Review: The Deep

The Deep by Rivers Solomon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Deep by Rivers Solomon is in conversation with a song by William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes and performed by Daveed Diggs, based on the underwater mythology of the 90s Detroit electro band Drexciya. (You can hear the song on Episode 623 of This American Life.)

Mercreatures descended from enslaved women murdered and thrown overboard when they were pregnant live in communities on the ocean floor, with the ability to connect telepathically. Yetu is the historian and bears the weight of the collective memory, and the story starts in the days up to the annual Remembering. There is some interaction with the "two-legs" but their interference in their ways of being are causing Yetu's community to rise up.

I had a copy from Saga through NetGalley and this comes out November 5, 2019.
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Reading Envy 169: Simulacrum with Jon Sealy

Jenny sits down in the Reading Envy Pub with author and publisher Jon Sealy. After we talk about the state of publishing and Jon's current projects, we also discuss books we've read and liked recently. Some books are just better in audio, some are necessarily dark, while others clear away the gloom.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 169: Simulacrum with Jon Sealy

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Books discussed:



The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden
Faithful Place by Tana French
The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein
The Restaurant of Love Regained by Ito Ogawa, translated by David Karashima


Other mentions:

Jenny's trip to the South Carolina Book Festival in 2014 (where she saw Jon Sealy talk about his book right before a panel of Pat Conroy's siblings)
The Whiskey Baron by Jon Sealy
Hub City Press
Eureka Mill by Ron Rash
Like a Family by Jacquelyne Dowd Hall et al
Fate Moreland's Widow by John Lane
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
The Edge of America by Jon Sealy
Haywire Books
Hummingbird House by Patricia Henley
Firebird by Mark Powell
Small Treasons by Mark Powell
The Good Luck Stone by Heather Bell Adams
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Orfeo by Richard Powers
In the Woods by Tana French
The Witch Elm by Tana French
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Neopolitan Novels #1)
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Tiny Love: The Complete Stories of Larry Brown by Larry Brown (forthcoming)
All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates


Related Episodes:

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness 
Episode 024 - The Attention of Humanity with guests Seth Wilson and Barret Newman 
Episode 130 - All the Jennifers with Fern Ronay
Episode 167 - Book Pendulum with Reggie


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Jon on Twitter
Jon on Facebook
Jon's website with tour info
Haywire Books website
Haywire Books on Facebook

Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links, where I do get a minor kickback when people click on them. But many of the links on today's post link to the small presses publishing the books, and although I receive no kickback on those links, I would love for you to support those publishers and writers.

Review: Women on Food: Charlotte Druckman and 115 Writers, Chefs, Critics, Television Stars, and Eaters

Women on Food: Charlotte Druckman and 115 Writers, Chefs, Critics, Television Stars, and Eaters by Charlotte Druckman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlotte Druckman gathers a wide swath of women who have food-related careers. There are essays published previously other places, interviews with specific characters, and group answers to some of her questions.

There is most definitely a certain amount of tension in these pages - female chefs are always asked about the female part of being chefs. So even in this attempt to bring more attention to them, they are forced into this position of answering the questions they always answer. And the answers are both important/expected and unimportant/mundane.

At one point, Charlotte asks them about how being female has impacted their career and almost to a face, all chefs of color are quick to respond that they are seen as their race first. (I sense Charlotte may have learned something about her own assumptions, based on her reflective essay on complicity, including her own, that is included later in the collection.)

This took me a long time to read and it is probably best as a coffee table book, one you pick up and read bits from, rather than trying to read it cover to cover. But I've added many restaurants to visit, cookbooks to try, publications to read, from the names in these pages.

I had a review copy so I can't quote directly but one of my favorite moments was when Charlotte asked which genres of food writing that are (erroneously) consistently assigned to men, and Jordana Rothman responds that she hopes to never read another article about a "bro discovering noodles." Hahahaha.

One essay I really enjoyed was "The Months of Magical Eating" by Tienlon Ho, about the medicinal nature of Chinese cuisine, a relationship between the writer and her father, and her pregnancy.

Another one was "Trapped In, Dining Out" by Osayi Endolyn, depicting what it is like to eat alone at a restaurant as a woman of color. (Spoiler alert - it is super frustrating and full of intrusive white people.)

I'm not a member of the Abrams Dinner Party this year, but I know those that are got this book this season! I got a review copy from the publisher through Edelweiss this time. There were a few pages that didn't display well in my eARC but I'm assuming it looks gorgeous in print. This comes out October 29, 2019, but I finished it early so I could include it in an upcoming foodie recommendations episode of the Reading Envy Podcast.

View all my reviews

Review: I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read because I've read Kai Cheng Thom's work and was blown away by her in previous years. This essay collection pulls back the curtain to the trauma that accompanies fame whether that comes from the work or being a SJW on the internet (self-declared, since I think of this as a negative term), questions the assumed safety inherit in queer communities, and proposes a few approaches of restorative justice moving forward.

Out from Arsenal Pulp October 8, I had a copy through Edelweiss.

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Review: Red at the Bone

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A brief novel that starts with a 16 year old putting on a dress that should have been worn by her mother, but wasn't, and the story unfolds from there. This is an author I've always meant to try! I liked how complex her characters are and how their relationships shift in subtle ways. Do you have a favorite Woodson?

The book came out September 17, 2019 and I did have an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley

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Review: Meet Me in the Future: Stories

Meet Me in the Future: Stories by Kameron Hurley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kameron Hurley has this incredible ability to occupy the spaces known to the science fiction canon but somehow occupy them subversively. Just like the novels I've read by her, the stories are violent and gritty, and not always hopeful.

Some favorites:

*Elephants and Corpses* could live in the universe of Altered Carbon but with a twist.

*The Plague Givers* deals with a fallout of a relationship that might have the power to destroy the world.

*Tumbledown* features a paraplegic warrior on a frozen planet.

This collection came out August 20, 2019, and I had a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

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Review: The Painted Forest

The Painted Forest by Krista Eastman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Krista Eastman revisits the area she grew up in rural Wisconsin and tries to see the land and the Midwestern mindset through the lens of an outside perspective. Her research spans historical farm texts and artwork hidden inside an aging members only type club (Woodmen).

Plus one essay about working in Antarctica.

I like the impulse of seeing a childhood place through other perspectives, and I think it's especially challenging when that place is rural and not a frequent focus of research or writing.

I think Krista really shines when she writes about people and includes her own experience (which made me like the Antarctica essay best.)

I had a review copy from the publisher because I made a comment in Twitter.

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Reading Envy 168: TBR Explode 3

Jenny uses part of her Fall Break to record a bonus episode that has some end of the year stuff but is almost all the third part of her 2019 TBR Explode Project. Jenny mocks herself for thinking she'd ever want to read philosophy, and tries to use less harsh language to talk about an author she doesn't care for.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 168: TBR Explode 3.

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Link to Best of 2019 contribution form


Books Discussed:

July

The Jung Cult by Richard Noll
Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex by Julius Evola
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
American Genius: A Comedy by Lynne Tillman
The Master by Colm Toibin
The Infinities by John Banville
Mortals by Norman Rush
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

August

The Statement by Brian Moore
The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder by Patricia Highsmith
Islandia by Austin Tappan WrightThe Accordionist's Son by Bernardo Atxaga
Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner
Divine Music by Suruchi MohanEverything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Egan, Timothy

September

The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh
Family Pictures by Sue Miller
The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine
Flatterland by Ian Stewart
The Wind in the Woods by Rose Senehi
Vurt by Jeff Noon
Night Sky Mine by Melissa Scott
Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun
Come to Me by Amy Bloom (September)
Princess Noire by Nadine Cohodas


Other Mentions

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett 
 

Related Episodes:

Episode 149 - TBR Explode!
Episode 158 - TBR Explode 2

Stalk me online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy  

Review: Girl, Woman, Other

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I snuck one more book in from the Booker Prize shortlist before it is awarded tonight. This book doesn't come out in the United States until December 3, but I was able to get a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss.

Girl, Woman, Other follows a string of women in the UK, and all are women of color with a fair amount of varying sexual orientation. Each section has its own voice and style while the characters interact with each other throughout (so the reader gets different versions/perspectives of some of the characters.) I thought it was very joyful to read and it has become a favorite from the shortlist, when my assumption before starting was that it would be too UK oriented to be relevant. (So give it a try!)

TW for sexual violence, transphobia, various forms of racism, and suicidal ideation.

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Review: The Blue Sky

The Blue Sky by Galsan Tschinag
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fictionalized account of the author's childhood in the transitional period where the Tuvan people started being regulated by Mongolian governments (taxing for wool and forcing children to go to school.) It was interesting to read about the nomadic patterns, community units, sensory communication (using smell in particular!) and living in extreme conditions. There are hints of the author's future as a shaman by the end of the book, and apparently this is the first book of a longer series.

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Reading Envy 167: Book Pendulum with Reggie

Reggie is a reading friend Jenny made in Litsy. Together we discuss coming back to reading, international postal book groups, plant blindness, and Reggie tries to talk Jenny into giving a book a second try.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 167: Book Pendulum with Reggie

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner
Or subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: Subscribe
Or listen through TuneIn
Or listen on Google Play
Listen via Stitcher
Listen through Spotify


Books discussed:



Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hyomi Kawakami, translated by Allison Markin Powell
The Girl who Reads on the Métro by Christine Féret-Fleury
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood


Other mentions:

Clive Barker
Anna Castillo
Julia Alvarez
For Real (Book Riot podcast)
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
The Fireman by Joe Hill
The Stand by Stephen King
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
A Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Haruki Murakami
Natsumi Sashimi
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (tv show)
Stray City by Chelsea Johnson
Chasing Amy (film)
Black Wave by Michelle Tea
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Deep by Nick Cutter
Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont
Frankly in Love by David Yoon
Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams


Related Episodes:

Episode 079 - Deliberately Silenced and Preferably Unheard with Rima Abunasser
Episode 080 - The Wild Things Helped with Jason Roland
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney
Episode 101 - A Different Kind of Time Travel with Karen Acosta
Episode 105 - Best Reads of 2017 
Episode 112 - Reset Button with Eleanor Thoele
Episode 130 - All the Jennifers with Fern Ronay
Episode 161 - Women in Translation Month Recommendations with Lauren


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Reggie is @reggie on Litsy

Review: The Circle of Karma

The Circle of Karma by Kunzang Choden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was off of my Asia 2019 project for too long, but this was a nice book to pick it back up with. The novel tells the story of Tsomo, a Bhutanese woman, from childhood to elderly years. It tackles all the life events - siblings, growing up, rituals, death, marriage, employment, journeys, religious practice, etc. Tsomo finds herself on a journey for blessings from several lamas once she decides her marriage has brought her into a place of bad karma and that is the majority of the book. And just like I like in a book I'm reading to learn about another place, there is a lot about food and ritual and societal structures/differences between the Bhutanese themselves but also between the Bhutanese and the surrounding groups. As far as I can tell, this is written in English, not translated from another language. Even so there are too many commas at times, and not enough other times, and a few other grammatical errors in this printing. I suspect that is the price you pay when you try to read a book from every country.

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Review: Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America

Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America by Nefertiti Austin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This memoir of adoption and motherhood by Neferiti Austin also provides a much needed voice of black women adopting black children. She covers the process, dealing with birth families, dealing with new forms of mansplaining, and funny moments like teaching her son to pee standing up.

I think the idea that unifies her experience with other experiences I've heard from adoptive parents is the importance of the community that emerges, which isn't always the people you had in your life before adopting.

I had a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley and it came out September 24, 2019.

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Books Read September 2019: 206-229

This month I really zeroed in on getting through some of my eARC backlog from Edelweiss and NetGalley, and it really worked with 16 of the books I read coming from that list (and a few more that I started or didn't review publicly.)

It was also a good month for five star reads, with seven! And even stranger, four of them were non-fiction and one was poetry.



206. The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library book; my review)
207. Cantoras by Caroline de Robertis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
208. The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
209. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
210. Clear My Name by Paula Daly ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
211. Permission to Feel by Mark Brackett ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (print ARC; my review)
212. Minutes from the Miracle City by Omar Sabbagh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
213. Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
214. Safe Houses I Have Known by Steve Healey⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
215. The Girl Who Reads on the Metro by Christine Féret-Fleury ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
216. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (purchased audiobook; my review)
217. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
218. Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
219. Make it Scream, Make it Burn by Leslie Jamison ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
220. Come to Me: Stories by Amy Bloom ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (library copy; my review)
221. The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (interlibrary loan; my review)
222. High School by Tegan and Sara ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
223. Devotion by Madeline Stevens ⭐️⭐️½ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
224. Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
225. Modern Love ed. Daniel Jones ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
226. The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
227. Erosion by Terry Tempest Williams ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
228. The Restaurant of Love Imagined by Ito Ogawa ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (interlibrary loan; my review)
229. Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (eARC from NetGalley; my review)

Books Read: 24

Audiobooks: 1
eBooks: 16
Print: 7

Library copy: 6
Personal copy: 1
Review copy: 17

Asia 2019 goal: 1
#scienceseptember: 4
TBR Explode project: 1

Review: Erosion: Essays of Undoing

Erosion: Essays of Undoing by Terry Tempest Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"We are eroding and evolving, all at once."

Terry Tempest Williams tackles the theme of erosion and undoing throughout these essays - examining topics of public lands, family, career, belief. There is an underlying tension between connectedness and grief that I've experienced in her writing before.

I'm posting this a few days after finishing and I just keep thinking about her losing her job at the University of Utah after she and her husband tried protecting some land by forming a trust and bidding on the lease. She herself is an institution, living in Utah, teaching writing, and her own undoing included moving across the country at last part of the year just to make a living.

TW for Trump-led destruction of protected lands, harm to Diné communities, and suicide.

I had a copy from FSG Books through Netgalley and this book comes out October 8, 2019.

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