2019 Overview and Favorites

(A list of all the books I read this year is on my 2019 Book List page; for a more visual overview, see my Year in Books on Goodreads)

This past year was a busy one for me; with the start of grad school and related volunteering opportunities, my priorities were definitely rearranged somewhat as compared to recent years. Reading a certain set number of books by the end of the year wasn't really a goal of mine; rather, reading as a form of self-care became my main focus more than ever when choosing books.

Picking out favorite reads is always tricky, but out of the mix of 88 books, the following make the top of my list (in no particular order):

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
I fall back to echoing the thoughts in my original review; Dandelion Wine is "... awash with beautiful prose; interwoven with nostalgia, philosophy, and the occasional unexpected tinges of science fiction and horror. All in all, this is a moment of Americana captured and bottled - dark and bright, full of endings and beginnings." If you've ever tried Bradbury before and not clicked with him, try this.

Let Me Tell You - Shirley Jackson
This collection of previously-unpublished Shirley Jackson stories was very readable, even though a number of the works have an unpolished feel. It's an intriguing starting point for new readers of Jackson, and a treasure trove for those already very familiar with her work.

Sabriel - Garth Nix
Lirael - Garth Nix
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy's unique storyline, detailed world-building, strong and realistic female lead characters, and good fantasy/reality blend make it one of my top YA picks of the year.

The Truth - Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett 
Picking out favorite Terry Pratchett books out of the eleven that I read this year was hard, but both  The Truth and The Fifth Elephant combined interesting plot, an impressive array of characters, and signature humor in such a way that they stood out just a little above the rest. For those new to Terry Pratchett, The Truth stands alone fairly well in the Discworld series.

Dogsbody - Diana Wynne Jones
This little gem is one of Jones' earlier works, much less known than the likes of Howl's Moving Castle. It tends to be perhaps a little dark and rough around the edges for YA; however, I don't consider this a failing.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A true classic - I'm always amazed at how timeless Austen can feel. I've watched the 1995 Emma Thompson movie innumerable times, but somehow had never read the book all the way through in recent or past memory. Reading a few chapters of Sense and Sensibility at bedtime was just what I needed as the fall semester of grad school was winding down.

Ubik - Philip K. Dick.
Philip K. Dick seems to invariably make my favorites list in the years he shows up on my book lists. Ubik is a good starter book for those who haven't yet dipped their toe into the treasure trove of PKD's myriad works. I got hints of Lovecraft and Gaiman's Coraline from Ubik; it's a seminal work for the genre, slightly horrifying and deliciously strange.

Bonus Runners-Up (maybe a little more niche, but still stood out to me this year):

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
This book felt a little incomplete, but it addresses important topics and history in a fascinatingly weird way.

Salad Anniversary - Machi Tawara
I'm sure there are core elements that are lost in translation, but this collection of modern tanka felt like the perfect coda to my end-of-year trip to Japan.

April 2019: Fantasy, Horror/SciFi, and Lawrence of Arabia

I stuck to my reading resolution pretty well in April: all books read were from either my to-read stack or my Goodreads list. However, I ended up getting an armful of new books to add to the pile during the San Diego Book Crawl and the Encinitas Street Fair last weekend ... so I guess it all evens out?

Fairest - Gail Carson Levine (2006)
"I saw myself in my mind's eye. Blushing made me as garish as blood on snow."

This YA fantasy novel is set in the same universe as Ella Enchanted, which was one of my childhood favorites. However - and perhaps it's because of the not-entirely-fair comparison factor - this novel was ultimately disappointing for me. I did appreciate some of the creative story elements (like singing playing a vital role in the society), and the plot line didn't take as obvious a turn as I had expected. On the other hand, not much felt new here, and some things just felt forced - the name-dropping of characters from Ella Enchanted as well as the main romance, for instance. I came away with the feeling that Fairest almost works best as a side story to Ella Enchanted  rather standing on its own.

Related Reads:
The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Levine)
Mirror Mirror (Maguire)

Organizing & Preserving Your Heirloom Documents - Katherine Sturdevant (2002)
"We can view our ancestors as writers, the authors of their own documents that we now treasure. Thus, we may be their biographers; as we research and annotate their documents, we can view them as lives in need of biography and their writings as genres of literature."

This is basically a textbook for the family-papers hobbyist. In organized fashion, the author goes through a wide variety of topics of relevance, from how to sort and organize family papers and photos, how to determine what might be of interest to potential readers, advice for dealing with specific random items (like cookbooks and ledgers), and much more. Sturdevant gears her advice towards assuming readers are looking to publish their family documents in some format (privately or publicly), and thus includes sections on things like copyright considerations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she also heavily recommends ultimately donating important or significant papers to historical societies, libraries, or similar places that will have the resources and means to store them correctly.

It's useful to know that while there are tips and guidelines included here about how to best treat and store things like old documents and albums, the aim of this book is to get someone started on their personal family documentation journey, not to lay out exhaustive and in-depth preservation methods. I'll also note that some of the advice is dated; the final section on ebooks and the lack of emphasis on online research are the most obvious examples. Overall, I'd call this book a decent starting point for anyone interested in or tasked with going through family heirloom documents.

A long list of additional resources (probably also somewhat dated) is listed in the appendix.

The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden (2017) [re-read]
The Girl in the Tower - Katherine Arden (2018)
The Winter of the Witch - Katherine Arden (2019)
"Just ask Baba Yaga: the more one knows, the sooner one grows old."

The Winternight Trilogy books are a painstakingly-researched, masterful blend of fantasy and history. Set in medieval Russia, there is heavy emphasis on the struggle between religion and ancient traditional practices and beliefs (sometimes involving blood-magic), as well as explorations of class and gender. Ultimately, Arden succeeds in bringing this period of history to life through her strong and believable characters and their everyday and exceptional experiences.

Note that the books in general are fairly dark and serious in tone, and they include a good bit of violence that is sometimes fantasy/horror-type.

Related Reads:
American Gods (Gaiman)
Spinning Silver (Novik)
A Darker Shade of Magic (Schwab)
The Snow Child (Ivey)
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov (ed. by Chandler)

Lawrence of Arabia: The Selected Letters [edited by Malcolm Brown]
"I'm not, I think, a lonely person; though often and generally alone. There is a distinction."

T.E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia) wrote a startlingly vast number of letters over his lifetime, keeping up regular correspondence with many famous contemporary authors and political figures. And while he saved precious few of the letters written to him, most of the recipients of his letters kept and later donated them to libraries and museums. The result is that many collections of Lawrence's letters now exist in archives.

In this particular book, broken up into seven sections (from "The Early Years to 1914" to "The Final Weeks: February-March 1935"), editor Malcolm Brown assembles key letters written throughout Lawrence's lifetime, making this selection an exemplative rather than an exhaustive one. Brown includes a helpful introduction to each section as well as some explanatory notes throughout. While I feel it's probably best read after or alongside a biography to get the full impact and context of the letters, this collection will nevertheless leave its readers with a sense of having gotten to know Lawrence more fully.

A couple of minor notes about this particular edition: because my volume is a paperback, the number of pages (nearly 600) means there's a lot of wear in the binding (mine cracked partway through despite my careful handling). There are also a few scattered typos throughout the footnotes.

Related Reads:
A Prince of Our Disorder (Mack)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence)
The Mint (Lawrence)

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff (2016)
"It is what it is. Life isn't fair, Ruby. You need to understand, Ruby. Lord, how she tired of hearing that! Life wasn't fair, but still it would be nice if, just once in a while, someone else had to do the understanding."

This book is a compelling read by any stretch of the imagination. Author Matt Ruff blends life under Jim Crow with science fiction and horror; the resulting story is a mix of the harsh realities of racism and the struggle against a powerful and ancient secret society - elements of which are sometimes difficult to separate.

Lovecraft Country's long chapters read somewhat like short stories. The book doesn't have a perfect plot line (sometimes one gets the impression that Ruff could've pushed the bounds of the story further), but it's an engrossing and thought-provoking read nonetheless.

For more context, you can listen to a 2018 podcast where the author discusses the book (and the fact that an HBO show based on the book is forthcoming).

Related Reads:
Let Me Tell You (Shirley Jackson)
Welcome to Night Vale podcast and books

March 2019 Reads

March was another month of motley mixes in terms of books read. I finally finished a lengthy short story collection I'd been working on, and I was able to get through some more books in my to-read stack to boot. On to my thoughts!

Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead - Allen Raine (1900)
"The golden marsh marigolds glittered around her, the beautiful bog bean hung its pinky-white fringe over the brown peat pools, the silky plumes of cotton grass nodded at her as she passed, and the wind whispered in the rushes the secrets of the sea."

Garthowen's story focuses on late-19th century life in a Welsh village. Major elements and themes contained therein are the relationship of the villagers to the sea and surrounding nature, class distinctions, family relationships, and religion. The author uses flowery, descriptive prose that's very typical of the time and genre, though I found that the use of elements such as (archaic) common Welsh phrases made this more interesting than other books I've read from the same period. Throw in characters like a possibly-piratical prodigal son, a kindly village herbalist (witch?), and a sea-foundling, and you have a classic read that manages to be relaxing and exciting.

A note of interest is that  "Allen Raine" was the pseudonym of female Welsh author Anne Puddicombe, née Evans.
You can find this e-book for free on Amazon.

Related Reads:
The Story Girl (Montgomery)
Equal Rites (Pratchett)

The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - Rudolph Chelminski (2005)
"'He didn't need approval, he needed to be adored. Unanimously. And we did love him, too, in spite of his weaknesses. Or maybe we loved him because of his weaknesses. He was just so fragile and so human. A lot of people who didn't know him well enough were skeptical about his sincerity because they felt like he was always play-acting, and doing a number on them. It's true. He did that. But it was only because he was trying to please them.'"

This book details the life and career of French chef Bernard Loiseau, who suddenly committed suicide at the height of his career in 2003. Author Chelminski, a freelance writer who met with Loiseau periodically throughout his career, presents a decent background into French cooking culture and the Michelin Guide/star system before giving an overview of Loiseau's family background and life.

Although I found this book could get somewhat plodding and name-heavy (Chelminski understandably finds it necessary to give readers lots of context), I will admit that it's an interesting window into both Loiseau and the extreme culinary culture that arguably led to his death.

Related Reads:
The Apprentice (Pepin)
Kitchen Confidential (Bourdain)

If You Love Me: A Mother's Journey Through her Daughter's Opioid Addiction - Maureen Cavanaugh (2018)
"I hadn't known just how much pain the world could contain. It crushes me sometimes, not just my own but the pain of so many others also trying to hang on to whatever shred of their loved ones they can."

Cavanaugh opens her memoir with a passage that's as shocking as it is relatable to family members of addicts. It's 2017, and she's driving through town after learning that her heroin-addicted daughter is about to leave yet another rehab facility. A baseball bat is rolling around in the back of the car. If she runs into her beloved daughter's drug dealer, she swears to herself, she'll take the bat and beat him to death in order to save her daughter once and for all.

It's straightforward portions like this that are the strength of If You Love Me. Cavanaugh doesn't hesitate to delve into the dark places and thoughts that, prior to having an addicted child, seemed unimaginable to her. She unflinchingly details her feelings of shock and isolation after realizing that her daughter is a serious heroin addict, her enabling and obsessive behavior, and her quest for answers that eventually lead her to founding an online support group.

As much as I wanted to like this book, though, there were enough issues that make it hard for me to recommend. First off, I didn't like that Cavanaugh doesn't explicitly note (as other similar memoirs that I've read do) that she has permission from daughter to share intimate details about her addiction. There are also large portions of the book that are dedicated to the author's online group and the relationships she formed there; while this is surely an important piece of the story, the way that it's presented makes the book drag.

Cavanaugh seems to spend a good deal of time focused on herself in her recollections while overlooking people like her other (non-addict) children -  I can't fault her entirely here, but this is paired with prose that feels fairly uneven, especially as the book goes on. Finally, unlike other similar books that have something of an ending (however tenuous), this story is still ongoing, and thus the book kind of just peters out. It's a harsh reality that the cycle of relapse and rehab is common with addicts, but I feel the author could've ended on a stronger note. All in all, I appreciate the existence of this book, but there are better ones on the same subject out there.

Related Reads:
A Very Fine House (Stoefen)
Ben Behind His Voices (Kaye)
Beautiful Boy (Sheff)

The Time Traveler's Almanac [Short Stories] (2013)
"There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame."

The Time Traveler's Almanac contains a wide range of stories (72 in all) within a fairly narrow genre. Although I didn't care for every story and felt that some of the space given to longer stories or excerpts from larger works would have been better served going to a greater number of shorter stories, I enjoyed the mix overall. It contains stories spanning from the late 1800s to now, and has a good mix of female and non-European authors. By design, the genre is limited and thus I didn't find I could read a lot in one sitting, but I'd recommend it as a good starting point to explore more authors and books within the specific Sci-Fi genre.

Related Reads:
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century

Guards! Guards! (1989) and
Men At Arms (1993) - Terry Pratchett
"So many crimes are solved by a happy accident - by the random stopping of a car, by an overheard remark, by someone of the right nationality happening to be within five miles of the scene of the crime without an alibi..."

This month, I finally obtained the first and second books in the City Watch/Guards story line of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. This wasn't my first time coming across many of the main characters since they appear peripherally in other Discworld story lines, but it was my first time understanding the background of the City Watch. I kind of wish I'd read them a little sooner in the mix of Discworld books I've read so far, but I also think I could probably say that about a lot of Discworld books.

In any case, Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms are both a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the solving-mysteries element to them.

The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Carroll (2018)
"Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It's about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of."

I've long been interested in Bullet Journaling, but I'd always had trouble sorting through the huge variety of online resources enough to get started. Having the basics explained to me in this book form, then, ended up being a perfect place for me to start.

The Bullet Journal Method isn't meant only for those just starting out, though; author/method creator Ryder Carroll includes explanations of basic concepts and layouts as well as example pages for beginners, but also gets into more complicated and refined elements of BuJo in the later part of the book. I'd also say that at least half of the book is focused on discussion of planning goals and life advice, which seemed a bit like padding, but was also helpful guidance for me in understanding the mindset behind using the BuJu method and setting up my own journal.

Overall, Bullet Journaling isn't too different than what I was previously doing with calendar planners, but I'm liking (and even preferring) my foray into it so far.

Related Reads:
The Happiness Project (Rubin)

February 2019 Reads

I didn't get through a huge number of books in February, but everything I did read was from either my to-read list or my at home to-read stack, so I'm fairly pleased with my progress. Along with the list below, I've also been slowly working my way through the nearly 1,000 page The Time Traveler's Almanac short story collection.

A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (2004)
"Knowing things is magical, if other people don't know them."

This book is the second in the Discworld Tiffany Aching story line. Like its predecessor, it deals with serious themes like death and loss blended skillfully with Pratchett's signature wry humor. I've really liked the Tiffany Aching books so far, although I'm planning on putting reading more on hold until I get through some of the Guards story line.
Note that while the Tiffany Aching books are YA, this particular book seemed a little on the heavy/scary side for that genre.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists &
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe (2003 & 2004)
"Life at sea was tough and unforgiving, and tensions could run quite high on board a pirate boat, especially when crockery was limited and people didn't always do their washing-up, but generally the pirates all got along fine."

I started reading this two-in-one paperback right after re-watching Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and re-riding Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, so I was in the perfect frame of mind for these silly adventures. The Pirates! books are pirating spoofs with some history and footnote-facts thrown in. Overall, they're fun, not-to-be-taken-seriously reads.

Related Reads:
My Lady's Choosing (Curran & Zageris)

Reading People - Anne Bogel (2017)
"The point isn't to try to trap you in those boxes; it's to organize your behavior in a way that makes sense and helps you understand how the pieces work together, how to find them when you need them, and how to put them to work in pursuit of your best self."

The chapters of this book contain overviews of nine different personality frameworks, including (but not limited to) Keirsey's Temperament Test, The Five Love Languages, and StrengthsFinder. Although I was familiar with most of these, Bogel's overview helped me understand some aspects of the tests themselves better, figure out why I struggled with getting accurate results on some of them, and narrow down some things about myself that I had struggled with putting into words before. And even though there was a lot of reinforcing of old information rather than presenting a lot of new stuff for me, reading things like the overview of a Highly Sensitive Person (which I've known I definitely am) and how that might affect daily life was validating and a good resource to show others.

I would recommend Reading People to anyone who's interested in learning more about personality-type tests and exploring how they can use the gained knowledge to their advantage in daily life. The book is both a good beginning for someone who's never taken any test and a helpful overview even for those who have some familiarity.

Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings - Shirley Jackson (2015)
"I am tired of writing dainty little biographical things that pretend that i am a trim little housewife in a Mother Hubbard stirring up appetizing messes over a wood stove. 
I live in a dank old place with a ghost that stomps around in the attic room we've never gone into (I think it's walled up), and the first thing I did when we moved in was to make charms in black crayon on all the door sills and window ledges to keep out demons, and was successful in the main."

This collection of previously-unpublished pieces by late author Shirley Jackson (The Lottery, We Have Always Lived in the Castle) is both a decent introduction to Jackson for the uninitiated, and essential reading for the Jackson fan. Due to their unpublished nature, many of the short stories in particular have an unfinished or incomplete feel, but they nevertheless make for good reading. The reader will come away from this collection with a sense of knowing Shirley Jackson as a person as well as an author.

January 2019 Reads

Hello to 2019 and another mix of books! My first month's reads are all either from my at-home to-read stacks or library books that have been on my Goodreads to-read list for a long time. I'm planning on focusing my reading as much as possible on books that meet either of those two qualifications in the months to come.

Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichl (1998)
"I was slowly discovering that if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were."

This memoir is well-written and feels conversational and intimate in tone. Reichl's descriptions of her various travels and jobs as they related to the restaurant/foodie world are interesting, and she includes a variety of recipes that were important throughout her life, to boot.

However, I had a few personal caveats - for one, reading about Reichl's controlling, manic-depressive mother occasionally hit too close to home for comfort. I also felt I had trouble relating to Reichl's mindset of coming from a (albeit difficult) relatively permissive and monetarily-privileged background (her family hired maids and cooks; she went to a private French boarding school and traveled abroad).

Related Reads:
Garlic and Sapphires (Reichl)
The Opposite of Fate (Tan)
Coming Clean (Miller)
The Apprentice (Pepin)

Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett (2001)
"No other species anywhere in the world had invented boredom. Perhaps it was boredom, not intelligence, that had propelled them up to the evolutionary ladder."

This book is an example of Pratchett at his Discworld series best; it feels like something of a culmination. It's helpful to have read most of the Death story line before reading this one, but not strictly necessary.

The Truth - Terry Pratchett (2000)
"Truth was what he told. Honesty was sometimes not the same thing."

This is something of a stand-alone book in the Discworld series, so it really could be read at any time - although I don't suggest making this the first Pratchett book you read, in part because there are a lot of peripheral characters from other books that appear. I particularly liked the journalism-focused plot line and all the varied characters here.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - Margareta Magnusson (2018)
"I have death cleaned so many times for others, I'll be damned if someone else has to death clean for me."

I've had this on my to-read list ever since reading an article about it a few years back. To be honest, there's not a whole lot more to gain from this book than what's already in related articles. It works as almost a supplemental to other similar books - it fits along nicely with Marie Kondo's works, for instance.

Overall, this little book is a to-the-point a reality check that's really geared more towards older people in the empty-nester category. But I think it has good advice for everyone to keep in the back of their minds; when you're gone, who will be left dealing with all of your "stuff"? And is everything you own really necessary for your life and serving a purpose for you now?

Related Reads:
The Little Book of Hygge (Wiking)
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Kondo)

Victoria - Daisy Goodwin (2016)
"Victoria pulled her shoulders back and stuck her chin in the air, trying to lift herself from four foot eleven inches to a full five feet - if only she had a few more inches. It was uncommonly hard to be regal when everyone could see the top of your head."

I thought this book might be about Queen Victoria's entire life, but it's focused almost entirely on the first couple of years of her reign. In particular, the author details key incidents during those few years, as well as Victoria's various relationships with the people she was closest to, including her mother, her first prime minister Lord Melbourne, and, finally, her husband-to-be Albert.

Written in a very readable, almost historical-fiction type tone, Victoria a fairly easy read, albeit a little repetitive. It manages to feel both light and informative as the reader gains insight into the queen's formative years.

Related Reads:
The Heir Apparent (Ridley)
The Romanov Sisters (Rappaport)

Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury (1946)
"The sidewalks were haunted by dust ghosts all night as the furnace wind summoned them up, swung them about, and gentled them down in a warm spice on the lawns. Trees, shaken by the footsteps of late-night strollers, sifted avalanches of dust. From midnight on, it seemed a volcano beyond the town was showering red-hot ashes everywhere, crusting slumberless night watchmen and irritable dogs."

Why haven't I picked up this book until now? Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury's semi-autobiographical work is centered on a boyhood summer in the late 1920's. It's awash with beautiful prose, interwoven with nostalgia, philosophy, and the occasional unexpected tinges of science fiction and horror. All in all, this is a moment of Americana captured and bottled - dark and bright, full of endings and beginnings.

It's worth noting that the bulk of the sections/episodes read like short stories; I'd read a few of the pieces before in various short-story collections.

Related Reads:
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)
Gilead (Robinson)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making - Catherynne M. Valente (2012)
"Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. This is why we must close them up into thick, solid books, so they cannot get out and cause trouble."

This YA fairy tale-adventure was fine overall - I find that I don't have anything that I particularly loved or hated about it. The fairyland world was creative and chock-full of unique characters, things, and wordplay, but I also had a bit of an overall sense that it was trying too hard, and it felt somewhat unfinished, even taking into account that this is the first book in a series. I also felt there was a (possibly intentional) uncomfortable sexual undertone to (adult male) Green Wind's treatment of the 12-year-old female protagonist, which bothered me enough to take me out of the story a bit.

Related Reads:
Alice in Wonderland (Carroll)
The Wizard of Oz (Baum)

2018 Overview and Favorites

(List of all the books I read in 2018 is here; my 2018 overview page on Goodreads is here)

In 2018, I made a sort of anti-goal for number of books read: I wanted to read less than 100 books in a bid to force myself to choose slower, more difficult reads rather than pick books that I could gobble up quickly to make a certain quota. I met this goal and ended the year with 92 books.*

It's always hard to pick out the favorites from the past year; I usually read a good mix of books in terms of genre. That said, here are the books that stood out to me (along with a one-sentence overview) given in no particular order. Links are to the original blog post the book appeared in.

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

A uniquely quiet, exploratory, and deep fantasy-tinged Sci-Fi novel.

The Art of Asking - Amanda Palmer

Amanda's writing style is very relatable, even though her experiences and way of viewing the world are very different than mine.

Stories of Your Life and Others [Short Stories] - Ted Chiang

I read a lot of short story collections this year (twelve, to be precise), but this worthy mix of Sci-Fi was my favorite.

Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

These two Discworld novels (both starting points in different story lines) each are characteristic in their blend of humor and serious subjects (most notably, death).

In the Heart of the Sea - Nathaniel Philbrick
The Butchering Art - Lindsey Fitzharris

These two historical books are each fascinating in their treatment of the subjects (respectively, the sinking of a 19th-century whaleship and a history of the "father of modern surgery"), well-researched, and just a little gruesome.

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

This novel offers an almost-perfect balance of realism and fantasy.

Kindred - Olivia Butler

This book - the first I've read of Butler's - is directly gripping and quietly devastating.

Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A collection of personal musings on adventure that's poignant, philosophical, and piercingly poetic.


Bonus Runners-up (books that don't have quite as widespread appeal, but that I appreciated and stood out in some way nonetheless):

A Very Fine House - Barbara Cofer Stoefen
This personal family story ends perhaps a little too neatly, and I found myself annoyed with the author (the somewhat naive and controlling mother of a meth-addicted daughter) at times. But I appreciated this book since there aren't a lot like it out there. And Stoefen smooths out enough things (cursing and situations) in the story to make it palatable enough for most readers.

A Clergyman's Daughter - George Orwell
Kind of depressing, but hauntingly relevant, sparse, and sharply realistic of the time.

My Lady's Choosing - Kitty Curran & Larissa Zageris
This hilarious and spoofy Regency-era choose-your-own adventure was a lot of fun to read together with my husband. Is it top-notch writing and of great literary quality? No. But is it something I got a lot of enjoyment out of? Hell yeah.

Treason - Orson Scott Card
This echos-of-Dune, fantasy-tinged early novel of Card's is weird and imperfect, but still readable and interesting enough that I find myself including it in this post.

And lastly, I'd feel remiss in not giving at least an honorable mention to these two well-researched, fact-packed, history-heavy, and yet very accessible overviews:
A History of Food in 100 Recipes - William Sitwell
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer

(*91 according to Goodreads, but I'm counting the Pat and Pat of Silver Bush combo that I got on Kindle as two separate books rather than one volume.)

December 2018 Reads

Well, it's time for the final post for 2018! I rounded out the year with more fiction choices - some of which I waited for months to get from the library - as well as a couple of history/biography choices and a self-help option.

Less - Andrew Sean Greer (2017)
From: Local Library (hold list)
"... as an areligious WASP, he had no idea what to do about death. Two thousand years of flaming Viking boats and Celtic rites and Irish wakes and Puritan worship and Unitarian hymns, and he was still left with nothing."

This novel was an unexpected a jumble of juxtapositions for me. It's funny and poignant; it's wry and rambling; it's light and deep. Following the stumbling-but-earnest travels of an anxiously-aging writer isn't the type of journey I usually find myself taking, but despite its uniqueness (to me, at any rate), this book seems, if anything, universally accessible.

Uncommon Type [Short Stories] - Tom Hanks (2017)
From: Little Free Library
"In New York City, real estate parlors took your money and lied to you, drug addicts relieved themselves in plain sight, and the Public Library was closed on Mondays."

I have to say that nothing really wowed me in this short story collection. The stories are generally along a similar tone and vein (although a couple veer into the Sci-Fi direction and a few take a historical track, which is a plus for me). I don't think that Hanks is a bad writer. It's just that as a whole, this collection seemed fairly bland and a bit unfinished. It wasn't really for me.

Related Reads:
Stone Mattress (Atwood)
The Overneath (Beagle)

Mirror Mirror - Gregory Maguire (2003)
From: Little Free Library
"What child does not feel itself perched at the center of creation? Before catechisms can instill a proper humility, small children know the truth that their own existence has caused the world to bloom into being."

It's fairly obvious from the title that this is another retelling of the Snow White story. What was unexpected to me was that Maguire goes for a fantasy-infused but reality-based retelling that's tinged with historical fiction; the story integrates actual characters (namely, members of the Borgia family) from 16th-century Italy. It's an interesting take, overall, despite some potential loose ends, and I generally preferred it over the more widely-known Wicked.

Related Reads:
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Maguire)
The Sleeper and the Spindle and Smoke & Mirrors ["Snow, Glass, Apples"] (Gaiman)

Children of Hoarders - Fugen Neziroglu & Katharine Donnelly (2013)
From: Amazon
"The goal of engaging in a dialogue with a parent who hoards is not necessarily to bring about change, but rather to begin the process of healing from the emotional impact that your parent's behavior has had on you."

Quick note: The subject of this book isn't directly applicable to me, but I read this together with my husband, who is a child of a hoarder.

To be brief, I'd categorize this book as "somewhat helpful." The chapters are set up with clear subjects designed to be immediately useful (ranging from "Managing Your Reactions and Coping With Your Emotions" to "Inheriting the Mess"), there are examples and tips given for various situations, and there are lots of at-home mindfulness-type exercises included for the reader to work on. The authors put forth a good bit of starting point and surface-level information in each chapter without delving too deeply into any one thing. But honestly, that's fitting with the point of this book, which is to help the reader move forward and processes things rather than try to completely understand and "fix" things that are, frankly, often unfathomable and unfixable.

With clear statements, the authors guide the reader to actually sit down, face the past and present, and think things through directly. Thus, this book is geared more for someone who is just starting out on their journey of confronting the situation and their feelings rather than for someone who's been making progress with processing things for years. I'll also note that the authors generally maintain a sympathetic view towards all parties involved, which may be a difficult pill for some to swallow.

All in all, I'd recommend this as a starting point for children of hoarders who are just beginning the process of trying to face or deal with things, with the understanding that the mindfulness and CBT-based tactics that are emphasized may not be for everyone (and is no substitute for actual therapy, if needed).

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

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages - Phyllis Rose (1983)
From: Borrowed from a friend
"None behave with a greater appearance of guilt than people who are convinced of their own virtue."

This was an interesting mix of stories about various authors (including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and John Stuart Mill) and their spouses, focused mostly on their unhappy marriages. It explores the concepts and laws surrounding divorce during the 18th-century. I felt the author inserted a lot of personal opinion into the stories, but I didn't necessarily mind this; it's just helpful to know that this book sometimes reads more like an opinionated essay rather than a research-heavy book that's strictly based on fact.

Related Reads:
Half a Century (Swisshelm)

Wind, Sand, and Stars - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1939)
From: Christmas present
"Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than itself."

The Little Prince is a childhood favorite of mine, so it was almost a given that I'd enjoy the author's autobiographical book. The writing (translated from French) is poetic, repetitious, haunting, beautiful - and very human. De Saint-Exupery details some of his experiences flying small airplanes on mail routes in South America and Africa, his visions experienced when isolated (and sometimes stranded in) the deserts, and his observance of the Spanish Civil War as a journalist.

There's a fair amount of personal musings and philosophy interwoven throughout the book. I don't agree with all of his conclusions and thought processes; there are a few outdated and racist attitudes that crop up. But all in all, this is a lovely, gripping, and worthwhile read.

Related Reads:
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (T. E. Lawrence)
Going Solo (Dahl)
Homage to Catalonia (Orwell)
My Family and Other Animals (Durrell)

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee (2017)
From: Local Library (after many months on the hold list)
"-There could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game?
... Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not."

Despite being nearly 500 pages long, this novel is immensely readable - I finished it in the space of two days. It's focused on one family over a time period of a century (1880s-1980s), tracing them from humble roots in Korea to eventual migration to Japan and detailing the often racism-based difficulties they experience there. The reader gets an enlightening and rare window into the culture and history, and the story manages to stay interesting without getting too heavy.

My big caveat is that I found that I never really connected well with the characters. The story centers on the one family, but tends to make large jumps forward (sometimes rather abruptly) in time and change focus to different family members, so it's hard to form attachments to specific characters.

Somewhat of a spoiler/content note: there are several suicides that occur throughout the book.

Related Reads:
The Valley of Amazement (Tan)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Golden)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez)

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)