Juventud by Vanessa Blakeslee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is another book I only discovered after getting "Curbside Splendor" as my result in the Book Riot quiz, Which Indie Press Should You Be Obsessed With?" I had not heard of the publisher, and requested a bunch of interesting looking titles from interlibrary loan.
This book kept me up late into the night just because I couldn't stop reading it. I can't tell you the last time that happened; I am old now and reading usually puts me to sleep. But not this one, I was up until almost midnight because I "only" had 100 pages left.
Mercedes is a privileged teen living in Colombia. She attends private school and has a driver. Her father is a wealthy land owner and her mother is an American who left when she was an infant. She has no contact with her. But the situation in Colombia is violent and unstable, and her father wants to send her to the United States to finish her schooling.
You don't have to know a lot about Colombia in the 1990s to fall into this book. Mercedes has been protected from understanding the political situation, so we as readers learn about it as she finds out more about the FARC, ELN, the drug cartels, and the desplazado, the displaced people within Colombia who have had to flee their homes due to fighting, but are trying to find work and food and shelter.
Then Mercedes meets Manuel, an idealist revolutionary, and falls in love. And so the book is not so much a thinly veiled history lesson but a coming-of-age novel, a romance, a tragedy, etc. While the end section of the novel is Mercedes returning to Colombia as an adult, trying to make sense of some of the events, the majority is Mercedes as a teen and what she goes through. I thought it was very well written and well researched, and while it isn't an "#ownvoices" story from a Colombian author, and sometimes Mercedes is far more reflective than a 15 year old might be, I still think this novel is excellent. I hope the author is working on her next project.
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Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Review: The Sarah Book
The Sarah Book by Scott McClanahan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have read everything Scott McClanahan has published, and enjoyed Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place and Hill William. Most of his writings feel like memoir but are labeled as fiction, and I can only assume this comes from a connection to the long tradition of the accomplished telling of tall tales that perpetuates throughout the West Virginia zone of Appalachia.
The Sarah Book is no different in that sense, although instead of moving throughout a host of characters in a family or in a community, it is very much focused on Scott and Sarah, who are getting divorced. Scott is the narrator and is crass, frustrating, and pretty pitiful, but somehow in the writing it is easy to be on his side anyway. Whether it is Scott the narrator or Scott the actual person/author, he is able to speak so honestly, it manages to work. The writing itself feels like the author playing with the reader, or himself (haha, pretty sure he would approve of that.) For instance, within the story of how he met Sarah, he deliberately uses a cliche, acknowledged he is using a cliche, mocks himself for using a cliche, but yet it feels like they are the only words he has that can come close to understanding what has just occurred. And as the reader, I give him a pass.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have read everything Scott McClanahan has published, and enjoyed Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place and Hill William. Most of his writings feel like memoir but are labeled as fiction, and I can only assume this comes from a connection to the long tradition of the accomplished telling of tall tales that perpetuates throughout the West Virginia zone of Appalachia.
The Sarah Book is no different in that sense, although instead of moving throughout a host of characters in a family or in a community, it is very much focused on Scott and Sarah, who are getting divorced. Scott is the narrator and is crass, frustrating, and pretty pitiful, but somehow in the writing it is easy to be on his side anyway. Whether it is Scott the narrator or Scott the actual person/author, he is able to speak so honestly, it manages to work. The writing itself feels like the author playing with the reader, or himself (haha, pretty sure he would approve of that.) For instance, within the story of how he met Sarah, he deliberately uses a cliche, acknowledged he is using a cliche, mocks himself for using a cliche, but yet it feels like they are the only words he has that can come close to understanding what has just occurred. And as the reader, I give him a pass.
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Review: The Devil Crept In
The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I won this book through a Goodreads Giveaway but have only promised an honest review.
Although this is not my usual fare, I do try to read horror from time to time to keep an eye on the genre and get a bit of a thrill, especially in October. I did not know this author, but once the book arrived, I started seeing reviews of an earlier title, The Shuddering.
One thing that appealed to me in the description is the location -Deer Creek is an imaginary rural community in the woods of Oregon. Some of the action happens 30 miles from McMinnville, Oregon, and some of it specifically takes place north of there. I grew up roughly 27 miles northeast of McMinnville, in the woods, so suffice to say this is MY territory and it is easy for me to picture places where evil could linger unprotested in the forest.
While some horror is atmospheric, implied, and the events occur off-stage, Ahlborn writes blood and guts, visceral events, and true evil. So, well, consider yourself warned. There are two stories in the book that alternate, in two different fonts. In one, Stevie's friend and cousin Jude disappears, and Stevie starts encountering potential evil in trying to find him. But because he has a speech impediment (one that may be more indicative of mental distress than anything else) and previous injuries, nobody listens to him. In the other story, Rosie, a woman married to a German, suffers a few tragedies back to back and finds herself in an impossible situation. I don't want to say much more than that because the shiver potential of this book goes up the less you know.
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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I won this book through a Goodreads Giveaway but have only promised an honest review.
Although this is not my usual fare, I do try to read horror from time to time to keep an eye on the genre and get a bit of a thrill, especially in October. I did not know this author, but once the book arrived, I started seeing reviews of an earlier title, The Shuddering.
One thing that appealed to me in the description is the location -Deer Creek is an imaginary rural community in the woods of Oregon. Some of the action happens 30 miles from McMinnville, Oregon, and some of it specifically takes place north of there. I grew up roughly 27 miles northeast of McMinnville, in the woods, so suffice to say this is MY territory and it is easy for me to picture places where evil could linger unprotested in the forest.
While some horror is atmospheric, implied, and the events occur off-stage, Ahlborn writes blood and guts, visceral events, and true evil. So, well, consider yourself warned. There are two stories in the book that alternate, in two different fonts. In one, Stevie's friend and cousin Jude disappears, and Stevie starts encountering potential evil in trying to find him. But because he has a speech impediment (one that may be more indicative of mental distress than anything else) and previous injuries, nobody listens to him. In the other story, Rosie, a woman married to a German, suffers a few tragedies back to back and finds herself in an impossible situation. I don't want to say much more than that because the shiver potential of this book goes up the less you know.
View all my reviews
Review: Here Comes the Sun
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Lauren W. came on the Reading Envy Podcast as a guest for Episode 097, she brought this book to talk about. It wasn't long before I had to try it, and I'm so glad I did.
How did this book pass me by? It is a novel about three women, all related, trying to make their way in a small community in Jamaica. Delores is the mother and matriarch, working hard to make what money she can, completely dependent on the waves of tourists coming through. Margot, her older daughter, appears to work in the service industry for one of the top hotels, but as the story unveils the truth, you learn that she has been selling herself for money, and has been doing so within the context of her employment. She is saving her money for her younger sister, so Thandi can go to school, become a doctor, and escape this very hard life. But Thandi is more focused on a skin-lightening regimen and working on her art. Because she goes to private Catholic school with students who are above her neighborhood's income level, she walks a confusing line between poverty and privilege.
There are other things going on. The sex worker industry seems to be part of the hidden world of the most successful hotels and resorts, and Margot may not be able to work her way out of that the way she thinks. Not only that, a new resort is poised to move in on the land where her entire community lives, and she may play a role in displacing them. Margot is also in love, and with a woman who has already been shunned by the community, since being gay in Jamaica is still very much against the law and a punishable offense. Her neighbors call her a witch and children are afraid of her. The character of Delores ends up having more secrets than anyone, and I was so impressed by how that story was told, and also how she is pretty much unapologetic for what she has done. What choices do the women in this story have?
It is a very well written story, and asks the reader to confront their own role in these issues. I have visited some of these places mentioned in the book, and feel like I have met a Delores and not bought any of her goods. It raises the need for conscious travel, understanding whether your hotel pays local workers ethically, and whether they turn a blind eye to (or profit from) the trafficking of women and sex.
I listened to the audio based on Lauren's recommendation and was quite pleased at the nuance and performance of the narrator, Bahni Turpin. I will be looking for more of her performances for sure.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Lauren W. came on the Reading Envy Podcast as a guest for Episode 097, she brought this book to talk about. It wasn't long before I had to try it, and I'm so glad I did.
How did this book pass me by? It is a novel about three women, all related, trying to make their way in a small community in Jamaica. Delores is the mother and matriarch, working hard to make what money she can, completely dependent on the waves of tourists coming through. Margot, her older daughter, appears to work in the service industry for one of the top hotels, but as the story unveils the truth, you learn that she has been selling herself for money, and has been doing so within the context of her employment. She is saving her money for her younger sister, so Thandi can go to school, become a doctor, and escape this very hard life. But Thandi is more focused on a skin-lightening regimen and working on her art. Because she goes to private Catholic school with students who are above her neighborhood's income level, she walks a confusing line between poverty and privilege.
There are other things going on. The sex worker industry seems to be part of the hidden world of the most successful hotels and resorts, and Margot may not be able to work her way out of that the way she thinks. Not only that, a new resort is poised to move in on the land where her entire community lives, and she may play a role in displacing them. Margot is also in love, and with a woman who has already been shunned by the community, since being gay in Jamaica is still very much against the law and a punishable offense. Her neighbors call her a witch and children are afraid of her. The character of Delores ends up having more secrets than anyone, and I was so impressed by how that story was told, and also how she is pretty much unapologetic for what she has done. What choices do the women in this story have?
It is a very well written story, and asks the reader to confront their own role in these issues. I have visited some of these places mentioned in the book, and feel like I have met a Delores and not bought any of her goods. It raises the need for conscious travel, understanding whether your hotel pays local workers ethically, and whether they turn a blind eye to (or profit from) the trafficking of women and sex.
I listened to the audio based on Lauren's recommendation and was quite pleased at the nuance and performance of the narrator, Bahni Turpin. I will be looking for more of her performances for sure.
View all my reviews
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened
Jenny sits down to talk to Dr. Bryan Bibb, an associate professor of religion at the university where she works. We talk about horror and religion, mythology and ... baseball? Well. Jenny likes to have guests who read in genres not frequently featured on Reading Envy.
Warning: this episode is a bit longer than the average episode, and there may be triggers for sexual abuse and spiders.
Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened
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
I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ
Books featured:
It by Stephen King
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Judges (the book of, from The Bible)
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Other mentions:
After Class Podcast
American Gods (tv series)
Insomnia by Stephen King
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King
On Writing by Stephen King
Stranger Things (tv series)
Ready Player One by Ernst Cline
Master of None (tv series)
Roots by Alex Haley
Charles Leerhsen
Dead Ball Era
Detroit Tigers
Cobb (film)
Cobb by Al Stump
Ken Burns' Baseball (documentary series)
Field of Dreams (film)
Texts of Terror by Phyllis Trible
A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Baez
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity by Eva Mroczek
The Nomadic Text by Brennan Breed
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Armada by Ernst Cline
Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden
Museum of the Bible
Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser
Stalk us online:
Bryan at the After Class Podcast
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Warning: this episode is a bit longer than the average episode, and there may be triggers for sexual abuse and spiders.
Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 098: Just a Bunch of Stuff that Happened
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
I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ
Books featured:
It by Stephen King
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Judges (the book of, from The Bible)
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Other mentions:
After Class Podcast
American Gods (tv series)
Insomnia by Stephen King
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King
On Writing by Stephen King
Stranger Things (tv series)
Ready Player One by Ernst Cline
Master of None (tv series)
Roots by Alex Haley
Charles Leerhsen
Dead Ball Era
Detroit Tigers
Cobb (film)
Cobb by Al Stump
Ken Burns' Baseball (documentary series)
Field of Dreams (film)
Texts of Terror by Phyllis Trible
A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Baez
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity by Eva Mroczek
The Nomadic Text by Brennan Breed
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Armada by Ernst Cline
Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby by Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden
Museum of the Bible
Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser
Stalk us online:
Bryan at the After Class Podcast
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Review: Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions
Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love this series for the strong female characters, particular Constance the lady cop (technically in this book she is the deputy sheriff) who is big and strong and smart and doesn't fit nicely into a phone booth or a trolley bench. You can enjoy the story by itself, but I think it is most remarkable knowing how much of this is based on historical fact. Amy Stewart has done her research, from the characters to the scenarios to the legal situation. Young women are thrown in jail because their moral characters are in question, when it is more that they have decided to leave their parents' home and are daring to work and live alone. But they don't have many rights or access to counsel. Constance Kopp has been assigned to work directly with the women in jail, and is able to help them and advocate for them. Then her youngest sister leaves without permission to pursue her career on the stage, and her sisters are confronted with their beliefs.
I received a review copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It lingered on my Kindle for a while and came out in the meantime, in early September 2017.
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love this series for the strong female characters, particular Constance the lady cop (technically in this book she is the deputy sheriff) who is big and strong and smart and doesn't fit nicely into a phone booth or a trolley bench. You can enjoy the story by itself, but I think it is most remarkable knowing how much of this is based on historical fact. Amy Stewart has done her research, from the characters to the scenarios to the legal situation. Young women are thrown in jail because their moral characters are in question, when it is more that they have decided to leave their parents' home and are daring to work and live alone. But they don't have many rights or access to counsel. Constance Kopp has been assigned to work directly with the women in jail, and is able to help them and advocate for them. Then her youngest sister leaves without permission to pursue her career on the stage, and her sisters are confronted with their beliefs.
I received a review copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It lingered on my Kindle for a while and came out in the meantime, in early September 2017.
View all my reviews
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Review: Hadriana in All My Dreams
Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A new translation from Akashic Books left the translator with the challenge of finding more words for body parts! I enjoyed this completely bizarre novel set in Haiti with a corpse grandmother, sex-addict butterflies, and the central zombie bride. Voodoo and island traditions saturate the novel and the author communicates the story in three different styles. At first I was completely lost and had no idea what was going on, but just went with it and let it swirl around me.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy through Edelweiss.
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A new translation from Akashic Books left the translator with the challenge of finding more words for body parts! I enjoyed this completely bizarre novel set in Haiti with a corpse grandmother, sex-addict butterflies, and the central zombie bride. Voodoo and island traditions saturate the novel and the author communicates the story in three different styles. At first I was completely lost and had no idea what was going on, but just went with it and let it swirl around me.
Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy through Edelweiss.
View all my reviews
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Review: Everything Here is Beautiful
Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At first, I thought this was going to be an immigrant novel, and it kind of is, but that's more of a background element. Lucy/Lucia moves with her single Chinese pregnant mother to the United States as a young girl. But the story quickly jumps to her adolescence and her first mental disorders surfacing and requiring hospitalization. Her sister tries to help, and the sister relationship is a thread throughout the novel. What if your sister was the only person who knew your medical secrets but lives far away with her own life?
I feel like the author did an interesting thing here. The point of view changes so sometimes the pov is from Lucia, sometimes when she is lucid, but also when she isn't. And the moments that really stuck out to me were those where I was seeing the world from her perspective and her decisions seemed valid, and then it switches to an outsider and you realize that she is acting paranoid, delusional, potentially harmful to her child. It was quite the reminder that for a person suffering from mental illness, it's not that easy for them to see what others see, or to fully understand they need help or medication. I thought it was very effective.
Lucy's second husband is Manny, an undocumented Ecuadorian, and along the way I realized that there are no white people in this novel, pretty awesome. Lucy had spent time in Latin America and at one point they move back there with their child, and I thought that was an unfairly challenging environment for her mental health but adds another interesting twist to the story.
Thanks to the publisher for approving my request in NetGalley. This book comes out January 16th, 2018.
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At first, I thought this was going to be an immigrant novel, and it kind of is, but that's more of a background element. Lucy/Lucia moves with her single Chinese pregnant mother to the United States as a young girl. But the story quickly jumps to her adolescence and her first mental disorders surfacing and requiring hospitalization. Her sister tries to help, and the sister relationship is a thread throughout the novel. What if your sister was the only person who knew your medical secrets but lives far away with her own life?
I feel like the author did an interesting thing here. The point of view changes so sometimes the pov is from Lucia, sometimes when she is lucid, but also when she isn't. And the moments that really stuck out to me were those where I was seeing the world from her perspective and her decisions seemed valid, and then it switches to an outsider and you realize that she is acting paranoid, delusional, potentially harmful to her child. It was quite the reminder that for a person suffering from mental illness, it's not that easy for them to see what others see, or to fully understand they need help or medication. I thought it was very effective.
Lucy's second husband is Manny, an undocumented Ecuadorian, and along the way I realized that there are no white people in this novel, pretty awesome. Lucy had spent time in Latin America and at one point they move back there with their child, and I thought that was an unfairly challenging environment for her mental health but adds another interesting twist to the story.
Thanks to the publisher for approving my request in NetGalley. This book comes out January 16th, 2018.
View all my reviews
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Review: Lincoln in the Bardo
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Imagine the historical research approach of someone like David McCullough, and pull those details into a novel that takes place almost entirely in a graveyard, ghosts and all (picture The Graveyard Book), and you have this novel. I was lucky to receive a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher, because I think this is the preferred format for the novel.
Since George Saunders wrote the novel in 108 sections, with distinct voices, they decided to use 166 voices in the recording (Time Magazine did a short profile of the upcoming production, and you can listen to an excerpt on the publisher site.)
Nick Offerman and David Sedaris, along with George Saunders, are three primary voices (although I thought Sedaris was Holly Hunter until after I'd finished, despite having heard him narrate his own books) and a cast of friends, stars, and family fill out the rest. Some voices are heard only one time, reading a letter or fact from what sounds like real sources, and I imagine some are, some aren't. That is a bit confusing in the beginning, until you get into the rhythm of the novel. It's enough to know that you don't need to remember the voices in conjunction with their names, so they can pass through your mind.
Some of the time the multiple voices seem to just be providing context, but often they are playing with the narrative of context, some remembering a full moon, others remembering a cloudy night, others remembering a crescent, etc. These tiny excerpts are often followed by the narrator with an abbreviation I had not heard, so here's a hint: "Op. cit." refers to a longer bibliography or a previously mentioned citation. I wish they had left that out of the audio because I had no idea what it was for most of my listening experience. I had looked up opsit, opsid, oppsid, upsid, and every other combination until I found it. It's a minor thing but gets used so frequently with all the tiny bits, that it drove me to distraction!
Overall the novel is pretty fragmented, and I found I did better in comprehending it when listening for long spans of time, like the five hours I spent in the car yesterday. I am not sure what kind of novel I expected Saunders to write for his first published longer work, but I did not expect something quite so simultaneously historical and experimental!
The highlight for me has to be Nick Offerman though. He is an excellent narrator and now I want to go back and listen to more of his productions. More, please!
ETA: Changed my 4 stars to 5 the more I thought about it.
One more ETA: love or hate it, this sucker just won the Man Booker Prize!
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Imagine the historical research approach of someone like David McCullough, and pull those details into a novel that takes place almost entirely in a graveyard, ghosts and all (picture The Graveyard Book), and you have this novel. I was lucky to receive a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher, because I think this is the preferred format for the novel.
Since George Saunders wrote the novel in 108 sections, with distinct voices, they decided to use 166 voices in the recording (Time Magazine did a short profile of the upcoming production, and you can listen to an excerpt on the publisher site.)
Nick Offerman and David Sedaris, along with George Saunders, are three primary voices (although I thought Sedaris was Holly Hunter until after I'd finished, despite having heard him narrate his own books) and a cast of friends, stars, and family fill out the rest. Some voices are heard only one time, reading a letter or fact from what sounds like real sources, and I imagine some are, some aren't. That is a bit confusing in the beginning, until you get into the rhythm of the novel. It's enough to know that you don't need to remember the voices in conjunction with their names, so they can pass through your mind.
Some of the time the multiple voices seem to just be providing context, but often they are playing with the narrative of context, some remembering a full moon, others remembering a cloudy night, others remembering a crescent, etc. These tiny excerpts are often followed by the narrator with an abbreviation I had not heard, so here's a hint: "Op. cit." refers to a longer bibliography or a previously mentioned citation. I wish they had left that out of the audio because I had no idea what it was for most of my listening experience. I had looked up opsit, opsid, oppsid, upsid, and every other combination until I found it. It's a minor thing but gets used so frequently with all the tiny bits, that it drove me to distraction!
Overall the novel is pretty fragmented, and I found I did better in comprehending it when listening for long spans of time, like the five hours I spent in the car yesterday. I am not sure what kind of novel I expected Saunders to write for his first published longer work, but I did not expect something quite so simultaneously historical and experimental!
The highlight for me has to be Nick Offerman though. He is an excellent narrator and now I want to go back and listen to more of his productions. More, please!
ETA: Changed my 4 stars to 5 the more I thought about it.
One more ETA: love or hate it, this sucker just won the Man Booker Prize!
View all my reviews
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Review: Springtime: A Ghost Story
Springtime: A Ghost Story by Michelle de Kretser
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this in October because the subtitle makes it sound like a ghost story. And while the character does encounter a mysterious creature, it isn't a ghost story in the traditional sense. It is an interesting tale that includes sometimes funny/biting social observations (but blink and you might miss them), the seeming culture war between Melbourne and Sydney (the clothes Frances wore in Melbourne are ALL WRONG in Sydney), and all the while Frances is noticing things. She notices the flowers and plants, and how different they are. She notices how people interact with one another. And she notices a woman in an old-fashioned dress....
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this in October because the subtitle makes it sound like a ghost story. And while the character does encounter a mysterious creature, it isn't a ghost story in the traditional sense. It is an interesting tale that includes sometimes funny/biting social observations (but blink and you might miss them), the seeming culture war between Melbourne and Sydney (the clothes Frances wore in Melbourne are ALL WRONG in Sydney), and all the while Frances is noticing things. She notices the flowers and plants, and how different they are. She notices how people interact with one another. And she notices a woman in an old-fashioned dress....
View all my reviews
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Review: Her Body and Other Parties
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I ordered this for my library but grew impatient and listened to it on Hoopla instead. It is one of the finalists for the 2017 National Book Award (USA.)
This is a book of short stories, all centering around the female body, as evidenced by the title. This would not be a book for anyone who shocks easily, as there is sex, a lot of sex, some of it queer sex, and some of it deals with the aftermath of sexual assault. Some of the themes are disturbing, and the insertion at times of supernatural or fantastical elements make many of the stories feel even more dangerous than real life, or maybe it's that they highlight the danger of real life. The writing is powerful and I would not be surprised to see this win the award, although I'm still slightly more on board with Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Story by story:
The Husband Stitch - This is a retelling of The Girl with the Ribbon Around her Neck, but somehow the husband is more domineering, and the lengthening of the story brings you more into her point of view.
Inventory - A list of sexual encounters inside the context of a world falling apart due to a virus. This might be my favorite!
Mothers - A disturbing story where I couldn't tell what was real and what was not. A baby delivered by her lesbian partner, told "this is your baby," But then she is running through the park after stranger babies...
Especially Heinous - I could not understand what was going on here, and had to stop and look up some info about the book. The author has taken every episode of SVU, the show that focuses on sex crimes, usually against women, and builds an alternative story where women have bell eyes and something supernatural is going on and I just didn't really get it at all. I'm sure if I had any familiarity at all with SVU the characters at least would make sense to me, but this was rough. And since it was in audio, I couldn't tell if this was a series of very short stories (flash stories) or what I was encountering, because the author keeps the title of each episode and then has a paragraph or a sentence after each. I wish it had an intro or something, at least to navigate the audio verison.
Real Women Have Bodies - If women really grew invisible....
Eight Bites - Well I'm not quite sure, but I think this is about weight loss surgery and the sacrifice of thin and what it does to our daughters? It's rather frightening.
The Resident - This one examines whether female writers are allowed to write about themselves the same way male writers are, what makes something art, how much autonomy do you have as a creative person?
Difficult at Parties - A woman has gone through severe trauma and starts hearing the thoughts of actors on film.. and in the background, a spouse trying desperately to help.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I ordered this for my library but grew impatient and listened to it on Hoopla instead. It is one of the finalists for the 2017 National Book Award (USA.)
This is a book of short stories, all centering around the female body, as evidenced by the title. This would not be a book for anyone who shocks easily, as there is sex, a lot of sex, some of it queer sex, and some of it deals with the aftermath of sexual assault. Some of the themes are disturbing, and the insertion at times of supernatural or fantastical elements make many of the stories feel even more dangerous than real life, or maybe it's that they highlight the danger of real life. The writing is powerful and I would not be surprised to see this win the award, although I'm still slightly more on board with Sing, Unburied, Sing.
Story by story:
The Husband Stitch - This is a retelling of The Girl with the Ribbon Around her Neck, but somehow the husband is more domineering, and the lengthening of the story brings you more into her point of view.
Inventory - A list of sexual encounters inside the context of a world falling apart due to a virus. This might be my favorite!
Mothers - A disturbing story where I couldn't tell what was real and what was not. A baby delivered by her lesbian partner, told "this is your baby," But then she is running through the park after stranger babies...
Especially Heinous - I could not understand what was going on here, and had to stop and look up some info about the book. The author has taken every episode of SVU, the show that focuses on sex crimes, usually against women, and builds an alternative story where women have bell eyes and something supernatural is going on and I just didn't really get it at all. I'm sure if I had any familiarity at all with SVU the characters at least would make sense to me, but this was rough. And since it was in audio, I couldn't tell if this was a series of very short stories (flash stories) or what I was encountering, because the author keeps the title of each episode and then has a paragraph or a sentence after each. I wish it had an intro or something, at least to navigate the audio verison.
Real Women Have Bodies - If women really grew invisible....
Eight Bites - Well I'm not quite sure, but I think this is about weight loss surgery and the sacrifice of thin and what it does to our daughters? It's rather frightening.
The Resident - This one examines whether female writers are allowed to write about themselves the same way male writers are, what makes something art, how much autonomy do you have as a creative person?
Difficult at Parties - A woman has gone through severe trauma and starts hearing the thoughts of actors on film.. and in the background, a spouse trying desperately to help.
View all my reviews
Review: Our Souls at Night
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ever since Stoner, I have been on the hunt for novels about small but meaningful lives. I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf earlier this year and felt it did that pretty well. I still mean to read the following two books in that group, but when I saw there was a movie made of this one I skipped the line to read it before watching.
Addie and Louis are both older people in Holt, Colorado, living alone, and Addie invites Louis over to spend the night. They get to know one another in a way they never had (both were friends with the spouses of the other but did not know each other that well) and don't hide their relationship, but then the town and their adult children have opinions about it. Addie's grandson comes to stay with her for a while, and most of the events of the book center around this event.
The movie was decent - Robert Redford is a good Louis although I'm not sure I'd cast Jane Fonda as Addie (but now I can't picture anyone else.) There is a scene in the book that I wish they'd kept in the film because I would have liked to see Robert Redford navigate a situation where his body failed him, but in that way the book feels more intimate than the movie, a little more raw and honest.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ever since Stoner, I have been on the hunt for novels about small but meaningful lives. I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf earlier this year and felt it did that pretty well. I still mean to read the following two books in that group, but when I saw there was a movie made of this one I skipped the line to read it before watching.
Addie and Louis are both older people in Holt, Colorado, living alone, and Addie invites Louis over to spend the night. They get to know one another in a way they never had (both were friends with the spouses of the other but did not know each other that well) and don't hide their relationship, but then the town and their adult children have opinions about it. Addie's grandson comes to stay with her for a while, and most of the events of the book center around this event.
The movie was decent - Robert Redford is a good Louis although I'm not sure I'd cast Jane Fonda as Addie (but now I can't picture anyone else.) There is a scene in the book that I wish they'd kept in the film because I would have liked to see Robert Redford navigate a situation where his body failed him, but in that way the book feels more intimate than the movie, a little more raw and honest.
View all my reviews
Review: Nobody Cries at Bingo
Nobody Cries at Bingo by Dawn Dumont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I had Lindy Pratch on the podcast, she mentioned this book in passing as one of the books her book club had read and liked recently. I requested it from interlibrary loan on impulse!
This is a series of autobiographical fictions, not quite short stories that are self contained but a series of scenes from the life of the main character, who is largely the author. Dawn Dumont grew up on the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, and most of this book focuses on her childhood, from having to accompany her mother to bingo to navigating the very complex social hierarchy of the playground. There are some very hilarious parts, in fact I can still laugh over the college visit in the cabbage sweater.
But to me what is most impressive is the very authentic voice - the naivete of a young girl who knows a lot about her world but does not really fully understand the external forces. She does her best and can be pretty stubborn at times, but I felt like I knew her by the end of the book!
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I had Lindy Pratch on the podcast, she mentioned this book in passing as one of the books her book club had read and liked recently. I requested it from interlibrary loan on impulse!
This is a series of autobiographical fictions, not quite short stories that are self contained but a series of scenes from the life of the main character, who is largely the author. Dawn Dumont grew up on the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, and most of this book focuses on her childhood, from having to accompany her mother to bingo to navigating the very complex social hierarchy of the playground. There are some very hilarious parts, in fact I can still laugh over the college visit in the cabbage sweater.
But to me what is most impressive is the very authentic voice - the naivete of a young girl who knows a lot about her world but does not really fully understand the external forces. She does her best and can be pretty stubborn at times, but I felt like I knew her by the end of the book!
View all my reviews
Review: Elmet
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I saw this book on the Man Booker Prize long list, I ordered it from the UK. It sounded like just my thing and had a beautiful cover! My expectations weren't met, exactly, but I still think I would read whatever the author did next. Some of the observations she had other characters make, like when Vivien compares their father to a whale, were rather thought-provoking and unique.
The only other page I marked is a few chapters later, when the narrator is reflecting on the whale analogy after his father hugged him upon his return home (and this is a good example of the writing):
I like how she describes places. I was less interested in the people, unfortunately. I kept getting confused as to the gender of the narrator, although later on in the novel that seemed more intentional maybe. I read the character as female until he started being addressed with a male name and then felt confused! Ha.
This kept reminding me of Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, although the tone of it isn't as ominous, but in a similar way where a father shapes a world for his children to live in, isolated from the rest of the world, their only reality. He builds a home for them on property he doesn't own, although that too is revealed later in the book to be quite a bit more complicated than this guy just being a hermit. And it isn't as if they are entirely isolated, so there is a tension between the life he would like them to have and the reality surrounding them.. he has to work, and is a fighter for money.
Ultimately I would be disappointed to see this one win the prize, because I never connected with it.
View all my reviews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I saw this book on the Man Booker Prize long list, I ordered it from the UK. It sounded like just my thing and had a beautiful cover! My expectations weren't met, exactly, but I still think I would read whatever the author did next. Some of the observations she had other characters make, like when Vivien compares their father to a whale, were rather thought-provoking and unique.
The only other page I marked is a few chapters later, when the narrator is reflecting on the whale analogy after his father hugged him upon his return home (and this is a good example of the writing):
"As soon as he had shaken off his boots, his Goliath arms pulled me into an embrace and I wondered what it would be like to touch a real whale, and knew that despite what Vivien had said, Daddy was both more vicious and more kind than any leviathan of the ocean. He was a human, and the gamut upon which his inner life trilled ranged from the translucent surface to beyond the deepest crevice of any sea. His music pitched above the hearing of hounds and below the trembling of trees."So that's beautiful writing, to be sure, but it also serves to slow down the pace substantially, and as such I found myself frequently setting the book aside to read something else.
I like how she describes places. I was less interested in the people, unfortunately. I kept getting confused as to the gender of the narrator, although later on in the novel that seemed more intentional maybe. I read the character as female until he started being addressed with a male name and then felt confused! Ha.
This kept reminding me of Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, although the tone of it isn't as ominous, but in a similar way where a father shapes a world for his children to live in, isolated from the rest of the world, their only reality. He builds a home for them on property he doesn't own, although that too is revealed later in the book to be quite a bit more complicated than this guy just being a hermit. And it isn't as if they are entirely isolated, so there is a tension between the life he would like them to have and the reality surrounding them.. he has to work, and is a fighter for money.
Ultimately I would be disappointed to see this one win the prize, because I never connected with it.
View all my reviews
Reading Envy 097: Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold
Jenny once made a friend on Goodreads. This friend read all the same books Jenny read. They met up in Baltimore at an interesting bookstore and could have talked for days! So we decided to meet up again to talk books for the podcast. I hope you enjoy hearing from Lauren, because I'm so happy for you to meet her.
Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 097: Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold
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
I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ
Books featured:
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen
Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel
Ghachar, Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
Other mentions:
Who's Allowed to Hold Hands? by Nicole Dennis-Benn (New Yorker)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Boxer Rebellion
Macarthur Genius Grant - Gene Luen Yang
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge
This American Life
Filmish by Edward Ross
Rectify (tv show)
Kannada (language)
Anais Nin
Djuna Barnes
Jeanette Winterson
The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals by Elizabeth Smart
Command and Control by Eric Schlosser
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
Stalk us online:
Lauren at Goodreads
Lauren is @lw.flora on Instagram
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 097: Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold
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
I am starting to schedule guests for 2018! If you are interested in appearing on the podcast: FAQ
Books featured:
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen
Boxers by Gene Luen Yang
Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel
Ghachar, Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
Other mentions:
Who's Allowed to Hold Hands? by Nicole Dennis-Benn (New Yorker)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Boxer Rebellion
Macarthur Genius Grant - Gene Luen Yang
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge
This American Life
Filmish by Edward Ross
Rectify (tv show)
Kannada (language)
Anais Nin
Djuna Barnes
Jeanette Winterson
The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals by Elizabeth Smart
Command and Control by Eric Schlosser
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Elmet by Fiona Mozley
Stalk us online:
Lauren at Goodreads
Lauren is @lw.flora on Instagram
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Review: In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As part of my Borders 2017 reading project, I wanted to read at least one book discussing undocumented people in America. Diane Guerrero is the only American-born member of her family, and when she was 14, her parents and brother were deported to Colombia. She arrived home to find an empty house, and the INS and Dept of Social Services somehow let her slip through the cracks. Thankfully the family had friends that took her in.
It would be easy, and at first I found myself doing this too, to get distracted by Diane's silly outbursts and pop culture references, and not take her story very seriously. Or to just be impressed by her gumption, which is evidential. But keeping herself together, growing up overnight, all these things took a tremendous toll that took years to surface. She may have impressively survived the teenage loss of family, but I'm almost more impressed by her survival of her college years and beyond.
I say loss of family even though her family members were still alive, because it was never the same after they were deported. She was able to visit them in Colombia and then again in Spain, but without daily contact and support, roles and familiarity changed significantly. Yet she had the understanding of how much her parents had sacrificed to try to leave Colombia, and refused to move there with them despite knowing they would not be able to return to the states. I enjoyed hearing her talk about her first trip to Colombia in particular, because it is so foreign to her, and interesting to hear her feelings about some of the religious and holiday traditions as experienced by this insider-outsider that she had to be.
(If her face seems familiar, I know Diane Guerrero from Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin. The book goes through her arrival on the set of OitNB, and could also be instructive for how to make a break in Hollywood.)
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As part of my Borders 2017 reading project, I wanted to read at least one book discussing undocumented people in America. Diane Guerrero is the only American-born member of her family, and when she was 14, her parents and brother were deported to Colombia. She arrived home to find an empty house, and the INS and Dept of Social Services somehow let her slip through the cracks. Thankfully the family had friends that took her in.
It would be easy, and at first I found myself doing this too, to get distracted by Diane's silly outbursts and pop culture references, and not take her story very seriously. Or to just be impressed by her gumption, which is evidential. But keeping herself together, growing up overnight, all these things took a tremendous toll that took years to surface. She may have impressively survived the teenage loss of family, but I'm almost more impressed by her survival of her college years and beyond.
I say loss of family even though her family members were still alive, because it was never the same after they were deported. She was able to visit them in Colombia and then again in Spain, but without daily contact and support, roles and familiarity changed significantly. Yet she had the understanding of how much her parents had sacrificed to try to leave Colombia, and refused to move there with them despite knowing they would not be able to return to the states. I enjoyed hearing her talk about her first trip to Colombia in particular, because it is so foreign to her, and interesting to hear her feelings about some of the religious and holiday traditions as experienced by this insider-outsider that she had to be.
(If her face seems familiar, I know Diane Guerrero from Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin. The book goes through her arrival on the set of OitNB, and could also be instructive for how to make a break in Hollywood.)
View all my reviews
Monday, October 2, 2017
Review: The Readymade Thief
The Readymade Thief by Augustus Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a really fun read, fast-paced and not at all what I thought it would be when I started. I don't usually like author comparisons but this felt like a combination of Dan Brown and Cory Doctorow, with teen runaways, a secret society, mysteries in the art of Marchel Duchamp, urban explorers, drug culture, and hackers. As in most Dan Brown books, the culminating events feel a little far-fetched, but I liked the character of Lee and how she couldn't easily figure out who was lying, who was dangerous, and I was on her side from the second her friend sold her out.
The publisher provided an eARC of this title through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
View all my reviews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a really fun read, fast-paced and not at all what I thought it would be when I started. I don't usually like author comparisons but this felt like a combination of Dan Brown and Cory Doctorow, with teen runaways, a secret society, mysteries in the art of Marchel Duchamp, urban explorers, drug culture, and hackers. As in most Dan Brown books, the culminating events feel a little far-fetched, but I liked the character of Lee and how she couldn't easily figure out who was lying, who was dangerous, and I was on her side from the second her friend sold her out.
The publisher provided an eARC of this title through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
View all my reviews
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Read in September: Books 234 - 256 of 2017
Pictured: 5-star reads for September 2017
234. Ember by Brock Adams *** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
235. Eat Only When You're Hungry by Lindsay Hunter **** (BOTM selection; my review)
236. Love Her Wild: Poems by Atticus ** (audioARC from publisher; my review)
237. The Glass Eye: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco **** (ARC from publisher; my review)
238. The Mountain by Paul Yoon **** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
239. Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel ***** (library book; my review)
240. Sea Girl by Ethel Johnston Phelps **** (HOOPLA eBook through library; my review)
241. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons *** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
242. Solar Bones by Mike McCormack *** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
243. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart **** (interlibrary loan; my review)
244. When I Grow Up I Want To Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen ***** (library eBook; my review)
245. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead *** (library eBook; my review)
246. Ties by Domenico Starnone **** (eBook; my review)
247. Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua **** (personal copy; my review)
248. New People by Danzy Senna **** (eARC from publisher through Edelweiss; my review)
249. Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta **** (audioARC from publisher; my review)
250. The Secret History by Donna Tartt ***** (personal copy; my review)
251. After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
252. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson **** (personal copy audiobook; my review)
253. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty **** (ARC from publisher; my review)
254. Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander **** (eARC from publisher; my review)
255. Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak *** (eARC from publisher through NetGalley; my review)
256. I Will Love You for the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories by Michael Czyzniejewski **** (interlibrary loan; my review)
For the Man Booker Prize - McCormack, Whitehead.
For the National Book Award - Chen (also I bailed on the Jennifer Egan which is not represented in this list)
For the Newest Literary Fiction buddy reads - Hunter, Clemmons, Starnone
For the Reading Envy Readalong - Tartt
Labels:
books-read,
family,
folklore,
graphic novel,
horror,
local,
memoir,
mythology,
poetry,
post-apocalypse,
pulitzer,
readingenvyreadalong,
review,
short stories,
southern,
suburbia,
translated
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