Reading Envy 120: Summer Reading - Challenges, My List, and Speed Dating.

I decided to record a bonus episode. Inside I'll talk about the Reading Envy Summer Reading Challenges, and give you some suggestions of books for those. I'll talk about books in a few categories for more general summer reading, a list if you will, and then move into the third round of book speed dating for 2018. Some of the books mentioned are backlisted titles, while others might not come out until June 2018, or in one tiny case, August.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 120: Summer Reading - Challenges, List, and Speed Dating.

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Challenges: Reading Envy Picnic and Reading Envy Roadtrip

Books Discussed:

Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter’s Shore by Ken McAlpine
Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky
Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey through Chile by Sara Wheeler
Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming
A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo and Book Lovers Everywhere by Alison Walsh
The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge
The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
Super Sushi Ramen Express by Michael Booth

Even more recommended foodie memoirs

Summer Reading List:

Canada and Alaska
The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
Passage to Juneau by Jonathan Raban
Home to Woefield by Susan Juby
Miriam Toews
Lynn Coady
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson
Alaska by James Michener
Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The New Western is Female
West by Carys Davies
American Hippo by Sarah Gailey
Rough Animals by Rae DelBianco

Light reads, funny reads
Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman
Less by Andrew Greer
Stray City by Chelsey Johnson
Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

Prairie Reading (forget beach reading!)
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Biography by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caroline: Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller
The Prairie Trilogy by Willa Cather
The Dry by Jane Harper
The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America by Sarah Kendzior
The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

Translated fiction
Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf
Moon Brow by Shahriar Mandanipour
Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Leger
August  by Romina Paula
The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante


Speed Dating Round 3

Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership by Michael Ventura 
Sisters’ Entrance by Emtithal Mahmoud
Sexographies by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Jennifer Adcock and Lucy Greaves
Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude by Stephanie Rosenbloom
Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Hodson
The Honey Farm by Harriet Alida Lye
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
The Waters & The Wild by DeSales Harrison
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
An Intentional Life: Five Foundations of Authenticity and Purpose by Lisa Kentgen


Related Episodes:

Episode 024 - The Attention of Humanity with guests Seth Wilson and Barret Newman 
Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella) Episode 095 - Lose the Outside World with Lindy Pratch
Episode 096 - Not Without Hope with Yanira Ramirez
Episode 110 - The Accidental Love Episode with Casey Stepaniuk
Episode 113 - Speed Dating 2018, round 1
Episode 117 - Speed Dating 2018, round 2
Episode 119 - Bread and Butter Writing with Paula 

Stalk me online:

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

Review: American Hippo: River of Teeth, Taste of Marrow, and a new short story

American Hippo: River of Teeth, Taste of Marrow, and a new short story by Sarah Gailey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I kept hearing about the first novella in this collection, River of Teeth, last year but just finally got to it in this grouping.

The backbone of these two novellas and two short stories ("Winslow's Problem" and "Nine and a Half") is an idea that never happened, but almost happened in the United States - hippopotamus ranching. It was originally proposed to Congress as a solution for meat production and to also cut down on the water hyacinth that was clogging waterways. It sounds crazy, but that's the alternate history world setting the scene for American Hippo. Instead of riding in on horses, the villains (who are kind of the heros) and the law enforcement ride in on... a water hippo. Yep. Instead of barns there are lakes, and different types of hippos have been bred for different purposes (speed, meat, etc.)

So the alternative history setting is unique and fun in itself, but Gailey really shines in her interesting characters. One character named Hero is genderqueer, but that's not the main point, they play an important role in the murdering sprees because of their poisoning knowledge. One character is obese (at one point worries about not fitting in a chair) but is also a skilled assassin and thief. One character is pregnant in one novella and a mother in another, but doesn't necessarily want to stop killing; it's her passion.

My only quibble is that two characters have names that start with the letter A and I kept mixing them up, so I do wish that had been a bit different.

But overall I laughed a lot, sometimes because of humor, but more often because it's so ridiculous and silly (it reads like a hippo western) that it just made me very happy. It's a pleasure to read, and an escape of sorts.

Thanks to the publisher who provided access to this title through Edelweiss. It came out May 22, 2018.


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Reading Envy 119: Bread and Butter Writing

Paula, known as Centique in Litsy, joins me from New Zealand to talk books. Paula tends to read backlisted titles, because she is devoted to her TBR list. We talk translations, gloomy books, and cuteness.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 119: Bread and Butter Writing.

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


Books Discussed:



Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Land of Love and Ruins by Oddny Eir
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz

Other Mentions: 

Blackout by Connie Willis
All Clear by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Hugo Awards
Nebula Awards
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Top Chef (tv show)
The Mind of a Chef (tv show)
Smoke and Pickles by Edward Lee
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Tournament of Books
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

Stalk us online:

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

Reading Envy Summer Reading

Ahoy! I have posted the official rules for Reading Envy Summer Reading in Goodreads, but wanted to post it elsewhere on the internet to allow for more participation. This isn't the same as a Readalong but there will be another one of those in the fall.

Instead, we are going to have a summer road trip and a summer picnic, only in the books we read!

Reading Envy Roadtrip Rules

1. Read a book about a place that isn't where you are. And yes, you may interpret this however you want. It can be any genre.
2. Bonus points for reading it in that actual place, like on vacation or a business trip.
3. Bonus points for a book about a trip.
4. Go to the Goodreads group (optional) and share your roadtrip read, and Jenny will create a map at the end of the summer.
5. If you post about it in Instagram or Litsy, please also add #readingenvyroadtrip


Reading Envy Picnic Rules

1. Read a foodie book. It can be a memoir, a mystery (or other genre) with recipes, a cookbook, etc.
2. Bonus points for making a recipe from that book.
3. Go to the Goodreads group (optional) and share your picnic read, and Jenny will create a menu at the end of the summer.
4. If you post about it in Instagram or Litsy, please also add #readingenvypicnic

Happy reading!

(When does summer start/end? Well, I'm on an academic calendar that rushes the lunar/solar calendar, so I'm calling summer June through August.)

Review: Tin Man

Tin Man by Sarah Winman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book I've noticed for almost a year as my UK bookish friends got to read it way before it came out in the United States. I was so glad to finally get a copy!

The story is about two men who were childhood friends and lovers, without putting labels on it really, and the painful/bittersweet/nostalgic realizations they make as adults. Ellis does so after losing his wife and is trying to navigate life alone, Michael does so in his childhood writings that we see in the second half of the book.

But this description does nothing to capture the feeling of connection the author is able to make between the characters and the reader, the love and loss you feel alongside them. I think I read it without breathing.

Thanks to the publisher for providing access to this title through Edelweiss. It came out May 15, 2018.

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Review: So Lucky

So Lucky by Nicola Griffith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book reads so much like a memoir I had to keep reminding myself it isn't. The murder plots and shadow creatures are not real.

But everything else probably is, and based on the author's experience. Mara is working as the Executive Director for an HIV non-profit, very successful, and has just parted ways with her wife of 14 years, when she has a fall. It is revealed to be Multiple Sclerosis.

The writing is punchy and I found myself reading it cover to cover. I had always meant to go back and read Hild by the same author, a completely different genre from this one, so I was interested in this, not even knowing what it was. I didn't expect what I found, because I hadn't read anything about it. I think readers who have liked Lisa Genova's books on disease (Still Alice, Inside the O'Briens, Every Note Played, etc.) would devour this, but it has a different kind of intensity: it feels personal.

It feels personal, because it is. The author posts openly on her blog about coming out as queer, and then having to come out with MS later on. The character she writes in So Lucky knows how to mobilize, how to build community, and how to advocate, and it feels like the world beyond this novel has more hope because of it.

I supervise someone with MS, and I also want to say that this book helped me in my understanding of the daily life of this disease.

The author has even created a Spotify playlist to accompany it, which I always love.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me early access to this title through Edelweiss. It comes out May 15, 2018.

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Review: Three Sides Water

Three Sides Water by Peter Donahue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of three novellas, all set at different times on the Olympic Peninsula. Overall they are slow burns, so I read one at a time between other readers. Since I'm going to Washington in June, and since I'm from the northwest (and have spent time a few summers on the OP), I enjoyed the particular placeness of all three.

"On Rialto Beach"
Rialto Beach is near Quillayute River, now protected as part of the Olympic National Park, right on the Pacific Ocean. A bunch of circus performers come here for a vacation from their lives of performing, and there is a disappearance. Or is it a murder?

"At Fort Worden"
Set in the early 1970s during the Vietnamese-American War, a boy lives (and escapes from) a juvenile detention center.

"Out of Shelton"
Very 21st century based on all the social media, the grandson of a lumber company owner wants to be Bing Crosby.

Thanks to the publisher for providing early access to the title through Edelweiss. The collection came out May 1, 2018.

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