Reading Envy

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Reading Envy 089: Hodgepodge

Jenny had to postpone some guests so this is a solo episode. One round of book speed-dating, bookish beach adventures, and 5-star reads that haven't made it into the podcast yet.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 089: Hodgepodge.

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The first Reading Envy Readalong is trucking along! If you have been reading along and want to participate in the online chat (which will become podcast episode 090), please provide your availability in this updated poll.

Book Speed Dating Round 5/26/17

The Loved Ones by Sonya Chung
After James by Mark Helms
A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska; translated by Christina E. Kramer
Shot Blue by Jesse Ruddock
Dance of the Jakaranda by Peter Kimani
A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays by Samantha Irby
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier by Thad Carhart
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald
Fish Have No Feet by Jon Kalman Stefansson; translated by Philip Roughton
It's You by Jane Porter
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors; translated by Misha Hoekstra

Beachy Bookish Explorations:

Nye Beach Book House
727 NW Third Street
Newport, OR 97365

Squinting Books
1547 N Coast Hwy
Newport, OR 97365

Five-Star Reads not featured on the podcast (books I read in 2017, not necessarily published in 2017):

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
El Deafo by Cece Bell
In Praise of Defeat: Poems of Abdellatif Laabi
Rowing Inland by Jim Daniels
Satan Says by Sharon Olds
even this page is white by Vivek Shraya
A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Related episodes:
Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney

Stalk me online:

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

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Books 131-151 of 2017

Pictured: Books rated 5 stars in May

131. The Fall Guy by James Lasdun ** (BOTM personal copy; my review)
132. Vertigo by Joanna Walsh **** (Dorothy Publishing personal copy; my review)
133. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers ***** (personal copy; my review)
134. El Deafo by Cece Bell ***** (postal book swap; my review)
135. The Protestor has been Released by Janet Sarbanes **** (personal copy; my review)
136. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman *** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
137. Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times edited by Carolina de Robertis **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
138. Bitch Planet vol. 2: President Bitch by Kelly Sue DeConnick **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
139. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll ***** (library book; my review)
140. Creature by Amina Cain *** (Dorothy Publishing personal copy; my review)
141. The Performance of Becoming Human by Daniel Borzutkzy ***** (library book; my review)
142. Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield **** (personal copy; my review)
143. Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories by Mariana Enriquez **** (audiobook from Hoopla; my review)
144. Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse by Chris Roberson **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
145. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid *** (BOTM personal copy; my review)
146. Things to do when You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories by Chavisa Woods ***** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
147. Notes on a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
148. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
149. Sourdough by Robin Sloan **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
150. Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy *** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
151. Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian's Love Letters and Break-Up Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence ***** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)

Friday, June 16, 2017

Review: Home is Burning

Home is Burning by Dan Marshall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm the kind of person who grasps for books to speak to what I'm going through, and memoir can be really good for that. This came across in one of the emails I get of daily book deals, and I jumped at the chance, because that very day I was planning the books I'd take along when I flew home to be with my family after my father entered hospice care. You might think I'm morbid, but despite the problematic elements of this narrative, I found it somewhat comforting to read the author's account of similar atrocities - becoming the caretaker for a parent even if you aren't 100% responsible, facing the fact that many of the people in your life will withdraw while you are going through it because it is too much for them to handle, trying to have humor in the face of death because, well, can it hurt? I mean maybe it can but will it make you feel better?

Dan Marshall and I don't have the same experience exactly. His mom has battled cancer almost his entire life, and suffered a relapse around the time his father was diagnosed with ALS, a disease that claimed his father's life rather quickly, and required Dan to move back home to help with the care for a year. My parents suffered cancer back to back - my Mom fought off three kinds simultaneously (and successfully, for now, knock on wood) 2014-15, and my Dad was diagnosed with a form of cancer that was always going to be terminal at the start of 2016. What joins us together is the reality of the emotional and physical trauma of dealing with serious illness for such long periods. Yes it effects the people with the disease, but the burden is carried by all the members of the family in different ways.

The tone of the writing won't be for everyone. I'm not sure it's even for me, but there were particular circumstances at play. Here's an example:

"I could just get wrist-deep in this dying-parents shit. Feel everything. Do everything. Roll around in the mud. Really experience the horrible reality of death firsthand. That would make me a wiser and better person, right? That would help me grow up, right? That would give me life experience that would put everything else in perspective, right?"

I'm not sure if you can tell from this passage but unfortunately the author is not overly likeable or mature. But something happens when someone is dying - it absorbs 150% of your energy and attention, while you're in the same room but also when you're away. At the same time there is no escape - the only way out is through. Several readers are critical of how the other children in the family are neglected, and it is troublesome, but one could argue that with a mother perpetually ill, they were already overlooked, something only magnified when the father is also out of the picture. The mother floats through the memoir in a painkiller and yogurt fog.

I put this book on hold for a few days, and in that time my father passed away. I returned a few days after that to read the end, and it's a bizarre ending where suddenly he tries to be poetic and describes a dreamlike death sequence. For a person who was willing to be upfront with the dying part, he seems less comfortable with the actual death. Like his brain could only speak of it in metaphor. Bizarre (and ineffectual.)

So the author is unlikeable. He's a rich white asshole, self-declared. None of these things give you privilege over death, nor do they prepare you any better for it. And no matter that death happens all the time, it always feels like your own unique and lonely experience. I think he captures this between the lines, in his painful jokes that aren't funny, in his desperate constant use of profanity. I think the fact this is present at all may be my own imposition and empathy, and a complete accident otherwise.

Ah hell this is really a 2-star read. But I'm giving it an extra for being there when I needed someone who got it. I'm not sure I recommend it. Your mileage may vary.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Reading Envy 088: Author Head Space

Sara and Jenny have been reading friends in Goodreads and Litsy for a while now. So which books will we end up talking about when we get together at the pub? We talk about books we've read and loved lately, how to tackle short stories, and more.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 088: Author Head Space.

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

If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ

The first Reading Envy Readalong is trucking along!

Books featured: