Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi – a Book Review

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

Yeah… I have no idea how to properly review this book. I’m not even sure I 100% understood it, to be honest. All I can say is I will do my best.

Synopsis

When Otto and Xavier take a non-honeymoon honeymoon on a train called The Lucky Day to celebrate the fact they have decided to share a last name without actually being married, things take a turn for the odd. The two board the train with their pet mongoose, Arpad Montague XXX. On board the train bound for an undisclosed location, they meet the eccentric owner of the train, Ava Kapoor, and the fairly odd people with whom she keeps acquaintance. Oh, and Ava also has a pet mongoose. Doesn’t everyone? They find out over the course of the journey that Ava is set to come into a large inheritance if she can merely prove that she is sane upon reaching her thirtieth birthday. Doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult a task for most people, but Ava claims never to have actually seen a pivotal character who does actually exist and has been seen by everyone else. No one really knows whether she actually can’t see him or whether she has been playing a cruel and elaborate joke on him. When this character begins appearing on the train to threaten her inheritance, things get interesting.

Review

This book is outlandish. In some ways, it’s outlandish in a good way, but it also lost me more than a few times. I loved the ambiance. Despite being a modern tale, it has the feel of a classic Agatha Christie mystery, complete with a train that exists as a character in and of itself. It’s complete with its own post office, dining car, and even a bazaar where one can find the most eclectic of items for purchase from equally eclectic merchants. I love books where the setting takes on a life of its own, and we’re introduced to it in the same way we would be a character. I think it takes a lot of skill to do that as a writer, and Oyeyemi is definitely a gifted writer. Her prose is extremely pleasant to read, and it’s full of extremely profound and beautiful passages that stop you in your tracks.

I enjoyed the characters, especially Otto and Xavier (pronounced Sah-vee-ay in the audiobook version.) Even peripheral characters, of equal importance in this story, were extremely vivid and well drawn. Character is a driving force of her novel, but there’s something very fluid about character as well. Ultimately, this is a novel about being seen by those in our lives in a conceptual sense. She presents this as a literal act of being seen, but as the reader we are to view this in the metaphorical sense instead. What is it like when people in our lives transition from being before our eyes, held in high esteem, to moving to the background as a mere shade of memory in the backs of our mind? We no longer see them. They cease to exist in a real tangible sense, and psychologically that has an impact on all parties involved.

Of course, all of this Oyeyemi throws at us in an extremely jumbled fashion that leaves us with more questions than answers. There were several characters in this book that were, perhaps, one character seen by each of our main characters in a different way, so they therefore took on a different form in the eye of the beholder. In one case, Xavier had encountered this man two different times in his life and referred to him as two different people, but in his mind he understood him to be the same person. He looked and acted differently, as Xavier’s perception of him had changed so he therefore took on a different identity as perceived by Xavier. Are you confused by this? I would agree. I’m still a bit confused, to be honest, but I also feel like it’s a pretty brilliant concept that is beginning to make sense.

Our main narrator, Otto, is presented as someone we like very much. He’s charming and witty, and we enjoy seeing things through his eyes. However, when Xavier gets a chance to have a say, we find out that Otto is a compulsive liar, which then throws literally everything we learned into doubt. If he’s an unreliable narrator, can we trust anything that we’ve learned thus far? I mean, most of it is so unbelievable that’s it’s easy to doubt all of it. Perhaps what Oyeyemi is really trying to tell us that nothing really is surreal, but our brains as an interpretive force are unreliable, so the world becomes surreal around us simply in our processing of information. It’s a conundrum.

Our modern action was disrupted from time to time by short vignettes of past experiences. Oyeyemi flowed into these stories in a wave-like fashion, fluidly transitioning into them before gently pulling the reader back. Each of these stories provided a little context that allowed us to better understand the characters and their various connections to one another. This is where I become a bit torn with this book. I understand what Oyeyemi was trying to do, but I felt like there was a bit much to take in. If attempting to interpret this book gives you a headache, it ceases to become pleasant. That being said, there’s a small sector of the population who positively love that kind of challenge, and they are the ones who give 5 stars to this book. To each their own.

The pacing of this novel was quite good except at the very end. It’s a short novel, and a lot happens over the course of the book. At the very end, it surges forward at an incredibly rapid pace, as if the train has picked up speed way too close to the station and threatens to overtake it without stopping to let us off. And that left me a bit confused once again, because I’m not entirely sure what actually happened or why. Overall, I have very mixed feelings about the book. I did enjoy the ride, however, so I’m going to give it a 3 1/2.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Published April 6 2021 by Penguin Audio. ISBN 9780593394564. Runtime 7 hrs 50 mins.

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Let’s Talk Bookish – August 6, 2021

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

This is my first week doing the Let’s Talk Bookish meme, hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion. This is a weekly meme where each week bloggers discuss a different topic, suggested by bloggers. This week’s topic is: WHAT IS YOUR POSTING TYPE? (Suggested by Nicole @ Thoughts Stained with Ink.

This is an interesting question for me, as I consider my blog to be something that’s still very much a work in progress. When I first started, I thought I was just going to be writing book reviews, but I’ve slowly started to implement different kinds of postings.

Do I schedule my postings before publishing?

I don’t really do any scheduling. I do have the weekly posts I always plan to do that day, but for reviews they are really just free flowing and they come whenever I get something finished. I rarely wind up posting on weekends, but I generally have some kind of post, whether it be review or other, in progress at all times. I really have more of a mental schedule that changes pretty frequently more than an actual physical schedule.

How much editing do I do?

I do a lot of editing. I generally try to get the text down of everything I want to say. I go in after the fact and add any images, and then I add links. Then I go through and read through everything in draft form and make edits. Then I preview my post and look for any errors and inconsistencies. I’ll generally do one more read-through before posting.

How often do I post per week?

This really fluctuates depending on how many reviews I post a week. I try to post at least 3 times a week. Tuesday through Thursday I usually try to do a weekly meme, so if I also post a review I might post twice in one day. I have posted as much as 6 times a week so far, but rarely more than that.

How much actually blogging versus networking do I do?

I’ve really started to focus on my networking a lot more now that I have my blog content to a point where I’m able to get things up a bit quicker. I try to take some good time out at least once per day to visit other bloggers, read reviews, comment, and get to know the other people in the community. As I’m still rather new to the scene, I think this is an important step, not just for putting my blog out there for others to see, but to help me learn and grow and really get to know other bloggers. It’s also great for getting recommendations for books I might want to read and review. At this point, I’d say I have about a 70/30 split. 70% of my blogging time I spend on working on my own content/writing and 30% I spend networking with with others.

How has my blogging style changed since I started?

I really started back seriously around October of 2020. I was originally focused on just posting reviews and honestly had no idea what I was doing. I learned a lot by seeing what other bloggers were doing, and I’m still in a big transitional period. The biggest thing that’s changed is I focus a lot more on networking than I did in the beginning, and I’ve gotten a lot quicker in my writing and posting process.

If you are a blogger, what’s your blogging style? What works for you?

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New Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke – a Book Review

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

First, a disclaimer. I haven’t studied poetry since college, and even then it was just a couple of classes. I’ve never really been a reader who has gravitated toward poetry, and it’s very easy to say I’m pretty rusty when it comes to literary interpretation of verse. I was inspired to read Rilke’s collection entitled New Poems because I needed to read poetry for my reading challenge. I’m glad I did, as it was a nice little piece of nostalgia. However, I don’t feel at all qualified to write an actual review of this because well… I’m not qualified.

Rilke was an Austrian poet, born in 1875. His poetry has been translated by various people over the years. This particular version was translated by Joseph Cadora, so a lot of credit goes to Cadora for the retention of both the intense lyricism and meaning of Rilke’s original text. I did a very minor amount of research into Rilke to glean an overall view of his life, which is often important in understanding how to interpret the work of a poet.

Rainer Maria Rilke. Image source: Bettman / Getty. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/04/to-work-is-to-live-without-dying/376572/

The poetry in New Poems was very much inspired by Rilke’s work with the sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Though Rilke was born in Prague, he later did a lot of traveling, hobnobbing with scholars, artists, philosophers, and writers to glean inspiration for his work. He lived in Paris for 12 years, and from the years of 1905 to 1906 he worked as an assistant to Rodin, living at Rodin’s Paris estate. In fact, Rilke would marry a sculptor and former pupil of Rodin’s, Clara Westhoff. While the poet was in his 20’s and the sculptor, Rodin, in his 60’s, the two shared an incredibly strong bond, and the years he spent in the company of Rodin had a lasting impact on Rilke’s later work. They would have a rocky on and off relationship that lasted until the sculptor’s death in 1917.

Sculptor August Rodin. Image source: https://www.biography.com/artist/auguste-rodin

Rilke elevated art in his mind to the ideal pinnacle of human existence, and he had an extremely critical view of organized religion. Religious imagery is peppered throughout his poems. In one entitled Pieta, Rilke puts his own twist on the concept by depicting the dying Jesus in the arms of Mary Magdalene as she laments the fact they were never lovers, an extraordinary opportunity lost to them. Cadora’s translation of each poem is accompanied by an explanatory paragraph that often weaved in facts about Rilke’s life that aided in the poem’s interpretation. In the case of Pieta, it was interesting to note that Rilke was inspired by Rodin’s prior sculpture of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in his own version of the Pieta.

Other common themes found in Rilke’s New Poems are mythology, childhood, flowers, art, and various other things. Most of the poems are extremely short in length, but they pack a lot of meaning into just a few stanzas. Rilke experiments with rhyme and meter, but each poem is extremely lyrical and powerful, positively bursting with imagery and symbolism. A beautiful example is the way he describes the dancer in his poem entitled Spanish Dancer: 

As a match in the fingers first glows white
then bursts into tongues of flame that flare, 
in the ring of spectators it seems to ignite, 
with blistering heat, abrupt and bright; 
her spinning dance seeks to spread like fire.

To some, Rilke may be a bit flowery and verbose, but I tend to enjoy his lyrical quality. From my reading into his life, it appears Rilke’s work went through many different transitory periods, and I’d definitely be interested in reading work from both the earlier and later periods of his professional life to compare and get a good gauge of how he evolved as a writer. Perhaps one day I’ll take that on. For now, I’m satisfied with having had my introduction to this highly acclaimed poet with this collection. 4 Stars.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Published 2014 by Copper Canyon Press. ISBN 9781556594243. 460 pages.

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One Two Three by Laurie Frankel – a Book Review

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

At first glance, this would appear to be a common real life storyline. But, somehow, Laurie Frankel has made something truly unique and refreshing with One Two Three. This is reminiscent of Erin Brockovich, the woman who helped build a case against Pacific Gas & Electric company in California in the 90’s after the company’s contamination of the groundwater adversely affected the town’s residents.

In One Two Three, Nora Mitchell is a Brockovich-esque character bent on making Belsum Chemical pay for the damage they did to the town of Bourne 16 years prior, killing or disfiguring many townsfolk and causing a rash of birth defects in children born after the contamination. After inflicting their damage, Belsum packed up and left town, covering up their part in the tragedy. Those without the means or ability to get out were left to battle the despair and destruction left in the company’s wake. In the present, Nora raises her 3 teenage triplets alone after losing her husband to the company’s cruelty and carelessness prior to the girls’ birth. Nora has fought tirelessly for sixteen years and her efforts have not brought justice for her town. Now, Belsum Chemical is returning with a rebranded business, assuring the town that this time they will save them and fulfill the promise they made years ago to bring prosperity to Bourne. Nora and her daughters can see the danger looming, and One Two Three is the story of their quest to save their town from a final death blow.

The power behind this novel lies with the characters. While Nora is a very pivotal character, she’s not the driving force. The novel is told from the perspectives of her three daughters. There’s Mab, one syllable. She was born first. She’s “the normal one.” A rarity in Bourne, she’s a gifted student with no ill physical or mental defects. She shoulders the loneliness and isolation, and a fair amount of bitterness, from her existence in Bourne. There’s Monday, the middle triplet, two syllables. Monday is the literal one. On the autism spectrum, Monday only likes yellow things except on rainy days when green is the only acceptable color, and she acts as the town librarian. Though the library is now empty, the books have been moved to the Mitchell home where they are stashed in various crevices about the house, locations of which are all catalogued precisely in Monday’s brain for quick accession when needed by a patron. Then there’s Mirabel, three syllables. Mirabel was the last triplet, her birth taking too long. Mirabel was born with cerebral palsy and can’t walk or communicate the way other people do. From her wheelchair, she communicates with her family through a series of taps or through typing into her computerized system that translates what she needs to say. Mirabel is a brilliant marvel of introspection, and her chapters were always my favorite. She is the true philosophical spirit of Bourne, a town that’s been trapped within a shell that’s vaguely reminiscent of what it should be.

A truly beautiful story is told through strong character development, and Frankel is a master of character if this book is any indication. I fell in love with each of them, and not just the core three narrators. There’s the town pastor/doctor, a man who is both frustratingly optimistic and endearingly loyal to a town he could leave behind for the sake of chasing a more prosperous future. There’s the mayor, a man who is forever stuck between a rock and hard place wanting to make the right decision for his town but never really knowing how and always seeming to fall short. Through it all, he never stops trying to do right by them. There’s the history teacher, a woman who never tells history in chronological order because she has her own sense of logic when it comes to the true depth of the catalogue of time. And there are a whole host of other truly memorable and endearing characters who make up a tapestry of a beautiful town that’s completely whole despite its fractures and scars and missing pieces. Honestly, seeing what’s left of Bourne makes the reader understand the sheer gravity of what they’ve lost. If the people left are so lovable, what has faded away? There’s value also in what we don’t see.

Even the villainous characters had some form of depth, except for perhaps the unseen Duke Templeton, a man with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He’s more of an absent evil overlord, the quintessential amoral CEO who holds the victims of his greedy whims away from view so he doesn’t have to view the damage his avarice has wrought upon them. Sadly, this is probably one of the most authentic characters in the book. Nathan, Duke’s son sent to the town with his family in tow to convince the town to embrace Belsum’s return, is a mix of raw emotion and insecurity beneath his charismatic facade. Seriously, every character in this book is important and has a role to play, and Frankel weaves them effortlessly together.

The writing in this novel is superb. It’s rare to find a book with three separate narrative voices that contain such unique and discernible qualities that it’s difficult to grasp the fact that the three voices were actually written by the same person. Especially during Mirabel’s sections, I was often left awestruck by the pure subtle and unpretentious power of the prose. The novel isn’t perfect. Especially toward the end, I felt we veered into the realm of unbelievability. The action really picks up and we’re thrust into a fast moving and suspenseful story full of unlikely surprises, but maybe that’s ok. Maybe what we need in the face of such real life social justice tragedies is a semblance of hope. That being said, there was a kind of open-endedness to the conclusion of the novel that leaves me a bit perplexed and a little uneasy. I look forward to having a discussion with someone who also reads this, because I’d like to get another reader’s interpretation to see if I’m perhaps viewing everything way too cynically. To be sure, I was left with a lot to think about.

Overall, I really loved this book and its charming, imperfect trio of heroines. 4 1/2 stars.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Published June 8, 2021 by Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 1250236770. 400 pages.

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TBR Thursday – Episode 9: August 5, 2021

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I added a couple of TBR’s this week, so I’m beginning my cleanup with 501. I’ll dispense with the formalities and get right to it.

94

Flight by Sherman Alexie

Synopsis: “With powerful and swift, prose, Flight follows this troubled foster teenager–a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father–as he learns that violence is not the answer.

The journey for Flight‘s young hero begins as he’s about to commit a massive act of violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time to resurface in the body of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, where he sees why “Hell is Red River, Idaho, in the 1970s.” Red River is only the first stop in an eye-opening trip through moments in American history. He will continue traveling back to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then ride with an Indian tracker in the nineteenth century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. During these furious travels through time, his refrain grows: “Who’s to judge?” and “I don’t understand humans.” When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own life, he is mightily transformed by all he has seen.”

Verdict: I really enjoy Sherman Alexie’s books and films. This one has good reviews overall, and I think it’s an important one for me to finally get to one day.

KEEP

134

Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived by Chip Walter

Synopsis: “Over the past 150 years scientists have discovered evidence that at least twenty-seven species of humans evolved on planet Earth. These weren’t simply variations on apes, but upright-walking humans who lived side by side, competing, cooperating, sometimes even mating with our direct ancestors. Why did the line of ancient humans who eventually evolved into us survive when the others were shown the evolutionary door? Chip Walter draws on new scientific discoveries to tell the fascinating tale of how our survival was linked to our ancestors being born more prematurely than others, having uniquely long and rich childhoods, evolving a new kind of mind that made us resourceful and emotionally complex; how our highly social nature increased our odds of survival; and why we became self aware in ways that no other animal seems to be. Last Ape Standing also profiles the mysterious “others” who evolved with us-the Neanderthals of Europe, the “Hobbits” of Indonesia, the Denisovans of Siberia and the just-discovered Red Deer Cave people of China who died off a mere eleven thousand years ago. Last Ape Standing is evocative science writing at its best-a witty, engaging and accessible story that explores the evolutionary events that molded us into the remarkably unique creatures we are; an investigation of why we do, feel, and think the things we do as a species, and as people-good and bad, ingenious and cunning, heroic and conflicted.”

Verdict: Hmm… well, at the moment I’m not really in a nonfiction and especially a science-y state of mind. However, this is a subject I do enjoy, and the reviews detail this as being a book that’s accessible for non-science experts like myself with a passing interest. I think I’ll keep it for now.

KEEP

409

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

Synopsis: “It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.

Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.”

Verdict: Well, this one is easy. I absolutely loved The Henna Artist and have been eagerly awaiting reading this follow-up. It looks like this one is from Malik’s perspective, which is great. He’s a character from the first I really enjoyed. Definitely keeping this one as a TBR ASAP.

KEEP

176

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Synopsis: “In 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu’ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub “The Dreamers,” who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences.”

Verdict: While I’m still intrigued by this, perusing the reviews show just how disturbing the content in the book is. I’m not sure I want that at this point. Maybe some day I’ll change my mind and stumble across this one again, but for now I think I’ll remove it.

REMOVE

353

The Wall by Kelsey Tara Nicole

Synopsis: “Markets filled with mixed odours and the buzz of merchants desperate to make a sale. Labourers working strenuously long hours for little pay. Children of all ages roaming unsupervised, forced to raise themselves. Streets like mazes, where no one would want to find themselves wandering alone after dark. This is certain within the City, the only known civilization: poverty and corruption are inescapable. The only uncertainty lies behind the vast, red-brick wall outside the City limits, its existence ignored out of fear and distrust. Eden, a young girl who yearns for more, is given an extraordinary opportunity to see what, or who, resides behind the ancient wall. She will have to decide for herself whether to be afraid or comforted by what she finds.”

Verdict: This does look interesting, but it would appear it was a Giveaway I entered a while back, and it doesn’t have a lot of ratings, which tells me it might be pretty hard to get a hold of. Not sure I’m that invested to really track an obscure book down, so I’m going to remove this one.

REMOVE

There you have it. I feel like I end a lot of weeks at 499. I guess that’s my number. Next up I’ll have a couple of reviews coming down the line, as I finished two books yesterday. Come to think of it, I’ll finish one today as well. I’ve been a busy bee! Happy Reading!

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WWW Wednesday – August 4, 2021 #wwwwednesday #bookishmemes

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

Hello and welcome to a new week of WWW Wednesday, a weekly series hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. In it, we share our reading progress for the week by answering three questions beginning with W and invite others to do the same.

The Three Ws are:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you just finish reading?
  • What will you read next?

What am I currently reading?

I’m just now starting The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin. I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, because I’ve seen a lot of buzz about this one from other bloggers. I’ve also been intermittently reading poems over the last couple of weeks from Rilke’s New Poems collection, which contains both the German and English translations of his two volumes of poetry, translated by Joseph Cadora. On audio, I’ve been mostly enjoying Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi. This is a very eclectic book with a very unique plot and interesting characters. I’m not quite sure what I think yet, but I look forward to reviewing this one later.

What have I just finished reading?

I quite literally just finished Laurie Frankel’s One Two Three and decided to do this WWW post before I start working on my review. Not sure if I’ll get that posted today, so it may be tomorrow but I’ll get to it soon. I also finished Antkind this week and got my review posted at the beginning of the week. You can find it here. Definitely an interesting read, for sure.

What will I read next?

I’m mostly allowing the library to help me choose my next reads based on the due dates of my checked out titles and whether or not there are or aren’t holds on them from other readers. For that reason, my next read will be Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. There are no holds on it, but it’s due mid-month and I’ve already maxed my renewals. That will leave me with just two books left in this batch of library checkouts. I turn 3 books in today when I make my journey over there.

On audio, I don’t really know! I’m going to leave that one up to fate and my feelings at the time. I’m pretty close to the end of Peaces, so I figure I’ll have that decision to make tomorrow. That’s it for me this week. Happy reading, and feel free to share your progress this week with me!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Title Temptation – August 3, 2021

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

Welcome to a new week of Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week, I’ll be examining 10 books I’ve either read because the title grabbed me or I added it to my TBR because the title intrigued me. Interestingly enough, all of these books also have pretty outstanding covers. I notice some people this week have been doing Title and some cover, so I’ll just say mine is multipurpose! Without further ado, here are my 10:

A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison

This is the first book by Corban Addison I read, and I positively fell in love with it. It is as good, though heartbreaking, as the cover suggests, and the title is extremely lyircal. Altogether, it’s a pretty tempting package.

Synopsis: “When a tsunami rages through their coastal town in India, 17-year-old Ahalya Ghai and her 15-year-old sister Sita are left orphaned and homeless. With almost everyone they know suddenly erased from the face of the earth, the girls set out for the convent where they attend school. They are abducted almost immediately and sold to a Mumbai brothel owner, beginning a hellish descent into the bowels of the sex trade.”

House of Hollow by Krytal Sutherland

Firstly, I’m a sucker for alliterative titles. Secondly, this books cover is the first thing that pulled me in. The book was pretty phenomenal as well.

Synopsis: “Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.”

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

It’s true that I was seeing buzz about this book from other readers, but it’s really the cover art blended with that intriguing title that caused me to jump at it so quickly, and I’m really glad I did. It was well worth it.

Synopsis: “In 1893, there’s no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters–James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna–join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.”

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

How could you not read a book with that title? Plus, mixed with the cover art? Talk about inviting and weird from the start. And definitely not disappointing. Sedaris is hilarious.

Synopsis: “David Sedaris has written yet another book of essays (his sixth). Subjects include a parasitic worm that once lived in his mother-in-law’s leg, an encounter with a dingo, and the recreational use of an external catheter. Also recounted is the buying of a human skeleton and the author’s attempt to quit smoking In Tokyo.

Master of nothing, at the dead center of his game, Sedaris proves that when you play with matches, you sometimes light the whole pack on fire.”

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

I haven’t yet read enough Isabel Allende, and she’s one of those writers that should be savored. This book has always been intriguing, and the title is one that really blips a radar. Not to mention the cover is exquisite.

Synopsis: “In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.”

The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer

Once again, the title and the cover art in all their steam punk glory make this one really intriguing. It just tells me there’s something fascinating inside. I haven’t yet gotten to it, but I’m looking forward to it.

Synopsis: “Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, the greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane.”

We Are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

This title seems very dark and brooding. It doesn’t give much away but it draws the reader in. And you can’t help but wonder about the significance of the cover art. Definitely interested in this new thriller.

Synopsis: “The discovery of a girl abandoned by the side of the road threatens to unearth the long-buried secrets of a Texas town’s legendary cold case in this superb, atmospheric novel.”

This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

Honestly, this just seems like the title to read during a pandemic. As I’m sitting in a State where things just continue to get worse, I feel like everyone is still just flirting with being “this close to ok.” Perhaps that’s what grabs me. Either way, this looks compelling.

Synopsis: “On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett.

Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. But what she doesn’t realize is that he’s not the only one who needs healing — and she’s not the only one with secrets.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

There’s something so haunting about this title/cover combo. I can tell there are a million things being said in one image. It’s so compelling and makes me want to peek inside.

Synopsis: “As the fictional African village of Kosawa is slowly being destroyed by an American oil company and their government seems to only care about its own interests, the people who live there decide to fight back. This exploration of capitalism, colonialism and what a difference the little guy will really make you think.”

All’s Well by Mona Awad

There are a couple of things going on here. First of all, the title reference to Shakespeare. And if you analyze the image and see the slightly creepy theater face with a forced smile is made up of pills, you realize just how much thought went into the symbolism and imagery of the cover art. I find myself really drawn to this one.

Synopsis: “Miranda’s marriage is over and her job as a college theater director is in peril. In short, her life is in shambles, all because of debilitating nerve pain from the accident that ended her stage career. She’d do anything to make it go away. And then, three strange benefactors offer to do just that, in this darkly comedic story that’s uniquely unsettling.”

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Antkind by Charlie Kaufman – a Book Review

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

I have done it! I have climbed the mountain that is Antkind and have lived to tell the tale. Truly, this novel can best be summed up using dialogue from the novel itself: When our main character is conversing with another character in the end, he asserts that “this feels nonsensical.” She replies, “Yet, you’re drawn to it.” That’s the truth. This novel is completely and utterly nonsensical but yet, for some reason, masochistic readers such as myself keep reading. Had anyone but the famous Charlie Kaufman written this book, I’m not sure it would have seen the light of day. He’s proven he can do whatever he wants simply because he’s Charlie Kaufman. And why not? He’s paid his dues and most of us know he’s weird. Everyone else can deal with it.

First, a warning. I do verge into spoiler territory in this review, as I found it a bit unavoidable. Usually, as a rule for my blog, I don’t want to ever give spoilers because I view my book reviews as intended for potential readers versus those who have already read a book, so I would never spoil the end. In this case, I find it impossible to review this book without giving my own theories into its meaning, so continue reading at your own risk.

Kaufman spends the entire first third of the novel begging us to hate his protagonist. B Rosenberger Rosenberg is everything detestable wrapped into one annoying package. He’s at once narcissistic and pathetic, a caricature of today’s obsessively woke CIS white male of privilege who is the exact epitome of what he claims to despise. He’s so obsessed with race that it’s all he sees. He’s especially obsessed with black people, stubbornly insisting on calling his black girlfriend African American despite her telling him she prefers the term black. He also constantly refers to her as “my African American girlfriend” to everyone he meets, turning her race into the most important factor of her identity and using her presence in his life as a badge of honor. “Look how progressive I am with my black girlfriend!” It’s purely about him and the image he can project to the outside world rather than the issue itself.

He professes to be an ardent feminist while exhibiting all of the worst qualities of the misogynistic mansplainer that he can fit into male form. He’s creepy and stalker-ish, developing strange attachments to women within seconds of meeting them, immediately sexualizing them in wild fantasies that are grotesque and cringeworthy. He generalizes about sex while being publicly obsessed with chosen pronouns, insisting upon the use of the dead “thon” in reference to people who prefer a nonbinary pronoun despite the fact that even these same people would prefer they/them. Pretty sure after listening to Rosenberg drone on about “thon” if I ever hear someone actually use it, I may not be able to stop myself from punching them. It’s the typical pretentious jabberings of someone who knows something once existed so they use it obsessively to put on a certain air of superiority. I’ve seen some reviews, some in major magazines, claiming that Kaufman created this pronoun for the book, that’s how obscure it is. Unlike them, I did my homework and verified that it actually existed in a bygone era.

He’s unbelievably egocentric, believing himself to be the most intelligent and impressive specimen of a man while saying things that are patently incorrect. Interestingly enough, however, this tends to get worse as the novel progresses and the plot becomes stranger. This begs the question, is he really this big of an idiot, is he spiraling into a dementia of paranoia and psychosis, or is he really experiencing some kind of alternate dimension convergence in which things are similar but not exactly the same?

I might add, Rosenberg is a caricature of the much-maligned movie critic, the ones detested by the average movie goer (and probably most filmmakers) because their snobbish opinions are typically the exact reverse of public consensus. It’s no surprise Kaufman writes Rosenberg to positively loathe the filmmaker, Charlie Kaufman, throwing a multitude of insults at him over the course of more than seven hundred pages. Strangely enough, Rosenberg has the exact opposite reaction to Judd Apatow, constantly lauding him with effervescent praise and adulation. It made me wonder if this was Kaufman’s way of flinging underhanded insults at Apatow or if it’s a little joke between friends who just happen to also be competitors in the same industry. Upon researching this question, thon finds *ahem* err… one finds… that Kaufman refuses to answer the question, encouraging readers to make up their own minds. Kaufman’s work has always relied very heavily on imagination and open interpretation, something I’ve always quite admired. He literally refuses to tell us his intent, instead viewing himself as the messenger of a story with no real set intent that can be interpreted differently when viewed from different angles. Some viewers, my own spouse included, just get pissed off when people do this to them. Some people want to be challenged and some want easy escapism. Both are valid and, thankfully, there’s plenty of entertainment out there for all of us.

As the novel moves along, it gets progressively stranger and much more disjointed. Readers aren’t at all sure what’s real or if any of it is real. B meets an impossibly elderly filmmaker, Ingo Cutbirth, who has been making the same film for 9 decades. The film is 3 months long, and B is the only person the filmmaker ever wants to see it. B, however, is convinced he has found the greatest achievement in cinematic history and, upon Ingo’s sudden death, he professes that he will deliver this holy grail of cinematic achievement to the public and will finally make a name for himself in Hollywood. Once again, it didn’t matter to him that Ingo’s dying wish was for the film to never go public, B did what he wanted to further his career. Except that the film spontaneously combusts in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant and all but one frame is lost. B must then set off on a journey of hypnotic self discovery to recollect every last second of the film as it exists in his brain so that he can recreate it in its entirety.

Our journey as we follow B jumps around from odd, rambling encounters in real life, in dreams, in hypnotic trances, in the movie, in history, in alternate dimensions, in the future, and God knows what else because I’m not even clear which was which. At times, I viewed him as being lost within the film, reality blurring with Ingo Cutbirth’s creative work. For instance, the fast food restaurant he was at when the film caught fire becomes a corporate overlord that threatens the fate of the world. President Donald J. Trunk (you read that right) finally gets to have sex with the one person he loves most in the world, himself. And thank you, Charlie Kaufman for giving the world the greatest gift you could, Donald Trump’s worst nightmare. For nothing could be more detestable to him than a future in which the world has forgotten his name and only remembers him for the narcissistic bloviating mess he truly is. I find myself digressing in a similar fashion to the novel.

Are we following B through a real life moment in which his eyes are opened by his introduction to a moving and riveting piece of art or are we following B’s spiral into a desperate psychosis from which he’ll likely never return? If I had to make a guess, I think we are supposed to see this in a semi-literal sense. B is warned that the Brainio technology is dangerous to tinker with, and he tinkers, which caused a further fracturing of a mind already in a fragile, tenuous place. I think, anyway. Seriously, some of it left me so confused and at one point I was listening at 2x speed which probably wasn’t a good idea. BUT IT WAS SOOOO LONG AND B WAS SO ANNOYING! Either way, whether you take things from a speculative fiction or psychological standpoint or somewhere in between, as I do, this is a truly wild ride. I can’t even fathom what’s it’s like inside Charlie Kaufman’s head. What a fascinating, nonsensical, but brilliant place that must be.

I’m very torn on a rating for this book. Upon reflection, I see the flashes of brilliance. However, it was simply so arduous to plod through, so much so that I thought he could have easily shortened it and still retained the meat of the story. I’m going to settle on 3 stars. Worthwhile but not exactly enjoyable.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
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Reading Challenge update – July 30, 2021

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

It’s the last Friday of July, so it’s a great time to check in with my reading challenge progress. I find myself in really great shape at this point, as I’m crushing my 52 book goal. I’m doubling up on some categories at this point, so I’ll really have to focus on choosing things for each category, and many of them I’ve already picked out. To read my reviews for any of the titles, you can click on each completed title. Here’s where I stand so far in 2021:

1. A Productivity Book – Stop Living on Autopilot by Antonio Neves – completed
2. Book Becoming Movie in 2021 – The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz – completed
3. Goodreads Winner in 2020 – The Midnight Library – by Matt Haig – completed
4. Biography
5. About a Pressing Social Issue – The Garden of Burning Sand by Corban Addison – completed
6. A Book About Books – The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson – completed
7. Set in the 1920s – The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell – completed
8. An Author Who Uses Initials – The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – completed
9. Poetry – New Poems by Rilke – currently reading
10. A 2020 Bestseller – Anxious People by Fredrik Backman – completed
11. Recommended by a Colleague
12. With a Number in the Title – Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – completed
13. Bottom of Your To-Read List
14. Reread a Favorite Book
15. Own Voices Story – March by John Lewis – completed
16. Published in the 1800s
17. Local Author – Drifting by Steven Cross – completed
18. Longer Than 400 Pages – The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – completed
19. A Book Turned Into a TV Series
20. A Book That Makes You Think – Antkind by Charlie Kaufman – currently reading
21. A WWII Story – The Willow Wren by Philipp Schott – completed
22. A Highly Anticipated Book – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir- completed
23. Eye-Catching Cover – House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland – completed.
24. A Summer Read – The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary – completed
25. Coming of Age Story – Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – completed
26. Bestselling Memoir – In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado– completed
27. Book Club Favorite – Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix – completed
28. A Book About Friendship – The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery – completed, How Lucky by Will Leitch – completed, Radiant: The Dancer, the Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light by Liz Heinecke – completed
29. An Audiobook – Walking With Ghosts: A Memoir by Gabriel Byrne – completed
30. Set in Australia
31. By a Nobel Prize winner
32. About an Immigrant – Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende – completed
33. Time Travel Novel – Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi– completed
34. An Author You Love 35. Childhood Favorite – Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume – completed.
36. Classic Read in High School
37. Borrowed from the Library –Faye, Faraway by Helen Fisher – completed, Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson – completed
38. Nonfiction New York Times Bestseller
39. From an Indie Publisher – The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar – completed
40. Fantasy – The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox – completed
41. A Sequel
42. Recommended by a Librarian
43. Psychological Thriller – In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce – completed
44. Oprah Winfrey Book Club Pick
45. A Book About Technology – The Future is Yours by Dan Frey – completed
46. Title with Three Words – Home Before Dark by Riley Sager– completed
47. Debut Novel of Famous Author – The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie – completed
48. Genre You Don’t Usually Read – Code of the Hills: An Ozarks Mystery by Nancy Allen – completed
49. A Book Everyone Is Talking About – American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins – completed.
50. You Own But Haven’t Read
51. Borrowed from a Friend – The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty– completed
52. A 2021 New Release – The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner – completed

So far, I’ve completed 38 books with another 2 in progress, both of which I should finish today. I’m very pleased with my progress so far this month! Happy reading and thanks for stopping by!

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Radiant: The Dancer, the Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light by Liz Heinecke: a Book Review

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Amy @ A Librarian and Her Books

This is the first adult book for author Liz Heinecke whose background is in molecular biology and bacteriology. She has written some in the past in the sciences for children, specifically in experiments parents and children can do at home to encourage the development of a love of science. Her background and her passion definitely cross over into this book. You can find her online at The Kitchen Pantry Scientist.

Synopsis

Radiant is creative nonfiction that focuses on the lives of two very different women and their unlikely friendship. It follows the well known physicist, Marie Curie, and a lesser known but still equally impressive dancer, Loie Fuller. While Curie would go on to win the Nobel Prize not once, but twice, for her work in physics and chemistry, Fuller would fade to relative obscurity outside the worlds of dance and art nouveau. However, it’s clear from Heinecke’s book that Fuller deserves a place of notoriety not just as an innovator in the creative realm, but she was a technological and scientific innovator as well. The book follows both their careers from the late 1800’s to the early 1930’s and profiles both their individual accomplishments and the ways their two fates intertwined to shape their legacies.

Review

I’m really glad I stumbled upon this book. It’s a very unique true story in women’s history, and both of these figures deserve to have their stories told. I found both their stories to be quite riveting. Of course I had heard of Curie, but this was my first introduction to Fuller and I’m amazed I haven’t heard of her before this. At times, this book read very technical and scientific, which isn’t surprising considering Heinecke’s background. Honestly, it would be difficult to write this book without getting into the technical aspects of their innovations, so I don’t find it to be a fault with this book. As I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, I find stuff like that a little more difficult to follow than the human stories. I do feel Heinecke did a very good job making this accessible to all readers despite the very technical aspect of the subject matter, and that’s in part thanks to her using a creative nonfiction format in which she manufactures dialogue and additional scenes to bring the history to life. It reads like a novel despite its place as nonfiction.

Marie Curie, date unknown. Source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96512741/

Both women dealt with the various types of overt sexism that permeated their fields. In Fuller’s case, she was criticized for not being feminine enough, for not having the perfect body of the typical dancer, and mocked for her weight and height. For Curie, as a woman in the scientific community, her intellect and accomplishments were overlooked or were credited to a male colleague simply because it was believed a woman couldn’t possibly be in possession of the ability to reach such heights in an intellectual world. Both women had to be five times more cunning and had to work ten times harder to rise to the top of their fields, and they both succeeded. Though so different from each other, they both could understand the hurdles each had to overcome to be successful as a woman of their time.

Loie Fuller wearing one of her famous dresses she would wear to perform dances such as her “Serpentine dance.” Image source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96514366/

At times, Fuller was overlooked as the intelligent and innovative woman she was simply because she was a dancer. Honestly, I feel we still do this to women in pop culture today. Shut up and sing/dance/act, and stop proving you’re actually a brilliant and fascinating human capable of stringing more than three words together. What a slut, go put on some clothes. Take off your clothes because you look like frump girl. Honestly, it’s exhausting seeing what we do to women, and even men, in the public eye. Both Loie Fuller and Marie Curie are evidence that this is hardly a new phenomenon. It’s always been nearly impossible for a woman to please the public. Thankfully, there have always been women who said “screw ’em” and did what they wanted anyway. And there were always some people receptive to their forms of art or their intellect. That’s how progress comes about. This is a story that celebrates that history of progress. I’m so grateful for women like Fuller and Curie who fought such a hard fight to gain respect for women during times when it was so much more difficult than it is today. We haven’t come all the way, but we’ve come a really damn long way.

This book does a great job presenting the two women as I believe they really were. Loie is a charismatic, larger than life, but slightly flighty woman of big dreams and extreme tenacity. Often tethered to reality and kept organized by her life partner, Gab, a severe and resolute woman who both adored Loie for her carelessness and despaired over it within the same breath. Marie is a serious and laser focused scientist with an equal amount of tenacity that manifests itself in different ways than Loie but still works to bind the two together. Though they exist in different spheres, they always find a way to reach out to each other as the years go by.

While Heinecke is a scientist, she still manages to pull off some pretty impressive creative writing. Overall, this book is a really lovely tribute to both of them, and it deserves a lot of admiration for the authentic and rarely shared story that it tells. 4 stars.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Published February 2021 by Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781538717363. 324 pages.

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