Book 54: Thirteen Days by Robert F. Kennedy

Obviously one of the best kinds of books to read during turbulent times is an historical account of two weeks when the world danced with disaster. I'm being only somewhat sarcastic by saying that, honestly; in a lot of ways I find it deeply reassuring in a certain fatalistic way to remember that the world has always been on a knife's edge, and ever thinking that it's not is the dream. However, October 1962 certainly was a crucial time in the history and even sheer existence of humanity.

The construction of this book is fascinating. The central document itself was written as a memoir by RFK four or five years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it is a fairly straightforward narrative of how JFK made the decisions he did and the rationale behind those choices. He also really drives home that in the moment, none of them knew that they would succeed in averting nuclear war. It's so easy to examine history through the lens of what we know will happen, and to forget that of course no result or outcome is actually inevitable.

In addition to RFK's writings and the relevant primary sources (including the correspondence between JFK and Khrushchev), there is both a foreward written in the late 1990s by a RFK biographer, and an analysis of RFK's writings from the early 1970s. The shift in our understanding and interpretation of the actions taken, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declassification of certain documents, is readily apparent in the two commentaries on RFK's memoirs. I'm glad I read this book both because it expanded my understanding of the U.S.'s relationship with and to the USSR (a topic which feels more relevant to the future by the day) and because it's a compelling reminder that history is constantly being revised, for better and for worse.

Grade: A  

Book 53: A Margin of Promise by Emma Lanner

Note: I know the author of this book socially.

This is yet another m/m regency romance that I've owned for years but somehow never got around to actually reading. The story revolves around Isaac, who has come for his first Season before attending Cambridge. He is staying with his patron Lord Edmund Bancroft, whose dearest friend Gideon is a fairly indiscreet molly boy. Edmund has promised Isaac's father that he will help Isaac find a bride, but that isn't the life Isaac envisions for himself.

One of the more unusual aspects of this book is that I genuinely had no idea what the final pairing (or pairings) would be most of the way through the book. At the beginning of the story, Gideon has been holding a torch for his old friend Edmund for many years, but he's also quite taken with Isaac from their first meeting. Isaac idolizes Edmund while finding Gideon rather intriguing. And Edmund is a bit of a mess, emotionally, and seeks out other male partners while avoiding anything close to real intimacy for as long as he can.

Eventually that resistance has to break, and when it does (and how) results in a fairly madcap final act that includes kidnappings and false marriages and even a Lady Catherine de Bourgh-esque appearance. I would have liked the emotional arcs for the main characters to be a bit clearer, and I wasn't sure exactly how much of a fantasy version of the regency the setting was intended to be, but in the end I felt that the right couple got their happy ending.

Grade: B

Book 52: Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk

This is one of those books that I've owned for years and yet for some reason never actually got around to reading, and because it had sat there unread for so long my brain had concluded that there was a reason I hadn't read it. Well, my brain is clearly not to be trusted, because I enjoyed it a lot! Another point in favor of this crazy challenge.

Widdershins is a fictional New England town with a dark past. Percy Whyborne is an expert in languages at the local museum who is hired by a private detective named Griffin Flaherty to decode the diary of a local murdered man. They quickly discover that the secrets lurking under the surface of this prosperous town go far deeper than one murder, and with the help of Christine, an Egyptologist at Whyborne's museum and his only true friend, they find more than they had bargained for.

The relationship between Whyborne and Griffin is really satisfying. Whyborne has no expectation of being loved or desired, so he has a very hard time believing that Griffin could want to be with him. But Griffin has his own personal demons and insecurity, so the romance never feels imbalanced, or like Whyborne is being either disingenuous or silly. They're a partnership in which each of them is better at their jobs and at their lives because of the influence of the other person, and they balance out their weaknesses. I really loved that.

This book is the first in a series, and I will definitely be picking up more of them after I finish this challenge.

Grade: B

Book 51: The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett

This book was the next on the list as I continue to make my way through Harriet's favorite books, and you guys. I loved the first two books of the Lymond Chronicles. LOVED them. But this book was genuinely so much more than I was expecting. I thought I was prepared. I WAS NOT.

Where do I even start with this post. Probably I should put everything behind a cut, because let me tell you something: you do not want to be spoiled before reading this book. That has been true for every book of the series so far, but I think it's actually even more true for this one than it is for the first one.

Book 50: Winter Wonderland by Heidi Cullinan

The final book in the Christmas Bears Trilogy, this one focuses on Paul, who's the last of the three best friends to still be single, even though he's the one who's wanted a relationship the most. This is partly because his family doesn't approve of his interest in men, so he's always wanted to create his own found family.

He initially dismisses the romantic overtures of Kyle, a nurse at the assisted living facility in town, because Kyle is 25 and Paul is in his late thirties. But it's really because he's not sure if he deserves love.

This was the weakest of the three stories for me. I like Paul, but of the three best friends in the group, he has always felt like the one who had the thinnest back story. It's obvious from the beginning that he and Arthur should never be together in the long run, but it's never clear where they are emotionally - was Paul in love with him? Were they both just settling? If so, why did Paul suddenly want more? The longer the series goes on, the less believable the relationships end up feeling, because they just don't actually behave like real people do. I wanted a happily ever after for Paul, but Kyle feels like the obvious option only because he's the last single gay guy in a town that's quite small but seems to be the next Provincetown. The book does acknowledge that, at least, and there are a bunch of small town initiatives that reminded me a lot of the Harvest Festival in Parks & Recreation, which I enjoyed. But unfortunately the central romance doesn't quite land.

Grade: C 

Book 49: Sleigh Ride by Heidi Cullinan

The second book in the Christmas Bears Trilogy, Sleigh Ride focuses on Arthur. After Paul moves out because Arthur refuses to commit to being in a real relationship with him, Arthur is suddenly alone for the first time in ten years. He's convinced that he's fine on his own, but his mother is determined to see him partnered up, and throws him in the path of the town librarian, Gabriel.

Gabriel is everything you'd imagine a small town librarian to be: prim and a bit proper and wonderful with children. But underneath that slightly prudish exterior, he's always wanted a boyfriend who would take him apart, both physically and emotionally. He doesn't like Gabriel at first, but could that dislike be hiding a burning attraction?

I'll be honest, the first sex scene between the two of them is just on the edge of being too rough, too soon for me. And I think that the author knows that, because the sex scene stops in the middle of it so they can have a discussion about consent that feels like it's there for the benefit of the reader, rather than because it's something the characters would actually do in the moment. Even stranger though is that once they actually start dating properly, and have established enough trust and knowledge of each other that the kind of rough BDSM scene play they engaged in right off the bat could be hot AND safe, they suddenly don't actually have very much kinky sex at all. Things fade to black, or are discussed but then not actually done, and so as a reader it didn't really deliver on its promise. If part of what makes them work as a couple is their sexual compatibility regarding kink, I want to actually see that successfully kinky sex. I want negotiated kink, but the talking and the action seemed to occur in the wrong order in this book. I wanted it to work better for me than it actually did.

Grade: C 

Book 48: Let It Snow by Heidi Cullinan

I had been planning on saving the next three books for November, both because they're Christmas themed and also because I knew they'd be fairly light and easy reads and I figured I'd need those a week before the election. But then my weekend ended up being more stressful than I had anticipated, and I needed some Christmas in July to take my mind off real life.

What I've come to think of as the Christmas Bears Trilogy starts with a blizzard that results in a lost traveler from out of town staying in a cabin with strangers and discovering love. Frankie is a stylist from the Twin Cities who ends up stranded in a small town near the Canadian border. He first sees three burly loggers in a town diner and assumes they're all prejudiced rednecks who would never accept a swishy guy like him, no matter how much they look like a lot of gay men's fantasies. But when he finds shelter in their well-stocked cabin outside of town after he drives off the road to avoid hitting a moose, he discovers that Marcus, Arthur and Paul are exactly that fantasy.

Arthur and Paul are in a tempestuous fuck buddy relationship, but Marcus is single after discovering that his boyfriend of three years had been cheating on him. He returned home to Logan, the small town where all three of them grew up, to lick his wounds and spend time with his mother, whose health is declining. Marcus is gruff with Frankie, but shockingly it's not because he dislikes him, it's because he reminds him of his ex!

This book has one too many moments of people doing dumb things because they're afraid of love, and in general people often behaved in certain ways seemingly only because the plot required them to so, but I did really like Marcus and Frankie together, and it was definitely the kind of book I needed to read this weekend.

Grade: B