Why is this book a book?

For the second year, I've taken on the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I've had a lot of fun finding things to fit the prompts. In another entry I'll talk about which books I chose and what's still left. I haven't only been reading books this year that fit the prompts, so there have been times I've had to get creative. I read Joshilyn Jackson's excellent novel Never Have I Ever, and I realized that it could fit into the "two books with the same title" prompt if I found another book with that title. It's a common enough phrase, so I did a search on my library's audiobook shelf, and I found Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date by Katie Heaney.

And... why?

At least it was short enough. I was able to get through it in a few days, between my commute and a couple of hikes in the woods. But still. I would have given up on it, but I needed a book to fill this prompt and it was short and I'd already downloaded it. When it was short and I'd already downloaded it are the two biggest things a book has going for it... you know where this is going.

Katie Heaney wrote this book in her mid-twenties. She was 25 years old and claimed at the outset that she'd never, ever, been on a date. This was a bit of a truth-stretch because you will find in the book that she in fact had gone out a couple of times with a couple different guys. I don't know how she's defining date. In any case, she talked about how awkward she was. It was a lot of rambling pages about how she and her friends would group-text about the guys they liked and discuss the subtle nuances of what they said and whether those things meant anything. "If he texted me this, is that good?" The stuff my friends and I did in high school, but we had to do it in person or on the phone because group-texting wasn't invented in the early 90s. 

I get that sitting here at 40, as a person who has always had a lot of contempt for the whole charade of dating and the game-playing, I'm not the target audience. But still. I don't really understand who looked at this manuscript and thought it was interesting enough to publish as a book. 

And now, years later, we have the answer. The real reason Katie Heaney didn't connect with any of those guys she was trying to make herself like is that she's gay. She wrote this article for the New York Times that sums it up really well. In fact, her last sentence is something that could apply to all of those agonizing group texts from back in grad school. (Grad school! She was still doing this in grad school!) "If you have a question, and especially if you find yourself asking the same question for five years or more, chances are good you already know the answer."

According to her Instagram, she is now married to the woman she describes in the Times article, and I couldn't be happier for her. It does answer a lot of the weird agony in the book. However, it was good to get two prompts checked off. 

My review of the other Never Have I Ever will be up soon. If you don't want to wait for it... just read that one. Skip this one.

Gotta watch out for those elderly ladies...

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good.

This tiny little hardcover with its perfect cross-stitch illustration immediately called to mind Sofia Petrillo. This is a book about a little old lady who kills people.

Maud is the last one left in her family; her parents and her sister died a long time ago, and she lives rent-free because of a loophole in the housing contract her father signed a lifetime ago. Maud may seem defenseless and vulnerable, but she has a very long memory and no tolerance for fools. She could be called a serial killer, technically, but she really doesn't do it because she's blood-thirsty. She just has no time for people who might be getting in her way.

This is a tiny little book that would be a perfect stocking-stuffer. It contains five short stories about Maud and her various justifiable murders. The idea of a sweet little old woman being a killer is the novelty that engages the reader, but Helen Tursten does a great job keeping the reader involved because of Maud's so unlikeable that she's likeable personality.

Other books about seniors citizens from Sweden (who don't kill people): A Man Called Ove and Britt-Marie was Here by Frederick Backman
Other Nordic Noir: The Snowman by Jo Nesbo