#92 A Good Hang
Beach Read, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Rachel Incident, Leslie F*cking Jones, A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, and Funny Story
Quotes & Things
“Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.” —Greg Tamblyn
If you’ve never heard the term, “a good hang,” it’s simply what the kids are saying these days to describe a good time with friends or even describing a person as the personification of a good time. So I thought I’d use that term with books, ones that are fun to be around, but could also be there for you in a pinch. These books can get serious, but they are all wrapped in joy and fun. We are gonna start and end with two solid romance novels because romance is almost always a good hang, but I’ve also included a novel in the fantasy genre, a memoir, a historical adventure, and a novel about being in your 20’s when friends are your life.
Book Recommendations
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Yes, I am aware I’m recommending this book on the first day of November, but in Texas, where I live, the weather is such that I still feel like I could go to the beach.
January Andrews, a successful romance writer, has writer’s block — mostly because her world has come crashing down around her. Her boyfriend of six years broke up with her; her dad died suddenly; and worst of all, the romance she had aspired to for years — her parents’— is revealed to be not as perfect as she once thought. She moves to a small Michigan lake town to write and recover where her next door neighbor is none other than her college writing nemesis, Augustus Everett who is also now a successful author. They slowly come to appreciate each other and, surprise surprise, fall in love, but not without their own issues.
I really enjoyed this romance though sometimes the assumptions and lack of communication got on my nerves. But mostly I loved it for the way Henry writes about writing, making me want to get back into writing fiction too. The romance is sweet, funny, sexy and after the initial set-up, mostly realistic. Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook, and she is excellent. The last quarter dragged a bit for me, but I really loved the book overall. A good, solid entry into the romance genre.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
Linus Baker is a case worker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. His job is to evaluate the different orphanages where the magical youth live to ensure their safety and happiness. He is competent, thorough and cares very much about his job, doing it properly and by the book. But his life is lonely and drab until he is sent on an unusual assignment to spend a month at a very unusual orphanage.
This was a lovely book filled with interesting, quirky characters, and a message to love others no matter how different from you they may be. The world-building here is very slight, so that we aren’t really aware of the global state of magical beings. I found myself wishing I knew more, but I also recognize that this is really a very small story of one man growing into himself and realizing his enormous capacity for love.
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
I loved this modern (2010’s) coming-of-age story about Rachel, an Irish woman in her early twenties trying to figure out friendship, relationships, and general adulting. The entire novel is like reminiscing with your best friend about those years where you conjure countless inside jokes, work at crap jobs, and make plenty of mistakes. O’Donoghue’s writing is funny and spot on at describing the in-between stage bridging the teenage and adult years. Her insights into relationships and how they tic is thought-provoking. There is plenty of candid talk about sex, but nothing overly graphic. The best part of the novel isn’t the romantic entanglements but Rachel’s enduring and quirky friendship with James, her bookshop colleague and eventual roommate. It’s not all fun and games though because there are serious moments of moral lapses and the consequences of lies and desperation. I highly recommend listening to this on audio as narrated by Tara Flynn who can expertly switch between a Cork Irish accent and a Derry Northern Irish accent (and yes, they are remarkably different).
Leslie F*cking Jones by Leslie Jones
I decided to read this memoir by the actress, comic and former SNL cast member Leslie Jones because John Green recommended it, explaining that we always wonder if celebrities write their own stuff, and he laughs as he says, “Leslie Jones definitely wrote this book.” And it’s true, there is no doubt that all the words are hers, and many of those words are the second word of the title. I listened to it on audio, which is probably the best way to experience this book, and it feels more like an experience than being read to. Jones seems to take her written work as an outline, riffing on the various parts of her life and creating new tangents. The written text is 288 pages, and an audiobook of that size would normally be around 8 hours long. But the audio version of her book is 17!
I enjoyed learning about Jones’s life, the ups and downs, her “real talk,” and the inside look at how comedy and, in particular, SNL works. I really appreciated how honest and vulnerable she was with many areas of her life. She often cried on tape. She is a brash woman, but also goofy and sweet. I did start to tire of the audiobook by the end though because it it was less about her life and more about lessons learned that seemed to veer into an airing of grievances. And I could definitely have done without the bit about her hemorrhoid surgery (I bet that didn’t make the cut for the written version). But if you like Leslie Jones, her confidence, and don’t mind massive amounts of swearing, this book was quite an experience.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
This YA novel was a fun romp through 18th century Europe, full of gay romance, adventure and a fair bit of commentary on misogyny and racism. Monty, our narrator and cheekily loveable rake of a character is on a tour of Europe with his brainy, daring sister Felicity and his best friend Percy, a nobleman’s Black bastard son. Monty flirts and drinks through their trip, and all is going to plan until he steals a small trinket from a Duke for spite. That leads to being hunted down by highwaymen, stowing away on a ship, and being kidnapped by pirates.
The writing and the P.O.V. of Monty is sassy and fun, but he still sounds like an 18th century teenager as well. I’m never truly worried about any of the characters’ dire situations because they are having too much fun. I listened to this on audio and the narrator, Christian Carlson was excellent.
Funny Story by Emily Henry
The premise is definitely the start of a funny story: Daphne, children’s librarian in a northern Michigan town, is despondent when her fiancé, Peter, on his bachelor weekend before their wedding, decides that he is actually in love with his childhood best-friend, Petra. With no place to go on such short notice and with no friends of her own that aren’t connected to Peter, she moves in with Miles, Petra’s ex-boyfriend, who is nursing his own heartache. After a couple of months, Miles and Daphne receive wedding invitations from their exes, and they decide to go together…as a fake couple. Using that well-trod “fake relationship” trope, Henry gives us a grounded, emotional story about two people who learn and grow with each other.
Henry is the current queen of romantic fiction, and for good reason. The characters felt real, and most importantly to me, ordinary, doing ordinary things, despite the wild premise. Miles and Daphne are people with family baggage, affecting how they move through their relationships. This is also not just a romantic love story, but one about friendship, especially about how hard it is to make new and meaningful ones. I cried harder about her found friendships than I did about the romantic entanglements. I love to read a story about grown-up people who deal with their grown-up problems in grow-up ways. The sexy banter and spicy bedroom scenes (though they took place more in kitchens or cars) kept this novel from feeling like a therapy session. Thoroughly enjoyable!
A Question for You
Do you have any books that feel like good friends?