Book 20: Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Given that the entire point of this project is to distract myself from the current presidential election, it might seem like a dubious decision to read a book that's all about the 2008 cycle. However, it is on the list, and I figured I'd better get it done early rather than try to read it in October...

I had a really mixed reaction to this book. Part of that reaction is just due to the fact that I had forgotten so much of the race, and how crazy it felt at the time, and eight years ago suddenly feels like a different time altogether. But it's also because this is a book that's all about The Narrative in politics. Everything is about how well (or how poorly) various people in the race played the game, and nothing is about demographics, or GOTV organizations, or data. That's really disorienting after spending years reading Nate Silver and focusing on those fundamentals, rather than on how the political press will spin every gaff or gotcha moment in a debate.

It also reads a bit like political RPF fanfic, if I'm honest. The authors take care to note at the beginning of the book that they did numerous interviews with "most" of the main people focused on in the book, and years of research and blah blah blah, and explain how they differentiate between quotes and paraphrasing conversations that often were between only two people with no other witnesses. And yet there is so much editorializing about how all of the main players FELT about everything, and the motives behind it all, that I came away from it feeling less convinced by its accuracy rather than more. There are many "she may have said this, but what she was really feeling was totally different" stories, and it's a bit hard to take while living through the media's current narrative spinning about Clinton in particular.

Having said that, I had forgotten just how insane the sequence of events around John Edwards was, and even without any narrative editorializing the fact that he was still running for president (and thought he might win!) while in the middle of a love child scandal is incredible. So that was fairly exciting to relive.

I think my biggest takeaway from this book was honestly to avoid reading the horse race updates according to D.C. pundits. As I so wisely realized eight weeks ago, paying close attention to the media's narrative neither adds to my own understanding nor improves my mood. Let's see how well I can follow my own advice.

Grade: C

Book 19: Lessons in Love by Charlie Cochrane

This is one of those books that I have no memory of buying and no idea how I found it. It's definitely in my wheelhouse, though, so at least I understand what past!me was thinking.

This is the first in a series of books of mysteries that take place at Cambridge in the early 20th Century. It's one part murder mystery, one part gay romance, both of which I enjoy a lot. The couple at the center of the story are two teaching fellows at the university, who fall in love while trying to solve a series of murders. But are they putting themselves in danger by investigating matters? I bet you know the answer to that.

The relationship is a classic opposites attract romance between the outgoing and daring Jorty Stewart and the more restrained and uncertain Orlando Coppersmith. There isn't a huge amount of tension in their budding relationship beyond Orlando's naiveté, and in some ways the murder mystery starts too soon in the book; there isn't really any sleuthing the reader can do to figure out who's behind the murders and why, so it's harder to engage with the plot than is ideal for a murder mystery. It's a book that doesn't quite know what it wants to be, and as a result it left me feeling a bit muddled as well. 

Grade: C

Book 18: The Boss by Abigail Barnette

Some of the books on this reading list have been there for so long that I don't remember their origin stories anymore; I can't trace back how I heard about them or why I bought them in the first place. But some of them I remember perfectly, like this one. You tend to remember a book that Mara Wilson of Matilda fame recommended on her twitter as a good alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey :D

This book feels like a cross between a version of Fifty Shades that's not terrible about consent with The Devil Wears Prada, with a good dose of Secretary in there as well. The first two thirds of the book is a pretty compelling fantasy about a relationship between an older, obscenely rich dom and a young, ambitious sub that is sexually fulfilling for both of them, and that never loses sight of the game at the heart of BDSM. There are no contracts to be signed, it's clear from the POV that the sub is always very happy about the pain she experiences, and while the writing style isn't exactly to my taste I definitely understood why this book would be suggested as a good alternative to Fifty Shades.

And then, in the final third of the book, the entire plot goes completely off the rails. I had already been getting a bit fed up with the terminal reluctance of both characters to admit that their relationship wasn't just about the sex, and the work drama seemed to be totally beside the point and yet kept on going. But the final narrative twists in the last couple of chapters were frankly baffling, and completely out of keeping with the genre, whether you consider this to be romance or erotica. I discovered at the end of the book that it was the first in a trilogy (which in retrospect I probably should have guessed), and from the blurbs of the second and third books, my issues with the sudden plot twists would not lesson if I read any further. So, I am not reading the next two books, and sadly I can't really second Mara Wilson's recommendation of this one, either. It certainly doesn't have the same failings as Fifty Shades, but it still doesn't succeed for many other reasons.

Grade: D