Sarah's double-dipping ATY

[Johanna]

Sarah wrote: "And we're off!

WEEK 20 :: A book featuring indigenous people of a country

There There, by Tommy Orange ★★★★☆


I just started reading this for a book club and this is one of the few prompts left that I need to fill, so this was a win, win situation for me!

I'm only a couple of chapters in, but am really enjoying it so far. I like the perspective that they are living in the city.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 51 :: A book published in 2019

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood ★★★★★


How it fits the prompt Published on Sept. 10!


I was so nervous about this book. I have adored The Handmaid's Tale ever since I first read it over ten years ago, and loved seeing it elevated by the Hulu tv series. When I heard this book was coming, especially since reading the unimpressive The Heart Goes Last, I was dubious. Was it needed, would it be any good? Well, having flown through this book I can answer those two questions. Was it needed? No. Was it any good? Yes! To expand on that, I don't think this book adds anything to the Gilead story. I would almost say that it takes something away, as I always liked the unknown quantity of the ending of Handmaid's and of the single-person narrative. But Handmaid's is such a classic that this is almost like a fan-fic or homage. It's a fun way to revisit a world so many of us have been left curious about, but with the safety of knowing that nothing will touch that original work. And on it's own merit, this book is really good. I enjoyed Aunt Lydia's perspective so much, and also that of Agnes who had grown up as a child of Gilead. Atwood's writing is flawless - witty and insightful, but still light enough to keep the pace of the book crisp. And the pace of this one is quicker than Handmaid's, it's very much an adventure and feels totally different. Standalone I'd have enjoyed this, but its links to a classic I hold very dear just made it even better. I know others hold different opinions, so it wont be for everyone, but I loved it.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 42 :: A book with a monster or "monstrous" character

Watch Me Disappear, by Jill Dawson ★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt Features a character who preys on young girls.


This story of a woman piecing together and realising things from her childhood - particularly surrounding the disappearance of her friend when they were both ten - was much better than I had expected it to be. Considering the heavy subjects of child abduction, abuse and the sexualisation of young teenage girls, this is not an exploitative or explicit book. Instead it is a layered story that really captured the experiences of friendships and the attentions of men when you're a pre-teen/teenage girl, and while that doesn't make for a comfortable read, it did make it really resonate with me as a reader. There is such a strong sense of time and place too, and the dark elements are balanced out with some beautiful descriptions of the Cambridgeshire Fens and also of seahorses (it makes sense in context, I promise). This book was published before all the Jimmy Saville et al revelations came to light, but it really portrays the downplaying or outright turning of a blind eye to the predatory behaviours of men towards children that lead to those abuses of power. But it does so in a thoughtful rather than a titillating or sensationalist way, and I think that is so important.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 38 :: A book not written in traditional novel format (poetry, essay, epistolary, graphic novel, etc)

In Real Life, by Cory Doctorow ★★★☆☆


How it fits the prompt It's a graphic novel.


So, let’s start with some caveats here. First, this is the only graphic novel I’ve ever read. Second, I’m not a gamer. And third, I’m not YA in either age or typical genre choice. Therefore I’m probably not the primary audience for this story or best placed to critique it - this is just my tuppence-worth. I really enjoyed the visuals of this book, particularly the depictions of the female avatars which weren’t overly sexualised as I’ve noticed women in games tend to be. There was a strong female-positive slant to this whole book, which I really valued. I also valued the strong ethical message, though I’m not quite sure about how the story played out in that respect (I don’t want to drop a spoiler, but let’s just say that there was a slight tinge of privilege sweeping in to save someone else’s day). But what I found really interesting was that the issues in the book are actually issues in real life. I don’t mean just the poor working conditions or treatment of low-paid workers, as we (should) all know those are sadly reality for many. But the “Gold Farming” that takes place – I had no idea this is something that actually happens, and will be something I’ll talk to my gamer son about and be mindful as his younger brothers become more interested in gaming. Who knew that even computer gaming can be subject to ethical considerations (or at least, those beyond whether you play games with problematic themes)?!

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 43 :: A book related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) [fiction or nonfiction]

Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley★★★☆☆


How it fits the prompt Early medical science, gone wrong...


I’ve read a couple of classic stories this year, stories that I thought I was familiar with as they are so prominent in pop culture. This was one of them, and like the others it was completely removed from what I expected. I was expecting an evil scientist cackling as he summoned the power of electricity on a dark and stormy night, lab assistant Igor hobbling about with his hunchback and saying yessss massster, and the emergence of a green monster with a bolt through his head. Spoiler, but basically none of that happens in this book. It’s more the case of an over ambitious student pieces together body parts, reanimates them (the details of which are fluffed over) and then promptly cacks his pants when he realises what he’s done. He then spends the rest of his life paying for, repenting for and seeking vengeance for the outcome of that misguided experiment. Oh, and throwing a lot of pity parties and fainting quite a bit. No judging, I would need the smelling salts too if a hideous beast of my own creation decided to torment me and harm anyone I ever loved. My struggle with this book is that Frankenstein - for all his hand wringing he isn’t a very effectual or empathetic character. He feels bad when bad things happen, but doesn’t really take responsibility for them in a tangible way or extend that despair to anyone half as long as he wallows in it for himself. I found his “monster” to be a much more human character, and actually felt very touched by his struggles. He holds a mirror to the monstrous behaviour of his creator and those who judge him at first sight, how we are conditioned to see the physical first without considering the person within. That message is still so pervasive today, so I like to think that it isn’t just the pop culture references which keep this book alive. I don’t think this book will make my favourite classics list, but I’m glad it gave me much more than the trope we’re all so used to.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 46 :: A book with a (mostly) black cover

Touch Not the Cat, by Mary Stewart ★★★☆☆


How it fits the prompt Well, the cover I saw when I picked this title is black...
Unfortunately the copy I got from the library was different, but I'm still counting it!


This was a good, well-paced family mystery with a supernatural element. I did guess the twist pretty early on, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of watching the story pan out to see if I was right. I will say, I struggled to shake the ickiness of narrator Bryony referring to the unknown member of her family - whom she has been communicating telepathically since childhood - as her "lover". Even if it was certainly one of her cousins (technically legal and totally ok in the UK...still ick to me). I'm adverse to that word anyway, but especially when it's used to refer to a voice in your head that you have conducted zero lovin' with... Anyway, it was the 70's, so I'll let it slide. Not least because it isn't the only stupid thing Bryony is guilty of in the name of family. It's a shame she could be so annoying, because I actually liked Bryony for the most part. I also loved the ramshackle castle which is the central setting and cause for the family feud after the death of Bryony's father. I wont say much more, as this is an easy story to spoil, but it was a fun read.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 27 :: A book off of the 1001 books to read before you die list

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy ★★★★★


How it fits the prompt #92 on the list


I can't believe it has taken me so long to read this book. Its beautiful cover caught my eye about 20 years ago, I stole it from my mum's bookshelves about five years ago, and it still took me until now to read it. Talk about delayed gratification...but gratification it certainly was. This book is so beautiful, I don't even know how to put my feelings into words. There is pain, the deep scars of caste and family damage, the loss of innocence and the shattering of lives. And yet Roy casts a spell over the reader - you can see the foreshadowing, you know the hurt that is coming, but you're drawn to the flame like one of Pappachi's moths. She is truly gifted in crafting a story, winding it around you so slowly and gently that you realise only too late that you're trapped in it. Time shifts, phrases come back to haunt you, and the true poison of the story is drip fed in the guise of sweet, clear morning dew. Childhood exposes the nonsensical prejudices of the adult world, and is completely shattered in return. But still, it is beautiful. I can't explain it. This book broke my heart, but I love it all the same.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 40 :: A book you stumbled upon

How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti ★★☆☆☆


How it fits the prompt I don't remember buying this, or what about it made me do so...


So...I think this book was a bit too hip for me. And by "hip" I mean white, privileged, looking for problems where there are none in an attempt to seem more artistic and intellectual. I don't know, this isn't a bad book. It just felt a bit soulless - I could neither sympathise nor relate with the main character/author (is it a memoir, is it a novel, ooh so enigmatic...actually, I don't care). That isn't always a deal breaker though, I can get into a book if I hate the central character too. But I just felt nothing. And there wasn't a compelling enough journey or plot to counteract that 'meh' feeling as I read. That's not to say there weren't some interesting moments or insights in this book, but not enough to save this one for me.

[Johanne]

Hahaha! So, not picking up this book :)
I think you meant to say pretentious? ;)

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 52 :: A book with a weird or intriguing title

Damaged Gods: Cults And Heroes Reappraised, by Julie Burchill ★★★☆☆


How it fits the prompt A play on the term "damaged goods" to a term that questions what we typically understand of a "god."


Julie Burchill seems to have built her career around being problematic, often without cause. I first heard of her when I saw the tv adaptation of Sugar Rush and was aware of her as a name in the British journalism/opinion world. So when I came across her being interviewed I was...confused. She sounded like a bit of an idiot, impulsively throwing out shocking statements that didn't always even relate to what she was talking about and seemed to be just to make her seem like some enfant terrible. Maybe she was just bored with the interview...but she made me itchy. My mum had this book kicking about, so I gave it a shot. And to be honest, my thoughts on Burchill haven't improved after reading. All I got from this is that she hates everyone, every cultural sub-group, every race, every country. I get that she's smashing the myths around major historical figures and movements, and I did find that very interesting. But in the process she was just spraying out bile in every direction, and it got to be quite a slog to wade through it. That's not to say this book isn't good, in its way. It's very well researched and fascinating for a reader who doesn't know certain things about, say, teen culture through the ages or the figures of the black civil rights movements. But even making exceptions for how dated this book and its (now quite offensive) language are, it is an uncomfortable read. Even when she is apparently championing a cause, she will pull out the absolute most vile turn of phrase which shows that all her research can't quite shroud either her ignorance or her almost desperate desire to be seen as edgy.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 49 :: A book written by a Far East Asian author or set in a Far East Asian country

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt Set in Korea and Japan, written by a Korean-American author


The more I read, and the more diverse that reading is, the more I realise how very ignorant I am. This book is a case in point - I didn't know even a tiny bit of how Korea came to be separated, or how it had been colonised by the Japanese before that. I also couldn't have imagined the treatment of Koreans in Japan, both at the time of colonisation right through the 20th century (and, I assume, beyond). And even though this book has opened my eyes and taught me so much more than a school history course ever did, I know there is so much more to know. However, this book is a pretty deep dive into how it was to live as a Korean in colonised Korea, as a Korean immigrant in Japan, and as multiple generations of Korean-Japanese, as it follows four generations of the same family through the majority of the 1900's. But it isn't dry, mainly because history is the context rather than the focus. The family is the true topic of this book, and it is a family that will stay with me for a long time. It's funny, because my one real criticism of this book is that I never felt I really knew a majority of the characters. The timescale of the novel and size of the cast meant that few individuals were allowed the space to fully develop. But now that I've finished the book, that seems less of a key factor for me, because the bigger picture of the family struggles, strength, heartache and bonds is much more satisfying than drilling down on any one person. I felt the deaths of many of the characters throughout the novel were handled in quite emotionless ways (he died, he never saw her again), which jarred me considerably. But now I can appreciate that this is the way of family trees. We do see the impacts of the lives more than the deaths on the other characters and surely that is what a person should be - their life rather than their death. This novel is more like a series of snapshots of pivotal moments in the history of a family, like going through the photo album rather than reading the journal. But it absolutely works.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 48 :: A book that was a finalist or winner for the National Book Award for any year

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward ★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt National Book Award winner 2017


This book is like a punch to the gut. It grabbed me, so much so that I kept up my reading pace even though halfway through the book my marriage fell apart (not the book's fault. If anything, the book kept me from going under). It was the children that did if for me, I had to keep reading as if I were watching over them. Their story would have completely shattered my heart if my husband hadn't already just taken a sledgehammer to it. The sadness and uncertainty of their lives, their sibling bond, their innocence in the clumsy and distracted hands of their parents...it was almost too much to bear. And then Ward throws in their mother, a character who I was determined to hate but who was so complex and vulnerable in her own way that I couldn't see her as the monster her actions make her seem. The only clear cut character in this novel seems to be the racist grandfather of the children, and potentially that is only because he doesn't get as much focus in the story. For such a short novel, I can't get my head around the depth of the story, the fleshing out of the characters or the beauty of the language. I can see why Ward is so acclaimed, she really is an incredible writer.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 50 :: A book that includes a journey (physical, health, or spiritual)

Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt Elizabeth goes on a number of physical journeys, but the book is mainly about her healing and spiritual journeys.


As a woman at the start of her own divorce journey, I was looking to this book for...something. Guidance, identification, reassurance? I don't know. I didn't get any of it though. Gilbert is just a very different person to me, with a very different life to me. She initiated her divorce because she had become bored with her relationship and realised too late that she didn't want what the path she was following was offering her. Mine is due to a heart crushing betrayal - the path I was quite happily following has been decimated by an IED. Unlike Gilbert I am not wealthy, or free of responsibilities. I'm not in a position to spend a year indulging myself with travel and escape, buying expensive underwear and being able to shrug off (or look better for) a 25lb weight gain. But I didn't let our differences stop me enjoying this book. Yes, I often found myself rolling my eyes at her lack of awareness of own privilege or feeling bad about myself because I'm not as successful/slim/spiritual as her, but equally I also found myself crying with her in her moments of clarity and reflection.

If you clear out all that space in your mind that you're using right now to obsess about this guy, you'll have a vacuum there, an open spot - a doorway. And guess what the universe will do with that doorway? It will rush in - God will rush in - and fill you with more love than you ever dreamed. So stop using David to block that door. Let it go.

It helps that the man who broke my heart is also called David...

None of us asks to be unhappy, and how we heal ourselves will always be a product of the resources we have available. She has money and freedom, I have gin and junk food. Hers makes for undoubtedly a more interesting story. And no matter what you think of her and her life, she is a good writer - funny, warm and with the ability to weave narrative and fact together in a way which seems light but imparts a lot. It was worth wading through the unobtainable parts for the gutpunches which totally sum up my own story.

I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Week 45 :: A multi-generational saga

When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt Only slightly, but I don't have time to read an alternative. This is mainly the story of a son, but it is a son trying to solve the disappearances of his parents (so that's 2 generations).


I've read quite a few Ishiguro novels, and whilst I've never loved any of them (except for Never Let Me Go...I think, though for some reason I never reviewed/rated it on GR) I do respect his work. This was probably one of the ones I've enjoyed most. It has a great pace to it, and I really loved that it was shaped around a mystery but that the outcome of that mystery is really second to the story of how that mystery came about and impacted on the narrator's life. Christopher is an infuriating character in many ways - his single-mindedness in solving the case of the disappearances of both his parents being the main but not only of his quirks. But I was still rooting for him, as it became apparent that the trauma of the loss of his parents was something that, although not emotionally displayed, ran deep. That he mentions major cases he has solved in his apparently illustrious detective career but never goes into details, that he is still consumed with memories of his childhood, that he has convinced himself (and those around him) that finding his parents is the key to solving the unrest and war between countries, and that he comes close to love in various forms but turns his back and plunges naively into a war zone on the basis of a very flimsy clue is as sad as it is frustrating. For me, this is almost a parable on the virtue of letting things go, told in Ishiguro's characteristic stiff-upper-lip prose. A good read to end my year on.

[SadieReadsAgain]

Finished!! With about 10 minutes to spare (it's 2020 already here)!

This was my first ATY and I really enjoyed it. I've contributed to voting for the 2020 prompts and I have my reads for this new year all picked out. Something I tried but didn't manage for 2019 was to read in order, so for 2020 I really want to achieve that.

As a wee round-up:

Favourite prompt #20 book featuring indigenous people of a country. I read There There by Tommy Orange
Least favourite prompt I didn't dislike any, so I'll say #48 book that was a finalist or winner for the National Book Award for any year  just because it was too broad. I went for Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Favourite book Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, for prompt #16 book told from multiple perspectives 
Book I wouldn't have read if not for ATY In Real Life by Cory Doctorow for prompt #38 book not written in traditional novel format
Least favourite book Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan, for prompt #21 book from one of the polarizing or close call votes. I went for linked to one of your favorite songs or artists.