Saturday, February 26, 2022

Review: It Would Be Night in Caracas

It Would Be Night in Caracas It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm trying to read books from the last few countries in my around the world project that I've been working on since 2012, and It Would Be Night in Caracas was recommended by several people for Venezuela.

The author is a journalist from Venezuela who relocated to Madrid, and the main character of the novel follows a similar path. The novel is so focused on her life and struggles without a lot of context so I had to do a lot of reading about Venezuela - its government, the poverty, the violence - it's all there in the background but not something I knew a lot about. And the way the main character encounters it is as a woman alone - at the beginning she has to bury her mother who died because there was no health care infrastructure, without family because they were either dead or unwilling to risk traveling. It isn't long before she decides she has to flee the country, and while a lot of convenient things have to happen for that to work, it is still harrowing.

Interestingly, Venezuela has been in the news this week because they blamed the U.N. and United States for what is happening in Ukraine. That initiated another internet rabbit hole, to find Venezuela closely aligned with Russia and Cuba.

The other thing I did was to spend some time in Google Maps, looking at some of the amazing rainforest landscapes found in the south of the country, and read recent stories about an American who has been held under espionage charges for several years.

You'll see below that this took me a while to read - it's because the violence would make me put it aside for a while.

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Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Review: The Trees

The Trees The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My penultimate book from the Tournament of Books shortlist, and I had to reread the end before I weighed in. This is an engaging read, about mysterious deaths in the town of Money, Mississippi, and they seem to be related to racist killings from previous generations. The white sheriff's department comes up against two Black MBI agents as they try to figure out what's happening. (MBI = Mississippi Bureau of Investigation)

There is satire in the sense that many characters have funny names and some have argued that the white people are written to the extreme but... I don't know that they are. I appreciated that the satire was there but not everything. My reason for rereading the ending was this feeling that it ended abruptly and it does, but I liked the little turn a few chapters from the end featuring Trump, basically, giving a speech about how he never uses the "n" word while frequently using it.

It should be an interesting one to discuss in the tournament!

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Reading Envy 240: Air Quotes with Chris Carey

Chris visits the podcast for the first time, where we discuss web comics and where they live, book clubs and book goals, book slumps and book challenges. We also manage to discuss several debut novels across a wide range of genres, but all with strong representation!

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 240: Air Quotes

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Books discussed:

Images of five books discussed plus user icons for Chris and ReadingEnvy

The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun
Islands of Decolonial Love by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, performed by Tantoo Cardinal
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Other mentions: 

Gotham Outsiders
Thirsty on Toon
Talking Comics
My Gentle Giant
WEBTOON
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures
Wattpad
Reading Glasses Podcast
Reading Glasses Challenge
Heaving Bosoms Podcast
Heaving Bosoms' Reading Embrace
Big Bad Wolf Series by Charlie Adhara
Gail Carriger
Nagamatsu playlist at Largehearted Boy
Stiff by Mary Roach
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
Sunshine Cleaning (film)
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnosteinrom
Indigenous Reading Circle in Patreon
Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Bojack Horseman (tv show)
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
Woman Eating by Claire Kohda
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
The Employees by Olga Gavn, translated by Martin Aitken


Related episodes: 

Episode 060 - A Good Era for Communists with Rose Davis
Episode 148 - Multiple Lives with Jeff
Episode 191 - Stealthy yet Sparkly with Gail Carriger
Episode 231 - Psychological Terrorism with Reggie

Stalk us online:

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


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Review: Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs

Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First I read This Accident of Being Lost: Songs and Stories, pushed into my hands by someone at House of Anansi Press when I went to AWP in Tampa. Last year I read Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies.

This year, thanks to Erin and Dani's Book Club, now Indigenous Reading Circle (you can join in Patreon) - I got to read her earlier book of short stories and songs as they spend the first half of the year focusing on story collections. The stories deal with similar themes, all featuring Nishnaabeg characters close to home for Simpson (apologies if my spelling is incorrect for this form of the word, sometimes I see it starting with an A and don't know the rules. On her website, this spelling is used.)

My absolutely favorite story features two friends or lovers who have waited so long to meet in person and when they do find their suspicions correct - and it has to do with what we call "sasquatch" but they would not. (It harkens back to The Sentence which had a chapter called "Tender Sasquatch" as a joke self-pub title.)

Several reviews say the book comes with songs recorded to accompany the stories but I listed to the audio version in Hoopla and it did not have any performances included, and the one publisher site that claims to have them to listen to for free doesn't seem to. I'd welcome any guidance there as I'd love to hear them. I really enjoyed this book in audio! So much I listened to it back to back twice!

I'll attempt to discuss it a bit more on upcoming Episode 240 of the Reading Envy Podcast.

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Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Reading Envy 239: Gross but Subtle with Katie

Katie joins me for the first time from the far north to discuss her own reading, plus one very creative solution for reading short stories with a book club.

Download or listen via this link:
Reading Envy 239: Gross but Subtle

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
Or listen via Stitcher
Or listen through Spotify 
Or listen through Google Podcasts


Books discussed:

Book cover images from books listed below

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Sufferance
by Thomas King
Seek You: A Journey through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke
Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

Other mentions: 

Well-Read Books
Coles Books
"The Great Awake" by Julia Armfield
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire
Tournament of Books
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
The Break by Katherena Vermette
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette (forthcoming, hopefully)
Drawing Loneliness with Kristen Radtke (video)
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories by Kathleen Collins
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
In Concrete by Anne Garrétta, translated by Emma Ramadan

Related episodes: 

Episode 077 - No One Messes With a Wolf with Shawn Mooney
Episode 181 - An Awkward Woman with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 190 - The Good Life with Alex
Episode 202 - Jacket Flap with Chris and Emily

Stalk us online:

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


All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. I link to Amazon when a book is not listed with Bookshop.

Monday, February 7, 2022

Review: Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator

Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator by Darryl Cunningham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This comes out February 15th and I had a digital copy from Drawn and Quarterly via Netgalley - to read the story of Putin is to better understand the story of Russia, unfortunately. He was born in Leningrad/St Petersburg only eight years after the siege and clawed his way to positions of power and money. He's like the Dick Cheney of Russia, where for every shady situation, you pull back the curtain and there he is.

This is content that probably exists in biographies and other critiques of Putin and his policies, but for me, easier to consume in graphic form. It's really astounding how Putin can have such a high popularity rating when we know about the people he's had killed (goodbye, free press, goodbye, vocal opponents), the countries he's invaded or destroyed, but since we have a person who copies his playbook, it also feels familiar.

In my year of reading Russia I worry I lack the knowledge to understand the subtext of the literature I'm reading, and from that perspective this graphic non fiction book helps provide context about Russia's power and control from the fall of the Soviet Union to the present day. Putin has been there all along....


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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Books Read January 2022: 1-14

This might be the least number of books I've read in a month. I had one week with family in Myrtle Beach, the first time traveling with kids and also cooking meals so I found I had even less time to read. We returned home to one child in covid quarantine and another in virtual school for the week for covid/weather issues at the school. I was also dipping into some Russian novels that won't be reflected yet, but do take some time.

The Ozeki was the one book I had started in 2021, and my top five-star read was the Shafak.

A gentle reminder that all reviews can still be seen on my Goodreads profile (the review will be with the book; the format will be specified unless it's in print.) And the books with green outlines are my 5-star reads for the month!

Book covers from list below.

1. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. The Possessed by Elif Batuman ⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura, translated by Lucy North ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
8. An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov, translated by Bryan Karetnyk ⭐️⭐️⭐️
9. Breath Better Spent: Living Black Girlhood by DaMaris B. Hill ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
10. Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Emma Link ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
11. Anna Karenina Fix by Viv Groskop ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
12. Sticker by  Henry Hoke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
13. Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin by Emilie Plateau, illustrated by Emilie Plateau ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
14. Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

 Books read: 14

Audiobook: 1
Ebook: 9
Print: 4

Library: 6
TBR: 1
Purchased 2022: 0
Review copy: 7

Around the World: 5
Melanated Reader's 20 Books by Black Women: 2
Reading Envy Russia: 3
Sword and Laser: 1
Tournament of Books: 2