November 2018 Reads

We're nearing the end of the year, and I continue to push through my at-home to-read stack, largely gleaned from local Little Free Libraries. November was, again, quite a little mix of genres, and I found that I really enjoyed this particular mix overall.

Wicked - Gregory Maguire (1995)
From: Little Free Library
"Poets are just as responsible for empire building as any other professional hacks."

This retelling ... or rather, story-loosely-based-on-the-characters-of-Oz ... is really focused on politics and sex, which was kind of unexpected. It's epic and far-reaching as a novel, and the writing certainly isn't bad. Personally, I just found that I didn't like it that much as a whole. It's one of those books where I was wanting to like it, but it just never really clicked for me for some reason.

(I'll note that as of this post, I haven't seen the musical.)

Related Reads:
Riddley Walker (Hoban)

Unseen City - Nathanael Johnson (2016)
From: Local Library
"Wonder is the animating ether that allows some lucky few to perceive not just the prosaic, but the most profound laws of the universe at work in the prosaic."

Author Nathanael Johnson takes the reader along on his own journey of discovering the world of nature around him in the heart of the city, sparked by his inquisitive toddler daughter. He focuses on a handful of common and overlooked flora and fauna (e.g. pigeons, ants, squirrels) to draw the reader in to discovering a sense of day-to-day wonder. He also outlines how to start taking field notes and jotting down observations about what you see.

Unseen City is really an inspiring, very readable little book, and I related to it a lot due to my keen interest in local animals and plants as a child. And though I think people everywhere will find it generally applicable, since it's set in the San Francisco Bay area, I personally found it pretty relatable in terms of specific flora and fauna (I grew up and currently live in Southern California). This book is a good starting point for anyone interested in starting to more closely observe the natural world around them.

Related Reads:
This is Where You Belong (Warnick)
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel - Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris (2018)
From: Local Library
"While Mac has been brogue-ing about, he has cast what can only be described as pointedly interested looks in your direction. Several, to be precise. When, of course, he wasn't rubbing his manly temples with his manly hands and wringing those manly hands of their nervous, manly energy."

This is a choose-your-own adventure for adults that cheekily uses just about every romance novel (and Regency-era story line) trope there is. Gloomy castles? Roguish Scotsmen? Lavish balls? Check, check, check. Due to the genre, there are definitely some PG-13 moments, but again, they're generally tropey and thus hilarious. If you're a fan of Regency-era stories and/or romance novels and also like books that don't take themselves too seriously, you'll have fun with this one.

I originally checked this book out from the library, but eventually bought it. I still have some story lines unread!

Treason - Orson Scott Card (1988) [Originally published as A Planet Called Treason in 1979]
From: Little Free Library
"Armies thundered on my skin, death in every heart, with dead trees carved to make tools to build more death. Only the voices of men are louder than the voices of trees, and though a million stalks of wheat whisper terribly together as they die, the death scream of a man is the strongest cry the earth can hear."

Despite my mixed feelings about the author, I rather enjoyed this early novel of his. As in Ender's Game, the style is very readable. There's some themes related to gender and race that I think would be fascinating to discuss in a group.

Related Reads:
Dune (Herbert)

The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey (2018)
From: Little Free Library
"She wound herself tightly, as if within her girdled ribs she could contain all possibilities, all futures and all deaths. Perhaps if she held herself just right. Maybe if she knew what would be or could be. Or if she wished with enough heart. If only she could believe."

This is a blend of Russian fairy tale, historical fiction, and realistic life in early-20th-century Alaska. It took me a little while to get into it, but I liked it more as I read. In general, I think it's a good read for just about anybody, and it helps feel a needed niche re: books set in rural Alaska.

Related Reads:
The Bear and the Nightingale (Arden)

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer (2008)
From: Local Library
"While the traditional image of knights in armor is accurate and widely accepted, the equally representative image of knights wearing corsets and garter belts is perhaps less well known."

This reads like a conversational textbook. It's fairly exhaustive with lots of stats, but the technical details aren't overwhelming, and Mortimer manages to keep the reader's interest by focusing on aspects of day-to-day lives and encouraging a focus on seeing historical people as real individuals. I'd say that the book is almost a required resource for anyone wanting an overview of the time period, whether for personal interest, classwork, writing, or similar.

Just a couple of minor caveats - there's a lot of descriptions in the book, particularly of clothing and buildings, and while there are two sections of contemporary art that help illustrate some of the points, as a visual person, I wish there had been at least a few simple illustrative sketches and diagrams included. And fair warning that there are a number of not-for-the-faint-of-heart descriptions regarding medieval sanitation practices, butchering, and treatment of illness.

Related Reads:
World Without End (Follett)
The Butchering Art (Fitzharris)
A History of Food in 100 Recipes (Sitwell)
(see also author's list of recommendations by contemporary authors)

October 2018 Reads

Another month, another mix of books! I've just about met my Goodreads goal of reading 80 books this year, but I'm torn between wanting to push it to 100 books as I have in the past, or force myself to choose potentially more introspective, slower reads and fall short of that. We'll see how the rest of the year pans out.

Either way, I've told myself that October's library trip was the last for this year. Must focus more on my to-read pile at home...

This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live - Melody Warnick (2016)
From: Local Library
"We had made something good happen. We had thrown a pebble into the pond and watched the ripples fan out."

The author of this book is a journalist, and thus her writing style makes use of lots of statistics and examples. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it tended to feel a bit like padding, and I felt it took away from this being a purely informative and hands-on book. Also, in trying to be all-inclusive, Warnick failed to hone in on specific circumstances like military families having to move a lot, and glossed over people who are trapped in their hometowns due to poverty (there is a section that relates to this, but it felt rather lost in a sea of other stuff). And in general, I found the author's voice a tiny bit grating at times.

That said, this book does give some good starting points for getting more connected with and attached to your current home town. It's peppered with lots of ideas, the thought being that you can take what's useful and relevant and leave what's not. And the end of every chapter includes a related checklist for concrete ideas to try. It's a worthy read overall, and I came out of it newly inspired.

Related Reads:
The Art of Neighboring (Pathak & Runyon)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Kingsolver)

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler (1979)
From: Local Library
"Mama said she'd rather be dead than be a slave," she said.
"Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free."

Octavia Butler has been on my to-read list for some time, but I had always thought of her as strictly a Sci-Fi writer. However, the only Sci-Fi element in Kindred is the time travel. The book is really more along the lines of historical fiction, but that seems like a trite and incomplete category. In gripping and immersive prose, Butler brings the past to the forefront and forces the reader to face and wrestle with issues related to complex ancestry and experiencing slavery. It's heavy and shattering.

Related Reads:
Woman on the Edge of Time (Piercy)
The Lathe of Heaven (le Guin)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Jacobs)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami (2014)
From: Local Library
"One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony."

I found this to be more anchored in realism than the other Murakami books I've read, but it still has some "magical" elements woven throughout. And as with other Murakami books I've read, I feel like I'm missing some cultural subtext. I think it's important for a reader to note that this is more an exploration of thoughts and ideas than a linear, neatly-wrapped-up story.

Quick spoiler-ish content note that the protagonist's vivid sex dreams and a character's sexual assault play key roles in the plot.

Related Reads:
Kafka on the Shore (Murakami)
The Little Friend (Tartt)

This is How You Lose Her - Junot Diaz (2012)
From: Local Library
"At least you were honest, which is more than I can say for me."

This is a tied-together short story collection that, like the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, focuses on Dominican culture and sub-culture. I didn't really care for it as a whole, but not because the writing is bad. The overarching theme is difficult romantic relationships/infidelity (of the main protagonist in particular), and thus it comes across as fairly depressing overall and has a lot of focus on sex. It just wasn't really for me.

Related Reads:
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)

The Spinster - Myrtle Reed (1901)
From: Free Kindle Book
"There is nothing in the world as harmless and as utterly joyous as man's conceit. The woman who will not pander to it is ungracious indeed."

This free Kindle book that I stumbled on is rather delightful. It contains a blend of the author's of-the-time deftly wry commentary on men, women, and relationships. Sometimes it's a little difficult to tell if the author is being serious or sly in her comments, but really, does it matter? It's an interesting window into the early-1900's time time period.

Related Reads:
The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (Hartley)
Short Stories by L. M. Montgomery

The Little Book of Hygge - Meik Wiking (2017)
From: Local Library
"Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom."

I couldn't help but think that this little coffee-table-esque book could have all its key points put forth in a long article and lose nothing in the process. Basically, the author discusses the Danish concept of hygge (an incomplete English translation could be "coziness") and how to apply it. The reader also learns a lot about Danish culture along the way.

Despite the culture and weather of Southern California being very different than that of Denmark (there are precious few days in the year here where it's cold enough to even think about drinking hot cocoa beside a crackling fire), I did take away some helpful thoughts, and found that I was already applying some of the principles. It's good food for thought (especially if you like to read about home decor and organizing) and don't mind a good amount of repetition.

Related Reads:
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Kondo)
This Is Where You Belong (Warnick)

Newt's Emerald - Garth Nix (2015)
From: Local Library
"The candlelight flickered on the silver, and small green fires danced from the many facets of the stone, hinting at the sorcerous powers that lurked within."

This is the first Garth Nix book I've read, and I found myself rather enchanted by it despite some unevenness in writing. It's a YA Regency-era story with fantasy elements; immediately immersive and beset with mysteries, magic, and disguises. I found it both a little slow and a little too rushed at various points, but it's certainly a fun little read with a handful of interesting main characters.

Related Reads:
Ella Enchanted (Levine)

The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett (2003)
From: Library Bookstore earlier this year
"She’d read the dictionary all the way through. No one told her you weren’t supposed to."

This Discworld novel is the first of the Tiffany Aching story line. The books in this story line are all technically labeled as YA, but I didn't find Wee Free Men significantly different in tone or content than other Discworld novels. This is a story that's hilarious, serious, random, moving, and creepy at various points throughout, and as usual, Pratchett blends it all masterfully.

I really liked Tiffany Aching as a character, and I appreciated reading another Discworld novel that ties into the female-heavy Witches story line. This is a pretty good one to start with if you haven't read anything by Pratchett yet.

Related Reads:
Equal Rites (Pratchett)
Coraline (Gaiman)

September 2018 Reads, Part 2

(continued from Part 1)

L. M. Montgomery Short Stories 1909-1922
From: Free Kindle Book
"It's better to be yourself with mousy hair and freckles than somebody else who is ever so beautiful."

I'm trying to read all of the Anne of Green Gables author's lesser-known works, and this is, I think, the final collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery. Note: all of her short collections and a few of her novels are available for free on Kindle.

This is along the same lines of the others that I've previously reviewed, so I don't have too much new to say. Overall, they're light, predictable reading and an interesting window into the time period. I will note that one of the stories in particular was, disappointingly, pretty racist towards Native Americans - and it isn't the first time I've run across this in Montgomery's short story collections.

The Golden Road - L. M. Montgomery (1913)
From: Free Kindle Book
"There is certainly something a little supernatural about fireflies. Nobody pretends to understand them. They are akin to the tribes of fairy, survivors of the elder time when the woods and hills swarmed with the little green folk. It is still very easy to believe in fairies when you see those goblin lanterns glimmering among the fir tassels."

This is the sequel to The Story Girl, which I read a couple of years ago. I would say that since this book kind of jumps right in and doesn't introduce the handful of main characters, having read that first would be helpful. This is pretty much a more structured form of short stories, all told within a main story. It focuses on the growing up/adolescent years, and is an interesting window into the differences of childhood during that time (more seriously, chronic illness, death of playmates, etc. being treated as not unusual). It's generally a pretty soothing read, with Montgomery's lyrical and nostalgic nature descriptors sprinkled throughout.

As a side note of interest, a lengthy passage of the book (a piece of it below) seems to describe a character that has Synesthesia:
"The idea! As if thoughts were colored," giggled Felicity.
"Oh, they are!" cried the Story Girl. "Why, I can always SEE the color of any thought I think. Can't you?" ...
She said that everything had color in her thought; the months of the year ran through all the tints of the spectrum, the days of the week were arrayed as Solomon in his glory. Morning was golden, noon orange, evening crystal blue, and night violet. Every thought came to her mind robed in its own especial hue. Perhaps that was why her voice and words had such a charm, conveying to the listeners' perception such fine shadings of meaning and tint and music.

Related Reads:
The Story Girl (Montgomery)

A Conjuring of Light - V. E. Schwab (2017)
From: Local Library
"The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be."

This is the third book in the in the Shades of Magic trilogy - I read the first in January of this year and the second earlier this past month. I probably liked this final one the best out of all of the books, but it's a little hard to say why. It's along the same lines as the previous two, but maybe I felt this just wrapped up things and was representative as a whole for me? As with the other books, there are pieces of the book that I particularly like - the ship that deals in rare magical items, for instance.

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine - Lindsey Fitzharris (2017)
From: Local Library
"Lister's instrument case had everything a novice surgeon would need at the start of his training: bone saws to hack off limbs; forceps to pick apart tissue; probes to root out bullets and foreign bodies. But there was one tool Lister had carried with him to UCL that very few in his class possessed: his microscope."

This well-researched historical book earned a place on my yearly favorites list almost immediately after I started reading. Fitzharris focuses on the life, struggles, and accomplishments of Joseph Lister (1827-1912) - the "pioneer of antiseptic surgery."

One thing I appreciated was that the book paints a complete picture of the surrounding time period and lead-in to Lister's eventual career, giving decent quick backgrounds to many famous medical and pioneering men of the time (including Pasteur). The author also draws from personal letters, contemporary medical journals, and newspaper op-eds (often written by very opinionated doctors).

I personally didn't find the book overly gory, but readers should note that it goes into detail of numerous medical cases and describes what surgery was like at the time. For me, it was amazing to get a complete picture of the context of the time and the huge changes that took place (and the fight it took to create that change) - namely, of course, the effect adopting sterile and antiseptic practices had on mortality rates in hospitals.

Related Reads:
In the Heart of the Sea (Philbrick)
Half a Century (Swisshelm)
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Roach)

Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table - The Classic Edition by Keith Barnes (original: 1485; this edition: 1962)
From: Had since high school
"The feast continued, with merriment and good will, for in those days true chivalry was well appreciated."

Embarrassingly, this book has lingered on my to-read shelf since high school. I finally started it back in April of this year, so it took me a good five months to complete.  The middle third was the hardest to slog through - basically, it was tournament after tournament with seemingly endless names. This necessitated reading just a few pages at a time.

However, the first and last portions genuinely  held my interest. And was interesting to compare these stripped-down retellings with the various forms of stories that I've read throughout the years. I gained a new appreciation for the Legends in general.

So, if you're looking for a straightforward, encompassing collection of the Knights of the Round Table, this is pretty much the resource, and is really a necessity for anyone intrigued by the Legends of King Arthur. But candidly, embellished tales are more interesting, so I would tend to recommend reading this after having some knowledge of King Arthur and his knights.

Related Reads:
The Sword in the Circle (Sutcliffe)
The Once and Future King (White)

September 2018 Reads, Part 1

Fall has already fallen upon us, and I'm hoping we're in for some nice, cozy, reading weather. Full disclosure, I still read mostly books from the local library or little free libraries this past month rather than working on more of my to-read stack, but I did complete a book I'd been meaning to read since high school (Le Morte d'Arthur).

Dark Lord of Derkholm - Diana Wynne Jones (1998)
From: Local Library
"I'm quite excited to know you read minds," he told the dragon. "There aren't many who can these days."
"Nobody bothers to practice, that's all," said the dragon.

I've been slowly working on reading more of Howl's Moving Castle author Diana Wynne Jones' books. This one was hard to find, but my scouring of local libraries and waiting finally prevailed. Like many others on my to-read list of hers, Dark Lord of Derkholm is a YA fantasy book. The story is generally different than your mainstream fantasy and is clever, humorous, and interesting. It has rather a lot of main characters, which I had a little trouble keeping track of at first, but I appreciated that they "filled out" the world a bit more.

There were some things in the book that bothered me, though - I'll try to give mostly spoiler-free examples (content note: mention of sexual assault).  I weirdly had some trouble distinguishing between the wizard Derk and his son Blade, as they come across as quite similar in speech style, and the adult wizard's writing style reads fairly immature. Rape is stated as a passing mention of something that happens to unfortunate peasants; I think this underscores the seriousness of the Rules the book's world is bound to, but it's kind of jarring in context. There are somewhat-veiled references to (what is probably a) sexual assault on a young main character that takes a strong mental and emotional toll on them. And I struggled with the plight of the off-world soldiers - they're criminals, to be sure, but I didn't really feel it justified the book's treating them like unredemptive animals. I think Jones was trying to integrate some more adult ideas and food for thought into a YA book, but I guess to me there was a bit of a difficulty blending them appropriately, perhaps.

I wouldn't have been allowed to read this book as a child just due to the magic aspect, but I wish I had read it growing up and experienced it through the lens of an adolescent.

Related Reads:
Magic Kingdom for Sale (Brooks)
The Merlin Conspiracy (Jones)

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky - Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, & Benjamin Ajak (2005)
From: Local Little Free Library
"I was fast: that was my gift. If I did something bad, I would run. If something bad happened to me, I would run, too. The night all the turmoil broke out, I ran, like my mother had told me."

This book is, simply put, powerful. The experiences of the three authors, all of whom were Lost Boys of Sudan, are told in simple, poetic language. After the forward, the boys each start off with their earliest memories in their respective villages, and we follow them all the way to their eventual arrival at an Ethiopian refugee camp. I found their memories of their family members and specific tribal cultural practices especially poignant.

After reading this book, I was left with the sense that it's amazing what people can survive - and hard to even comprehend at times. It was a little hard to keep track of which author was which at times, but this is understandable given the layout. The content of the book is difficult, but I think it could be read by mature middle-school aged and up children. And I wish the authors had talked more about their time acclimating in the U.S., but understood why the authors didn't choose to focus on that piece of their story.

Related Reads:
A Long Way Gone (Beah)
Infidel (Ali)
When Broken Glass Floats (Him)

A Gathering of Shadows - V. E. Schwab (2016)
From: Local Library
"The world is neither fair nor right, but it has a way of balancing itself. Magic teaches us that much."

This is the second book in the Shades of Magic trilogy; I had read the first at the beginning of this year. I think I have a lot of the same feelings here as I did about the first book. I generally like the world and concept, but the book somehow feels too YA-ish for a non-YA book. A number of descriptors and certain phrases seem to be overused ("sharp smile", "he tipped his head"). I also didn't feel a lot of suspense for many of the main plotlines of the book, since their conclusions seemed obvious.

That all said, I generally enjoyed the read - it kept me interested, and it wasn't a long commitment. And this book either had less violence than the first, or I was more prepared in terms of what to expect.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie (2007)
From: Local Little Free Library
"You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly. And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian. And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor. It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it."

This is a YA, diary-style book, complete with comic-book style illustrations. The protagonist is a teen boy (it follows that there are a fair number of mild sex-related trails of thought throughout). The book gives a realistic take of life on an Indian Reservation, paired with all the related complications and difficulties. It deals with things like poverty, death, and addiction - all serious topics, but interwoven with the protagonists's self-effacing humorous style. This book may seem juvenile at first glance, but it leaves the reader with a lot to think about.

Related Reads:
The Hate U Give (Thomas)
Wonder (Palacios)

(to be continued in Part 2)

August 2018 Reads, Part 2

(continued from Part 1)

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
From: Local Library
"We hadn't been ready for that. It had never occurred to us to wonder how we would feel, being seen like that, being the spiders."

It's a little hard to share even quick thoughts about this book without spoilers, but I'll give it a shot. Never Let Me Go is unexpected - the writing style and content is both calming and shocking. At its heart, it's a thought experiment that should feel more dystopian than it does.

I still feel like Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is the strongest of the three of his that I've read so far (The Buried Giant being the third), but this novel is entrancing, thought provoking, melancholy, and uncomfortably relevant.

Related Reads:
The Giver (Lowry)
Kafka on the Shore (Murakami)

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris (2000)
From: Local Library bookstore
"I find it ridiculous to assign a gender to an inanimate object incapable of disrobing and making an occasional fool of itself. Why refer to Lady Crack Pipe or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?"

This collection of autobiographical essays is full of the author's irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humor. The title refers to an overarching theme, drawing from the author's struggles of growing up gay in the '60s (when he was forced into ineffective speech therapy for his lisp) and his adulthood move to France (where he struggled with the language).

On the whole, the collection was a bit hit-and-miss for me; some essays I found genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, while others just kind of missed the mark for me. I recall liking the author's one other book that I've read (his 2013 Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls) somewhat better, although since it's been a few years since I've read that one, I couldn't parse out exactly why (I think it perhaps came across as a bit more mature).

Related Reads:
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls (Sedaris)
Shockaholic (Fisher)

Stone Mattress [Short Stories] - Margaret Atwood (2014)
From: Local Library
"But how can you have a sense of wonder if you’re prepared for everything? Prepared for the sunset. Prepared for the moonrise. Prepared for the ice storm. What a flat existence that would be."

This collection of stories is - contrary to my half-formed expectations - very light on the fantasy and science fiction, and almost exclusively (save for one notable exception) centered on stories involving old people, with a heavy dose on thought-experiment. So I appreciated the different perspective, and I think it's well-written, but I didn't necessarily click with it as a whole. But I think Atwood fans will find it worth checking out.

Related Reads:
The Robber Bride (Atwood)

Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain (2000)
From: Local Library (Hold list)
"I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once."

Anthony Bourdain's biography is mixed together here with his general thoughts and experiences on life in the culinary world. It feels kind of slapdash, but that's Bourdain's style, and it's certainly interesting. He gets into the good, the bad, and the ugly of working in a kitchen and the restaurant industry - it follows that there's a fair amount of vulgar language (a chapter is practically dedicated to the art of cursing/insults in a kitchen) and crude references.

Overall, this gives some good insight into Bourdain's life, personality, and drive. Read it if you work in a kitchen, or have any interest in the lives of people who do.

Related Reads:
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Down and Out in Paris and London (Orwell)
Fresh Off the Boat (Huang)

August 2018 Reads, Part 1

I read mostly books from the library over this past month. I'm thinking I may need to ban myself from the library for a while again as I still have a decent little to-read pile of books at home that I want to get through. It's hard when there's so much that the library has to offer!

This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)
From: Christmas gift in 2017
"Amory took to writing poetry on spring afternoons, in the gardens of the big estates near Princeton, while swans made effective atmosphere in the artificial pools, and slow clouds sailed harmoniously above the willows. May came too soon, and suddenly unable to bear walls, he wandered campus at all hours through starlight and rain."

This semi-autobiographical work is a portrait of its time as much as it is of the author. Despite its tendency towards unevenness in tone and style, I liked it better than I remember liking The Great Gatsby. I found the characters generally somewhat irritating (partially by design), but the overall book is both enlightening as to its time and unexpectedly modern.

The edition I read (Barnes & Noble) has a lengthy critical essay as the introduction, which is helpful for deconstructing the novel.

Related Reads
On the Road (Kerouac)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

The Overneath [Short Stories]- Peter S. Beagle (2017)
From: Local Library
"The power itself was never in question; but there comes a moment when a responsible wizard has to consider the danger of having such wild, uncontrollable power loose in the world in the hands of a young man with family problems."

This short-story collection is mostly fantasy-tinged, though setting varies a lot. Within the baker's dozen of stories are several (of varying tones) featuring unicorns, and there are a couple that are The Last Unicorn-related. A few stories that veer a bit into the horror category - not generally something I prefer, but oddly, one of my favorites was the Poe-esque "Great-Grandmother in the Cellar". And to round it out, a couple of stories (including the titular one) dip into science fiction territory.

I generally liked this mix, although I can't say I loved it. At the very least, I appreciated that the stories presented are such a mixed bag. And I was somewhat pleasantly surprised that Beagle is still writing (given that The Last Unicorn was published in the 1960s).

For a slightly spoilerish review that goes more in-depth into many (though not all) of the stories included, see this post from Barnes & Noble.

Related Reads:
Fragile Things (Gaiman)
The Line Between [Short Stories] (Beagle)

Gorilla and the Bird - Zack McDermott (2017)
From: Local Library
"People say that excessive drinking is often used as an escape from reality. In my case, I felt erased, so why not erase myself? It was easier to chip away at what was left of me than to try to recover the self I'd lost."

This book grabs you and pulls you into the author's world almost before you can catch a breath. In very readable language, McDermott describes everything in his life - including his psychotic breakdowns - with candor and humor. Interlaced throughout his story of Bipolar disorder and struggle with addiction is his mother's unwavering support, his family background (in poor/rural Kentucky), his sometimes soul-crushing work as a court-appointed public defender, and his hobby of stand-up comedy.

Although I quickly got caught up in the story, at times I struggled with McDermott's storytelling and comedic style - the line between exploiting/making fun of others, himself included, and portraying a humorously-realistic picture seems a little thin at times. There's also a fair amount of language and crude sexual references as part of the mix.

Oftentimes, books like this are written by a family member who had a front-row observation seat. I really applaud McDermott's willingness and ability to tell his story and talk about his struggles in his own words.

Related Reads
Ben Behind His Voices (Kaye)
Everything is Horrible and Wonderful (Wachs)

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik (2018)
From: Local Library
"The only thing that had ever done me any good in my father's house was thinking: no one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I'd had to find my own way to anything I wanted. I'd never been grateful for that before now, when what I wanted was my life."

This hit a lot of sweet spots for me as a fantasy book. It's long enough to be sufficiently world- and character-building, but not too long. It switches first-person viewpoints between several characters; this isn't always my favorite, but I felt it really worked here. There are strong Russian and Jewish influences in the story's world, which I thought that made the book more interesting and realistic (tempering the overall fantasy element with reality). And it manages to have serious and dark elements without feeling overly heavy.

There are caveats, to be sure. Yes, it shares more than a few similarities with some other recent popular fantasy books. Yes, a few plot points are a bit weak upon closer inspection. But as an overall opinion, I enjoyed Novik's other fairy-tale-esque fantasy book, Uprooted, and I'd say that this one was even better.

Related Reads
The Bear and the Nightingale (Arden)
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Maas)
Ella Enchanted (Levine)
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice - Christoper Hitchens (1995)
From: Local Library
"Saints, it seems, are immune to audit."

So, first off, I should establish that I think that it's important to look critically at revered figures. I don't think it's inherently "mean" to dig into issues related to religion. And I knew that I was going to come into this short book with a background quite different than the author's.

My main issue with this book, then, wasn't that Mother Teresa was being critiqued, or that the author is an avowed atheist. My main issue was that I found it disappointingly detrimental that the author was coming at the subject from an angle that seemed so biased due to his use of leading and deliberately provocative language. I don't disagree that Mother Teresa and her order had some issues that should be brought to light and further explored, and I think the book does provide some interesting food for thought. But I do think the overall explorations here would've been much better served though a style that seemed less like a personal attack and more like detached reporting.

As a side note, some of the examples given seemed to be more due to the author's misunderstanding of Christianity/Catholicism rather than an actual crime or failing of Mother Teresa's. For instance, Hitchens uses the example of Mother Teresa talking about her personal relationship with Jesus as being a sign of grandiosity and lack of humility. However, most Christians would take this the opposite way - that someone expressing that Jesus was working through them would be a sign of humility that the person was not taking credit for their actions.

(Continued in Part 2)

July 2018 Reads

I ended up with a varied little mix of summer reads this past month. Onward to my quick thoughts!

The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeonseo Lee (2015)
From: Local Library (Hold List, waited 4+ months)
"I was already hiding beneath so many lies that I hardly knew who I was any more. I was becoming a non-person."

This is the story of a young woman who escaped from North Korea, but it's not a gritty and horrifying read along the lines of Escape from Camp 14 or The Aquariums of Pyongyang where the atrocities of the NK gulags are exposed. Rather, it's a story of a more "ordinary" life. Hyeonseo didn't flee across treacherous deserts at the mercy of traffickers (like many others that she meets later on did); she "merely" illegally crossed the river that borders China on a teenage adventure to visit a family friend, only to realize too late that her decision was irreversible. The Girl With Seven Names exposes not only the lengths that many North Korean citizens go through to escape, but the difficulties that they face once outside. It's an interesting and important read, and a good pick for anyone unfamiliar with the subject.

Related Reads:
In Order to Live (Park)
Nothing to Envy (Demick)

Fire and Fury - David Wolff (2017)
From: Local Library (Hold List, waited 6+ months)
"This was the peculiar and haunting consensus - not that Trump was guilty of all that he was accused of, but that he was guilty of so much else. It was all too possible that the hardly plausible would lead to the totally credible."

I'll be honest and admit that I had a hard time finishing this. Part of the issue is that the book, though published within the last year, is already fairly dated. There are also a lot of names thrown about, and while most who pay attention to the news will have at least passing familiarity with many of the political figures, it's hard for someone like me (who tends to need to pair faces with names) to keep track of all the players mentioned.

That all said, it's almost gossip-column-esque, weirdly quotable, and an interestingly terrible read - taken with several grains of salt.

Related Reads:
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible (Pomerantev)

Magic Kingdom For Sale - Terry Brooks (1986)
From: Bought at local library book store in early April
"Visions born of fear give birth to our failing. Visions born of hope give birth to our success."

This is the first Terry Brooks book I've read, so I went in not really knowing what to expect. I think I was assuming something a little more along the lines of Terry Pratchett - that is, a story that didn't take itself very seriously. And there is a little bit of that aspect here. But at other points (and again, this may just be the unfortunate result of me having recently read a good amount of Discworld novels), it seemed to be trying a little too hard. I also had a problem taking the title of High Lord seriously because of playing Ni no Kuni (wherein a comical character repeatedly proclaims himself to be the "Lord High Lord of the Fairies").

My weird quibbles aside, though, I rather enjoyed the read (notwithstanding that it was a bit slow and uneven), and I think it was a pretty good introduction novel to the author. I was left with the overall sense that it read like a book that just happened to have fantasy elements, not like a fantasy book per se [perhaps this is a) somewhat due to the decade it was written, and/or b) very intentional given the main character's background and arc, but I'm interested in seeing if I get the same impression with other Brooks novels].

Related Reads
The Merlin Conspiracy (Jones)
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore (Sloan)

Coming Clean - Kimberly Rae Miller (2013)
From: Local Library
"Before there was ever a word for hoarding, I knew that whatever driving force drew my father to garbage was beyond his control. I never felt like he loved stuff more than he loved me. He loved stuff. And he loved me."

This is squarely in the memoir rather than the self-help genre, but it still is a potentially-enlightening read for those who haven't experienced living in a hoarding situation first-hand, and a possibly-cathartic read for those who have.

I appreciated Miller's honesty throughout the book, and it's obvious that the book was somewhat of a therapeutic exercise for her - experiencing PTSD as an adult became a catalyst for her starting to finally deal with her childhood, and she doesn't shy away from the ways that she enabled her parents as an adult. I did notice a section or two that seemed repetitive and/or out of place, and I was slightly annoyed by the author's focus on how smart she was as a child. Overall, though, it's a helpful read for people who have experienced similar situations or have loved ones who have.

Related Reads:
Dirty Secret (Sholl)
The Secret Lives of Hoarders (Paxton)

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick (2000)
From: Local Library
"Backlit by the red glow of a dying island, the twenty men of the Essex ventured into the farthest reaches of the Pacific, looking for another whale to kill."

This book is a new favorite of mine; the events surrounding the sinking of the Essex in 1819 inspired Melville's book Moby-Dick. It should come as no surprise that In the Heart of the Sea is fascinating and full of history. Philbrick makes good use of the historical material and accounts available, bolstered by his drawing from similar accounts and situations throughout. He also explores the history of Nantucket and as delves into cultural backgrounds and psychological explorations for the various figures. One particular thread of note throughout is the havoc that 19th-century sailors played on the biodiversity of the sea and the islands that they visited.

Read this if you're at all a history buff and intrigued by adventure/survival stories. It made me want to read and learn more (perhaps yet more accounts have been uncovered since this book's publication?), and my only wish was that the book was longer.

Content note: the book does include descriptions of cannibalism, butchering animals, and the effects of extreme hunger and dehydration on people.

Related Reads:
Moby-Dick (Melville)
Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean (Logan)
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder, and Piracy (published by Hurst & Co; free on Kindle)

June 2018 Reads

Summer's in full swing - we'll see what that does to my reading habits! This year, I've been trying to focus on getting through books that have been in my to-read pile for far too long. I decided that I'm going to include where I obtained each book from in my reviews through the summer just for funsies.

Wonder - R. J. Palacio (2012)
From: Local Library (Hold List)
"I wish every day could be Halloween. We could all wear masks all the time. Then we could walk around and get to know each other before we got to see what we looked like under the masks."

This is a Y.A.book, so my thoughts on it will be colored by that. I liked the different first-person perspectives given throughout the book - I felt this made the book more compelling than it would've been to just focus on one character. My general overall thought is that Wonder a powerful and illuminating book for kids, especially, who are still grappling with many of the life difficulties portrayed. And (given the Y.A. nature of the book) although it deals with some difficult subjects, the story is positive overall.

Related Reads:
The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon)

We Were Eight Years in Power - Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017)
From: Local Library (Hold List)
"In such revisions of history lay the roots of the noble Lost Cause - the belief that the South didn’t lose, so much as it was simply overwhelmed by superior numbers; that General Robert E. Lee was a contemporary King Arthur; that slavery, to be sure a benevolent institution, was never central to the South’s true designs. Historical lies aside, the Lost Cause presented to the North an attractive compromise. Having preserved the Union and saved white workers from competing with slave labor, the North could magnanimously acquiesce to such Confederate meretriciousness and the concomitant irrelevance of the country’s blacks. 
That interpretation served the North too, for it elided uncomfortable questions about the profits reaped by the North from Southern cotton, as well as the North’s long strategy of appeasement and compromise, stretching from the Fugitive Slave Act back to the Constitution itself."

I had a hard time picking out just one quote from this book. This is a collection of essays written by the author during the years of the Obama presidency (previously published by The Atlantic). Coates gives an introduction to each of his eight essays, putting them into the context of the time he wrote them and evaluating how he thinks they held up, and concludes with a final essay. In a nutshell, this collection gives some necessary historical context to many past and present issues, and it's definitely recommended reading.

Related Reads:
Between the World and Me (Coates)

Commonwealth - Ann Patchett (2016)
From: One of the Little Free Libraries in La Jolla a few months ago
"'There’s no protecting anyone,' Fix said, and reached over from his wheelchair to put his hand on hers. 'Keeping people safe is a story we tell ourselves.'"

This isn't the sort of book I usually tend to read, and it probably would rate higher in my mind if I read more of this genre. The story deals with a lot of serious and common issues, such as divorce, infidelity, death, and grief. Some of it also takes place in the area I grew up in, which was a nice little surprise.

On the whole, although I generally liked the read, Commonwealth left me feeling like something was wanting by the end, and I'm not sure if it's because it was good and I was left wanting more, or if it was more because it just wasn't fleshed out enough. I also had a little bit of trouble keeping all the characters in the families straight, but I'm inclined to chalk that up to a personal failing rather than a problem with the book itself.

Related Reads:
The Husband's Secret (Moriarty)
The Little Friend (Tartt)

A Clergyman's Daughter - George Orwell (1935)
From: Bought at D.G. Wills Bookstore in La Jolla last year
"Dorothy pulled a frond of the fennel against her face and breathed in the strong sweet scent. Its richness overwhelmed her, almost dizzied her for a moment. She drank it in, filling her lungs with it. Lovely, lovely scent - scent of summer days, scent of childhood joys, scent of spice-drenched islands in the warm foam of oriental seas!
Her heart swelled with sudden joy. It was that mystical joy in the beauty of the earth and the very nature of things that she recognized, perhaps mistakenly, as the love of God."

If you've read other books by Orwell, you can see this as a continuation of him drawing from his personal experiences of "living rough" on the streets in London and the surrounding countryside. This book a fascinating, bleakly realistic window into the time period and setting, and Orwell takes the opportunity to probe into several contemporary social issues (schooling, religious community, women's place in society).

Quick content notes: The main character engages in self-harm throughout the book as a form of religious penance. And although most curse words are censored out with a dash (as was common for literature at the time), there are a couple of racial pejoratives that are freely used - in one case, as a nickname for a character.

Related Reads:
Down and Out in Paris and London (Orwell)
A Little Princess (Burnett)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Hardy)

Wild Beauty - Anna-Marie McLemore (2017)
From: When I trialed a month of OwlCrate in October 2017
"These memories took root, turning into rows of uncountable trees. They became the orchard Fel had once run through. They bloomed into almond and cherry blossoms, fluffy as the cotton candy Estrella had set in his palms. They splintered into the thin leaves of olive trees."

I have to describe the prose here as flowery - very flowery. I didn't necessarily dislike the style, but it felt like a lot of the same after a short while, and the story itself is fairly slow-moving. At times, it seemed like a lot of flowery language covering up little substance. But anyone who has a love of flora will certainly appreciate the sensory experience of the descriptions here.

Some positives of Wild Beauty are its relative uniqueness (compared to my usual reads) of having the majority of main characters being LGBT+ and the book focusing heavily on Latinx characters and culture. I also enjoyed the fairytale-esque setting, although I was somewhat annoyed that I couldn't place what the time period was supposed to be.

Related Reads:
A Court of Thorns and Roses (Maas)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)

May 2018 Reads

I'm finally getting around to posting this halfway through the month rather than at the beginning, but better late than never!

I didn't end up reading a whole lot in June due to lots of stuff going on (including some travel). And according to Goodreads, I only read two books in May because Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat were paired in a Kindle collection that I found for 99 cents. Ah well.

Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
"It was sad music. But it waved its sadness like a battle flag. It said the universe had done all it could, but you were still alive."

This was another Discworld novel in the Death story line (the one I've been focusing on of late). It was a little random and jumping around a bit much for my tastes - there was something of a whiplash effect from switching between modern-cultural-references humor and surprisingly moving and deep scenes - but I generally enjoyed it. I appreciated the Welsh-inspired main character with the various little references (using ll's and w's in speech, his devotion to harp-playing, etc). All in all, Soul Music isn't necessarily the best Pratchett novel to start out with, but it's fairly solid.

Pat of Silver Bush - L.M. Montgomery 
"The only marked talent she had was for loving things very greatly, and that did not help you much with Greek verbs and dates."

This novel (by the same author as Anne of Green Gables, for the unfamiliar) follows the title character from about age six into her late teenage years. I found it an interesting window into daily life for the time period and place (1920's-ish Prince Edward Island). The main character's deep and abiding love for her home is forefront in her story, and this makes for a somewhat unique (for me) perspective in that all her ambitions are tied up in her family's house and land. Though it feels a bit incomplete without its successor, Pat of Silver Bush still manages to stand on its own, and should certainly be picked up by fans of any of L. M. Montgomery's other books.

Mistress Pat - L.M. Montgomery 
"At the top was the old gate, fallen into ruin, and beyond it the path through the spruce bush where silence seemed to kneel like a grey nun, and she felt that Bets must come to meet her, walking through the dusk with dreams in her eyes."

This continuation of Pat and Silver Bush follows the main character into her late twenties. I enjoyed particularly the continuing window into life back then - things like the unquestioned societal rules like single women continuing to live at home and the strained dynamics that come from of marrying into a family and moving in with them are portrayed here as I've not really come across elsewhere. And even though I have to say that I didn't particularly like some aspects of the main character (as well as certain plot points), there's a true charm here in the blend of the practical and romantic.

Side note: I did have some issues with a few things that were normalized due to the time period in which the book was written, namely (minor spoilers) the treatment of the servant Judy when she wants to travel (the family acting as if they can't get on without a servant taking care of them), as well as some fat-shaming that made me actually root for the antagonist (you wear that swimsuit and show off your thighs if you want to, May Binnie!).

April 2018 Reads

I didn't read a large number of books this past month, but what I did read was more fantasy-heavy.

The Lost World - Michael Crichton (1995)
"Looking at the fossil record is like thumbing through a family photo album. You know the album isn't complete. You know life happens between the pictures. But you don't have any record of what happens in between, you only have the pictures. So you study them, and study them. And pretty soon, you begin to think of the album not as a series of moments, but as reality itself. And you begin to explain everything in terms of the album, and you forget the underlying reality."

I didn't like this book as much as its predecessor (Jurassic Park), but it was still very readable. It didn't feel as polished, but it still contained a good blend of action and discussion of science. Some of the personal dislikes issues that I had with the previous book (namely violence, i.e. fairly graphic descriptions of people being eaten by dinosaurs) still apply.

Related Reads:
Jurassic Park (Crichton)

Coming Up for Air - George Orwell (1939)
"I looked at the great sea of roofs stretching on and on. Miles and miles of streets, fried-fish shops, tin chapels, picture houses, little printing shops up back alleys, factories, blocks of flats, whelk stalls, dairies, power stations - on and on and on. Enormous! And the peacefulness of it! Like a great wilderness with no wild beasts ...
But how about five years from now? Or two years? Or one year?"

This is one of Orwell's lesser-known books, but if you're a fan of his works in general, it's certainly worth picking up. Though fictional, its setting gives us a slice of history and opinion into a period - immediately-preceding-WWII Britain - that one doesn't often think about. It's nostalgic, pessimistic, dryly funny at times, and strangely sad.

Related Reads:
Boy (Dahl)
Babbitt (Lewis)

The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro (2015)
"After a while Axl could no longer remember how talk of this journey had started, or what it had ever meant to them."

The tone of this book is meandering and dreamlike. It's strangely hard to place in terms of genre, too, though the setting is an interpretation of an immediately post-Arthurian Britain. At its core, it's a sort of fantasy, but it has echos of science fiction/dystopian. There are some changes of perspective throughout, which I felt added some interest.

Overall note: this book is really not going to be for everyone. Even though I personally appreciated it, I'll still admit that it's slow-paced, repetitive, and even largely unsatisfying. All that said, I still found that I could immerse myself in it, and I appreciated the out-of-the-norm interpretation.

Related Reads:
The Once and Future King (White)
Le Morte d'Arthur (Malory)
The Name of the Rose (Eco)
Riddley Walker (Hoban)

Mort - Terry Pratchett (1987)
"History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It's been around a long time."

Mort is one of Terry Pratchett's earlier Discworld novels. I really liked it - it's about on the same level as Equal Rites, which is another early Discworld favorite of mine. It's fairly straightforward story line full of a healthy blend of humor and seriousness (especially considering the subject matter). If you haven't read any Discworld novels yet, this isn't a bad place to start.

Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett (1991)
"People get exactly the wrong idea about belief. They think it works back to front. They think the sequence is, first object, then belief. In fact, it works the other way."

This is the second book in the "Death" storyline of Discworld novels, so it's the sequel of Mort in a way. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as its predecessor; it's a little odd and rambling at times (arguably a Pratchett trademark, but I digress). Still, it's likable overall, with the same balance of serious/humorous tone.

March 2018 Reads Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

On the Road: The Original Scroll - Jack Kerouac (2008; first ed. 1957)
"At night in this part of the West the stars, as I had seen them in Wyoming, are as big as Roman Candles and as lonely as the Prince who's lost his ancestral home and journeys across the spaces trying to find it again, and knows he never will. So they slowly wheeled the night and then long before ordinary dawn the great red sun appeared far over entire territorial areas of dun land towards West Kansas and the birds sang above Denver."

This book - the first draft of the edited-down, originally published version (which, by the way, I haven't read) - is full of a rollicking, occasionally-breathtaking type of prose. Keroauc's descriptions and portraits are often crude and unflattering (including those referencing himself), but his story of his ramblings across the U.S. is still somehow engrossing and infectious. I can't hate it even though sometimes I was thinking that I probably should. Side note: It's apparently great being a white male in 1950's America.

This edition also includes four introductory essays, which seemed a little excessive to me. At the very least, they're better read after reading the book itself (or at least after having read the original version).

Related Reads:
Travels with Charley (Steinbeck)
Walden on Wheels (Ilgunas)

When Helping Hurts, 2nd edition - Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (2012; 1st ed. 2009)
"One of the biggest problems in many poverty-alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich - their god-complexes - and the poverty of being of the economically poor - their feelings of inferiority and shame."

I picked this up because I was semi-interested in a local book study group (which I never ended up attending). When Helping Hurts is really written for church groups and ministry leaders, and thus I didn't find it terribly applicable as just an individual.  But it does have some good advice and food for thought - actually listening to the people you're trying to help, for instance (go figure). There are also lots of thought-and-action-provoking questions at the end of each chapter. And I appreciated how the authors take on the uncomfortable tasks of addressing things like problematic short-term missions trips and how systemic racism affects churches, and they ask readers to really examine and confront their own motivations and assumptions.

Are there better books out there for the casual reader? Certainly. But I do think that this book is a necessary one for its audience intended audience: conservative churches who are trying to do what's right. Side note: I took some issue with the authors' insistence that organizations and programs must be spiritual (read: Evangelical Christian) in order to effectively help people, but views along these lines shouldn't be a surprise to anyone reading this.

Related Reads
Toxic Charity (Lupton)
Just Mercy (Stevenson)

The Art of Asking - Amanda Palmer (2014)
"It’s really easy to love passing strangers unconditionally. They demand nothing of you. It is really hard to love people unconditionally when they can hurt you."

Full disclosure: I knew very little about Amanda Palmer going into this book aside from what I'd read written about her by her husband Neil Gaiman. This book is part self-help, part memoir (Palmer doesn't really touch on her childhood and adolescence, but does discuss quite a bit of her life and pursuits from college and onward). Palmer's relating of her experiences and life-lessons results in a heady blend of messy, real, fascinating, and instructive thoughts. It's different, it's quotable, and it made me think about things in ways that I normally wouldn't. I've had a hard time coming up with more of a description for this book, so I'm just going end by blanket recommending it.

Related Reads:
Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life (Lamott)

Stories of Your Life and Others [Short Stories] - Ted Chiang (2002)
"What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would?"

To me, this collection of Science Fiction stories both stands out as well as integrates with the variety of other collections I've read within this genre. Chiang's style is more thought-based than necessarily story-focused, and he tends to heavily incorporate explorations of various subjects, including philosophy, religion, language, architecture, and physics. Overall, I really enjoyed the variety of tone and subjects here, though overall there's a sense of vague melancholy that pervades. Anyone who's even remotely a fan of the genre should pick this up, and those unfamiliar with scifi should give this a try.

Related Reads:
The Line Between [Short Stories] (Beagle)
Smoke and Mirrors ["Murder Mysteries"] (Gaiman)
The Golem and the Jinni (Wecker)

The Merlin Conspiracy - Diana Wynne Jones (2003)
"'...They can't both be real.'
'Why not?' he more or less snapped. 'You have a very limited notion of what's real, don't you?'"

This is technically a sequel to Jones' book Deep Secret, which was a favorite of mine from last year. It's not strictly necessary to read Deep Secret first (my husband picked up the book and enjoyed it without any prior context), though it is helpful to have a smattering of knowledge about Arthurian legends. Like the preceding novel, The Merlin Conspiracy switches between perspectives, although here it's all in first-person point of view.

This book seems a little more solidly in the YA category than its predecessor, possibly because most of the protagonists here are younger than those in the preceding book. Perhaps because of this, it didn't seem quite as polished. The book has its imperfections, to be sure. And the end leaves the reader wanting more. But on the whole, it's a nice adventure book of the type of reality/magic mishmash that I'm particularly fond of.

Related Reads:
The Sword and the Circle (Sutcliff)
The Black Cauldron (Alexander)
Equal Rites (Pratchett)

Raising Demons - Shirley Jackson (1957)
"Naturally a husband presents enormous irritations no matter what he is doing, and I think it is unreasonable to regard a teaching husband as necessarily more faulty than, say, a plumbing husband, but there is no question but what the ego of a teaching husband is going to be more vividly developed, particularly if if teaches in a girls' college."

To be completely honest, I had a hard time with this book and almost gave up after the first chapter - turns out it's not a great idea to start reading a dryly humorous book about a woman complaining about how her children have too much stuff right after you read memoirs about surviving the Khmer Rouge and having children with drug addictions. But I picked the book up again after a cooling off period, and I'm glad I stuck it out in the end.

I went in expecting something perhaps a little darker, given the title and Jackson's fiction. But this really is simply an autobiography that's a slice of her life with her husband and four children in 1940's America. It's certainly more readable than Ernestine Carey's Rings Around Us (written in almost the same year), and you can feel Jackson's struggles with embracing her role as housewife and chafing against the restrictiveness of it. I probably should've read the predecessor (Life Among the Savages) first for context, and I wouldn't say this book is a necessary read for Shirley Jackson fans, but it's palatable.

Related Reads:
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

Everything is Horrible and Wonderful - Stephanie Wittels Wachs (2018)
"No one could've saved you. Not a girl. Not a sponsor. Not a mother or a father. Not a sister.
No one."

This memoir was written by comedian/producer Harris Wittels' older sister and only sibling, Stephanie. Harris died of a heroin overdose in 2015 at age 30, and his death - coming just months after he proclaimed his sobriety publicly - shattered his family and stunned fans.

This book, then, while a tribute to Harris, is also a window into grief as well as an unflinching look at the effects of serious drug addiction on a family.  As Stephanie writes, she switches between the past - the years and months leading up to her brother's death - and the present, where she and her family process their grief and move forward in varying ways. Everything is Horrible and Wonderful feels like part journal,  part letter to Harris; Stephanie often writes as if addressing her brother ("What happened between clicking send and sticking a needle in your arm?"), and her raw emotions of grief and anger - both at her brother's addiction and his senseless death - are palpable. But so, too, are the good memories and anecdotes that she shares about her family and Harris' accomplishments.

There's a common thread to addiction that makes all affected families share the same basic story despite sometimes wildly different circumstances. The Wittels' childhood was permissive as mine was strict, and I wasn't coming into this book as a particular fan of Harris' work. But the common thread of the addiction of a sibling meant I could deeply relate to all the things that Stephanie shares that go hand-in-hand with addiction - the secrets, the anxiety, the lies, the grief, the anger, the judgement from others. In summation, anyone who's dealt with the grief that comes from the addiction or the death of a family member will find this memoir entirely relatable, and any fans of Harris will find it true-to-life: an honest, messy, and loving tribute.

Related Reads:
It's Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool, Too) (Purmort)

March 2018 Reads Part 1

I read quite a lot in March, which means I'm a little behind in my quick write-ups! A good portion of what I read over the past month was in the autobiography/memoir category.

L. M. Montgomery Short Story collections: 1902-1903; 1904; & 1905-1906
"She was all sympathy - or, at least, as much sympathy as a woman can be who must listen while the man of men sings another woman's praises to her. She sent Roger away in perfect good humour with himself and all the world, then she curled herself up in the snuggery, pulled a rug over her head, and cried."

In March, I finished off three more of Montgomery's short story collections that Amazon had for free on Kindle. I think that Montgomery shows more refinement in her stories as time goes on; that said, the main storylines and themes are pretty consistent throughout all the collections I've read. Everything turns out all right in the end, good decisions are rewarded, long-lost family members are suddenly found again, etc. etc.

On the whole, these collections make for wholesome, calming reads. They're definitely worth perusing if you're a fan of Anne of Green Gables or any of the author's other books; for me, these short stories have served to round out the settings and tones of her novels.
(Bonus, I learned a new word: snuggery!)

Maus & Maus II - Art Spiegelman (1986 & 1991)
"You heard about the gas, but I'm telling not rumors, but only what I really saw. For this I was an eyewitness."

The format of this two-part graphic novel series about the author's father's experiences as a Polish Jew during WWII is rather unique. Spiegelman portrays the characters as anthropomorphized animals (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Poles are pigs, etc). He also switches between present time, where he's interviewing his father, and the past as his father is telling his story. The result is a sobering, somewhat jarring read that is sprinkled with moments of humor and unexpected intensity. The author's distinct art and storytelling style allows for a way of looking at a familiar story with new eyes and introducing topics such as survivor's guilt, the rift between generations, and generational trauma, and at times, it serves to further underscore the horrors of the Holocaust.

Related Reads:
Kiss Every Step (Martin)

Rings Around Us - Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (1956)
"...The incessant comments about women drivers would come again and again.
'Where does that stupid daughter-of-misery think she's going today?'
'Please, Chick, watch your tongue'...
Soon Charlie was copying him. 'What else can you expect from a woman? Eh, Dad?'"

Because this book was written by one of the co-authors of the beloved book Cheaper by the Dozen, I was eager to get my hands on it. However, it ended up being a rather disappointing read. Ernestine writes rather blandly about her life after marriage and having two children and hardly references her childhood at all, and she makes barely a mention of her parents. While on one hand it's interesting to see one of the "dozen" as an individual, it also makes for a rather dull and ordinary book.

The main thing that stood out to me when I was reading was Ernestine's husband Chick; even by her trying-to-be-humorous portrayal, he comes off as a terrible person. Granted, this book was written in the 1950's about marriage during the 30's-40's, so I suppose some misogyny was a given, but reading again and again about how Chick was rude, dismissive, or overtly chauvinistic got old fast. And while Ernestine's writing style blended well with Frank's in Cheaper by the Dozen to create a riotous, colorful prose, here, without the polishing of Frank's style, the prose is somewhat grating and annoying.

I'd only read this if you're looking to completely round out your Gilbreth family knowledge or want to get a view into marriage in the 1930's. Otherwise, give it a pass.

Related Reads:
Time Out for Happiness (Gilbreth)

Breaking Free - Rachel Jeffs (2017)
"I realized Father was causing a lot of people to turn into lunatics."

Rachel writes from a unique perspective of being the first child born into polygamy of the infamous FLDS (Fundamentalist Mormon) cult leader Warren Jeffs. Breaking Free is written in a fairly matter-of-fact, straightforward way, which makes Rachel's story (which is full of genuinely gripping events and perspective) suffer a little in terms of reader engagement. But at the same time, I can't really fault this overall style because, as she notes near the end, part of the book's purpose is to lay out the facts of what she experienced to her extended (mostly still FLDS) family. Because of Rachel's unique position within the FLDS before she escaped, this book is necessary reading for anyone interested in learning about Warren Jeffs and the cult as a whole.

I'll include a content note that throughout the first 50 pages or so, Rachel recounts the sexual abuse that she suffered as a young child from her father. And throughout the book, she makes brief references to her sex life in the context of being a plural wife under the headship of her husband, someone she was taught to obey as if he spoke for God, as well as noting her father's practice of marrying (and sexually abusing) increasingly younger girls.

Related Reads:
Lost Boy (Brent Jeffs)
The Witness Wore Red (Rebecca Musser)
Church of Lies (Flora Jessop)
Escape (Carolyn Jessop)

A Very Fine House: A Mother's Story of Love, Faith, and Chrystal Meth - Barbara Cofer Stoefen (2014)
"I wasn't sure I had the answers to all my questions, but I knew I had to do something. I had to save Annie. So I began by chasing after her."

If you're looking for a book that describes what life with a close family member who's a serious drug addict looks like, this is it. A Very Fine House is honest and straightforward without crossing into raw or gritty territory like many others within this category. Normally I would consider this tempering to be something of a detriment, but Stoefen manages to convey real emotion and honesty while at the same time censoring out swear words and summarizing certain difficult situations rather than digging into them. This "cleaning up" makes the book more widely accessible to readers, and I can appreciate that. Stoefen also writes honestly about her struggles with her faith and her issues with codependency, something many other similar books don't address.

To summarize, A Very Fine House, though not necessarily stellar in terms of prose, is a relatively easy and engaging read on a difficult subject. It's deep without being emotionally shattering. It's hopeful without being trite or overly optimistic. It educates about the subject without getting dry or political. And I could relate to pretty much every experience the author writes about, so I'll attest that it's a good window into the lives of families affected by severe addiction. If you read this - and I think you should - you'll gain some understanding and insight, and that's always a good thing.

Related Reads:
Beautiful Boy (Sheff)
Ben Behind his Voices (Kaye)
(see also author's list in back of book)

When Broken Glass Floats - Chanrithy Him (2000)
"It's only been about eight hours since I first encountered war, but already I am beginning to worry like an adult... Oh, how much I want to tell Pa that I'm scared, but I'm even too scared to tell him this. I've learned from grown-ups that you don't think about or say terrible things or else they will come true."

In this memoir, Chanrithy Him writes about her childhood during the Khmer Rouge regime. It's a well-written and at times shockingly detailed recounting of her experiences. It should come as no shock that the book is fairly heavy and depressing. But it's an important and necessary story from a survivor.

Him focuses more on her country's culture than many others similar books I've read, using Cambodian proverbs, terms, and phrases throughout (usually translated into English for the reader's benefit). While I appreciated this and felt it made the book all the more true-to-experience and immersive, I personally found it a little confusing at times, particularly because Chanrithy (nicknamed Athy or Thy) had nine siblings and many relatives and family friends, all of whom went by various nicknames and titles.

Related Reads:
First They Killed My Father (Ung)
Children of the River (Crew)

(continued in Part 2)

February 2018 Reads Part 2

(continued from Part 1)

The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings (1995)
(edited by Lawrence Sutin)
"But I have never had too high a regard for what is generally called "reality." Reality, to me, is not so much something that you perceive, but something you make. You create it more rapidly than it creates you. Man is the reality God created out of the dust; God is the reality man creates continually out of his own passions, his own determination."

This collection includes (along with a helpful introduction and brief context-notes for each section by the editor) a variety of pieces by Philip K. Dick: speeches, autobiographical writings, science fiction essays, plot ideas, and excerpts from Exegesis, his collection of writings about the inexplicable spiritual events he experienced throughout his adult life.

Perhaps surprisingly to those looking for a strictly SciFi collection, the collection of writings here is pretty philosophy-heavy as a whole. PKD references a number of philosophers (Spinoza, Kant, Xenophanes)  as he's parsing out his own thoughts on God and life in general throughout his essays, so it's helpful to have at least a brief background on general philosophy. He also references his own works throughout (probably most heavily The Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, though Ubik gets a good amount of space, too), so it's helpful to have read at least his key works.

So, on the whole: read this if you're interested in learning more about PKD's worldview (politically, spiritually, and otherwise) and background into his stories, or if you just want to broaden your understanding of SciFi writers of the 70's and 80's and stretch your mind a little bit by reading more about concepts of time and reality.

The Polygamist's Daughter - Anna LeBaron (2017)
"According to my father, lawbreaking and lawlessness were justified because the US government and culture were both corrupt. The disciples who followed him were God's chosen people, which meant that we could go outside the normal bounds of rules and regulations. The ends justified the means. Although at times I was worried about getting caught stealing, I kept my concerns to myself."

I've read a number of books by ex-FLDS women over the years, but this one stands out a little bit for a few reasons. Unlike most other published books that deal with the specific, larger sect of Warren Jeffs (the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church), The Polygamist's Daughter is about a different Fundamentalist Mormon offshoot sect started by the LeBaron family (the Church of the Firstborn of the Lamb of God).

Author Anna LeBaron's mother was one of the 13 wives of sect leader Ervil LeBaron. This book is an autobiography in the fullest sense, charting Anna's life and experiences from as early as she can remember to present day. Though Anna only saw her father a few times before he died in prison, his larger-than-life personality and psychological hold is a constant overshadowing presence throughout her life.

Though I found the writing style a little simplistic (though I'm not sure how much I can fault this, since much of the book is being told from a young child's perspective), the book is interesting and eye-opening in regards to cults as a whole. Anna details her long recovery from cult mentality with admirable frankness, crediting time, therapists, God, and close friends.

I'll add a footnote to say that Anna, through some of her other relatives, got involved with Fundamentalist Christian organizations (including Bill Gothard's IBLP teachings) after leaving the FLDS church. She doesn't note what particular denominations or organizations she's currently a part of, but she does make it clear that she considers her Christian faith an integral part of her life, escape, and recovery from the spiritual abuse and the plethora of other things she dealt with as part of her father's church.

Related Reads:
Under the Banner of Heaven (Krakauer)
Stolen Innocence (Wall)
Church of Lies (Jessop)
My Story (Smart)

A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell (2012)
"Only now are we once again yearning to preserve fruit and pickle vegetables. Many today even dream of keeping a pig, yet where it once was for necessity, now it is for flavor and fun, in sharp contrast to the Victorian age in which presentation was everything and the showy trifle, however tasty, simply vulgar." p.185

I'll note up front that though this book starts off each chapter with a recipe, it's not a cookbook. Many of the recipes included (especially the early ones) aren't at all exact, and their purpose is more to illustrate certain things about the given time period and culture than to be an example of something you should make at home. And many of the recipes are chosen because they showcase certain contemporary inventions, like the gas oven, the self-serve grocery store, and TV cooking shows.

A History of Food is really quite interesting, although I felt that it had a bit of a slow start and that the author's writing style (casual British humor interspersed with some grammatical errors) was a little hard to get used to. Sitwell traces food  and food culture throughout history and tells a broader story of how we got to where we are. If you're into food and/or history, this book will become your new Kryptonite.

Related Reads:
Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome (Apicuis)
The Apprentice (Pepin)

Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi (2005)
"To speak behind other's backs is the ventilator of the heart."

This book is basically an offshoot of the Persepolis graphic novels, taking place around the time that Satrapi arrived back in Iran after living in Austria as a teenager. In this short graphic novel, Satrapi's female relatives and family friends gather around and share their (and other's) stories related to love, marriage, and sex. Though it's generally lighthearted in tone, the medium is used to discuss difficult things (i.e. child marriage, FGM, husbands cheating) in an unexpected way.

This book isn't by any means a necessary addition if you've read Persepolis, but it does help add an extra layer of understanding to Satrapi's overall culture and story.

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (2017)
"Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black."

This is a well-written and necessary book. It's realistic, it's uncomfortable, and Thomas uses her easy-to-read prose to dig into difficult-to-discuss issues.

I often have several qualms when reading YA books, but here the main issue I had was that some themes were spelled out a little too obviously in direct conversations/exposition.

Related Reads:
The Sun is Also a Star (Yoon)
Between the World and Me (Coates)

L. M. Montgomery Short Stories, 1897-1901
"When she came out they started off, and presently found themselves walking down a grassy, deep-rutted lane that ran through mown hay fields, green with their rich aftergrowth, and the sheets of pale ripening oats and golden-green wheat, until it lost itself in the rolling sand hills at the foot of the slope."

This is the earliest of  L. M. Montgomery's short story collections (and available, like the others, for free on Kindle). Compared to the few later collections that I've read, the stories here seem slightly more simplistic and less refined. Generally, the stories hold to the "soothing, harmless" descriptors that I used for my last Montgomery review. Everything is wrapped up tidily and happily in the end, and bursts of nature-descriptions and large-eyed, pale heroines abound.

However, this particular collection surprised me by having a couple of things to take pause at, namely, a rather nasty sentence containing a few racial pejoratives ("squaws" and "half-breed" women being contrasted unfavorably with apparently more-beautiful-by-default white women), and a story ending with a romantically-portrayed suicide.

February 2018 Reads Part 1

Though it was a short month and I've been working more hours, I packed in a good variety of books in February, including Marjane Satrapi's three graphic novels. I also picked up a couple of things by Ursula Le Guin that I hadn't read before, brought to the forefront of my list due to her death on January 22.

Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories - Agatha Christie
"Hercule Poirot sat on the white sand and looked out across the sparkling blue water. He was carefully dressed in a dandified fashion in white flannels and a large panama hat protected his head. He belonged to the old-fashioned generation which believed in covering itself carefully from the sun."

This collection includes over 50 short stories featuring that famous detective, M. Poirot. I've seen the entire TV series starring David Suchet (highly recommended), so I was already familiar with most of the stories here. But they were still quite enjoyable and occasionally surprising reads. With its easily-digestible stories (of varying lengths), this is an ideal collection for both fans and newbies of mystery stories to peruse on rainy afternoons.

Related Reads:
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)

Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith - Benjamin L. Corey (2017)
"So we have a choice: we can stay in these systems of false binaries and remain loyal to Christian labels, settle into groupthink, and submit to the pressures of tribalism. Or we can step out into a world that is far more difficult to define with word or categories."

On the whole, I felt that this book was a bit simplistic and repetitive, and I was a little disappointed that the author didn't seem to use many sources to back up his thoughts. This was kind of a shame, because I didn't necessarily disagree with what Corey was saying - it just felt like this was more of a series of opinion posts at times rather than a carefully researched book. I also think that the lack of sources and the emphasis on feelings would be a hard thing to get over for some of Corey's intended audience.

I'd still say that the book comes across as a heartfelt, personal journey that I (and probably lot of people who also come from Fundamentalist/Evangelical Christian backgrounds) could relate to and reflect on. The author's honesty about his struggles (particularly a point where his therapist had him do an exercise where he addressed God as if addressing someone who he'd had a toxic relationship with) was refreshing.

Related Reads:
In the Grip of Grace (Lucado)
Jesus Feminist (Bessey)

Persepolis and Persepolis 2 - Marjane Satrapi (2003 & 2004)
''That night I stayed a very long time in the bath. I wanted to know what it felt like to be in a cell filled with water.
My hands were wrinkled when I came out, like Grandpa's."

Persopolis is a graphic novel about the author's childhood in Iran. I was going to note that it's not for young kids, but it simultaneously hit me that the author lived through the events portrayed (including her exposures to war, relatives being tortured, and extremist ideologies) as a young child.

The followup novel picks up immediately where the first left off and details Satrapi's teen years in Austria as well as her return to Iran and the difficult adjustments that she experiences. Like the first book, the tone is generally that of discussing her life and opinions with a friend.

Both novels end fairly abruptly, but I can't really fault that as that'ss true-to-life, too. The first book is more history-heavy, but both books are compelling and poignant and really worth the read - they won't take long to finish, but will sit in your mind for a while.

Related Reads:
Reading Lolita in Tehran (Nafisi)
Day of Honey (Ciezadlo)

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (1969) 
(my version: 1976 with author introduction)
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."

This is a slow-building, political, introspective story. The Left Hand of Darkness is perhaps best known for its ahead-of-its time take on gender; the alien people on the planet Winter are ambisexual, and the human main character struggles to see them as such (falling back on the pronoun "he" and becoming confused or even disgusted at signs of "femininity"). Much of the book is a slow build towards his - the Envoy's - growing understanding of the people and world around him.

Le Guin is known for really fleshing out worlds and societies in her novels, and this book is no exception. The focus here is much more on descriptors, world-building, and defining terms; there are even interspersing chapters that contain Winter's oral traditions and history. Thus, to me the book had the feeling of a fantasy novel at times, though as a whole it's fairly firmly in the science fiction category. 

Quiet, powerful, reflective, and slow-paced, this book won't be for everyone, but it's rewarding for those who appreciate the genre and tone. Once in a while, I check out a book from the library that I wish I'd purchased so I could spend more time in introspection with it. This is one of those books.

Related Reads:

Ancillary Justice Trilogy (Lecke)

The Sparrow (Russell)

The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin (1971)

"A machine is more blameless, more sinless even than any animal. It has no intentions whatsoever but our own."

This is a contemporary novel that deals primarily with the concept of time. It felt very similar to the Philip K. Dick novels that I've read, particularly in its way of pushing the boundaries on certain concepts and in the way the imperfect characters are portrayed. At the same time, it's not a difficult read.

I recommend reading this if you're a fan of Philip K. Dick novels (or reading PKD novels if you like this book). As a side note, I found it particularly interesting parsing out the similarities and differences between the authors as to how they dealt with certain subjects, as Le Guin was an avowed atheist and Dick (who had deeply personal spiritual experiences throughout his life - more on this in Part 2) considered himself a theist.

Related Reads:

Martian Time-slip (Dick)

The Man in the High Castle (Dick)

(Continued in Part 2)