Reading Envy 142: Borders and Bails

Recent birthday boy Shawn Mooney returns to the Reading Envy pub to chat books. Shawn has had a fantastic year, but in his reading, he has somehow focused on a narrow window of literature. He will share more with us on this episode.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 142: Borders and Bails

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Books discussed:



Country Dance by Margiad Evans
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd
Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Lu
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

Other mentions:

Shawn and Charlotte discuss Country Dance on YouTube
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
State of Emergency by Jeremy Tiang
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
Woman at 1,000 Degrees by Hallgrímur Helgason, translated by Brian FitzGibbon
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson


Related episodes:

Episode 077 - No One Messes With a Wolf with Shawn Mooney
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney
Episode 100 - 100 Reasons Why 
Episode 107 - Reading Goals 2018 
Episode 111 - Emotional Dipsy Doodles with Shawn Mooney
Episode 140 - Woman Greets Bear (Reading Goals 2019)  

 
Stalk us online:
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Shawn at Goodreads
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Shawn on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Shawn is @shawnmooney on Litsy
BookTube channel: Shawn the Book Maniac

Among Others by Jo Walton

Among Others by Jo Walton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Around the World: 10 of 52 (Wales)

I am aware of Jo Walton because of her writing over at Tor.com.  She has a professed dislike of cyberpunk, in fact I've heard her say she thinks it is overrated.  I was determined to NOT ENJOY this book that so far as at least been nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Fantasy awards this year, just in defense of cyberpunk.  I had to give up in the end because this novel is a love story to science fiction, and celebrates the love of reading, interlibrary loan, and book clubs that the author clearly has. (Or in Welsh accent - reeeeadin, enterLIBraaary lowan, and booyk clobs - seriously, try the audiobook for this!).

From a critical perspective, I think the plot is fairly weak.  The most obvious moment this apparent is in the supposed climax of the story, which I had to go back and listen to because I practically missed it since it took on such a short span of the book.  The fairy elements also seem fairly unimportant to the story, because really the author seemed to be using the plot as a way to be able to share what she thinks the best SF books of the 1970s are.  I want to emphasize that in the end, I didn't care that the plot is weak. The list of books mentioned within this book can be found here (Thanks Scott!) at the author's blog, compiled by a librarian fan, fitting since Walton seems to have a great respect for librarians, as she should. As anyone should. (Disclaimer: I am a librarian.)

I am posting this to the blog months after I finished it (March 19), because I knew we'd be discussing it on the SFF Audio podcast.  Actually, we found out a few hours before we recorded that it had won the Nebula Award, so let me express congratulations to the author!  You may interpret this exquisite coincidence as evidence of my psychic ability, if you'd like.  

Anyone who loves reading, particularly anyone who loves science fiction, will enjoy this book.  On the podcast, we were in complete agreement on its universal appeal.  And unlike some books that namedrop other authors, leaving me feeling exasperated or uneducated, Walton writes about these books in a way that makes me want to track them down.