The Lonely Polygamist, by Brady Udall

So, this has to have some kind of praise for a catchy title. Brady Udall is the author of  The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, which I read recently. Having enjoyed Edgar quite a bit, I was looking forward to another book by Udall, and this was not disappointing.

One one level, this is the story of a man with four wives and twenty-eight children. On another, it may be about what it's like to be human, imperfect, and unlucky. There are a lot of people here that want to be loved. Instead of being a work of propaganda in favor of or against the practice of polygamy, Udall uses this unusual life, however we feel about it, to describe how people get along, in whatever situation they find themselves.

New York Times Book Review

Godforsaken Idaho, by Shawn Vestal

A short story collection.

LA Times Review by William Boyle. 21 August 2013.

A quote from an email I sent to a friend about this book:

... I am almost done reading Godforsaken Idaho, a collection of short stories by Shawn Vestal. How good it is: I wish it were three times longer. There may be other chronicles of the lower-class victims of Joe Smith, et al, but I haven't read any. This stuff really needed writing.

Now that I think of it: be careful. I think that the book has done a little something to my mental state. If you're feeling fragile (long winter, all that), perhaps wait a while and pick it up in the dog days of August. Just sayin.