These stories were all written in the 1960s and 1970s, and it helped to remind myself of that context while I read, because they really do capture a very specific moment in time in American feminism, but not only feminism, civil rights in general. The stories are bluntly titled - examples like "The Lover," "The Abortion," and "Porn" give the reader an exact idea what the story will contain! Others are more clever, like "A Letter of the Times, or Should This Sado-Masochism Be Saved?" and "How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State? It Was Easy."
The story that I connected with the most was "A Sudden Trip Home in the Spring," about a woman who is the only African American at Wellesley returning home after the death of her father. She tries to explain how she feels by bringing up Richard Wright, which of course nobody else has ever read.
"'...From what you've said, Wright earned the freedom to be whoever he wanted to be. To a strong man a father is not essential.'
'Maybe not, said Sarah,'but Wright's father was one faulty door in a house of many ancient rooms. Was that one faulty door to shut him off forever from the rest of the house?'...
'...You're thinking of his father more as a symbol of something, aren't you?' asked Pam.
'I suppose,' said Sarah, taking a last look around her room. 'I see him as a door that refused to open, a hand that was always closed. A fist.'"
And then later to her brother:
"You are the door to all the rooms... Don't ever close."
I think I would group this book in the same pool as Station Eleven - a literary novel playing with a setting of destruction to explore other themes. AI think I would group this book in the same pool as Station Eleven - a literary novel playing with a setting of destruction to explore other themes. As people who know me know, this might hint at a lesser enjoyment of the book for me than I think other people will have. I've read many disaster novels and have some baseline expectations for the realism I require to find truth in the story.
In this book it is an ice age instead of a virus, with a smaller cast of characters and narrower themes of sexual identity (one character is transgender and suffering from lack of good medicine/treatment due to the disaster). At the same time the science feels inconsistent and more of a flavor than a reality. For instance, people are chopping wood at -20 degrees and at -6 degrees some children die by falling through the ice on a lake. An iceberg is simultaneously encroaching on the small Scottish village where the characters are living in a mobile home park ("caravan") and melting, raising the water level. (Can this happen in -44 degrees?) These kinds of seeming impossibilities pulled me out of the story a bit. It is possible that this IS the science but it didn't quite feel logical. And while almost all of Europe is frozen in, and nobody can get food, they speak of fishing and make cannibalism jokes (whereas everyone seems to assume that as long as they have enough heat for the winter, they will be able to take care of the details in the spring/summer... I'm not sure ice ages are that short or that forgiving.)
While an ice age is interesting, I think the meat of this story is Stella and her journey of identity - how to navigate bullying and personhood is always compelling no matter the context. In fact, the ice age slows that down and limits her options considerably, in frustrating ways. Dylan's story is interesting until he ends up sleeping with a completely different character than I expected, which also serves to move him more into the background. His backstory and family tree discovery seem unnecessary and muddy the flow a bit. Shouldn't it be the ice age that is the most startling thing?
Solid 3.5 stars, I expect most literary readers to give it a 4 or higher, and I would love to reward the author in some way for a fair portrayal of the confusing world of a trans teenager.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review....more
I love the novel Who Fears Death with a deep, abiding passion. When I read it, I re-read it instantly. I recommended"Human beings make terrible gods."
I love the novel Who Fears Death with a deep, abiding passion. When I read it, I re-read it instantly. I recommended it to everyone, even people who never read fantasy or science fiction. I felt it transcended genre, was doing something new, I couldn't say enough about it.
That's a pretty big shoe to fill, even by the same author. I knew this book was coming out but had lost track of it, reminded only when discussing the nominees for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, of which The Book of Phoenix is a shortlisted member. It is probably rare for a prequel to be an award nominee, so that got me to move it to the top of my to-read list.
In Who Fears Death, you join the characters in what feels, at first, to be a fantasy, mythology-based world. Slowly you realize that it is post-technology Africa, in the future of our actual world. How did that happen? Why are there computers in caves? What happened to the societies that made those machines? I imagine the author being haunted by these questions too, and by characters who had more stories to tell. That is where this novel comes in.
I enjoyed reading it, but also felt it had been too long since reading Who Fears Death. I should have re-read it first, or perhaps now. I loved the accelerated humans in the social climate of rejecting control of the 1% - in some ways it felt very plausible, all of these stories coming out of what exists in our world now.
There are a few details the author just gets wrong that sometimes pull me out of the story; details that probably would not bother me as much if I were not a librarian! Althea Ann lists these comprehensively so I won't bother but I think if there are moments where I found the book less successful, it is those moments connecting most directly to our present. But to me, these tiny minute issues do not overall detract from my enjoyment of the novel. There is so much that is fresh and different here, that is was well worth my time. I found myself taking breaks to think about the story after some of the major events rather than simply plowing through, a mark of a good read.
This is my second Okorafor of the year, after enjoying Lagoon very much in January!
Since I mentioned the Arthur C. Clarke Award, I'm now pretty interested in reading some of the rest of the short list. I've already read the Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which I loved, and it was in good company with the Okorafor. I wonder if the others are as good! I'm kind of burned out on the Hugo and Nebula....more
While I didn't enjoy reading this book as much as The Miernik Dossier, this one introduces us more to the central character of Paul Christopher (and hWhile I didn't enjoy reading this book as much as The Miernik Dossier, this one introduces us more to the central character of Paul Christopher (and his women.. and his poetry.) Set in Vietnam and Thailand (and parts of Africa, Europe, and the USA!) right around the assassination of JFK, it was a different angle of those events. I am really loving these 1970s spy novels, right up my alley....more
"Life really wouldn't be worth livin' if you didn't have a high school team to support." In the Reading class I am teaching in May 2016, I challenged m"Life really wouldn't be worth livin' if you didn't have a high school team to support." In the Reading class I am teaching in May 2016, I challenged my students to read a book from a genre they had not read. I played along, and ended up reading an Amish romance and this sports book. One reading friend talked about this book on an episode of the Reading Envy podcast and made it sound pretty compelling, sports or no sports.
"You'd watch these kids play, and it seem like somethin' burning would be inside of you and want to come out."
And it is compelling. Enough that they made a movie and a television show based on the book (neither of which I've seen.) It isn't just about football, but about social order, small town culture, racism, new money, the education system, conservatism, etc. I freely admit that I read the non-sportsing parts more closely than any play by play scenes (of which there were few, thankfully.)
"We fit as athletes, but we really don't fit as a part of society... We know that we're separate, until we get on the field. We know that we're equal as athletes. But once we get off the field we're not equal. When it comes time to play the game, we are a part of it. But after the game, we are not a part of it." (black coach at Permian, 1988)
Has this made me want to read more sports books? Well maybe. If they are actually about something else. :)...more
I've kind of missed the boat so far (har harrrr, oh come on, I couldn't resist) but this is the first book I've read by Erik Larson. And I only ended I've kind of missed the boat so far (har harrrr, oh come on, I couldn't resist) but this is the first book I've read by Erik Larson. And I only ended up reading it because it is the final pick of the season for my in-person book club. I put it off for a while but ended up breezing through, using the approach I take with most histories - read the bits carefully that I'm interested in and skim those I am not.
Those I am not: -transcripts of military commands -Woodrow Wilson's depression and dating life (if this were the focus of a novel, I'd probably be really into it, but since his actions and emotions have absolutely zero to do with what happens on or to the Lusitania, I don't know what the author was thinking.... if this was a World War I book, it might make more sense... but like Bryan A. says in his review, this is a book about a ship and its demise, a la Titanic)
Those I am: -quotes and summaries of individual narratives the author found during his research. I wanted more of this. He had access to amazing materials and sometimes used only a part of a sentence. I will never see the Sound of Music the same, having read Captain von Trapp's views of killing people in war (and of course, he was on the other side! So long, hero.) -Stories of the people on the ship and all those fun happenstances... Alfred Vanderbilt not going on the Titanic despite having a ticket, and then dying on the Lusitania (by the way, the Vanderbilt Estate in Asheville, NC had an interesting exhibit about the Vanderbilts and the Titanic yet I do not remember them mentioning this key detail!) - this is one example of many, and as far as this book is almost like a gossip mag, these bits were the juiciest.
Outside of the research, the writing has some great moments, where I can picture Larson typing a sentence and feeling proud of it. For me, this can be sustaining as a reader who more often reads fiction. The only one I marked is "When he came back to the surface, he found himself in an archipelago of destruction and death."
This is likely going to be a good discussion in my book club, so I may have more to say at that point....more
I wish I had kept track of why I decided I had to read this book RIGHT AWAY to the extent that I requested it from interlibrary loan, and it had to coI wish I had kept track of why I decided I had to read this book RIGHT AWAY to the extent that I requested it from interlibrary loan, and it had to come all the way from Notre Dame, one of the few American universities to have it because it isn't actually out in the USA until next month. (Tell me if you told me to read this!)
The right person to read this book would be someone who has the patience to read Eimear McBride, Nicholson Baker (the post-modern fiction version not the cranky non-fiction guy), or Mark Z. Danielewski even when they experiment with style and form, but also someone who has enjoyed some of the memoir-fiction along the lines of Karl Ove Knausgård. This book isn't any of those things but takes some energy and concentration to immerse into it. It is dense and demands attention that would seem deceptive when looking at length.
It is being marketed as short stories, and there is a table of contents with named sections, but it feels more like a string of musings by an unnamed female author. They all take place in her life in an unnamed Irish rural area - most of the time in her house but sometimes elsewhere. They are not stream of consciousness in the way the writers of the early 20th century did it but that's as close as a comparison as I can draw. Deep, intellectual reflections on the most mundane things, from what goes through your mind as you willingly enter into the expected rituals of a date to the need to replace the parts of an oven. It sounds domestic but isn't.
Here's a sample of the writing since I'm struggling to explain it to you:
"Everybody knows deep down that life is as much about the things that do not happen as the things that do and that's not something that ought to be glossed over or denied because without frustration there would hardly be any need to daydream. And daydreams return me to my original sense of things and luxuriate in these fervid primary visions until I am entirely my unalloyed self again. So even though it sometimes feels as if one could just about die from disappointment I must concede that in fact in a rather perverse way it is precisely those things I did not get that are keeping me alive."
It turns out that this is also shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, a prize I have paid attention to in the past because it is an award given to young, promising writers, and the nominees range from fiction to poetry to hybrid forms. One of the other shortlisted books (actually the winner of the prize) is one I just so happened to finish right before starting this one, although at the time I had no idea that either was nominated for that award - Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. Now I feel I might as well read the other three nominees....more
Well, I wanted to read a genre I hadn't before, but Amish romance is just like any Christian romance, just with a few Amish details sprinkled in here Well, I wanted to read a genre I hadn't before, but Amish romance is just like any Christian romance, just with a few Amish details sprinkled in here and there - pies, walking and taking buggies to see one another (no phones, no internet). I was disappointed the book didn't include a recipe since the raspberry pies are such a major plot element! I will have to do some research.
An easy read, a bit repetitive and obvious, but it is likely I am not the target audience....more
I read this on and off between other books, definitely a good book for that, as each chapter is an interview with one or more authors (usually a conveI read this on and off between other books, definitely a good book for that, as each chapter is an interview with one or more authors (usually a conversation between several) transcribed from events at The Strand. My favorites were authors I was already familiar with - George Saunders, Junot Diaz, and Alison Bechdel. ...more
I left fundamentalism a long time ago, but there's no leaving my fundamentalist family. This was an interesting book to read through as I prepare to mI left fundamentalism a long time ago, but there's no leaving my fundamentalist family. This was an interesting book to read through as I prepare to make another visit home, a journey which is always stress-laden! I found the first part to be the most beneficial, because it allowed me to make some connections I hadn't made. It took me weeks to get the courage to read the last chapter in that section, about where family intersects with fundamentalism. Maybe someday I can write about what it was like to grow up in that kind of environment. Most stories I tell other people seem hard for them to believe!
The second section, about dealing with the effects of fundamentalism, was actually the reason I read the book but I found the least useful. I think Winell means well but the inner child approach doesn't work for me, in fact it just makes me cringe. I don't need to create a new version of myself in order to process emotions. I don't need to be patronizing with myself in order to give myself permission to feel. In fact, I feel I need to be less compartmentalized over all. So I was kind of rolling my eyes through a few chapters there. I agreed with her that it is important to deal with the guilt and anger that leaving fundamentalism can bring, but then she doesn't give many strategies for doing so. I found some nuggets that I can pull into other thinking and working that I'm doing.
The good news (for my own realization) is that I've actually done a lot of the work already. I'm a unique bird who was fighting the limits of fundamentalism from as early as I could write in a journal. Going to college and then getting married marked the times where I could live my life without those restrictions and guilt-trips, and I took naturally to the new way of living because I was always that person. The last section of the book may be more useful for people at the start of their journey. There is a lot to process, a lot to filter out, a lot to let go of. The "moving to a new country" feeling Winell describes really resonated with me, and is also why I've included this on my "cults and communes" bookshelf because this book is an insight into the other world people experience within this system, one that has many similarities to cults - with use of isolation, restriction, etc. to control its members. When that system is replicated inside your family unit, it can be a very restrictive way of being....more
For readability, this book would get five stars. It is easy to get through, has good pacing and kept me interested. But the complete lack of realism aFor readability, this book would get five stars. It is easy to get through, has good pacing and kept me interested. But the complete lack of realism and shortage of danger made me decide to give it only three stars.
The basic story is of a count, forced to give up his substantial home and property and relocate to a hotel in Moscow, in 1922. Because of the revolution, he is not allowed to leave again until sometime in the 1960s. At some point he has to move from his generous suite to a tiny room on a higher floor, but he still gets to keep his furniture, his books, his wardrobe.
The first section features a small precocious child that made me think of a Russian Eloise. She helps the count explore the hotel and remains a thread as the novel moves through time. While some of the revolution and changing powers touches the hotel, even visits the hotel, the count never seems to be in any danger. In fact he seems to be valued by some for his knowledge and conversation. And inside the conversations is the only place I felt the shifting, unsettled climate truly acknowledged.
"When you exile a man into his own country, there is no beginning anew. For the exile at home - whether he be sent to Siberia or subject to the Minus Six - the love for his country will not become vague or shrouded by the mists of time. In fact, because we have evolved as a species to pay the utmost attention to that which is just beyond our reach, these men are likely to dwell on the splendors of Moscow more than any Muscovite who is at liberty to enjoy them."
After reading Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea, it was hard to see the same Russia in this novel. I think most people who picked it for their Book of the Month pick won't be disappointed because they don't have the immediate comparison I have had.
Thanks to the publisher for granting me early access through Edelweiss....more
I wasn't sure what to think of this novel based on its description and I would say the parts I liked, I really liked. But then there were these other I wasn't sure what to think of this novel based on its description and I would say the parts I liked, I really liked. But then there were these other parts. It's about a strange girl with a quirky family, marrying a man who is trying not to be strange or quirky but also comes from a strange! and quirky! family. And he works for a pharmaceutical company whose CEO is... strange! and quirky! only in a different way.
I sound more put off than I am. These elements make it infinitely readable but I was more interested in Veblen than in Paul. Paul is rather unlikeable but I think the reader is supposed to like him because Veblen does, but really she is floating along letting life happen to her. The only way she really connects is in her imagined conversations with squirrels. This was delightful at first but then disturbing.
Because she is rather ambivalent about her engagement to Paul, marriage is a frequent topic.
"Marriage could be a continuing exercise in disappearances."
I do not imagine this book winning the Bailey's Prize but I would read another book by the author....more
I don't usually read alternate history but when I saw this book from an author I had previously enjoyed, I decided to give it a try. It is present dayI don't usually read alternate history but when I saw this book from an author I had previously enjoyed, I decided to give it a try. It is present day America, minus one Civil War. Gradually the majority of the southern states have gotten rid of slavery, but four holdouts still use slaves. The central story is Victor, a bounty hunter on the trail of Jackdaw that takes him to Indianapolis. He has long worked for the US Marshall Service, but he also grew up on a plantation as a child.
I think most readers will enjoy this for the small changes in history that have had a big impact on the present day, portrayed right next to the world we know as far as technological advance, etc. (The underground freedom movement in this world is known as Underground Airlines, which I thought was a fun use of this approach.) To me, the novel was uncanny. It is all set in an alternate Indianapolis. I lived there for a year, in a neighborhood on the southeast perimeter where I was the racial minority. There were plenty of times when I was the only white person on the bus, and sometimes people would crack jokes about it. Winters sets the freed slave community in this area, and much of the action occurs between this spot and Meridian and Keystone, the two central north-south roads in the city. Small details that had changed (like the Lincoln the Martyr statue at Monument Circle, which in our reality has a giant monument to those killed in the Civil War) to small details remaining the same (Circle Centre Mall!) The only thing missing to make it my Indianapolis was a threatening tornado.
I was so unnerved that I actually sent a Tweet to the author asking if he had lived in Indy, and he responded to say he had for several years. Well it really shows.
It's a departure from Winters' previous post-apocalypse/collapse police procedural novels (beginning with The Last Policeman,) but there is still a central guy on a case, so there is some familiarity in the tone.
Thanks to the publisher, who supplied me with an eARC through NetGalley....more
How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a Locus award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman (also nominated for the Hugo Award), now treated to the artistic sHow to Talk to Girls at Parties is a Locus award-winning short story by Neil Gaiman (also nominated for the Hugo Award), now treated to the artistic stylings of Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, known for such graphic novels as Daytripper. I can't think of a better pairing, and the art really brings out the freaky elements from the story that can almost be missed if one reads too quickly.
More please!
Thanks to the publisher for granting me early access via Edelweiss....more
I enjoyed this story of comet seekers tracing through history to follow a family who communes with ghosts. I would call it a beach read except I frozeI enjoyed this story of comet seekers tracing through history to follow a family who communes with ghosts. I would call it a beach read except I froze while reading it! I would read this alongside Good Morning, Midnight.
I also learned about comets. I didn't know about Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter's role in devouring potentially dangerous comets from our solar system. There are some beautiful moments in this book, which I can't share with you because I had a review copy from the publisher....more
You could probably hand me a phonebook from a cold weather island location and I would devour it. In this book the author writes about several places You could probably hand me a phonebook from a cold weather island location and I would devour it. In this book the author writes about several places along the "sixty degrees north" parallel, with the unique fact that he comes from one of them. So he is writing about home and family (with the recent loss of his father) alongside the remote and unforgiving landscapes.
One of the cities he visits (Turku, Finland) is where one of my uncles is from. And I had yet to read anything set in the Shetland Islands, and they are now inching toward the top of the list of places I really want to see.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy through Edelweiss....more
I saw that Jeff VanderMeer had written the introduction for this, so I snagged it when it became available in Edelweiss for review.
I wasn't super intoI saw that Jeff VanderMeer had written the introduction for this, so I snagged it when it became available in Edelweiss for review.
I wasn't super into it. I think I was struggling to read it in the context of that time. Because reality tv is so pervasive now, it's almost a logical step to consider a reality show that follows a death. We have some of that already when people announce they are choosing assisted suicide, when news becomes reality tv. But considering that this is from the 1970s, it is very smart in predicting the future.
To me, this felt a bit like Philip K. Dick in tone. If you like him you are likely to enjoy this!
Thanks to Edelweiss for a chance to see the fresh release of this classic. I hadn't heard of the author before....more
If you have ever seen the silly show The Last Man on Earth, you will find some interesting similarities with this novel. We are introduced first to a If you have ever seen the silly show The Last Man on Earth, you will find some interesting similarities with this novel. We are introduced first to a man who appears to be the last man on earth, but instead of Tuscon, an aging scientist (Augustine) has been left behind in the Arctic Circle after he politely refused to evacuate with the last flight out. After the others leave, he does not hear from them again, and the radio is full of static.
Another character in the tv show is a lonely astronaut, with only a worm for company; in this novel the other character with alternating chapters is Sully, an astronaut whose shuttle has just started the journey back after a successful trip to Jupiter. They lost contact with Earth a year before, and the stress has started to get to them. She is mercifully not alone, but they do not know what they are coming back to.
And so the story unfolds. I really enjoyed the writing in particular, it is beautiful, and I took longer to read this than it demanded because I didn't want to reach the end. Highly recommended.
Thanks to the publisher for the early look!...more
I read bits of this here and there until I decided I just needed to finish it. It's really not that interesting of a story but of course I picked it uI read bits of this here and there until I decided I just needed to finish it. It's really not that interesting of a story but of course I picked it up for $1 because it's a library mystery....more
I know of Nora Ephron but didn't know her sister is also a writer. Similarly to her sibling, this novel focuses on relationships between adults.
This wI know of Nora Ephron but didn't know her sister is also a writer. Similarly to her sibling, this novel focuses on relationships between adults.
This was a quick read! The story of a marriage, falling apart over the course of a vacation. Two married couples and one child travel together, and the chapters rotate between the four adults points of view. I don't always like that approach but it really works to tell different parts of the story well in this case, and to keep the story moving. Not every character has a chance to speak on every day of the vacation.
I really did like the ongoing examination of how marriage changes over time, and all the outside influences that make relationships work or fall apart. One example - a character in the novel, Taylor, believes her marriage works because they had a child (she might be right, or maybe not). Her husband responds that marriage is like nicotine, the most addictive drug in the world, because it is an upper and a downer. There are many moments like this where the characters' rotating perspectives become very useful windows.
I had some confusion with the ending but I suspect it is kept vague to give book clubs to talk about (because I think this would be a great book club book!)
Thanks to the publisher for granting me access via NetGalley....more
Jenny (Reading Envy)
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