What Are We Reading, Page 15

I read a short story entitled Mr. Thursday while waiting for an appointment yesterday. The writing was engaging, as is typical for St. John Mandell, and it dealt with her current seeming obsession with time travel or simulation hypothesis (as she seems to prefer to call it). Interestingly, there were similarities to plot points in both The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility although the names of the characters and their fates differed. I think the story was written in 2017, so maybe she was just toying with these ideas before using them in subsequent novels. It wasn't a strong story plot-wise, unless I missed the point.

I just started Lady Justice, which started with a nice tribute to Pauli Murray. The remainder of the book is about prominent women lawyers who resisted the Trump Administration.

>1 vwinsloe: Sounds like a good way to spend your waiting time. Funny how that fit in with your current reading.

Continuing with the Mandel theme, I've just started to read Sea of tranquility, having finished The glass hotel.

>3 Sakerfalcon:. I'll be very interested to hear what your impression is after reading them both in sequence.

I've just started A Song for a New Day.

>5 vwinsloe: I hope you enjoy it! I was not quite as enamored with We Are Satellites but read A Song For A New Day in 2021 and thought it was quite good. Strange to think that here is another author that writes of a post-pandemic world just before covid came along...

BTW - there is a related short story in Pinsker's (also excellent) Sooner Or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea collection.

>6 ScoLgo: I'm about 60 pages into A Song for a New Day and so far it is reminiscent of a mid-1990s cyberpunk novel. Not that that is a bad thing.

I've got Sooner Or Later Everything Falls into the Sea on my wishlist. It doesn't seem that We Are Satellites is getting many stars here on LT so I will probably give it a miss.

Thanks!

>7 vwinsloe: We Are Satellites is not a bad book. I just didn't think it lived up to my (perhaps unfairly elevated?) expectations after having really enjoyed ASFaND and SOLEFItS.

YMMV... ;)

>8 ScoLgo: Fair enough. I'll keep We Are Satellites on my wishlist, and by the time I acquire it, I may have a better experience.

I finished A Song For A New Day and while it didn't resonate with me as much as I had hoped, there were so many things to think about. I wish that I had read it pre-pandemic, because while it was fascinating to see how prescient the book was about that, the central theme of resistance was jarring for me in the context of the anti-vaxx and anti-public health measures during the recent pandemic.

I've started reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I make a point of reading everything in my TBR pile that appears in the top 20 or so of the LT Top Five books list for the prior year. With mixed results usually, but it brings some order to the chaos.

>10 vwinsloe: I've had The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo on my TBR pile for so long I thought I'd read it. I also thought I didn't like it much because I didn't remember anything about it. I also kept confusing it with that one where the woman dies over and over again which I didn't much like. So, maybe this month I'll actually get to it. Oops, wrong. The wait list on Libby is 8 weeks. Maybe next month.

>11 Citizenjoyce: Do you use LT for your wishlist? Every book that I add on LT indicates whether my friends have it in their libraries, and I usually see that you have the book in yours. I know that you are a prolific reader, but I've been amazed. I don't keep my wishlist in LT, I keep it on vendor's sites like thriftbooks and Amazon (although I don't usually buy from them.)

Anyway, I am enjoying The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but I'm only 100 pages or so in.

>12 vwinsloe: Since I almost never buy books anymore, I keep my wishlist on LT and on Libby. Since I usually ignore details I sometimes click add book to library instead of to wishlist, so the list isn't very accurate.

>13 Citizenjoyce: That makes sense. I asked because I did find the need to make the separate click to add something to my wishlist on LT to be confusing, so I never moved my wishlist here.

I'm re-reading Station Eleven. When I read it eight years ago, I felt sort of "meh" about it, and with the almost universally glowing reviews it has received, I thought that I should give it another chance. I rarely re-read books any more but I read The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility over the last couple of months, and now I feel like I have a better idea of what the author is up to.

We'll see. I characterized Station Eleven after my first read as "a bunch of people walking around reciting Shakespeare and wringing their hands about the lack of wi-fi."

>15 vwinsloe: Ha, ha. Harsh.

Decided to do a re-read of Nicola Griffith's Hild while waiting for the sequel Menewood to be released next week.

>17 SChant:. I just finished my re-read of Station Eleven, and was casting about for my next read. Hild was up for consideration, and since you are re-reading it, I think that I've made up my mind. Thanks!

I liked Station Eleven better the second time around, although not as much as her two most recent books. I think that sometimes the circumstances under which we read things can really affect our understanding and enjoyment. When I first read Station Eleven eight years ago, I was doing most of my reading on the commuter rail, and it was not a good book to read that way, given how it went back and forth in time and among characters. I'm glad that I tried it again.

I finished Hild, and found it to be a long, immersive read. It took a long time to read because I needed to frequently consult the map, the table of characters and the glossary. In the end, I felt that even those could have been longer and more inclusive. Once I got the lay of the land, so to speak, it moved along more quickly and did not interrupt the story as much. I love Griffith's world building, particularly her descriptions of people and things, and including not just landscapes but animals, particularly birds. The protagonist is an engaging character who is thrust into situations that she did not create, but that she manipulates to her and her family's benefit to the extent possible.

I will probably read the sequel, Menewood, at some point. Although at 700+ pages, I won't rush.

Now for something completely different, I'm starting The Right to Sex, which I think Citizenjoyce mentioned favorably here.

>19 vwinsloe: Glad you enjoyed it - one of my favourites. Menewood's release has been put back to October in the UK so you will have plenty of time to "gird your loins"!

>20 SChant: lol, appropriate!

I just finished The Right To Sex, my little review: Ugh, this book is a perfect example of why I don't like philosophy. There's on the one hand, then on the other hand, then on a further hand. How do you help sex workers, abused women, or harassed students or workers? Everything you try ends up harming the poor, women of color, or immigrants. The ultimate solution is abolition - the abolition of policing and jails. In its place, we substitute guaranteed health care, housing, nutrition, and a liveable wage. Then in this utopia, there will be no need for crime. If you inhabit that utopia with robots, you'd be right. There would be no crime. Humans, on the other hand, just aren't perfectible. People devoted themselves to communism or Donald Trump because of ideals. Philosophy seems to be about unachievable ideals but has little to do with reality.
I shared this with a philosopher I know, and she said she doesn't consider the book philosophy, so I guess I don't know what the study is. I just know that promoting ideals and degrading everything else everyone does to solve a problem doesn't seem to lead to any real world change.
I was planning to start Hild today, but had an earlier commitment to read Glory which seems to be kind of an African Animal Farm, so I'm giving it a try first.
I finished Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner(of the band Japanese Breakfast). What a talented woman she is. More death and cancer balanced with food, food, food. Maybe I can stop this pretty soon. My son had his stem cell transplant, and it seems to be going well, so maybe I can try for a little more optimism about the subject. I'd love to go restaurant diving with her and maybe try that Korean scrub too.

Reading Nobel Prize Women in Science, a brief look at the lives of the few women who received the award and some who should have, but their male colleagues got it instead!. It's over 20 years old so the numbers have increased since then, but still pitifully low compared to male winners. I know science is more of a collaborative act these days, but only 20 or so women compared to over 600 men in the whole history of the award?

>22 Citizenjoyce:. I'm nearing the end of The Right to Sex, and I feel some of your frustration. But what I am getting from it is that in order to change a patriarchal system, we must change the way that society thinks, and that is a very heavy, but not impossible task. When you consider that women have only been somewhat liberated by easy reproductive choice since the 1960s, we have seen rapid change on a societal level. In some ways, this book already seems dated. In the US, we are now seeing a huge backlash to the rapid change that has occurred, but it is too late, in my view.

Very good news about your son!

>23 SChant:. I think that it is one of the biggest scams in history. Since Nobel Prize Women in Science is twenty years old, perhaps it has been the genesis of newer stories emerging now about some of these women and others who will no longer take a back seat.

I just finished Witchmark, and really enjoyed it. I have no idea why I picked it up, since all of the elements of the description were not usually things that I like: urban fantasy, mystery and romance. Well, Elizabeth Bear blurbed it, and she did tease that there was a bicycle chase. I'm glad that I read it, and will probably read the sequels at some point.

>25 vwinsloe: Same! I got my copy as a free download from Tor.com otherwise I doubt I'd have acquired or read it. And I'd have missed out on a series which I ended up loving. Her stand-alone, The midnight bargain is good too.

I've been reading Phoebe Junior as part of the Virago group read. I find I really need a push to get me into Victorian prose these days and the groups reads are so helpful in that respect. I also read The thinking reed by Rebecca West, which is a scathing look at life among the 1% in the 1920s.

In fantasy I've just finished Saint Death's daughter which is about necromancy, found family, politics, vengeance and magic. I loved it and am eagerly awaiting the next book.

I've requested Witchmark from Libby. Such high recommendations couldn't be ignored.
I've read 3 memoirs recently. In real life I think I'd be comfortable hanging out with only one of the women, but they're all good reads.
Bad Mormon by Heather Gay was irresistible to this ex-Mormon. It's worth reading for what she has to say about the church which has probably brought her death threats. You don't talk about what goes on in the temple. Gay is an intelligent, driven, competitive, super capitalist - in that respect she fits right in with many Mormon women. (Have you seen the family Christmas cards that are more like small books than season's greetings?) But she's also in the cast of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City which is the same as the cast of Real Housewives of anywhere. I don't know anyone who'd want to fit in there.
In Hello, Molly!: A Memoir by Molly Shannon, Shannon shows herself to be a good Irish Catholic girl with a charming Irish Catholic alcoholic father. She possesses 3 qualities I'll never have - optimism, extroversion, and the ability to forgive. I've never really forgiven the charming alcoholics in my family yet she, who has much more to forgive, adores her father. She's also driven and competent like Gay but not so driven financially. You can believe she loves her family. You can believe she lives a real life, not a plastic one
Then there's Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera by Jena Friedman. I'd never heard of her, but her mind is fantastic. She's a writer and producer - those jobs carry her true desire to be a stand up comic, but she can't fully support herself at that. She says she doesn't talk about sex in her comedy routines because that's what women are supposed to do - lay their sexual lives open to the public as the price of getting a gig. I love that. I love her political humor, including her abortion jokes. I don't like her normalizing the word cunt, sorry, I'll never accept that, and I'll also never accept that dead baby jokes are a hoot. I saw the first Sacha Baron Cohen movie and have no desire to see another one. I don't find pranks funny. She got an Oscar nomination for helping to write Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. The crisis pregnancy center bit looks good, but not good enough for me to subject myself to the rest of the movie.

>26 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, I will definitely get the rest of the Kingston Cycle series sooner then. I put The Midnight Bargain and Saint Death's Daughter on my wishlist.

Now for something entirely different, I am reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. First Polish book that I've read, I think, but the author is a young-ish winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. So far, I am enjoying her sense of humor in the novel's bleak setting.

>28 vwinsloe: Drive your plow was one of my favourite books that I read last year. It is SO good!

>29 Sakerfalcon: Good to know. It is a little strange compared to what I have been reading.

>28 vwinsloe: I tried Drive You Plow twice and just couldn't get into it. I also tried The Books of Jacob and could get into that either.
On a more low-brow level, I just finished Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young and liked it very much. It's not a new idea, but it's well done.

>31 Citizenjoyce: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones has definitely a bleak, slow start. But the wry humor of the author and eccentricity of the protagonist has kept me going. CitizenJoyce Edited to add: If you ever finish it, I think that you will enjoy the pay off.

Girls With Sharp Sticks looks interesting. I'm putting it on my wishlist. Thanks.

I finished The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, and I can't figure out why she wrote this thing. I've read 3 of her other books and loved them, but I could never get a handle on this one. It won the Women's Prize for Fiction last year and is highly regarded, but it created whiplash in this reader. It took forever for me to get into the atmosphere of it, and each time I did, it would take a quick 180-degree turn to some fresh disaster. I guess there's a movement now saying schizophrenia isn't a psychiatric illness, so she's bought into that. There's a large dollop of Marie Kondo with an overlying sauce of zen Budhism. You can say the characters are well-rounded in that you can see multiple sides to their characters, but the sides are pretty intense, all except for the mother who is just pitiful. I think ultimately I would have been just fine if I'd followed my first instincts and stopped reading after the first 50 pages.

>34 Citizenjoyce: I still have A Year of Meats sitting on my TBR shelves because I was lukewarm about her A Tale for the Time Being only because I don't really enjoy magical realism.

I just started The Core of the Sun a ten year old dystopian novel by a Finnish author which has languished on the TBR shelves for a very long time. So far the story seems to be that women have been genetically engineered to be intellectually inferior to serve as romantic and sexual partners for men.

Started The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard. I like her short fiction but have found her novel-length works a bit hit-and-miss. Hoping for good things for this one.

>35 vwinsloe: Core of the Sun looks interesting, but it's not on Libby, alas. I finished The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss, the third in the Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series and liked it better than the second one which I thought got bogged down in describing every little thing anyone ate or drank. There's still lots of emphasis on food in this one, but it's not quite so obsessive, and it's fun to read about the powers of people related to or created by literature's mad doctors. I also finished The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley which I'd heard so many good things about. The fact that Heather Cox Richardson recommended it sealed the deal and kept me reading, but it's the kind of fantasy that does little for me. Yes, I loved the fact that the central character was a strong, competent woman but it was all war and swordplay. That's not my cup of tea.
Now I'm reading The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield. I'm just a little way in but loving it so far. It's about a brilliant woman whose brilliance is overlooked because she's a mere female.

>36 SChant: Let us know what you think. I could use a good space opera.

>37 Citizenjoyce: I think that the way that colonization was handled in The Blue Sword was probably another thing that attracted Heather Cox Richardson. I hear you about the swordplay. I liked the prequel The Hero & the Crown even better.

I have Code Girls sitting on my TBR shelf. I wonder whether Elizabeth Smith Friedman is covered.

>38 vwinsloe: I don't think she'd be covered, she worked in WWI and during prohibition and after. But I'm only halfway through the book, so we'll see.

>38 vwinsloe: I finished the book. She did work during WWII, mostly decrypting codes from South America. She was not part of the Code Girls but was revered by them.

>40 Citizenjoyce:. Thanks. Looks like I should read both then!

>38 vwinsloe: Finished The Red Scholar's Wake - an enjoyable space opera. Xich Si is a poor scavenger, self-taught in manipulating bots, who is captured by pirates. Rice Fish is a partly organic sentient ship, de-facto leader of the pirate cohort Red Banner by virtue of the death of her wife in mysterious circumstances. Rice Fish co-opts Xich Si's skills to investigate the death, and marries her to ensure her loyalty and protect her from potential enemies. There are plenty of twists and turns, plots and betrayals and the story is generally well paced. World-building and the descriptions of the society are good. I didn't much care for the romance - it was too sudden and melodramatic, and there is a heel/face turn near the end that seemed too abrupt, but on the whole an entertaining read.

>42 SChant:. Added to my wish list!

I'm currently reading Milkman which has a distinctive style. I'm finding a bit difficult to get into because of that, but I'm going to persevere since it has been recommended to me so many times. And because it won the Man Booker Prize in 2018.

>42 SChant: Looks good but why does romance have to infiltrate everything?

>44 Citizenjoyce: I've never been a fan of romance but it can work in some contexts - thinking of Bujold's A Civil Campaign, which is both funny and subtle about the romantic side, but generally it's not my cup of tea.

>44 Citizenjoyce: & >45 SChant: I absolutely agree. I don't mind a sub-plot here and there, but would rather avoid romance as the main narrative (what used to be called "the marriage plot.") That's what made Ancestral Night so successful for me, although many have called it weak tea.

I read Everybody But Us by Ben Rose.
Amazing enough, a middle aged cis-het male has created a compelling, articulate, and realistic work of fiction about two bisexual teenaged females.
Everything rang true about the city where I live. I've known homeless kids who pulled the stunts described. I've felt the downward spiral into the abyss of alcoholism. This book cuts to the bone in wonderful ways and shines a light on matters that need to come out of the dark recesses.

I've got mixed feelings about the fact that this Group got a shout out in May's State of the Thing.

https://www.librarything.com/readmessage.php?msgID=4818e397fcfd0e92f6f27466b9d27...

While this may attract new members, I'm afraid that we may have to remind them that the focus of discussions in this Group is books written by women authors. I just poked around a little bit and saw that this thread has been going on since 2014 when Citizenjoyce created it instead of the monthly thread. I hadn't realized.

>47 ShayWalker: Welcome! You've posted about what sounds like a wonderful book, but at the risk of discouraging you, it seems that it is not written by a woman and not proper subject matter for this group. Please do post in this Group in the future about books of any kind written by women.

I just did a report on After The Party by A. K. Ritchie for my Sophomore English presentation. It's a great novel and almost a nostalgic look at a time when local punk bands played in small clubs, garages, basements and attics. That was before my time, that's for sure. It sounds like it was awesome.
Her characters, even the minor ones, are diverse and nuanced. The plot is multilayered which kept me invested in the story.
I give it five stars

>48 vwinsloe: My mistake. I thought it was by or *about* females. This is definitely about. I'll be carefuler about my posts.

>50 ShayWalker: No worries.

Edited to add: ShayWalker my apologies: I just checked the Group description, and it does say "and/or about" women. The original creator of this group has been AWOL for many, many years, and we've mostly been posting about books that are written by women. Books by men are occasionally mentioned, but are not the primary focus here.

As I said, welcome!

I just finished If You Really Loved Me by Ann Rule. A sad but beautifully written book. I recommend it.
There is supposed to be a movie about the story but I'm not sure the title.

>52 P-Rae: Welcome! I looked at If You Really Loved Me, and the subject matter of that book looks to be heartbreaking.

I finished Milkman. It was not an easy read, and it was slow, what with the long run on sentences and the lack of any proper names. I began calling it the anti-Ulysses, because it seemed to be the polar opposite of that book in virtually every way, and, in doing so, I became intrigued enough to see if that was what Anna Burns was really up to. After finishing the book, I still don't know, but I really appreciated this coming of age in a war zone book. It was more feminist than I had realized.

Now I've started reading Ann Patchett's book of essays, These Precious Days. I read the title essay online some time ago and discussed it a little bit with CitizenJoyce. The rest of the essays appear to be shorter, but I hope just as interesting.

>48 vwinsloe: Oh dear, the offspring of this group came from a sad occasion when there were some new members who thought the term "Girlibooks" should be changed because it might discourage male members from joining. A group of us thought that was fine because we weren't all that interested in hearing men's opinions about women's books anyway, especially if they would be discouraged by the girlibooks designation. The other group thought that was discriminatory and we should have a more male-friendly, or at least not male-discriminatory, title. I'm sad that we lost some of those members, especially Other Joyce, but I think this group has gone on to support women, women readers, and women authors as was the original intention.
>47 ShayWalker: I've read quite a few books by men about women that I thought were worthy of discussion. You just have to pick which man might be writing realistically.
I just read The Dry by Jane Harper which is a book written by a woman but with a male main character. I'm not sure why she felt the need to do this, but male main characters do sell better. I see she's written two more books in the series. Perhaps she uses this man to better show the dangers of patriarchy when a woman character wouldn't be so effective, at least with men. The book is a mystery, not my favorite genre, but it's well done with the obligate surprise twists that made it worth my recommending. I wonder if people who read lots of mysteries would agree.

>53 vwinsloe: That's for damn sure

I tried reading some books by a Mandy Melanson. They literally were not worth the money. I gotva recommend on Amazon so I tried several. I figured something had to click. Nope.

On the other hand I read some classic Konigsberg that my teacher suggested and I loved it.

Also found an author Caroline Giammanco who blows me away.

>57 TracieMac: I'm not familiar with those authors, although it seems that Caroline Giammanco has very good reviews but few readers.

>58 vwinsloe: E. L. Konigsburg wrote From The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Great for light reading.

>59 TracieMac: Ah, yes, E.L.Konigsburg had quite the resume. I don't know why I had not heard of her. Thanks.

>59 TracieMac: I just got From The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler from Libby. She got a BS in chemistry. I'm always pleased and amazed when people show such versatility in their intellect and talent.

>57 TracieMac:, >58 vwinsloe: Alas, Libby doesn't have Caroline Giammanco.

I just finished Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho another memoir by a daughter of a Korean American woman with an emphasis on food and Schizophrenia. There are too many ideas fighting in my head to talk about it now. I know I tend to be defensive and it's quite anti-American and anti-white. I'll post more later.
But, as a pleasant calmative, I've started Witchmark by C. L. Polk recommended by >25 vwinsloe: a little while ago. I wasn't sure if I'd like it but I got to the description of a group of nurses as a competence of nurses and knew I couldn't resist.

>63 Citizenjoyce: Tastes Like War sounds a bit like The Vegetarian, although I think that was set in Korea. I appreciated The Vegetarian although I can't say that I enjoyed it. I'm sure that there were cultural issues that went over my head.

I did enjoy Witchmark as did >26 Sakerfalcon: above. I haven't obtained the other two books in the series yet, but I keep thinking about it. Witchmark was not my usual cup of tea, and the plot seemed somewhat derivative, but, in the end, I found it to be a real comfort read. I hope that you like it.

I finished These Precious Days and was particularly grateful for the essay entitled, "There Are No Children Here." So many of Ann Pachett's writings resonate, but this one really spoke to me.

I've moved on to Migrations which is by Australian writer Charlotte McConaghy. It is a dystopian climate change novel which grabbed my attention immediately. McConaghy's writing style is reminiscent of Emily St. John Mandel who blurbed the cover.

I just finished Fever by Mary Beth Keane historical fiction about Mary Mallon - the infamous Typhoid Mary. It's full of historical events of the late 19th and early 20th century - the sinking of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the widespread use of addictive drugs like heroin and morphine to control pain and then developing restrictions on them, and of course, the science that tormented a healthy woman who couldn't believe she was the source of a dangerous disease in others. This is my favorite kind of historical fiction, one that humanizes a woman we have been told to automatically disdain and emphasizes the misogyny of men who oppress her. And it's a good story, 5 stars from me.

>66 Citizenjoyce: I had no idea that Typhoid Mary was a real person! Now I need to find out more about her. Thanks.

>67 vwinsloe: Since I was a nurse I probably had more interest in such things than you. I knew she was a real person and reviled her for the damage she did. It's so easy to revile "bad" women.

>68 Citizenjoyce: Ain't that the truth.

I finished Hild though it was torture to do so. Years ago I read Ammonite and had the same feelings about it. She's a good writer, there's lots of information, but I just don't care about any of the characters. I do love a good childbirth scene, though, especially one with realistic complications, so the eclampsia was perfect. Now I'm on to The Good Wife of Bath. Well, this is the complete opposite, lots of emotional involvement.

>70 Citizenjoyce: It took me a while to appreciate Hild but I did after a while, and liked her as a character. I found the machinations of the various kingdoms of England in the middle ages to be interesting as I never learned much about that time period. The writing reminded me a bit of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy.

I'm almost at the end of Migrations which I am reading slowly and not sure that I want to end. Some books you don't want to end because you love the writing, the characters and the descriptions. This is different; something like dread.

>71 vwinsloe: I hate that feeling at the end of a book or movie. It keeps me engaged, but oh, the tension.

>72 Citizenjoyce: I finished Migrations last night, and despite some really implausible things in the narrative, it was a very impressive book, and ended on a slightly hopeful note. I would certainly read something else by her.

Now I think that I need to find something to read from the TBR shelves that is much lighter and more uplifting.

My first two books of the month have been great, I hope that portends a better month than usual.
Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex is by Rachel Feltman who is a bisexual science writer married to a cis heterosexual man. I don't like reading sex scenes in books, but I like reading nonfiction about actual sex. Her assurances that whatever you like sexually from no sex at all to polyamorous sex is fine didn't do much for me. I don't need assurances, but I imagine many of her readers do. What I loved was her accounting of all the ways sex has presented itself in nature from homosexual acts among bison and cattle (leading to a discussion of homosexual pairings among cowboys) to animals that change their sex depending on the environment to just why there is sex in the first place. Nature is full of wonders and possibilities, yet we narrow our own lives down and think that a good thing.
The Midnight News by Jo Baker (of Longbourn fame) is historical fiction about WWII London during the Blitz. It's part mystery with a large, very disturbing discussion of the ways the patriarchy tries to squash the humanity out of women or anyone considered not up to standard. If you decide to read it and find it not that engaging at first, keep going. It gets there.

>74 Citizenjoyce: Both of those books do sound good.

I succeeded in finding something light to read. Although Bowlaway may be somewhat parochial in its appeal, I think that a lot of readers may find it interesting for its quirkiness alone. New Englanders will be delighted, though, with plots points including candlepin bowling and the Great Molasses Flood. There may be magical realism here, but so far I haven't minded it.

>75 vwinsloe: The Great Molasses Flood. Until I read The Given Day by Dennis Lehane I would have thought such a silly thing would be the magical realism you were looking for. I still find it amazing.

>76 Citizenjoyce: It's wild, isn't it? I didn't know how such a thing could be possible until I read Dark Tide, which was a town-wide read in my town a few years back. But now in Bowlaway, there appears to have been a death by spontaneous combustion, and I'm pretty sure that is not a thing. Is it? lol

>77 vwinsloe: Spontaneous combustion is a bizarre idea. This is from the History Channel which, unfortunately, is often the conspiracy theory channel. https://www.history.com/news/is-spontaneous-human-combustion-real

>78 Citizenjoyce: Wow, fascinating! The victim of spontaneous combustion in Bowlaway was an alcoholic, so it seems to fit a theory. Looks like Elizabeth McCracken did her homework. Maybe this is "improbable realism" and not "magical realism."

>79 vwinsloe: Improbable realism - that fits so much of life, doesn't it?
I guess I just finished a book that fits with it, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is about a closely knit Italian family of sisters, tall men, and basketball. It's an Oprah Book Club pick, and I have liked many of those in the past, but some of these women drive me crazy. The most intelligent and practical turned out to be so completely irrational that I almost stopped reading. Are we supposed to think that such actions are to be forgiven because Italians just can't control their emotions? I know humans aren't rational. I also know about family feuds that tear families apart, but this seemed quite contrived to me. People love it, but I kind of wish I hadn't wasted my time on it.

>80 Citizenjoyce: I see that Hello Beautiful was supposed to be an homage to Little Women. People are supposed to love that one, too, but I never quite saw the appeal.

>81 vwinsloe: I hated Little Women, so at least it's better than that.

I've moved on from the long strange trip that was Bowlaway to the short sad memoir that is In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss. I've long been an admirer of Amy Bloom's writing and, so far, this book does not disappoint me.

I just finished Lady Tan's Circle of Women, footbinding, friendship, 15th-century Chinese medicine. I've never met a Lisa See book I didn't like.

>84 Citizenjoyce: Oooooo, I didn't know that she had a new one out. I have liked all of her books as well. Entertaining, but I always learn something new. Thanks for mentioning it.

I read Oh William about 6 months ago, and while it is still relatively fresh in my mind, I'm starting Lucy By the Sea which I acquired at a library book sale a couple of weeks ago.

I've started Demon Copperhead which has just won the Women's Prize for fiction here in the UK. (Used to be the Orange Prize but I can't remember what its current name is.) I'm very impressed at Kingsolver's ability to channel the voice of a young boy growing up impoverished in Appalachia. So far I'm enjoying it a lot more than the Dickens novel upon which it is based.

I've just finished Last witnesses, one of Svetlana Alexievich's collections of oral history, this time the voices of people who were children during WWII in the USSR. They witnessed horrors that no-one should have to see, let along children, and were all profoundly scarred by their experiences. The majority of them must have passed on by now, and it's difficult to believe that any of them would have supported the current actions in Ukraine and the subsequent traumas being inflicted on children and their families.

I've also read Some desperate glory, a space opera with a protagonist who is forced to change her entire worldview when her dreams and assumptions are shattered. This was interesting, with a lead character who grows and learns, but it wasn't as compelling as I expected it to be. It's very creative and clever though.

>87 Sakerfalcon: I'm waiting patiently for a friend to finish Demon Copperhead so that she can pass it along to me.

I had not heard mention of either of the two other books that you mentioned. I loved Second hand time, so Last Witnesses will definitely go on my wishlist.

Some Desperate Glory has gotten what appears to be universal acclaim, so perhaps your expectations were too high? I'm putting it on my wishlist with my expectations tempered accordingly.

Thanks!

>87 Sakerfalcon:, >88 vwinsloe: I've loved 3 other books by Svetlana Alexievich so I've put Last Witnesses on my wish list at Libby. I'm always amazed at the different view Russians have of Russia and Stalin than Americans do.
I've put Some Desperate Glory on hold.
I recently finished Ejaculate Responsibly after seeing Gabrielle Stanley Blair interviewed on a book program. She's a religious woman with 6 kids who thinks reasonably. In fact, she thinks so reasonably that this book should be required reading for every politician and religious person with an opinion on abortion. However, banning abortion has nothing to do with reason, so I'm sure most would not be swayed. Her idea is that women are fertile for just a few days a month for a few years of their lives. Men are fertile every day for almost their entire lives. If one wants to stop abortion then the only reasonable thing to do is to make sure that men ejaculate responsibly.

>89 Citizenjoyce: Ha! Ejaculate Responsibly. I love it! This is a way of thinking that needs to spread far and wide.

I finished Lucy By the Sea, and really admire the way that Strout's protagonist, Lucy Barton, is so very observant, but not very judgmental. I wonder whether Strout is done with this character, as she seems to be with Olive Kitteridge who is merely name checked in this novel. I think that she was comparing the two outlooks: Olive who is mostly negative but who always rises to the occasion personally, and Lucy who is less judgmental, but is more reserved and introverted.

I'm reading Of Women and Salt now, which seems to be a different look at the immigrant experience, perhaps contrasting immigrants from Cuba with those from Central America.

>88 vwinsloe: You may well be right about me having too high expectations for Some desperate glory! I've been thinking about why it didn't quite work for me, and I think at least part of it is that I wanted to see more of the aliens. My favourite section took place on a planet, and I think I wanted more of that. I will look forward to seeing what you think of it.

I am loving Demon Copperhead, though it is not a cheerful read.

I enjoyed Of Women and Salt quite a bit. It was as much a story about mothers and daughters as it was immigration. There's something I appreciate about an author who is also a poet being able to pack a lot of book into a small word count.

Now I'm reading No Time to Spare. I've read or reread several books by LeGuin over the past couple of years and discovered her blog a while ago. This book is mostly made up of her blog posts, and as such, there are some personal essays about her cat, as well as some startlingly honest ones about aging. I've enjoyed it so far.

I finished No Time To Spare, and it took me far longer than it should because I had to stop to think about a lot of things. In her essays in this book, LeGuin shows herself to be a nice cat-loving old lady, a cranky octogenarian, a really sharp observer and thinker, and a beautiful writer, by turns.

Two essays I found especially arresting. In the first, she talks about the term "The Great American Novel" and says that it is a fallacious concept and that it should be Great American Novels with an S. But she said that if someone asked her to name just one at gunpoint, she would name The Grapes of Wrath. That made me think a long time about what does The Great American Novel(s) even mean? How should it be defined? I suppose that it has to be by an American author, and in some way be about American life, or point out something unspoken about the American condition. Okay.

But in the next essay, LeGuin opines that The Great American Novel is a cryptogendered concept. (Great word - I don't know whether she coined it.) By that she meant that when the term The Great American Novel is used, it seems that male authors are the only ones nominated. So I thought about books by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Herman Melville and William Faulkner, and how they come immediately to mind. She was right I think, but she didn't nominate a book by a woman for consideration for the title, although she sort of mentioned Virginia Woolf in passing. These days, I think that some people are more likely to at least mention To Kill A Mockingbird and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, although they might not consider those books to be THE Great American Novel. Maybe LeGuin is right again, the whole concept is flawed and it should be Great American Novels with an S. Perhaps that's because there are many Americas; there are many different American lives and conditions. Real American life is not just about a struggle between white men, rich and poor. Women don't seem to write that particular story - which seems to be the story in most books considered for the title of The Great American Novel. They write about their own little corners of American life (Salvage the Bones comes to mind) and their own lived experiences. And that's why it has to be Novel(s) in the plural, and not just one great American story.

Now you see why it took me so long to read No Time to Spare. But it's done, and I'm on to my next book. It probably won't be The Great American Novel or even A Great American Novel, but it will be written by a woman author.

>94 vwinsloe: A very thoughtful analysis - I've not read that book yet but now it's on my list. Thanks!

>94 vwinsloe: Deep thoughts. You get so much from your reading. I don't see how The Grapes of Wrath fits with the cryptogendered concept. It's by a man and a man is one of the main characters, but it's more a novel about class and how the rich always get richer while squashing everyone else. Everyone else includes everyone else. Maybe I don't understand the concept.

>94 vwinsloe: I own No time to spare and will have to bump it up the TBR pile because those essays sound really interesting.
Having just finished Demon Copperhead I would say that it certainly qualifies as a Great American Novel. It was an engrossing read that I found difficult to put down. It's bleak, but so compelling.

>96 Citizenjoyce: I think that what LeGuin was trying to say is that the concept of THE Great American Novel seems to be inextricably tied to books written by male authors about the doings of men. So it's a competition among male authors without explicitly saying so. The Grapes of Wrath which she would choose as THE Great American Novel if forced to choose, is written by a man about the doings of men, so that's how it fits. She definitely wasn't disparaging that book, she was disparaging the concept of a singular Great American Novel.

>95 SChant: & >97 Sakerfalcon: I think that No Time to Spare is the kind of book that should be judged not by what you get out of it, but what it gets out of you. Not everything resonated with me, since I have no knowledge of, or interest in, classical music or opera. But they are all very, very short pieces.

>97 Sakerfalcon:. I am still waiting for my friend to pass along Demon Copperhead, but I'd be willing to wager you are right.

Just finished Comrade Sister by Stephen Shames and Ericka Huggins. Nice visual history of women of the Black Panther party in the 1960's & 70's, with memoirs highlighting the community programmes they instigated and worked in, as well as protests and campaigns.

>99 SChant: "It's estimated that six out of ten Panther Party members were women." I had no idea. Looks really interesting!

>100 vwinsloe: Me either - I guess because all the headlines we saw in the UK were about any arrests and protests and tended to headline the men. I never knew about all the community outreach and support programmes the Black Panthers initiated. Very enlightening.

>101 SChant: On my wishlist, for sure. Thanks.

I just finished The School for Good Mothers and have mixed feelings about it. I remember Citizenjoyce saying that the book really made her angry, and I wondered whether I would feel the same way. For about the first third of the book, I was greatly moved, and the author was very successful in getting me invested in the protagonist. But then, somehow, it went downhill. I love speculative fiction, but somehow this story got too far fetched after a very realistic beginning and gradually stopped me from suspending disbelief. I believe that this was Jessamine Chan's first novel and I will look for more by her in the future..

>103 vwinsloe: Alas, considering the current religiously lead political climate, I didn't find it too far-fetched.

Let's see what I've read this month.
Lucky Dogs by Helen Schulman is a novel based, I think, on Rose McGowan's fight against Harvey Weinstein's sexual predation. It's a little off-putting because the characters, even the ones you sympathize with, aren't very pleasant, but it seems realistic. Hollywood stars, like the rich, are different from the rest of us. Some of the things that happen seem too contrived to be real until you read about the lengths Weinstein went to to keep his reputation. May he rot in jail.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is the first in a series about dragon riders engaged in a 400-year-old war. Dragon riders - who could resist?
But, it seems every fantasy has to have a romance. There's sooooo much romance, it kind of gags me. She does write great sex scenes, but it would have been so much better if she could just have stuck with the dragon riding stuff. I thought this would be the only book in the series I would read, then I got to the ending. Darn, I guess I have to continue.
And then the book that plunged me into depression and made me even more sure that The School for Good Mothers was a possibility - Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences by Joan Biskupic. The rich, aided by conservatives, have fought all government programs to aid people in need at least since the New Deal, but really since the beginning of the country. This book shows how very focused they have been, how relentless in pursuing power until they have come to this, their season of glory with a Supreme Court ready to quash everyone deemed unimportant. Maybe I need to read lots of frivolous stuff for a while to help me recover from reality.

>105 Citizenjoyce: I'm not sure that I could get through Nine Black Robes. I used to have a lot of respect for the Court. Now I hope and pray that something can be done to correct its current course.

Writers & Lovers was a much better read than I expected based on my previous experience with Lily King's Euphoria, which I thought was overwrought. I found the young protagonist of Writers & Lovers to be very relatable. The rest of the characters did not seem quite fleshed out to me, but this is not unexpected in a first person narrative. It was about another love triangle, yes, but it seemed to have other things more front and center. Lily King writes undeniably well. Here's a quote that particularly struck me. She was describing a writer that she had admired:

"He manages to simulate consciousness, and it's contagious because while you're reading it rubs off on you and your mind starts working like that for a while. I love that. That reverberation for me is what is most important about literature. Not themes or symbols or the rest of that crap they teach in high school."

Anyway. Lily King spoke at our annual local library symposium last year, and I am sorry that I did not make the time to go.

>107 vwinsloe: I read Euphoria some time ago and loved it. It's based on the relationships between Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Gregory Bateson in New Guinea in the 1930's. As usual, I can't remember much about it, but I gave it 4.5 stars. Maybe I should try something else by her.

I'm reading a satire on academia, Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou. It also focuses on one woman's experience of being Chinese American. I'm enjoying it quite a lot.

I blasted through Travel Light Move Fast by my favorite memoirist. She starts out writing about her father's death in Budapest, tells several stories about her life with him growing up in Africa, and then brings us up to date on the terrible tragedies that she has recently endured. I hope that she has it in her to keep writing.

I finished Binti: the Complete Trilogy and found it intriguing that it shared one of the main themes of Octavia Butler's Xenogenisis and even Fledgling. Binti is a teenager invited to go to a prestigious off world university, and she runs away to do that despite her tribe's close, somewhat xenophobic community. On the way there, her soon to be classmates from another tribe, are murdered by a species with which it had previously been at war. Binti is spared, and the murdering species alters her DNA so that she can easily communicate with them, but it gives her a hybrid appearance. Anyone who is familiar with Octavia Butler can see the similarity with the miscegenation theme. Okorafor's parents were immigrants from Nigeria but, as far as I know, Octavia Butler's ancestry was African- American for generations.

I don't know if Okorafor was inspired by Butler's writing or whether the similar themes was coincidental. What I found to be really interesting was that the miscegenation in Butler's novel's seems to be negative but unavoidable and results in feelings of unease in the reader. Okorafor's miscegenation is also not voluntary, but it is not so disturbing. Perhaps that is because Okorafor is a bit more YA. But perhaps it is because of the different author's backgrounds? Just something that I noticed and have been thinking about.

>111 vwinsloe: This has been on my wishlist for a while. I agree with your assessment of some of Octavia Butler's perspectives on miscegenation and think it would be interesting to look at Binti's viewpoint as you have done. Your post has prompted me to order the first book from the library.

>112 SChant:. I'm glad you're going to try it. The first book seemed pretty YA to me, and I liked the second book better, but the whole thing is well worth reading.

>111 vwinsloe: I loved Xenogenisis and liked The Binti series. I'm sure I would have liked it more had I read it as intelligently as you have.

>114 Citizenjoyce:. Thanks, but I just think that I read more slowly than you do. I remember someone (I think here?) said that they were reading more and enjoying it less. I've slowed down, divide my attention less, and I read paper books, not ebooks. I don't even listen to audiobooks anymore since I am no longer driving for work. I think that being slow makes a difference because it gives you time to think about what you are reading. The downside is that Mt. TBR grows and grows.

>111 vwinsloe: This is on my wishlist. I will try to get to it soon, as the whole trilogy is not that long. I love Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy.

I've been in Paris for a few days and took with me Recollections, a bind-up of two of Colette's works: Journey for myself, which consists of essays written for various publications, and The evening star, a memoir from late in her life when she was mostly confined to a couch in her apartment in the Palais Royale, due to arthritis. This was a perfect choice to read in Paris; her shrewd observations really capture the character of the city, despite the distance in time.

I also brought The prime of life , the second volume of Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography, but I didn't get very far with that. I will pick it up again now that I've finished the Colette.

Reading a contrasting pair of books on the same subject - SB Divya's Machinehood, an interesting SF exploration of how humans are forced to enhance themselves with pills and implants to compete in a small way with AI and robots; and about to start Kate Crawford's Atlas of AI, a non-fiction examination of the impact of AI on human societies today.

>117 SChant: Those look great. I love when books play off each other.

>117 SChant: I feel like I don't know enough about AI. On my list.

>118 Citizenjoyce: That happens to me accidentally sometimes. Really weird.

>116 Sakerfalcon:, >119 vwinsloe: I accidentally read Educated then Where The Crawdads Sing right after. They complimented each other perfectly.

I finished Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer and have mixed feelings. First of all, much of it is literary criticism and as >115 vwinsloe: indicated I read like eating potato chips, stuffing myself with one after another not fully tasting any of them, so I am inadequate at literary criticism. We're all wondering now about what to do about artists who turn out to be monsters, can we still consume their work? Can we still love them? Dederer analyzes these monsters but includes people who are not active defilers of other people but are just imperfect. So she has Roman Polanski, Miles Davis and Picasso mixed in with J. K. Rowling and women who don't devote their entire attention to their children because they want also to pursue art. Then way at the end of the book, we realize that the reason she includes herself in the monster category is not that she left her teenage son for a month in order to attend a wonderful artist workshop but that she is a recovering alcoholic. It's hard to own our own monstrosity, but at last, she does. For me, the most meaningful part of the book was the part emphasizing economics. Capitalism wants us to think that we as individuals have to judge the monsters. Our paltry consumption or refusal to consume their art will make a difference just as our recycling can manage global warming. Capitalism and the patriarchy are the ones in charge, so she ends by saying, as does Woody Allen, "the heart wants what the heart wants."

>121 Citizenjoyce: I hope you know that I was referring to my own experience. You've always done more in depth reviews than I have, despite your conspicuous consumption. I've always been envious of that. I look at my TBR stacks and wish that I could somehow mainline books.

The premise of Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma sounds interesting. I suppose that how an individual feels about art that they admire when the artist's personal life conflicts with their own convictions depends on the point of view of the consumer. In other words, the strength of the admiration of the art versus the degree of personal offense taken at the artist. But I'm sure that marketing loves a controversy, all the better to sell, sell, sell. (And I hate that Woody Allen stole Emily's Dickenson's quote about grief and turned it into something unsavory.)

>122 vwinsloe: If only that were the worst Allen did. You've come up with the same equation Dederer uses or at least says people in general use.

>123 Citizenjoyce: Interesting that she found the same equation. As a side note, I never liked Woody Allen. Even before we knew he was a dirt bag.

>124 vwinsloe: I loved Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters, but I always found his sexuality kind of predatory.

I picked out Broken (in the best possible way) as my next read, even though I wasn't sure that it would be for me. I'm only about 25 pages in, and I've laughed out loud three times already, so I guess it is.

>126 vwinsloe: I read Furiously Happy and part of my review says, " I think I would have given the book 1 star for the humor and 5 stars for analysis of mental illness. It's really hard having them combined in one book." I wonder if I should tackle Broken.

>127 Citizenjoyce: After the first few guffaws, the book seems to have settled down to tackle more serious problems. Such as a really sad but brilliant takedown of an insurance company's runaround about coverage for a psychotropic medication for a person with depression. It's a short book, so you probably couldn't go wrong although the essays may be hit and miss.

>127 Citizenjoyce: Sounds good. Gah, insurance companies.

I finished both Machinehood and Some Desperate Glory. I was pretty disappointed by Machinehood. Written about the almost 30th century the Catholic church still has a stranglehold on its members' sexuality, patriarchy is still strong and respected, and the group's solution to the AI problem doesn't seem like a solution at all. But her description of the economy in which billionaires (or whatever the term would be at that time) ran the world and everyone else worked for tips is, unfortunately, possible and depressingly intriguing.
Some Desperate Glory starts off as kind of a routine dystopia but gets better as it goes along. I listened to the book, of course, so I had no idea where I was in it. About halfway through I thought it was about to have a pleasant ending so was very surprised to check my phone and see there was so much left. I'm a sucker for books about human growth or lack of it, so I have to join the fan group singing its praises. Thanks >87 Sakerfalcon: and >117 SChant: for the recommendations.

>130 Citizenjoyce: I agree that the ending of Machinehood does fizzle out and could have done with more work, but I enjoyed the wider themes of the book more - are humans becoming more machine-like with their enhancements of pills and implants, and are robots/AI becoming more human with developing self-awareness and demands for rights? It's not a new idea, but very well done in this book with its exploration of how intelligence/thinking is defined, workers rights, narrow obsession and wider perspectives.
Also didn't find the Catholic thing particularly intense, mainly Welga's brother's obsession, as her sister-in-law (can't remember her name) does go to a Hindu temple at one point, and Welga herself doesn't seem to show allegiance to any particular religion but is more agnostic/atheist; it just seemed part of the variety of society's attitudes.
Plus, it's now started me on a jag of NF reading about AI and it's impact on human societies which is very thought-provoking.

>131 SChant: I'm not exactly an optimist or maybe I am. I can't believe that 700 years from now Arizona will still be limiting abortion and that the Catholic church will still have such a sexual hold over its members. Church membership is declining nicely now in the US and we lag far behind Europe. India, Saudia Arabia, Iraq, and Israel can't keep up their theocracies, can they? I guess I think more of the human race than the author does. Unfortunately, her economy seems possible, but we're fighting against it now. I'm hoping we won't keep going in the present direction for 700 more years.

>132 Citizenjoyce: Did I get the setting of the novel wrong? I thought it was set around 2090 - 70 years, not 700?

I'm reading The richer, the poorer by Dorothy West, which is a collection of stories and essays. I read her novel The wedding a few years ago and thought it was excellent. It portrays the middle-class Black community of Martha's Vineyard, of which West and her family were a part. These stories look at a broader range of characters, settings and social classes, from the POVs of men, women and children. It's a perfect book to read on the train.

I've just finished All's well by Mona Awad, a campus/theatre novel in which things get very weird. Miranda Fitch is in constant pain following an accident some years ago, and she has gone from being a successful actress to an adjunct professor in a mediocre Theater Studies programme at an unnamed university. She intend to put on All's well that ends well as the annual Shakespeare production, but her students and colleagues are strongly opposed. One night Miranda encounters three strange men in a bar, who offer her an alternative future where her pain is gone, the students respect her, and she is revitalised in every way. But are things going a little TOO well? This is weird and funny and thought-provoking with a fabulously unreliable narrator.

I finished Broken (in the best possible way), and I guess that I was disappointed with the whole. There were some real highlights in between the meh, but overall it seemed repetitive to me. I think perhaps that books written by bloggers are best read one essay at a time with some time in between.

I started reading The Chosen and the Beautiful which I hope that I will like better. It is a fantasy retelling of The Great Gatsby from the point of view of the golfer friend of Daisy Buchanan. The friend, Jordan Baker, is a queer, Vietnamese woman who was adopted by rich Americans as a child. If nothing else, I can tell from the first chapter that I like the writing.

>134 Sakerfalcon:, I have heard of Dorothy West, and really should read something she wrote. On my list. All's well sounds really intriguing, and I'll have to take a look at that one, too. Thanks.

>135 vwinsloe: The chosen and beautiful is on my TBR pile. I look forward to seeing what you think of it.

>133 SChant: OMG, I must have got the time wrong. I can buy 70 years as far as lack of cultural change goes, but that doesn't leave enough time for such advancement in technology.
>134 Sakerfalcon: I've had All's Well on my TBR list for some time. It sounds like I should get to it.
>135 vwinsloe: Dorothy West looks good. Why haven't I read anything by her yet?
Right now I'm reading I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. I tried it in May because I loved her The Great Believers but abandoned it quickly not wanting to read anything else about murdered girls and women. However, this month I thought I'd try it again as part of a shared read. It's great so far. Girls and women do get murdered, and this novel is a kind of political look at why that's so common.

>138 Citizenjoyce: I have some questions for you is on my tbr pile. I look forward to your final reaction to it.

>138 Citizenjoyce: & >139 Sakerfalcon: Coincidently, I also have I Have Some Questions for You on my TBR pile. So maybe I should read it sooner rather than later.

>139 Sakerfalcon: >140 vwinsloe: I finished I Have Some Questions For You. It does explore all the ways women are casually damaged or killed by men with no repercussions for the men. It also explores how men are damaged by false or misguided accusations by women. Should a man be "Me Too"d for a bad date (I'm thinking Aziz Ansari though he isn't mentioned) or for being an inconsiderate lover? At one point someone states we shouldn't act on rumor and a character replies that rumor is sometimes all women have to warn them about bad men. Is it bad for white women to sweep in and try to save black men even if no one else is doing it? It raises many questions in a story that gets better as it goes along. I'm going to recommend it to my book club. It should make for great discussions.

>141 Citizenjoyce: Thanks! Next up for me, I guess.

>141 Citizenjoyce: This sounds great! So many important questions, and no easy answers.

>143 Sakerfalcon: American novels usually provide answers by the end of the book. This one certainly doesn't follow that pattern.
I just finished another book that doesn't provide answers but tries to clarify the question, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn. She shows, among other things, that American stories about the Holocaust usually have happy endings - the Jew or Jews are saved, often with the aid of caring Christians. Yiddish stories, on the other hand, just show the devastation because, for the most part, there were no righteous Christians or anyone else saving the persecuted. It's Horn's contention that people love Anne Frank because she's dead and because of her positive statements, especially "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." Soon Anne found people who were not really good at heart. This is a powerful book about antisemitism throughout the ages and how we are encouraged to overlook it.

>137 Sakerfalcon: I finished The Chosen and the Beautiful and found it to be a bit uneven for my taste, but very well worth reading. It is not a sweet or cozy or romantic read. The magic is new, and wonderful, but the story dragged for me when magic was offstage and the plot was mostly relationship drama among unlikeable characters. But the ending is satisfying and really well done, and I've thought about it constantly since I finished it a couple of days ago. I'm sure that I will go on thinking about it. Particularly the way that the immigrant/Asian minority experience is portrayed. While I didn't particularly like and couldn't identify with the narrator, at the end, I could understand her a bit, and that's an important accomplishment in itself.

I've started I Have Some Questions for You.

>145 vwinsloe: Well, shoot, now I have to check it out. I have so many books checked out now. We'll see if I get to it before it expires. I love reading books told from the point of view of a different character.

>146 Citizenjoyce: Reviews have said that this one is best listened to on audiobook. I didn't experience it that way, so you may like it even more than I did.

>145 vwinsloe: Thank you for this! the plot was mostly relationship drama among unlikeable characters fits The great Gatsby to a tee! (Actually I love TGG but I've seen that sort of comment from people who didn't enjoy it!)

Well, this is terrible. I just read Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn and I didn't believe a word of it. The octogenarian spy wrote it with the help of another author, Wendy Holden, and it comes across as an adventure story, not a nonfiction account. If it's true, and I have to think it is because I looked at Wikipedia, and she really did win all the honors she says she did, I'm as bad as all the sexist army officers she encountered who didn't believe she was a spy because she was a tiny (94 pound) little blonde girl. I'm not looking at her and still can't believe it. What an amazing life of adventure she lead, and she seemed to get out of all sorts of situations because of her imperious voice. How does that work?

>148 Sakerfalcon: Ah, but I loved TGG, too. So it's not that I particularly abhor relationship drama among unlikeable characters, it's just that it detracted from the magic and the immigrant story. There are very few likeable characters in The Chosen and the Beautiful (although I warmed up to Jordan Baker in the end) but I am sure that you will love Jordan Baker's first wave feminist Aunt and her cronies as much as I did.

>150 Citizenjoyce: It seems as though Marthe Cohn picked the wrong ghost writer.

>151 vwinsloe: Now I'm REALLY looking forward to it!

>152 vwinsloe: So true, though I've seen this with other memoirs. Novelists know how to sell a story, but if your life has been beyond belief, I guess it remains beyond belief.

Last night I found out that Hulu has made a series out of The Other Black Girl and will be showing it in September. That was one of my favorite books two years ago, and I still can't stop myself from recommending it. I sure hope they don't mess it up.

>155 Citizenjoyce: I wondered why I have The Other Black Girl sitting on my TBR shelf. It must be because you recommended it. I'm glad that you mentioned it again, because is was about to go into my Little Free Library!

>156 vwinsloe: It's different from anything else I've read. I can see how Hulu could change it entirely, but it talks about tokenism in a fresh way and you learn so much about Black hair and publishing. When I read it I said that it should destroy anyone's dreams about going into publishing. Still, I realize that all books about being a member of any corporate job - medicine, education, the military - do the same thing. We can't all work for ourselves, so I guess we have to find a way to survive in a bureaucracy. That's why some of us retire early, it does tend to wound the soul.

>157 Citizenjoyce: Okay, it's going into the rotation as the next fiction. I have such a difficult time picking out books to read from my TBR shelf that I love it when someone mentions something that I have. Usually by the time that I acquire a book, it is well past the buzz stage.

I did find I Have Some Questions For You right away in a Little Free Library. I'm almost done with that and will post more about it when I finish.

>158 vwinsloe: There are so many books I want to read I usually have 10 or more out from the library at a time and end up listening to whatever is due next regardless of whether or not it's the one I want to read.
I finished The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende who is not one of my favorite writers. I thought I was going to like this one, but she has the usual casual acceptance of devotion to Catholicism that grates on my nerves plus she tries to equate the treatment of immigrants to the US with the Holocaust. There are some things I will never accept - dead baby jokes and equating life's problems with the Holocaust are two of them. For people who criticize Jeanine Cummins for writing American Dirt, this could be the book they're waiting for. I'm just not one of those people.
Just this morning I finished The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor. I'm not a fan of self-help books, but Taylor does have good things to say about self-acceptance and humanity acceptance. I listen to most of the books I read, and I have to strongly suggest you not listen to this one, she sounds like a dogmatic preacher and at one point yells as she says "Yes, I'm yelling because this is important." I did like what she had to say about the outlook of a toddler who automatically loves her body and also loves to move. That's the basic stance of our human organism, and it's a shame we've been propagandized out of it.
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves --by Meg Long is a dystopian novel about a world controlled by corporations in which the indigenous people have little opportunity to maintain their natural existence with love of their land instead being encouraged to join in a 500 mile race each year in which sabotauge is encouraged. Human-wolf interaction is the concentration here, and, of course, you can't help rooting for the strong lonely girl and her big friend.
Now I'm reading Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims by Jennifer Vanderbes. My son has multiple myeloma and takes a form of thalidomide, Revlimid, daily to control it. I don't know if the book will get to that use, right now it's a biography of Frances Kelsey, a reviewer for the FDA who prevented the drug from being licensed in the US.

>159 Citizenjoyce: Having a deadline certainly helps make choices easier. My mood, as well as what I read last, really influences what I choose to read next. I don't think that a deadline would help me.

I read a book by Isabel Allende many years ago. It was magical realism, which is not a genre that I like, and, I've never read anything by her since.

That's interesting about Thalidomide. I didn't realize that they had found a positive use for it, but I think that many drugs can be dangerous in pregnancy but otherwise effective treatments. (Accutane comes readily to mind.) I hope that your son continues to have good results!

I've just finished reading A garden of earthly delights by Joyce Carol Oates. This is one of her early novels, and focuses on 3 generations of a poor white family, beginning in the Dustbowl of 1930s America. Clara is the central figure, born into a family of itinerant farmhands but determined to do better for herself. This was interesting to read so soon after Demon Copperhead, which tackles similar themes of growing up poor and despised. It's not a happy book but I found it gripping.

>161 Sakerfalcon: Joyce Carol Oates is an author whose work I either love or hate. Maybe I'll try A Garden of Earthly Delights and see if it's one of the good ones.

Right now I'm listening to Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill. I'm not that fond of short stories, but if I love an author or subject I'll give them a try. I liked The Girl Who Drank the Moon and loved When Women Were Dragons, so I thought, "Why not?" Well, this is why not. These stories are beautifully written about insects and brave girls and women and evil kings, and I barely understand even a few parts of them. I guess you should read them for the beauty of the language and hope something sneaks its way into your brain.

>161 Sakerfalcon: & 162 I read We were the Mulvaneys and was so utterly turned off by Joyce Carol Oates that I have never read anything else by her. I suppose that I should try something else, but it would have to be short!

>163 Citizenjoyce: When Women Were Dragons is on my wishlist, and I am glad to hear that you loved it.

Interestingly, we got some more spam as soon as the option to continue the topic to another page appeared. That seems to happen like clockwork.

I am going to turn the page now, and I'll let you know what I thought of I Have Some Questions for You over on page 16.