Yaa Gyasi - No Sophomore Slump

 Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi's debut novel, blew my mind in 2016 when I read it. It was a heavy book, but one that I always recommend to people. When Transcendent Kingdom came out, I wanted to read it, naturally, but was worried. Her debut was so amazing. Could Transcendent Kingdom be on the same level??

It wasn't. It was on a whole other level. This isn't Homegoing, but it's just as powerful. And honestly, I'm jealous. 

Gifty and Nana are just kids, living in Alabama after their parents relocated from Ghana. Right off the bat, you know their life is going to be harder than it should. The Chin Chin Man (their father) tried to make his life work in the US, but ultimately ended up going back to Ghana. Gifty's mother suffered from severe depression and was suicidal. Nana, a star athlete, was dead at a young age due to a drug overdose. And that left Gifty, on her own and a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine.

Funny where paths lead.

Transcendent Kingdom follows present day Gifty as she works her experiments on mice, trying to understand reward seeking behavior (ie. drug addiction) and how people can be treated to avoid it. Gifty's mom ends up coming to stay with her in her tiny apartment while she's in the middle of a severe depression episode. The only family they have left is each other, despite their differences. The book takes us back and forth when the family was a whole unit up until present time, with Gifty trying everything she can think of to help her mom.

Gifty barely knew her dad, but met up with him again when her mother sent her to Ghana for the summer. 

“My memories of him, though few, are mostly pleasant, but memories of people you hardly know are often permitted a kind of pleasantness in their absence. It's those who stay who are judged the harshest, simply by virtue of being around to be judged.”

“If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remember what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound.” 

To say her relationship with her mother, a very religious woman, was complicated is putting it lightly. We often see Gifty on the verge of giving up, we see her mother giving up, but Gifty keeps on.

What is so engaging with this story is the mix of religion and science. Gifty tried to follow her mother into religion, generally overthinking it and often misunderstanding it. Science was her refuge, but religion always stayed there, on the periphery. 

“When it came to God, I could not give a straight answer. I had not been able to give a straight answer since the day Nana died. God failed me then, so utterly and completely that it had shaken my capacity to believe in him. And yet. How to explain every quiver? How to explain that once sure-footed knowledge of his presence in my heart?”

This is a beautiful book, a wonderfully written story to lose yourself. It's not Homegoing, no, but it's something just as good on the other side of the spectrum.

Interview with author

Intro to Glennon

I actually don't/didn't know much about Glennon Doyle. I was curious about her after seeing her Instagram pop up in a #ShareTheMicNow, where white woman with big audiences hands their instagram accounts over to black activists to give the activists a wider audience. Then I saw that Untamed was getting good reviews and was a memoir. So I grabbed the audio from my library and took a listen.

Doyle reads the book but I pretty quickly realized that it wasn't a memoir in the traditional sense. Was it self-help? Memoirish with really quotable quotes? Are we all goddamn cheetahs? (That last one is a YES)

Doyle is funny and likable. She shares her story through, what I assume are, small chapters with blurbs about her marriage (1) and marriage (2), her kids, her coming into her homosexuality and falling in love, her work and her struggles. The self-help part comes from the cheerleader type quotes, wanting women to ditch their every day selflessness, and be a goddamn cheetah. 

The common theme seems to: quit being selfless. Be selfish. At multiple points, I issued a raised fist "Fuck yeah!" and others ... not so much. 

“When women lose themselves, the world loses its way. We do not need more selfless women. What we need right now is more women who have detoxed themselves so completely from the world's expectations that they are full of nothing but themselves. What we need are women who are full of themselves. A woman who is full of herself knows and trusts herself enough to say and do what must be done. She lets the rest burn.”

I would imagine it's hard to let the rest burn as a parent? I'm not clear on that, not being a parent or never will be a parent due to faulty, garbage insides. The aforementioned garbage insides makes me tune out to the parenting portion of the book (there was quite a bit).

Despite that, Doyle does seem to articulate what needs to be said very well.

“Privilege is being born on third base. Ignorant privilege is thinking you’re there because you hit a triple. Malicious privilege is complaining that those starving outside the ballpark aren’t waiting patiently enough.” 

I would recommend this book, especially read by Doyle because I loved her voice. While I didn't get the memoir part, and some pieces were more self-helpy than I wanted, I enjoyed the stories. Because Doyle is a storyteller. That's fact.

The quote I will take in my heart and to my grave from Untamed is "I am worthy of rest"

*raised fist* fuck yeah. 

Interview with Glennon Doyle

Not One Word Wasted

 I fell off the blogging wagon. The pandemic, winter, and holidays ended up being a depressing cocktail, although I can't imagine why. 

I read 45 books in 2020, a little short of normal. I blame lack of commute since I don't listen to audiobooks too much around the house. My list is here if you want to take a peek: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/21324

My first book of 2021, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers,  is one I've read before back in 2007. I was looking for a short, familiar book to pass along to my postal book club and found this very old copy in my stacks (price 75cents). I kind of remembered the short stories and thought "This is it, this is what I'll send out into the world"

Carson McCullers is an excellent writer, there isn't one word that shouldn't be there, every word has its place. The stories are spare. Except for the title story, not much happens here. They are really just a moment in time, plucked out for your scrutiny, then you walk away into the next story. Honestly, that's where she shines. 

The title story, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, introduces us to Amelia. She owns the general store in a small mill town and is the richest woman for miles. She's shrewd, she's strong, and she likes to sue people. Add in that she is also the local medicine woman and moonshiner and well, everyone loves her even if they don't like her. Out of the blue, a hunchback appears on her step. Cousin Lymon comes to live with Amelia and, to the shock of the townspeople, she lets him. You can watch the course of Amelia falling in love with Lymon and Lymon just being a general ass to everyone. When Amelia's ex-husband comes back to town, Lymon takes a new dastardly turn. 

Wunderkind is the next story that follows a gifted young pianist at her teacher's home. This story starts the slice of life view that we see. The narrator gives us some history and, while it's not explicitly said, we understand that love may have gotten in the way of genius. 

The Jockey story takes place very quick but you can still feel the anguish of the jockey whose best friend was badly hurt in a race and the give-a-damn attitude of the rich men who win big from the races. The situation is still the same in 2021, the rich get richer and care less while those below are trampled on.

Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland and The Sojourner give us background into the lives of the main characters who use their interaction with others as a wake call to their own lives. The Domestic Dilemma ends on a vague note. An alcoholic unhappy wife and her husband are at odds. These things never end well, do they?

A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud is the last story and it, in essence, teaches about the science of love. See below for a video narration of the story.

This is a great little book, so well worth the read.

His proximity annoys me. But here's an interview with Carson

One of Carson's short stories

Love The Skin You're In!

Because it could become a book someday.

Another great, and weird, book from Jenny Lawson's Fantastic Strangelings book club, Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom is about Anthropodermic Bibliopegy. In other words, books bound in human skin. I'll admit to dropping all other books to read this one when it arrived based on the cover alone. 

Rosenbloom is a librarian, a journalist, and death positive which makes her quest at finding and proving out human skin bound books all the more intriguing. Obviously, your mileage will vary with this but I didn't find it disturbing or gross, so try not to let that be a deterrent to taking this book for a spin.

In the Mütter museum in Philadelphia, there is a human skin bound book on display. This is Rosenbloom's first foray into this world. And now is a place on my bucket list to visit when the world returns to "normal".

Rosenbloom is very thorough. She takes us through the myths of these types of books, how animal skins are made into leather (honestly, enough to make me stop eating meat for a bit), how they do a quick test to see if the book is indeed human (most aren't, their lore is what makes the book valuable, not the binding), and much more. 

You would think that the bulk of the human bound books would have came from the Nazi era. You would be wrong. As Rosenbloom discovers, most books of this nature are from physician libraries, which might be more disturbing. The physicians who swear an oath to help and protect patients also take skin from patients/corpses to make into books. Some of the books found actually bind the most boring of books, yet the physician felt they were the right book to bind in human skin. Back in the day, there was a disregard for patients who were disenfranchised, because of race, gender, or poverty, and physicians felt they could do what they pleased with these folks (see: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot). Rosenbloom attended a medical school class so she could see how students of today treat the cadavers they work on and discovered there is still a bit of that clinical gaze, but there also is more emphasis on being empathic with patients and not just seeing them as things to deal with. Well, whew, I guess.

It was interesting to note that in order to donate your body to science for medical classes you must be intact, ie. nothing missing. Looks like that's not an avenue I can pursue.

There are so many interesting facts and tidbits in this book that it's well worth reading. Note that Rosenbloom is death positive and has a good view on mortality. Death isn't something to be feared and her viewpoint is infused throughout the book. A good podcast to watch on Death positivity is Ask a Mortician by Caitlin Doughty (who authors many a good book on the subject)

The author on death (potential trigger warning for photos)

Book talk with the author

So I've Taken Up Smoking

 Just kidding. I would never. 

 But that is the title of the latest book I've read. Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney is a little (under 300 pages) book about a young girl coming of age and figuring out herself in NYC, of all places. 

A debut novel, Sweeney takes us up to Crab Island, Maine where Miranda's mother has disappeared (and presumed dead) and her dad is so caught up in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses that he often forgets himself and Miranda. Mr. Blackwell is a local jack of all trades fisherman who takes Miranda under his wing, including braiding her hair for her, teaching her about boats, and making sure she goes to school. Where would Miranda have ended up without Mr. Blackwell?

As she gets older, she's more awkward around people and chooses to forget to take the college exam. She has no real purpose in life and no one seems to be concerned about that. Except Mr. Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell and Miranda's dad had a fight so Mr. Blackwell has been absent from Miranda's life. But he's still looking out for her. He offers her a job with him after High School is over. When she tells her father, he suddenly gets her a job typing in NYC with two of his friends, Robert and Walter. Off she goes to New York.

Miranda is a tentative person, a bit backwards due to her upbringing, but determined to see New York. For someone so awkward, she makes friends with Ana, the coffee cart lady and Nate, teacher at the Institute with Robert and Walter. As Miranda tries to figure out who she is, who her dad was, and why she's stalled in life, her friendships take on greater meaning. Finding out who her dad really was from Robert and Walter makes her see him in a whole new light.

This was a sweet novel, and a quick read to boot. The writing is so well done, descriptive and beautiful, you'll end up re-reading passages over just to savor them.

My Literary Boo

 I will never give up on Harry Dresden. He's been my wizardy, literary boo since day one. Battle Ground is the newest novel by Jim Butcher and it's a damn doozy. It follows Peace Talks fairly quickly in publication and thank god, because where we ended on Peace Talks was not a place to end!

Spoilers be ahead, you've been warned. Although I will keep them to a minimum.

We are prepping for battle against the Last Titan, Ethniu, since she has declared war on Chicago in Peace Talks. But first...Harry battles a kraken. That's within the first few pages, as Harry and Murphy come back from Demonreach where he left Thomas, safe and sound and unreachable. There's no foreplay in Battle Ground. We're immediately in the fight.

Everyone gathers at Marcone's castle to come up with their battle plan. The good guys, even the somewhat good guys, are ready to die for Chicago, and sadly, a lot of them do. General Toot-Toot and his gang are pivotal in helping Harry and River Shoulders is more of a force to be reckoned with, despite his broken spectacles he insists on wearing. Vampires from the Black Court, including Drakul, take advantage of the chaos and end up taking down members of the White Council (RIP). Giants (Jotnar) come out of the water and nearly destroy the city and the entire Chicago skyline. Huntsman are wreaking havoc in the residental areas, eating people. Huntsman might be the most terrifying creature in here. And still they fight.

Butters, Murphy, Sanya, even the detective Bradley are in deep. But not everyone makes it to The Bean where the showdown with Ethniu will be. This part was heart wrenching. You've been warned.

The Bean apparently is a storehouse for weapons (someone in Chicago need to check this out) and Mab is making her stand here. Dresden arrives with ordinary people, an army of civilians willing to fight and die for their city. 

People fight, they die, some live, and some turn out to be much more than you ever thought possible. I bought the actual hardback for this because I knew I'd need to hug it when I was done. And I did. 

I can't wait to see where we go from here. EVERYTHING has changed.

Do other books have trailers???

Another Magic Book?

 I get a lot of my TBR books from the podcast, What Should I Read Next?. Almost as many as I did from the Books on the Nightstand podcast (RIP). In one of the episodes, Anne mentions Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey. It's a debut novel about a non-magical detective brought in to solve a magical murder. But why, you ask? Why not a magical detective?

Well, my friend, because the mages couldn't solve it. 

Ivy Gamble isn't magical, she's not special,  she drinks a lot, she's 40 and single and a private detective. At the beginning of the book, she gets mugged. She's not extraordinary. Ivy will be telling us all of this throughout the book. At first, this was hard to listen to, the woe-is-me ad nauseum, but Ivy grew on me. Somehow through the course of the novel, she strengthens, grows and matures. Just not necessarily how she wanted.

Ivy's twin sister,  Tabitha,  is a genius mage and a professor at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages. Ah, now we see why Ivy struggles with not being special. Her twin sister IS. Special, magical, brilliant, and, we learn, cruel to young Ivy. Because of the connection, Ivy is hired by the headmaster to solve the murder of Sylvia, a teacher who was literally torn in half in the library.

Ivy may no be magical but she's damn good at her job.  Magic eludes her so we learn along with her how things work in the here and now magical world. This isn't Hogwarts, guys. This is a regular school with hormonal teens, bullies, popular girls, teen pregnancies, etc. Except they are magic. And one of them is the Chosen One. 

Once I got past the woe-is-me Ivy (this may have something to do with the narrator? Not sure), I warmed up pretty quickly to the story itself. I suspected the who in the WhoDunIt, but not the why. One thing you get out of this book is reality: families are hard. Relationships are hard. But sometimes you need to do the hard stuff because it will eventually be worth it.

Talk by the author