February Wrap Up #2

In the latter half of February, I read 4 books.

For a book club, I read The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This story details the crushing loneliness of the Alaskan wilderness in the 1920's. The woman despartely wants a child but is unable to have one. They build a snow child out of snow and the next day, a little girl appears. Is she real or is she magic? The book keeps you guessing the whole time, providing evidence for both. I wished it had been conclusive one way or the other. For that, I gave it 3 stars.

For one of my challenges, I read the picture book Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o. This is a cute story about a black child who is "as dark as midnight" and wishes for her skin to be lighter. In the end, she learns acceptance. The illustrations were awesome and the story was good. I gave the book 4 stars.

Then finally my hold of Long Bright River by Liz Moore came in. I had heard it described as a "literary thriller." I wouldn't describe it as a thriller at all. There is a central mystery plot but it is quite slow. The story focuses on a woman police officer looking for her missing sister who is an addict and prostitute. There is a serial killer targeting prostitutes and she is concerned that her sister may have been a victim. I found the information of opiate addiction interesting but felt the sister mystery was a bit too slow. I gave the book 4 stars.

Lastly, I read the graphic memoir  I was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib. Malaka is born to a Filipino mother and an Egyptian father and raised in the U.S. In the memoir, she highlights her feelings of never belonging to any of the groups. The art style is not my favorite but the story held my attention. I gave the book 3 stars.

February Wrap up # 1

In the first half of February I've read 6 books and DNF'd 1.

The book I decided to DNF was The Girl with No Names by Serena Burdick. I read around 100 pages but felt the pace was too slow, the author used unnecessary slurs for the Romani people, and none of the characters were well-rounded or likable.

The first book I finished was Anger is my Middle Name by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen. This was an ARC that I've given its own review and I gave it 3 stars.

Then I picked up 2 poetry collections. The first was Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. The poems have an over-arching narrative of soldiers killing a small deaf boy and as a result, all the citizens go deaf. Some of the poems were really moving and some had weird sexual overtones that seemed unnecessary and unrelated. I gave it 3 stars.

The other poetry collection I read was Homie by Danez Smith. I loved their previous collection titled Don't Call Us Dead and had high hopes for this. They had a friend who died by suicide and the whole collection was about friendships and what they mean to Danez. The poem to the friend was exceptional as were a few others, but most of the rest were just fine. I gave the collection 3 stars.

After reading some "meh" books, I decided to read The Dry by Jane Harper. The mystery kept me intrigued although I definitely predicted some of the reveals. The audiobook was particularly enjoyable as it was narrated by a man with an Australian accent. I awarded it 4 stars.

Completely on a whim, I chose to listen to Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. This is a funny book of essays, mostly focusing on the author's anxiety and depression. She definitely has a wacky sense of humor but it really worked for me. I gave the book 5 stars.

Lastly, I finished Cleanness by Garth Greenwell. This book is a series of vignettes of an American teacher working in Bulgaria. The writing was incredibly beautiful but because of something triggering in the second chapter, I found myself not really wanting to pick it back up. Every time I did, I enjoyed myself. He is an incredibly skilled writer but I was definitely not in the best mindset to read some horrific things the character endured. Because I feel that I read it at the wrong time, I decided not to rate it.

ARC Review of Anger is my Middle Name by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen: A Memoir

I received an ARC of Anger is my Middle Name by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen translated by Mark Mussari. This is Lisbeth's memoir of growing up in Denmark in a very dysfunctional household, dealing with neglect, sexual abuse, and physical violence. Her story was difficult to read for two reasons, the first because the content was hard to stomach. The people in her life who were suppose to protect her were the ones either putting her in harm's way or directly hurting her. Immediately, I bonded with her and felt protective of her. The other reason this book was difficult to read was the uneven narrative structure. I'm not sure if it was a translation issue but several times I would need to reread sections to try to understand what I had read. Additionally she would bring up people she had only briefly mentioned earlier without reminding the reader who they were, which I found confusing.

Lastly, I found as a reader not familiar with Danish institutions, I needed a little more information. She tells us she is put in an orphanage. (Both of her parents are alive but they are neglectful so this seems the best option.) Later she mentions she is embarrassed at the orphanage because they are hosting Parent's Day and all the parents show up except hers. I need more understanding as to how Danish orphanages work. Why are all the parents showing up? Why are they putting their children in the orphanages if they are capable of showing up? I need background information. This is just one tangent but there were a few times I was confused. Her story is dark. It reminded me thematically to The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls or Educated by Tara Westover but overall the writing was a bit clunky. I gave it 3 stars.



This book will be published March 1, 2020. Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC.

February TBR

1. Anger is my Middle Name by Lisbeth Zornig Andersen
2. The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick
3. Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
4. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
5. Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
6. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
7. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
8. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
9. Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o
10. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo

ARC Review of The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene

     I received The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene as an ARC. The author interviews the writers, actors, creators, directors, and nearly everyone involved in The Office and weaves together their answers to create a narrative. He starts with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant who were the creators of the original UK The Office television show. The book is broken up into chapters about each season, talking about specific episodes, and includes a lot of behind the scenes information that will bring a fresh perspectives to my next viewing of The Office.
   
While he personally interviews many people, he doesn't manage to interview Steve Carell. Similar to seasons 8 and 9 of The Office, it definitely was missing something without him. He does throw in a quote from Carell from another source at the end, but I definitely wanted more. Additionally, at 464 pages, I felt it went a tad long and included some writers drama that was unnecessary to the story. Overall, very enjoyable. I gave it 3.5 stars and would recommend to anyone who is a fan of The Office and would like to learn more. Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.


This will be published March 24th, 2020.

January Wrap Up #2

Since I've last updated you, I've read 7 things.

I read Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. The premise is that a young black babysitter is called to babysit her white charge and while doing so, is accused of kidnapping the child. The story unfolds from there. While that does happen, it does not set up as much of the book as I thought it did. While the author does set up a conversation about race, I felt she did not dig deep enough. It read more like chick lit to me. The dialogue was somewhat cringey to me and most of the characters were very unlikable. I honestly won't remember it in a year. I gave it 3 stars.

Then I picked up my first reread of the year with A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It was such a joy to revisit the characters as they trekked throughout the galaxy visiting different planets, meeting many species, and learning varied customs. I gave it 5 stars.

I read a poetry collection called Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith. I'm not big on poetry but she is coming to an event that I will be attending this year and I wanted to familiarize myself with some of her work. This was weird. Overall, I didn't really care for it. The poems didn't really seem to go together at all. Some were about slavery, some were about motherhood, some were about pollution. I did like one, which was about refugees. I gave the collection 2 stars.

My next read was The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob. This is family story about a family who moves from India to United States. It is told in two different timelines. In the current timeline (1998) Amina's mother calls her and tells her to come home because her father keeps talking to his dead mother and she's worried about him. Amina flies out, skeptical and suspicious that this may be a ploy of her mother to set her up with someone. What follows is a heart-wrenching family story. The events in the former timeline help you to understand some of the motivations and scars of the current timeline. I will say that for a lot of the book, I was preferring the past timeline because I was really connecting with Amina's brother Akhil. The last 20 pages had me sobbing. I will admit, this is not perfect. There are some pacing issues. But I really connected with the characters and loved being in this world. I loved this book and gave it 5 stars. I will automatically pick up anything this author puts out next.

Speaking of loving the world, I really wanted some more of A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet and so I decided to pick up a short story by Becky Chambers titled "'A Good Heretic" which was published in a collection of short stories called Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. It was a 20ish page story about Mas who was a Sianat we briefly meet on Arun in the first book. Because the story is so short, I will not give any descriptors because it will be spoilers, but I really enjoyed the story and the character of Mas. I gave the story 4 stars. I'd have loved it to be a little longer.

I read the graphic memoir titled The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. Her memoir was about her family emigrating from Vietnam to the United States during the Vietnam War. This was hard to read. She talks individually about her parents childhood's in Vietnam and Cambodia which were pretty difficult. They were fleeing the Vietnam War with young children in tow and living in a refugee camp. Making a new start in a country where they spoke very little English was quite a struggle for them. This story was well told and the artwork fit with the story. I thought this was a beautifully constructed graphic memoir. I gave it 4 stars and would definitely recommend.

Lastly, I finished I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I have had a lot of people recommend this to me and I had high expectations for this. I was slightly disappointed. I started off loving it. Cassandra is a 17 year old girl writing in her diary about living in an old castle in England. She writes about her odd father, artist-muse stepmother, and sister who longs to marry rich so they can get out of their crippling poverty. They meet two new neighbors who are American and turn out to be rich and also their landlords. Obviously the sister is going to try to catch the eye of Simon (the one who has the money) so she can marry rich. All is going swimmingly and I'm loving the story. Then all of a sudden, Cassandra decides for basically no reason that she loves Simon which provides so much angst. It changed the tone of the book so much and made Cassandra such a whiny character. In addition, she also is mean to a character who is nothing but good to her. I gave the first half of the book 5 stars, the second half 1 star, so an average of 3 stars.

I finished one more book but it was an ARC so I will be writing a separate review coming soon.