The Arab of the Future

When we were all locked down thanks to COVID, I watched a lot of Instagram Live with authors and other interesting people, one of which was Mira Jacob (author of Good Talk - READ IT!). Someone asked her for either her favorite books or her current reading list (I don't remember which) and she brought up The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf. Since I want independent bookstores to survive this dumpster fire of a year, I ordered the book through Bookshop.org. Unfortunately it lingered on my shelves for a bit. Turns out a pandemic and more anxiety than normal isn't conducive for attentive reading.

Once I picked this up, I sped through it. We had some beautiful end of summer days here, so this book was my go to, with a beer, for patio reading. Riad has 4 volumes in this series and volume 2 was just delivered to me the other day. Yay!

This graphic novel leads us through Riad's childhood in the Middle East. He's French and Syrian and spends time in both countries, with both families, and he shows us through a child's eyes how bizarre and complicated adults are. His father feels his destiny is to be President, yet travels abroad to France for school to get out of required military time in Syria. There he meets Riad's mother and, after dad gets his doctorate, they end up in Gaddafi's Libya. From Riad's perspective, we see everything as crumbling, yellow, and confusing. Since private property was abolished, their house had no lock. If they all went out together, other people could take over their house and toss them out, which happened. Food lines were long with a scarcity of food. They only leave when Gaddafi orders everyone to change jobs, forcing teachers to become farmers and vice versa. Since dad was a teacher, he decides now is the time to leave.

They end up in Syria, via France, to his father's home village. One thing to notice, which I didn't realize until the end, is that the places are color coded. Libya is washed in yellow in the graphics, France is blue and Syria is red. Syria is still felt as crumbling, with bribery, segregation of the sexes, bullying cousins and grandmas that lick your eyeballs.

Volume 1 was really good, the drawing could be called cute, but there is a lot of dark humor and just darkness in general (the puppy scenes were disturbing). Well worth the read for graphic novel fans. And if you aren't a fan, try it anyway!

Interview with the author

Interview with the BBC

How to Spin a Good Yarn

 Clara Parkes is something of a guru in the knitting/crochet world. I have several of her extremely comprehensive books about yarn. When I say comprehensive, I mean it. Everything you could ever want to know about yarn or socks or processing wool, see Clara.

Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool is a small book (under 200 pages) and is eye-opening in quite a few ways. A lot of what I've learned about wool, I've learned from Clara and from experience. I have about 12 years of knitting under my belt and, while I have a better idea of what yarn is good for a project vs what really isn't, I still have much to learn.

A few years ago, I sponsored an alpaca from Montrose farms in Indiana and got the fleece. I had every intention of doing the entire yarn-making process myself....until I saw the 7lbs of fleece and just got stuck. I ended up sending it to a mill and receiving some beautiful skeins of yarn in return. What I missed out on was, well, the entire process. I ended up getting one pound of alpaca fleece to try it myself. Here's to not getting overwhelmed!

In Vanishing Fleece, Clara is the lucky recipient of a bale of fine wool (no, it wasn't a gift). This is about 400-600 POUNDS of wool. And I thought my 7 pounds of fleece was overwhelming. She decided to crowdfund finances (with gifts) to take this bale of wool from start to finish. She was able to visit the places in America who still scour, spin, and dye wool, as well as the farm with the sheep, where it all starts. Lucky her, right? And lucky us, because, though this is a small book, it's packed with her experiences and details every step of the way.

America is falling behind in wool producing. Small farms do their part, but places to process the wool are so very far and few between that it often costs more to ship wool somewhere for processing than the return on the wool itself.  Wool starts off being scoured. Cleaned of all the bits of debris and other matter so that it can move into spinning. The Bollman Hat Company in Texas is one of the only wool scouring places in the US. Clara meets up with Ladd Hughes to get a tour of the facility and to see her bale in it's cleaned up glory.

She divvies the bale up and sends them off to different mills to be spun into yarn. Kraemer Textiles, S&D Spinning Mill, Bartlett Mill and Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill each invited Clara in to watch her wool get to the next step. After that, obviously, the yarn needs color! A Verb for Keeping Warm tackles natural dyes (the Indigo process was fascinating). Since the wool spun up not quite as planned, Clara went to Spirit Trail Fiberworks to dye another batch. Jennifer Heverly, the owner and operator of Spirit Trail, has a unique way of handling the yarn and getting brilliant colors. Again, another fascinating process. The Quince and Co dyehouse is one of the final, more scientific, stops in the dye process.

I guess I'm geeky enough to have enjoyed the entire trip. If only there was a way to make this stuff my career. Hmmm.

I think it's always good to understand where the products you use, be it yarn or every day items, come from. How they are made and who they help. I sincerely hope there is a way to boost the wool producing business in the US, but with so many big companies taking their work overseas for cheap labor over quality, this is where we are. 

Take a look below for some cool links

Dyeing with Indigo

Fruity Knitting Podcast - Interview with Clara Parkes

Ladd Hughes from Bollman Hat Co.

Yeah this is where The Graveyard Shift was filmed

Bartlett Woolen

A Good Gothic

Hispanic Heritage Month is nearing it's end and, while I was determined to read more books in honor of it, I only managed to read Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. But what a damn good book it was.

I got this novel as part of the Nowhere Bookstore's book club via Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess. Her book picks are phenomenal, not a miss so far. Of course, I didn't end up reading Mexican Gothic during the month it was picked because that's what I do. I flit around my stacks of books (over 1,200 books) in my house like a magpie, picking up and plucking what interests me in that moment. Once I saw Hispanic Heritage Month was coming up, I dug out Mexican Gothic from the stacks. Add in a pleasant surprise to see a signed bookplate in the book from the author! 

I'm a fan of Southern Gothic, a genre that usually has dark humor, grotesque characters, and horrific plots that take place in the American South. Think Carson McCullers, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, etc. Mexican Gothic (the book) rides along those same genre lines, except taking place, obviously, in Mexico. Gothic is not scary, per se, it's more along the creepy/horror lines, with just enough of a touch of realism to make you know this could happen.

Noemí Taboada is a socialite, flitting around from man to man, interest to interest, while her father gets more aggravated at her inability to follow through on anything. She is set on going to University, studying anthropology, but her father just wants her married and quiet. Despite this description, I really liked Noemí. Her father sends her to High Place, when her cousin sends a bizarre letter, claiming she's held hostage there and the walls are talking to her. Her cousin, Catalina, is newly married to Virgil Doyle, a broke, bizarre, and apparently alluring man. When Noemí arrives, she's not welcomed with open arms. It's a downright cold and creepy reception.

High Place is dark and foreboding and ruled over by Howard Doyle, Virgil's father. Everyone obeys his rules except for Noemí and the youngest son, Francis. Catalina is docile and drugged and, to be blunt, weird shit is happening at High Place. Howard has an obsession with eugenics and, as such, believes Noemí is a perfect specimen. But for what?

Amid waking and sleeping nightmares, Noemí tries to save herself, Catalina and Francis from a horrific experiment at creating a perfect race.

Incredibly creepy and absolutely wonderful!

Hulu is turning this into a limited series! I'm IN!

Interview with the author

Has It Really Been Six Years?

Seems like yesterday that I read Skin Game by Jim Butcher (because it kind of was). Six years since Skin Game, we finally have Peace Talks! I got this as an audiobook and, while it took me some time to get my head back in Dresden's world, it took off at such a speed and twist that I ended up doing marathon listening sessions. I'm so glad Dresden is back. He is my literary boo.

I actually finished this mid-September and can't really say why it's taken a month to write a review. It was a long, long wait for Peace Talks and perhaps I was just savoring it. Or life just got chaotic. Either way, here we are. Harry Dresden is a wizard in Chicago. He's had 15 books prior to Peace Talks of just trying to be a wizard detective but then getting all twisted up in the evils of the Underworld. He's a good guy, just ends up in the wrong place at times. 

If you are new to Dresden, here's your backlist to catch up on. Battle Ground, book #17, came out Sept 29, 2020, so get ready!

Dresden is not just a Warden of the White Council, he's also The Winter Knight. Conflicting careers that make everyone around him doubt his morals. His half-brother is a Vampire, his granddad is one of the most powerful wizards on the Council. Harry has taken on raising (very loosely) his daughter, Maggie, with help from the Carpenters, one of which is a retired Knight of the Cross who has protection from angels. There are a lot of people in play in Peace Talks, but in the end, I think we come down to Dresden's family. Since he's an orphan, Dresden chose the people in his family and it's amazingly comforting to see how well they have his back, regardless of his conflicting obligations.

Thomas does something so weirdly unlike him that I still can't quite figure out why (hoping that makes more sense in Battle Ground). He gets in desperate trouble that puts his life on the line and Harry, knowing Thomas as well as he does, tries to get him out of it. This forces Harry to work in tandem with Thomas' half-sister Lara Raith, an even more powerful vampire and head of the White Court. He's also required by Queen Mab, the Winter Knight's boss, to perform whatever favors Lara desires as payback for another favor. Harry is in a terrible position. I say that a lot throughout the book.

Ebenezar McCoy, Harry's granddad, is a bit of an ass in this one. He's 100% against vampires and has no knowledge that Thomas is his grandson. Instead he chooses to constantly lecture Harry on how stupid he's being with his choices. McCoy even attempts to kill Harry, but there's a LOT of action leading up to that (or is there?).

So, if you think everything written above is the plot of this book, you are wrong. This turns out to just be the subplot, or a minor, plot. After the big...twist? reveal? Oh shit moment? you actually start forgetting everything that happened prior and your only concern at this point is what's next. 

Ethniu, the Last Titaness, crashes the party. And threatens to destroy Chicago and anyone who tries to stop her.

We leave Peace Talks on a cliffhanger. Dresden and company look to be in a no win situation, but it's Dresden, right? 

Dresdenverse (spoilers be here, be warned)

Harry Dresden series (just 1 season but still good!)

Trailer for Peace Talks (since when do books have trailers??)

There's Definite Improvement

 I cleaned out a bookcase on my staycation (which felt horribly like a regular workday - just without work) and found a book from Lee Child called Die Trying. Based on the bookplate inside the front cover, I've had this particular book in my possession for over 20 years. I wasn't really into Jack Reacher back then, I most likely just thought it sounded good.

Well, now that I read quite a bit of Reacher (all out of order, you know me. Wouldn't do a series any other way), I plucked this from a donation pile and read it. I can definitely say that Child has improved the Reacher character over time.

Die Trying is book number TWO in the series and it didn't feel very Reacher-y to me. But Reacher is fresh out of the military and starting his jaunt around the country. He's not.... broken in yet.  But he still has the knack for being in the wrong place at the right time.  

Reacher is just strolling through Chicago when a woman leaves a dry cleaners. She has a full load of clothes and is using a cane which causes her to trip and Reacher to jump in and assist. Being fully the gentleman, Reacher offers to carry the clothes to wherever she's going while she limps along beside him.

And then they are abducted.

From here, we get to know the woman is Holly, an FBI agent who has very close ties with higher ups in the government. Reacher is just a fortunate mistake for the kidnappers. They are taken to a compound of people who feel the government is doing them wrong and want to create their own 'Murica. (Gosh, how familiar does this sound in 2020?) Since Holly is so connected, they are using her as bait. For whatever reason, the apparently brilliant leader of the group keeps NOT killing Reacher despite knowing he's a threat. If someone like Reacher entered my compound, and kept nosing around, I'd want him gone. But... I'm not a brilliant leader of rogue 'Mericans.

Die Trying had a lot of action and was, for the most part, a satisfactory Reacher book. I think Reacher gets more stoic as the books progress so definitely read this if you want emotion from the man.

Poetry is queer really, just by nature.

Thanks to a book club, I've encountered this odd little book. Once I started it, I really wasn't sure it was my jam. But it really became my jam and I sped through it in one sitting.

I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain by Will Walton is both prose and poetry with Avery as our guide. It's as much dealing with grief as it is trying to figure things out, as a teen who is gay and wants to have sex with his best friend. With a mother who is an alcoholic. A grandfather, Pal, who drinks and then creates this hole that has to be filled.

Avery is trying to make sense of his grief in losing his grandpa, while dealing with everything else. And the everything else is, frankly, A LOT. We jump around between past and present, prose and poetry, lists and scattered thoughts. If you can keep up, you can go deep into the ride of Avery's thoughts and emotions.

Honestly, grief stays right below the surface. Eleven years have passed since I lost my dad and I still speak in present tense sometimes. It bubbles up out of nowhere at the most innocuous thing. Watching Avery try to work through his grief at Pal's death brought up emotions that I didn't expect to see. 

This isn't your ordinary book. Dive in, but don't expect a linear path.

The title of the book is from an Emily Dickinson poem:

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

BY EMILY DICKINSON

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

The Night the Circus Comes to Town

 “You’re not destined or chosen, I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it’s not true. You’re in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that’s enough.”

I've heard so much about The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern that I got it from the library to see what the fuss was about. While I liked it, and thought it beautiful, I remained fussless.

Celia and Marco are two magicians, who are in a competition against each other. Celia has natural magic while Marco has to work at it. They are trained by elderly magicians who apparently pit their students against each other on a regular basis. I really had nothing but distaste for the two "mentors". The black and white night circus is their battleground, so to speak, for the competition. The circus, le Cirque des Rêves, arrives unannounced all over the world, stays for a few weeks, then disappears. Each tent is a thing of beauty and marvel. 

Celia and Marco fall in love, causing a problem to the competition. I'll be honest, while they are the main characters, they were not who I cared about. The competition itself wasn't enough to interest me either, in and of itself, but the magic and the writing that brought the magic to life, did keep my interest. Poppet, Widget, and Bailey, side characters supposedly, held my interest much more. They seemed very real, very there. 

Perhaps it's because I'm not one for love stories. Everything surrounding Celia and Marco kept me going, but for Celia and Marco themselves. What is pretty cool about this book is that it was created during NaNoWriMo, an event I try to participate in before giving up by the second week. 

This truly is a beautifully written book. If you are a sucker for love stories, this will be the one for you.

NY Times Review

Interview with the author