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What I've Finished Reading
I barely finished Lilith's Brood in time for book club last week! I can recommend it highly if you want to start a lively discussion about consent or biological determinism, or if you just want to make a lot of jokes about tentacles. As a book it was a little talky, especially once we get into the later generations and everyone is constantly explaining Oankali mating rituals to everyone else, but always interesting and disturbing.
By far my favorite part of Blood Heir was the five-page "Acknowledgements" at the end, which might not include literally everyone Amelie Wen Zhao ever took a workshop with and every one of their inside jokes, but certainly strives to create an impression of comprehensiveness. Everyone gets a personalized message about how much they helped and how much she loves them. This is too much, but it's heartfelt and lovably embarrassing, like the love-from-mom-and-dad ads in high school theater programs. The novel itself is made of cliches, in something close to its original meaning of a ready-made printer's block that saves the compositor the trouble of making up common phrases from scratch. Even within the book, the fugitive princess and her redemption-seeking criminal companion make a dramatic plunge into cold water three separate times. I'm not opposed to cliches at all, but for whatever reason the collage of them didn't work for me here.
I expected to still be reading A Visit from the Goon Squad by now, but it was one of those books that you pick up intending to read a chapter or two and finish late the same night, not because of suspense or unanswered questions, but simply because it's easier and more pleasant to keep going. Now that I'm no longer reading it, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it must have been good or I wouldn't have read it all at once, right? There were some chapters I loved - the slideshow diary was a standalone standout - and some that I didn't. I don't know why I was completely unable to believe or tolerate the genocidal dictator PR business, but I was.
What I'm Reading Now
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker! This first-person Iliad retelling by Briseis is fantastic so far. The only other thing I've read by Barker is Regeneration and its sequels, and her narration is just as casually, uncomfortably at home in this more distant past.
I'll probably end up sympathizing with T Kira Madden's memoir Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls more than I love it, but it's too early to tell.
What I'm Not Completely Sure How to Get Rid Of
I skimmed my way to the end of The Library of the World's Best Literature, and now the problem is finding it a new home. I've had a lot of success mailing various things to people through Freecycle.org, but the Library is too heavy to mail, and too heavy to carry anywhere without a car. There's a used bookstore within a couple hours of here that would probably take it, but having worked in a used bookstore, I don't really want to burden them. I feel like its best home would be either with someone who cuts up books for art projects, or else with some weirdo like my dad (and me, as it turns out) who likes to keep a few out-of-date encyclopedias around for entertainment purposes - someone who would use it, one way or another. But I can't be too picky with an incredibly heavy 26-volume incomplete set that I don't actually have room for.
What I Plan to Read Next
There's only one book and it's Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, last of the 99. I put it off over the weekend so I could finish some other things, but the time has come at last.
I barely finished Lilith's Brood in time for book club last week! I can recommend it highly if you want to start a lively discussion about consent or biological determinism, or if you just want to make a lot of jokes about tentacles. As a book it was a little talky, especially once we get into the later generations and everyone is constantly explaining Oankali mating rituals to everyone else, but always interesting and disturbing.
By far my favorite part of Blood Heir was the five-page "Acknowledgements" at the end, which might not include literally everyone Amelie Wen Zhao ever took a workshop with and every one of their inside jokes, but certainly strives to create an impression of comprehensiveness. Everyone gets a personalized message about how much they helped and how much she loves them. This is too much, but it's heartfelt and lovably embarrassing, like the love-from-mom-and-dad ads in high school theater programs. The novel itself is made of cliches, in something close to its original meaning of a ready-made printer's block that saves the compositor the trouble of making up common phrases from scratch. Even within the book, the fugitive princess and her redemption-seeking criminal companion make a dramatic plunge into cold water three separate times. I'm not opposed to cliches at all, but for whatever reason the collage of them didn't work for me here.
I expected to still be reading A Visit from the Goon Squad by now, but it was one of those books that you pick up intending to read a chapter or two and finish late the same night, not because of suspense or unanswered questions, but simply because it's easier and more pleasant to keep going. Now that I'm no longer reading it, I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it must have been good or I wouldn't have read it all at once, right? There were some chapters I loved - the slideshow diary was a standalone standout - and some that I didn't. I don't know why I was completely unable to believe or tolerate the genocidal dictator PR business, but I was.
What I'm Reading Now
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker! This first-person Iliad retelling by Briseis is fantastic so far. The only other thing I've read by Barker is Regeneration and its sequels, and her narration is just as casually, uncomfortably at home in this more distant past.
I'll probably end up sympathizing with T Kira Madden's memoir Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls more than I love it, but it's too early to tell.
What I'm Not Completely Sure How to Get Rid Of
I skimmed my way to the end of The Library of the World's Best Literature, and now the problem is finding it a new home. I've had a lot of success mailing various things to people through Freecycle.org, but the Library is too heavy to mail, and too heavy to carry anywhere without a car. There's a used bookstore within a couple hours of here that would probably take it, but having worked in a used bookstore, I don't really want to burden them. I feel like its best home would be either with someone who cuts up books for art projects, or else with some weirdo like my dad (and me, as it turns out) who likes to keep a few out-of-date encyclopedias around for entertainment purposes - someone who would use it, one way or another. But I can't be too picky with an incredibly heavy 26-volume incomplete set that I don't actually have room for.
What I Plan to Read Next
There's only one book and it's Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, last of the 99. I put it off over the weekend so I could finish some other things, but the time has come at last.
