I can’t believe summer’s almost over @internrachel and @julia1 . This week I read ‘Geek Love’ by Katherine Dunn, 355 pgs, and ‘Nine Stories’ and ‘Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction’ by J.D. Salinger, 198 pgs and 213 pgs respectively. None of these are new books for me but I really enjoy all of them (hence the rereading I guess). It had been awhile since I had read ‘Geek Love’ and I had forgotten how beautiful and sad it is. Even with its sideshow setting its more a book about how families can implode, how relationships can implode, with the right kind of force. Beautiful characters and interesting dynamics, I’m really glad I reread this one. After my largely enjoyable summer of lady authors I decided that I would spend one the last weeks reading the male authors that I really missed this summer. First is Salinger. He is my favorite, I feel like his dialogue and characters are so incisive, like I could know or be anyone in his stories. ‘Nine Stories’ and ‘Raise High the Roof Beams’ are my two absolute favorites followed by ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘Franny and Zooey’. I’m not even sure what to say about them because after I’ve read Salinger I just want to be very quiet. It’s like very briefly I’m completely patched up and I don’t want to let anything out because I don’t have to anymore. Even though his stories often make me really sad they also make me really calm.