Nine Simple Patterns for Complicated Women by Mary Rechner

I normally really like short stories, when I'm ready for short stories. Usually after an epic novel that weighs more than my car. At that time, carrying around a slim volume of short stories, and reading in chunks, is a delight (and my arms get a rest!).

I dove into into volume and immediately was unsure if I wanted to continue. The writing was good, the perspective was great, the voice changed with each story and it was interesting. So, what's your problem, Amanda?? I couldn't relate. Every story was wife/mother/husband/kids. As a never-married, no-children woman, I had no one to side with or to understand. I was left thinking, "Do women really get that resentful in their marriage? With their children?"

THEN I got it. Some of it. Being a woman is a complicated way to live. I somewhat feel for men trying to understand us when, frankly, we can confuse and perplex ourselves. I am the woman in the dentist chair running a billion worries through her mind, all in the span of one visit. My worries may not include husbands or kids, but they are worries. Going alone into this world is just as difficult sometimes.

I get resentful of people in my life, for reasons I've actually never understood. The feeling goes away pretty quick but it happens. Relationships are complicated, friendships are hard, testing the waters to try something completely new to you is just terrifying at times.

I do think a woman who is/was a wife/mother would get a bit more from this than I did but I appreciated the writing and am curious to check out more of Rechner's work.

Tribe by Sebastian Junger

This was a pretty good IRL book club book. It brought a lot of people to the club and caused A LOT of good discussion.

Junger outlines essentially why we need our tribes. You can't go through this world alone, no matter what you think, and the way America is set up now, we no longer have community. I'll be the first to admit that after 18 years of living in my neighborhood, I only have talked to 3 neighbors. That's insanity when you think about it.

We delve into the past, where white people ran away to the Indian tribes (but never vice versa) and we move into soldiers returning from war who say that war time is their best time. They have brotherhood, mission, and their tribe. Peace time, home time, doesn't give them that. They get a "Thank you for your service" and people move on. Let's not even talk about how few people even realize there's still a war going on and soldiers are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan.

One of the most interesting facts regarded school shootings. There are no incidences of mass shootings in schools in urban ghetto areas. Only in white, affluent, "safe" areas. This is proof that tribes mean something. The suburban sprawl has caused kids to be more alone than ever and they lash out. Poverty, however terrible it is (and it is), creates the tribe feeling for urban kids.

Tribe is defined basically as would you lay down your life for your community? I don't mean your neighbors...I mean, your tribe. Your people. After reading this book, I thought hard about who is in my tribe, who I would die for (hopefully it won't come to that). Who is my tribe?

Head On by John Scalzi

Guess what, folks? I started on book #2 for this series. Do I have a knack for this or what?? Thankfully, it's pretty much a standalone so I don't think I missed anything but now I really need to hunt down book #1 (Lock In).

This introduces us (me) to Haden, a disease caused by a virus that permanently shuts down a person's body but leaves their mind intact. This sounds absolutely horrifying but Haden's made it work. They have neural networks implanted in their brains that allow them to visit a digital world, where they create their own personal homes. They also walk around in threeps, robotic suits they can use just like regular bodies, while their physical body remains elsewhere.

We meet Chris Shane, a Haden who is also an FBI Agent and his partner, Agent Leslie Vann, a non-Haden. They get immediately thrown into a case of a Haden who dies while playing Hilketa. Threeps are on the playing field while the Haden controls their movements. One threep is the Goat in each play and the goal is to rip the head of the goat and get it across the line. Sounds....violent.  It's unheard of for a Haden to die during a game since it's really the threep out there being pummeled, but die Duane Chapman does.  Even more fishy? His vital data is pulled the instant he dies and scrubbed from the data feed.

I'm somewhat new to sci-fi and Scalzi is just pulling me in, kicking and not-screaming. While the premise sounds a little out there, this still had the makings of a big-body-count-buildings-destroyed-with-a-cat-named-Donut action book. I was personally rooting for Donut.

You, too, can read these books out of order like I did. It won't dampen your enjoyment of the story at all!