Books, Quibbles and Bits

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Why 'zat? I could NOT put down my current read—Clare Pooley’s  Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting: A Novel.

It's a story about unexpected friendships and the fact that we all carry around unwieldy loads—problems and struggles with which we could use a hand or three.

Every day Iona Iverson, a stylish, opinionated, larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, rides the train to work with her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Bookworm and Mr-Too-Good-to-Be-True. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do.

Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver.

This single event starts a chain reaction, and an eclectic group of people discovers that talking to strangers can teach you quite a bit about the world around you—and even more about yourself. (source) 

I absolutely adore Iona Iverson!

Goodreads tags it as Chick Lit, Romance, Adult Fiction, LGBT, Humor, and Book Club.

First off, 'Book Club' is a literary genre?

The Darling Axe defines book club fiction as tales intended to stimulate discussion and thought among readers.

These books tackle relevant and sometimes controversial themes; they present characters and situations that provoke reflection and debate. They are the kind of books that invite analysis and discussion.

I only mention but wouldn’t almost every book ever written fall into this category? Mind you, I’ve never been in a formal book club. When they started being a popular thing, I thought I’d like to join one. Problem—all the ones I knew of functioned as exclusive social groups. You had to be invited to join and I never was.

Maybe there are some books that don’t inspire reflection and debate. I’ve never read one of those. I mean, even if it's utter trash, isn't that still something to be examined, pulled apart, and yapped about (if only in passing)? 

Second, why is Iona Iverson considered Chick Lit? Goodreads tells me that:

Chick lit's plot line focuses more (even if only slightly) on the character's non romantic struggles.…Romance focuses more on the romantic relationship.

If I'm accurately understanding, Chick Lit is any book about or including women. Yes? So The Handmaid's Tale, The Bell Jar, A Wrinkle in Time, etc., etc., would all be considered Chick Lit? Yeah, fuck that shit. Using that metric, Gravity's Rainbow is a Boy Book and should be shelved with Hardy Boys mysteries.

Third, not every book which includes elements of romance is a romance novel. Is Wuthering Heights classed as a romance novel? No and yet Goodreads' description of it begins like zo:

At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff - recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.

Anna Karenina would never be considered a romance novel but isn’t it about an affair between Anna, the wife of Aleksey Karenin, and Count Vronsky—a romance?

What about Far from the Madding Crowd, Wide Sargasso Sea or The Great Gatsby?
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Internet wisdom:

Mike Johnson has about as much power as a spent glow stick from three Halloweens ago.

This will truly be the Cybertruck of presidencies.

The Republican Party is basically a conveyer belt for moving money to the obscenely rich.

Trump was finally right about something. An immigrant took his job.
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Did you know?

Luigi Mangione, hero to those of us who've had healthcare claims denied, is being held in the same lock-up as sex trafficking, woman beating, racketeer Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. On top of that, Luigi’s attorney is married to Combs’ lawyer.

Small world, eh?