiments over here. But anyway, I am always down for novels about complicated relationships, especially the kinds that blur lines.