Reading challenge update

[oulfis]

I've once again added a few more of my recently-completed books to my halfhearted bespoke reading challenge... Although I've felt like I've been 'mixing up' my reading a fair bit this year, in terms of books completed it's mostly Dorothy Sayers with a big of PG Wodehouse for colour. But I have no fewer than twelve books in progress (and six more in Libby that I intend to begin soon!) which are all something a bit interesting, with some potential to liven up reading statistics.

In the interest of following the spirit of this "challenge" a little more (rather than just jotting down my completed books every now and then and dispiritedly noting that they apply to almost none of my prompts): any recs for a book whose titles contain the words "Last," "Call," "Nightshade," or "Lounge"?

Comments

[oulfis]

omg I have NOT read The Last Unicorn (despite ADORING the movie!!) but I’ve always wanted to! Excellent suggestion!!

Also, hello! Nice to see you over here! I’ve been making my way through The Essex Serpent based on your recs of it over on tumblr and finding it fascinating, if (so far) a little more heterosexual than it seems like it needs to be.

[breathedout]

Well. Call Me By Your Name was pretty gr9. Despite its problematic (tm) reputation. ¯\__(ツ)__/¯

Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September is my favorite novel of hers I've read, I think. Which is not... totally a ringing endorsement? I find her characterization a bit cold, although her sense of place is A++++ (both of these things exemplified most strongly in The Heat of the Day). But definitely a key figure in Queer Modernism, if you wanted to give her a whirl.

George Eliot: The Last Victorian by Kathryn Hughes is a pretty decent Eliot bio, if you're interested in her. She was a fascinating figure, so, you know. Understandable if you were.

Ahahahaha OR: Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer, in which a group of Greek boys LITERALLY DEVOURS the young man (named Sebastian, natch) who spent the previous summer ogling them & using his young cousin (played in the movie [which was totally nonsensical because they attempted to erase all trace of queerness from this VERY QUEER-CENTRIC PLOT] by Elizabeth Taylor) as a procuress to get close to them. I mean. It's an acquired taste, but damn that Tennessee knows how to sell it.

[chestnut_pod]

Last year I read Zora Neale Hustron's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" and thought it was excellent if you're in the mood for nonfiction.