6. The Tea
Apr. 2nd, 2024 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tommycanyouhearmeI've had the headings and pictures set up since March 27th, so even with the date fixed it may have not shown up on your reading page for today, sorry!
Alright, folks. Here are my book reviews for the month of March. Apologies for any misspelled character's names, as this was all via audiobook so I haven't seen most of the names in print. Let's dive in.
Books listened to in March 2024:
1. Go As A River by Shelley Read
This was a heartbreaking and beautiful coming of age piece, taking place in the real town of Iola, CO, now flooded by the Gunnison River by the government since 1966, forever submerged under the Blue Mesa Reservoir, along with the neighboring towns Sapinero and Cebolla. The amount of pain and loss that Victoria went through her whole life, especially giving her baby up for adoption (not even, just leaving him with a family she hoped would care for him and sneaking away), just broke my heart. So many events in this book over the decades she recounted broke my heart. I legit cried at some parts. It made my heart ache as a mother, and as a woman, such as how she dealt with her emotionally distant father, and getting her first period after her mother had died long before, in a house with 3 men, and pretty much everything related to her baby boy.
The ending was so incredibly satisfying, but I wish there hadn't been such an abrupt cutoff to that scene after so much buildup! I want to know how the reunion went. Shelley Read captured the ability of women and mothers to continue on with life, despite immense grief and really, mistreatment, at times. Even though Victoria was never abused exactly, she went through a pretty sad childhood of feeling alone and unloved once her mother, Aunt Viv, and cousin Cal died in the car accident. It seems she never really caught a break after that, except for her brief time with Will until he was murdered, her VERY brief time with Baby Blue until she gave him up, and her friendship years later with Zelda. It seems like until she bought her new farm with the government buyout of Iola, she lived a pretty isolated life, really. I think though, of all the books I've read in March and also 2024 overall, this is one of my absolute favorites. It was so beautifully done.
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
This was a super cute book and very touching. I'll admit it took me several chapters to fully like it and decide I was into it. At first, it was partly because I wasn't making the connection between Tova's story and Cameron's. I figured their paths would converge at some point, otherwise why would his character just randomly be brought in chapters later? But it took me a long time to figure it out until one of Marcellus' chapters, when the octopus narrates that he needs Tova to "see it" before it's "too late" (he was an old octopus and would die soon, and he could tell he was nearing the end). And things started to click into place about Cameron's mother and father. At first, I thought it was going to be Ethan, until I realized I had my timelines WAY wrong, because Tova's son was in high school in the 80s, and Tova and Ethan were about the same age. Suddenly I got it.
This was such a beautiful story about loss and grief, acceptance, growing old, coming to terms with change... a lot of things. Very likable characters (except for the Knit Wits, Tova's circle of four friends- they called themselves that, not me- I'm not going to lie, they annoyed me almost the entire book, but the fact that they looked after Tova like true friends even though they were chatty and intrusive, made me eventually appreciate them at least, and I realized that these are the kind of friends one needs in their 70s when they start ailing and considering retirement homes and such; they were on her case about when/if she was going to move into a home, she could stay indefinitely with one of them, she needed a cell phone, brought over dishes after she fell and hurt herself and kept checking in, etc.). I read that this was a book that actually became more popular a year or two after its release, which is interesting, but then suddenly people everywhere were looking for "that octopus book" in stores. I loved Marcellus' witty observations about humans, lol. It makes me wonder just how intelligent octopi are, if there are any smart enough to get out of their tanks like Marcellus was. Interestingly, as a completely unimportant aside, I knew that octopi really do keep "treasures" from an episode of Bluey, when Bluey and Chloe are playing "Octopus" with Bandit, and then Chloe's dad. And then on James May, Our Man in Japan (because now Charles and I are watching all of the shows from the Top Gear/The Grand Tour boys), he mentioned that octopi have 3 hearts, and I was like ohhhhh I knew that from Marcellus' chapters!! But then, because James was in Japan, they tossed a live octopus to boil it and then serve it, I decided that it's, I can't watch this. It's like I'm watching them boil Marcellus. Anyway. I've gained an appreciation for octopi, and for older, aging characters that I normally wouldn't take an interest in, I'll admit. I guess I'm just really not ready to think about aging, because all I can think about are my parents and aunts and uncles, and because that part of my own life seems so distant, and yet I need to start preparing for it. Tova seems relatively ready, at least financially. The book gave me a lot to think about.
3. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Very cunning book. Because of the nature of this book, I feel so very hesitant to say literally anything, because I feel like no matter what I say, it's like the author will be saying "yeah, you're just like thousands of others who react this way, how predictable. So you've made my point." But that said, I thought it was a very smartly written, WELL written, eye-opening book, and I loved it. It made me want to understand everything it was that she had to say and take it to heart, and make the world better as a result through how I look at things and act where racial diversity and equality are concerned. Rebecca Kuang very intentionally makes you feel uncomfortable, I think, maybe not so much automatically if you're white, or because you're white, but to make white people really think about what the book publishing industry, or any industry really, is like for minority groups. Honestly, except for how cutthroat modern day publishing seems to be overall, which fueled June to behave as she did, I couldn't find a single redeeming quality in her, or a single reason to ultimately feel sorry for her. I kept waiting and hoping for her to get caught and fail the entire book. And despite the fact that Athena was stuck up and self-absorbed and just kind of ridiculous, because I'd hate that kind of personality in anyone of any color or gender or anything, referring to writing a book as "birthing it" for example... despite that, I still felt bad for her. I felt bad that she died of a freak thing, choking on her food, and that her unfinished manuscript was stolen from her and June took credit for it. It was infuriating! What I found loathsome, and there were many things, is the fact that June kept insisting in her narrative that she never "meant" to write the book and publish it but yet... she did. Come on, girl, you knew what you were doing the second you found that manuscript in her apartment and took it. Even if her death was an accident, everything that happened after wasn't.
It was a very exhausting picture painted of how social media and the horrid commentary of readers really fuels today's industry of publishing books. I honestly had no idea. I never doubted the racism in the industry, or the blunt negativity of people on Goodreads, Twitter/X, etc., but I just never knew how much it could cloud or affect one's success. I'd be burnt out long before I'm 30 if that had been my profession. Plus the concept of earning out an advance sounds stressful.
I loved this book. I loved how uncomfortable it made me feel, because even though I don't work in this industry, and don't participate in marginalizing people in any industry, that I'm aware of, and even though I don't think I'm a racist person at all (I realize that no matter what there are probably ways that all of us unintentionally are at times, but I bear no hate towards anyone for their skin color or ethnic background) I appreciate being made aware all of the ways that it can happen even in just one industry. Though Candace is psycho, her monologue towards the end of the book when it's revealed she was the one messing with June, pretending to be "Athena's ghost," was really what everyone needed to hear. I hope this book brings about some awareness and serious change. The idea that "oh, we've already got diversity covered because we've already got one Asian author" is essentially the line POC get, and it's just infuriating. Never mind the work they put into a genuinely good piece.
It was an eye-opener, and it's not often I read a book where I genuinely don't want the "protagonist" (or at least... main character) to win.
4. Gravity Is The Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty
I think this book may have been tied with Go as a River as my favorite for March, and possibly for 2024 as well. In the first few chapters, when Abi was at the retreat, and it's revealed that the son of the people who wrote the "Guidebook" chapters that she and the others had received in the mail since she was 15 is going to teach everyone there how to fly... I almost said "I'm out!" I genuinely was starting to think what Abi's mom thought, that this Wilbur guy was trying to recruit people into a cult, and I was like what is this author seriously luring us readers into?? I was like thiiiiiis is not what I signed up for based on the description. And then I thought about the description and decided there's no way this kind of plot fits in with it, and there's probably more than meets the eye to this flight instruction thing, and possibly to Wilbur. So I stuck with it. I'm so glad I did. It turns out Wilbur was honoring his parents' memory, who may possibly have been crazy and really believed human flight was possible, or never really intended for people to learn to fly, but simply to live their lives to the fullest all along (I honestly suspected the latter, the further the story went), and that he just wanted to let things play out even though he didn't think this was possible. I appreciated that he had them all sign waivers essentially saying we're not going to try to fly until you're ready, and even then, we are not doing anything like jumping off of the roofs of buildings because you WILL get hurt and I don't want that. It was really kind of sad, and also endearing, that he was giving them these flight lessons in honor of his parents. Abi's different story lines about how her brother Robert went missing when they were teenagers and how she thought the Guidebook was linked somehow and could maybe give her answers, her story about how her marriage failed because her husband cheated on her (I was honestly not expecting that, the way she described their relationship, and he actually seemed wonderful, so I figured something really bad would have happened that put a strain on things and changed their relationship's dynamics), and all of these different things that were molding her into the very resilient and also very funny and positive person she was, were all very compelling. I honestly felt like she was me so many times, because she would describe feelings I would have about situations in the perfect way that I also could never put to words and was like, well damn. Am I shining with a fictional character? I have to admit, I was VERY disappointed with the way things happened with Niall, even though I could see him pulling away emotionally IMMEDIATELY in the things Abi said (I've been ghosted enough times or things similar to it to recognize the signs). It was unexpected, but also obvious as perhaps it had been all along, why ultimately Wilbur was the man she needed all along, and honestly the way Niall explained ultimately why he was ducking out and choosing to move, and the phrasing he used, about knowing Abi's son Oskar had to come first and he "accepted" it (accepted??? uhhh...) really was the most obvious thing that he was great in a lot of ways but ultimately not the right man... and yet still, for some reason I was so INCREDIBLY INVESTED in the idea of him and Abi and I was actively emotionally affected by this, I guess because I was letting my own feelings about past letdowns by guys color how I was looking at it. If I'm being honest, because of Abi's one-on-one conversations here and there with Wilbur, it was becoming obvious earlier on maybe than even her connection with Niall that I was realizing she might end up with Wilbur. Though his parents died and he was coming to grips with the idea that potentially they were just mentally unwell (though Abi posited that perhaps they always intended this to just be unconventional self help to get people to step out of their comfort zones), and Abi hadn't had the chance to properly grieve Robert for something like 20 years because the idea of him going MISSING had taken the forefront, and therefore their stories were different, there were still just so many similarities that I saw as they learned to move forward and honor the memories of the dead. I will also admit, too, that I had this very unrealistic hope that Abi would eventually find Robert. I knew as much as she did that he was dead deep down, but part of me was hoping this was fueled by his devastation at 15 of being diagnosed with his MS, and that maybe he'd just started a new life somewhere far away and decided not to come home, and through this new life learned to cope with his illness, and through his maturity would finally be ready to come home to Australia? I don't know. I imagine this is very much what grief is actually like, and hope. Probably exactly what Abi and her parents went through. So when they finally found out that he'd ended up in I believe it was Norway, and that he received a state funeral because no one claimed him, and he'd actually been there in search of a cure based on the conversations with Abi and their mom about the guy who named MS and whose son went to the North Pole with theories about the sunlight and such....... it broke me. It was just an innocent, hopeful boy who wanted to not be sick, and to maybe find a cure. And Abi lost her brother, her best friend, her "Irish twin" whom she had birthday rituals with and a special connection.
Sorry for the rambling. This was just a book that I truly FELT. Really felt. And I absolutely loved it though, because it wasn't sad the whole way through. Abi was so funny and observant. And her being observant ultimately was what saved Oskar's life, too, with the lithium battery he swallowed. Thank God she'd listened to Lyra about that.
5. Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo
I'll admit that it took me a few chapters to get into this book, too. The plot, despite starting off pretty much with a dead body, is a bit slow to begin, and I had a really hard time liking this particular narrator's (Sofia Willingham) voice/inflection. She was kind of, not exactly monotone, but it would be the same tone until the end of a sentence, where she would drop her voice. It was a bit grating, and it made the fact that Lauren Medina seemed a bit one-dimensional to me even worse. I understand that she was a very driven cop, didn't get close to very many people, and was very much like her father, and was dealing with a lot of controversy from firing a gun on the job and killing the person she was trying to apprehend, but it just seems like her general lack of emotion (or perceived lack of emotion) made it harder to like her or at least connect. I also had mistakenly (though I think this was intentional by the author) thought she missed her sister Marie, or half-sister, it turns out. And maybe she did now, with time and maturity. Apparently she hated her. Another relationship Pelayo really could have given even more background to, which I understand was only relevant to so much of a degree, was her marriage to Bobby. Hell, even her relationship with her dad, and her stepmother, whom she hated. There just wasn't enough there, it felt to me, to make her seem more human and likable. I'm starting to learn though, that some protagonists just aren't likable, or meant to be.
But delving in, this turned out to be a very compelling story, with its modern take on the Pied Piper. It took a long time for me to work out if it was just that these two particular kids, Mo and Finley, were super unhinged and somehow hallucinating basically the same thing, the Pied Piper, or if this really was some kind of horrific, supernatural figure. I ultimately decided it was the latter, because other kids were kind of hallucinating the same things and being told to kill someone else as payment for whomever they asked him to get rid of for them, and because Lauren kept having hallucinations too, particularly of Marie's dead body. And because so many of these murders were taking place in Humboldt Park in the lagoon, many kids were choking on dirty water and things like that when the Pied Piper appeared in the mirror. That many people wouldn't be hallucinating roughly the same thing and then dying coincidentally, therefore something supernatural had to be going on, in my opinion, and it just seemed to be "that type" of story.
Most of all, I loved the way Cynthia Pelayo wove things like the Grimms Brothers and other fairytales into the story, along with past serial killers and urban legends to imply that perhaps fairytales and the like were not just simply stories, but perhaps centuries-old urban legends themselves, and that perhaps the urban legends weren't so legendary as they were, well, real. It certainly seemed, in this fictional universe, that the Pied Piper was. Pay the piper. Payment is due...
6. The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo
I had an even harder time getting into this book, which was marketed as a sequel to Children of Chicago, but Sofia Willingham's narration seemed to have improved this time, at least. The audio quality, however, was NOT improved, in fact it was horrible, in that whomever was in charge of production didn't do a careful enough job to cut out parts where Sofia so clearly had cut the mic and stopped recording. I kept hearing these crackling noises or something, and her voice just blatantly cutting off at times, which made me worry that I was even missing whole sentences, or worse. It also could have been a poor bitrate, but there were times where it was so clearly a voice being cut off. The first book was not like this. It was so distracting! But that aside, the plot and character development was so much slower in this story, too. The fact that it's named a sequel was a stretch, as it had only tangential ties. It took place a year or so after the Pied Piper's killings in Humboldt Park. Van, the police officer that died at the end of the book because the kid shot him as his payment to the Piper, and Lauren let him die as her own payment for Marie's death, was apparently a good friend of Bass's, and Bass and Paloma's son Bela's (named after Bela Lugosi, clever, Paloma!) godfather. At one point, Bass and a couple of other police go to ask Lauren for help, if she thinks these current killings in the old theaters are related to the Humboldt Park killings. It's maybe a 5-minute scene in the book. Just very, very weak ties to the first book other than being in Chicago, which is FINE, but don't introduce it as a sequel. Just introduce it as part of a thematic literary series taking place overall in Chicago, which it is called the Chicago series, and just leave it at that.
That said, the general story I actually did enjoy, and I'm still glad I stuck with it. Pelayo once again found her genius ways to tie legend and fables and mythology, this time into film and the horror genre. The twist at the end of who the serial killer was, was only partly expected. It's not just who it was in the present day, which I at least suspected out of two, maybe three people, but it's who he was in the PAST. TWO people he was in the past. I did not see it coming, though I should have at least seen that he was previously known as Aesop, because Aesop's Fables were frequently mentioned. One issue I did have with both of Pelayo's books, is she didn't spend as much time developing the characters as I would have liked, even the main ones. I know there was a lot of ground to cover with the history of Chicago, and film/horror films, and different stories and urban legends and such, but it just seems like she could have spent as much time, if not more, on the characters. I did appreciate that she made Bela an autistic character, and that he had an entire chapter written from his point of view. Not much of this did anything to move the story along, except for Bela "talking to" the crow and a bit of foreshadowing, but it was still interesting and sweet to me to have a chapter from an autistic kid's POV. All in all though, very interesting, and I'm glad I kept with it. I hope she continues to write more of the Chicago series, and more books in general. I'm not usually into horror, and some of the scenes she describes are a tad bit graphic, but I can tolerate it because it's in book form, mainly the murders or murder crime scenes, so I can mentally edit in such a way that I'm not picturing it too much.
7. The Cheating Culture by David Callahan
Finishing this book was a long time coming. I actually started it in December, just before I got that awful ear infection, and then because it was so many weeks before I could hear well again, I wasn't listening to anything for a while, mostly not even music. When I did start up again, I started getting into all of the other books that started this journey, so I've been listening to this interspersed with a lot of fiction. To make matters worse, I've actually been sitting on this book since the end of 2011 when my Business Law professor in grad school recommended it, when the class was discussing pirating music. I have to say, she converted me, and I haven't pirated music even a little since grad school. I will actively seek it out to pay for it.
Anyway. That said, I really enjoyed Callahan's book, but also it simultaneously filled me with rage and just gave me that general distain for the human race, especially in America, that I sometimes feel. This book was written in 2004, and 20 years later, it is actually painfully more accurate and relevant than ever. All of these instances of people cheating in various facets of life to get ahead, I feel, has only gotten worse, and our culture really only does nothing but encourage it without encouraging it *wink wink wink but go ahead, especially if you're a rich WASP*, and "the system" has become more rigged than ever. It at least made me feel better about one thing: maybe having a modicum of integrity and honesty is the reason I find myself unable to truly get ahead in my mid-late 30s still. The odds were stacked so high against so many of us regular Janes and Joes to begin with.
I have to hand it to David Callahan. His book was well written, well researched, very comprehensive, covering multiple professions, as well as schooling and sports, and gave thorough examples of what he's talking about throughout, some of which I'd heard of before and even found myself saying ahhh yes, I remember when this was happening in the news. He even posited some potential solutions, which unfortunately will take maybe a generation or two, especially because a lot of these solutions start with attitude adjustments and people changing the way they think and act. That's an unlikely thing to happen, especially the more set in their ways the older generations become, and now our generation, who were roughly preteens, teenagers, and 20-somethings when this was written, is getting older, too, and we're already teaching and indoctrinating our own kids according to our own moral compasses. But nothing is without hope, which seems to be the same optimism Callahan holds. The narrator was also very pleasant. For some reason, he sounded a lot to me like Michael Douglas, so I kept picturing him specifically as Hank Pym the whole time I was listening, which was fun. "Hank Pym/Michael Douglas" read at a comfortable pace, had great diction, and put just the write emphasis and feeling into his narration. I'm sorry, I truly have forgotten the man's name.
8. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
This book had more depth to it than I expected it would have. And I don't mean that to insult the author or book, but just by reading the description, I didn't expect it to have the gravitas that it had, but there's a twist roughly midway that makes you realize there's more significance to Daphne in the slips of paper telling her how long she'd be with each guy she dates than just the length of the relationship itself. It was actually quite poignant, points out some of the confusing aspects of dating and gaging a guy's involvedness, as well, and makes some great observations about life in general and it's brevity, or lack thereof, and the meaning of connection and living to the fullest. I am very pleased that it had the ending I wanted, hah. She chose who I hoped she would, for the reasons I hoped she would.
9. Reboot by Amy Tintera
This was an excellent book! I will admit I had trouble getting into it for the first few chapters. Something was either rubbing me the wrong way or not quite catching my attention yet, or maybe I was just having a hard time switching genres so starkly between Expiration Dates and this. I will admit, partly because I was working, I didn't catch every detail in the beginning so at times, by the 5th chapter, I was like wait, what? But it was worth it to stick with it.
Amy Tintera brought an excellent fresh take on what I assume were zombies. I found the idea of how many minutes you're dead before "rebooting" defines how many humanlike qualities you have left in you, and I liked (not support, but it was an interesting concept) that the Texas government had the reboots as kind of human extraction/law enforcement teams, as opposed to everyone instantly killing them (although inevitably they're killed eventually). I felt like the story, not in a stealing ideas way, had elements of Divergent, Warm Bodies, The 100 and maybe even Maze Runner to it. I liked the stark comparison between Callum and Wren, and yet they were able to find common ground and to eventually fall in love, despite being a 22 and a 178. The dynamic between reboots and humans was interesting, too. A compelling story to the end! Left me wanting more, and luckily there's a sequel, which is the first book I read and finished in April!
Also, I actually forgot to include this book back in January! I listened to this book first, before I started this long string of fictional books. So, my apologies, here is my review for this one!
10. Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
I had been wanting to read Lauren Graham's book for quite some time now, so this was an absolute delight! She narrated it herself, which made it even more delightful. As she narrates, it's so cool to see the personality similarities between her and Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, as she clearly put bits of herself into the show with the quippy asides and such. Her delivery in narrating her book is much like Lorelai's. Her life was so interesting, both growing up and on her road to fame, finding her way in the world of theater, and more broadly of acting. It was also magical to listen to her recount the days of shooting the GG revival. It's a wonderful book. If you like Gilmore Girls and/or Lauren herself, I would highly recommend, in fact, I would recommend anyway, even if you've never heard of her! She definitely gives some good insight into the world of theater and beyond, and also into her writing process, as I recall!
Still working on Rubicon by not-Spiderman-Tom Holland. Perhaps I shall report back in April. :)
Alright, folks. Here are my book reviews for the month of March. Apologies for any misspelled character's names, as this was all via audiobook so I haven't seen most of the names in print. Let's dive in.
Books listened to in March 2024:
1. Go As A River by Shelley Read
This was a heartbreaking and beautiful coming of age piece, taking place in the real town of Iola, CO, now flooded by the Gunnison River by the government since 1966, forever submerged under the Blue Mesa Reservoir, along with the neighboring towns Sapinero and Cebolla. The amount of pain and loss that Victoria went through her whole life, especially giving her baby up for adoption (not even, just leaving him with a family she hoped would care for him and sneaking away), just broke my heart. So many events in this book over the decades she recounted broke my heart. I legit cried at some parts. It made my heart ache as a mother, and as a woman, such as how she dealt with her emotionally distant father, and getting her first period after her mother had died long before, in a house with 3 men, and pretty much everything related to her baby boy.
The ending was so incredibly satisfying, but I wish there hadn't been such an abrupt cutoff to that scene after so much buildup! I want to know how the reunion went. Shelley Read captured the ability of women and mothers to continue on with life, despite immense grief and really, mistreatment, at times. Even though Victoria was never abused exactly, she went through a pretty sad childhood of feeling alone and unloved once her mother, Aunt Viv, and cousin Cal died in the car accident. It seems she never really caught a break after that, except for her brief time with Will until he was murdered, her VERY brief time with Baby Blue until she gave him up, and her friendship years later with Zelda. It seems like until she bought her new farm with the government buyout of Iola, she lived a pretty isolated life, really. I think though, of all the books I've read in March and also 2024 overall, this is one of my absolute favorites. It was so beautifully done.
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
This was a super cute book and very touching. I'll admit it took me several chapters to fully like it and decide I was into it. At first, it was partly because I wasn't making the connection between Tova's story and Cameron's. I figured their paths would converge at some point, otherwise why would his character just randomly be brought in chapters later? But it took me a long time to figure it out until one of Marcellus' chapters, when the octopus narrates that he needs Tova to "see it" before it's "too late" (he was an old octopus and would die soon, and he could tell he was nearing the end). And things started to click into place about Cameron's mother and father. At first, I thought it was going to be Ethan, until I realized I had my timelines WAY wrong, because Tova's son was in high school in the 80s, and Tova and Ethan were about the same age. Suddenly I got it.
This was such a beautiful story about loss and grief, acceptance, growing old, coming to terms with change... a lot of things. Very likable characters (except for the Knit Wits, Tova's circle of four friends- they called themselves that, not me- I'm not going to lie, they annoyed me almost the entire book, but the fact that they looked after Tova like true friends even though they were chatty and intrusive, made me eventually appreciate them at least, and I realized that these are the kind of friends one needs in their 70s when they start ailing and considering retirement homes and such; they were on her case about when/if she was going to move into a home, she could stay indefinitely with one of them, she needed a cell phone, brought over dishes after she fell and hurt herself and kept checking in, etc.). I read that this was a book that actually became more popular a year or two after its release, which is interesting, but then suddenly people everywhere were looking for "that octopus book" in stores. I loved Marcellus' witty observations about humans, lol. It makes me wonder just how intelligent octopi are, if there are any smart enough to get out of their tanks like Marcellus was. Interestingly, as a completely unimportant aside, I knew that octopi really do keep "treasures" from an episode of Bluey, when Bluey and Chloe are playing "Octopus" with Bandit, and then Chloe's dad. And then on James May, Our Man in Japan (because now Charles and I are watching all of the shows from the Top Gear/The Grand Tour boys), he mentioned that octopi have 3 hearts, and I was like ohhhhh I knew that from Marcellus' chapters!! But then, because James was in Japan, they tossed a live octopus to boil it and then serve it, I decided that it's, I can't watch this. It's like I'm watching them boil Marcellus. Anyway. I've gained an appreciation for octopi, and for older, aging characters that I normally wouldn't take an interest in, I'll admit. I guess I'm just really not ready to think about aging, because all I can think about are my parents and aunts and uncles, and because that part of my own life seems so distant, and yet I need to start preparing for it. Tova seems relatively ready, at least financially. The book gave me a lot to think about.
3. Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Very cunning book. Because of the nature of this book, I feel so very hesitant to say literally anything, because I feel like no matter what I say, it's like the author will be saying "yeah, you're just like thousands of others who react this way, how predictable. So you've made my point." But that said, I thought it was a very smartly written, WELL written, eye-opening book, and I loved it. It made me want to understand everything it was that she had to say and take it to heart, and make the world better as a result through how I look at things and act where racial diversity and equality are concerned. Rebecca Kuang very intentionally makes you feel uncomfortable, I think, maybe not so much automatically if you're white, or because you're white, but to make white people really think about what the book publishing industry, or any industry really, is like for minority groups. Honestly, except for how cutthroat modern day publishing seems to be overall, which fueled June to behave as she did, I couldn't find a single redeeming quality in her, or a single reason to ultimately feel sorry for her. I kept waiting and hoping for her to get caught and fail the entire book. And despite the fact that Athena was stuck up and self-absorbed and just kind of ridiculous, because I'd hate that kind of personality in anyone of any color or gender or anything, referring to writing a book as "birthing it" for example... despite that, I still felt bad for her. I felt bad that she died of a freak thing, choking on her food, and that her unfinished manuscript was stolen from her and June took credit for it. It was infuriating! What I found loathsome, and there were many things, is the fact that June kept insisting in her narrative that she never "meant" to write the book and publish it but yet... she did. Come on, girl, you knew what you were doing the second you found that manuscript in her apartment and took it. Even if her death was an accident, everything that happened after wasn't.
It was a very exhausting picture painted of how social media and the horrid commentary of readers really fuels today's industry of publishing books. I honestly had no idea. I never doubted the racism in the industry, or the blunt negativity of people on Goodreads, Twitter/X, etc., but I just never knew how much it could cloud or affect one's success. I'd be burnt out long before I'm 30 if that had been my profession. Plus the concept of earning out an advance sounds stressful.
I loved this book. I loved how uncomfortable it made me feel, because even though I don't work in this industry, and don't participate in marginalizing people in any industry, that I'm aware of, and even though I don't think I'm a racist person at all (I realize that no matter what there are probably ways that all of us unintentionally are at times, but I bear no hate towards anyone for their skin color or ethnic background) I appreciate being made aware all of the ways that it can happen even in just one industry. Though Candace is psycho, her monologue towards the end of the book when it's revealed she was the one messing with June, pretending to be "Athena's ghost," was really what everyone needed to hear. I hope this book brings about some awareness and serious change. The idea that "oh, we've already got diversity covered because we've already got one Asian author" is essentially the line POC get, and it's just infuriating. Never mind the work they put into a genuinely good piece.
It was an eye-opener, and it's not often I read a book where I genuinely don't want the "protagonist" (or at least... main character) to win.
4. Gravity Is The Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty
I think this book may have been tied with Go as a River as my favorite for March, and possibly for 2024 as well. In the first few chapters, when Abi was at the retreat, and it's revealed that the son of the people who wrote the "Guidebook" chapters that she and the others had received in the mail since she was 15 is going to teach everyone there how to fly... I almost said "I'm out!" I genuinely was starting to think what Abi's mom thought, that this Wilbur guy was trying to recruit people into a cult, and I was like what is this author seriously luring us readers into?? I was like thiiiiiis is not what I signed up for based on the description. And then I thought about the description and decided there's no way this kind of plot fits in with it, and there's probably more than meets the eye to this flight instruction thing, and possibly to Wilbur. So I stuck with it. I'm so glad I did. It turns out Wilbur was honoring his parents' memory, who may possibly have been crazy and really believed human flight was possible, or never really intended for people to learn to fly, but simply to live their lives to the fullest all along (I honestly suspected the latter, the further the story went), and that he just wanted to let things play out even though he didn't think this was possible. I appreciated that he had them all sign waivers essentially saying we're not going to try to fly until you're ready, and even then, we are not doing anything like jumping off of the roofs of buildings because you WILL get hurt and I don't want that. It was really kind of sad, and also endearing, that he was giving them these flight lessons in honor of his parents. Abi's different story lines about how her brother Robert went missing when they were teenagers and how she thought the Guidebook was linked somehow and could maybe give her answers, her story about how her marriage failed because her husband cheated on her (I was honestly not expecting that, the way she described their relationship, and he actually seemed wonderful, so I figured something really bad would have happened that put a strain on things and changed their relationship's dynamics), and all of these different things that were molding her into the very resilient and also very funny and positive person she was, were all very compelling. I honestly felt like she was me so many times, because she would describe feelings I would have about situations in the perfect way that I also could never put to words and was like, well damn. Am I shining with a fictional character? I have to admit, I was VERY disappointed with the way things happened with Niall, even though I could see him pulling away emotionally IMMEDIATELY in the things Abi said (I've been ghosted enough times or things similar to it to recognize the signs). It was unexpected, but also obvious as perhaps it had been all along, why ultimately Wilbur was the man she needed all along, and honestly the way Niall explained ultimately why he was ducking out and choosing to move, and the phrasing he used, about knowing Abi's son Oskar had to come first and he "accepted" it (accepted??? uhhh...) really was the most obvious thing that he was great in a lot of ways but ultimately not the right man... and yet still, for some reason I was so INCREDIBLY INVESTED in the idea of him and Abi and I was actively emotionally affected by this, I guess because I was letting my own feelings about past letdowns by guys color how I was looking at it. If I'm being honest, because of Abi's one-on-one conversations here and there with Wilbur, it was becoming obvious earlier on maybe than even her connection with Niall that I was realizing she might end up with Wilbur. Though his parents died and he was coming to grips with the idea that potentially they were just mentally unwell (though Abi posited that perhaps they always intended this to just be unconventional self help to get people to step out of their comfort zones), and Abi hadn't had the chance to properly grieve Robert for something like 20 years because the idea of him going MISSING had taken the forefront, and therefore their stories were different, there were still just so many similarities that I saw as they learned to move forward and honor the memories of the dead. I will also admit, too, that I had this very unrealistic hope that Abi would eventually find Robert. I knew as much as she did that he was dead deep down, but part of me was hoping this was fueled by his devastation at 15 of being diagnosed with his MS, and that maybe he'd just started a new life somewhere far away and decided not to come home, and through this new life learned to cope with his illness, and through his maturity would finally be ready to come home to Australia? I don't know. I imagine this is very much what grief is actually like, and hope. Probably exactly what Abi and her parents went through. So when they finally found out that he'd ended up in I believe it was Norway, and that he received a state funeral because no one claimed him, and he'd actually been there in search of a cure based on the conversations with Abi and their mom about the guy who named MS and whose son went to the North Pole with theories about the sunlight and such....... it broke me. It was just an innocent, hopeful boy who wanted to not be sick, and to maybe find a cure. And Abi lost her brother, her best friend, her "Irish twin" whom she had birthday rituals with and a special connection.
Sorry for the rambling. This was just a book that I truly FELT. Really felt. And I absolutely loved it though, because it wasn't sad the whole way through. Abi was so funny and observant. And her being observant ultimately was what saved Oskar's life, too, with the lithium battery he swallowed. Thank God she'd listened to Lyra about that.
5. Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo
I'll admit that it took me a few chapters to get into this book, too. The plot, despite starting off pretty much with a dead body, is a bit slow to begin, and I had a really hard time liking this particular narrator's (Sofia Willingham) voice/inflection. She was kind of, not exactly monotone, but it would be the same tone until the end of a sentence, where she would drop her voice. It was a bit grating, and it made the fact that Lauren Medina seemed a bit one-dimensional to me even worse. I understand that she was a very driven cop, didn't get close to very many people, and was very much like her father, and was dealing with a lot of controversy from firing a gun on the job and killing the person she was trying to apprehend, but it just seems like her general lack of emotion (or perceived lack of emotion) made it harder to like her or at least connect. I also had mistakenly (though I think this was intentional by the author) thought she missed her sister Marie, or half-sister, it turns out. And maybe she did now, with time and maturity. Apparently she hated her. Another relationship Pelayo really could have given even more background to, which I understand was only relevant to so much of a degree, was her marriage to Bobby. Hell, even her relationship with her dad, and her stepmother, whom she hated. There just wasn't enough there, it felt to me, to make her seem more human and likable. I'm starting to learn though, that some protagonists just aren't likable, or meant to be.
But delving in, this turned out to be a very compelling story, with its modern take on the Pied Piper. It took a long time for me to work out if it was just that these two particular kids, Mo and Finley, were super unhinged and somehow hallucinating basically the same thing, the Pied Piper, or if this really was some kind of horrific, supernatural figure. I ultimately decided it was the latter, because other kids were kind of hallucinating the same things and being told to kill someone else as payment for whomever they asked him to get rid of for them, and because Lauren kept having hallucinations too, particularly of Marie's dead body. And because so many of these murders were taking place in Humboldt Park in the lagoon, many kids were choking on dirty water and things like that when the Pied Piper appeared in the mirror. That many people wouldn't be hallucinating roughly the same thing and then dying coincidentally, therefore something supernatural had to be going on, in my opinion, and it just seemed to be "that type" of story.
Most of all, I loved the way Cynthia Pelayo wove things like the Grimms Brothers and other fairytales into the story, along with past serial killers and urban legends to imply that perhaps fairytales and the like were not just simply stories, but perhaps centuries-old urban legends themselves, and that perhaps the urban legends weren't so legendary as they were, well, real. It certainly seemed, in this fictional universe, that the Pied Piper was. Pay the piper. Payment is due...
6. The Shoemaker's Magician by Cynthia Pelayo
I had an even harder time getting into this book, which was marketed as a sequel to Children of Chicago, but Sofia Willingham's narration seemed to have improved this time, at least. The audio quality, however, was NOT improved, in fact it was horrible, in that whomever was in charge of production didn't do a careful enough job to cut out parts where Sofia so clearly had cut the mic and stopped recording. I kept hearing these crackling noises or something, and her voice just blatantly cutting off at times, which made me worry that I was even missing whole sentences, or worse. It also could have been a poor bitrate, but there were times where it was so clearly a voice being cut off. The first book was not like this. It was so distracting! But that aside, the plot and character development was so much slower in this story, too. The fact that it's named a sequel was a stretch, as it had only tangential ties. It took place a year or so after the Pied Piper's killings in Humboldt Park. Van, the police officer that died at the end of the book because the kid shot him as his payment to the Piper, and Lauren let him die as her own payment for Marie's death, was apparently a good friend of Bass's, and Bass and Paloma's son Bela's (named after Bela Lugosi, clever, Paloma!) godfather. At one point, Bass and a couple of other police go to ask Lauren for help, if she thinks these current killings in the old theaters are related to the Humboldt Park killings. It's maybe a 5-minute scene in the book. Just very, very weak ties to the first book other than being in Chicago, which is FINE, but don't introduce it as a sequel. Just introduce it as part of a thematic literary series taking place overall in Chicago, which it is called the Chicago series, and just leave it at that.
That said, the general story I actually did enjoy, and I'm still glad I stuck with it. Pelayo once again found her genius ways to tie legend and fables and mythology, this time into film and the horror genre. The twist at the end of who the serial killer was, was only partly expected. It's not just who it was in the present day, which I at least suspected out of two, maybe three people, but it's who he was in the PAST. TWO people he was in the past. I did not see it coming, though I should have at least seen that he was previously known as Aesop, because Aesop's Fables were frequently mentioned. One issue I did have with both of Pelayo's books, is she didn't spend as much time developing the characters as I would have liked, even the main ones. I know there was a lot of ground to cover with the history of Chicago, and film/horror films, and different stories and urban legends and such, but it just seems like she could have spent as much time, if not more, on the characters. I did appreciate that she made Bela an autistic character, and that he had an entire chapter written from his point of view. Not much of this did anything to move the story along, except for Bela "talking to" the crow and a bit of foreshadowing, but it was still interesting and sweet to me to have a chapter from an autistic kid's POV. All in all though, very interesting, and I'm glad I kept with it. I hope she continues to write more of the Chicago series, and more books in general. I'm not usually into horror, and some of the scenes she describes are a tad bit graphic, but I can tolerate it because it's in book form, mainly the murders or murder crime scenes, so I can mentally edit in such a way that I'm not picturing it too much.
7. The Cheating Culture by David Callahan
Finishing this book was a long time coming. I actually started it in December, just before I got that awful ear infection, and then because it was so many weeks before I could hear well again, I wasn't listening to anything for a while, mostly not even music. When I did start up again, I started getting into all of the other books that started this journey, so I've been listening to this interspersed with a lot of fiction. To make matters worse, I've actually been sitting on this book since the end of 2011 when my Business Law professor in grad school recommended it, when the class was discussing pirating music. I have to say, she converted me, and I haven't pirated music even a little since grad school. I will actively seek it out to pay for it.
Anyway. That said, I really enjoyed Callahan's book, but also it simultaneously filled me with rage and just gave me that general distain for the human race, especially in America, that I sometimes feel. This book was written in 2004, and 20 years later, it is actually painfully more accurate and relevant than ever. All of these instances of people cheating in various facets of life to get ahead, I feel, has only gotten worse, and our culture really only does nothing but encourage it without encouraging it *wink wink wink but go ahead, especially if you're a rich WASP*, and "the system" has become more rigged than ever. It at least made me feel better about one thing: maybe having a modicum of integrity and honesty is the reason I find myself unable to truly get ahead in my mid-late 30s still. The odds were stacked so high against so many of us regular Janes and Joes to begin with.
I have to hand it to David Callahan. His book was well written, well researched, very comprehensive, covering multiple professions, as well as schooling and sports, and gave thorough examples of what he's talking about throughout, some of which I'd heard of before and even found myself saying ahhh yes, I remember when this was happening in the news. He even posited some potential solutions, which unfortunately will take maybe a generation or two, especially because a lot of these solutions start with attitude adjustments and people changing the way they think and act. That's an unlikely thing to happen, especially the more set in their ways the older generations become, and now our generation, who were roughly preteens, teenagers, and 20-somethings when this was written, is getting older, too, and we're already teaching and indoctrinating our own kids according to our own moral compasses. But nothing is without hope, which seems to be the same optimism Callahan holds. The narrator was also very pleasant. For some reason, he sounded a lot to me like Michael Douglas, so I kept picturing him specifically as Hank Pym the whole time I was listening, which was fun. "Hank Pym/Michael Douglas" read at a comfortable pace, had great diction, and put just the write emphasis and feeling into his narration. I'm sorry, I truly have forgotten the man's name.
8. Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
This book had more depth to it than I expected it would have. And I don't mean that to insult the author or book, but just by reading the description, I didn't expect it to have the gravitas that it had, but there's a twist roughly midway that makes you realize there's more significance to Daphne in the slips of paper telling her how long she'd be with each guy she dates than just the length of the relationship itself. It was actually quite poignant, points out some of the confusing aspects of dating and gaging a guy's involvedness, as well, and makes some great observations about life in general and it's brevity, or lack thereof, and the meaning of connection and living to the fullest. I am very pleased that it had the ending I wanted, hah. She chose who I hoped she would, for the reasons I hoped she would.
9. Reboot by Amy Tintera
This was an excellent book! I will admit I had trouble getting into it for the first few chapters. Something was either rubbing me the wrong way or not quite catching my attention yet, or maybe I was just having a hard time switching genres so starkly between Expiration Dates and this. I will admit, partly because I was working, I didn't catch every detail in the beginning so at times, by the 5th chapter, I was like wait, what? But it was worth it to stick with it.
Amy Tintera brought an excellent fresh take on what I assume were zombies. I found the idea of how many minutes you're dead before "rebooting" defines how many humanlike qualities you have left in you, and I liked (not support, but it was an interesting concept) that the Texas government had the reboots as kind of human extraction/law enforcement teams, as opposed to everyone instantly killing them (although inevitably they're killed eventually). I felt like the story, not in a stealing ideas way, had elements of Divergent, Warm Bodies, The 100 and maybe even Maze Runner to it. I liked the stark comparison between Callum and Wren, and yet they were able to find common ground and to eventually fall in love, despite being a 22 and a 178. The dynamic between reboots and humans was interesting, too. A compelling story to the end! Left me wanting more, and luckily there's a sequel, which is the first book I read and finished in April!
Also, I actually forgot to include this book back in January! I listened to this book first, before I started this long string of fictional books. So, my apologies, here is my review for this one!
10. Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
I had been wanting to read Lauren Graham's book for quite some time now, so this was an absolute delight! She narrated it herself, which made it even more delightful. As she narrates, it's so cool to see the personality similarities between her and Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, as she clearly put bits of herself into the show with the quippy asides and such. Her delivery in narrating her book is much like Lorelai's. Her life was so interesting, both growing up and on her road to fame, finding her way in the world of theater, and more broadly of acting. It was also magical to listen to her recount the days of shooting the GG revival. It's a wonderful book. If you like Gilmore Girls and/or Lauren herself, I would highly recommend, in fact, I would recommend anyway, even if you've never heard of her! She definitely gives some good insight into the world of theater and beyond, and also into her writing process, as I recall!
Still working on Rubicon by not-Spiderman-Tom Holland. Perhaps I shall report back in April. :)
Tags:
- audiobooks,
- author: amy tintera,
- author: cynthia pelayo,
- author: david callahan,
- author: jaclyn moriarty,
- author: lauren graham,
- author: r. f. kuang,
- author: rebecca serle,
- author: shelby van pelt,
- author: shelley read,
- book reviews,
- book: children of chicago,
- book: expiration dates,
- book: go as a river,
- book: gravity is the thing,
- book: reboot,
- book: remarkably bright creatures,
- book: talking as fast as i can,
- book: the cheating culture,
- book: the shoemaker's magician,
- book: yellowface,
- series: chicago,
- series: reboot
(no subject)
Date: 2024-04-03 11:26 pm (UTC)I ♥ Lauren Graham's book! It was so cool and interesting to learn about her life and falling in love with acting through theater. I also liked how she basically had the GG revival part like it was straight out of her diary it felt like.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-04-10 07:50 pm (UTC)Yes, same! I had no idea she lived abroad for a time, too! Yeah, I think she actually did use her diary, didn't she? It was so cool to read about it all behind the scenes. There were some things about the revival (not the whole thing overall though) that bothered me as a fan, probably as much as it bothered other fans, but remembering that it was the same people behind it all, and the same care and attention was paid to it behind the scenes by Amy Palladino and the actors and actresses, etc., helped me after the fact, listening to her book. That and Scott Patterson's podcast, that I'm slowly listening to. (Oh! I think that was what reminded me that I wanted to listen to her book, it's coming back to me! Because for a short while when it was really cold out, I listened to a few episodes, and then I started this journey with audiobooks, starting with hers.)