68.
Title: [Waiting for Godot]
Author: Samuel Beckett
Genre: Theatre of the Absurd
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: December 3, 2015
Rating: *****
I love Waiting for Godot, and all of its wonderful potential and confusion and mess and dirt and philosophy. I love twisting and turning and trying on new ideas, and I love the discussions that come from my students. This semester I taught Godot (briefly) through the framework of the "politics of waiting," asking my students to read this account of a production at San Quentin (pages 19-21), this great article on historically significant productions, and Rich Cluchey's interiew. We ended on a high note.
69. 
Title: [Micah]
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Ancient History
Date Completed: December 4, 2015
Rating: **1/2
Micah is a brief hiccup of a novel which barely accomplishes one thing - finally sharing the story of Micah's infection. It's fairly useless, and could have been much better shared in a longer narrative. It was literally over before I knew it - I went from saying, "I'm nearly done, so I'm just going to finish before bed" to "Oh, that's it" in about two breaths. In the end, it's not such a bad thing, since I was only picking up a book to take a one-evening break from research and grading, and I easily got through the whole thing. Onwards through the series; once I'm done with Anita I intend to read all of Discworld in order, which is something else I've never done.
70. 
Title: [The Stepford Wives]
Author: Ira Levin
Genre: Horror (Yes, I say horror)
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: End-of-semester treat
Date Completed: December 15, 2015
Rating: *****
The plot of Ira Levin's suburban novel is so well known that its title has become lexicon - "Stepford" alludes to an eerie kind of perfection and conformity that implies a lack of personhood or deep thought. This is precisely what Levin creates in his novel about a young family moving from the city to the suburbs, and finding that their previously-motivated female neighbors have all adopted the mien of a "housefrau" (Levin's word) over their earlier ambitions.
Films do not do Levin's novel justice; the original narrative has a simple and concise elegance that the 2004 rendition, for example, has no hope of reaching. It tries to do too much, give too many answers, be too progressive, when Levin did it all so much better. There's not much more I can say without spoiling a few things, so I'll simply say that I highly recommend it.
71. 
Title: [The Harlequin]
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Disappointment
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Goodness knows when
Date Completed: December 27, 2015
Rating: **
"I don't do women" said Sylvie. Sylvie Baker. The werewolf. The lesbian werewolf. The lesbian werewolf whose rape is registered as all the more horrific for her sexual identity, and whose lesbian partner is also recognized in the series.
After-the-fact, I remembered having a very big problem with this narrative slip the first time I read it, and it seems all the more careless and sophomoric in the rereading. Laurell K. Hamilton is certainly not the first best-selling author to suffer from continuity errors, nor will she be the last. I have a difficult time accepting errors in defining characteristics, however, especially when the protagonist is herself so bigoted against said-characteristic (Anita is an admitted homophobe at this point in the series).
It also occurred to me this time around that the narrative must be extraordinarily dull for anyone standing outside of Anita's inner dialogue; the action, exposition, and development all take place almost exclusively in Anita's head, or through mind-to-mind communication between a few characters. From the outside it must look like a lot of mute posturing, staring off into space, and then sudden explosions of physical violence and/or Anita screaming.
I've never minded the developing sex, and prefer an active Anita to her prudish early self, but at this point in the series I can understand why so many long-time fans gave up on her. I won't, because I know better things are coming, but this mid-series lull isn't making it easy to carry through with my plan of reading everything in order, for once.
72. 
Title: [Rosemary's Baby]
Author: Ira Levin
Genre: Horror
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: End-of-semester treat
Date Completed: December 28, 2015
Rating: *****
Rosemary's Baby, written seven years before Stepford Wives, shows that Levin's claim to subtle horror is no accident, and his simplistic style and even pacing belie the potential for emotional impact. Like many others, I came to Rosemary's Baby through the Mia Farrow film, so the conclusion was well known to me when I began the story; blissfully, I have forgotten nearly everything else, so I lose no pleasure in the reading. I envy those who are not familiar with the plots for their ability to approach Levin cold, taking what he has to say without the lens flare of Hollywood production.
At its core, Rosemary's Baby seems like a rehearsal for Stepford Wives, utilizing the same cultural politics as motivation for a resoundingly creepy tale. Though relying on the supernatural instead of the mysterious ad potentially scientific, Rosemary's Baby carries the same flavor, and the same potential for alarm. Levin wants his readers to question those they know best and trust most, which is where his true horror lies. Again, highly recommend. What a treat.
An interesting tidbit:
Mr. Levin was less pleased, however, at the tide of popular Satanism his work appeared to unleash.
“I feel guilty that ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ led to ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The Omen,’” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2002. “A whole generation has been exposed, has more belief in Satan. I don’t believe in Satan. And I feel that the strong fundamentalism we have would not be as strong if there hadn’t been so many of these books.”
“Of course,” Mr. Levin added, “I didn’t send back any of the royalty checks.”
73. 
Title: [Breed]
Author: Chase Novak
Genre: Horror
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Conference colleague rec
Date Completed: December 30, 2015
Rating: ****
When a fellow panelist discovered I was the one who put together two panels on Monstrous Maternity, her first reaction was to suggest this book. It's taken me a couple of years to get around to it, but boy, I'm glad I did.
The premise is a familiar (first-world?) problem: fertility. Specifically, the narrative follows a high-powered, old-money New York couple as their struggle to produced the paternally-desired heir drives them to the extreme treatments offered by an Eastern European doctor, who happens to have an astounding success rate. Their initial experiences are shady enough to be cringe-worthy, and the tone of the early chapters is wonderfully ominous, with strong pacing. Immediately after the treatments the couple begins behaving strangely, but they get what they paid for when they have twins (...) five months later. The second half of the novel rediscovers the family ten years later, and explores the side effects of those strange fertility treatments.
The critique of fertility treatments and genetic manipulation is heady stuff, and unabashedly critical; the relationships and cultural institutions that spur the narrative are complex and contentious, giving space for consideration to impetuses both big and small. That said Novak doesn't go to great lengths to drive home social messages, and I'd think the novel could well be enjoyed for the slow creep of a horror it is, without becoming beleaguered by politics.
When I described the plot to my partner, a little more explicitly than here, since I didn't have to worry about spoilers, he responded, "You know why he wrote that book, right? To have it made into a movie." Perhaps - it'd make a really great flick. But it's a pretty good read on its own, and one I'd recommend to readers of modern horror.
74. 
Title: [Pirates Past Noon]
Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Genre: Early Chapter Book
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: It's the 7-year-old's
Date Completed: December 9, 2015
Rating:
First-Born was far more prepared for a trip to the dentist than I, so I borrowed his initiative and his chapter book during his cleaning. I don't know that I've ever read such an early chapter book before, and I think I'd like to try to get him into something with a little more thought, but it's a neat (and very very very brief) introduction to different places and times, and he likes them well enough.
Fall Semester: Endless articles; 296 student essays (3-6 pages each) plus student classwork/prewriting
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