Review: Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I waited on the hold list for this book for 16 weeks so I didn't quite read it during the season I'd hoped, but this is a decent Gothic novel set in the mountains/cliffs in a silver mining village in Mexico. Noemí is sent there by her father to check on her cousin, who married one of the men in that family.

I'd say this has some genuinely scary stuff and plenty of elements warranting content warnings so do your research, plus some general ick factor based around a plot point I will not reveal. I do believe the book and author deserve the attention this year; it's the second book by her I read in 2020.

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Reading Envy 209: Best Reads of 2020 with Guest Menagerie

Jenny invited past guests and members of the Reading Envy Readers group in Goodreads to contribute their best reads of 2020. In true Reading Envy fashion, books were not necessarily published in 2020. We always like to hear if you read a book because you heard about it on the podcast!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 209: Best Reads of 2020

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Books discussed: 

Jenny's full list of 5-star reads for 2020
Sovietistan by Erika Fatland
The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tolkarzcuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
One Hundred Twenty One Days by Michèle Audin, translated by Christiana Hills
The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica translated by Sarah Moses
Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
Milkman by Anna Burns
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Fiebre Tropical by Juliana Delgado Lopera
The Last Best League by Jim Collins
The Mercury 13 by Martha Ackman Lauren
The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwarz-Bart, translated from the French by Barbara Bray
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm ed. by Yarimar Bonilla and Marisol LeBron
Letters: Summer 1926 by Boris Pasternak, Maria Tsvetaeva, and Rainer Maria Rilke, translated from German and Russian by Margaret Wettlin and Jamey Gambrell


Other mentions:

Discussion of The Only Good Indians on the Shelf Wear Podcast
Discussion of Drive Your Plow... on the Book Cougars Podcast
Discussion of Drive Your Plow... on the Book Cougars Goodreads group

 

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
If you want to hear more from one of the guests who appeared on this episode, go to the episode guide and do a search.

All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate.

Review: Nights When Nothing Happened

Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Cheng family moves to Plano, Texas in 2003, settling into suburbia. The father is a photographer, but has what I would call ptsd about intimacy. The mother is an engineer and works many hours with international teams. Jack, the son, spent his younger childhood in China with his grandparents and one night saves his little sister Annabel when she goes outside in the freezing cold, he thinks to sleepwalk. The story rotates between the family members where is becomes clear that all of them understand events differently, and some ideas originally presented as facts may not be. The children are underparented and this leads to a major event that disrupts the entire family, bringing their new identities into question.

This is on the long but not shortlist of the Tournament of Books. I read it from my public library on my new Kindle Oasis (a gift, not an advertisement.)

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Review: The Memory Monster

The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a difficult read for me and I'm not sure I quite understand what the author wants the reader to take with them. The narrator is a historian specializing on the Holocaust, and throughout the book gives tours of several camps to school groups and tourists, all of whom hold varying degrees of reverence, knowledge, and interest in the many Jewish people who were killed there. I don't know if the narrator lacks the ability to communicate the horror when he is present with it every day, or if his deep knowledge of the details accidentally comes across as being impressed, but there is definitely something disconcerting or uncomfortable in how he communicates with others. Sometimes it is his anger in how others want to believe it didn't happen, to move on, to capitalize on the horrors. All the while his family is back in Israel, where his son is bullied at school. Memory, memorial...

What isn't addressed of course, is the fact that the author is an Israeli, son of a prominent politician, who served in the Israeli army and worked for the government as a DA and was educated by some of the United States' top schools of government...yet the narrator says nothing about the memory monster of another people's displaced homeland, which to me is inherit and circles back to the narrator's musings on power and victory, whether or not this was his intention.

This is translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan and is from Restless Books - a publisher I subscribe to precisely because they pull me out of my comfort zone with every read. I would check out a few more reviews because a few people are better able to comment on how this issue manifests in modern Israel and amongst groups of Jewish people worldwide.

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Review: We Ride Upon Sticks

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"It was high school. A sea of adolescence streamed by, each of us in our own way trying to both fit in and stand out...so what if there was an open flame burning in her locker? It was nothing compares with the dark storms secretly and openly raging inside each and every one of us."

I was only in elementary school in the 1980s so I'm too young for actual nostalgia and too old for retro nostalgia. If you like girl power and 80s nostalgia, this is the book for you. The novel is about the 1989 Danvers high school field hockey team, and their best season ever thanks to ... witchcraft? It is campy and fun yet I wasn't the right reader for this book. It happens. I don't want to punish the book or author for it though. I would recommend it to a lot of different kinds of readers, actually, just not myself.

View all my reviews

Jenny's Best Reads of 2020

Every year I do a round-up of my 5-star reads. For the podcast's sake, these date from December 2019 through November 2020. On December 29th, the Best of 2020 podcast will post, featuring highlights from my list along with multiple guests sharing their top reads of the year. After December 31, I'll post my stats for the full actual calendar year. I love looking at those, but I could still read 10 books between now and then.

Unlike most book lists, these books are not necessarily published in 2020, simply read in that year.

Cover images are not the same order as below, apologies. If you are interested in my thoughts on any of these specific titles, your best bet is to find it on my Goodreads account - this list is Read2020 and sorted by rating.

Around the World - Middle East focus (plus one that snuck in from Asia 2019)

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth
Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vadney Rattner
Our Women on the Ground by Zahra Hankir, ed.
Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy, narrated by Mona Eltahawy
Beirut Won't Cry by Mazen Kerbaj
Home by Various, translated by Various (Two Lines Arabic poetry)


Science Fiction and Fantasy

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, narrated by Billy Merasty
Homesick by Nino Cipri


Horror

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones


Romance

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert


Western

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Literary Fiction in Translation

Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza, translated by Thomas Bunstead
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated by Ann Goldstein
The Eighth Life by Nino Harataschwili, translated by Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin
That We May Live by Various, translated by Various
Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Ingvild Burkey
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld; translated by Michele Hutchison
The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke, translated by Jamie Bulloch
Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova, translated by Ann Goldstein


Literary Fiction - Backlist

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson, also narrated by Claire Danes
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, narrated by Bahni Turpin
Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell
Fair Play by Tove Jansson, translated by Thomas Teal
Clea by Lawrence Durrell
Tracks by Louise Erdrich
Four Souls by Louise Erdrich
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich


Literary Fiction - Current

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Hex by Lauren Dinerstein Knight
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Memorial by Bryan Washington


Rereads

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
Normal People by Sally Rooney


Graphic Novels and Comics

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, illustrated by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, & Harmony Becker
Apsara Engine by Bishakh Kumar Som


Nonfiction- Memoir

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
Eat a Peach by David Chang and Gabe Ulla, narrated by David Chang
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland


Nonfiction - Other

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Writing Wild by Kathryn Aalto
On Lighthouses by Jazmine Barrera, translated by Christine MacSweeney
My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem
Tides by Jonathan White
The Selected Works of Audre Lorde by Audre Lorde
Just Us by Claudia Rankine
Oak Flat by Lauren Redniss; narrated by Lauren Redniss, Darrell Dennis, Kyla Garcia, Kimberly Guerrero, Hillary Huber, Ann Marie Lee, Elizabeth Liang, Crystie Lightning


Poetry

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo
13th Balloon by Mark Bibbins
Homie by Danez Smith
Junebat by John Elizabeth Stintzi
How to Fly (in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver
Blizzard: Poems by Henri Cole
Together in a Sudden Strangeness Alice Quinn, ed.

Reading Envy 208: Thriving in Marginalia with Lauren

It's the last regular episode of the year, featuring frequent guest Lauren. We talk reading around the world, different ways of interacting with other readers, poetry, and more. I know there is a slight sound issue and we think it is internet connection related. I took out of it as much as I could but every once in a while it arises mid-sentence. We will try to do better next time!

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 208: Thriving in Marginalia.

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 
New! Listen through Google Podcasts


Books discussed: 

On a Truck Alone, to McMahon by Nabaneeta Dev Sen
Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster
Ursula K. LeGuin: The Last Interview edited by David Streitfeld
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

Other mentions:

#readtheworld21
Dune by Frank Herbert
Dune (feature film, forthcoming)
The Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Chef by Jaspreet Singh
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
National Book Award - Lifetime Achievement Award, Ursula K. Le Guin
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin (documentary)
*Columbus, GA (I called it Columbia the first time, sorry)
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Books on the Go podcast - American Sunrise
Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo
When the Light of the World was Subdued edited by Joy Harjo
Want by Lynn Steger Strong

Related episodes:

Episode 083 - Slowing Down and Rereading with Julie Davis
Episode 097 - Blank Spaces with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 123 - Godlets and Forests with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 133 - To Understand the World with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 138 - Shared Landscape with Lauren Weinhold 
Episode 147 - Bonus Poetry Recommendations with Lauren
Episode 161 - Women in Translation Month Recommendations with Lauren
Episode 163 - Fainting Goats with Lauren
Episode 186 - This is Gravity with Jeff
Episode 189 - Surreal Superpowers with Tim
Episode 197 - Surly Magnificence with Lauren

Stalk us online:

Lauren at Goodreads
Lauren is @end.notes on Instagram
Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

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.