I really enjoyed this book. I think it was my favorite of the Annals books. Powers has less prominent female characters, although it has some interest...moreI really enjoyed this book. I think it was my favorite of the Annals books. Powers has less prominent female characters, although it has some interesting things to say about gender. The themes of freedom, identity, social hierarchy and learning really worked for me. The story is a fairly typical quest, from city to wilderness to forests to marshes, with companions and offbeat societies along the way, new adventures around every turn, etc. Once again, Le Guin provides a complete world with complicated race and gender roles and an uncomfortable social hierarchy.
The third book is, once again, set in a new part of the same world of the Western Shore, with a new main character, Gav. Gav is a bright, clever slave in the city of Etra. Life as a slave is not easy, but it is not something he thinks is optional. I mean, the idea of not being a slave is not really on his radar. He thinks he is pretty lucky for not being separated from his sister and because he gets to learn. Something tragic happens and he runs away from the house where he was raised. He lives with a hermit for a while in an underground cave. He joins a few radical societies of freed slaves in the woods, but they have their own issues, as you would expect. He searches for his true self in the marshes he was kidnapped from as a baby. He struggles to understand himself and his role in all of these societies. Ultimately, he finds/makes a sort of home for himself in a satisfying way. Powers is kind of a "It Gets Better" for kids who like books / feel really out of place in the world. (less)
I really enjoyed this audiobook. It's read by Tim Curry. It's different from other children's books, in that it's dark and scary and uses a lot of big...moreI really enjoyed this audiobook. It's read by Tim Curry. It's different from other children's books, in that it's dark and scary and uses a lot of big words, defining them along the way, and has no happy ending. The story is compelling enough to get an adult through it, though. The Baudelaire orphans are quite charming, albeit unlucky.
How old do my babies have to get before I can read this series with them?
The interview at the end was weird. Was Daniel Handler affecting a personality for the sake of the character or does he really talk like that? I couldn't figure it out, so if it was the former, he succeeded. Bravo. (less)
This book starts out with a giant knife and keeps moving briskly. It's simple enough for children to follow, but it isn't too dumb for grown-ups. The...moreThis book starts out with a giant knife and keeps moving briskly. It's simple enough for children to follow, but it isn't too dumb for grown-ups. The peripheral characters in the graveyard are kind of amazing - Bod's living friend Scarlett, Liza the witch, Nehemiah Trot, a dead poet full of advice, Old Mother Slaughter whose gravestone is so worn it only reads "LAUGH." Everything is very charmingly macabre and creepy. I liked that there were big, very scary conflicts in addition to the constant, smaller and sometimes very scary conflicts.
I really enjoyed this book. It captured a lot of the perils of childhood and growing up in an eerie metaphorical way. Not only questions about life and death and what they both mean, but questions of identity, home and finding ones place. The adolescent Bod Owens is walking the borderlands of life and death. We've all been there. It's very literal. The book was kind of scary and had dark content for kids (suicide, witch burning, frightening ghouls, etc) but the book cover indicates that it's recommended for ages 10+, so what do I know.
I loved the Danse Macabre chapter, and I desperately would like to read a sequel.(less)
I love Dolly Parton. Her other book, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business is a better memoir, but this is quite charming. It is basically anec...moreI love Dolly Parton. Her other book, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business is a better memoir, but this is quite charming. It is basically anecdotes from her life, which are used to illustrated her pillars of success: Dream More, Learn More, Care More, Be More. If you're going to take any celebrity's life advice, it should probably be Dolly Parton. She is basically a genius, and a really good person & role model to boot.
Also, she is funny and sparkly, and she just cares so goddamn much about people.
I highly recommend getting the audio book, as it is read by the author and she breaks into song a few times in each chapter. (less)
I enjoyed this book because it's a lady-focused, historical memoir about life as a midwife in London's East End in the 1950s. It would be better as a...moreI enjoyed this book because it's a lady-focused, historical memoir about life as a midwife in London's East End in the 1950s. It would be better as a tv show (ha ha ) and seems like it may have been written to lend itself to that format. The chapters alternate between life at the convent with those quirky nuns and their quirky lives, and life in the tenements with the pregnant and birthing women. Jennifer Worth walks a fine line between being disgusted by the poor and genuinely compassionate for them. I thought she stepped over the line for the sake of dramatization a few times, like describing the stink of a poor woman's body or the abuse cycles of a household. But she was young and times were different. The subject matter carries the story - the writing, pacing, setting & characters cannot pull the reader in as much as the rhythm of the births - which is cool and interesting, but it gets redundant after so many pages and chapters. (less)
I made it three discs through this audio book and I have no fucking idea what's going on. I think I should try this again in paper form after I read W...moreI made it three discs through this audio book and I have no fucking idea what's going on. I think I should try this again in paper form after I read Wolf Hall. But maybe I just have a problem with so many english dudes in one book? I have to give this audio book a big DO NOT RECOMMEND. (less)
This book is just okay for me. It felt like a Canadian Winesburg, Ohio, and I'm totally fine with only reading Winesburg once in my lifetime. I only *...moreThis book is just okay for me. It felt like a Canadian Winesburg, Ohio, and I'm totally fine with only reading Winesburg once in my lifetime. I only *really* liked the stories in the very last section, the more autobiographical bits, and they were too little, too late to save the collection for me. The desperation and alienation of a small town life intersected with the Munro's dreamy, hazy storytelling in a way that never gelled for me. I feel terrible about how much I did not appreciate this book, but you can't love someone because you feel guilty for not loving them. Munro left me with that, at least. (less)
D.J. Schwenk is 15 and things are rough. Her dad is sick, so she's handling the chores around their dairy farm. They have financial problems, family r...moreD.J. Schwenk is 15 and things are rough. Her dad is sick, so she's handling the chores around their dairy farm. They have financial problems, family rifts, and she's failing english. This book was something of a surprise. I didn't expect to like it as much as I do. The audio book narrator is amazing. D.J. came alive with her amazing Minnesota accent. I loved D.J.'s unconventional gender role - her love of football and basketball, the way she handles the farm, the ways she interacts with boys, her dykey best friend Amber.
I felt about this book a way that I can only feel about feminist books from women of a certain age, which is to say a sort of unsettled frustration co...moreI felt about this book a way that I can only feel about feminist books from women of a certain age, which is to say a sort of unsettled frustration conflicting with fist-pumping enthusiasm. They are the only ones who really bring this out in me.
The beginning of this book annoyed me, in particular the early pages of Jessica Valenti's thoughts on attachment parenting, breast feeding and natural birth. The thing is, even though there may be some science or reasonable logic to back her up, her criticism of them comes across as whining. It reads like Jessica didn't get to have this certain kind of birth (her baby was born at like 28 weeks due to a life-threatening condition, breastfeeding was difficult, etc) and these sorts of natural parenting don't work for her, so they are probably anti-woman traps and not actually good for babies. I understand being anti-hippie and anti-woo woo magic, but the criticism comes across as hurt feelings and regrets. Like, of course women who can't breastfeed shouldn't feel shame about that and there are many ways to nurture a child, but the whole "breastfeeding is an anti-feminist trap" sentiment is awkward. There are interesting passages, but overall I felt like it was a wash. I appreciated the analysis of "natural parenting" as a way that privileged white women fetishize the "natural mothering" of "African and Indian mothers." I mean, it's super racist when people do that, and somehow liberal P.C. people manage to get away with it CONSTANTLY.
HOWEVER, once Valenti switches gears and starts talking about parenting, fear and equality in the context of a feminist politic and offering analysis and solutions, this book gets a lot more interesting. Because it's less about her personal experiences and more about parenting in general, her analysis really hits a stride with the "maternal instinct" and "motherhood is the world's hardest job" sections. Her insights expanded my beliefs on the roles of community, government and support for new moms. If you're already into feminist theory, there is not a lot of new material, but it's pulled together nicely.
Note: When I listen to an audio book, repetitive phrases pop out that probably wouldn't bother me in a paper book. (this is why I think editors should have to read a book out loud, to catch this annoying shit) In this book, that phrase is STINKY CHEESES. Sweet baby jesus, I have never even though about stinky cheeses as much as jessica valenti cares about pregnant women not being "allowed" to eat them. (less)
I picked this up, of course, because it's billed as a Harry Potter for grown-up's and I am determined to ride this Harry Potter train to the bitter en...moreI picked this up, of course, because it's billed as a Harry Potter for grown-up's and I am determined to ride this Harry Potter train to the bitter end. It's kind of like Harry Potter went to college in America. Bored alcoholism, the novelty of sex, and a single-minded dedication to apathy remind you that you're not at Hogwarts. The magic is different and the magicians are different. It's wholly a different book from Harry Potter.
There are plenty of negative things you could say about the book - it's a Harry Potter knock-off with a big side of Narnia, casual sexism, self-indulgent navel-gazing, an unlikable narrator, the magic is not magical, and so on. It would be easy for me to write a book about the problems with this book. BUT I enjoyed reading it. Underneath the metaphors of magic, magical lands and magical creatures, this is a book about deeply wanting something you can't have, and then getting it and realizing it can't make you happy.
Maybe you do not know, but I am interested in that theme.
And as soon as the book was over, I wanted to watch the movie. Unfortunately, as some kind of great cosmic injustice, this book is not a movie. I want to read this book again and I plan to read the sequel. And the sequel's sequel, probably. Despite the casual sexism! Which normally irritates me beyond forgiveness. I know, I can't explain it. I don't even recognize myself.
Also, there are sad parts, which made me cry. I am a crybaby and I find joy in crying. (less)
Mudbound takes place in 1946 post-war rural Mississippi. Jordan won a Bellwether Prize for this book - which is an award given by Barbara Kingsolver f...moreMudbound takes place in 1946 post-war rural Mississippi. Jordan won a Bellwether Prize for this book - which is an award given by Barbara Kingsolver for fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships. So that tells you a lot about this book, right? The primary characters are the McAllans, a white family who moves to the farm from Memphis and the Jacksons, a black family who are tenant farmers on the McAllen farm. Both families include a young man freshly back from WWII who share a special friendship and bond in their post-war reintroduction to society. But that doesn't mean the families are friends.
The narrative is complicated, as the author shifts between six main characters. Fortunately in the audiobook, they have really distinct narrators so I never got lost. I admit it might be harder to follow in the paper book. The style keeps the book moving quickly, though. When a character would naturally become descriptive or pedantic, our narrator leaps to someone with more insight or perspective.
There are a lot of conflicts here - between men and women, rural vs. city living, white people who are tolerant or accepting of their black neighbors versus white people who are secretly in the KKK, and so on. But the defining chasm of the book is the racism of the major community stakeholders - the doctor who lets many of his black patients die, the store owner who won't let black people use the front door, etc. The reader gets a sense of the systemic racism that defines every aspect of daily life in 1940s Mississippi.
I appreciate how the book illustrates long-range, systemic effects of prejudice for characters on both sides. No one got off the hook, and no one had a happy ending. It is a moving, terrible story with emotional consequences that I expect will resonate for a long time. Definitely a Bellwether book. (less)
This book is funny enough, I guess (she says begrudgingly) but I did not like it. Her writing style is redundant, which sometimes is a powerful litera...moreThis book is funny enough, I guess (she says begrudgingly) but I did not like it. Her writing style is redundant, which sometimes is a powerful literary technique, but here it came across as annoying and limiting. Her stories are kind of funny and kind of sad but she is not caustically observant or sad enough to make it meaningful in either direction. Basically, she is not a funny enough person to write a memoir about her humdrum life, and her life is not interesting enough that I am willing to appreciate her humdrum storytelling.
Also, her relationship with her husband is mostly bickering and resentfulness. I'm sure they have a happy, fulfilling marriage outside her need for blog material, (sorry, I mean book material) --- but that's exactly the issue. Tell that story. Make it more complicated. Don't use the tired trap of bickering with your overbearing husband for humor. We are all beyond tired of this narrative of the stern, paternal, overseer husband who criticizes how much money you spend, your housekeeping skills, and whether or not you are allowed to buy new towels while he leaves his wet towels on the floor. This just makes me feel sad for you, and any straight lady who is laughing at these "antics." And that narrative is not old enough and distant enough that you can use it ironically. IT'S JUST SAD. And it's at least 70% of the fucking book. (For more reading on Critical Approaches to Heterosexuality, read something like this blog post).
This book was well-received by people whose book taste I generally do not appreciate. And it is the product of a blogger's book deal. You might remember that I dislike pretty much every book ever written by a blogger if you've been reading this ol' goodreads for a while. And this book is not an exception to that rule. (less)
This book is actually not great but I enjoyed it. The storytelling is flat and shallow, the gossip is slim and Belinda really wants you to appreciate...moreThis book is actually not great but I enjoyed it. The storytelling is flat and shallow, the gossip is slim and Belinda really wants you to appreciate how far she fell so you can appreciate how far she's come during recovery. It is more of an addiction memoir than a chronicle of the Go-Go's. While it's not a great addiction memoir, I managed to find enough to like about it. I appreciated the parts about growing up in the 1980s Los Angeles punk scene, living in gross punk houses and crashing on couches of notorious hollywood characters, going on tour with the Go-Go's and hearing about the interpersonal friction that made their collaborations so tense. Belinda also struggles with things like body image/weight, girl friendships, celebrity, romantic relationships and parental issues in a pretty feminist and conscious way. I loved when she talked about how she created and imagined her fashion aesthetic in this deliberate broke punk way. She always felt like the chubby, rolly polly Go-Go, even though she "photographed well." aww. ok. anyway, fans of Belinda probably won't find much new information here, and people who just love memoirs will probably be irritated by how hollow the writing is, so I'm not sure who would love this book. Still, Belinda Carlisle! (less)
The premise is that the rotation of the earth has begun to slow, for no reason known to or understood by science. Both daylight and darkness stretch f...moreThe premise is that the rotation of the earth has begun to slow, for no reason known to or understood by science. Both daylight and darkness stretch far beyond the confines of a simple 24-hour day. The narrator is 11-year-old Julia. So, of course, The Slowing corresponds with an adolescent coming-of-age tale, complete with crushes, friendship drama, bra-snapping and fighting parents. I mean, it's middle school with an inexplicable environmental, society-ending disaster superimposed on it.
The large-scale social issues of The Slowing interest me more than way that Julia experiences the slowing. In particular, I liked the way different people reacted to the slowing. The population fragments into "Real Time," a belief that humans should sleep when it's dark and their bodies will adjust to the new circadian rhythm and the government-sanctioned 24-hour clock, in which sometimes children go to school in the "middle" of the "night" and people struggle to sleep during "white nights." Real Timers fall out of sync with the 24 hour world. At first, they are weird. Then they are outcasts. And then they seem dangerous.
There is also the issue of food supply. Like when the days are too long and the nights are too short and you can't grow wheat anymore? And temperatures don't regulate properly. And birds are all dying. And some people get sick, like really sick, maybe from the shift in gravity? Science and medicine cannot answer any questions about the slowing.
I picked this up because I read in a Martha Stewart magazine that it was a cross between Margaret Atwood and Aimee Bender (whom I love/like, respectively). This is probably the most inane reason I've ever admitted for reading a book, but it's the truth. I can see why the M.S. writer called upon the vision and style of Atwood & Bender, but I felt like Age of Miracles fell short of that hype. It was an enjoyable read, but not life-changing. It's solid entertainment, which is more than I can say about many novels, but it's not the kind of fiction that changes how I feel or think about the world. (less)
This book brings to life the beloved absentee father from Little Women. I was really into the March sisters when I was a kid, but the missing father n...moreThis book brings to life the beloved absentee father from Little Women. I was really into the March sisters when I was a kid, but the missing father never interested me. So, as an adult, I was interested in the concept of March, but I wasn't sure if I would really like this book. Generally speaking, stories about war do not interest me. There is a lot of opportunity for a historical fiction spin-off to be a one-trick pony mired in boredom and tedious historic adjectives. I was surprised when the narrative absorbed me. The characters were compelling - interesting, complicated, flawed and human. March has this self-conscious precociousness that makes me not necessarily want to have dinner with him, but I did want to know how life unfolded for him. This book has moral conflicts and soapboxes that surprised me. Some are predictable based on the context, like slavery, education of lower classes, women's rights and education, marriage and love, etc. But March's reflections on war profiteering, interracial romance and vegetarianism caught me off-guard.
The story was altogether more than I expected. (less)
In 1971, a normal-looking guy on a Northwest Airlines flight out of Portland hands a note to a stewardess. The note says that he has a bomb and he wan...moreIn 1971, a normal-looking guy on a Northwest Airlines flight out of Portland hands a note to a stewardess. The note says that he has a bomb and he wants $200,000 and a parachute. The airline delivers. He disappears with the money and an urban legend is born. I've been interested in this case since I learned about it at the Northwest Mystery Museum a few years ago, so I was really glad I finally got around to reading a book on the subject.
The author starts from a position of nearly complete ignorance of the D.B. Cooper case. He develops his own theories and follows his own red herrings. Gray meets a lot of nutty people along the way. I don't know why I hoped that this book would end with a definitive answer to the D.B. Cooper case (obviously it is still unsolved!) but I was disappointed when I realized that we were not going to draw any conclusions. It is really about the Hunt for D.B. Cooper. There is a lot of interesting lore and some insights into the various D.B. Cooper legends over the years.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book. I talked about it a lot when I was reading it. I just can't say that I would recommend it or that it is an especially good book. The narrative jumps around a lot so that it's hard to stay oriented and remember who's your favorite suspect of the moment. A lot of the information and 'research' is provided by D.B. Cooper enthusiasts who all seem to have their own agenda. It seems like Gray used a message board to connect with the most dedicated amateur detectives, and parts of the book are actually message board conversations. I don't necessarily consider these people experts just because they are typing madly on a message board, so....
Two favorite/weird things: 1. d.b. cooper jumped not that far from where i live so i "got" a lot of the geography references and it was good to think about places i've been in the context of the cooper case. 2. one of the more popular theories is that d.b. cooper was a transsexual woman (life-long mechanic and pilot who was frustrated and depressed by financial inability to get surgery, etc) and. well, that sort of criminal queerness is a drug i find hard to turn down. (less)
My strongest reaction upon finishing this book is Holy Cliffhanger, Batman. It was a predictable cliffhanger, but still emotionally manipulative!
This...moreMy strongest reaction upon finishing this book is Holy Cliffhanger, Batman. It was a predictable cliffhanger, but still emotionally manipulative!
This is the sequel to Delirium. I listened to the audio book which is also read by Sarah Drew, thank goodness. It's another generous helping of dystopian YAF. The story is a continuation of Delirium, picking up at almost the exact moment where the previous book ended. There is stronger world-building and character development here. Lena is well-traveled and knowledgeable now. Where the first book felt very small, reflecting the scope of Lena's limited life experience, this book feels sprawling and frenetic, and maybe a little bit flailing around.
The storytelling is a little confusing -- it alternates between "NOW"/"THEN" chapters, with "NOW" being Lena's new life in NYC as an infiltrator member of the DFA (Delirium Free America), while "THEN" is the time she spent in the wilds before the city with a ragtag band of young people who call themselves "homesteaders." It is disorienting for the reader, no doubt at least as disorienting as it was for Lena, but the jumping around does make it tough to follow the story at first.
I love the kids in the wilds for their hard luck and self-reliance and clever post-apocalyptic survival mechanisms. Lena sure has a talent for befriending beguiling, interesting ladies (Hana in book one, Raven here). Raven is a role model for the ages. Also, I'm pretty sure one of the homesteader kids is Unnatural (a queer)! The reference was subtle, but I was looking for it so hard after the straight-washing of Book 1 it stood out like a beacon of gayness to me. I read in this interview that L.O.'s editor made her cut out the gayness of the guy because it was purely political. I'm kind of offended by that (what about this book is not political?) but whatever.
At least in some regards Lena is a much improved person now. She does a lot of rescuing this time around. She's helpful, clever and sometimes self-reliant. She's grown up a lot in the wilds and the pampered, brainless, self-absorbed Lena is a distant memory. You can feel her coming of age.
My biggest problem with book #1 was Lena's development as an active resister. Lauren Oliver doesn't really answer for that in this book. Lena is a lot more involved in the resistance, but she is passive for most of this book - the resistance is something that's happening to/around her. She's swept up in it because of her friends and context, but she's not making any decisions or fulfilling her own agenda. Near the end, she finally has this shining "fuck it" moment where she decides to do what's best for her, friends and freedom fighters be damned. I can't wait to see how Lena evolves in #3. (less)
This is one of those things where I always list UKLG as one of my favorite authors and I have not read the stupid Earthsea Cycle so I feel like a pose...moreThis is one of those things where I always list UKLG as one of my favorite authors and I have not read the stupid Earthsea Cycle so I feel like a poser. Since I'm going to be 30 soon, I have to TCB.
Also, almost all the ladies in this book are evil. What's up with that, UKLG? I thought you were the grandma of feminist sci-fi.
I listened to the audio book. The reader (Harlan Ellsion) was a little big on the classic-fantasy-acting for me, but he really did sound like a Wizard from a far-flung land so that helped me get into the spirit of the adventure. I kind of wanted to braid his giant wizard beard. I liked this book but it didn't feel like it would stick to the crevasses of my brain like some of her later work. The book is so short, I felt like the adventure was kind of barely getting started and it was over. I understand that this was on purpose, but I was not satisfied. UKLG's imagination is such an interesting place to be, though. There are cool things like binding spells, ends of the world, mysterious islands, and fights with dragons and shadows, and it's altogether a good romp, but maybe not my most favorite uklg book of all time - which is probably Left Hand of Darkness, because I know you're wondering. (less)
Yes, I read another dystopian YAF book. Someone stop me. The premise is: at some point in a post-peak-oil future huge international corporations emplo...moreYes, I read another dystopian YAF book. Someone stop me. The premise is: at some point in a post-peak-oil future huge international corporations employ poor people to salvage materials from antiquated junk, like old oil tankers. Our protagonist, Nailer, is just such a "ship breaker," scavenging copper wire in a 'beach trash' community on the gulf coast. Nailer's main priorities in life are making quota and avoid his abusive addict father. One day, a giant hurricane wrecks a fancy, expensive boat with a near-drowned rich girl in the harbor where Nailer lives and everything changes for him. He becomes devoted to helping the rich girl get back to her family, at first ostensibly for the promise of financial rewards, but as the plot thickens, Nailer throws himself into this role of Nita's protector/side-kick - which is kind of cute and kind of pathetic.
The setting for this book was fascinating, and it felt authentic (well, for YAF dystopian fiction) because it was connected to concrete events in our contemporary world - oil has peaked and gone away, the disparity of wealth between social classes has grown to the point where they can hardly relate to each other, life is dangerous and unstable due to unpredictable and dangerous weather patterns, like "city killer" hurricanes. It feels very post-Katrina in that way that hurricane-obsessed, futuristic gulf coast settlements kind of have to be. I loved this disenfranchised character, Nailer, who is painfully aware of the injustice and inequality of his world. The way that Nailer experiences these power imbalances on a daily basis is driven home frequently but it didn't feel heavy-handed or redundant.
I *liked* that characters but they rang hollow for me, and they didn't evolve or grow enough through the story. Like, Nita cleaning eels and Nailer's issues with his dad were supposed to be these transformative things but neither of them really came into their power in a way that satisfied me. And Pima was such a badass that I spent half the book being disappointed that she wasn't the focus.
Side note: I listened to the audio book and the reader really irritated me. In particular, his sort of Jamaican-inspired accents for the black female characters irritated me, but really all of the female voices were irritating. (less)
This book has gotten a lot of attention and it's hard for me to write much about it without feeling redundant. There are a lot of layers in the storyt...moreThis book has gotten a lot of attention and it's hard for me to write much about it without feeling redundant. There are a lot of layers in the storytelling, and the characters are intertwined through the complex narrative. This provides a lot of opportunity for many discoveries for the attentive reader - What would I give to discover again that Gavran Gaile's wife was a gusla player from Sarobor !!! The triumph! The surprise! I loved the experience of reading The Tiger's Wife. There is all this heavy metaphor shit with the tiger(s) in the story, and this book is about so many big ideas, like love and war and death and life, but it's a real pleasure to read, too. There is a lot of brilliant mythology and superstition layered into the stories. It feels like a real, whole, complete world. It's contemporary but I'm sure it won't feel dated in 15 years.
I have enough feelings about this book! It's interesting (to me, only to me) that I didn't relate to anything in this book on a personal level. Often, when I really enjoy a book it's because I feel like I see a lot of my own experiences in it -- but not this time.
I greatly enjoyed reading this book. Tea Obreht wrote her ass off, and I cannot wait to read her next book. She could write a book about rocks and it would probably really entertain me. Someone give that woman a pile of money and a lot of time alone, please.
FINAL NOTE: this book has an interesting gay character, which I was totally not expecting. (less)
The setting is a homestead in 1920s Alaska. Jack and Mabel are new to the area. Childless and older, their Alaskan homestead is a last chance to make...moreThe setting is a homestead in 1920s Alaska. Jack and Mabel are new to the area. Childless and older, their Alaskan homestead is a last chance to make a life for themselves. The lifestyle is taking a lot out of them and their marriage is increasingly strained. One night, they sculpt a child in the yard out of snow. The sculpture is destroyed, but a girl appears. Is the snow child the answer to their problems? Is she the child they could never have?
Framed by the legend of the snow child, this book definitely has the feeling of one of those "retelling of an old story" booka but as things unfold, the book becomes much more. The characters are complicated and sincere. I spent a lot of time holding my breath, waiting to see what would happen next.
The style is spare and crisp, like the frozen Alaskan winter when the book opens. The author's descriptions are poetic and lovely. The plot contributed substantially to my reading enjoyment, unlike so many lyrical, poetic novels. Sometimes books give me a weird feeling, and this book feels like Nikki McClure's art to me. (less)
I picked this up because, of course, it's part of the 2012 Morning News Tournament of Books. I'm not really big on books about baseball or books lacki...moreI picked this up because, of course, it's part of the 2012 Morning News Tournament of Books. I'm not really big on books about baseball or books lacking in quality female characters, but I thought this book was an excellent read anyway. This story of the Westish Harpooners fills your heart to the brim. It's about baseball, sure, but it's also about so much more: growing up, getting old, being relevant, the pressures of success and the pressures of failure, ambition, commitment, consistency, showing up. The characters are evolving, sweating, growing and drinking protein shakes at every turn. Everyone changes so much during this book, as the reader, I felt like a different person by the end too, white-knuckled and raw. And Harbach's storytelling is great. The baseball games read like poetry. His writing is descriptive, emotive and clever. I could have stood for another 30 chapters about Mike and Henry and Owen, but this book ended at the right place. Everything just felt deliberate and correct when I was reading it.
This book says something interesting to say about money and higher education. Several of the main characters are attending Westish on scholarship. Henry and Mike spend a lot of time thinking about their sub-$100 bank account balances. Their families are broke or absent and not sending grocery money any time soon. Henry's facing some massive windfall opportunities if he can keep up his reputation on the field but the pressure of all those zeros is paralyzing. Pella earns the first paycheck of her life and revels in the power of her own money. The money in this book is tangible and real, a necessary evil that never stops being a controlling theme of their lives.
Pella was an interesting character and I liked watching her find her own way in the world, but I wish that this book could have had some female characters that were not just mom/sister/daughter/girlfriend. Those roles keep the ladies relevant only through their relationships to the men. And the biracial gay roommate/teammate was a fascinating character, but I was disappointed in the arc of his character. His personal development could have been so profound, considering what he went through, but he was essentially the same at the end. That was a missed opportunity.
Issues aside though, this is an enjoyable story that touched my heart and it was well worth the read. It isn't the great american novel, but it helped me think about being human, for better or for worse.(less)
Yet another dystopian YAF book. I can't explain my fascination and I can't stop. I listened to the audiobook version of this, and Sarah Drew was an am...moreYet another dystopian YAF book. I can't explain my fascination and I can't stop. I listened to the audiobook version of this, and Sarah Drew was an amazing reader. She really made the story special.
Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Love has been outright pathologized. Scientists have developed a procedure to cure all humans of love, thus creating very civilized, controlled population centers. In between the controlled, ordered cities are The Wilds, places where infected and uncured people suffer all the misery that love brings (or so the government wants you to believe). In Portland, Maine, Lena is graduating from her all-girls high school and counting down the days until her procedure, when she can be safe and happy and cured for the rest of her life. But things go a little off-course for Lena, and she discovers more than she ever imagined about herself, her government's lies, and the possibilities of love.
This book isn't the most original story in the history of the world, but the telling is fresh and fascinating. Oliver's characters are lively and engaging. The teenage girls feel authentic, and the girl-girl friendship was so well-developed, it felt more important to me than the boy-girl love story. Even though this book is such a classic story, it felt self-aware about its referential tendencies, going so far as to namedrop Romeo & Juliet a couple times to make sure that we know that she knows that we know what she's doing.
My major complaint would be Lena's development as an active resister - it felt a little weird how quickly Lena became totally radicalized and focused on resistance near the end, when she had been so wishy-washy and passive about rebellion through the book. I felt like she should have been more radical earlier in the book, based on her experiences with her mom, Hana's rebellious behavior, and Alex's influence. That last paragraph seemed so disjointed and different from the Lena we knew even 3 pages before that. I think it is possible to have an authentic teen girl and an authentic narrative of resistance, I just don't think that this book really mastered Lena's development in that regard.
My second complaint is about how the author handled 'deviant' sexuality - there's one mention of gay people when Lena basically reflects on how gays were cured or gotten rid of. Lena and Hana kind of seemed to have some chemistry and I was really rooting for their friendship to evolve. It seems like if your main point is about freedom of attraction and self-expression, well, hello, the queers have kind of cornered the market on that and would probably bring a lot of interesting aspects to the story.... maybe Lena will stumble across a big ol' homo commune in the next book! Like the great-great-great-great grandchildren of womyn and radical faeries? My fingers are crossed!
Despite those two rants, I greatly enjoyed this book. I love Magdalena Holloway and I can't wait to read the next book. (less)
I have lived in Oklahoma and Texas, although never in the Dust Bowl regions, and I have heard that this book is awesome so I picked it up for my histo...moreI have lived in Oklahoma and Texas, although never in the Dust Bowl regions, and I have heard that this book is awesome so I picked it up for my historic non-fiction of the 2012 reading challenge. I can't say exactly that I enjoyed reading it because it's so depressing and disheartening, but it is an incredible read. Even though I took Oklahoma history in junior high, the magnitude of daily life and circumstances of the Dust Bowl never seemed real to me until this book. It is easy to be paralyzed by both heart-wrenching compassion and complete disdain for humanity when reading this book.
The Worst Hard Time is a powerful, disturbing narrative of the greatest/first man-made environmental disaster that the United States had to deal with. Eagan uses interviews, diaries, newspapers and supporting documents to piece together daily life of families and communities on the High Plains during the 1930s. He guides us through the days of cowboys and million-acre ranches like the XIT. We meet ranchers from the Llano Estacado and nesters who moved to No Man's Land during the wheat boom years of the 1920s to produce record-breaking crops of wheat.
Pride goeth before the fall. So then there's the downfall of it all - the grass is destroyed and the ecosystem with it. The soil lifts into the air in sheets. Record-breaking drought years follow record-breaking drought years. Plagues of grasshoppers follow dust storms, and for years, families subsist on canned tumbleweed and wild rabbits. Cattle and horses lay down in the fields and die, their stomachs too full of dust for food to pass through. There's the Depression and a world war on the horizon, distracting America from the Dust Bowl. A perfect storm of dust and poverty stretches across ten states, carrying away millions of acres of the best topsoil humans ever had the pleasure to destroy. Children and elderly people die constantly of dust pneumonia, suffocated by silica dust trapped in their lungs. A lot of people bury their children. The government comes with FDR's New Deal plans, Shelter Belts of trees and Soil Conservation Districts, but it is difficult for the Spartans of the High Plains to take the help and guidance of east coast bureaucrats. The desperation and hopelessness are tangible and raw in the surviving interviews, letters and diaries.
It is amazing to experience the work of human greed, arrogance and hubris in conjunction with a good drought.
I especially loved the story of Tex Thornton. Tex convinced the good people of Dalhart, TX to pay an astronomical sum of money (in adjusted modern dollars, it would be $1 million) to fire rocket-powered explosives into the clouds to bring rain. As you can imagine, he was unsuccessful but managed to leave town with the money. Is there a movie about this dude? What a crackpot swindler.
This book has a lot of characters (maybe a dozen?) that it follows and it was difficult for me to keep all of the characters straight when they have cowboy names like Bam and Tex and there are multiple Hazels, but that's pretty much my only complaint. It's highly readable, emotional non-fiction, considering the dry material (I can't help myself).
Sidenote: This book is responsible for my new obsession with the prairie chicken. Why are they so cute!?! And so extremely endangered!
I don't know how I never read this before in my life, but that was a foolish mistake. I picked it up almost accidentally because it just happened to b...moreI don't know how I never read this before in my life, but that was a foolish mistake. I picked it up almost accidentally because it just happened to be available on audio book via overdrive when I was in between books. The scariest thing is not the disappearance of the books - that's a symptom of the problem - but how the desire to read and know things disappears.
This is an extraordinary story, worth all the hype and more. I would get a Fahrenheit 451 tattoo if I were a tattoo kind of person. I just cannot believe how good this book was.
It is pretty scary how much stuff Bradbury was right about. I want to always remember: the huge screen tvs ("the family"), the shell in your ear that allows you to tune out the immediate environment, the presence of insidious advertising jingles, the renegade literati hobos living outside the city, and the imminent war no one's paying attention to. (less)
Jane Lynch says in this interview that she was inspired to write this book by the It Gets Better project, and it shows. This book delves into some of...moreJane Lynch says in this interview that she was inspired to write this book by the It Gets Better project, and it shows. This book delves into some of the darker moments of Jane's life, but also takes the reader to the heights of a strangely successful career. From her struggles with alcoholism, her extended period spent in the closet of self-denial, and dysfunctional romantic relationships that continued well into her adulthood, Jane Lynch delivers the kind of alienated, lonely, disturbing story we've come to expect from the Gay Childhood and Adolescence. And then, hold onto your hats, because she starts befriending important people, experience career success and working through her personal issues. It's really a peaks and valleys kind of story, but lacks the juicy gossip, personal secrets and insane revelations that make memoirs really great. This book is a sanitized version of the story told from a very happy place. Good for Jane Lynch, but there's a certain depth that's missing here. She literally has nothing bad to say about anyone who is currently in her life.
If you have never known someone who struggled with their sexual orientation through their adolescence and young adulthood, Jane's struggles might be enlighten you, but if you've had (or been) a self-loathing, drunk, gay friend, this will seem overwrought.
Regardless, this is a quick and easy read. Jane Lynch is a funny person. I appreciated that Jane delineated between her gender presentation and sexual orientation, exploring the ways that masculinity is constructed in contemporary media through her own experiences and career. Although she does not use academic theories and jargon to explore these issues, she mentions multiple times how many roles she has landed that were written for men and how she got those roles with her hard-ass, arrogant, over-confident faux bravado (fauxvado! that should be a word.). She questions why being confident and self-assured are masculine traits, and what it takes to "make it" as a funny lady. Her failures to get (and keep) the girl are kind of awkward and painful, but hey, we've all been there.
I struggled with how many stars to give this book -- I like Jane, and this is a perfectly fine book, but it's really just "okay" to me. 2.5 stars. (less)
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