A Snapshot of My Reading #20

This month’s snapshot includes a bike ride through the US during an election year, an Irish linked short story collection and a novel I’ve been anticipating for a decade.

The non-fiction book I’m reading is Simon Parker’s A Ride Across America. Beginning in Seattle on the eve of the 2024 election when, inevitably, conversation turns to politics, Parker’s epic cycle ride introduces him to all sorts of Americans, some with startling views, others extraordinarily generous. I find his style slightly irritating but it’s an easy, interesting and sometimes alarming read.

The short story collection I’m reading is Mary Morrissy’s Twenty-Twenty Vision which gets off to a brilliant start with a brief piece in which a woman inadvertently reveals unexpected feelings for her best friend’s husband after mishearing a word. Morrissy has a nice line in wry humour.

The novel I’m reading is Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons, ten years after loving his second novel. It follows an asylum lawyer, unsettled by the case of a young gay Albanian man which may echo his own past. I’m not as immediately struck with it as I remember with Imagine I’m Gone although the writing is just as elegant.

What about you? What are you reading?

If you’d like to see more snapshots, I’ve listed them here.